Are we becoming jaded or more discerning as Transformer fans?

[Lord_Zed]

Interesting question.

I would say a little from column A and a little from column B for me, but overall more discerning than jaded, and I would use fatigued rather than jaded. As there is simply so much TF, and TF related content these days that there is too much to keep up with, let alone acquire, so that leads to fans being more discerning, and possibly becoming more dismissive of the TF content that does not interest them, especially on the internet where every second post is someone complaining. Those of us who have been collecting since Transformers began have seen all sorts of ups and downs when it comes to toys, toons and comics, so I guess that had made us more critical too.

Overall I think we are in a good place for the life of the brand but I certainly don't feel the need to be indebted or grateful to Hasbro or Michael Bay, or sing their praises. They are both business/business men if they make a good product then they'll get my money, which is all they want at the end of the day.

Interestingly I'm of the opposite opinion to Zommael where for me the MP line is where I'm most interested and invigorated by TF toys, while with the other lines I'm closer to Jaded. Essentially aside from MP's I haven't really collected more than a few odd toys for a main TF line since ROTF, at some point the toys just became to simplistic for me and didn't fire my imagination in the same way. Admittedly the MP line is full of repetition, and there's going to be more, mark my words there will be another MP Optimus some day, but as long as the toys remain interesting, I'll accept that.

I agree - I thought the idea behind the Classics/Generations and Masterpiece toylines was to give a new take on classic characters, updating them with current engineering. G1 characters would obviously get the most benefit out of re-engineering, since they were built to 1970s and 1980s standards. Therefore, new versions of characters with more recent engineering don't really get much benefit. The exception would be season 1 Beast Wars characters, with redesigns that hopefully give greater screen-accuracy and cleaner (if not better articulated) beast modes. And again, as you've already established, G1 is getting the most attention anyway, for whatever reason.

I think the key words are a new take on classic characters, and introducing them to a new generation of kids, even Beast Machines is 15 years old. Generations Tankor that Goktimus mentioned is likely to be the only Tankor toy an 8 year old has ever seen. I think if we want to avoid feeling jaded we need to forget about the whole upgrade/improvement mindset. as today's new versions of toys are simply different not better. If they do remake Beast Wars characters they will surely benefit from today's advanced sculpting and injection molding techniques, but also suffer from the decrease in parts, caused by the expense of materials. This has always been the way though, as good as the first G1 themed Generations toys were with their then modern articulation and sculpting, their vehicle modes are inferior to many of first two years of Autobots with their diecast, rubber tires and glossy paint, so there's always going to be some give and take.

[MissDaria]

[FONT="Century Gothic"][SIZE="3"]You'd have to be pretty special if you've seen all 4 of the previous movies directed by Bay, hated them and still lined up to watch number 5.

Those special people will come. I've seen people complain that they have no idea why these movies keep being made because they think they're so terrible, given that all of the three times they paid to see a film in the cinema they hated it each time.

If these films are going to continue to make jillions of dollars, then no matter what I don't like about them, I can't really blame the makers for making them.

Though I saw at least one post from a fan who was simultaneously self-aware and unaware. He didn't like the films, but griped that he had to go and watch and buy them because otherwise he wouldn't feel like a true Transformers fan. (This was framed as Michael Bay being at fault, of course.)

I mean really, really special. Either that, or you're a little girl that has FOMO.

What's a FOMO?