Which Line has the Best Consistency For You?
 

For this thread, you state which line is the most consistence for you. As in releasing characters you want to see, how many stores gets them, how fast they get them, how often they're stocked, that sort of thing.

For me, it would probably have to be Halo. Toys R Us ALWAYS has Halo, and gets the newest waves right away. They don't skip waves, and they always have a healthy stock.

I'd have to agree there. Halo seems to be poppin

I find that rather odd. I mean MacFarlane is a big company, but not compared to Mattel and Hasbro. I'd honestly think MU would be the thing that every store (or at least Toys R Us) would have no problem staying consistence with.

I disagree. I would think Transformers would be knocking everything out of the water, when it comes to stores keeping up with it. MU is so much more niche, compaired to a big gun, like Transformers.

However, no line that I pay even remotely close attention to gets very consistant attention from retailers.

As for consistancy for putting out characters I want to see:
DCUC has been top dog in my book.
MU, given I only own five figures (And one had to get in a twopack to get the other), I'd say has had terrible track record of putting out characters I want.
Transformers is sort of halfassed. We get super obscure japanese characters like Black Shadow, but no Sludge or Arcee? For that metter, 30 years later, why do we yet to have G1 Arcee, classics or otherwise?
And Hasbro's complete disreguard for Beast Wars and the Dinobots really puts me off. As well as how severely they push Bumblebee and Optimus on us, making other figures and characters really hard to find, and clogging the shelves so retailers won't order more, gets them serious demerits.

So I'd say of everything I collect, DCUC had the best track record.

Touché. Transformers probably would be more consistence than MU.

well my fact is simply no walmart exculsives, target , tru etc and everything should be avaiable everywhere for any figure ! this mostly for ML's figs (me) its annoying that to get something, I need to use ebay or whatever just to get the figure we want unforantley it doesnt work that way cause some companies cant be bothered to ship internationally !!!:( im a UK collector so its painful to get WM exculsive's ML

Well based on your criteria the most consistent line for me would have to be Ben frickin 10,across all scales!!!Those things are absolutely EVERYWHERE here!! Its just too bad i dont collect the damn things!!! So based on my internet shopping...for availability,build quality,accessories,paint apps etc,id have to say the GI Joe line is consistantly best for me.

Yeah same here. Walmart has pegs upon pegs of them. It's annoying how Walmart carries the one thing that next to no one collects.

Masters of the Universe Classics.

The ultimate throwback toyline in my book. A consistantly great-lookin, good quality, mix of classic and obscure characters from a 30 year long franchise. Classic character remakes, cartoon characters, concept characters, and never-before made characters from every era and spinoff.

My local walmart sure doesn't match that. After their last reset, they've practically killed the action figures all together.

The BIG display is for the Avengers. Biggest display in the entire boy toy section. And that's only a few rows wide.
Then there's two rows of the same damned Spiderman figures everyone's had for the last three or four years. Transformers Prime, and one row of Transformers movie, a few rows of Star Wars, maybe three or four individual GI Joes, and two rows of the walmart GI Joe wannabee line.

That's *it.* It's never been more sad to walk through a toy isle. :cry

Tough question, as nothing seems to fit all of that criteria.

It would probably be some kind of tie between Transformers, G.I.Joe, Star Wars, Power Rangers Samurai and Thundercats.

If we're looking at lines I don't collect, then it's one of these: Ben 10, Cars 2 or Toy Story 3.

Can't say I agree with everything here. I would love to see Classics-style versions of Arcee and the rest of the Dinobots. However, G1 Arcee has consistently be avoided since she's a pink robot that turns into a pink car. To the Hasbro execs, boys won't buy it (or make their parents buy it). Hell, Animated Arcee had to be an exclusive to get a release.

As for the Dinobots, I'm hoping that Grimlock's appearance in the FoC game will foreshadow the entire group showing up in the FoC/Generations toy line down the road.

And Sky Shadow was simply a clever way of reusing the Thunderwing mold (since Black Shadow was a re-deco of the G1 Thunderwing mold, anyway). And Thunderwing himself was done specifically because of his appearances in the G1 Marvel and current IDW comics. Sky Shadow did not take the place of any other potential characters. It was a remold/redeco slot anyway. Just be thankful it wasn't another Bumblebee re-deco.

I do question the case ratios that Hasbro comes up with sometimes (especially when they involve Optimus or Bumblebee). I don't know why Optimus needs to be 2-to-a-case in wave two of TFP voyagers, when he was 3-to-a-case in wave 1.

I understand the purpose of repaints. But that doesn't mean they had to choose Black Shadow, and couldn't have gone in other directions, as the mold can work several ways. As for him not taking the place of another character? Where'd that come from? I never accused him of doing so.
That said, I really do get tired of the "Just be thankful it's not..." type of comments.
Why on earth should I be thankful it's one character that doesn't interest me, instead of another character that doesn't interest me? Heck, if this repaint *was* bumblebee, I'd probably be happy with it's utter oddness! lol

I question why Hasbro thinks these two are the supersellers they seem to think they are? There was a short spell at the start of the first movie where they were genuinely under produced (Though I had no trouble finding them). And we've been paying for it ever sense. I've no doubt they're the kid favorites (Bumblebee was the *only* transformer to have a toy available through the entire run of G1, from start to finish. 3 years for the original, two for Goldbug, two for the pretender, and one for the actionmaster), but surely the fact 'bee and prime are the worst shelfwarmers in history, due to their over production should be some sort of clue.
Prime Bumblebee's numbers are just as bad as Prime Prime's. (Goddess I hate they named the series "Prime.")

I would be hard-pressed to find another character that the Generations Thunderwing could have been just by a new head and deco (besides one that they made up just for that toy).

It was implied (maybe unintentionally) by the fact that you said "We get...Black Shadow, but no Sludge or Arcee?"

Because at least with Sky Shadow, it was an homage to another character (obscure, yes, but still G1 canon). Any Bumblebee redeco is still a Bumblebee toy (except for the odd Cliffjumper toy or Con exclusive). And as you pointed out, we're given more than enough of them as it is. So in this particular case, yes I think all TF collectors should be thankful it wasn't another redeco of a Bumblebee toy (like Super Battle Ops Stealth Nightwatch Blazing Allspark Scanning Cyberfire Scout Bumblebee(R) with Mech Tech Auto-Morph(TM)!, for example). I know I am.

I wasn't suggesting that they take the Thunderwing mold and turn it into Bumblebee. But if they had, then that would be pretty cool and a nice change up from what we've gotten the last five years.

I completely agree on what I see as too many Optimus and Bumblebee toys, but apparently they sell better than we think. Otherwise, why would Hasbro keep doing it if they were losing money on it?

True, but the Voyager case was an easier example. Also, I'm not a fan of them referring to the deluxe and voyager assortments as a sub-line called "Robots in Disguise" (although, PRiD versus RiD is less confusing than Prime Prime ;)).

I didn't imply that at all. By saying that I mean that they had enough forsight to designate a spot for a character who's obscure even for hardcore fans, and might would even be too obscure for Botcon, and not find a way to bring about characters that have been consistantly asked for since the original Classics line.
In order to "take a slot" said character would have to be scheduled in the first place, then killed so Black Shadow could take it's place.

As for repaints: Tigerhawk springs to mind immidiately (I mean like, it's perfect. No new head even needed). I actually had a surprisingly sizable list of characters the mold would work for, but lost it with the death of the TCC board.

I know you didn't. That's why I made the joke.

Because they don't tell us everything. I think the brand as a whole, toy wise at least, transformers is struggling. Way worse than Hasbro is letting on. I know botcon is in just a few days and things may change, but Hasbro has almost nothing planned for this year. A handfull of Prime, and a handfull of Generations.

Wait until we get Prime Primal Prime!
Likewise, I also hate reusing the Robots in Disguise branding for Prime. It does a huge dishonor to one of the better eras of the franchise, which is already treated like the redheaded stepchild of Transformers.

IMO the TFP RID have been pretty good, not as good as the FE's but dang close enough to the show.

I'm just gonna say that I have a Transformers Armada Optimus Prime that has lasted me almost a decade. Just felt that was somewhat relevant.

Then I retract my comment regarding it.

I have to disagree. Beast Wars Tigerhawk out of Generations Thunderwing is quite a stretch without some remolding. He would need a different torso, shoulders (even without them being asymmetrical as on his BW toy), and head. Too bad about your list, though. I really would have liked to see some of your other ideas for the mold.

According to Hasbro's 1Q report, so far Transformers is doing about the same as last year, even with it being a non-movie year, so I wouldn't say it's struggling at all. Also, Transformers Prime is a hit at retail (so far). But this is all way off-topic, so just check out the TFW coverage here, if you haven't already.

I almost thought about making a Primal Prime joke in my last post, but thought the "ultimate gimmick Bumblebee" joke was better. ;)

I don't consider it a dishonor to RiD, so much as creating unnecessary confusion between older and younger fans. Then again, you and I have differing opinions on Transformer Prime, so that probably has something to do with it. But that's a topic for another thread.

While Crazy Jetty has his opinion on the TFP show and toys (and he is certainly entitled to it), I respectfully disagree with him. TFP is among my favorite TF series (up there with Animated, Beast Wars, RiD and G1). I just wish they had used a different subtitle for the voyagers/deluxes.

Actually to me it has nothing to do with liking or disliking Prime as a series.
I feel when you take something's name away from it, and give it to something else, you are doing a dishonor to the original, and a disservice to the new.
It's one thing when the lines are completely generic, like Universe. It's another when it's a proper series. I don't like Prime as a whole, but I would feel the same way ten years from now if they recycled the title as a subline for a completely unrelated series then.
I personally don't even understand why they needed to give it a subline heading already.

And with that bit of explaining, I'll stop derailment.

I'm going to ignore some of your qualifications for *consistency. As I have 3 walmarts in my town, none of which carry MU or Joes and have the worst toy depts I have seen. Buy your qualification I would def list Tfs and Starwars. constant assortment and restock and widely available.

But as far as what line has had the best consistency for me? when it comes to selection of characters, accessories, articulation, paint apps the whole nine yards I'd say it has to be Joes.

Marvel Universe, all the way.

Amazing list of characters made so far and more coming out- and they always suprise me with the all the "they'll never make that charcater" figs they made in spite of expectations.
I mean. Captain Britian's first appearance?!? Classic Goliath instead of current Giant Man? 70's look Power Man and Iron Fist?!? A Guardians of the Galaxy box set?!?

Whoever greenlighted those needs a beer on me!

With MU, no character is off the list of potential figs we can have in our collection!

Plus, each wave has better quality than the last- adding articulation or metallic paint apps or whatever.


And variants that are completely different characters instead of just some coloring swap or whatever is a great way to expand the line- kinda adding figures on the side to the announced lineup keeps me interested and searching....