If you want really high quality there’s even nicer german brands (Siku), with rubber wheels and all.
All made in China though :/
These days as I'm older and collect more sparingly, I prefer quality over quantity and the price evens out.
But if you're just buying for kids to have a ton of cars then hot wheels are probably still the option.
Came here to say the same thing, and the trend was even noticeable in the 90s. I can't even imagine how flimsy they must be now -- probably even worse than a 90s cereal box prize car.
You have to buy the collector-targeted stuff, though. The current line is called Legacy. If you are willing to pay, the Masterpiece line is also excellent, and there are fantastic third-party transformers as well: these have lots of metal, ratcheting joints, complex transformations, and usually cost over $100, up to $300. I will plug https://tfsource.com/
Avoid the kiddie-oriented lines (Cyberverse) and the mass-market lines (usually co-marketed with the most recent movie).
My daughter did fall in love with a small Gundam SD she built "oh I have an action figure too now!!!", but she of course want to play with it, she doesn't love the fact that's just in the display case.
For example, comparing my FansToys Stomp ( https://tfsource.com/fanstoys/stomp/ ) to my DX Chogokin Macross VF-1J, there's no contest: the FansToys is more durable, better articulated, with a more interesting transformation. It's just a better toy. I have Daltanius and other SoC toys as well, and they are fine, but they seem primitive in comparison to, say, Hasbro's MP-44 Optimus Prime.
Having said that, they are not children's toys. For kids I would recommend Studio Series ( https://tfsource.com/hasbro/transformers-studio-series-86/ ).
I wish I liked some design of the transformers lines you linked. Unfortunately that's entirely subjective, I understand that's nobody's fault. I used to like the transformer "animals" (I had the gorilla, the trex and the eagle), but I love veichles, I just don't like their mecha-form design and rather prefer gundam or power rangers style. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be decent toys for those nowdays.
The funny thing is that everything that actually looks good is marketed at collectors.
The problem is also that my children are still young, so I need stuff with some resistance, somewhat.
https://tfsource.com/hasbro/transformers-studio-series-86/
https://tfsource.com/transformers/war-for-cybertron-trilogy/...
https://tfsource.com/generations-legacy/
Cyclonus in particular is an amazing toy for kids or adults: https://tfsource.com/tfsource/cyclonus-and-nightstick-voyage...
You can find these at Target or Walmart in the US for even cheaper.
Wow, they actually managed to make them look both like the cartoon robots and transform into the cartoon vehicle. I remember one or the other always being pretty iffy.
Most toys on the site are able to be transformed by manual manipulation, which must be learned by the user. For me, that's most of the fun: I enjoy learning the intricacies of each transformation and it's satisfying to move them back and forth between their various modes. Therefore a self-transforming toy, while technically impressive, has little allure for me.
They definitely feel light and cheap, but still roll really smoothly and straight. From reading up on their history, I recall that was the main innovation that made it so popular. It's neat they kept that going!
That said, I'm not a kid crashing them together every day in a sandbox, I just fiddle with each every few days for maybe 3-6 months or so at a time before switching out to new ones.
So your mileage may vary (ha) depending on how taxing you are on them.
The shrinkflation was between 1980 and early 2000s. The cars today are cheaper, but not junky. They are raising their margins by other means now. That low price point exists, but with a much smaller number of cars. When I was a kid in the 80s, there was 50-100 cars at the same price. Now there is much less, but the cool cars are often branded and may be 2x-3x the price.
And even if the quality of Hot Wheels has gone down over the years/decades, I think it’s awesome that each car still only costs about $1. I can easily afford to buy one or two cars every time I go to the grocery store with my son, which makes the shopping experience much more fun for both of us. If the cars were 10x the price, then I couldn’t do that.
This brought back memories for me. As a very young father still starting out in a professional career this was one of the few bright spots of my life back then. Being able to see my son's excitement to go to the store with me every Saturday to choose his new wheels really was a small part in keeping me going.
Very happy to see this "tradition" continuing 20 years later.
I see this as an example of “shrinkflation” - ostensibly it’s the same product at the same price, but it’s clear that inflation has caused it to become shittier over time.