/toy/ - Toys and Collectibles

These are hard as hell to find mint because they were made on the cheap. The main gimmick was bodies that flew apart, relying on very tiny metal prongs in the torso that broke very easily(and were possibly not treated so they would rust on contact with air- I woudldn't be surprised if MOSC copies have had their prongs degrade) while the limbs had shoddy pegs with ends that snapped off under low pressure- less than the toys would often go through when being played with.

The lesser gimmicked ones that didn't fall apart fared better as did non-gimmicked figures. It's a line that could use a redo, or even just reissues, but they would need a massive design overhaul & better QC which isn't happening because toy company budgets are less now than ever before. We'd get no-gimmick figures at best... and with Tyco long gone &the crash dummy safety campaign having vanished decades ago, I doubt it. The last relaunch of these were a unrelated reboot that didn't catch on.

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>>432
Thanks anon for that info! I never knew this line had diecast which is quite impressive for an action figure line after the 80's. 

>but they would need a massive design overhaul & better QC which isn't happening because toy company budgets are less now than ever before
While there's truth for that mostly in shitty Hasbro and Mattel case , I think there are still quite few toy companies that actually high budgets for their toys such as MGA, Playmobil, Playmates toys (the new Miraculous Ladybug dolls look great), Panda Mony, etc. QC issues however are much more prevalent problem and I'm not sure it just due to smaller budget. 

>Tyco long gone
Another Hasbro/Mattel victim 

>the crash dummy safety campaign having vanished decades ago, I doubt it
>The last relaunch of these were a unrelated reboot that didn't catch on
You can always trust Mattel/Hasbro to either fuck up or hold onto the copyrights without doing anything, of  the toy franchises they got from different toy companies they swallowed through the years.

Speaking of crash test dummy figures, there's highly articulated one by Dam Toys and new Playmobil clicky in the blind bag Figures line or as part of big set from the new upcoming Stunt Show theme.

>>435
>diecast
No, you misread, they didn't have any proper diecast metal body parts(that I'm aware of, I had a lot of the toys but not 100% of them). The inner clips for the pop-off limbs were metal pins, about the thickness of sewing needles that pinched the limb pegs using small springs. They broke easily when the toys were still current, and I would imagine age hasn't been kind to those thin prongs.

Test dummies are still in use, of course, they just don't get any of the TV ad time that they used to.

The final line had the "junkbots" villains which were fairly decent and some of them came packed with a CGI animated episode on VHS. It was very basic mid-90s CGI so it didn't really look good even when they released it.

BTW Vince & Larry from the original TV ads did get toys in the line, they were a bit hard to find though, even though they were just easy recolors of the main body. There were also console video games that were... not really that good. They were LJN releases.

>>438
My bad. BTW do you own any of them? I would expect that, seeing how knowledgeable you're about this toyline which is quite impressive.

>>443
I owned them when they were released, but not anymore. The basic "Vince & Larry" body flew apart and the limbs could be further separated. There were a lot of other specialty bodies with their own gimmicks, several vehicles and a large playset.

The second series had the "Junkbot" villains and a lot of the cast repainted in "Transformers G2" colors as some sort of body armor gimmick. There were 4 villains with a repaint of the leader that had a VHS tape packed with it and a couple smaller vehicles for them.

I'm not sure why the line died, the poor QC(in addition to the weak prongs, some of the plastic was a bit below standard, which for a line meant to be slammed into things as a play pattern, was kind of a bad idea), could have been a factor but the safety board that owned the property seemed to lose interest in continuing it, I would guess because the brand leaned hard into the play gimmick of crashing vehicles and didn't promote the safety aspect they wanted. The later series tried to revive it but it didn't work out, they didn't sell well and none of the original characters came back.

>>444
Oh, so they were your childhood toys? Neat! 
>I'm not sure why the line died
Most toylines die rather quickly after 1-3 waves,  including  great ones such as Sectaurs, Bone Age, Blackstar, etc. We got this wrong perception from toylines such as MLP, TF and Barbie that toylines should last forever, but in fact continuous death and replacement of toylines is what kept the toy market healthy and creative.