Quality of Instructions: Poll

[STL]

Where are Machine Men and Barbie?

That's what I was gonna ask!

And more money to toys and less to instruction writers I say!

[dirge]

I voted no, because I rarely use them, but I do belive the illustrations in Hasbro's instructions of late are generally poor and often hard to decipher.

[Golden Phoenix]

I voted no. I find that I can figure them out with the way they are now. I haven't really had any problems, save for 1.
And since I only usually use them once I kind of just don't care.

[Geminii]

Instructions don't seem to have the recurring play value of the toy or the immediate sales attraction of the boxart, so it doesn't surprise me that they'll be one of the cheaper components.

That said, I've never run into instructions so bizarre/poor that I couldn't figure out how to transform the toy they were packaged with.

[BigTransformerTrev]

It's ironic that overall I find the G1 instructions to be the most helpful as they had little descriptions at the top of each box telling you what to do, rather than just shading a part with some arrows around it. On more complicated toys you can hardly tell which part is which in the picture! But G1 are also about the easiest TF's to transform ever so you don't really need those awesome instructions in the first place - put little descriptions on the ones we get now Hasbro - I very occasionally need them!

[CBratron]

Not needed but I can see how a parent would want it.

[GoktimusPrime]

I find text most useful! That's something I really appreciate about most Japanese instructions (though lately I find that they've emulated Hasbro in cutting down on the text); especially useful with toys like Binaltech, Masterpiece etc. With Hasbro TFs, sometimes I get stuck and I have to go to YouTube and watch a video review to see what I'm doing wrong (e.g. MP Rodimus' hands). But I shouldn't have to -- the instructions alone should be sufficient to let me know how to transform it.

It doesn't help that some Hasbro instructions are really poorly illustrated. Even though instructions now use photographs, I find the quality of the photography on some instructions can be confusing - and sadly recent TakTOM instructions have been like that too. The old Takara instructions were so well illustrated that I think it's possible to follow them purely visually without being able to read the text (as I'm sure some non-Japanese reading folks here may testify w/ their BT and MP instructions ). It also really doesn't help when the toy isn't transformed properly in packaging to begin with (and again I'm finding this to be an increasingly occurring problem w/ TakTOM TFs of late too). Are they assuming that kids are too stupid to read toy instructions? Come on... we grew up with G1 and we were able to read their instructions! Heck, those instructions taught me entirely new vocabulary that I didn't have before reading them, like "pivot," "rotate," and "authenticity" etc.

Part of Hasbro's argument might be that they don't want to exclude their non-English speaking markets by only printing instructions in English. Okay, if you print the text in English that means that only English speaking kids can read it, and non-English speaking kids can't. When you print the instructions with no text, it means everyone can't read it! Hooray, we're all screwed! And honestly, as if Hasbro doesn't print a different set of instructions for their different markets anyway. I've bought a few Hasbro TFs from China before and the text on it (e.g. character name etc.) is in Chinese, not English! So they've clearly printed a separate run of instructions for the Sinophone market anyway. There goes that argument.

And as many have said - it's useful for parents... and the majority of people who buy Transformers are still parents buying for their kids. Kids who may ask for help. I never asked for help when I was a kid, but admittedly the TFs we grew up with were a damn sight easier to transform than some Transformers today. Leader Class ROTF Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime were challenging for me, so I can imagine non-Transfan parents getting stumped on those toys.

[ohmic12]

There are some i come across where i get stuck as they dont really show it very well between 2 steps like the arms with the animated UM i tried the other day bur at the end of the day if i get stuck i just go to the figures review video on youtube and watch which way the arm is meant to bend and be pushed in etc

[Bidoofdude]

Where's the option for lack-thereof? My Grimlock vs Bruticus has no instructions. Not sure if just a mistake or is uniform.

[nofacej]

I like the included comics we're getting at the moment, and much prefer them to high quality instructions. Wouldn't even mind if Hasbro completely ditched printed instructions in favour of video instructions on an official Youtube channel.