June Acquisitions

[liegeprime]

I don't understand why hasbro has to separate the figures, there is no point?

Well it comes down to two points
1) The toy designers must've had a difficult time designing/making the transformation of the individual bots to be able to transform as well into the humongous gestalt. For all the technology at their disposal it must take a whole lot of headache to do so..
2) $$$$$
3) time constraints- I guess by now designers are already starting on designs for the next movie toys.... it only takes a year for them to come up and produce these toys, not to mention keep it under wraps.

[GoktimusPrime]

1) The toy designers must've had a difficult time designing/making the transformation of the individual bots to be able to transform as well into the humongous gestalt. For all the technology at their disposal it must take a whole lot of headache to do so..

I still have trouble accepting this. I have both Demolishor and Rampage (was playing with Rampage earlier this morning); each time I look at these toy's I'm incredibly underwhelmed and I can't help thinking to myself that Hasbro sacrificed the ability to combine to make such disappointing toys... where's the trade-off?

If these individual Constructicons were kick-bum action figures, then I might be able to excuse their inability to combine. But they're not. Demolishor would have to be the worst Voyager I've ever purchased that doesn't even have an electronic gimmick holding it back (how is this toy worth the $49 I paid for it??), and Rampage is the weakest of the RotF Deluxes I've purchased so far (not including Bumblebee, who's a retool of an existing mould).

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Animated Shockwave/Bumblebee 2-pack.

[griffin]

Looking at the weird 'robot' forms of most of the new characters in TF2, it's like Bay was trying to be overly creative and Hasbro have had to design (ugly) unconventional toys to match, sacrificing playability, transformation and gimmicks like electronics. If you want to blame someone, blame Bay for wanting something creative on screen that doesn't translate too well into a convertable toy, at least in the short timeframe Hasbro has to work with on them.
Just looking at Rampage and Demolishor, we have non-biped forms, and probably not a lot of visual detail for the Hasbro designers to work with 12 months ago when they would have started trying to figure out toys for these new characters. Even the TF1 characters who were biped were still rough compared to the actual designs onscreen, hence the 'improved' editions being released for TF2 now that the designers have more imagery to work with and more time to get it right.
When you look at something like Demolishor, how do you think it would have been described to the Hasbro designers 12 months ago in terms of what the steamshovel turns into? Bay probably had some preliminary figures generated, but TF1 showed us how different the preliminary designs looked to the final designs in the movie, and the toys.
You gotta at least give some credit to Hasbro with the movie line, as they are working against the clock on a much shorter schedule, to essentially guess what each character will look like in its finished movie form 12 months later. By the time these characters are being animated fully for the movie, the toys are already in production. And we know how Bay (or any director) can change his mind at any time during filming and post-production, leaving us with toys resembling something different to what ends up in the finished edit. Just try to keep in mind the different production timelines that Hasbro and the movie team are working on here and see how impossible it would be to get accurate toys in production before they are even properly animated for the movie.

[jaydisc]

Well said.

[griffin]

I don't understand why hasbro has to separate the figures, there is no point?

According to Hasbro at BotCon, the box-set was to prioritise the combining ability in the design of the toys, while the individually released figures prioritised the converting ability in the design. Lack of time probably prevented them from being able to design figures that could do both. (not to mention Bay's weird looking 'robotic' forms in TF2, Hasbro designers couldn't just instinctively create a biped form, they would have had to make sure they designed a matching non-biped shape, based on what was visually available 12 months ago)

The small Legends/EZ-sized set being released in Japan later this year (and maybe next year by Hasbro) had a small enough number of parts and simple conversions to incorporate conversion AND combination.
It's just a pity that it is so small, as a giant towering figure would be nice to play with amongst all the other movie toys.

One thing to note though - at this stage, if you want toys of all the Constructicons in some form, you'd need to get the combining box-set, as there are two Constructicons that aren't yet being released as individual Converting toys.

[Doubledealer]

Maybe it's just me but I really love Demolishor. While I agree $49 is a bit steep (I paid $41.65 ) I think his unique design is truly a breath of fresh air & his transformation is quite fun.
I'd certainly rather buy him than a repaint, the Barricade ripoff that is Sideways or the half transformed jet-bot, Breakaway. They did something new with Demolishor & I think it works for the most part.

[Ironhide63]

Maybe it's just me but I really love Demolishor. While I agree $49 is a bit steep (I paid $41.65 ) I think his unique design is truly a breath of fresh air & his transformation is quite fun.
I'd certainly rather buy him than a repaint, the Barricade ripoff that is Sideways or the half transformed jet-bot, Breakaway. They did something new with Demolishor & I think it works for the most part.

yea i like Demolishor too...I paid full-retail for him...I dont think he is worth the full $50. Get him on special or not at all...unless you REALLY want him.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'd be happy with Demolishor if I paid a Deluxe price for him. He'd be an alright Deluxe. But as a $49 Voyager... meh, I'm just not seeing it.

[Doubledealer]

I'd be happy with Demolishor if I paid a Deluxe price for him. He'd be an alright Deluxe. But as a $49 Voyager... meh, I'm just not seeing it.

If it comes down to cost, & considering Americans can pick him up for our deluxe prices I don't think you can really blame the toy itself. Blame...Australia?