Quote Originally Posted by drifand View Post
Because you pay top dollar. You shouldn't expect cheap light plastic.
If you collect other toys, you would have a better understanding why.
I do collect other toy lines, and the pricing for Transformers is hardly "top dollar". If I were willing to pay the $100 plus prices expected these days for Play Arts Kai figures, I would expect generally better construction than I typically see with them. To go further, I have never had any issue with plastic quality with Transformers. To be quite honest, the logic that suggests weight and plastic quality are a measure of the quality of a toy would suggest a well-made ABS plastic brick is a better toy than CW Devastator. It wouldn't be and isn't.

What I look for in a Transformer is engineering and design; design being the artistic and appearance related facets of a toy, and engineering being the practical work used to put that in place. What fans who talk about weight don't seem to get is that better engineering leads to stronger toys (or products in general, really) that weigh less. That's why Generations Metroplex weighs less than G1 Fortress Maximus despite being on just about every level the better toy.

But even with modern lines, for some figures, the design and engineering will mean that it weighs less than another toy in the same size class. Case in point, Generations Springer (or Sandstorm, as it's the nearest comparison I have) and CW Hook (or just about any of the Devastator components). The constructions are very simple toys with limited articulation and easy transformation, whose primary design feature is the combination into Devastator. On the other hand, the Springstorm mould is a highly articulated figure which transforms into two separate relatively convincing alt modes. Taken on their own, I'd have to say Sandstorm is the better figure; it has better detailing, is better engineered with all the articulation, looks nicer in robot mode, etc - none of which is to say Hook is a bad toy, because it's not, just not as good as Sandstorm. In this case, Sandstorm weighing less isn't an aspect of the quality so much as it is a facet of the engineering; the Combiner Wars Constructicons in general need the extra strength that comes from weight to support one another as Devastator, but that doesn't mean Sandstorm is made of pixie dust or that Hasbro skimped out on quality when designing it.

Weight is a bad measure of quality because numerous other features go into the manufacture of toys. We should assess them based on how well-designed and engineered they are, not how much they weigh.