It's like they don't think the North American market will gravitate to a mold if it's not "pretty colurz!"

:roll

We (collectors) make up less then 15% of Hasbro's Transformers market. The vast majority of the TF market is comprised of kids and parents who buy the toys for their kids. So going for a more dynamic, eye catching paint job that kids will notice over a boring, slavish G1 deco is the right decision to make.

 

:roll

While that sounds business savvy, I'm still going to have to call shennannigans on that theory since citing that the kids are all buying the garishly colored option is a meaningless statistic unless the more muted color scheme is also an equally available option. It's all fine and good to quote the number of collectors as much smaller than the kids, but it assumes the kids and the parents of such kids are cruising the toy aisles and only buying the brightest colored toys and eschewing anything that isn't sporting a neon paintjob.

 

"See! the numbers back us up! the ridiculous colors sold out!"

"Wasn't that all that was available?"

"Well yes...."

"So how does that show that it was preferred over the muted scheme if there was no other choice?"

"uhh....but it sold out!"

Or is it possible that toys are primarily made with EXTREME decos in mind today because they've sold so well in the past when sold alongside more muted paint jobs?

 

Anyway I REALLY don't get the OMG HAZ-BLOW'S (HEHEH) PAINT JOB ISN'T GEEWUN because, honestly, if that's your complaint at this stage of the game, then you obviously haven't been paying attention to the Classics/Universe line at all.

Hasbro's intention isn't to go for a slavish G1 replication with this line. It's to take classics characters and give them new figures in a "what would these guys look like if they were just being made now?" look.

Look at the original line of Classics and see how many conform to G1 decos.

Hasbro didn't make OMG GEEWUN Ratchet because that wasn't their intention. They wanted to give a classics character a new deco that while fresh, also ringed true to the character's origins. I would say they've succeeded.

 

Anyway here's probably why Ratchet doesn't look all G1. They're called "connection points." You see Hasbro's Transformers line is operating with three distinct aesthetics/continuities. There's the Movie, Animated, and Universe (G1 for all intents and purposes).

To collectors like us, we know the difference. We know that G1 Ratchet and Movie Ratchet are based on the same character. Yet, as we've established, we're not the majority (or even a seizable minority) of people who buy TFers. Kids and their parents are.

Kids, especially kids who may just now be discovering Transformers through the Movie or Animated, may have trouble connecting the common characters through all of these aesthetically different lines and stories. So Hasbro helps them out.

That's why Animated features a Movie-esque battlemask on Bumblebee, a reverse-engineered Megatron, the AllSpark, and the emergency deco on Ratchet. It's so kids who know TFers through the Movie and nothing else can watch Animated, with it's radically different story and visual style, and still connect it with something familiar in their heads.

The same applies to toys. G1 Ratchet hasn't been on tv since the early 90's, and hasn't been on the big screen since 1986. While stuff like Universe Ratchet may be made with the idea that collectors will like it, it still has to be attractive to kids for it to be worth producing. So how do you convince kids to buy a character that they themselves have never actually seen in a movie or tv show? You give them a "connection point" to the versions of the character they do know. Kids know Movie Ratchet and Animated Ratchet. So by giving an unknown (for kids) version of Ratchet a deco reminiscent of more widely known versions, they increase the likelihood that kids will recognize the figure as a Ratchet they can identify.

Or is it possible that toys are primarily made with EXTREME decos in mind today because they've sold so well in the past when sold alongside more muted paint jobs?

 

Anyway I REALLY don't get the OMG HAZ-BLOW'S (HEHEH) PAINT JOB ISN'T GEEWUN because, honestly, if that's your complaint at this stage of the game, then you obviously haven't been paying attention to the Classics/Universe line at all.

Hasbro's intention isn't to go for a slavish G1 replication with this line. It's to take classics characters and give them new figures in a "what would these guys look like if they were just being made now?" look.

Look at the original line of Classics and see how many conform to G1 decos.

Hasbro didn't make OMG GEEWUN Ratchet because that wasn't their intention. They wanted to give a classics character a new deco that while fresh, also ringed true to the character's origins. I would say they've succeeded.

 

Anyway here's probably why Ratchet doesn't look all G1. They're called "connection points." You see Hasbro's Transformers line is operating with three distinct aesthetics/continuities. There's the Movie, Animated, and Universe (G1 for all intents and purposes).

To collectors like us, we know the difference. We know that G1 Ratchet and Movie Ratchet are based on the same character. Yet, as we've established, we're not the majority (or even a seizable minority) of people who buy TFers. Kids and their parents are.

Kids, especially kids who may just now be discovering Transformers through the Movie or Animated, may have trouble connecting the common characters through all of these aesthetically different lines and stories. So Hasbro helps them out.

That's why Animated features a Movie-esque battlemask on Bumblebee, a reverse-engineered Megatron, the AllSpark, and the emergency deco on Ratchet. It's so kids who know TFers through the Movie and nothing else can watch Animated, with it's radically different story and visual style, and still connect it with something familiar in their heads.

The same applies to toys. G1 Ratchet hasn't been on tv since the early 90's, and hasn't been on the big screen since 1986. While stuff like Universe Ratchet may be made with the idea that collectors will like it, it still has to be attractive to kids for it to be worth producing. So how do you convince kids to buy a character that they themselves have never actually seen in a movie or tv show? You give them a "connection point" to the versions of the character they do know. Kids know Movie Ratchet and Animated Ratchet. So by giving an unknown (for kids) version of Ratchet a deco reminiscent of more widely known versions, they increase the likelihood that kids will recognize the figure as a Ratchet they can identify.

 

That makes sense, but what I'm not understanding is the feigned incredulousness at someone pointing out that a G1 inspired mold is in fact not particularly true to the original paintjob. Paying attention to what Hasbro has been doing previously with the line also gives us characters like the very much "OMG GEEWUN" Sunstreaker, Prowl and Sideswipe who in many cases have no connection to either the movie or animated continuity and are mysteriously able to sell without being given comon color treatments (For Christ's sake Prowl couldn't be more different from the animated version and doesn't even exist in the movie) By your logic, these should never have been produced in the first place for fear of having children and their parents standing in the aisles scratching their collective heads, dumbstruck.

 

Additionally there's a whole slew of "we just wanna sell toys!" characters clogging the Wallmart shelves that have no connection to any continuity, having never appeared in any media representation of the franchise and recycling names willy nilly selling just fine to the "kids and their parents" just because they have a transformers logo slapped on the box.

Or is it possible that toys are primarily made with EXTREME decos in mind today because they've sold so well in the past when sold alongside more muted paint jobs?

 

Anyway I REALLY don't get the OMG HAZ-BLOW'S (HEHEH) PAINT JOB ISN'T GEEWUN because, honestly, if that's your complaint at this stage of the game, then you obviously haven't been paying attention to the Classics/Universe line at all.

Hasbro's intention isn't to go for a slavish G1 replication with this line. It's to take classics characters and give them new figures in a "what would these guys look like if they were just being made now?" look.

Look at the original line of Classics and see how many conform to G1 decos.

Hasbro didn't make OMG GEEWUN Ratchet because that wasn't their intention. They wanted to give a classics character a new deco that while fresh, also ringed true to the character's origins. I would say they've succeeded.

 

Anyway here's probably why Ratchet doesn't look all G1. They're called "connection points." You see Hasbro's Transformers line is operating with three distinct aesthetics/continuities. There's the Movie, Animated, and Universe (G1 for all intents and purposes).

To collectors like us, we know the difference. We know that G1 Ratchet and Movie Ratchet are based on the same character. Yet, as we've established, we're not the majority (or even a seizable minority) of people who buy TFers. Kids and their parents are.

Kids, especially kids who may just now be discovering Transformers through the Movie or Animated, may have trouble connecting the common characters through all of these aesthetically different lines and stories. So Hasbro helps them out.

That's why Animated features a Movie-esque battlemask on Bumblebee, a reverse-engineered Megatron, the AllSpark, and the emergency deco on Ratchet. It's so kids who know TFers through the Movie and nothing else can watch Animated, with it's radically different story and visual style, and still connect it with something familiar in their heads.

The same applies to toys. G1 Ratchet hasn't been on tv since the early 90's, and hasn't been on the big screen since 1986. While stuff like Universe Ratchet may be made with the idea that collectors will like it, it still has to be attractive to kids for it to be worth producing. So how do you convince kids to buy a character that they themselves have never actually seen in a movie or tv show? You give them a "connection point" to the versions of the character they do know. Kids know Movie Ratchet and Animated Ratchet. So by giving an unknown (for kids) version of Ratchet a deco reminiscent of more widely known versions, they increase the likelihood that kids will recognize the figure as a Ratchet they can identify.

 

That makes sense, but what I'm not understanding is the feigned incredulousness at someone pointing out that a G1 inspired mold is in fact not particularly true to the original paintjob. Paying attention to what Hasbro has been doing previously with the line also gives us characters like the very much "OMG GEEWUN" Sunstreaker, Prowl and Sideswipe who in many cases have no connection to either the movie or animated continuity and are mysteriously able to sell without being given comon color treatments (For Christ's sake Prowl couldn't be more different from the animated version and doesn't even exist in the movie) By your logic, these should never have been produced in the first place for fear of having children and their parents standing in the aisles scratching their collective heads, dumbstruck.

It's a balance thing, really. Universe is tricky because, unlike other lines, this one is at least partially designed to appeal to collectors. Yet they can't let that be the backbone of the line, or it's going to fail. So they have to balance a line like Classics/Universe with stuff collectors will enjoy, but that kids would also want to get.

With Prowl, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe, I think they found characters that they could sell to both collectors and kids. For collectors, well we get updates of classic characters. For kids, well they get a police car transformer, a yellow sports car transformer, and a red sports car transformer. The concepts themselves sell themselves to kids. Police car TFers and sports car TFers, even if they haven't been in the form of Prowl, 'Streaker, or 'Swipe, have constantly been on shelves since 1984. Kids recognize what they are, not who they are, and that's what sells those figures.

 

Additionally there's a whole slew of "we just wanna sell toys!" characters clogging the Wallmart shelves that have no connection to any continuity, having never appeared in any media representation of the franchise and recycling names willy nilly selling just fine to the "kids and their parents" just because they have a transformers logo slapped on the box.

Yes, but they don't have to compete with modern day interpretations of themselves. Who does Movie Grindcore have to compete with? No one. He's probably the first character named Grindcore kids will see.

With Ratchet though, he has to compete with the more modern Movie and Animated incarnations, who've had much more recent screen time.

With Universe Ratchet you run the risk of kids looking at him and saying "that isn't Ratchet!" because he doesn't look like the Animated or Movie versions. So you have to dress him up in a deco that will make kids think of Ratchet when they see him.

Hence the non-G1 emergency stripes.

:pfx Agetn Zero speaks much :truthy in this thread

Jesus Christ I can't believe this argument is happening over a couple of red stripes (because that's the difference between the Henkei and Hasbro versions in alt mode, which is how it appears in the package).

 

I suppose "painting the rims" is a strike against TakaraTomy as well :roll

Actually, everyone's crying chicken little because the only other image we saw of US Ratchet made his plastic look milky and faded, compared to TakaraTomy's possibly air brushed snow white.

My major gripe with Ratchet is the fact that once I get him, I'll have to do almost all of the same modding to him that I did to my Ironhide :nooo

 

Seriously, no mold should require that much consumer modification to be made decent.

 

And with that said...F*CKING HAZBLO RAR

love the pic comparison ... and yeah Hasbro's is completely blown away! Henkei's just looks better put together, not nearly the gaps and holes that the Hasbro version has. IMO the colors are nicer too, but to be honest, the craftsmanship of the the Henkei is just far superior, and that's the biggest selling point of the 2.

The deco is the only difference. What you're seeing in the comparison pics is a result of the Hasbro photographer not knowing how to transform it (a common problem with their official photos), not an issue of craftsmanship. It's the same toy.

I hope you're right, because I really like the way Rachet looks here. But I'm not holding on to high hopes, because I was really disappointed with the Ironhide release. It's got serious gaps and frankly looks horrible in alt mode. Based off "pictures vs in-hand" of Ironhide, part of me is already crying over the disappointment of Ratchet to come haha.

love the pic comparison ... and yeah Hasbro's is completely blown away! Henkei's just looks better put together, not nearly the gaps and holes that the Hasbro version has. IMO the colors are nicer too, but to be honest, the craftsmanship of the the Henkei is just far superior, and that's the biggest selling point of the 2.

The deco is the only difference. What you're seeing in the comparison pics is a result of the Hasbro photographer not knowing how to transform it (a common problem with their official photos), not an issue of craftsmanship. It's the same toy.

I hope you're right, because I really like the way Rachet looks here. But I'm not holding on to high hopes, because I was really disappointed with the Ironhide release. It's got serious gaps and frankly looks horrible in alt mode. Based off "pictures vs in-hand" of Ironhide, part of me is already crying over the disappointment of Ratchet to come haha.

Well, I think my point is more that Takara's Ironhide suffered from the same flaws, from a design standpoint. He was just painted differently. And that will ultimately be the case with Ratchet as well.