Was the movie the biggest thing to happen to TFs since Beast Wars?

[Stompy]

In other words, do you honestly think that the reuse of Energon/Cybertron moulds in the movie line is an inherently or fundamentally good idea under its own merit (i.e.: regardless of your own personal motives/bias) or are you merely glad because you happen to personally benefit from it (i.e. "happy accident")?

In a business sense, it is a good idea to reuse the older molds. Realistically we all want new molds for everything, instead of repaints, but we all know that Hasbro had a cash cow with the movie line and just repainted a lot of older lines. I don't think it's a personally bias thing neither to be thankful for these repaints of old molds we missed out on as new collectors. Isn't it also personal bias to not like repaints? Fundamentally I do not think it is wrong to have these repaints in the movieline. If it represents characters in the universe involved, I don't really see the problem. Sure, as collectors, you probably wouldn't want the same mold again but in the end it's the company who produced these figures who needs to be approached and told we do not like it.

But how would you feel if you were in our position? For example, say if when the Revenge of the Fallen toys come out and Hasbro decides to flesh them out with repaints of Transformers Classics and Animated toys... for people who get into TF collecting next year after the 2nd movie it might be good news for them, but how do you think recent collectors of Classics and current collectors of Animated would feel about it?

Simple. I wouldn't buy the repaint of what I already have unless it's an attractive repaint that I would want. I guess if one is a completist and need that character represented. Fundamentally if the entire 2nd movie line is ALL repaints, then we have reason to be miffed. As annoying as repaints can get, we have the option to not buy them and let those who want to. In the end it's a business model that they follow and the "casual/mass" market is still bigger than the collectors/fans and is perhaps the only reason they do so, because it sells and the movieline was the perfect platform to milk as much profits as possible. I know as collectors it is highly frustrating but thats what we get for saturating our lives with our hobby and breaking down every single minutae of said hobby.

In the end, I think there is enough room for everything and everyone of various commitment to this hobby.