Do you feel quality of figures are getting worse?

[5FDP]

I feel it's mould degredation. It's not long before that seeker mould breaks at the releases its had.

This is a big factor, however there are no excuses in the case of Blurr who is only the second retool of that mold.

[Paulbot]

Well Animated had a noticeable decline compared to Cybertron so it's not like it's just recently that quality had slipped a bit.

[kup]

When I compare A/E/C and even Classics (original line) to the modern batch, IMO the material quality, paint applications and Quality control is much less than it was just a few years ago.

It is far more noticeable with Hasbro products but there is also a decline in quality since Tomy merged with Takara when it comes to Japanese toys.

However having said the above, every so often Hasbro surprises me by releasing a figure which has above average QC and paint applications but this is not the norm.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think Dirge is pretty well done considering how many times that mould's been used. Overall I find a lot of issues with recent figures has been due to sloppy QC.

Thank Primus for receipts and store exchange/refund policies. Sometimes I won't be bothered to refund/exchange if the issue is fairly minor/slight... but if it bugs me enough I'll definitely refund/exchange it. I wonder if anyone can beat my record with Animated Blitzwing of refunding/exchanging a Transformer toy four times because each one had problems (and even the final one I settled with isn't perfect, it's just the best one I could find... I've since gotten a Japanese Animated Blitzwing that I can transform to tank mode -- my Hasbro one never gets transformed to tank mode!).

[jaydisc]

I think there's two factors at work here.

When the movie toys came out, they were considerably more fiddly, and I think the plastic density was adjusted to be more malleable and fault tolerant. This was very evident to me when comparing Universe/Henkei toys to their Classics counterparts. The Classics were harder and firmer, albeit less fault tolerant.

And the second factor is the increased costs of production which has invariably resulted in a reduction of quality control.

[SuspectimusPrime]

And the second factor is the increased costs of production which has invariably resulted in a reduction of quality control.

Strongly agree with this second factor.

Costs of production in China has been increasing at a dramatic rate due to labour shortages. The country's one-child policy has done its job of limiting childbirths for the last couple of decades, and led to the present ageing population. With more in the workforce entering prime family building phases in their lives, there are few likely to take up low-paid low-skill employment.

Whilst there are economies of scale to be reaped by reusing the same molds over and over again (Drift/Starscream molds), I don't think these gains can offset 300% hikes in the minimum wage (given, that this resultant 300% is still a pittance).

[GoktimusPrime]

wasn't there talk of HasTak relocating their production to Vietnam to make it cheaper?

[5FDP]

wasn't there talk of HasTak relocating their production to Vietnam to make it cheaper?

They already did.