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Should BLAME come off Hasbro/Takara & on the Economy?


Shadowpanther

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Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

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Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

 

Hasbro's trying to re-invent the wheel. Their is no logical reason why the movie-verse,animated & prime designs would get bought more by kids than a classics/generations styled TF toy line with a cartoon/movie tie in.

 

Other toy companies do just fine in sales/rattings with creating newer cartoons with accompying toys designed as true 1980's homages. Examples: He-man,Voltron,Thundercats,Smurfs,Barbie,TMNT,various super heroes,etc...

 

They didn't release a lion voltron that looked radically different than the 1980's version. by making it have real fur,real bones,techno-organic,different size.

 

they didn't make the new he-man a lizard-man or make him female or make him a different ethnic race.

 

they didn't turn the smurfs a different color like pink,orange,white,rainbow. they didn't turn the smurfs into animals with clawed feet,fangs,tails & long snouts.

 

while being updated in sleeker styled sculpts. all the super heores look the same as far as capturing their original details in their physical body,race,gender & personalities.

 

My younger nieces watches all those newer barbie cartoon Direct to DVD movies. they didn't change the look of barbie that much. she's still a hot,tall blonde with modest small curves. they didn't create a super curvy barbie. no short height barbie. no beast/human hybrid barbie.

 

While the TMNT turtles toys sculpts have gone thru various changes. the creators always tried to capture the original 1980's designs in the Newer TMNT toys. like the colors,the turtle species,the classics outfits. the weight & height proportions. the body/facial designs elements.

 

It makes little to no sense why Hasbro thinks they need to stray away from the G-1 TF 1980'S formula so much for the TF toy lines that are supported by a cartoon/movie tie in. to actually re-create all the TF G-1 face sculpts for the newer TF toys supported by media makes the least sense. I can understand giving them newer alt modes but lets try to pick newer alt modes that look as close to the 1980's TF toy characters as possible. taking away all the 1980's homage TF toy/media body parts & shapes & replacing them with newer stuff is just sad on so many levels.

 

 

Their is no logical reason why a higher spending budget supported by a major cartoon tie in Classics/Generations styled TF toy/cartoon would do worse than animated or TF Prime.

 

The sheer fact that classics/generations toys sales have sold decent from 2006 thru 2012. should be a sign/red flag to take this to the next level. by increasing the toy budget & having a cartoon series tie in.

 

Hasbro's got the Hub network now. instead of creating that "Rescue bots" cel animated hand drawn cartoon series. Hasbro could have created a Classics/generations styled cel animated hand drawn TF cartoon series instead of rescue bots.

 

Personally is was Un-wise for Hasbro to invest so much money into that Rescue bots cartoon series. because the cartoon is only advertising 4 rescue bots toys for kids to buy. this was clearly one of hasbro un-brightest ideas. hasbro should have instead created a classics/generations styled TF cartoon series that helped sell & advertise new mold generations toys by the dozens of newer character toys.

 

At the end of the day Hasbro uses the media to help sell the toys. creating a rescue bots cartoon series to help only sell 4 character toys was the most un-bright thing to do.

 

DW & IDW have been successful in doing alternate G-1 comics. so lets transfer this over to the cartoons. where we get a alternate G-1 cartoon series. that has the same 1980's G-1 characters. give them newer updated vechicle molds that match their older 1980's vechicle modes as close as possible. do a similar 1980's origin story but have the MTMTE cast smash into earth or wake up in the year 2013. instead of having a 1980's atmosphere/time period. we'll have the transformers adjust to life on earth in the 2013 time era.

 

the movie verse tried to do a DW/IDW rebooted alternate G-1 Universe. but it got ruined by having the transformers robots like like hideous insect monsters with robot designs & alt modes that looked nothing like their 1980's cartoon/toy forms/designs. having it from a humans point of view with the humans being the stars,getting all the spoken dialogue words. having the robots barely speak a few words/line of dialogue. having micheal bay add in his bathroom humor,his wacky parents perverted/drug humor. all made the movie verse G-1 reboot epic fail.

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Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

 

:agree

 

As much as I love G1, Blitz is right, the only reason my kids know about G1. Is because of me. And my son would rather play with his Animated Optimus Prime and my son is only 3 and my oldest daughter is 5 and loves her Animated Arcee. Though I do disagree about collectors being a speck of dust. If we take out the part how most of us are parents as well. Collectors make up about 12% of Hasbro's sales.

 

Now on to letting G1 go I am in favor of letting some of it go. Just be glad when we get the homages. Hasbro has done it right with the ClassicVerse keeping collectors and normal consumers happy. Are the G1 fans the biggest complainers? Yes we are

Riight now I can think of 3 off the top of my head that we have complained about and still complain about.

 

1) G1 Arcee (self explanatory)

2) Universe Galvatron being horrible and not even being close to how Galvatron looked like in G1

3) Proper Gestalts (again, we complain that Hasbro has missed the mark, from Energon's Maximus Gestalts to ROTF Devastator, to PCC, and the coming soon, WFC Bruticus) We have all complained because none of them are close to the G1 Gestalts

For those of us who could not stand Energon's Superion and Bruticus we bought the FP Upgrades so that they were no longer eye sores. And I am sure once WFC Bruticus is released we will see and buy an upgrade for him also.

 

Now as far as comparing everything to G1 that does not need to be going on. G1 set the mark yes. but with so many other incarnations through the years. G1 is the legend, the rest are legacies. Myself as a G1 fan, I can not stand and ignore everything BM tried to bring to the mythos. to me BM never happened. Yet. I will more hten happily talk about how great I believe Cybertron was. I will also say that I own 90% of the Cybertron line. I'm also a fan of the movie line and again I own about 84% of the 3 lines combined. Too me, if you do not compare the movies to G1 they stand out on their own and had a major impact all over the world. and I wish Hasbro would have released Soundwave, Leadfoot, and Wheeljack. Along with many others.

 

In the end there is no comparison to G1, It is legendary and still lives on Will Hasbro decide to bring it back in some form on Tv? I hope not.

So let Hasbro bring in new incarnations, and let them earn their own merit

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I agree with Blitzwing. Let G1 go. You claim Hasbro is trying to re-invent the wheel with Movieverse, Animated, and Prime, which is not true, they're evolving the brand. If they were trying to re-invent the wheel, all we'd be seeing is G1 over and over again. It'd get stagnant and drive people away. (After all, look at G2.)

 

Also, I honestly fail to see your logic about Rescue Bots. Sure, there's only 4 bots in the show, but there's also the human partners, and the playsets for sale. A quick glance at TF Wiki, and you'd know that means there's 14 figures(8 partners, 4 robots), two playsets and two big electronic toys to advertise. The show does a pretty good job of it, too.

 

Since it's set in the Prime Universe, just as RH has a guest appearance from Prime and Bumblebee(in the toyline, at least.) I sure hope Hasbro decides to bring the RH characters into the Prime toyline.

 

ETA:

 

 

Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

(snip)

Other toy companies do just fine in sales/rattings with creating newer cartoons with accompying toys designed as true 1980's homages. Examples: He-man,Voltron,Thundercats,Smurfs,Barbie,TMNT,various super heroes,etc...

 

They didn't release a lion voltron that looked radically different than the 1980's version. by making it have real fur,real bones,techno-organic,different size.

(snip)

While the TMNT turtles toys sculpts have gone thru various changes. the creators always tried to capture the original 1980's designs in the Newer TMNT toys. like the colors,the turtle species,the classics outfits. the weight & height proportions. the body/facial designs elements.

(snip)

 

These are hardly fine examples. Mattel can only get He-Man to sell in Toys R Us by packing them with DC figures. The 2002 line tanked cause Mattel kept the 80s He-Man mindset going.

 

The new Voltron Force Voltron looks nothing like the original, outside of the lion colors. Thundercats is also greatly changed from the 80s series and toyline, and for the better. TMNT is poor example, as well, as it took them over 25 years to figure out how to properly articulate them for a modern audience (and even then...they seem pretty off n on.)

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To be honest, i'm actually happy with the way Hasbro's doing the G1 hommages right now. They're bringing them out at a rate that I can keep up with and afford at the same time. If they started absolutely pumping out G1 styled figures at a faster rrate. I wouldn't be able to keep up. So I say keep with how it is now, and let the more evolved series have their chances too

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Please lets not turn this thread into a "LET G-1 go" thread.

 

The topic of this thread is "Should BLAME come off Hasbro/Takara & on the Economy?"

 

Before I made my first reply in this thread. some who replied to my thread starter were saying blame hasbro not the economy.

 

After my first reply,some replied with hasbro praise.

 

the purpose of this thread should be about discussing "is the economy affecting hasbro's TF character toy choices,sizes,prices,media etc.. or is hasbro partially responsible for stuff without the economy's failure.

 

examples of this:

 

1- did the economy force the MP TF toys to keep getting smaller in size?

 

2- is the only way to get kids to buy newer TF toys these days. is to make them look radically different with each passing TF toy line?

 

3- 3rd party companies create decent TF G-1 toys that fans like more & are more G-1 updated homages. why can't hasbro on their current budget do this?

 

4- We realize the economy isn't doing that great & it's affecting hasbro's global customers buying habits. but is hasbro at fault in creating merchandise or media that is less desirable than previous years or makes no sense. example: spending money to create a rescue bots cartoon series. when hasbro could have used that rescue bots cartoon series money to create a generations TF cartoon series. A generations/calassics cartoon would have helped hasbro sell 20+new mold classics/generations toys. compared to the rescue bots cartoon that only helps hasbro sell 4 rescue bots robot toys.

 

5- over loading stores with bumblebee's in almost all sizes. overloading case assortment waves with bumblebee toys. thus creating bumblebee peg/shelf warmers. causing stores not to order newer waves due to bumblebee warming pegs/shelves. can we blame the economy on this one or hasbro's bad PR Decision making process?

 

6- Because of the over loading of bumblebee's in case assortment waves. stuff got cancelled. the $29.99 HA toys got cancelled because bumblebee was n every assortment wave. $29.99 HA Bumblebee was a major shelf warmer & he prevented other $29 HA toys from getting stocked on shelves like $29 HA Skids & $29 HA Soundwave. due to the Bumblebee repaints getting overloaded in the DOTM cases,the last waves got cancelled in america. had it not been for bumblebee the newer toys could have been out in earlier waves. so do we blame the economy or hasbro's poor PR decision making?

 

7-Fine Hasbro wantas to create all these highly specialized styled TF toy lines. is it so hard to throw veteran/Casual TF fans a few bones. by creating a few G-1 homage character toys done up in the newly styled brand design. Examples:(1) A Masterforce overlord toy done up in the current TF Prime design sculpted Aesthetics. (2)Victorysabre done up in the TF Prime toy design sculpted Aesthetics. Sixshot in the movie-verse toy design sculpted Aesthetics. (4)1980's combiners done up in the animated toy or TF Prime toy design sculpted Aesthetics. should we blame the economy on not enough G-1 homage new toys getting created by hasbro or is hasbro the fault. how hard can it be to squueze more G-1 homages in the Media supported TF toy lines. why is generations/classics the only place for G-1 homage new toys?

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Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

 

I guess so, but wouldn't it all be new to them anyway?

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Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

 

I guess so, but wouldn't it all be new to them anyway?

 

Yes it would all be new to the 8 - 10 demograph, But to keep their attention to it. Hasbro would have to redo the G1 cartoon. Which is why they do not. and instead focus on bringing new incarnations of Transformers.

 

We as collectors and fans should accept this, since it is the only way to keep Transformers fresh and exciting thus keeping the brand going. Even if we disagree with it

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These are hardly fine examples. Mattel can only get He-Man to sell in Toys R Us by packing them with DC figures. The 2002 line tanked cause Mattel kept the 80s He-Man mindset going.

 

The new Voltron Force Voltron looks nothing like the original, outside of the lion colors. Thundercats is also greatly changed from the 80s series and toyline, and for the better. TMNT is poor example, as well, as it took them over 25 years to figure out how to properly articulate them for a modern audience (and even then...they seem pretty off n on.)

 

But how about the other companies toy lines that didn't radically change the character/toy/persona's & they keep selling decent & better than ever.

 

EXAMPLES:

 

1-Pokemon came out in the early 1990's. flash foward to the 2012 year. pokemon toys are still selling decent & better than ever. the characters have the same persona,toys don't look radically different. the different cartoons still capture the original themes/designs. sure the toys got slight updates to make e'm look better. but pickachu didn't become a pink donkey or a half animal/half human hybrid. ash didn't become female,change ethnic back ground. get a accent,age to 28 years old,etc...

 

2- Barbie is another successful toy line that gets supported by media & direct to video DVD movies. sales are stronger today then they were in the past. their was no need to update the barbie toy/media design drastically to make the newer era 2012 girls but the toys & watch the movies. barbie is still a tall blonde with modest curves & pretty face,so are her friends. barbie didn't get shorter,curvier or need to look like a monster to get sales from buyers.

 

3- Super heroes toys,their selling as strong as ever then when they were first introduced. sure the toys & media designs have been updated with sleeker forms. but the original concept designs are still their. like trying to capture the original facial & body designs for the newer updated toys. the newer super heroes have the persona's & special powers. the ethnic back grounds & outfits are still the same.

 

Point behind this reply. the economy isn't the blame for Hasbro feeling the need to update the 1980's G-1 character/toys so drastically because this is the only way they'll sell to kids in this poor economy.

 

Clearly Hasbro is the blame for this one. because their convinced newer age kids in the year 2013 won't be interested in a full blown high budget generations toy line that's supported by a major media cartoon series.

 

Hasbro seems to think creating all these highly stylized radically different TF toy lines like animated & TF Prime. will get better sales than a full blown high budget generations toy line supported by a media cartoon series.

 

More & more veteran/casual TF fans refuse to buy the animated,movie verse,TF Prime toys. instead they'd rather be buying the 3rd party TF toys. because 3rd party TF toys are better designed homage G-1 styled toys,the fans actually want & desire.

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Ok, seriously? Catering solely to G1/Classics would kill the line. 8-10yr old probably have little to NO clue what G1 characters look like. Collectors are but a speck of dust in comparison to kids when it comes to sales. Let G1 go.

 

I guess so, but wouldn't it all be new to them anyway?

 

Yes it would all be new to the 8 - 10 demograph, But to keep their attention to it. Hasbro would have to redo the G1 cartoon. Which is why they do not. and instead focus on bringing new incarnations of Transformers.

 

We as collectors and fans should accept this, since it is the only way to keep Transformers fresh and exciting thus keeping the brand going. Even if we disagree with it

 

I agree with mikeprime.

 

Nobody is saying,not even me,we want a TF G-1 season 5. that takes place directly after,the rebirth part 3 left off.

 

nobody,not even me,wants to see late 1970's/1980's alt modes come back & get used for the newer mold TF toys & the fan catered TF toy lines like MP,Classics,generations,etc...

 

Most just want a DW or IDW styled G-1 reboot/alternate G-1 univervse cartoon series. where the Transformers chrash/arrive on earth in 2013 or wake up after a extended sleep period.

 

how hard can if be for hasbro/takara to give the 1980's TF G-1 characters/toys more closer alt modes that more closely resemble their 1980's alt modes. like making Megatron a new age army issued gigantic battle gun/armory/riffle. soundwave being a communications alt mode. bumblebee being a new age updated bug volks wagon. jazz being the newer 2013 porse. sideswipe & sunstreaker both being a 2013 lamborgini design.

 

As far as capturing the original 1980's designs details for newer aged designed TF toys. the MP,Classics & generations did a fine job. but hasbro refuses to increase their toy budgets & support them with a major media tie in like a cartoon series or movie. thus with no bigger budget & no media tie in,their stuck in nuetral where eventually they become epic fail.

 

why the need to change the 1980's TF character head sculpt & body parts so drastically? I can understand new alt modes designs. but can't the new alt modes designs work around the old school robot body parts. is it so hard to keep the 1984 media megatron,starscream,optimus,soundwave,bumblebee,ratchet robot bodies but just add newer alt mode pieces around the toy?

 

why the need to keep changing the 1980's TF character head sculpts so radically,does doing this really make kids buy them more? are the old 1980's head sculpts that outdated & will hurt sales of the newer TF toys bodies?

 

like I said in another Reply pokemon,barbie & super heroes toys have been out for decades. sales are decent/high & they didn't feel the need to keep radically changing the oringial toy formula to help the toys sells better in today's poor economy? what motivates hasbro to do this with the TF the TOY Brand? Does hasbro not study other toy companies strategies & what works for them?

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