Why don't they make leader class transformers any more?

1. They still do
2. Hasbro laziness / plastic cost / new designers / you growing up

>>6320064
And go here if you wanna discuss transformers

>>6321989
>You growing up.
Yeah that isn't it.
I don't collect TFs anymore but I picked up a Combiner Wars combiner on a whim and the thing was badly engineered, had next to no paint and required toy surgery just to stand up.
These things have gotten way worse since the ROTOF days.

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>>6321982
During ROTF, transformations got too complex for kids (that exact Leader Optimus was one of the key culprits) and parents complained to Hasbro. This led to a dumbing down of transformations and cutting of articulation points that we likely won't ever dig our way out of. I hate it too, but I DO understand--some ROTF transformations seemed overly complex even for me, so I can't imagine kids had a very good time with them.

Well, actually...look up a video review of the new movie Kup figure. It looks nearly ROTF-level in both transformation and articulation. So maybe there's a small glimmer of hope for the future.

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>>6321982
Outside of bayformers, transformers really don't need to be THAT complex. around the same time as the first two movie lines, Hasbro tried making G1 figures with the same level of complexity, and it just came out shitty. Ironhide and Galvatron from the Universe line are terrible. The bayformer designs are just terrible, inelegant designs that just don't work as retail toys, or even transforming figures in general. Look at that Masterpiece movie Optimus, they tried hard but it doesn't actually seem like a replica of the movie. by coming up short, it just feels like a kid's toy, not up to par with Hot Toys/3A/SHF/etc. The 3A DOTM Optimus looks spot on, but doesn't transform.

I'm very happy itht he modern MP line as a whole, though, outside of some fauxpas like Megatron's paint issues. Inferno's whole transformation where al the panels adjust to make his vehicle features disappear feels satisfying and impressive without being boggled down in noise.

>>6322202
That is exaggeration.

>>6322210
holy shit that's mistransformed as hell, lol

>>6322202
I don't like Combiner Wars all that much either but saying they are badly engineered is a stretch. The figures do what they are expected to do effectively enough, just like what the Titans Returns figures do.

Something that always annoyed me about 3P combiners is that every limb was expected to be some marvel of engineering that was incapable of being transformed without a guide and two whole sets of clock repair tools, and they couldn't even fucking scramble.
Sure, they look better than the hasbro combiners but they are a chore to play with and their engineers purposely hinder part of the gimmick for no reason other than they'd get panic attacks if someone used Groove as an arm.

>>6322233
Hopefully Wei Jiang can pick up the old ROTF Leader and fix the proportions. If their Optimus and Hound proved anything is that free of gimmicks and a joke budget they are possible.

>>6322344
The ROTF mold is a wash at this point, the MMPdoes everything it does but better, might as well retool and add paint to that when it comes out.

>>6322210
That picture made me laugh for like forty seconds.

>>6322334
>>6322237
I had to take the fucker apart with a screwdriver and shove some shit under the ratchet pieces before it could even stand in combined mode.
That isn't an exaggeration.
If that isn't bad engineering what is?

>>6322580
Which one was it?

There is a long list of problems with Combiner wars figures but weak ratchets that prevent standing has never come up.

>>6322612

Had to be Skylynx. He's the only one whose ratchets literally didn't work.

>>6322632
That's the one.

>>6321982
>Why has the over all quality of transformers toys gone down?

Three main factors
>Veteran designers leaving
>Plastic prices going up
>Consumer complaints about the complexity of the toys

What we have now isn't the worst of it though. the Titans Return line has actually been a huge step out of the hole they'd dug themselves into with the latter Classics and and the Age of Extinction line.

Combiner Wars was them making the best of a bad situation, and Titans Return is them really finding their footing, engineering-wise.

We're still getting WAY more parts reuse and repainting than we ever did in the past, due to rising pastic prices, but they're absolutely amazing at disguising it now.
For example, I had no idea that CW Highbrow and CW Scourge shared tooling until Vangelus pointed it out. That's amazing.

>>6322640
For what it's worth, that issue with the Sky Lynx mold was fixed in the LioKaiser set.

>>6322580
You're confusing quality control with engineering; a product can be well-engineered but if it's misassembled or parts are produced badly it won't work. The new vietnamite slaves are yet getting accustomed to their job.

>>6321982
Because people keep buying whatever bullshit HasTak makes. If idiots stopped buying mainline Transformers when they started to become complete shit during the DOTM line, it wouldn't have happened but thanks to these idiots, nowadays we have terrible things like Titan Wars, Combiner Wars and such.

>>6322210
Nice bullshit. It's COLLECTORS who complained "but the kids!" while kids didn't have a single issue with the figures (don't you think toys are tested with kids BEFORE release?). And the dumbing down has nothing to do with that shitfest, it happened because HasTak reduced the production cost.

>>6324344
The only issue DOTM had was that some retard inside the company decided that they needed the mechtech gimmick and that shit ate their plastic budget, the molds were just fine with some exceptions but they felt significantly smaller than the previous line; seems like whoever got the mechtech idea was somewhat influential because it even got forced into Prime.
It was during FOC when they got seriously shit. Weak plastic molded into thin pieces, small figures, hollow parts everywhere, shit quality control, shit engineering decisions everywhere; it was just bad. As someone who still owns FOC Bruticus and that played with it recently I feel pretty sure about it being a profitability test rather than an engineering test for combiners, there are just too many stupid decisions in that figure for me to believe it was a serious attempt at making a combiner.

>>6324349
Hearing guys like TJOmega talking about movie toys and lurking on TF forums lead me believe this. Even here I read the same stupid complaints about the same stupid toys.
Leader Optimus or Blazemaster are not hard, you're just dumb.

>>6322580
a defective toy.

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>>6322233
I just want transformers that don't feel like they'll break in my hands.

>>6322210
biggest issue with this was the blades under the arms, I removed those immediately. This toy is amazing.

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>>6324451
>Blazemaster

Nobody complains about Blazemaster being hard

They complain about everything else on that toy

>>6325882
Aside from his weird hollow forearms that don't really look like anything cohesive, I loved Blazemaster's design. He's so unconventional, his headsculpt reminds me of G2 Clench, and I love chicken walkers.

The only bummer was that the legs on mine were INCREDIBLY loose, they couldn't support him at all and dangled like marionette legs when you picked him up. I tried to tighten with superglue cause I'm a dumbass, did it wrong, and I sheared off the balljoint. Ugh.

>>6325958
Ouch. Next time use floor wax or nail polish

>>6324349

Amazon was full of "this is hard" reviews

>>6324349
I don't quite know if I believe you, friend. Just because your statement runs so contrary to my experience. I lived through that era personally and I never heard a single collector, either on /toy/ or any of the other toy forums I was posting on at the time, complain "but the kids!" In fact, everyone I knew loved the complex-ass toys and didn't give a flying fuck if kids liked or could transform them.

Like the anon above, I saw a lot of negative reviews from parents and kids alike on Amazon at the time, and my own nephew (who was around....7 I think at the time?) told me that the ROTF Twins, which I had gotten him for Christmas, were too hard to transform.

I'm fully willing to accept that my own experience could be a standout one, but...yeah, I'd need some evidence or some shit. Caring about kids at the cost of the quality of the toys they collect just doesn't really seem like something grown-ass neckbeards would do.

>>6322210
>new movie Kup figure.

Do you mean Hound?

He does look like a move back to more complex engineering, but he's still a ways from what we had at the peak of ROTF/HFTD.

>>6326399
Yeah, my bad, Hound. I've had Kup on the brain lately. And yeah, I know, but he gives me hope that this trend might continue and improve.

I'm not even sure how or why anyone is collecting mainline Transformers anymore. It's damn near 20 bucks for a deluxe now. Not worth it at all.

>>6326631
Figmas still sell well and it also confuses me how with those clownish prices.
At least mainline transformers are making some effort to look like the size of a 20 dollar figure.

>>6326640
*look the size of

>>6326631
Where are you buying your deluxes from?

>>6326673
Not him but my TRU charges $20 IIRC. Target I can find em for $15-16.

>>6326164
From collectors.
>>6326370
You're lying or you have a terrible memory. This place and all the TF boards were nothing but dumbass collectors complaining. And if you need "proofs" even though the toys are always tested by kids before release then you'll never aknowledge any. Kids are better than retarded adults with tons of stuff, you have to accept that.

>>6327121
Well yeah, no shit, TRU is the king of markups, regular big box stores are only charging 15ish

>>6324451
FOC two biggest flaws are that he is made out of only deluxes, and that his hands/feet are intigrated into the molds.

>>6323824

TR has been nice but they still don't go the extra mile for things like wrist swivels and ankle rockers. Ditching paint for stickers is cancer as well. There are still a large amount of good deluxe molds but we probably won't get back to 2008 levels of quality all around.

>>6328156
Availability is nonexistent at big box stores, though. Out here they practically skip every other wave with barren shelves for several weeks at a time. There's no way they're moving tons of boxes and I always miss all of them.

because they cost too much to make and china does a better job anyways.