have hasbro/takara become lazy...

[Tabias Prime]

I think what GoktimusPrime said pretty much what i was trying to get at. the pointless repaints and the different variations. Quoting GoktimusPrime (It's literally like that episode of The Simpsons when Malibu Stacy gets a hat.)how many different version of one character do you need.

[Tabias Prime]

i think what set me off to start this thread was the fact that i saw the other day was a Primal Prime which was nothing more than retool of Cybertron Leobreaker with a new head and redecoed in blue and red,but like GoktimusPrime said you can always vote with your wallet and If you like 'em, buy them. If you don't, then boycott them. having a rant isn't going to change this but i just wanted to get other peoples thoughts on the subject more than anything. They've been doing it the last 25 years so i guess there isn't much we can do but choose what we buy..

[Paulbot]

In the case of Leo Prime getting a new head actually means they made a bit of an effort. Not much of an effort but it's more than goes into a lot of recolours. The way they designed toys like Sunstreaker, Prowl, Ironhide to be repaints with new heads and/or other slight changes is a nice thing compared to the reuse of Energon and Cybertron toys unchanged over and over again.

[kristofferrer]

I think it really comes back down to business. The bottom line is that Takara and Hasbro are out there to make money. They can either:

* Design something quickly and to a high standard, but then it will not be cheap. or
* Design something quickly and cheaply, but it will not be of high quality (e.g. repaints). or
* Design something with high quality and cheaply, but it will take a long time.



The price they sell their figures is what throws me off. As a fan I'm barely ok with repaints ... What really throws me of is when they repaint it and sell it for 100000% plastic value.... here's an example

[Sky Shadow]

Nobody ever has to buy a repaint. The only force impelling anyone to be a completist is him or herself. There are more than enough Transformers out there for people to buy without ever having to buy a repaint. And then people could even spend the extra money they save on luxury items - you know - like clothes or rent or food.

[GoktimusPrime]

kristofferrer, I don't think your example wasn't a very good one as Gentei Wildrider is a rare and limited convention exclusive toy. The reason why exclusive toys are typically repaints (and occasionally a slight retool). Because they're manufactured in such small numbers and have limited distribution, it's not justifiable to manufacture entirely new moulds engineered from scratch for such limited production runs. They're also only available through limited exclusive means of distribution such as attending an event (e.g. convention), competition prize (either through merit or random draw), store exclusive (including online store exclusives like e-Hobby) et al.

Also, exclusive toys are sometimes organised by people outside of Hasbro/Takara; like TF fans (such as the Hartman brothers, Glen Hallit, Ichikawa Hirofumi, Akiyama Fumihiko etc.), in tandem with Hasbro/Takara - so they represent toys where the repaint/retool and characters are made by fans for fans, and not expressly for personal corporate "greed. A lot of these characters/toys wouldn't sell in the regular market because they only appeal to hardcore fans -- most more casual fans and kids wouldn't even bat an eyelid to toys like...
+ Road Hauler
+ Crosscut
+ Cybertron mode Beast Wars TFs (Timelines)
+ Alpha Trion
+ Fracture, Bug Bite and other Gobots
...etc.

Exclusives have recently also allowed some toys that were cancelled for release in the regular market to be made available to collectors as exclusives. It's not as nice as having them as regular releases, but it beats nothing. BotCon Dirge, Thrust & Thundercracker as well as Henkei Thundercracker, Skywarp and Gentei Dirge and Thrust are examples of this.

So I think exclusive repaints are in an entirely different league from other repaints, particularly what some might consider to be "frivolous" or "meaningless" repaints: i.e.: a repaint for repaint's sake just to milk more money out of fans. Like yeah okay, the endless numbers of black and clear limited repaints Takara do is pretty crazy, but the fact that they're limited (and sometimes chase figures) puts them in a different category from "Malibu Stacy with a hat" Transformers like say Activator Bandit Lockdown or the Mini-Con Sea Team in blue... how long did they shelf warm for!

[MV75]

Yes they are getting lazier. There are more reuses of moulds today than there were back in G1. And man, all I have to say is jedi starfighter. Thread over, I win.

[Robzy]

I'm too lazy to post in this thread!

[SGB]

I'm too lazy to post in this thread!

Lazy bones!

[Tabias Prime]

not sure if i should of started this thread now i think i opened a can of worms.