Gimmicks That Really Annoy You

[UltraMarginal]

Soundboxes. Almost all of them are toy-breaking, either taking up a huge solid chunk where transforming could happen, or tipping the bot mode completely off balance. Unicron Trilogy and Universe 2.0 are probably the worst offenders.

I came here to say this.

Soundboxes is the biggest offender. The best use i have seen of it is the giant 1-step Grimlock. Other than that, they are usually easy to trigger and annoying and take up too much transformersing room.

This, this and this.

I don't mind a sound effect here or there, but the amount of space taken up that the rest of the toy has to build around, nearly always compromising the transformation is never ever worth it.

the mech tech weapons that would not lock in position.

headmasters for the same reason as electronics boxes. theoretically they should allow for a more interesting transformation because there is no longer a head that has to be allowed for, but then there is now a cockpit that has to be allowed for and it's always much bigger than the head. on Rare occasions there is a super elegant design that absorbs the cockpit into the transformation, otherwise they get in the way of a more interesting transformation.

[GoktimusPrime]

IMO one thing that people can bear in mind when appraising gimmicks and toys, as with many other things, liking or enjoying something is not necessarily a qualitative measure. We can all like or enjoy things that we know aren't good, or are actually quite bad.
For example...
* We can enjoy bad films. Did I enjoy watching Bayformers? Yeah. Are they good films? Hell no (well, the first is good - not great, but good)
* We can enjoy junk food. Do I enjoy eating Maccas? Hell yeah. Does it have nutritional value? Hell no!
* Many smokers enjoy smoking even though they know it's bad.
Okay, getting extreme with my examples here. But you get the idea. You can enjoy a gimmick and thus really love the toy. But you can also recognise that it's an inherently flawed toy.

Alright, so some examples with Transformers toys...

• Throttlebots: I love this gimmick to bits. I love the Throttlebots. Those of you who attended Sabretron 2004 will remember that we had a Throttlebot racing event. But I cannot deny that they're pretty poorly made action figures that are slave to their gimmick, as much as I love the gimmick.

• Battlechargers: When I attended a Melbourne fan meet in 2001 I was staying at my cousins' house, and one of them who was still in primary school at the time, started playing with a G1 Runamuck. She absolutely loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. About a year later she came and visited me and thought that my BM Deployers were really awesome. Now I think that the Battlechargers and Deployers are both pretty lame sets of toys, but my cousin thought that they were, as you Victorians say, "grouse!" The gimmicks are obviously enjoyable, even though the toys are pretty poor figures.

• Armada Scavenger: Yeah, this! Earlier this year I attended a fan meet in Sydney and spoke to a QLD fan who told me that he loves Armada Scavenger. I asked him how he could enjoy such an awful toy that's so badly compromised by its gimmick, and he told me that it's because he just really loves that stomping leg gimmick. He pointed out that he finds it really fun and that it's unique -- no other mould in all of Transformers has that gimmick.

At the end of the day, it's okay to like something that you think is bad. Or dislike something that you think is good!

[BigTransformerTrev]

You guys beat me - all the ones I was going to say have already been said

So I’ll just list mine:
*half transformations (the new Cyberverse)
*stickers - they are annoying to put on and eventually come off
*batteries and soundboxes (though I liked the transforming sound on Energon Bulkhead)
*from G1 I didn’t like Headmasters and Pretenders. Headmasters as if you lost the head the toy became useless and Pretenders as I didn’t like organic shells. I don’t hugely like how they have been done in the Prime Wars Trilogy either - I’m pretty sure my son lost Alpha Trions head

[Jetfire in the sky]

Sharky has already mentioned it but the worst gimmick for a transformer is not being able to transform.

[High_Q]

Batteries for sound or lighting gimmicks. They're OK for lines aimed at younger audience, but i don't want them for MPs or CHUGs. At best, they're distracting and i have to remove them to avoid battery leakage; at worst, they compromise toy design and transformation.

[High_Q]

I’m in the overwhelming minority here. It has to the be hands down the transforming. So frustrating for MISB collectors.

I am an MISB collector who enjoys knowing that my minty sealed toy is able to transform.

Perhaps you should focus on collecting carded Actionmasters. Lol.

[Omega Metro]

Heads that have to come off when transforming a figure. Yes Titans Return, I’m talking about you.

[Lint]

Heads that have to come off when transforming a figure. Yes Titans Return, I’m talking about you.

And sometimes Universe 2.0

[FatalityPitt]

I’m in the overwhelming minority here. It has to the be hands down the transforming. So frustrating for MISB collectors.

I feel your pain. And so does my wallet. I keep a majority of my figures MOC. I think about 20% of my post 2010 collection are loose, and some of them are duplicates of figures I keep MOC/MISB. Fortunately I only collect Generations/G1.

[Darksaber]

For me my pet peeve is the combiner wars hands and feet they don't need to be interchangeable and as the upgrade kits show they could've been so much better