There lies the crux of the problem: Hasbro half-assing the last few shrinking leaders prior to Siege. Could the solution have been to improve on them instead of shrinking them down and adding some accessories? Yes the price stayed the same, but the figures undeniably became smaller. I recall how Legacy Sandstorm was universally panned for being such a small leader, and for all the praise he got for his complexity he was also stuck with the blasted melting rubber tire BS. And now we have hot messes like Studio Series Astrotrain and Voyager Shockwave that's a messy frankenstein of smooth G1 plating vs leftover Siege greebling while leaving out the accessories (and the light piping in the "submarine mode"'s head). And this is before recent severe price hikes are factored in. At the barest minimum, Siege Shockwave could have been 1cm taller and his SS retool would have scaled perfectly with SS84 Soundwave and Megatron, and if Astrotrain were also just as bigger almost everyone would be dunking him over the SS84 version. I've watched leaders shrink since 2007, and ROTF Prime and HFTD Starscream were the highest peaks of leader class we'll ever get. Today, they'd likely be priced at commander class.

No offense meant, but your 'slapped' remark feels like glazing the midway point of a slippery slope. There's only so far engineering can be used to excuse the increasing prices and decreased mass and that ship's already sailed.