As in you all better do it. Why is there no robot, vehicle, devastator toy? What happened? There is the legend thing which, honestly, isn't bad, but really why is the 99 dollar jerk vehicles and Devastator. It goes against everything the tfs have been for 26 years. Get a real answer...

X

We have a real answer.

The amount of money it would take to develop a Devastator in that size class with robots that each have three modes (robot, vehicle, combination), while still maintaining safety regulations, would make the Devastator toy cost FAR more than $100-- meaning it would not sell. It's amazing that figure's actually being released at all in this economy.

Bitter, much?

You'd think with all the extra information regarding design process that Hasbro has made available to fans in recent years, we wouldn't have to explain basic physics to someone on these boards.

Robot modes would require too many joints and too much mass, making this mythical Perfect Devastator crumble under its own weight. You think RiD Omega Prime is bad? This is three times the bots.

They've given us combining Legends with robot modes for combiner fans, individual Deluxe/Voyager modes to really show off the detail of what you see onscreen, and a gigantic freakin Supreme Devastator to loom over the other toys on your shelf.
What you're asking for is impossible without severely hampering their robot mode style- you'd most probably have to make them Armada-style chunky (or Predaking-simple) to make it work. If they released that, you'd probably just complain that the bot modes look nothing like the movie.

Oh and uh... yeah economy's a pretty good point

OH yeah Physics I hadn't thought of that...Really?

The safety issue makes sense, but I don't believe that the toys would be so flawed that they wouldn't work.

I guess I just expect something more than a zord for 100 dollars. Sorry about that. And given that they made a miniature version that does all three clearly the technical ability is there. As far as jointing goes I have transformers (animated Magnus comes to mind) where I don't think a child could actually physically move the joints because they are that tight.

But this argument has been done before so lets leave it alone. I don't think it's unreasonable for the actual Hasbro team to address it, that's all. And if I missed where Aaron Archer or the other guys talked about it, not some Hasbro sent us an answer thing, then point me to it.

I guess I just don't understand why you would want to know less about a situation than more.

X

Keyword being miniature.



Then why bring it up in the first place?


I don't know if it was Aaron Archer, but it was addressed around Toyfair time. The figure's just too large to incorporate robot modes and keep it within its budget.

If something like what you are asking for (and what I waish was possible) actually existed, the ramifications of awesome would be dire! (Just making him in the movie melted that guy's compy!)

I'd like to know how tall the toy is. Could someone ask (or tell me) that?

Well it was asked and answered, and the world didn't end. Gasp...

As for the why did I bring it up, I wasn't intending to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the "Versions" of him, I wanted to know why the decision was made, not the pros and cons of said decision.

Cons- cost playability fun. So there ya go.

X

So you're saying you wanted to know why the decision was taken , except you actually didn't want to know why?

There are two different discussions here. There is the why is there no triple changer version. ANd there is the what do people feel about that.

I don't care how people feel, there are many threads all across the fandom about it. It's awesome its stoopid, whatever.

I wanted to know from Hasbro, the transformers designers specifically, why it was done in that manner. They answered that.

The people involved directly with the planning and execution answered it.

x

For the people that saw it on display at Botcon, how big was the demolishor that doestn't transform compared to the 20 dollar one that does?

I'm not sure I buy the price thing. Maybe if you kept the size classes (some deluxes, some voyagers), then sure. But if all six parts were deluxes, well... that's still well under $100 (even taking the new price of $12/deluxe). And before you say "well it costs more to make a toy that has vehicle, robot AND combiner mode", I give you the Energon Combiners, who had torsos at regular deluxe price and limbs at regular basic size.

Sounds more like the problem isn't neccessarily price, but price given the limits they put on it (huge hunched figure with parts that are voyagers instead of deluxes).

This figure doesn't have 3 modes because they choose to work with an overcomplicated design and of course placed gimmicks before transformation or looks. However, not only do the toys not transform into robot mode, but the vehicle modes aren't the best. They are very flat, with painted windows and frankly they look like a cheap set you'd find at Walgreens. Very bland. I'll be very interested to see how much this thing can actually pose or do anything outside of stand with its mouth agape as if Megatron just told him he was gay.

The idea that "physics" prevent the toy is nonsense and frankly I'm sure quite insulting to the engineers at TakaraTomy. They simply would've needed to work closely with the movie to actually design something that could work and allow the idea of a huge combiner Transformer to be the gimmick. Hardly an impossible task. They chose otherwise, and while certainly their right, people should be able to own up to it and stop pretending that forces of nature prevented a 3 mode Quasimodostator.

I wouldn't be shocked if the Takara people figure out how to do it and then Hasbro adopts the figure.

The physics aren't trivial. Not to say they couldn't be overcome, but they're not worth nothing either. legham is right, look at Omega Prime. Now figure out how to get 4 additional figures (even if they are smaller) attached with no problems and to still have it be stable and fun.

The miniature version solves the problem in two ways - 1) much much lighter weight, and also 2) much less complexity. If you paid $20 for a Demolishor that only had the same joints and detail as the Legends version but larger, you'd be pretty annoyed.

And if you want to compare to the Energon combiners, let's do that. These toys had big pegs, smaller limbs, even so they too suffered from stability problems (they had to be given extra parts to serve as feet, since toherwise they wouldn't have stood reliably on their own) and also suffered from cost issues (hence why fewer limb variations were produced). And as far as complexity, these were nothing special. They were your standard "scramble-city type" combiners. Devastator is much bigger, much more complex, and much more detailed. Plus, if they didn't do it justice by making it large enough, you know everyone on the boards would be whining about scale.

I'm sure that as a $150-200 set, Hasbro and TakaraTomy could have made Devastator work. But at that price it just wouldn't have been worth it.

Now the only thing that bugs me about all of that good and sound reasoning is the new Leader Prime. 2 years ago, I was damned sure you'd never have been able to get a more realistic and movie-accurate Prime, but here we are. His Transformation sucks, but he's darn close to perfect in both modes and for the same price as the last one. So I dunno.