I'm probably remembering wrongly on Sideswipe, but I'm pretty sure that the rear panels on Hound weren't painted at all. I remembered not caring that much about him though b/c the unpainted metallic plastic was virtually indistinguishable from the painted metallic color.

 

Actually, other than the Smokescreens, none of the BTs that had metallic paint jobs had any painted plastic panels (I guess Takara figured the metallized plastic was "good enough"). Of course, I realized this was the case upon noting my BT blue Tracks has a big swirl in the plastic on one of his rear panels. I thought this was especially lazy on Takara's part, since those panels were painted on yellow Tracks - come on, why not spend the extra 5 yen and paint them - obviously the paint masks already existed.

That's why I keep type of each Binaltech mode in each mode so that people can see them in both modes, more or less. E.g.: I have Smokescreen in vehicle mode, Streak in robot mode, Meister in robot mode and Zoom-Zoom and Laserwave in car modes etc. :)

 

 

i do the same thing with mine if/when i display them.... but i still transform them pretty frequently so i can remember when asked because some people don't believe that they will go from mode to mode....

Why would you create a package that consumers would have to tear through if you were marketing it to collectors?

 

Believe it or not, some collectors do open their toys (because toys are actually meant to be played with!) and don't care about boxes. Amazing, isn't it?

To be fair though - thats not how you market towards the collectors.

If Has-Tak-Omy ever put any thought into a "collector based line" then the packaging would be able to stay minty.

 

And if I'm correct in understanding - BTs and MPs and Kiss's did that fine.

 

It'd be funny if someday HasTak was to create a line especially for MISB collectors with superb packaging and a rock inside, plus an integrated camera that would air live the collector's reaction when he finally realizes what he got.

Why would you create a package that consumers would have to tear through if you were marketing it to collectors?

 

Believe it or not, some collectors do open their toys (because toys are actually meant to be played with!) and don't care about boxes. Amazing, isn't it?

To be fair though - thats not how you market towards the collectors.

If Has-Tak-Omy ever put any thought into a "collector based line" then the packaging would be able to stay minty.

 

And if I'm correct in understanding - BTs and MPs and Kiss's did that fine.

 

It'd be funny if someday HasTak was to create a line especially for MISB collectors with superb packaging and a rock inside, plus an integrated camera that would air live the collector's reaction when he finally realizes what he got.

 

:lol or a package that isn't meant to be opened at all.... It would be cool to see one with no seams whatsoever or something...

 

I take back my earlier comment - If a toy company wants to market to Collectors, then they'll package the product in a way thats impossible to open.

I wish they'd pack them all in plastic bags, Mickey D's-style. Nothing looks less impressive on a shelf than a bunch of lumpy bags.

Hehehehe... I knew a guy who bought MP Convoy and keeps it sealed, then bought 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime and opened that. So... he goes and keeps the better Japanese version that comes with a box that has NO windows to see the toy sealed, and opens the not-so-good Hasbro version which has a box with windows that allows you to easily view the toy MISB. W T F ? (o_O) There could just be a weight inside that MP Convoy box and he'd never know! ;)

 

Believe it or not, some collectors do open their toys (because toys are actually meant to be played with!) and don't care about boxes. Amazing, isn't it?

I was never talking about keeping the toys mint sealed. You can still do that with the Alternators too. What I'm talking about is giving people the option to put the toy back into the package if they want to store/display it in package, even if they've already opened and played with it.

 

And Takara doesn't only do this with its collector-oriented lines, but also with lines marketed at a general market. e.g.: Micron Legend (Armada), Super Link (Energon), Galaxy Force (Cybertron) and the movie figures from Takara all are able to be placed back into its packaging, even carded figures!! For example, I have the X-Dimension Micron Race Team, which I've opened and played with, but I keep it stored on card. It looks sealed, but it's not. Ditto my Cosmo Type Shadow Hawk - been opened and played with plenty of times, but I display it on card. My Paradron Medic is still sealed, but I probably will open her up sometime soon and have a play with her - but I'd still keep her displayed on card rather than loose on a shelf. I don't have this option with any of my carded Hasbro TFs.

 

Actually, I would be able to display most of my boxed Hasbro TFs in box (although I've thrown most of my Hasbro boxes out) - e.g.: all my Leader Class, Voyager Class figures etc, could all be displayed in box - and these are figures which are aimed at kids. I don't understand why Hasbro didn't do this for Alternators, which should have been marketed at collectors. Even Hasbro's G1 reissues can be placed back into their boxes and displayed loose in box.

 

I think it's important to understand that Hasbro, by its very nature, can never really & truly be a collector-oriented company. To use a food analogy, they're more like McDonalds than Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. They're a very large company that sells a lot of product in mass quantities. They're just not set up to be a collector-friendly company (unlike smaller outfits like Sideshow, Gentle Giant, Diamond Select, etc.).

 

All I know about the bubble packaging for Alternators is that a) Hasbro wanted a unified look to their TF packaging across all sub-lines, so they changed the boxes to match the look of Cybertron, and b) they felt that the bubble packaging better displayed the item within.

 

I don't see how any of that would excuse them for not just making a basic box with flaps that can open and close with a slide out insert tray like they do with most of their other boxed Transformers and other action figures. :/ Sealing Alternators in a giant bubble that needs to be butchered in order to open the toy, and thus making it impossible to place the toy back in the box looks more like inattentiveness and/or apathy to me.

 

However, I thought it was pretty well accepted that Takara was very unimpressed with the overall sales of the line.

 

I've never heard anyone from Takara or any Japanese fans say this. :/

 

And that they started including figurines and other additional accessories with BTA and KISS seems to indicate Takara thought there was a need for a "value added" above and beyond just the Transformer itself.

 

Japanese fans like these accessories. I knew a Japanese fan who really wanted BTA Sunstreaker's Junko, but didn't want BTA Sunstreaker (i.e.: he wanted the figurine but not the TF toy!). He ended up doing a deal with another fan (non-Japanese) who wanted Sunstreaker but not Junko, so it worked out well for both of them.

 

I remember reading that Japanese fans felt the same way about Alternators vs. Binaltechs that American fans felt about Binaltechs vs. Alternators. Grass is always greener'D

I've never heard about this from any Japanese fans.

 

The die-cast tended to chip and make some figures overly top heavy (particularly since only about 50% of the body panels were diecast, and usually the front end - which more often than not ended up being the robot's upper body), plus painting the die-cast portions also seemed to require much thicker coats of paint than that used on the plastic portions, which lead to inconsistent quality (I'd say that easily 25% of my BT figures suffered from at least one paint defect on a die-cast panel).

 

Only on the earlier BTs like BT-01 Smokescreen, but Takara did recognise this problem and improved the paint mix/apps on subsequent BTs making them hardier as they went along. I once dropped BT Dead End on a footpath while I walking around in public and playing with it at the same time... not a scratch.

However, I thought it was pretty well accepted that Takara was very unimpressed with the overall sales of the line.

 

I've never heard anyone from Takara or any Japanese fans say this. :/

 

I remember it from the old Binalternators site that Nevermore used to run.

 

If they were selling well, I can't imagine them stopping, especially since they had already built the molds for Hasbro.

Wasn't that a German site? I still haven't seen any Japanese sources that state this.

 

If they were selling well, I can't imagine them stopping, especially since they had already built the molds for Hasbro.

I told you, Binaltech was originally intended to be a 12-figure run. Takara very clearly stated this when they released BT-01 Smokescreen. And they are still releasing the Alternator moulds that they've made for Hasbro, but under KISS Players (doesn't matter if the canon freaks you out, the fact is that they're still releasing the moulds for their market there). The fact that the original Binaltech line went beyond its original slated 12-figure run (with the last non-exclusive BT being BT-16 Skids - i.e. BT went 5 figures over what Takara had initally intended) and the fact that it's since spawned BTA and KISS Players is a greater indication of BT's success than failure.

 

Again, I've not heard anything from Takara or the Japanese fan community to indicate that BT failed there.

That sounds like some fuzzy math.

Only on the earlier BTs like BT-01 Smokescreen, but Takara did recognise this problem and improved the paint mix/apps on subsequent BTs making them hardier as they went along. I once dropped BT Dead End on a footpath while I walking around in public and playing with it at the same time... not a scratch.

 

ALL Binaltech figures are prone to paint chipping. Your little lucky "mishap" doesn't prove anything.