Hierophant wrote:Not bashing on anyone here (honest!) but I always had a glee when people complained about Tak's breakdown being fragile when the figure itself is purely catered for a different audience in a different country. I'd say them asians have quite good hands, able to pose and transform the figure well unlike us having a problem one after another
On a flipside though, I would consider (read: speculation) that Tak's take on Breakdown's fragile plastic is their answer to uhm, prices of plastics nowadays. unlike hasbro which retains overall sturdiness but simpler transformation and size with their figures (FoC vs WFC?) while Tak prolly goes on the alternative route to retain the same size and transformation complexity, all the while reducing the mass as a whole. Now when I look at it, it's pretty much explains why Breakdown is lighter than previous line figures all the while on par with FE's level of transformation.
If Tak's route is truly that (same complexity, but thinner plastic in return) is their answer, I know it won't bode well with many people, but for me that's fine and I'm all for it. It teaches me to be more careful with my collection
And guys, in the end of the day, it's the brand/figure that we all know and love. If you guys buy it with flaws and everything but still happy at the end, it's cool! Cheers all~
I agree that many Japanese market toys tend to be more fragile (Gundam anyone?), but Hasbro is getting cheap/thin with their plastics too. I've had plenty of Hasbro figures fall apart or straight up crack/break (or be broken inside the packaging!).
On both sides, for both companies, I believe it's a matter of dealing with the bottom line, whether it's the price of plastics, the cost of labor, or a simple reaction to inflation or anything else is anyone's guess, but the reality is, toys are made cheaper now than they once were and it's only getting worse at this point.
Parents don't want to buy toys that cost more, regardless of how well they're made, how big they are, or how much paint they have on them, so whatever is driving up the cost of production/distribution/whatever on Has/Tak's end will drive up the prices and drive down the quality.
It sucks, and it's the very reason I keep praying that Takara will see the light and start doing with the rest of the lines what they've done with the MP/Alternators/Alternity/Binaltech lines: start creating figures and lines targeted directly at collectors. They did that somewhat with both Henkei and United, but as long as they're using the same molds as Hasbro, the toys will still suffer from the same cut corners that exist in the molds themselves from the engineering stages, be that thin plastic, cheats in transformation or whatever else that can't be solved by injecting molds with sturdier plastics/different colored (more accurate ) colored plastics, or applying more/better/more accurate paint.