Maybe that's the cost of having metallic paint? My guess is it was the shiny new paint jobs that directly resulted in the packaging, and more specifically, the extras, taking a nose dive. After all, the rubbish Takara packaging began when their TFA toys came out, and we all know they were the first toys to start the 'bling' craze.

I hope that for the next G1-update line of figures Takara go back to focusing on G1 cartoon/toy accuracy (eg. drop the metallic paint, unless subtle like Cyclonus) and quality packaging.