Popularity of recent lines?

[Bogatan]

Discussion of the potential value of current transformers in the future got me thinking about my car boot purchases and if that is any indication of long term desirability.

On ebay almost any classic/uni figure will out price an animated or movie toy of similar price and release date so at least from a collectors view classics are favoured and the first line of classics and most of the Universe line now sell for more (loose or sealed) than their original rrp.

Over the last 2 years or so I have had rather a lot of success at finding Transformers at car boot sales in my local area. And a clear pattern has emerged of the three lines available in that time Animated and Movie turn up in some fashion almost every week. Classics etc don't.

The way I see it the two ends of the sprectrum that explain this are

1. Classics sells many times fewer toys than either the movie or animated lines.

2. Kids are getting bored of the new styled Transformers more quickly than the traditional classic style and choose to get rid sooner.

SWTF also turn up far more often than classics.

So are classics more expensive now because they did sell so few originally? If so why is Animated over but Genrations just starting?

If Classics are more popular why with generation and PCC has Hasbro shifted the design towards semi movie stylings.

I know the answer is somewhere in the middle of the options but it's just something I can't quite get my head around.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Generations doesn't really have the Movie styling but HFTD does, albeit like PCC with the movie influence turned down a bit.

[Bogatan]

Straxus, Drift and the WFC Prime and Bee to me are all leaning towards movie styling at least in comparison to Classic Prime, Bee, Megatron and Rodimus.

Andy

[blueshift]

SWTF turn up often but in my experience, that is because they are usually trashed to hell. Odd because they are more expensive figures so you'd hope kids would take more care of them!

I've never seen any Generations / Classics figure at a car boot. I'd put it down to the line being far less popular with the kids - lack of gimmicks and any supporting media, plus the higher price. Classics/Generations figures are also a bit more solid than Animated/Movie toys - more pin/swivel joints and less balljoints for bits to ping off and get lost, leading exasperated parents to shove it in the 'car boot' box.

I think Animated is over because of the more unique design style. It did well, but not as well as Hasbro wanted, so they've shifted to a more classic style again. I'm almost positive if Animated had a more traditional style we'd still be seeing figures being made, since hey, why not!

I never really got the idea that Generations are movie style to be honest. None of them have weird monkey-arms, spikes everywhere or horrible monster faces!

[Philip Ayres]

The faces are the real key for me and even HFTD is moving away from the bay faces.

[The Doctor]

Yeah, it's the faces. Transformers have a certain asthetic to the faces. A lot of the Movie toys don't look like Transformers to me because of the faces.

-Ralph

[Nigel]

I used to buy a lot of Transformers from car boot sales. Before Beast Wars, at least half of my collection were from boot sales or other second hand sources. At some point, I realised that the typical time from the toy's release to my finding it on the car boot sales was four years. Now, it seems to be typically 2-3 years. This summer, I have seen Movie, Animated, Robot Heroes and Star Wars at the boot sales. If you look at eBay, it's not unusual to see one-year-old toys.

Something this suggests to me is that children value their Transformers less now than children in the past, keeping them or playing with them for a shorter period. Of course, there may be various reasons for this - competition from video games, more intensive media pushes for new brands, children "growing up quicker", greater disposable incomes, the "throwaway society", etc.

Another thing that I see now at car boot sales is a higher number of Transformers with missing limbs or other parts. Whether this is a reflection of the (lack of) value placed on them or of the way they're made is hard to say.

[The Doctor]

I always got quite upset if I toy I had as a kid broke. I knew my parents worked hard to get them for me so I felt terrible if one broke.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

I think thats just the nature of ball jointed figures. #Especially when so many are hard to transform for an adult without limbs popping off. Kids just leave them that way it seems. I suppose when looking for things to take to a car boot sale the seemingly broken toys are first in the box. As Blueshift said the classics generally have fewer ball joints or at least fewer ball joints prone to popping.

At the moment I'd say retai lto car boot is under 2 years. Often under 6 months. Giant ROTF Devastator, MP Skywarp, ROTF Superion, Supreme Movie BB, MIB Uni Powerglide, Supreme Animated Prime, Captain America and numerous smaller figures have been snapped up by me in the last year or so all while still available in the shops.

The faces are the main movie identifier and yeah Generations isn't much like that, but even the movie toys before HFTD were toning down. And generations (at least some parts of the line are leaning on the same direction as HFTDs.

But I wasn't really meaning the faces more the body types. Classics was mostly big chuncky shapes and flat surfaces, somewhat in the style of the animation models. Generations has much more intricate parts more along the lines of the very mechy movie toys. To me Bludgeon, Mindwipe/Dreadwind, Seaspray, Straxus, WFC Prime, Megs and Bee and a few of the PCC figures barring gimmicks could be put in to any of the current lines and not look out of place. 2 years ago you couldn't have done that.

Andy