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Who wants more Classics style Transformers toys from Hasbro?


Goktimus Prime

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I agree with Baoh. At this point none of the Hasbro stuff interests me except for Generations Grimlock, Blaster and the Ramhorn 2 pack as those will go on my CHUG shelf. Right now there is so much 3rd Party goodness coming out, it's hard to keep track of all of it. You have Fansproject Headmasters and Stunticons comings out soon, MakeToys The Fallen figure, TFC Toys Uranos figures, Toyworld's Hardhead and Searchlight, Mastermind Creations Sixshot, and then the company making Twin Twist and Topspin.

 

Would have Hasbro ever made updated version of these characters? More than likely not. So with the exception of the Generation figures I mentioned and Masterpeiece Soundwave coming to US in wintertime(supposedly) I don;t see Hasbro getting any of my money. It's such a shame that the "40 new Generation Figures" turned out to be an all FoC line. Hasbro dropped the ball BIG time right there as we still need a Skids, Trailbreaker and Hoist to round out the car portion of original G1 characters.

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Yeah, distribution still sucks on these releases. My FOC Bruticus was rounded off from ToysRUs.com when they were running a BOGO half off. That was sweet and shipping wasn't too high either. Still, I can't afford third party or import prices. When I bought my MP-1 from BBTS it cost just around $80 so to buy a toy that is filling a gap like Hexatron, or Uranos, or Green Giant for $$$ is redicilously high. They look real sweet, but I would much prefer it be a Hasbro/Takara. Then there is the quality arguement. I worry more about stress fractures and cracks on the third party offerings that I do have then any of my Hasbro toys.

 

FOC Bruticus, for all of it's critics, is a nice combiner composed of deluxes for $75. A third party would have cost $150+.

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I like the petitino and support it, Id rather not have to buy 3rd party products but do so when I have either no choice or a very bad choice to choose from. Right now the MW line from Igear is awesome and so I am buying them but I still wish hasbro would do these instead

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Even if Hasbro did bring back the CHUG style figures, putting money into the development of new molds, it would cut into exactly $0 in third party company profits. Hasbro's lack of ability to bring decent combiners into any modern TF line, overlooking 4/5 of many of the popular sub-groups, and ineffective marketing strategy for what is a collector line would only serve to prematurely cancel whole waves of figures, which would then cause them to be released in limited quantities and force collector's to pay three times Goki's favorite abbreviation, RRP, if they even desired those figures to begin with. I do want to see the classics return, however I'm more than willing and able to pay top dollar for third party items, simply put every third party figure I own is simply a better figure than any Hasbro figure I own. If CHUG's make a comeback I'll buy them, but I'll still buy the third party stuff too, this petition is only half relevent.

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They could join the movement and start making some truly inspired toys.

 

To be fair, the Hasbro / TakTomy partnership produces what I would refer to as 'collector grade' figures; primarily through the Masterpiece line. The problem is that Hasbro, for whatever reason, continue to treat their domestic collector market as an aberration; a blight upon their desire to market themselves purely as a 'toy company'. Their production and distribution of collector grade figures appears specifically intended to confound the very people expected to purchase them.

 

For instance: high-end collectors will pay an extraordinary premium for quality (e.g. more paint applications), alacrity (receiving figures as quickly as possible), and a hassle-free purchase experience (buying figures online versus hunting for them in stores). So let's look at Hasbro's release of MP-10: it featured a pointless change in deco from the Takara version, including the removal of paint applications; it came an entire year after Takara's version; and it was sold primarily through Toys 'R' Us stores, frustrating collectors. Hasbro engineered every part of the sales process to thwart the very people they were attempting to sell to; people that were willing to spend $250.00 on a figure that Hasbro wanted to roll out for $50.00.

 

I think perhaps what I find so extraordinary about Hasbro's current approach is that in so far as many of their other lines are concerned, they have embraced the collector demographic wholeheartedly. Sideshow Collectibles currently have Hasbro's licensed blessing in producing $130.00+ collector grade GI Joe figures. Similarly, Integrity Toys have Hasbro's licensed blessing in producing $130.00+ collector grade Jem dolls. When it comes to collector grade Transformers however, Hasbro loses their goddamn mind. They could simply have Takara run off X additional units of their latest Masterpiece, and provide these to Hasbro for simultaneous release through HasbroToyShop.com. Instead, we get the MP-10 debacle...

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IMHO a new character - even one that's known to fans and unknown to kids - has a better chance of being appealing to a random child than yet another Bumblebee! A well made toy will sell, even if it's not known to kids through stuff like movies, cartoons etc. Remember that the original batch of Transformers that was released in 1984 grossed US$1.4 million by the end of that year, making it the most successful debut toy line. And that was when the TF media was in its infancy (most of us living outside the U.S. never saw the cartoon until 1985, and yet the toys still sold in '84). Beast Wars also boasted impressive toy sales by time the cartoon came along (a year after the toys debuted it lifted Transformers from being nearly dead at the end of G2 to being the 3rd best selling boys' toy line (#1: Toy Story, #2: Star Wars)). Robots In Disguise came out here months before the cartoon ever aired, and yet the toys sold like hotcakes. Revenge of the Fallen Devastator was an impressive character in the film, and yet the awful Combiner Class toy shelfwarmed.

 

Think back to when you were a kid -- you liked awesome toys because they were awesome, regardless of their canonical appearance (that's something that kids might be concerned about at an older age). For example, when I was really little my favourite Star Wars droid was Ar-Five De-Four, not Artoo Detoo. Ar-Five had THREE eyes (all of which could shoot lasers, of course). My favourite non-droid toy was the AT-AT Commander, because he looked like a really cool dude in a suit of armour who could fly and have super powers! I loved those toys way more than say Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader! My favourite G.I. Joe toy was some Cobra dude called the Interrogator... to this day I still have no idea what his story is, but in my world he was some benevolent alien with super powers (oh, he had Batman's cape :P). My favourite G1 toy was (and still is) Beachcomber. Not the coolest character perhaps, but I just _love_ that toy! (so much so he was the one Transformer toy that I took with me to my own wedding :)).

 

If you make a good toy, a child will love it. Hasbro has already released several characters in CHUGUR that would have been rather unknown to non-fans (and especially kids), such as:

+ Classics & Universe Leo Prime (Lio Convoy)

+ Universe Storm Cloud

+ Universe Tread Bolt

+ Universe Acid Storm

+ Generations Drift

+ Generations Darkmount (Straxus)

+ Generations Sky Shadow (Black Shadow)

...etc

 

If Hasbro saw fit to release toys like those into the mass general market, I don't see why they can't make/release toys based on less-obscure G1 characters like Skids, Hoist, Gears, Hubcap, Tailgate, Arcee, Sludge, Slug, Snarl etc.

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With all due respects, Goktimus. It would be better to have just made that case and left the "Help us put an end to Third Party Transformers toys..." out. Maybe you don't mean it that way, but I am sure some people are seeing it as a bit of an attack on what these these parties are doing, for better or worse.

You're right. I didn't mean it that way, but I can see how others may have interpreted it otherwise. I've now editted the petition and REMOVED all mention of Third Party toys. The wording now ONLY focuses on asking Hasbro to resume making Classicsverse toys.

 

That was always my original intent with this petition, but I've clearly sidetracked myself by mentioning the Third Party stuff. Anyway, fixed now. :)

 

P.S. I have now editted post #1 to better reflect the nature of the petition.

Staff: could someone please edit the News page and remove or edit the old image and replace it with the new one (see Post #1)? Thank you.

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Even if Hasbro did bring back the CHUG style figures, putting money into the development of new molds, it would cut into exactly $0 in third party company profits. Hasbro's lack of ability to bring decent combiners into any modern TF line, overlooking 4/5 of many of the popular sub-groups, and ineffective marketing strategy for what is a collector line would only serve to prematurely cancel whole waves of figures, which would then cause them to be released in limited quantities and force collector's to pay three times Goki's favorite abbreviation, RRP, if they even desired those figures to begin with. I do want to see the classics return, however I'm more than willing and able to pay top dollar for third party items, simply put every third party figure I own is simply a better figure than any Hasbro figure I own. If CHUG's make a comeback I'll buy them, but I'll still buy the third party stuff too, this petition is only half relevent.

 

I think the worst part was that we all got excited about the new classic style toys we saw being promoted, then only to find out they were Asian exclusives. Same goes for the last few DOTM toys. It seems that Hasbro has been cranking out the ideas and following through with these things that we want, but for some reason or another, they don't end up in the US.

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Generations Legends Cosmos or iGear's MW-04 UFO? I already had the Cosmos, but I saw UFO and purchased him. UFO is a product Hasbro should be putting out. Knight Morpher Commander. Do you think Hasbro would ever put out a Hearts of Steel toy line? Hercules. It took a third party company to get us a decent Devastator. If you don't want to support third party companies, then by all means don't. I mean Hasbro copied Lego with their Kreo toy line. It happens in the business, so lets not attack third party companies for giving us what we want or what Hasbro should be putting out from the start.

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They could join the movement and start making some truly inspired toys.

 

To be fair, the Hasbro / TakTomy partnership produces what I would refer to as 'collector grade' figures; primarily through the Masterpiece line. The problem is that Hasbro, for whatever reason, continue to treat their domestic collector market as an aberration; a blight upon their desire to market themselves purely as a 'toy company'. Their production and distribution of collector grade figures appears specifically intended to confound the very people expected to purchase them.

 

For instance: high-end collectors will pay an extraordinary premium for quality (e.g. more paint applications), alacrity (receiving figures as quickly as possible), and a hassle-free purchase experience (buying figures online versus hunting for them in stores). So let's look at Hasbro's release of MP-10: it featured a pointless change in deco from the Takara version, including the removal of paint applications; it came an entire year after Takara's version; and it was sold primarily through Toys 'R' Us stores, frustrating collectors. Hasbro engineered every part of the sales process to thwart the very people they were attempting to sell to; people that were willing to spend $250.00 on a figure that Hasbro wanted to roll out for $50.00.

 

I think perhaps what I find so extraordinary about Hasbro's current approach is that in so far as many of their other lines are concerned, they have embraced the collector demographic wholeheartedly. Sideshow Collectibles currently have Hasbro's licensed blessing in producing $130.00+ collector grade GI Joe figures. Similarly, Integrity Toys have Hasbro's licensed blessing in producing $130.00+ collector grade Jem dolls. When it comes to collector grade Transformers however, Hasbro loses their goddamn mind. They could simply have Takara run off X additional units of their latest Masterpiece, and provide these to Hasbro for simultaneous release through HasbroToyShop.com. Instead, we get the MP-10 debacle...

Powerful words!!!! Well said!!

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