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For better or for worse?


Shadowpanther

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For better or for worse? Hasbro's handling of their TF toy lines.

 

imho below:

 

you can only blame the the economy for so much. Hasbro is clearly making tons of mistakes that are easily fixable.

 

It just seems like after the ROTF/HFTD TF toy lines ended,everything hasbro TF went down hill driving over 100 miles per hour with no brakes to stop.

 

For me it just seemed like The TF toys NIGHTMARE started when the movie verse happened & continued further. Hasbro gave micheal bay & his team way too much creative freedom. to the extent micheal bay collaborated with the hasbro/takara TF designs teams trying to create his vision of what TF movie transformers should look like. THIS WAS A BAD MISTAKE as micheal bay admitted in the 2007 TF movie DVD'S extras that this was his first time doing this. OTHER BAD REASONS,Micheal bay is a movie director he only cares about his end of the side which was how these robot looked on the big screen. micheal bay most likely didn't care about the movie toys selling great in stores. THIS IS HASBRO'S MISTAKE,Hasbro/takara's desin teams needed to create movie-verse TF toys on their own. then approach a movie director & order them around not the other way around. hasbro seems to epic fail in hiring outsiders/team members that know zero about the previous TF toy lines & previous TF media. other companies/owners don't grant this much creative freedom to it's newly employed workers. I honestly didn't care for most movie verse TF toys due to them being mis-proprtioned,mangled messes,ugly robot head sculpts. insectoid or monsterous robot/vechicle toy designs. about the only positives I can say about the movie verse toys is that they used liscensed vechicles,realistic military vechicles,decent color schemes. sadly only they start to transform from vhechicle to robot everything goes downhill super fast with no brakes to stop the collission.

 

Hasbro makes tons of EPIC FAILURE TF toy lines decisions. because they need to know that what works in the media does not translate well into the toys lines & vice versa. to fix this problem,create radically different toys designs that have appeared in the media. this would have worked well in the movie verse.

 

I think Hasbro is currently getting way too carried away with the under age 4 toddler themed TF toy lines. these days 90% of a TF toy line consist of super tiny TF toys. cyber verse exploded on to the scene with the DOTM toy line,sadly it made it's way into the TF Prime toy line. these days barely 10% of a TF toy line consist of the bigger sized toys.

 

I just feel these days the awful TF toys/lines out number the decent TF Toys/lines. apparently hasbro likes to specialize in higher volume with lower quality toys. all these TF sides lines are pure garbage & epic failure. those SWTF & marvel cross-over are waste of fine plastic & oil used to create/transport them. the 2010/2011 TF kreo-o's were not selling in usa stores. what does hasbro do they make more kreo TF toys for 2012/2013. TF cyber verse i'm treating as it's own entity/side line/whatever,so this gets bundled in this category of epic failure/awful.

 

Takara clearly has better trained staff & superior distribution methods for the TF toy lines. Hasbro poorly trained field analysis team visits stores but fail to report that the over loading of bumblebee in the cases,is preventing stores from ordering newer items. due to stores having limited peg/shelf space. stores aren't going to order newer items if their's 50+ bumblebee's fully stocked on the pegs/shelves.

 

I've seen those hasbro field store workers at stores stocking shelves & doing resets. most i talk to claim their all part time workers even the crew leader. their also frustrated because they say their under paid. un-happy workers are not going to care about doing their field analysis jobs properly. hasbro clearly needs to train these field analysis workers better & offer thwem more pay,more full time positions & so forth.

 

OTHER NON-ECONOMY HASBRO MISTAKES I notice. Creating a cartoon series that feature four rescue bots character toys in it. for a company that creates media to sell product this decision makes no sense & was epic failure from start to finish. I think it would have made much more sense to create a cel drawn animated cartoon series for generations or kreo. because generations & kreo have dozens of product to advertise & sell via a media cartoon series.

 

The rescue bots toys just seem like a step back & inferior in every way to the play-school tonka Go-bots TF toys made years ago.

the rescue bots have less posabilty,sculpt,enginering than the play school gobots toys.

 

I have high praise for the TF Prime and generations/FOC 2012/2013 TF toy lines. sadly hasbro are ruining any chance these toys have of selling decent. due to mistakes made by staff & field analysis teams. like over loading cases with bumblebees. having the superior most want FOC Brticus colors be a SDCC Exclusive made in low volume units.

 

The TF Masterpiece toy lines are epic success. sadly hasbro doesn't fully support it & doesn't know how to market these items properly to convince stores to buy them. examples: Hasbro should have put a few MP TF toys under the current movie verse toy line. sold them as 2007/ROTF/DOTM Movie verse leader sized,ultimate or supreme sized TF toys. Hasbro thinks stores & kids will notice thus not buy MP TF toys under a movie banner package. because it looks nothing like the movie verse toys designs.

 

It's abundantly clear the HUB network isn't doing that well nor is it doing it's job to help sell the newer TF toys. Hasbro's team needs to fic the hub network by lowering it's tier/price point. hasbro bought the discovery kids network & renamed it the hub. sadly hasbro bother to alter the networks original tiers/price points. I think hasbro needs to syndicate some of it's exclusive in house self created programs to other networks like WB,Fox,CN,Nick,disney,etc all do. Having TF Prime's cartoon series appear on the Hub network and other networks like WB,Nick,CN,etc.. will basically mean more viewers get to see the newer TF cartoond & rhey run to stores to buy the newer TF toys.

 

Sadly that Hasbrotoyshop web site is a epic failure/joke. due to hasbro's poorly trained staff not properly monitoring the site. it just feel like the HTS.com site is being run on automatic pilot. newer items takes forever to arrive on the site. when stuff sells out it either takes months to come back in stock or it never comes back in stock. items are stocked in super low volume units. Hasbro isn't using this HTS site properly to help sell the stuff stores are hesitant about stocking. clearly the HTS site is the perfect place to fully stock MP TF toys in high volume. hasbro should clearly sell store exclusives also on their HTS site. botcon toys on the HTS site. instead of cancelling test shots,create them & exclusively sell them on the HTS site. PROBLEM IS Hasbro outsources it's HTS site to a seperate 3rd party vendor that is a different thing from hasbro.

 

Hasbro's failure to fire/get rid of/cancel Fun pub's botcon liscense. fun pub is the worse thing ever to happen to a liscensed TF convention/club. because fun pub is run by greedy business members who are fans of fans. clearly fun pubs negative actions in the botcon/club makes hasbro's TF toy line look bad & drag it down a bit. over charging on exclusives. credit card site hacking problems. allowing the frenzy of the scalpers to run wild with zero supervision/laws set in place. all those weird penalties punishment laws if some don't want to pay the high prices & so forth. I also think about what the 2 hartman brothers think about fun pubs botcon involvement and the way they handle things.

 

IN CLOSING....... I notice Takara doesn't sell half the garbage Hasbro sells for their TF toy lines. Takara doesn't sell SWTF, Marvel cross-overs,Kreo. takara only sells less than 25% of the super tiny TF toys hasbro does. Takara packs newer TF figures in their own cases. no mixed/multi assortment. every character toy gets it's own case. Takara aims it's TF toy lines towards teenagers & adults. takara applies more exspensive paint apps on the TF toys. takara includes more weapons/accessories with their TF toys. Takara hasn't gone bumblebee toys/character crazy/mad/insane/obsessed. Takara employs more competent & better trained employees.

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Well, that gives Leo Tolstoy a run for his money. Hasbro's main issue of late is they saw huge $$$ with the movie and tried to cash in on it. Problem was, it got milked too hard. Are collectors being too hard on them? Maybe. Should Hasbro try to appease collectors? Perhaps not. What Hasbro needs to do is stop trying to milk every udder on the cow. It creates over-saturation and makes people lose interest in the line. Do you need 10 different sublines to a series? Absolutely not. Do you need to feature a character with 4 different paint jobs? A bit overkill.

 

That being said, you can't go back to 1984 or 1995 and copy that formula. The world has changed. Kids care more about game consoles and tablets than toys. Here's where the future is for Hasbro is they want a cash cow. Casual gaming. They need to partner with software designers to bring out more casual games for tablets and smartphones. There's dozens of ways to do this that can turn a quick buck, and you'll get the kids' attention that way. They can also stop with the 'premium' benefits of The Hub. What's more important, selling your merchandising through mass viewer reachout or making sure the network stays in the black?

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IMO Hasbro made cuts on three sides, cut the sizes of each figure, raise the prices at retail, and drastically reduce quality. Personally I'd have been ok with the first two cuts as long as Hasbro worked to bring out quality pieces in every figure, however instead we get deluxes that are less intricate than a low-grade Gundam model kit. Seriously I have a whole collection of those gundam models, and FOC Shockwave weighs about as much as my 6" Wing Zero, the plastic is hollow and feels comparable to a snap together model. If I didn't know better I'd think that the team working on Hasbro's new releases waas the same one that created Impossible Toys TRNS-01 Valkyrie. It just seems Hasbro has lost it's love of toys, which isn't good if that's how you make your money.

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Well, that gives Leo Tolstoy a run for his money. Hasbro's main issue of late is they saw huge $$$ with the movie and tried to cash in on it. Problem was, it got milked too hard. Are collectors being too hard on them? Maybe. Should Hasbro try to appease collectors? Perhaps not. What Hasbro needs to do is stop trying to milk every udder on the cow. It creates over-saturation and makes people lose interest in the line. Do you need 10 different sublines to a series? Absolutely not. Do you need to feature a character with 4 different paint jobs? A bit overkill.

 

I'll agree with everything you said regarding the TF movie verse toy lines. what worked well in the first 2007 movie. got ruined for rotf & dotm. due to the extreme repaints.

 

The CGI reimagined rotf/dotm TF toys ideas was another huge mistake. their needed to be newer alt modes & newer robot designs.

 

That being said, you can't go back to 1984 or 1995 and copy that formula. The world has changed. Kids care more about game consoles and tablets than toys. Here's where the future is for Hasbro is they want a cash cow. Casual gaming. They need to partner with software designers to bring out more casual games for tablets and smartphones. There's dozens of ways to do this that can turn a quick buck, and you'll get the kids' attention that way. They can also stop with the 'premium' benefits of The Hub. What's more important, selling your merchandising through mass viewer reachout or making sure the network stays in the black?

 

In 1989 thru 1990 the TF usa toy line failed in sales. due to 90%+ being super tiny TF toys like micromasters,basics & action masters. it seems for the dotm & TFP toy lines hasbro has repeated this same doomed cycle now called cyber verse. where the cyber verse toys dominate 90% of the toy line.

 

The super detailed/higly stylized TF sculpts for 2008 animated and the movie verse. was another failed idea borrowed from the Transmetal,fuzors & BM toy lines. sometimes less is better. sometimes over detailing stuff to the extreme makes it look horrible/mostrous/hideous & just un-desirable.

 

The other negative about over detailing the sculpts. is that this eats up more of the budget money. other areas in the budget now need to be less. like weaker/thinner plastic,simplified transformations. making the toys smaller in the size classes. inferior engineering,etc...

 

IMO Hasbro made cuts on three sides, cut the sizes of each figure, raise the prices at retail, and drastically reduce quality. Personally I'd have been ok with the first two cuts as long as Hasbro worked to bring out quality pieces in every figure, however instead we get deluxes that are less intricate than a low-grade Gundam model kit. Seriously I have a whole collection of those gundam models, and FOC Shockwave weighs about as much as my 6" Wing Zero, the plastic is hollow and feels comparable to a snap together model. If I didn't know better I'd think that the team working on Hasbro's new releases waas the same one that created Impossible Toys TRNS-01 Valkyrie. It just seems Hasbro has lost it's love of toys, which isn't good if that's how you make your money.

 

I agree,attacking three fronts at once seems a bit harsh.

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Well, that gives Leo Tolstoy a run for his money. Hasbro's main issue of late is they saw huge $$$ with the movie and tried to cash in on it. Problem was, it got milked too hard. Are collectors being too hard on them? Maybe. Should Hasbro try to appease collectors? Perhaps not. What Hasbro needs to do is stop trying to milk every udder on the cow. It creates over-saturation and makes people lose interest in the line. Do you need 10 different sublines to a series? Absolutely not. Do you need to feature a character with 4 different paint jobs? A bit overkill.

 

That being said, you can't go back to 1984 or 1995 and copy that formula. The world has changed. Kids care more about game consoles and tablets than toys. Here's where the future is for Hasbro is they want a cash cow. Casual gaming. They need to partner with software designers to bring out more casual games for tablets and smartphones. There's dozens of ways to do this that can turn a quick buck, and you'll get the kids' attention that way. They can also stop with the 'premium' benefits of The Hub. What's more important, selling your merchandising through mass viewer reachout or making sure the network stays in the black?

 

I'd like to see G1 Awakening get a sequel. That game was boss.

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I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Here are just a few of my thoughts.

 

Kreos: I hate the concept, but LOVE the Kreons. That's all they should have made with playsets like the volcano headquarters, maybe a Cybertron playset, etc. The concept of having to build a robot and then disassemble the blocks to create a vehicle is STUPID!!!! The little Kreons are cute and awesome looking however and they should have just rolled with that.

 

Bayverse: I believe Bay and company did have too much freedom, and the toys suffered from bad designs. Not all of them. I saw a LC DotM Ironhide at Walmart a while back a d thought it looked decent. Another example is my love for LC Brawl. I know this is a touchy subject for some, so I'll quit now.

 

Another problem is Mech Tech weaponry. Hasbro could use the money That it takes to make these big bulky weapons and use it to add paint applications to improve the aesthetics of the figures. And why must they continue to subject us to who they think we like? No Hasbro, I'm sick of Bumblebee.

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(snip)

 

I think Hasbro is currently getting way too carried away with the under age 4 toddler themed TF toy lines. these days 90% of a TF toy line consist of super tiny TF toys. cyber verse exploded on to the scene with the DOTM toy line,sadly it made it's way into the TF Prime toy line. these days barely 10% of a TF toy line consist of the bigger sized toys.

 

I just feel these days the awful TF toys/lines out number the decent TF Toys/lines. apparently hasbro likes to specialize in higher volume with lower quality toys. all these TF sides lines are pure garbage & epic failure. those SWTF & marvel cross-over are waste of fine plastic & oil used to create/transport them. the 2010/2011 TF kreo-o's were not selling in usa stores. what does hasbro do they make more kreo TF toys for 2012/2013. TF cyber verse i'm treating as it's own entity/side line/whatever,so this gets bundled in this category of epic failure/awful.

 

(snip)

 

OTHER NON-ECONOMY HASBRO MISTAKES I notice. Creating a cartoon series that feature four rescue bots character toys in it. for a company that creates media to sell product this decision makes no sense & was epic failure from start to finish. I think it would have made much more sense to create a cel drawn animated cartoon series for generations or kreo. because generations & kreo have dozens of product to advertise & sell via a media cartoon series.

 

The rescue bots toys just seem like a step back & inferior in every way to the play-school tonka Go-bots TF toys made years ago.

the rescue bots have less posabilty,sculpt,enginering than the play school gobots toys.

 

(snip)

 

IN CLOSING....... I notice Takara doesn't sell half the garbage Hasbro sells for their TF toy lines. Takara doesn't sell SWTF, Marvel cross-overs,Kreo. takara only sells less than 25% of the super tiny TF toys hasbro does. Takara packs newer TF figures in their own cases. no mixed/multi assortment. every character toy gets it's own case. Takara aims it's TF toy lines towards teenagers & adults. takara applies more exspensive paint apps on the TF toys. takara includes more weapons/accessories with their TF toys. Takara hasn't gone bumblebee toys/character crazy/mad/insane/obsessed. Takara employs more competent & better trained employees.

 

Snipped the stuff I don't quite take issue with.

 

1.) Cyberverse. I know, I know. You're incredibly biased against toys smaller than Voyager class, but you can at least do some research on what you're ranting about.

 

Cyberverse didn't come onto the scene during DOTM, it's been an evolving idea since 2005/2006's Legends of Cybertron line up. (2000/2003, if you consider the Heroes of Cybertron & WST lines to be a precursor.)

It was initially intended to tie into the show and have a proper scale with figures like Leader class Starscream, and the gigantic Metroplex, who made the show cast seem absolutely tiny. Obviously it was popular enough to continue on and evolve into including playsets. They're a great line for fans who want playsets and don't have the display space for the full sized figures.

I honestly have no idea how you can call it a 4 & Under/Toddler line, as they're obviously not due to the whole fact that they're not Rescue Bots. Cyberverse is filled with a thing called choking hazards for toddlers.

 

2.)Rescue Bots. You might not like the show, but for the target audience, it's very well done. Have you tried to actually sit through any of the episodes? As for wanting to get rid of something that actually works as a children TV series, you'd rather replace it with Kre-O (which would work as a Internet Series at best, which it practically is, currently) or Generations, a series that would be mightily complained upon if it wasn't an uber-adult series? We have Prime to fill that 'role', be happy with it.

 

If you don't like Rescue Bots after giving it a try, that's fine. But let the kids have their own Transformers series. (as for the toys, I bought both GoBots, and Rescue Bots. I seriously see no difference in articulation.)

 

3.)Takara doesn't produce as much 'crap' lines as Hasbro does. Well, sure, but they sure do have their share of quirky lines/items. Disney Label, Nike label, GariGariKun figures, the upcoming baseball caps...That pretty much puts them on par with Hasbro for Marvel and Star Wars crossover figures.

 

As for the paint apps, seen the Arms Micron Prime line? I don't see many paint apps on that line. Not to mention, there's been a number of figures Takara has released that skimped on paint applications, while Hasbro had done more applications on. You can say Takara is better than Hasbro, but in reality after looking at the history of the two companies, they basically even each other out.

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