First looks at Asian Market Transformers Generations exclusives

[Ferry]

Damn you Hasbro.

 

 

Heck, I totally agree with you. Most of these are awesome like Springer, Wheelie and Laserbeak to name a few and then they only release these in Asian markets. The problem is that these will most likely be too expensive to buy and since they are not new molds I will spend my money on figures that are more affordable.

 

And though Wheelie is cool, I was expecting the deluxe to be a new mold made for general markets.

[formerly nortagem]

Why the @#$%!! do they keep using the name Dead End for figures that are obvious homages to G1 Wildrider? Wildrider was the black car with red windows.

And why the @#$%!! do they keep giving us a bigger-sized (Scout, in this case) 'Dead End' and a puny Legend 'Motorbreath'?!

 

BTW...

 

:thumb

[Blitz-Wing]

Something is incredibly wrong with Hasbro if they don't release these in the US at some point in the future.

[ExVee]

One theory going around is that Hasbro might not be able to release these molds at retail in the US anymore because they don't meet cost requirements of the Deluxe pricepoint anymore. Mind, I'm eager to be proven wrong when some of the outstanding pretools pop up as filler after Generations resumes. But realistically I'm not expecting that, and I'm planning to preorder Wheelie as soon as possible. That one is the only one I'm addressing as a must-have right now. We'll see if better pictures later on prompt me to add anything to the shopping list.

[Jason X]

Balls. Now that we have pics I have to start caring.

[Emerje]

One theory going around is that Hasbro might not be able to release these molds at retail in the US anymore because they don't meet cost requirements of the Deluxe pricepoint anymore.

 

The price points shown at Botcon had the FOC deluxe figures at MSRP $14.99, a $3 price increase from the previous Universe MSRP of $11.99 just a short time ago so that's not it. Hasbro just has it out for us is all, they don't want to give us anything that isn't on TV, in theaters, or a game. That's why they canceled the DotM line prematurely, and aren't releasing G1 based figures outside of Asia, just FOC.

 

Emerje

[ExVee]

No, the increase to $14.99 is to prevent having to make the toys even smaller than they already are in the face of increasing production costs. Most people missed this detail, but Prime toys starting with wave 4 will also carry that $14.99 SRP. That sadly is where the price of today's Deluxe Transformer is going. If this weren't the case, I have no doubt the Prime "RID" toys today would be of comparable size and complexity to the First Edition toys that were designed more than a year prior when all the numbers and outlook were different.

 

Like I said before, I'd love to be proven wrong about the old Generations molds not being financially viable anymore, but I do not expect that on any realistic level.

[Lord_Onslaught]

No, the increase to $14.99 is to prevent having to make the toys even smaller than they already are in the face of increasing production costs. Most people missed this detail, but Prime toys starting with wave 4 will also carry that $14.99 SRP. That sadly is where the price of today's Deluxe Transformer is going. If this weren't the case, I have no doubt the Prime "RID" toys today would be of comparable size and complexity to the First Edition toys that were designed more than a year prior when all the numbers and outlook were different.

 

Like I said before, I'd love to be proven wrong about the old Generations molds not being financially viable anymore, but I do not expect that on any realistic level.

 

Most of the molds had already paid for themselves through previous figures, so that is not a cost option. What is a higher cost is creating new molds to be used.

[ExVee]

The tooling investment is only a part of it, and from past indications not a huge part. See things like the tail-end Animated stuff, or the Generations Frumble mold, where the Japan-exclusive releases were considered enough to offset the mold costs and release by Hasbro was no longer needed or even worth special measures to have happen. Unless a new mold toy never makes it to retail anywhere, which is an incredibly rare happening in recent years, the molds can be assumed to pay for themselves in no time. What stacks up in the long term is amount of material required to make the toy, how efficiently that material is used, and the complexity: more complex toys means more labor to get them built, which is an increased cost. Over the many thousands of units that need to be produced to be able to sell a Deluxe at $12, you better believe these seeming "little" differences add up.

[Lord_Onslaught]

The tooling investment is only a part of it, and from past indications not a huge part. See things like the tail-end Animated stuff, or the Generations Frumble mold, where the Japan-exclusive releases were considered enough to offset the mold costs and release by Hasbro was no longer needed or even worth special measures to have happen. Unless a new mold toy never makes it to retail anywhere, which is an incredibly rare happening in recent years, the molds can be assumed to pay for themselves in no time. What stacks up in the long term is amount of material required to make the toy, how efficiently that material is used, and the complexity: more complex toys means more labor to get them built, which is an increased cost. Over the many thousands of units that need to be produced to be able to sell a Deluxe at $12, you better believe these seeming "little" differences add up.

 

The Mold is 15% of costs per $10,000 units. Plastic is still cheap. The Labor force in China is still cheap and has barely gone up recently. What Hasbro is going after is the shipping from China to the States along with tariffs and everything else while trying to keep a certain profit margin intact. Hence the unneeded rise in Price of Transformers. GI Joe has not gone up nor has Star Wars or MLP. Transformers is the only one that has gone up in the last 6 months.

 

Not even Target can justify their insane DOTM prices right now, It is definitely rare when Target is more expensive than Toys R Us. And this is just Crazy!

 

DOTM Thundercracker EYE POPPER