I agree with you, Blandstalker, on Sandstorm vs Springer with one exception; my Springer didn't have any quality control issues. I'm pretty happy with both of them, but Sandstorm is clearly superior. My one complaint about Sandstorm is that I have yet to figure out the trick to getting his gun pegged under the cockpit in VTOL plane mode and the instructions are absolutely no help here.
Springer is literally the worst paint job I've ever gotten on any official Transformer. Beyond that, the plastic itself is cheaper and lower quality, which leads to things like the chest not staying locked (more on this later). I haven't figured out how to get either Springer or Sandstorm's gun to attach. I agree with you about the instructions. They're useless.
And personally I really like Blitzwing. I hate how thin parts of his arm/shoulder mechanism is (if I had kids I'd be pissed cuz I assume these are guaranteed to break with moderate rough play) and tabing in his legs in both vehicle modes is a pain, but I really like the design overall. Much more than pics lead me to believe.
I finally sat down with Blitzwing. I agree with you about the design -- it's pretty good in all modes (though knees would be nice), and even though the tabs are a pain, I'm glad they are there. It's the materials. The soft plastic nosecone won't stay where it's supposed to on mine and won't lock in place. The thin plastic on that rotating mechanism is softer than the other plastic and doesn't even match the color correctly! Jury's out whether the softer plastic will prevent breakage or what, but that whole assembly doesn't give me confidence. Plus, it doesn't tab in correctly on robot mode. One side on mine locks in. The other won't, no matter what I do. Both Springer and Blitzwing have terrible chest assemblies because it's almost impossible to move their arms without dislodging their chests. That's just sad.
I like Blitzwing a lot better than I thought I would, but I had to sit down with the instructions with him. Usually, I don't. But I was too afraid I'd break something if I didn't.
I'm hoping they can do for Doubledealer what they did for Sandstorm, but it doesn't look like much of a retool.
Ya'll see the new "deluxe" class figs at Botcon? The upsized legends. What the
man?! "we want simpler Transformers"... er, no. If a kid wants simpler, they already
ing HAVE legends. argh, maybe I'm in the minority but I've always gone after TF's as puzzles, and the more complex/inovative the engineering of the transformation the more I love a fig. It's my main complaint of Prime FE to RID: simplification. FE was such a damn tease with the complex, inventive designs... sigh.
Though the new "true" deluxes are pure love. ADORE that Waspinator! Sooooo nice looking.
Totally agree with you here. I think there have been a few which have gone too far in terms of difficulty -- ROTF Mudflap, ROTF Prime; they're a bit too frustrating to get everything just so, and it can take an inordinate amount of time, even for someone who knows what they're doing.
That said, I
can't stand the idea of upscaling Legends. Or, if you are hellbent on something that simplistic, not making a better toy out of them. Now that they're bigger, they could have meaningful articulation, or much better paint jobs. But no. They look like KOs. Hasbro is getting closer and closer to putting out KO quality toys everywhere.
I'm sure this is another way for them to put out cheap toys. But the relentless cost cutting and cheapness is hurting the brand. This only gives me that much more reason to skip anything with a Beast Hunters logo on it. So far, I've only gotten a handful of the BH toys and I don't feel like I've missed anything by skipping the rest. I know I'll be totally skipping the upscaled Legends.
If they really want to put out easier toys, there are brands to do that in. Like Rescue Bots. Or, for the more clueless, how about having the difficulty rating actually mean something. Or make it more prominent so that people who don't know what they are buying (parents, relatives) can easily determine if it's appropriate for their kid.
I think we're moving in that direction, anyway -- Generations now seems to be the brand for collectors and everything else is being kiddified. I saw the new Leader/Supreme BH Prime. Oh, lord. That one seems aimed straight at the 5-7 year old camp. I would be okay with this, so long as the collector brand is aimed at collectors. I'd rather pay a bit more and get quality than have cheapness ruin the designs.
Thank goodness Sandstorm seems to be reversing this trend or I'd be really discouraged now. The Generations stuff continues to look really good, and I really like the enhanced Beast Wars molds.
