DOTM = Fail

[Goktimus Prime]

I didn't expect the movies to be "perfect"... but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have standards. As a fan of cinema the movies did disappoint in many aspects. I don't expect the movies to be G1 - I know they're their own universe and I understand that the movie needs to appeal to a general audience... that's all fine. But this does not excuse things like:

 

+ Lacklustre character development. Character development is what drives a story. The characters do NOT need to be like G1, but they need to be characters... not caricatures. Other than Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, how many Transformers can you describe WITHOUT discussing what they look like, what they transform into or what they explicitly do in the films? (i.e. just describe their characters)

 

+ Coherent plots/story-telling.

 

+ A focused story. One thing that irks me with some of the potty humour isn't so much the immaturity per se, but the fact that they waste too much time deviating away from telling the actual story. I know that humour can be used well to punctuate the tension of a story - that's fine... but that's the key word here - punctuation. Once the gag goes on for a bit too long, it starts distracting the story and derailing it from the plot. This is the reason why a lot of Star Wars fans weren't fond of Jar Jar Binks -- his antics proved to be more of a distraction rather than a humorous punctuation. One key element of delivering jokes is timing.

 

There are lots of things about the movies that I do like, but there are also things that I'm not so hot about too. The movies were good, but they could have and should have been better.

[Jason X]

Can we try to stay somewhere in the general vicinity of the topic? I'm not interested in ANOTHER debate on the merits of the movies themselves. This thread is about the figures and the only reason I ever mentioned my approach to the movies is to frame my opinions of the figures based off the movie style. Talking about the movies, comics, ect. contributes nothing to a discussion about the toys.

[Fatherdeth]

Okay then, while I've said that the toys for the most part suck, there are some that just plain rule for me!!! Leader class Brawl!! Wow, is he a cool figure!! We don't get cool ones like that anymore!!

[madman1366]

Funny, I started collecting again during Beast Wars and have had everything since. Still had what little I did have back in the 80's put away. More Gobots than Transformers sad to say.

 

From the time it was first announced that there was major interest in doing a movie I could see large segments of the fandom pretty much self sabotaging any hope they might have of liking anything about the movieverse. Every little whisper and rumor set off shock waves of anger and fury throughout the fandom. It was a very nutty time.

 

Funny, I was posting heavy on Don Murphy's board and a go with several people over there who had their own ideas of what the movies were gonna be. Of course I was nuts and out of my mind, yet the first movie turned out to be just about everything I said it would (I called it REALLY well) and they said I was crazy for thinking. In the end, those same guys would be known as DM's "inner circle" of stooges. To see my posts in retrospect you'd have thought that I already saw the movie 2 years before it was made...even before Bay had the job.

 

I don't know what others see or what they expected, but to me, these movies came off as well as they could have for a first attempt at breaking into the major film industry. There was so much that had to be created on such epic scales it's a miracle they pulled it off. Hasbro for the most part did admirable to amazing jobs creating the likenesses in toy form as well. Some came up short, but the majority were done really well and makes for one hell of an impressive looking display.

[Mister Fanwank]

I like a fair few of the DotM deluxes. Some are really nice designs, like Barricade.

 

Personally I think the deluxes have been a big strength of the line thus far. The new Ratchet mold is amazing. I'm also a huge fan of Topspin, Starscream, BB and Nitro BB, Prime, Barricade, and Sideswipe.

 

Even what I consider as the lower tier are pretty damn good in my book Jolt, Crankcase, Roadbuster, and Laserbeak.

 

 

Hell, that's pretty much all of the new deluxe molds! If there weren't so many damn repaints this would be one of my all time favorite lines.

 

Yeah, actually, it's just the big deluge of repaints that's making me think there are fewer awesome figures in DotM's Deluxe line this time around.

 

Ratchet in particular is an awesome figure and Nitro Bumblebee is a refreshing, non-frustrating spin on the Bumblebee transformation and design.

[Jason X]

I don't know. Maybe I'm way off base but this time I think the repaints are working in our favor. The new red Ratchet is great. Nitro Bumblebee makes me want to buy a Bee again. We're FINALLY getting a red Ironhide. I love the look of "Fire Guts" Optimus (wish I could remember his actual name...) and his Mech Tech axe. As far as repaints as new characters go Dark Steel is far and away better than the original figure he was reprinted from (Sideswipe I believe) so I hope we get more repaints like that.

This time I really feel like repaints are working in our favor, but that's just me.

[Goktimus Prime]

Can we try to stay somewhere in the general vicinity of the topic? I'm not interested in ANOTHER debate on the merits of the movies themselves. This thread is about the figures and the only reason I ever mentioned my approach to the movies is to frame my opinions of the figures based off the movie style. Talking about the movies, comics, ect. contributes nothing to a discussion about the toys.

Fair point, fair point. :)

 

Okay, so as far as the toys are concerned, as I've mentioned earlier on this thread, overall I'm satisfied with the toys we've gotten so far. My main gripe would really be WHERE ARE SOUNDWAVE, WHEELJACK AND MIRAGE?!?? *ahem*

 

The inconsistency in Hasbro's focus is driving me nucking futs... we have Crankcase in Legion and Deluxe Class -- a character of reasonably small note (the guy's just another Decepticon mook really)... yet a significant villain like Soundwave has no toy?!? Whaaaaat?!? The guy was referred to by name, had dialogue and played a significant role in the story instead of being just another Decepticon grunt.

 

Mirage - what's the point of going to all the trouble of having a Ferrari in the film, having it feature visibly and NOT make an action figure for this dude? They give us a stupid Speed Star toy but no figure?! That's just a rooster-tease. :(

 

Wheeljack - okay, he's not the greatest character in the film, but he's not much better or worse in terms of screen presence than say any of the Wreckers really. And yet they all got (or are getting) toys. We are getting a Deluxe Leadfoot, right?

 

And if Hasbro are making figures of these toys, WHY is it taking so long to come out?? Is DOTM even still in cinemas atm? Isn't the DVD coming out soon!?? Come on Hasbro, get yourselves into gear and pump these toys out while the movie hype is still happening... strike while the iron's hot! Hasbro was willing to give us all those STUPID repaints of ROTF Ravage (Recon Ravage, Sea Assault Ravage -- and they peg-warmed!), but they won't give us Deluxe Soundwave, Mirage or Wheeljack??? Huh?!? Why... it's almost as if Hasbro's not paying attention and/or don't care!! <gasp> AAAAAARGH! What is the point of acquiring the film licence with Dreamworks/Paramount to make live action movies if Hasbro's not going to bother making toys of these characters?!?

 

<runs.around.screaming.flailing.arms.wildly>

 

 

Come on, release the rest of the movie cast first, THEN focus on repaints. The remaining movie cast need to take priority to exploit what remaining movie hype there is out there, because a lot of kids who aren't seriously into Transformers and other more casual collectors will lose interest and stop looking at the line after the publicity winds down. So no matter how good the toy is, it may still shelf warm if released too late after the movie's gone -- Legends ROTF Devastator is a classic example of this. Bloody _awesome_ toy set, but it shelfwarmed badly because it came out there like nearly a year after the movie premiered.

 

Repaints are something you do as a filler to keep the toyline moving after the hype's died down. As for the repaints themselves... I've personally never been a huge fan of G1-inspired repaints... generally it doesn't look good on movie moulds IMO and besides, movieverse =/= G1. The only exceptions I've made were for G1 coloured movie Ratchet, but technically because that vehicle DOES appear in the film anyway (and even then I only bought Legends Rescue Ratchet), and Protect Ironhide, because that's actually G1 Ironhide reissued in his Diaclone colours. Di-a-CLONNNNNE! I would also prefer seeing repaints becoming entirely new characters instead of variations of the same character. Even then I'm not sure if I'd get it (probably not). What I'd really like to see are new moulds! :D And we did get them toward the end of ROTF with some of those HFTD figures (e.g. Terradive, Tomahawk etc.). That was cool!

 

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Something else that others have complained about, although this doesn't personally bother me but I can see how it would bother others -- where are the Legion Class leaders? (i.e. Optimus Prime, Megatron & Sentinel Prime) There are some people who have loved collecting the Legends, some people who even exclusively collect the Legends throughout the first film and ROTF, but now they're unable to complete their Legends-size collections because even Commander Class Optimus, Sentinel and Megatron tower over the other Legends leaders from the previous movies' lines. So they're kinda miffed about this.

[Jason X]

Well, I'll start with the last first try to hit all the point I have floating around in my brain but I'm awful tired so bear with me.

I think that Hasbro has made a good move in what they're doing with the Cyberverse Commanders and Legions. It's a scaled down version of Voyager and Deluxe made to go with the new playsets (which I may not collect but really like) and I think it lends a new level of fun that's been lacking. I only bought Powerglide so far and only plan on buying Hatchet from what I've seen coming up. Some of the best ROTF figures came from the Scout class. While I'd hate to see that ended by a streak of figures that are just smaller versions of characters I already have, I can deal for the sake of others that are going to have a blast parading them through the Ark. Regular Legends and Scouts will be back eventually.

As to repaints, I agree with you that I'd rather have them presented as new characters. I can't wait to grab Dark Steel. This works better than just throwing "Electrostatic" or "Tuner" in from of the name of an existing character.

Now, as to releasing these repaint before new molds of movie characters, I agree there too, but can guess why Hasbro is doing it the way they are. I want Mirage, Wheeljack, and Soundwave as well as the other two Dreads (Hatchet and Crowbar I believe) in at least Deluxe class as much as the next guy and more than some. Maybe Hasbro is milking it out some though, to keep people interested longer. If they wait until wave 7 or 8 they hold the fanbase captive a bit longer and maybe unload some of those repaints to boot. I could be wrong though, and I'll be the first to admit I don't have a clue what Hasbro execs are thinking.

I personally enjoyed G1 homage paint jobs like Rescue Ratchet and First Strike Optimus Prime, and the new red and black Ironhide that's due out looks awesomazing (a word I invented. Feel free to use it)! The Jazz and Starscream G1 homages were just okay though.

Oh, and there is a Deluxe Leadfoot coming out. Here in the U.S.A. he's Target exclusive and packaged with Twin Twist, a Topspin repaint I have yet to get a good look at.

[Lord_Onslaught]

The movie toys brought a refreshing look and feel to the Transformers Franchise and are quite honestly made for the adult fan collector. As they are taking a more real world feel to everything and they have way better aesthetics then any of the figures from the Shows. Leader Brawl, Voyager Ironhide, ROTF Optimus Prime, Buster Optimus Prime, just to name a few. The movie toys Hasbro is actually taking more serious then any of the toys for the other shows

[Mister Fanwank]

I don't know. Maybe I'm way off base but this time I think the repaints are working in our favor. The new red Ratchet is great. Nitro Bumblebee makes me want to buy a Bee again. We're FINALLY getting a red Ironhide. I love the look of "Fire Guts" Optimus (wish I could remember his actual name...) and his Mech Tech axe. As far as repaints as new characters go Dark Steel is far and away better than the original figure he was reprinted from (Sideswipe I believe) so I hope we get more repaints like that.

This time I really feel like repaints are working in our favor, but that's just me.

 

Nitro is a new mold, not a repaint.