Earthrise un-appreciation thread

[joelones]

In the hope of not polluting "the other" thread and more so for the sanity of certain board members, I'd like to have a civil dialogue here where we can vent/share feelings with respect to the ER line.

Really, I'd like to have an open discussion on the following:

• What irks you most about the ER line?
• Has the recent price hikes forced you to re-think your TF spending habits?
• Has the recent price hikes forced you to re-think this hobby? If so, what new hobbies have you shifted to?
• Lastly and most important: what do you think is the reason behind the price hikes? Production related? Inflation related? Fan gouging related? (Conspiracy theories welcome)

Ok, rollout autobots!

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by joelones

In the hope of not polluting "the other" thread and more so for the sanity of certain board members, I'd like to have a civil dialogue here where we can vent/share feelings with respect to the ER line.

Really, I'd like to have an other open discussion on the following:

• What irks you most about the ER line?
• Has the recent price hikes forced you to re-think your TF spending habits?
• Has the recent price hikes forced you to re-think this hobby? If so, what new hobbies have you shifted to?
• Lastly and most important: what do you think is the reason behind the price hikes? Production related? Inflation related? Fan gouging related? (Conspiracy theories welcome)

Ok, rollout autobots!

Fan gouging.

It's fucking stupid. Yes, shit costs more these days. No chance in hell every class ESPECIALLY deluxe was so money losing that they needed line-wide ten bucks a class ---- and now another five on top for studio series. Utter bullshit.

If the deluxe prices had gone to 24.99, like, not great, but "understandable."

I have cut my collecting down anyway but there are toys I would buy for a lark and won't now. It's just too much. And leader class is such a joke.

[Yonoid]

Refreshed figures that are almost the same as the siege ones

[Matrix_Holder]

The Canadian price increase. The American prices went up a couple bucks, ours goes up $10-$15 depending on the series or class.

Deluxe cliff jumper is $35; after taxes ,$80 voyagers? wtf kinda bullshit is that. He's a scout class at best, oil and plastic is cheaper than it was 10 years ago, they move to a cheaper factory and don't pay tariffs, they also cut costs of the siege kind by filling the line with very hollow figures and making it mostly repaints. there is no justification for his price.

The new Walmart exclusive line for the new Netflix show proves my point even further, all repaints.

Scorponok is $40 more after exchange than it is in the USA.

[joshimus]

Price wise I wont bother to get into it but as a whole, I'm really not excited about this line. Skylynx and Scorponok I'll likely buy, finish off Devestator, but i'm really unimpressed with everything else. I dunno. It's a good time to wined down for me

[alternatorfan]

Yeah the price point for plastic is absurd.

[OldOfflineMan]

I get the feeling that Hasbro originally tried to straddle the line and have the Generations lines of toys appeal to both kids and adults. I had trouble picturing kids actually playing with them as the transformations take too long and are far too intricate for dynamic play, not to mention the ball joints wear out mighty quick from play and the combiners fall apart rather easily.

With the Siege line, though, it seemed like they spent more on engineering and tool design (though not the raw materials, it seems) and moved the line towards adult collectors. Maybe the increased engineering costs and lower projected sales volumes pushed the prices up.

I'm rather new at collecting, but that's my view.

[positivelyken]

My only real complaint is the price increase across the board. Tacking on an extra $10 at every size class is arbitrary and not proportional --- deluxes increased by a whopping 50%, voyagers by 33%, and leaders by 17%. It's a particularly hard pill to swallow when the figures are generally smaller than their counterparts from the Prime Trilogy.

As well, no scout/legends class in this toyline means we get a laughably tiny figure like Cliffjumper sold at the inflated deluxe price point (and don't get me started on the lazy partsforming). Repaints and retools at this size, like Hubcap and Bugbite, are yet to come. It sets a troubling precedent where the price point and value of a figure are dictated more by the size of the packaging it's in, not the size of the figure itself. In a toyline that introduced a commander class for larger-than-leader figures (also overpriced at $120-$130, IMO), was it really off the table to have a scout class at, say, $15 to $20 for figures like CJ and other minibots that are bigger than legends but not quite deluxes?

I'm also annoyed by the lousy distribution at times, especially on late wave figures, but that's always been a problem and it's as much a fault of the stores for over-buying early waves and ramping off at the end of the toyline.

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by positivelyken

My only real complaint is the price increase across the board. Tacking on an extra $10 at every size class is arbitrary and not proportional --- deluxes increased by a whopping 50%, voyagers by 33%, and leaders by 17%. It's a particularly hard pill to swallow when the figures are generally smaller than their counterparts from the Prime Trilogy.

As well, no scout/legends class in this toyline means we get a laughably tiny figure like Cliffjumper sold at the inflated deluxe price point (and don't get me started on the lazy partsforming). Repaints and retools at this size, like Hubcap and Bugbite, are yet to come. It sets a troubling precedent where the price point and value of a figure are dictated more by the size of the packaging it's in, not the size of the figure itself. In a toyline that introduced a commander class for larger-than-leader figures (also overpriced at $120-$130, IMO), was it really off the table to have a scout class at, say, $15 to $20 for figures like CJ and other minibots that are bigger than legends but not quite deluxes?

I'm also annoyed by the lousy distribution at times, especially on late wave figures, but that's always been a problem and it's as much a fault of the stores for over-buying early waves and ramping off at the end of the toyline.

It's also really lousy that there is not a single "real" transformer under the $30 price point! You get weapons and micromasters.

It's clear that WFC is more aimed at collectors but it's still bullshit. At that, the legends/scout class is sorely missed. There have been so many great little bots in that size. FFS rung could have been a legends.

[GotBot]

Originally Posted by OldOfflineMan

I get the feeling that Hasbro originally tried to straddle the line and have the Generations lines of toys appeal to both kids and adults. I had trouble picturing kids actually playing with them as the transformations take too long and are far too intricate for dynamic play, not to mention the ball joints wear out mighty quick from play and the combiners fall apart rather easily.

With the Siege line, though, it seemed like they spent more on engineering and tool design (though not the raw materials, it seems) and moved the line towards adult collectors. Maybe the increased engineering costs and lower projected sales volumes pushed the prices up.

I'm rather new at collecting, but that's my view.

Interesting. I use mine pretty regularly and vigorously for stop morion and ball joints have never really worn down and my combiners have never fallen apart.

ER has its bright spots but they are already cost cutting ..but prices haven't dropped. Let's not also forget what is obviously happening, they did a massive price jump, yes, but that is also with a plan to make each size class a step down. Cliff shows that deluxe is headed as the new Legends and voyager will be the new deluxe. Case and point. Deluxe classics Sideswipe is the same size as ER Grapple, who I adore but I'm not about to dive into, essentially, a future of 35 a "legend" and 45 a "deluxe". I like ER a ton but am already cherry picking and planning. Impulse buys are a thing of the past, sadly.