>>10547848>07' Prowl deluxe retailed for 13$ (18$ today)It was 08. You're inflation calculations were almost dead on despite having the right year though, so I'm guessing you just typoed.
But a LOT of people forget something VERY i important about that era.
in 07, the min wage went up for the first time in a decade, by 70cents
then the following year it went up again by another 70.
Then the following year, we saw another 70 cent increase.
So in a 3 year timespan, min wage increased by about 40%.
So what happened after that? Hasbro made transformers prime
the toys became ridiculosly thin and tiny to stay in the price point.
Basically, 08 was probably the year that the labor budget for a figure was the smallest (as a ratio) it had ever been. Which meant you could do more.
Now, for other reason than min wage law, the wages have hiked significantly (inflation in combination with workers being hard to find) and we're seeing some of the same stuff.
Shrinking figures, sometimes even less paint and articulation
