>>8504031>I think the biggest problem with Transformers is that there are too many characters. Everyone has some C or Z-lister bot they want redoneSiege and Earthrise haven't even scratched the surface of the cast though. If you're not counting micro/battlemasters, we got 30ish characters counting repaints/retools. If you only count new molds, it's around 20. One more year could have gone a long way in giving a good mix of recognizable characters they missed alongside a handful of obscure fan favorites. Same with Earthrise, which kind of blueballed some characters like Hound, Sideswipe, and Mirage who now have updated figures that can't fit into Earth mode collections. Plus, with making each line go longer, it would space out characters who did get both modes and not feel like such a fuck you to folks who bought in for both but only REALLY wanted one. Obviously you're still not going to please everyone because there's a fuckton of characters but it would at least let them cover all of the most recognizable names as well as spotlight a few more obscure ones. Kingdom would be where an extra year could really shine since the number of A-listers for BW is pretty small. You could get a lot of the fun obscure toy only characters done with an extra year.
>and by the time they get around to it, it's outdated or plagued by a dumb gimmickIf we were still in the CW/TR/PotP era, I'd agree with you because just about everything from those lines felt half baked with mediocre articulation, boring 5 step transformations, trash plastic, awful QC, and gimmicks that both got in the way while also managing to do nothing fun (though admittedly CW gimmick was pretty fun but was held back by the other issues). The WFC trilogy actually did quite a lot to improve with more interesting engineering and articulation upgrades like waist swivels and ankle rockers across the board. The main gimmick of the trilogy isn't even that intrusive and boils down to having a bunch of 5mm ports.
