You aren't wrong. Speaking as a fan of the Gobots, there's always that nagging little what-if question: if Tonka had gone to Marvel/Sunbow and Hasbro had gone to Hanna-Barberra for their fiction, which line (if any) would still be around today?
That said, there has been plenty of times over the last several years where I simply don't like the direction the official fiction has gone (live-action movieverse, for example). Sometimes there are official alternatives, sometimes there are not. Either way, I still buy the figures that I like, regardless of the fiction, and clearly there are others who feel the same way. At the end of the day, even the official stories are still works of fiction created To Sell Toys, to be used or ignored as people see fit. Would it be nice to see a strong push of official fiction? Sure, but there's really no guarantee what we get will be something we like, either.
Who says they have to be mutually exclusive? I enjoy a good comic or tv show as much as the next person, and all of that informs how I view the franchise and how I'll continue to view the franchise. And my tastes change. I was all about "this franchise is SERIOUS BUSINESS" back in the mid 2000s, and now I'm far more likely to go "ha! Ratbat had an evil carwash! Awesome!"
So ultimately what matters to me if I like a figure is how I can make it work in my own head as something I enjoy.
I think you're trying to hold a 21st century toyline to 20th century standards. Back in 1984 a blurb on the back of the box and maybe even some pack in material was a huge deal. Maybe you read the comics, maybe you didn't. Maybe you saw the show, maybe you didn't. If you got the toy, though, you've got enough material in (and on) the package to give you a sense of who this character is and how they fit into the larger narrative.
These days everything's streamed or online. You can scan a little symbol on each Legacy box with your phone and it'll take you to the official website where you get the character's tech specs and a small bio.
Between the changing pace of technology (which itself threatens the viability of physical toylines) and economics pushing companies for more economically viable packaging, you're not going to get pages of slick pack-in comics or a complete character card write-up on the box. You need to go online for that, because most kids today are constantly online. And that will likely be a gateway to some game or web series.
tl;dr Hasbro is still putting work in the fiction side of things, but the environment that physical toylines tell stories in is VERY different from where it was twenty years ago, much less forty.
Looks like one of those cases of a design being genericized enough to suit both characters at the same time. Minerva's got Elita's torso and feet instead of her own.
'Twould still be nice to get anything about any of the Deluxe Kingdom Fossilizers as characters, beyond "Paleotrex and Tricranius are male and Wingfinger is a ninja."
The lack of good toy bios is only magnified by the fact there is going to be no Legacy cartoon and the fate of the comics are in limbo for the time being.
We might genuinely get no major fiction for the collectors line for the first time since like thrilling 30? (And even then those characters were integrated into the IDW ongoing)
We might genuinely get no major fiction for the collectors line for the first time since like thrilling 30? (And even then those characters were integrated into the IDW ongoing)
I can just not watch bad fiction that exists. I can't watch good fiction that doesn't exist, and it won't exist if they don't try.
The trajectory from Combiner Wars to Kingdom at least showed improvement.
That's the big one isn't it. I would like new bio/toyline Fiction for Dragstrip or Skids but they have been around for so long I know who they are.
The Kingdom line didn't even offer a clear fictional framework for the Fossilizers as a thing, never mind offering any characterization for any of those Seven new characters.
I want them to be characters. I want the guys who turned into roads and ramps to be. I want Slash to be.
-ZacWilliam, I want new characters like that in Classics and I want them to be characters and add to the universe and lore not just be blank pieces of plastic.
I think the Fossilizers are dead dinos that the Allspark chose to be its guardians and they have very simple minds with the single minded thought of protecting the Allspark from harm!
See...there's just a disconnect with this criticism and me. I'm perfectly willing to take the names and factions we got for those characters and just create something in my own mind for them. They're only blank pieces of plastic if you let them be, after all.
I mean when I was a little kid my obsessions were Transformers, dinosaurs, and Iron Man.
I can dig deep and reconnect with my inner ten year old to come up with a character for a dinosaur skeleton who's also a Transformer.
Now before anyone gets defensive about this, I'm not trying to be critical of you if you want or need more from official sources! I get it! I like the official media too, for G-d's sake, I wouldn't be here if I didn't.
What I'm trying to do, though, is explain why this particular criticism of Hasbro isn't really connecting with me.
Earth Wars did give bios to Slash and Vertebreak.
Slash - Transformers: Earth Wars
wiki.transformersearthwars.com
Vertebreak - Transformers: Earth Wars
wiki.transformersearthwars.com
The Japanese manga for Generations Selects also characterized Slash as a sort of "little sister" type who looks up to her fellow Dinobots with admiration, and who is quite energetic, excitable, and spunky.
I remember when Hasbro released a pdf of bios, tech specks, and short stories to accompany TR's launch. That was the sort of thing that, in the UT days, would have been included on the back of the packing and in a pack-in comic.
But in this age where 1) everyone needs to figure out how to harness kids' addiction to online spaces and 2) material costs continue to rise you're just not going to get something like that today.
The pdf thing for TR was an earnest attempt by Hasbro to tie online spaces into the physical toyline. Now with toys' likenesses appearing in games and packing having QR codes to scan...that process is becoming more streamlined and integrated.
I really hate sounding like a corporate mouthpiece here, but that's just the way this industry is changing. Physical toys aren't what they used to be as more and more kids are perpetually online for their entertainment. Physical toylines will lean into that to adapt.
But in this age where 1) everyone needs to figure out how to harness kids' addiction to online spaces and 2) material costs continue to rise you're just not going to get something like that today.
The pdf thing for TR was an earnest attempt by Hasbro to tie online spaces into the physical toyline. Now with toys' likenesses appearing in games and packing having QR codes to scan...that process is becoming more streamlined and integrated.
I really hate sounding like a corporate mouthpiece here, but that's just the way this industry is changing. Physical toys aren't what they used to be as more and more kids are perpetually online for their entertainment. Physical toylines will lean into that to adapt.
I'm fine with toy bios and fiction being online honestly.
I think it being available on or with every toy is a bit better because then every kid gets it even those who can't or wouldn't bother to look it up online, but that said if they're there to look up online that's an acceptable compromise given modern tech and modern multi-lingual packaging.
That said, I just want it to exist.
The super brief one line-ish bios Legacy has given us so far are basically nothing. Which is more frustrating online than it would be in physical form. They have literally infinite space to write good bios and story and lore if it's online. And we get the equivalent of: "Bumblebee is the Autobots little brother."
i'm not asking for a novel obviously, but look at the online bios they have up for 5 whole series of Botbots, where they all get a great paragraph of personality.
-ZacWilliam, I miss the days of story on the instructions of toys, or even that comic pamphlet from the start of Titans return and the story bits for its multipacks. That stuff would be great to get even online.
I think it being available on or with every toy is a bit better because then every kid gets it even those who can't or wouldn't bother to look it up online, but that said if they're there to look up online that's an acceptable compromise given modern tech and modern multi-lingual packaging.
That said, I just want it to exist.
The super brief one line-ish bios Legacy has given us so far are basically nothing. Which is more frustrating online than it would be in physical form. They have literally infinite space to write good bios and story and lore if it's online. And we get the equivalent of: "Bumblebee is the Autobots little brother."
i'm not asking for a novel obviously, but look at the online bios they have up for 5 whole series of Botbots, where they all get a great paragraph of personality.
-ZacWilliam, I miss the days of story on the instructions of toys, or even that comic pamphlet from the start of Titans return and the story bits for its multipacks. That stuff would be great to get even online.
Something like the pack-in serial from the Beast Hunters line would be amazing again
It's times like this that part of me misses the "plug new product" approach that so much of Marvel's G1 was built around. Like, just something like that again, alongside something a little deeper and less beholden would be a fantastic one-two punch to me of characterization of current toys and, well, I don't want to say better storytelling, necessarily (much love for Marvel G1, even still), but storytelling that is not beholden to who's currently on shelves.
As a point of reference, Knock Out was a major character in the same miniseries, and his design is clearly based on his Legacy toy.
Personal canon is all well and good, but I can't watch it with my girlfriend.
Transformers fiction lost a part of its essence when it stopped having a horde of character models line up and namedrop themselves in with a notable selling point and personality quirk in a single panel.
