The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[Paulbot]

It's only clicked for me that the $10 *master price point has been dropped from Generations this year. There's no TitanMaster/Primemaster/Battlemaster equivalent in the Kingdom toyline or the Studio Series.

Personally no great loss. They never felt like Transformers in their own right but an accessory. The Titan Masters with their classic character heads and vehicle accessories were ok, the Prime Masters had interesting shells but they turned into oddly patterned boxes, and the Battle Masters really were accessories for the larger figures. Maybe they realised they were done when they made three Transformers that turn into planks...!

Will the shops miss the cheap item? They never seem to sell out but the case assortment was always large.

If there was a $10 price point *Master this year what would they have been? Fossilzers? Crazy idea but what if they'd been Battle Beasts, not converting Transformers at all!?

Personally I would have liked them to release single packed Micromasters, still plenty of those to do and they could pad the line with some repaints and fill some gaps. I'm still annoyed that little Ironworks was only available in the very-expensive-to-get 10 pack! (Just not Rewind or Steeljaw please or other 'boxes'!)

It also make me think about Orcanoch and Arachnid too with their mini-figs, and the amusing idea that the Kingdom Commander Class toy this year might turn out to be one of those two!


Edit:

Oh, here's another thought, the Galactic Encounter 2: Micron Micromasters... maybe those were meant to be in Kingdom as single packed figures and when plans changes they got moved to be an exclusive instead...

[Seraphim Prime]

I noticed this earlier this year when the pegs seemed to be full of Slitherfangs and Rungs (all eventually went, but it took a long time). The numbers of figures per case are very large and with only two figures per pack that's not a lot of variety to encourage many purchases.

As you said Paul, the Titan Masters were really clever and many retailers apparently showed huge interest in such a pricepoint, such that Hasbro continued it for 3 more lines. However once there was little variation in the pacakge assortment it became a struggle to clear the stock, I think retailers would have baulked at ordering that many of them.

I like your idea of individual packed micromasters, as that would have got back to the inital idea of the Titan Master assortment - an individual toy that you can play with - and would have given some opportunity for completion of micromaster teams, either with individual new moulds or repaints, and we could have gotten more variety then.

[SMHFConvoy]

It's a shame that Hasbro didn't combine battle masters and titan masters into a single play pattern. A robot that folds into an energon like cube to power a weapon that can convert into a vehicle

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Kind of an interesting point. Here in Japan, they Dropped the *masters from shop sales (can only be bough on TTmall) for Earthrise. They sold slowly for Siege here, but then a lot of them were just recoloured gun guys. The others seemed to do fairly well. I thought it a slightly odd move, as considering how the masters become ramps and stuff, it would be fun to have them interact with the other base bots. Some of which are TTmall and some which aren't. Currently I have only Slitherfang and that's only because it was released the same month as the Quintesson Judge. Soundbarrier was with figures I wasn't interested in and so made justifying buying a cheap figure (+ postage) very hard.

TTmall offers no discounts so buying from them is very expensive compared to shops. I had TTmall points to buy Cliffjumper with and so used him, but I didn't want any others that month so had to pay for postage. In the end, Little deluxe CJ cost me about $45. Sure I like it, but paying that much for one toy (postage is included there as there is no other way to get one) is hard to swallow.

Anyway, back to my point. I want more ramp dudes, but would prefer to grab them locally.

[GoktimusPrime]

WFCK

That is such an unfortunate acronym!

[SharkyMcShark]

That is such an unfortunate acronym!

Not as bad as CHUG, which to be fair is not official but is widely used.


Re *masters, I think it's because the gimmick is kind of played out for now? Firearms make pretty cool transforming partners, and I suppose swords do too. The shields were a bit naff, and so was whatever Rung was.

[High_Q]

If there was a $10 price point *Master this year what would they have been? Fossilzers? Crazy idea but what if they'd been Battle Beasts, not converting Transformers at all!?

Yes, please! I'd like Titanmaster-sized Battle Beasts, each with a chariot. Tomy did release a Beast Saga line about 5 years ago. I liked the designs but the fiction was not tied to TFs and the figures were a bit too big to 'scale' with CHUG.

[griffin]

Retailers here just didn't want that Master range in Siege & Earthrise... it was a real struggle for Hasbro Australia to get any retailer to take them, which is why it got a lot more difficult to find that size class last year. (I thought it would have been a perfect size & price point for the grocery stores... but I guess not)
If Hasbro had the same problem in America with their retailers, it might be why Kingdom doesn't have that size class. And if that is actually true (I don't know), it makes you wonder what would have been planned for Kingdom at that price point.

[Dimi194]

It's only clicked for me that the $10 *master price point has been dropped from Generations this year. There's no TitanMaster/Primemaster/Battlemaster equivalent in the Kingdom toyline or the Studio Series.

Personally no great loss. They never felt like Transformers in their own right but an accessory. The Titan Masters with their classic character heads and vehicle accessories were ok, the Prime Masters had interesting shells but they turned into oddly patterned boxes, and the Battle Masters really were accessories for the larger figures. Maybe they realised they were done when they made three Transformers that turn into planks...!

Will the shops miss the cheap item? They never seem to sell out but the case assortment was always large.

If there was a $10 price point *Master this year what would they have been? Fossilzers? Crazy idea but what if they'd been Battle Beasts, not converting Transformers at all!?

Personally I would have liked them to release single packed Micromasters, still plenty of those to do and they could pad the line with some repaints and fill some gaps. I'm still annoyed that little Ironworks was only available in the very-expensive-to-get 10 pack! (Just not Rewind or Steeljaw please or other 'boxes'!)

It also make me think about Orcanoch and Arachnid too with their mini-figs, and the amusing idea that the Kingdom Commander Class toy this year might turn out to be one of those two!


Edit:

Oh, here's another thought, the Galactic Encounter 2: Micron Micromasters... maybe those were meant to be in Kingdom as single packed figures and when plans changes they got moved to be an exclusive instead...

Biggest reason I miss the class is because I mainly bought them for the blast effects - and despite having compatibility in Kingdom, they're not giving us any new ones to use for our figures! (I would have bought a box of just blast effects tbh)

[Tha_Phantom]

Just had a discussion with another collector about classifying the Buzzworthy toys.
From what I've read on TF wiki and studying the packaging they should be viewed as a subline, not their own line.

For instance, the Buzzworthy Bumblebee (the core class toy that is clearly Bumblejumper) should be viewed as WFC Trilogy > Buzzworthy > Bumblebee
The WWII Bumblebee should be viewed as Studio Series > Buzzworthy > 26BB WWII Bumblebee

Just as SS86, Siege, Earthrise and Kingdom are sublines, so too is Buzzworthy. The only difference is that Buzzworthy is a subline across multiple lines. At least that's how I read it.