Toy Line Disasters

[Dr Kain]

You forgot Scourge, Cyclonus, Lugnut, Perceptor, Blurr, Mindwipe, Onslaught...a few more.

Cyclonus and Onslaught were out before Animated ended. Scourge is the only in your list that was after that I felt was a good toy. Perceptor was far too complicated to be an enjoyable figure, and the Blurr was a dreadful toy. He was way too bulky and looked nothing like Blurr. Animated did Blurr the way he was supposed to be. Never knew there was a non-Animated Lugnut though. And wasn't Mindwipe just a repaint of a Cybertron toy?

[wyldman11]

I don't think kids are really interested in action figures these days. Toy lines that aren't geared towards the adult collector are doomed to fail these days.

Side note... Did the forum filter really censor **** Tracy ??? You gotta be kidding me?

Back in the 80s and 90 must kids got out of buying toys around 6th-7th grade, now it's often closer to 3rd or 4th grade. I see kids all the time with toys. This was why I did wonder how the movie lines did because I do see kids buying the stuff, but it never seems to be touched. Around that age is when they start getting into video games. You might also be surprised at how many kids in this age range do read comics, but again video games come in. I believe the comic industry is aiming at teens more because of consistency issues and they are more likely to be say online to promote what they do or don't like.

I think forum censors are easier to have single words removed than have sentence useage. Being the site is to some extent tied to Mattel for the product in question, they are asked to keep things pretty tight. As I recall.

[Barezz]

Hmm well for me anyway, lines that were disappointments.

1: Trendmaster's Battlestar Galactica line. I was so excited when this came out, but I was hoping that they would be in scale with Star wars figures. The quality was questionable, and finding them was hard, mostly at K-marts. Still, I ended up with a bunch of the Cylons anyway. I love Cylons.

2: MOTU 200X. I was SO EXCITED for this line. Skeletor looked so evil, like a proper villain. The the stupid variants started happening (which is probably why I am pretty anti-variant in the MOTUC line come to think of it). then, worse of all, finding the Snake Men series was so hard, heck i got mine at Aldi's, and never saw a Kobra Khan. Ever. of course the stactions that came next were awesome...so silver lining...

3: Terminator Salvation and the Star Trek Playmates line. Pretty much everything has been said about these already, but still, they just crapped out, and continue to at my local TRU.

4: I have a prediction of a future flop. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the new Hobbit action figures are not going to do well. It was a different time for toy stores when Toy Biz's LOTR line came out. I just don't know that it will do well, especially with 2 different scales. The 6 inch lime MAY do well if they look and fit in well with the previous LOTR figures. We shall see.

[wyldman11]

4: I have a prediction of a future flop. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the new Hobbit action figures are not going to do well. It was a different time for toy stores when Toy Biz's LOTR line came out. I just don't know that it will do well, especially with 2 different scales. The 6 inch lime MAY do well if they look and fit in well with the previous LOTR figures. We shall see.

I started a post about these. My K-mart just got them in so we will see. The big problem they have in using with LOTR figures is size. Legolas is as tall as Eowyn to put it in perspective. The Hobbits and dwarves however might be in a better scale.

[Sandman]

I started a post about these. My K-mart just got them in so we will see. The big problem they have in using with LOTR figures is size. Legolas is as tall as Eowyn to put it in perspective. The Hobbits and dwarves however might be in a better scale.

Regardless of whether the line flops or not, there's some very cool and decently articulated fantasy creatures in there. I'm going for the smaller scale figures to complement my superhero ones...

[JonWes]

I REALLY hope the Hobbit figures don't flop. They are very well done, and I want a ton of the 3.75'' ones and at least the main characters from the 6'' line.

[Bonehead]

Cyclonus and Onslaught were out before Animated ended. Scourge is the only in your list that was after that I felt was a good toy. Perceptor was far too complicated to be an enjoyable figure, and the Blurr was a dreadful toy. He was way too bulky and looked nothing like Blurr. Animated did Blurr the way he was supposed to be. Never knew there was a non-Animated Lugnut though. And wasn't Mindwipe just a repaint of a Cybertron toy?

Animated Blurr was horrible. UGH! You're the first person I've heard say Animated Blurr was better than Classics. I was so happy when Shockwave killed him.

RTS Lugnut is hands down one of the best TFs in the last 10 years.

Mindwipe was a ROTF figure but is so awesome that even I, a BAYFORMER hater, loved him.

Perceptor complicated? Sorry if the transformation was too much for you. If it was too simple you'd be complaining about that.


Sounds like you need to catch up on your Tfs.

[gbagok]

It's worth mentioning that Playmates has never done well with Star Trek movie toy lines apart from the one TOS movie line they did in the 90s. However even with that, they blundered by using TMP pajama uniforms instead of the 2-6 uniforms. But the rest of the TNG movies had significant problems, made worse by how much better the regular Star Trek line from Playmates had been.

Generations - they cut back on articulation and used the wrong uniforms on the TNG cast. At least we got Lursa and B'Ehtor out of it, though they were basically statues. The Worf in naval uniform variant was also pretty lame. Would have been nice to get a Demora Sulu figure instead. But at least this line was somewhat compatible with the rest of the Star Trek toys from the 90s.
First Contact - they changed the scale! IMO this was the beginning of the end of Playmates doing right by Star Trek toys. They even still cut back on articulation (Lily and Cochrane were statues), and only made one Borg drone (a strange second one was on card backs, but never in stores). And then even worse, no Borg Queen, Locutus, or borgified Data! Years later they partially fixed this by putting out the queen (and TMP's Illya) in the regular scale of the line, but both again had the statue treatment.
Insurrection - they just gave up on the regular line and made dolls. Someone was probably fired for such a dumb choice. By this time they had fostered such ill will about their Trek movie toys that I'd written them off before the movie even came out (besides, we were all buying Phantom Menace figures then).
Nemesis - Playmates didn't even get the job, although again the scale was wrong and I was sick of being let down by then.

So given the history, Playmates could probably have been counted on to fail with the last Star Trek movie too. Moving to Star Wars scale seemed like a clever idea, but then why make the bigger figures that didn't match anything else? And why make cadet uniform variants that no one wanted (and some weren't even in the movie) instead of all the Star Wars-esque aliens that were in the movie? Sure, nothing can replicate Star Wars in toys, especially not now, but if they wanted to get collectors on board they should have stuck to one scale and made the figures compatible with other lines, either Star Wars or the 90s figures. Also the rubber shirts were rubbish.

[JonWes]

Playmates did make Star Trek Insurrection 4.5'' figures. They were just a part of their generic "Star Trek" packaged line.

[gbagok]

Playmates did make Star Trek Insurrection 4.5'' figures. They were just a part of their generic "Star Trek" packaged line.

I don't remember when the TNG characters in the First Contact and Insurrection uniforms were finally released in 4.5, but they were too little too late, and not very good because they were modified version of the Voyager figures. I remember the Dr. Crusher figure was particularly inferior to her previous figures. Again, just like the Borg Queen, they weren't released as part of the official movie line, so the damage was done. But I didn't think they were nearly as good as previous Playmates efforts in the regular line either.

[Dr Kain]

Animated Blurr was horrible. UGH! You're the first person I've heard say Animated Blurr was better than Classics. I was so happy when Shockwave killed him.

Really? I thought Blurr was the best of the Deluxe Animated figures. He was a very close homage to the original while showing his speed in his design.

And honestly, I am done with TFs.

[Phil.Pastel]

And honestly, I am done with TFs.

Your collection isn't finished if you didn't get this.





Stealth force Optimus Prime with lights, sounds, movie phrases, and pop-out weapons

[JonWes]

I don't remember when the TNG characters in the First Contact and Insurrection uniforms were finally released in 4.5, but they were too little too late, and not very good because they were modified version of the Voyager figures. I remember the Dr. Crusher figure was particularly inferior to her previous figures. Again, just like the Borg Queen, they weren't released as part of the official movie line, so the damage was done. But I didn't think they were nearly as good as previous Playmates efforts in the regular line either.

No arguments there. I do kind of like the Borg Queen figure, though. I had her with my Voyager figures. Some of the few figures I actually still have from those lines. That and Species 84721

[Kowl]

Playmates did make Star Trek Insurrection 4.5'' figures. They were just a part of their generic "Star Trek" packaged line.

Yea, these were all released as Target exclusives and featured the TNG cast in their FC/Insurrection/Nemesis style uniforms. The Beverly Crusher figure ended up being the rarest and only released internationally after Target dropped the line.