Articulation

[GoktimusPrime]

In honesty we've not gone forwards that much since the Transmetal and fuzor era - look at the beasts we've gotten recently and the only one with decent articulation is Ravage (and he doesn't even have a bot mode!)

1: The jaguar mode is the robot mode! The alt mode is the dubiously named (and crappy looking) "re-entry" mode.
2: The robot mode is _not_ a true organic-looking beast mode. It's a robot beast mode, which as I mentioned is easier to incorporate articulation compared to organic beast modes for aesthetic reasons. And as Lord_Zed pointed out, even then it's not that greatly articulated anyway.

Other recent beasts are Grimlock (classics and animated), Snarl and Swoop (animated), Snarl/Darkwolf (or whatever his name was, Cybertron), and Skorponok haven't been that articulated at all.

All still not "true" beast modes.

The beast modes are alt modes - as I said before, the alt modes are typically secondary to the action Transformer (robot) mode. And again, it's difficult to incorporate articulation in a secondary mode without compromising the primary mode. For example, if you made any of the Animated Dinobots more articulated, then there would have to be a trade off because you're incorporating more moving parts. More parts = more expensive to manufacture = more expensive to purchase.

Remember that HasTak gives every Transformer toy a strictly defined budget. The toy cannot exceed this budget otherwise it becomes more expensive for HasTak to manufacture the product - an expense which would have to be passed onto the consumer. And this is something that HasTak is usually not willing to do because it's not good business practice. For example, you _could_ have a Deluxe Class Transformer with high articulation in robot and beast mode... but would most people pay $40-50 for it? Probably not. It's for this reason that often cooler features in toys are sacrificed in toys because they exceed the toy's budget restriction (e.g. prototype Godbomber (compare with actual Godbomber)).

Where articulation is concerned, priority is given to the robot mode over the alt mode, and that's fine by me considering the alternative.

I meant more in terms of how it's remembered - no one ever really refers to it in discussion of various continuities and the like.

Storywise Car Robot/RiD is... okay. Not fantastic but not terrible either. It's clearly a story that was written for a young child audience, but doesn't hold much to engage adult audiences (which is what makes other series like G1 and Beast Wars more memorable to collectors). Toywise I think Car Robot/RiD is fondly remembered. Car Robot was also the inspiration for Binaltech/Alternators (which in turn led to Alternity).

after 13 years of realistic alt modes, space ships, and the occasional robotic animal

11 years (1984-95)

being told 'okay we're making animal transformers for like the next 4 odd years' must have been a big shock).

It was a massive change, but aside from the occasional Trukk Not Munky, Beast Wars was very soon embraced and loved by the majority of the fandom. In 1995 Transformers was on the brink of extinction, but after Beast Wars came out Transformers became the 3rd best selling boys toy in the United States (after Star Wars and Toy Story). The impressive toy sales prompted Hasbro to then commission Mainframe Entertainment to create a CG animated cartoon series and the rest is history.