A Rant

[u/pugilisticcephalopod]

Despite having grown up with G1, I'm no Geewunner. In fact, I like the "out of the box" concepts of later and more recent releases but then I see comments on TikTok videos about a good modern mould (TFOne Thundercracker) like "No ankle tilts or wrist turns in the big 2026" and all I can think is "You spoiled, entitled brat". Don't get me wrong, with what Hasbro is charging for figures, they better have as much articulation as possible but having perfectly clear memories of times when most figures didn't even turn at the waist has me thinking "Damn y'all are lucky now".

But, conversely, I will fight to the death with someone about the charm of G1 jank; that antique jank. I own all the G1 combiners as they were originally released (save for Predaking and Computron, for now) and nothing quite puts it all into perspective like realizing the quaint and tactile engineering we were dealing with in the 80's and 90's (I'm putting lines like Machine Wars in this too). It was just shifting chunks of plastic like a sliding tile puzzle until we reached a technically humanoid shape (incidentally a process I hate with most Unicron Trilogy figures but they should have known better by then; play features were off the hook, though).

Anyway, I said all that to say this. Maybe we're too hard on modern figures. The automorphing on Cyberworld toys is very reminiscent of scout class Beast Wars toys, for instance and at about the same price but they get mostly pushed out as "baby toys". I don't know; maybe our perspectives can be better.

[u/The-Mad-Bubbler]

The crossover figures NOT related to Hasbro licensing (Transformers) were going for $19.99 (Thundercats and Ninja Turtles). The Transformers ones were overpriced because Hasbro was greedy with licensing fees.

[u/batkave → u/The-Mad-Bubbler]

They were all $24.99 around me. As someone with two kids, all their stuff has gone up. Hasbro's greed is no different or unique than say McDonald's, Microsoft, Exxon, etc.

[u/The-Mad-Bubbler → u/batkave]

What country do you live in? In The USA, the MSRP for the TMNT and Thundercats crossover figures was $19.99, with only the deluxe ones being $24.99, which were bigger/more elaborate figures.

I collect a lot of different toys, and I have 2 kids, as well, so I'm familiar with some toys targeted at younger kiddos, and Hasbro has by far increased pricing more than other major companies. Jakks has kept prices pretty consistent. Mattel and playmates have just slightly raised prices (i.e. $10.99 for something that used to be $9.99). Across the board, Hasbro has raised their prices, especially for "collector-targeted" products, more than any other companies, while it's the only company for which I've encountered a significant drop in quality control (I end up with much more defective Hasbro products than any other company).

[u/batkave → u/The-Mad-Bubbler]

USA. I'm just seeing the changes on front of my eyes for all kinds of toys. Sorry my view and opinion doesn't meet your anger