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One of the most common items of praise that I hear about the WFC trilogy is how its toys have increased parts counts compared to previous lines, allowing for more standard articulation (like ankle tilts and waist swivels) and better engineering. However, I've always been curious; is this actually true? How do the parts counts of WFC figures compare to those of past lines? With all the debate around small deluxes (like ER Cliffjumper and Netflix Bumblebee) and deluxe-sized voyagers (like SS86 Hot Rod), how do their parts counts compare to "normal-sized" figures? How does Studio Series compare? Plus, I've always been curious just how many parts go into a Transformers toy (beyond just being a lot).

Well, there's only one way to find out. Because I apparently enjoy suffering, I'm going to hand-count all the parts in a whole bunch of figures across numerous toylines and eras, and report the results here for comparison. I'll note that I don't own every TF ever made (far from it), so this isn't going to be a 100% comprehensive study, but I will try to do the best with what I have.

Since this is going to take me a while, I'd love to hear some of the community's predictions. How do you think WFC compares to other eras, like Prime Wars, the movie toylines, pre-T30 Generations, Animated, or the Unicron Trilogy? Which eras have higher parts counts? Lower? The same? How would you rank them based on parts count? How many parts go into these toys, anyway? Am I insane? Any other thoughts?

Another thing consider is the plastic quality of the figures,I don't have enough toys to make that comparison myself.

Parts count is only half of the story, really. The real kicker is the number of plastic colors (i.e. molds) and above all, how much space the parts of any given color end up taking (i.e. the size of those molds).
Also, there's mass vs. volume to consider. A big hollow figure may cost just as much as a highly articulated figure half to a third the size: same amount of plastic, just compacted into a smaller space (which is why some reviewers have weighed figures as well).

I do expect the WFC trilogy toys to have a higher average count compared to older lines, but only by virtue of an added standard point of articulation: the ankle tilt, which effectively separates the foot from the leg. Waist swivels have also become more prominent, I think.

Plastic quality, eh... I think it's less Hasbro using "cheaper plastic" and more them tinkering with the ratio of ABS and the fillers used to "soften" it to make it more suitable for the many moving parts. Heck, Siege Apeface's white plastic isn't ABS, but nylon so durability is definitely a concern when they design a figure.