Price will always be an issue when it comes to selling toys.

 

A lot of G1 fans despise the Throttlebots or the Sparkabots and Firecons for being lame. The point was Hasbro had to put a gimmick in a cheap and therfor small Transformer. I think all 3 groups were neat because of their gimmick.

 

For a kid a toy with a pullback engine or a firebreathing toy was a really cool thing. And they were relatively cheap. I remember my grandmother taking me to the toystore and I was allowed to pick out a Transformer. Naturally I was only allowed to pick one smaller one.

 

And that is why there were simple basics with simple gimmicks. I should be getting my first Triggerbot and Triggercon (Backstreet and Ruckuss) in this week. Those fell into the same group.

 

Of course parents are also going to wonder if a toy is worth it. I recall my grandmother asking me if this was something I would actually play with when I picked up an Actionmaster Starscream. I still have the toy (though it has lost both legs and an arm which is common for an Actionmaster) so I guess it was worth the price.  :tftongue

 

I have bought a few Playskool Transformers for my little nephew because they are 2 toys in one. A vehicle and a robot. So that makes them a good buy for your buck.

 

When I look at a Transformer today I do not think it is expensive. In The Netherlands I do not think Transformers have increased much in price. (Inflation included.) I used to pay 15 Guilders for a Technobot. Now I pay 8 Euro (about 20) for a Energon basic.

 

Sounds expensive but as all Dutch Transfans know everything became expensive when the Euro was introduced. Combine that with inflation and the rising costs to make these things. (Come on a Energon Transformer has a lot of detailing while a G1 Transformer had a few decals. Not to mention better paint jobs- more colors.)

 

So I would not say a Transformer is that expensive. Not when you compare it to other toylines. And if a Power Rangers figure is cheaper it is usally smaller or has less parts. A basic Transformer you can still Transform. A basic Power Ranger only has a few accessories. I would rather have the Transformer.

 

The problem here is there are a lot of cheaper toys and most parents just look at the price. Kids with pocket money often want something immediately and go for something cheap as well.

 

I did save up and I remember great joy when I had completed Computron my first combiner. I would save up money and my mom would take me to the store and I would buy a Technobot.

 

I would stare at them and decide which one I wanted. I also considered getting a small Targetmaster which was a bit bigger and had 2 partners but settled for the Technobots.

 

My mother even took me to another town because the toystore there had Scattershot. And how proud I was to have Computron.  :tftongue

 

I doubt the saving part is something kids do nowadays. But for me it was awesome to have saved up and come home with the Transformer I longed for for so long. And the bigger ones really have their play value.

 

But without a good show and excellent advertising the toys will never sell.

 

It is a good idea to release a figure in two sizes. Such as they did for Optimus and Megatron in Energon or Starscream for the new line. They should have a deluxe size and $40 Optimus Prime and Megatron..

 

Kids can buy the cheaper ones while collectors and parents can get the larger ones. Or they should get more basics. I recall that a lot of the G1 toys were rather small. Those are the ones kids will easily buy or are easiest to get from a parent.

Hey, stuff's expensive wherever you go -- I think toys and video games and animes run for quite a bit in Japan even. Toy collecting is fun and all, but it's not friendly to the wallet. I mean because of my recent TF collecting obsession, the only other geek hobby I was able to feed recently was with God of War, my first new game in quite a while. If they could keep the other toys at a relatively close and cheap price point, they'd do much better. I understand in a way why the bigger ones go for more, but part of me doesn't like that factor either.

But yeah, one big thing is the excessive repainting obsession HasTak has. I mean, sure...if it's a good mold, great...but don't just slap on new paint apps and call it a new character (though most people seem to agree that E-Dreadwing was a vast improvement over E-Mirage's color scheme).

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Better a repaint be a new character than a super version of the original one.

I have to take issue with the whole "PR Toys suck" point of view.

 

First of all I am talking about the Deluxe megazords only here.  These cost from $40 to $60 a pop.  That's higher than the vast majority of TFs.  The action figures, bikes, etc. are generally cheaper, but the 3 or sometimes 4 Deluxe Megazords that come out a year are certainly not.  But it's not so bad buying them, let's say one per kid for birthday and holiday time, and there ya go, you have all for the season.

 

Now, the example given above is from last years PR series.  It's called the Mesodon Megazord IIRC.  The above robot is rather ugly, sure.  But it also changes into a chariot drawn by a dinosaur.  It has another mode where several other dinosaur Zords form new legs and arms for it.  To top it all off, parts from this zord "power up" a totally seperate Megazord.  So, to put it mildly, this thing has some serious play factor.

 

http://www.rangercentral.com/prdt-zd-mezodon.htm

http://www.rangercentral.com/prdt-zd-triceramax.htm

http://www.rangercentral.com/prdt-zd-valkasaurus.htm

 

Now, the thing is, this is hardly unique among Megazords.  Every year, the toys combine with one another to make several different wicked looking robots.  My personal favorite was Time Force.  The Time Force team used sapceships.  The 5 ships combined together to make one giant ship.  They also combined in two seperate ways to make two totally different robots!  So for $40 you got lots of play value.  When the second megazord came, it attached with the other megazord in both robot formations.

 

http://www.rangercentral.com/prtf-zd-timefliers.htm

http://www.rangercentral.com/prtf-zd-timeshadow.htm

 

TFs have the edge over PR in many ways to me, but looking at it from a child's point of view, the PR toys offer more playability.  Take a look at some of the other links at the site I linked to above and I think you'll agree.

:pfx

i hate to say it but the time force megazord I DO PWN and it is.......................

o

k

poseability - crap

looks like show - well as much as MIKE JACKSON looks like LISA MARIE!

yea similar shapes but well

 

i do think that one thing that affects the marketability of a toy is if the sellers (TOYSRUS,KMART,ASDA) can TAKE A GOOD PICTURE OF THE TOY can they get the bloomin name right, i dont know bout you but,

on the uk toys r us website there are 2 ARMADABOTS called RHINO and SMOKEMOBILE????

usualy their pictures are that badly TRANSFORMED the charachters just look like a rip!

on the SUPERION MAX ad look at the "into SUPERION MAXIMUS" their guy who kombind this team must ha been on that TAKARAspecialTEA!

You UK peeps are lucky...YOU GET TONS OF ENERGON MAGNUS! LOL.

 

That sounds bad if the UK TRU site listed Rhino and Smokemobile...ye Gawd

You UK peeps are lucky...YOU GET TONS OF ENERGON MAGNUS! LOL.

 

That sounds bad if the UK TRU site listed Rhino and Smokemobile...ye Gawd

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its not so bad now but if ya check this link out

 

http://www.bwtf.com/gallery/mistransformed

 

you will see examples of the "OFFICIAL" PHOTOS from other sites!

 

one other thing that will help is the addition of clues to the method of monster destruction that happens at the start of each POWER RANGERS episode usualy a pointless conversation or argument

start of episode

RED to BLUE - man youve gotta use yer heart more

 

EL MONSTRE turns THE POWER RANGERS against each other

 

end of episode

BLUE TO ALL - youve helped me throughout my worst and helped me complete the SUPER DUPER RUBY ROUGE RED RYANNOSAUR CRYSTAL i love you guys for it

 

EL'S SPELLS WEAR OFF "ok guys lets bring it together and finish this" cue rousing CHEEZEFEST DOUCHBAG of a song and 

 

 

 

Those are pictures of the Turbo Zords, individually. I think the designs speak for themselves.

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Technicly these are not the turbo zords...yes they are from the turbo searies but they are called the turbo rescue zords. and wile i agree the toy designe sucked what made them sale is that from what i remember they came packaged in vehical mode.  and all the kids cared about what what they looked like on tv.  most of my friends that had this group never really cared that they didnt look good.  they wanted them because they were cars.  plus the "turbo zords" accually looked better.

Ok, when i used to play with toys, I never really posed them, i just imagined what was going on in my head and the toys assisted with that image. And thats why kids don't care much for articulation, because they're not going to use it to it's full ability.

Speaking as a TF fan and a semi-closet Sentai fan.. I kinda think it's obvious.

 

While alot of people here feel that TFs are too kiddy now (which they may just be compared to Beastwhatever), they really aren't so kiddy compared to these shows. TFs definitely seem alot more.. 'human' than Sentai characters, in that there's more to them than just being guys that save normal people from bad things. They have alot more character than that, atleast.

 

But it's not character that they want, it's heroes that find a way to solve all of the worlds problems in fancy costumes. They want a visible line between the bad and the good, and a happy ending - things that transformers don't always provide.

 

I don't know about it toy-wise, but I definitely think the current sentai robot toys are much better now. Especially Magiking. :o