What grinds your TF gears?

[Gutsman Heavy]

Post your pet hates!

Line-wide gimmicks, I don't mind gimmicks but don't make them the be-all and end-all of the line, not every figure needs a damn key operated pop-out cannon. Mix it up a bit, G1 had the best mix, normal figures, combiners, headmasters etc. It wasn't universal and thus made the figure that had them more unique and special. At least with Animated Hasbro seems to have gotten over the line-wide gimmick, YAY!

So what grinds your TF gears?

[Gutsman Heavy]

agree on the Missle thing, especially since toy safety laws mean they are so freaking huge!

[GoktimusPrime]

I agree that gimmicks shouldn't overwhelm/dominate a toy. Gimmicks are fine if they compliment the Transformer, but the Transformer shouldn't exist just to compliment the gimmick(s).

Other pet peeves off the top of my head...

+ Misplaced G1 homages... Energon Downshift comes to mind.

+ Pointless/meaningless repaints - e.g.: night-night movie leader Prime

+ Glaring errors in comic books. Who the hell is Sentinal Prime? Why did Lio Convoy have blue eyes for nearly half an entire book?! Wake up Ryall!

+ People who think that G1 only means the G1 cartoon :/ I can understand that some people may have had more exposure to the G1 cartoon and that they may prefer it as their source of G1 canon, but I dislike it when people immediately think that the term "G1" only refers to the cartoon. On another TF board someone kinda had a go at me because someone else mentioned G1 Megatron and I made a reference to what happened to Megatron in the G1 comics and this other guy goes, "when people G1 they mean the cartoon." I'm sorry, but unless it's stated or more directly implied otherwise, "G1" can mean anything relevant to the Transformers from 1984-1993. Saying "G1 Megatron" just by itself without saying anything else to suggest that they were just talking about the cartoon is not enough to say that they meant G1 toon Megatron.

+ People who sent death threats to Bob Skir and Michael Bay. Those people seriously need to get a life! Don't like Beast Machines or the live action movie? Fine! Don't watch it! There's no need to get nasty against the people who made it!

+ And of course, the whole Bumblebee =/= BB thing (yeah yeah).

[Saintly]

aussie hasbro prices on TF!!!

on that missile thing, there's a few TF toys without missiles... take CYB Red Alert or CYB Override

[SofaMan]

• Pointless electronics that add to the cost of a toy without adding any real play value is pretty high up my list. Pretty much every toy over a certain size now has noises or flashing lights.
• Endless repaints - I understand it's about gaining maximum value from an expensive toy engineering process, and I tend not to get repaints anyway. I'd be content if they did one repaint of each mould, but when some moulds are being repainted and reissued up to 5 times, and that is taking shelfspace from original toys, then I get peeved.
• Lazy product naming - Goktimus raised this too. When a product is clearly an homage or reimagining of an established character, and an inappropriate name is used. When a crappy neologistic non-name is used instead of something meaningful and relevant that can only enhance fan connection with that toy/character.
• Ultra Magnus ≠ white Optimus Prime.
• Cliffjumper ≠ red Bumblebee

I think Gok and I are moving up in the TF Curmudgeon stakes...

[The_Damned]

i would say under stocking of transformers in this country and have store exclusives. ie masterpiece starscream and then not having them anywhere
and then there is always the fiasco with the 08 BB. don't get me started on that!

then there is the times that they never even release the toys in australia, ie classic devastator and the last 4 alts Camshaft, mirage, ravage and rumble!!!!!

[dirge]

Pointless electronics that add to the cost of a toy without adding any real play value is pretty high up my list. Pretty much every toy over a certain size now has noises or flashing lights.

Yes. If I wanted stupid flashing lights, I'd buy Random Gimmick Spiderman or something. Why does Leader Brawl need 47 electronic gimmicks when his head isn't even _hidden_ in tank mode?

Endless repaints - I understand it's about gaining maximum value from an expensive toy engineering process, and I tend not to get repaints anyway. I'd be content if they did one repaint of each mould, but when some moulds are being repainted and reissued up to 5 times, and that is taking shelfspace from original toys, then I get peeved.

I can deal with repaints if they have focus/purpose. Hasbro's more recent repainting (since Universe) has become increasingly lazy.

My biggest pet hate is that mentioned by Gutsman Heavy & Gok - gimmicks that dominate the toy/line. And this extends to the stupid electronics in many larger toys.

Classics was one of the better lines because the designers have simply focused on the Transformer. While there are some missteps, the line beats out anything other than BT (and segments of the movie line) in the last five years because it doesn't try to work around including a Planet Key/Minicon/Energon weapon/Aaron Archer's ego.

[GoktimusPrime]

But there's those of us who never followed comic books, so the cartoon and it's toys are G1 and nothing else.

There's a difference between "Sorry I haven't read the comics" and "Only the G1 cartoon counts as G1!" - it's the latter that really irks me.

I can understand that some people's preferred G1 canonical source is the G1 cartoon, fine... but that's no excuse to blindly dismiss any other G1 source. If you don't want to include other G1 sources, then say so. If a person says, "G1 cartoon Megatron" then they're qualifying that they're only talking about Megatron from the G1 cartoon. But if a person says "G1 Megatron," then I'm sorry but it means that anything relevant to Megatron from 1984-1993 is fair game. If you only want to talk about the G1 cartoon, then say so. If you don't say so, even unintentionally, don't get mad when people mention other sources.

For example, in the original G1 question game on the old board that Turtle Boy started, he said that anything G1 was fair game. He later admitted that he only thought about the G1 cartoon but said that since he never specified that, fair's fair, anything related to G1 from any source was relevant. TheDirtyDigger later started the G1 US Cartoon question game, which very specifically said that questions could only be taken from the G1 US cartoon. That's how it should work.

Obviously I prefer the G1 comics over the cartoon, but I don't go around discounting the G1 cartoon as a source of G1 canon just because I don't like it as much. They're both equally valid forms of G1 canon. And of course, there are many other sources of G1 canon other than the comics and cartoon.

[Saintly]

*giggles* I guess this can also quickly become the pet peev/hate of certain OCTA forum members

I hope I'm correct in saying, don't cross that line

[i_amtrunks]

Pricing is a big issue for me, but I am not sure whether it is Hasbro or the retail stores that should have more of my anger...

Repaints are also a big gripe of mine, they did not need to repaint every figure back through G1 to G2, and even Beast Wars only had a repaint here and there, so why do they now need to release 3 repaints of almost every figure they make? Shouldn't technology have made making moulds cheaper? (even though they are vastly more detailed than their G1 counterparts)