Saw this weird KO in the Entertainer the other day

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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Tantrum
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Post by Tantrum »

Ryan F wrote:If there's a toy I like, I will be all over its repaints like a rash. I have all four MP Datsuns and a fifth (blue Bluestreak) will be in my mitts this weekend. Call me a sucker or a sheep or a corporate zombie or Hasbro apologist or whatever, I don't care.

...

To me it's no different to buying lots of Lacoste polo shirts in different colours, the same comic with different covers, or anything else that's essentially the same product with a different look. There are copies of The White Album that go for thousands, based purely on them having specific numbers stamped on the sleeve. Is that mentality so different from paying over the odds for a Combiner Wars Impactor?
With CW, it's not just that were buying the same mold twice. It's that we're not getting very many unique molds. They've announced 24 distinct G1 characters represented by CW Deluxe molds (this does not include G2 versions, TFCC exclusives, Victorion, Alpha Bravo, or Rook). In G1, these characters had 23 molds among them. Now, they have 11, and two of those share legs. Adding the 12 new characters mentioned in parentheses does nothing to increase the mold count.

Of the 7 CW Deluxes I'm thinking of buying (the Combaticons, Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Wheeljack), only Brawl is a new mold. Of the other 6, only Swindle is a significant retool. The other 5 are just new paint jobs and heads. The G1 Datsuns were repaints, so it doesn't feel like we're missing out when the new versions are also repaints. I'd almost certainly buy Prowl and Smokescreen if I didn't own that mold 3 times already.

To use a music analogy, it'd be like the record company saying, "From now on, all copies of the White Album will have extra remixes of 'Back in the USSR' and 'Ob-la-Di, Ob-la-da'. To make room for these new tracks, 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' will be cut."
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

In terms of a gratuitously silly repaint that did work, that Silverbolt in Darkwing looked fantastic, I saw one in the wild at AA and he just looked lovely in every way, much more interesting than that dull ****er Silverbolt.

Actually, as insane as some of them have been, I think every repaint of a Combiner Wars Silverbolt has been more interesting than the original as well. It's just there's so many of them...
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Ryan F
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Post by Ryan F »

Tantrum wrote:With CW, it's not just that were buying the same mold twice. It's that we're not getting very many unique molds. They've announced 24 distinct G1 characters represented by CW Deluxe molds (this does not include G2 versions, TFCC exclusives, Victorion, Alpha Bravo, or Rook). In G1, these characters had 23 molds among them. Now, they have 11, and two of those share legs. Adding the 12 new characters mentioned in parentheses does nothing to increase the mold count.

Of the 7 CW Deluxes I'm thinking of buying (the Combaticons, Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Wheeljack), only Brawl is a new mold. Of the other 6, only Swindle is a significant retool. The other 5 are just new paint jobs and heads. The G1 Datsuns were repaints, so it doesn't feel like we're missing out when the new versions are also repaints. I'd almost certainly buy Prowl and Smokescreen if I didn't own that mold 3 times already.

To use a music analogy, it'd be like the record company saying, "From now on, all copies of the White Album will have extra remixes of 'Back in the USSR' and 'Ob-la-Di, Ob-la-da'. To make room for these new tracks, 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' will be cut."
I think you'll find that Wheeljack has also been retooled quite significantly.

Not so keen on your music analogy; here's a better one: Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells album. Not only has the original version been re-released dozens of times in slightly different packaging and/or catalogue numbers (repaints), we also have some alternative versions, which are similar-but-different (remoulds). The Orchestral Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells 2003, Tubular Bells Quadrophonic Mix, Tubular Bells II, III, The Millennium Bell, the Tubular Beats dance album and so forth. Yeah he's milking that tubular cash cow for all it's worth, but it's nice to have a choice: casual fans can stick with the original, or try a couple more versions, whereas the hardcore fans will get the entire set. Oldfield gets rich on the proceeds, allowing him to experiment with less profitable enterprises such as the excellent but totally non-commercial Amarok album (err, Sky Lynx).
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

Mmm. Despite the extensive mould reuse, the play value of quick transformations doesn't just lend itself to combiners but appealing to a broad age range. I know I'm more likely to pick them up to fiddle with than most modern figures. The fact they aren't particularly cartoony helps as well... digging the more military Hound.

Couple of fun retro commercials produced for Oz making a virtue of the relative simplicity;



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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Its just occurred to me that I can't remember the last time I saw TV commericals for toys. I suppose they're a casualty of multi-channel age and are now just seen on kids TV channels. All we grown ups get are ads for PPI claims and bloody comparrison site adverts. booooring.
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another tf fan
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Post by another tf fan »

Just re-watched the Devastator advert and noticed they parked Mixmaster backwards.

Even Hasbro knows they screwed that design up.
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Prowl1984
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Post by Prowl1984 »

Quite like my Sandstorm but those f***ing massive wheels on his back made him a pain to display with my other figures.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Necro bump due to good old Sandstorm coming up in the interview with Nick Roche on Transmissions Podcast this week. Turns out he actually designed the Sandstorm toy first and Hasbro themselves took it and reverse engineered it into Springer afterwards. So Mr Green is actually the slightly desperate retool. Odd that.
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