by Beedo Sookcool » Mon Jun 29, 2015 6:55 pm
Thank 'e, mate!
Yeah, the earlier figures had extra little touches, like Tri-Klops' throwing knives, alternate heads, Scare Glow's reliquary, and suchlike. Nowadays, it seems the budgeting is so tight, they can only just about do straight-up updates of the vintage stuff, with little to no room left for neat little extras.
And I know what you mean about burnout. I hit my Star Wars burnout early last year. I've only ordered a few select pieces this year, and that's it. I've had fewer Star Wars figures on order this whole year than I used to get in one monthly shipment from BBTS in previous years. Still, 1995 to 2014: that's not a bad run for as-near-to-completism-as-I-could-get. I think it was the Disney build-a-droid figures that broke me. Exclusives bug me. Convention Exclusives REALLY bug me. Theme Park Exclusives? Hand me my blunderbuss.
I think I'm also about to hit my TransFormers burnout point. I still get the occasional figure, and now I'm into the IDW comics, but Combiner Wars hit . . . and far too late. If they'd done that four years ago, I would've been totally on board. But they kept doing endless versions of The Big Four with not many new characters, and after their previous suck-job Combiner attempts, I got into the expensive 3rd- Party stuff because I thought they'd never get around to doing it properly. And now, FINALLY, they're doing decent official combiners, and I just can't be bothered. Make a Rung and an Overlord, and we'll see. But for now, I think I'm down to my Soundwave focus.
I hit my G.I. Joe burnout with the SDCC that gave us Zarana and Jinx. I was able to get a Zarana, but not a Jinx. And then they started making lots of key characters from our childhood as sub-only or convention-exclusive figures. They effectively killed their own brand by making it inaccessible. Bugger 'em. I still want -- no, need -- a re-issued original version of the Night Raven S3P, though! Get cracking, Hasbro!
I'm starting to feel less enthusiastic about MOTUC these days, but I think that's largely down to the fact that I know what's coming. I know what to expect. However well-sculpted and detailed and painted it might turn out, I pretty much know what's supposed to be coming out until the end of the year. Part of the fun of years gone by (for me, anyway) is that we'd get blindsided by stuff from all eras, characters who had never gotten figures before, stuff we'd thought would never get made, and all kinds of surprises that just kept building up the brand into one huge all-encompassing barrel of awesomeness. But now, I'm just crossing names off a list I've known about since the late 1980s. Also, I know we're coming to the end of MOTUC, and it's a bit of a downer. It was the last brand I collected passionately.
Now, if they have some teases for a 2016 sub, that would certainly reignite my interest! There are still over 100 characters in my "personal roadmap" that I'd like to see turned into action figures, and that's not counting mounts, vehicles, and playsets. Tell me Kothos, Dragoon, General Sunder, Hunga the Harpy, Sortech, Roboto 2.0, Lizorr, Crita, Sagitar, Karg, Mini-Comics Trap-Jaw, Glob, Horde Brain Monster, or Slime Pit are in the works, and I'll sub up ASAP.
But, if MOTUC-like MOTU is coming to an end, I'll leave it at that and be happy for what I have, but a little sad at what might have been. I don't want smaller figures and/or reduced articulation. I certainly don't want the new comic book designs or the "concept" designs at the end of the new art book. But if that's the direction it's going to take, I've got better uses for my money.
Time will tell, eh?
". . . cross me, and you'll soon discover that beneath this playful, boyish exterior beats the heart of a ruthless, sadistic maniac."
- Lord Edmund Blackadder, from Blackadder II