Awful toys

I was thinking back on the 2011 toys and I must say the vehicles Bandai made were truly awful in almost every way.

the small vehicles had no real play value.

The biggest let down of the full line though would have to go to the Thundertank.
First off it was undersized. Now for a toy that is made to fit 4" figures this should not be the case.
My biggest problem with it though is that it is so badly designed it makes no sense.
Oddly designed ****pit that barely seats one figure when it should have fitted 2x comfortably at least.
Undersized storage compartment in the back. In fact the large back area of the vehicle was negative space. It really should have a had a bigger storage/seating compartment.
The pod shooting gimmick was pointless, considering the pods that came with it could not hold the figures and pod bikes that attach to it are too big for it. Maybe the tank was design for the separate pod bikes then reduced down in size to be more cost effective?
The biggest fault with it is it just plain wasn't fun for children to play with.
This should have been the flag ship toy of the line everyone wanted for their figures but it was just a mess.

I was disappointed with the whole line. It was sad they took the proud name ThunderCats and made it up to look like some anime garbage. Within two weeks most of it was on clearance where I live and they still couldn't sell it. Snarf looked like some pokemon reject, and don't get me started on the figures, sad all around.

"rocklord74, post: 95166" said:

I was disappointed with the whole line. It was sad they took the proud name ThunderCats and made it up to look like some anime garbage. Within two weeks most of it was on clearance where I live and they still couldn't sell it. Snarf looked like some pokemon reject, and don't get me started on the figures, sad all around.

I agree. I like some anime. But if you are going to do anime at least try and do it good. Thundercats as anime just didn't work.
Snarf was awful and did look like a Pokémon reject.
Yeah I remember the Thundertank was like £30-40 when it came out and last time I seen it in a shop it was on sale for £8...same with the Tower of Omens. In fact the tower was the worst overall toy.

I actually like the figures, but as much as I hate to admit it the Thundertank and Tower were disappointing. My daughter would rather try to fit the 4" figures into my old GI Joe vehicles than use the Thundertank and the Tower falls apart whenever we do attempt to play with it (good thing I bought them both for close to nothing). I still am tempted to get the Stormcharger if I can find it cheap, but I know not to expect much.

The Stormcharger is one vehicle I never knew much about as I lost a lot of interest at the time it was coming out.

If you want a good G.I. Joe vehicle to use as a Thundertank you should try and get an 'Ice Sabre'. It's pretty much superior to the Thundertank in every way.
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/04/icesabre/

"Mark M, post: 95192" said:

The Stormcharger is one vehicle I never knew much about as I lost a lot of interest at the time it was coming out.

If you want a good G.I. Joe vehicle to use as a Thundertank you should try and get an 'Ice Sabre'. It's pretty much superior to the Thundertank in every way.
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/04/icesabre/

Ya, that looks like it would work quite well.

Here is what we have been using:
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/88/tigercat/
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/89/stun/
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/91/battlewagon/

I loved the line, and cartoon. Unfortunately they were over priced and the promotion of the cartoon was poor.

"adssse, post: 95202" said:

Ya, that looks like it would work quite well.

Here is what we have been using:
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/88/tigercat/
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/89/stun/
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/91/battlewagon/

Using the Tigercat is very appropriate for Thundercats. :D
Merged Post:

"starrcade89, post: 95210" said:

I loved the line, and cartoon. Unfortunately they were over priced and the promotion of the cartoon was poor.

There was a couple nice pieces from the line but not many. Grune was probably my favourite of the 4" line. The Thunderlynx magnetic gimmick was a real waste though.

The figures looked like happy meal toys. The bigger ones looked so cheaply made also.

"Bengali, post: 96911" said:

The figures looked like happy meal toys. The bigger ones looked so cheaply made also.

I agree....except I think some happy meals toys are actually better designed and made than the stuff Bandai produced. ;)

Speaking in 'awful toys' and 'Happy Meal', have you ever saw the McDonald's ThunderCats 2011 line released in Brazil ?

Sorry if there is a thread for that but I remember that awful line....:eek:

For me, the figures are really cool, but the vehicles are bad. The Thundertank is too small, and some pieces fall apart.

The Tower of Omen, i just purchased for the exclusive tygra, just that. It doesn´t have play value, it is boring... not that i´m going to play with it at this age, ha ha ha!

I really like the figures as well. As you said the Thundertank and especially the Tower are a bit disappointing. I bought the Storm Charger to check out as that appears pretty cool!

while I'm not really a toy collector, i have to agree that the 2011 line were rather disappointing. It's rather surprising too given the advancement in toy making. In comparison, just look at the toys of the DC and Marvel line. Those are incredible.

"catgurl, post: 97311" said:

while I'm not really a toy collector, i have to agree that the 2011 line were rather disappointing. It's rather surprising too given the advancement in toy making. In comparison, just look at the toys of the DC and Marvel line. Those are incredible.

Exactly. They could not compete with the other toys on the market. In fact I don't think they could even compete with toys from the early 90's LOL.

"Mark M, post: 95165" said:

I was thinking back on the 2011 toys and I must say the vehicles Bandai made were truly awful in almost every way.

the small vehicles had no real play value.

The biggest let down of the full line though would have to go to the Thundertank.
First off it was undersized. Now for a toy that is made to fit 4" figures this should not be the case.
My biggest problem with it though is that it is so badly designed it makes no sense.

In all fairness the OS tank wasn't much better, Like Panthro, who was supposed to be the driver of the thing could only fit in the gunner seat, while Lion-O drove. And noone could fit in it at all with the hatch down!

I got mine as a present to cheer me up when my hamster died, and the second I got it out of the box, I managed to snap the raised position. So I had to take it back to Woolworths and swapped it for a Matchbox garage as they didn't have any more in :(

"Guru Larry, post: 97475" said:

In all fairness the OS tank wasn't much better, Like Panthro, who was supposed to be the driver of the thing could only fit in the gunner seat, while Lion-O drove. And noone could fit in it at all with the hatch down!

I got mine as a present to cheer me up when my hamster died, and the second I got it out of the box, I managed to snap the raised position. So I had to take it back to Woolworths and swapped it for a Matchbox garage as they didn't have any more in :(

I also got my OS Thundertank in Woolworths. Quality and design wise it is better than the MS one but the OS one had it's faults as well. As you said the seating problems, the mechanism breaking and the treads falling off. Some of the back wheels also broke off and parts of the canopy doors.

"Mark M, post: 97482" said:

I also got my OS Thundertank in Woolworths. Quality and design wise it is better than the MS one but the OS one had it's faults as well. As you said the seating problems, the mechanism breaking and the treads falling off. Some of the back wheels also broke off and parts of the canopy doors.

Lol, I never got that far to experiences those breakages.

But toys of that size do need to be a little more rugged.

I had the mutants fist pounding vehicle (forgotten the name) that was really well built. One of the fists would occasionally come off, but that was about it from my childhood...

"Guru Larry, post: 97488" said:

Lol, I never got that far to experiences those breakages.

But toys of that size do need to be a little more rugged.

I had the mutants fist pounding vehicle (forgotten the name) that was really well built. One of the fists would occasionally come off, but that was about it from my childhood...

Yes the bigger vehicles do need to be a lot more rugged.

I owned quite a few G.I. Joe vehicles and they were pretty fragile,
and they were basically just shells with no gimmick features, and they broke quite easily. The small antennas etc.

I also had the Fist Pounder and it was really well built and took a lot of play. As did the Horrible Hammer from 'Infaceables'. The vehicle is a very similar concept.

Of all the vehicles for larger scale action figures that I owned the most durable would be:
Astro-Sub (He-Man)
Terrorclaw (He-Man)
Fist Pounder (Thundercats)
Stratocoach (Bravestarr)
Turbo Cycle (Secret Wars) (*first action figure vehicle I ever got)