User:SlimerJoel/Sandbox:Size class
| "Deluxe" redirects here. For the two-member subgroup from Generation 1, see Deluxe Vehicle. |
| "Voyager" redirects here. For the human probe carrying the Golden Disk, see Voyager spacecraft. |
Transformers come in all shapes and sizes and naturally, so do their toys. Size classes allow for Hasbro to organize and structure their Transformers toy lines to better fit retail store space, cover a wide variety of price points, and to better represent their characters.
Size classes are a long-standing staple of the Transformers franchise with almost every major incarnation (barring Generation 1 and Generation 2) incorporating them into their product lines.
Design
The logic behind size classes is simple: retailers can order a case of toys, knowing exactly how much they will sell for and exactly how much shelf space they will occupy. All the Deluxe Class figures in a line will come in the same packaging and sell for the same price. When you run out of Deluxes, you order a new case and put them in the empty spot on the shelf where the last assortment sat.
Each size class correlates to a specific price point. While not all prices reflect Hasbro's suggested retail price, they do suggest the rough value one can expect to pay. A $10 price point toy may retail for $9.76 at Wal-Mart while being $10.99 at Toys-R-Us and $7.99 on sale at Target. While it varies by toy line, most of the smaller price point size classes are generally geared more towards the casual collector or allowance-having kid, allowing them to build up a collection of characters they like for a fraction of the price the more standard sizes ask for.
The intended class of a toy is relevant to all phases of its design process. To sell at a given price, there are tight formulas for how much plastic can be used, how many paint applications are allowed, whether electronics can be included, and how complex the transformation and articulation can be. Further, since a size class is literally a size class; toys are limited in their measurements, so that they will fit into the same size packaging as other toys in their class. As an example, the Animated Voyager Lugnut toy, in robot mode, is very short compared to other toys in his class. This may be because he transforms into a mostly-linear plane, with his weapon added on as a tail assembly, making him even longer. Regardless of whether there was room in the budget for more plastic, there may not have been room in a Voyager-sized box for him to be any bigger.
Size classes can also account for an internal sense of scale. Larger characters like Omega Supreme will be released in larger and pricier size classes than characters like Bumblebee who will be on the smaller and cheaper end. However, certain characters can be released in size classes out of their normal scaled depictions in media, such as the Roll-Out Command Animated Optimus Prime, a figure woefully out of scale with pretty much everything else in the toy line. These oversized figures tend to be more on the gimmicky side, intended for younger kids who don't care that Optimus Prime towers over their other action figures when he can swing his axe, light-up, and auto-transform.
History
Generation 1
The original Transformers toy line did not feature specific size classes as we know them today. Instead, characters came in a wide variety of assortments that were featured at specific price points released in . For example, characters like Ironhide, Wheeljack, and Trailbreaker were all different yet similarly scaled toys with varying amounts of accessories and complexity between them, yet all sold within the same price point. Some assortments were only of a certain faction (Autobot Cars and Decepticon Planes) while others were mixed between each other (the 1986 Triple Changers). The lack of proper size classes and relatively scattered nature of the Generation 1 toyline can be attributed to it's initial origin as an assortment of imported molds from various Japanese toy lines, although starting in 1986, Hasbro would begin producing their own molds that would more-or-less follow the relative sizes of the original 1984/1985 assortments. This is the reason characters like Soundwave who transform into ordinary hand-held items tower over ones like Prowl who transform into vehicles.
Generation 2
The relaunch of the Transformers brand in the 1990's saw Hasbro transition from assortments focused specifically on character functions to ones branded according to the toy's specific gimmick. Though much of Generation 2's initial assortments consisted of Generation 1 molds with tweaked decos and new accessories, much of the later releases in the line were all-new molds with an enhanced focus on gimmicks.
