Overrated Transformer Toys

[GoktimusPrime]

Well considering I wasn't around until 1988 I really couldn't tell you a thing.

In that case I imagine that you must have grown up with G2 and Beast Wars -- toys with fully articulated robot modes and other improved aspects of toy design and engineering that wasn't around during G1 and early G2. You have the advantage of looking back at G1 with retrospective hindsight, which of course those of us growing up with G1 during the 1980s and early 1990s didn't have.

For example, toys like the original 30cm G.I. Joe, Henshin Cyborg and Micronauts, Mego etc. all came out before my time, and to me those toys look quite dated - but I can appreciate and understand that they were cool for their time and that they did help to shape what action figures are today.

But in the last 11-15 years engineering and manufacturing techniques have advanced, and probably at a faster rate than before. Certainly it hasn't stopped or gone backwards.
Even with all the advancements a Beast Wars figure can still be compaired to a Generations or movie figure. Hell, pick out a couple of Crossover figures and you could say the Beast Wars was better. You can't compair G1 to anything and get a positive outcome (unless you pick out the worst figure from something like Armada)

And that was my point. 10-12 years after the initial figures, the toys were so much better or advanced, the older ones (G1) didn't compair. 10-12 years after those toys, they were better again, but the older ones (now Beast Wars) still held their own.

I don't think in another 10 years that we will look at the Beast Wars figures like we look at G1 figures today. They won't be as good at the figures that might be release in 2020, but unless there is some huge advancement like actual robotics or actual onscreen like movie transformations, I don't think we will be making the same excuses we make for G1 toys. Doubt you'll hear "by '96 standards they are awesome"

But as I said before, the mid 1990s (late G2) was a significant turning point in Transformers design history. It was a major kilometrestone which forever redefined how Transformers would be created. It's true that late G2 and Beast Wars did set a new benchmark; a new standard which is still used holds up today (and is a massive compliment to HasTak designers of the time). But that's what happens when you have major turning points in history that (e.g. writing, the atomic bomb etc.).

Up till 1994/5, it was an impressive enough feat to have toys that could transform from a vehicle or device into a robot. It was a really novel idea that offered play value on multiple levels - you had one toy that could be a vehicle or a robot, and there was some level of "puzzle" play. I know that G1 toys are really simple by today's standards, but some of the TF toys captured our imaginations with their transformations at the time. Like Soundwave and the way his weapons ingeniously becomes his batteries in walkman mode. By the end of G2, HasTak gave us fully articulated robot modes. Beast Wars improved on that and gave us better durability, more detailed sculpting and paint apps etc. - the idea of using stickers to add detail became laughable.

So after such a big leap forward at the time, Transformers engineering just "normalised" again. That's why Classicsverse toys based on Beast Wars don't interest me - because as you said, the original BW toys still hold up well by current standards.

But cost is another thing to take into account. I've been playing around with Generations Warpath this weekend, and he's superior to G1 Warpath in many ways -- but Generations Warpath cost me $30, whereas G1 Warpath cost me $1.99 (I can say this because we still had 1c coins at the time! ). In terms of value for money and even taking inflation into account, I think G1 Warpath is still pretty decent.

This was initially why I started to think G1 was overrated. And it also makes it really simple to show it is rated higher than it should be.
Nostalgia increases its rating. You take that away, and they are not as good as what they are made out to be.
So they are overrated.

I agree that nostalgia does boost the ratings of many G1 toys. But I don't look at G1 from a nostalgic POV because I've never been "out" of Transformers. Nostalgia I think tends to come from people who were into Transformers during G1, then took a considerable amount of "time off" when they lost interest in Transformers, then for whatever reason changed their minds and decided that the Transformer that they once completely lost interest in are suddenly cool again. Don't ask me why... it's never happened to me.

So when I look at G1, I look at it as how they were at the time they were out - not retrospectively comparing it with today's toys, cos that's an unfair comparison, but also not judging it from my G1 nostalgia, cos - for lack of better words - G1's never left me.