Robot Heroes are back as Tiny Titans

[BigTransformerTrev]

Gimmicks ruined the Transformers toyline. The first wave was excellent - small Autobot vehicles that transformed into robots: the 'real' Transformers. However, most fans don't know what on Earth Hasbro was thinking with the second wave. Cassettes? Transformers just don't transform into cassettes, as the now much quoted phrase "M1N1CaR NOT KaSETE!!!" sums up perfectly. These cassettes, considered by most fans to be worse than GoBots, also had a gimmick, the first of many lame and pointless gimmicks. Rather than being Autobots, as all previous Transformers had been, these tapes were called 'Decepticons,' a supposed *second* race of Transformers and enemies of the peace-loving Autobots. The 'Decepticon Tapes' also came with another gimmick: weapons - a blight upon everything the Transformers stood for.

Of course, most Transfans had long since stopped collecting by this point, but after this failure, Hasbro continued to try and keep the franchise alive with more gimmicks; planes, cassette recorders, guns and even larger cars, which were an obvious attempt to reclaim what fans originally liked about the series. The last hope for the line was a toy they called 'Optimus Prime,' which was basically like the much-loved Huffer, but bigger and with lots of gimmicks.

Naturally, Optimus Prime was a failure. Kids couldn't carry him to school in their pockets, and he came with lots of what is now known as 'kibble'; guns, a trailer, missiles etc.: lots of extra gimmicks that ignored the fact that what most fans of the 'real' Tranformers liked was the fact that the toys were self-contained and peaceful. With the addition of guns and an enemy to fight, Hasbro had sealed the fate of the Transformers line, which, after some further pitiful attempts to revive the line, would draw to a close in 1990 in the U.S. (The toys continued in Europe and Australasia, continents that still hoped to see a return to that one great month in 1984.)

Of course, as we all know, the U.S. line returned in 1993 with Transformers Generation 2, heralded with a gold vacuum-metallised Bumblebee. But that's a different story...

(I first posted this twelve years ago now, but I feel like it needs an airing every so often. )

I was taking this completely seriously until I got to the bagging cassettes thing - I was like 'WTF!'

Dear lord - imagine a world without Decepticons! Every TF cartoon would have been a different version of RescueBots

[griffin]

Bigger official images of the first 12 Tiny Titans (2 inch PVC figurines), which will be sold in blind bags, so if they aren't numbered, they will be nuisance to find the figures you want, or a complete set.

[griffin]

The first wave has only just been released in America, and the second wave of 12 Tiny Titans have been revealed, also for a January release (in Asia at least).

Ten appear to be Gen1 characters, while two are RID characters... making it a bit like the old Robot Heroes figurines, with half being Gen1 and half being Movie.

RID Decepticons
Terrashock
Quillfire

G1 Decepticons
Starscream
Soundwave
Sharkticon
Cyclonus

G1 Autobots
Autobot Ratchet
Bumblebee
Autobot Jazz
Ultra Magnus
Autobot Topspin
Superion

[Bidoofdude]

The G1 characters look really nice in the new RID style.

[Trent]

Hasbro seems to have a thing for the word 'Titan' lately...

[griffin]

I got the first wave of Tiny Titans today from BBTS, and the "blind bags" aren't completely blind.
They DON'T have a number on them to easily work out who is in the bag, but they do have a little tiny (and I mean tiny) see-through rectangle on the back... which after a lot of struggling to move about each figurine in its bag, I was eventually able to identify all 12 (twice, because they came in a case of 24).
Some of the colours are different to the product images online and on the packaging, and since each figure comes with a character card like the GEN toys, it makes it harder to move around the figurines without crushing the card, just to spot something unique through the window. (many use the same plastic colours with very little paint, making it tough to work out some, especially the red ones).

I will take pics and post them in the review section, and maybe here too, as I can't imagine too many people buying these, as they are REALLY cheap in appearance and design (no moving parts, minimal paint, and tinier than Robot Heroes).
Considering these are likely to be about US$2-3 each in America, which would probably be AU$3-5 here, they are NOT worth it.
I simply can not emphasise how much these are NOT worth it. Even the BBTS price of US$50 for a case of 24 (a little over US$2 each), these tiny little lumps of immoveable plastic that have even less detail and paint than the Rescue Bots human figurines, are not worth buying.
If the bags had been completely blind, there would be even less reason to take a punt on these... if there was a reason to begin with at this pricing.

2015 is only three weeks old, but I can't imagine anything being worse than these for my "best and worst" list at the end of the year.
At least, I hope not.

[griffin]

Some pics, and semi-review...
(and a repeat of what I said in the previous post - don't spend more than 50c on these... if that)

The master carton. Probably the most impressive thing about these. It is a bigger case than the 24-pack Kreo master cartons, yet the contents are smaller, so the bags inside the box were floating around rather loose.


Back of the box.


The top folded up for in-store display (Point Of Sale).


The 12 figurines in this series. Since there were 24 bags in the box, I was hoping it would be a neat two of each. I didn't want to be stuck with a spare set, but BBTS were only selling cases and single bags... so this was the best way to guarantee a single set. Unfortunately, the case of 24 cost US$50, which is over US$2 per figurine PLUS shipping. That's almost US$3 each, which would equate to about AU$5 here.
And when you see just how tiny these are, there is no way they are worth that much.


From the official images above, you can see that some of the figurines below have some different, or absent, paint apps.
The paint on Optimus' legs is scaled back so much that it looks like war-paint, rather than blue legs... making it look even cheaper than it already is.
Admittedly, Optimus and Bumblebee probably have the most paint apps on them, but most only have 3 or 4, with the worst being Bisk, who only has just two tiny dots of paint on it.
And these are just lumps of plastic with NO moving parts, so would be a great money maker for Retailers and Hasbro.
Cliffjumper and Sideswipe both have black instead of grey, while Optimus has grey on the legs instead of black.


Some of the poses are trying to be "Action poses", but fail. Strongarm looks like a boxer, while Sideswipe looks like he's sliding into home at a baseball game.
Grimlock is the odd one out, being in alt-mode, while everyone else is in their robotic mode (the non-alt-mode).

Speaking of Strongarm, mine can't stand up without bending one of the legs to the point of showing stress marks... but the rubbery nature of the figurine means that it slowly straightens back to its original position, and as such, the figurine eventually falls over.



Each comes with a thick character card and instructions sheet for using the RID game app with these toys - you scan the circular "barcode" that is on the character cards.

On the back of the pack, just above the white square at the bottom right of the pack, is a small rectangular window to see inside... and work out who is in the "blind bag".


A comparison of size, sculpting, articulation and amount of paint.

From left - Robot Heroes Optimus & Megatron (from 2007), RID Tiny Titans Steeljaw (the smallest) & Bluestreak (equal biggest), and Rescue Bots Cody (from series 1 with moving parts) & Doc Greene (from series 2 with no moving parts).
Steeljaw is less than half the size of the Robot Heroes and Rescue Bots.
And just look at how much paint is covering the Robot Heroes and Rescue Bots figurines, AND they had moving parts. These RID figurines are 5 cents of plastic and paint, bagged up and priced at $2-3.


A new low for Hasbro with Transformers.

[griffin]

Noting someone's comments on another site, I didn't realise that these appear to be gang-moulded in groups of four, for both waves... resulting in some being a bit off in colour (like Prowl in wave one) just to use three plastic colours (red, grey or blue) for the 12 figurines, to be even cheaper to produce.

The first wave has only just been released in America, and the second wave of 12 Tiny Titans have been revealed, also for a January release (in Asia at least).

Ten appear to be Gen1 characters, while two are RID characters... making it a bit like the old Robot Heroes figurines, with half being Gen1 and half being Movie.

RID Decepticons
Terrashock
Quillfire

G1 Decepticons
Starscream
Soundwave
Sharkticon
Cyclonus

G1 Autobots
Autobot Ratchet
Bumblebee
Autobot Jazz
Ultra Magnus
Autobot Topspin
Superion

Surprisingly, less than a month after the first wave was released (which are still yet to be easily found in stores in America), the second wave has been found in an American retail store... and the colours from the gang-moulding (grey, blue or purple), plus limited paint, makes these ones look pretty worse than the first wave.

Grey - Bumblebee, Starscream, Ratchet, Superion.
Purple - Sharkticon, Cyclonus, Soundwave, Quillfire (actually brown on the character card).
Blue - Ultra Magnus, Jazz (why is he mostly blue?), Topspin, Terrorshock (actually orange on the character card).

[griffin]

Wave 3 was listed on Entertainment Earth for about a month now, but finally we get some pictures and character names... for anyone collecting these tiny, over-priced figurines.

Official images of four have shown up here, while a small grainy group shot from the packaging has been posted here, and the Entertainment Earth listing has been updated with a clearer pic, but has included a wave 2 figurine... showing some more random older characters with the RID characters.

Until the names are officially revealed, these can be worked out from the packaging photo (with help from the other two sources)...

Top row - RID Drift, G1 Wheeljack
Middle - BW Megatron, RID Springload?, G1 Optimus, G1 Shockwave, RID Fixit
Bottom - G1 Repugnus, RID Filch?, G1 Wreckgar, G1 Doublecross?, RID Fracture.


Or, grouped by their gang moulding plastic colour...
Orange - G1 Repugnus, G1 Wreckgar, RID Drift, RID Fixit.
Purple - G1 Shockwave, BW Megatron, RID Filch?, RID Fracture.
Grey - G1 Doublecross, G1 Optimus, G1 Wheeljack, RID Springload?.

To be released by April.

[Hursticon]

Would be great if these things had paint...