Quote Originally Posted by prjkt View Post
I remember those days, working at Kmart and seeing an entire aisle full of TF figures around the time of ROTF. Nowadays we're lucky to see half a metre squared at most places....
I think that, as far as Generations goes, it's a sign that it's a better toy line (and thus a stronger seller). And IMO is evident that the quality of the toys matters more than the quality or even existence of accompanying media.

Despite all the money poured into ROTF, many of those toys languished on shelves. Generations (and Classicsverse in general) has no widely available accompanying media, yet they've generally been strong sellers. I think it's also indicative that kids aren't stupid and know quality when they see it. The same held true for us when we were kids, e.g. Wheelie was an awful pegwarmer despite his appearances in the cartoon, comics & storybook. Hubcap on the other hand seemed to sell better despite having zero canonical appearance (and also being "just a redeco" of Cliffjumper whereas Wheelie offered a whole new mould).

Oh, and also because the current lines don't have nearly as many Bumblebees.