The Toys That Nobody Talks About

[Zobovor]

A few weeks ago when the Age of Extinction toys first came out, my store got in these cute, tiny little Rescue Bots dinosaurs. There was a red brachiosaurus named Heatwave and an orange pteranodon called Blades (if I'm not mistaken, these are regular Rescue Bots characters in new forms). They're adorable, and were only $3.97 or something like that, but I have so many toys to take care of already that it's irresponsible for me to adopt more.

There was a time when everybody on the newsgroup would have gotten super-excited over something like this. I mean, people used to go crazy over the McDonald's toys, for crying out loud. I know I'm not the only one who's running out of room to store my collectibles, though (I acquire toys at more or less a steady rate but I very, very rarely get rid of stuff) so maybe more of us are just being selective.

Same deal with the regular Rescue Bots. They've downscaled the toys slightly, and they've got stuff now like Optimus Prime as a monster truck and Bumblebee as a motorcycle and Heatwave as a fairly snazzy-looking fire rescue boat. I don't collect these but there was a time when I was buying the Playskool toys and the Go-Go-GoBots. Nobody else is interesting in these? Really?

Is it just because there's so much product out there now that we can afford to be far more choosy? There was a time when I would have bought nearly anything with a Transformers logo on it just because I was so happy that the merchandise existed. I think it was probably the 2007 film where I completely bailed out; it wasn't hard to pick up an Energon kite here or an Armada digital watch there, but by the time the live action movie hit, it got to the point where there was absolutely no keeping up with all the peripheral merchandising.

I think there's only a single person on the newsgroup who's buying the one-step Age of Extinction toys, and that kind of surprises me a little, too.

So, seriously. What's going on?


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, July 22, 2014 10:43:04 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> A few weeks ago when the Age of Extinction toys first came out, my store got in these cute, tiny little Rescue Bots dinosaurs. There was a red brachiosaurus named Heatwave and an orange pteranodon called Blades (if I'm not mistaken, these are regular Rescue Bots characters in new forms). They're adorable, and were only $3.97 or something like that, but I have so many toys to take care of already that it's irresponsible for me to adopt more.

I made room for them, and they are adorable. I like them way, way better than the Construct-O-Bots (or whatever that line is called), Kreons, Hero Mashers, One-Step, Action-Battlers (or whatever the deluxe scaled toys built around gimmicks are called) and stuff like that.

But there's not much to say about them. They are small and cute. They hold together better than the Generations Legends, with tighter tolerances. But, they aren't characters anyone really cares about.

> There was a time when everybody on the newsgroup would have gotten super-excited over something like this. I mean, people used to go crazy over the McDonald's toys, for crying out loud.

I think I've actually bought McDonald's toys off eBay... For Animated, if I remember correctly. They weren't bad.

> I know I'm not the only one who's running out of room to store my collectibles, though (I acquire toys at more or less a steady rate but I very, very rarely get rid of stuff) so maybe more of us are just being selective.

I will never buy Crosshairs. That toy looks terrible.

There are also so many lines of Transformers related product that I feel like I have to be selective because I just can't buy all of it. And a lot of it just doesn't look good -- Construct-O-Bots, Dinoriders... yich!

> Same deal with the regular Rescue Bots. They've downscaled the toys slightly, and they've got stuff now like Optimus Prime as a monster truck and Bumblebee as a motorcycle and Heatwave as a fairly snazzy-looking fire rescue boat. I don't collect these but there was a time when I was buying the Playskool toys and the Go-Go-GoBots. Nobody else is interesting in these? Really?

The Go-Go-GoBots were really very nice. I need to dig them out and hand them off to a small child.

Optimus as a monster truck just reminds me that I need to get the older Optimus as an Optimus Truck for a friend's kid.

Optimus as a T-Rex... Now that one I kind of want, but I want to see it in person. Is it T-Wrecks worthy? Could it possibly be T-Wrecks, resembling Optimus instead of Megatron?

> Is it just because there's so much product out there now that we can afford to be far more choosy? There was a time when I would have bought nearly anything with a Transformers logo on it just because I was so happy that the merchandise existed.

But... Energon kites.

> I think it was probably the 2007 film where I completely bailed out; it wasn't hard to pick up an Energon kite here or an Armada digital watch there, but by the time the live action movie hit, it got to the point where there was absolutely no keeping up with all the peripheral merchandising.

Oh, you poor man.

> I think there's only a single person on the newsgroup who's buying the one-step Age of Extinction toys, and that kind of surprises me a little, too.

The Japanese toy commercial makes me want to buy one-step Drift. The transformation just looks fun.

But I really, really hated the movie and don't really want more of it in my home. What a shitty movie that was. It commits a sin far worse than being offensive and incomprehensible and filled with Shia La Bouef (hello ROTF!) -- it is boring.

It made Optimus Prime riding a dinosaur boring. Optimus Fucking Prime riding a fucking dinosaur. Boring.

> So, seriously. What's going on?

Gah! Earwormed! But at least earwormed with a classic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

Now I will be up half the night listening to Marvin Gaye. I hope you're happy. I will be.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I saw these on the shelf, and the Rescue Bots show is pretty entertaining. They are all the show characters, which is a litte surprising to see a show with no non-show characters, and until recently we only got the show forms of them.(one of the recent episodes Heatwave does get a fire-boat mode). These are alot of fun to play with in the store, but held off buying them as I have to move in the near future. They seem much better than 3/4ths of the AoE line.

If RID2 sucks I might just continue watching Rescue Bots instead. for a smaller kids show it has some good plots. Why do shows for younger audiences get better writing than the movie?

[Dave Van Domelen]

In article <fd62e6e0-5183-4933...@googlegroups.com>,

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
>Same deal with the regular Rescue Bots. They've downscaled the toys
>slightly, and they've got stuff now like Optimus Prime as a monster
>truck and Bumblebee as a motorcycle and Heatwave as a fairly
>snazzy-looking fire rescue boat. I don't collect these but there was a
>time when I was buying the Playskool toys and the Go-Go-GoBots. Nobody
>else is interesting in these? Really?

I've been posting reviews of the new Rescue Bots stuff (except Optimus
Primal, not $35-worth of interested in that).

Dave Van Domelen, http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/dinoheatwave.JPG and
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/dinoblades.JPG are some repaints of the little
guys

[banzait...@gmail.com]

To me, these are exactly the same as animorphs, of which I own exactly zero. They are intended for toddlers, and have no relevance to the larger universe of transformers. No thanks.

-Banzaitron

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I thought that at first too, but they're better built than many of the flip n change and 1 step toys now.

[Judoon]

Lately I buy very few Transformers. I'm back to school in September, and I
want to get a new lens for my camera for class, and upgrade my Wacom tablet
and my iPad. The little bit of extra money goes to video games and movies.
My wife had been expanding on her tattoos. I did pick up the two little
Dino's to send to my nephew, we have got him started on Rescue Bots. I
haven't bought any where as many of the Generations as I have wanted, but I
do plan on getting Roadbuster an Cybershark. I'd like to get Jetfire, but
if he's going to be over $60, I can happily live with my Classics one. I
will be getting Chroma and Arcee, and the combines are looking good for
next year. The ones I've been enjoying the most are the Generations
Legends, but they are hard to find. Last I got were Cosmos and Swerve, but
I really want to find them all, they are inhabiting Metroplex. My
CyberVerse Prime toys are inhabiting Brave Maximus.


Thaddeus Cultt
--
Damn lying squirrels!