Toy Wishes has published in their Holiday Preview issue and announced at this year's Holiday Preview event in New York (Oct. 6-7, 2005) their "Hot Dozen" list of toys for 2005 and forecasting the ever growing market of "High Tech" toys are more favored by kids these days over traditional toys. Although Transformers has not made the list since the BTR (Built To Rule) line in 2003, Hasbro rules the list with three of their electronic products: Furby, I-DOG and VCam NOW.  A full press release may be viewed on CNN.com along with Hasbro's own press release receiving top honors at the event.

 

Read the Full News Story Here

They should cram that Furby voice tech into a TF - then I could load it up with swears. And ummm cool TF quotes.

 

*off to disassemble a Furby*

Be careful what you wish for. I'm getting images of a "Wheelie Furby"

 

 

**shudders**

Awesome.

 

I'll buy 2 and make them face each other.

 

Give stare, over there!

Give stare, over there!

Give stare, over there!

Give stare, over there!

Give stare, over there!

Give stare, over there!

Give stare, over there!

 

 

:)

it seems that children don't want to play with toys anymore :tfsad

 

maybe we should repel the Child Labor Laws so they can get jobs too.

Well, this further proves everything moves in circles. Time, life, everything.

 

1980's TFs and He-Man, G.I. Joe, along with Voltron were IT. No bones about it.

 

The 90's made for a downtime, and pretty much the death knell of TFs altogether, along with He-Man and Voltron. G.I. Joe had enough rabid fanboys and kids that like war toys to keep it purpetually running, sad to say.

 

Now it's the 21st century and TFs, He-Man, Voltron all saw a resurgance, and brought a whole new generation into the mix.

 

It all goes in circles, and here's the problem, just like before, TFs and He-Man and Voltron are sitting on the sidelines again.

 

He-Man: Show cancelled, toys no longer being made.

Voltron: Trendmasters had a nice run, but too costly for some of the toys and now it's all left to Toynami to come up with Voltron for an outrageous price.

TransFormers: Show cancelled, moved, sent back. Not a hot contender for Christmas this year, and probably won't see much in the way of good sales because of that and most certainly isn't Hasbro's highest priority right now, so we'll see next to nothing in terms of fresh new stock for Santa to bring. You jolly old fat bastard....

 

See my point? We're getting back to the 90's death area again and we'll have to wait some more to enjoy these great toys, or this time might not get lucky at all and they might completely discontinue the idea like Takara/Tomy has. (It's indefinite, but you and I know it means not gonna happen again, see ya.)

 

My only hope is the filler line and/or the movie comes to fruition and actually makes a home run out of the park, because it's pretty much all we've got lined up for us and we're pretty much screwed if either one falls through.

 

So enjoy these figures while you can...I hope I'm not right, I enjoy these toys...I really do. :(

What can we expect, even toy companies don't trust kids to play with toys anymore.  Look at ToyBiz's Marvel Superhero Showdown figures.  They're small Marvel Legends figures, at ML prices, that are integrated into some sort of battle game.  Rather than expect kids to just play with normal action figures, they have to make up a game for them to play. 

I'd take these "top toy lists" with a grain of salt.

 

Consumers, particularly kids, are an unpredictable bunch.  And while tech toys might do well (Walmart has some 3 pallets of V-Tech, Leapfrog, and Video Now out in the main aisle), that in no way means traditional toys like tF and GI Joe will do excessively bad.

 

Anyone else find it amusing the last TF listing was for a line that was cancelled in less than a year and had what most consider the weakest TF toyline in existence?

1980's TFs and He-Man, G.I. Joe, along with Voltron were IT. No bones about it.

Also remember than proportionately, there were A LOT more people buying toys, and not only that, there was not the "tech craze" we have now.  Back in the 80s, even a small toyline might get two series of figures, a few vehicles, and maybe even a playset.  Now, if it isn't tied to a cartoon or movie, you will be lucky to see any store carry a toyline.

 

[qoute]The 90's made for a downtime, and pretty much the death knell of TFs altogether, along with He-Man and Voltron. G.I. Joe had enough rabid fanboys and kids that like war toys to keep it purpetually running, sad to say.

That can be easily explained by the weak offerings of the toy companies.  TF, and to an extent GI Joe, both lost their way with far too many gimmick elements (the various Masters in TF, the various subsets in GI Joe).  And Voltron and He-Man, in their original incarnations, were gone well before 1990.

I don't know where you got that "rabid fanboy" crap.  The 3.75" fanbase has only really come into its own in 2000, and despite your misinformed perceptions, it wasn't until 2000 that GI Joe was mass available again.  It was canned in 94, got two flop remakes over the next couple years, was TRU only in 97 and 98, and it wasn't until 2002 did Hasbro start making new figures.

 

Now it's the 21st century and TFs, He-Man, Voltron all saw a resurgance, and brought a whole new generation into the mix.

Both voltron, He-Man, and TFs got resurgances in the 90s, to various extents.  the New Adventures of He-Man didn't do that well, the late 90s redo of Voltron wasn't a hit, but the remake of Transformers into BEast Wars was a success, and its success is what eventually lead to RID and Armada which have put TF into the top toy echelons.

 

He-Man: Show cancelled, toys no longer being made.

Voltron: Trendmasters had a nice run, but too costly for some of the toys and now it's all left to Toynami to come up with Voltron for an outrageous price.

TransFormers: Show cancelled, moved, sent back. Not a hot contender for Christmas this year, and probably won't see much in the way of good sales because of that and most certainly isn't Hasbro's highest priority right now, so we'll see next to nothing in terms of fresh new stock for Santa to bring. You jolly old fat bastard....

He-Man: Done in 2003 after Mattel Powerglideed up case ratios, figure availibility, and a host of other mistakes.  Rather than try and salvage what they had, Mattel simply dumped it in favor of license tie ins like Mega Man and the DC license

Voltron: Dead by 2000, wasn't a particularly big hit that I can remember anyway.

Transformers: Despite popular perception, Transformers did moderately well last year, and Cybertron is proving to be far more popular than Energon this early on.  Transformers is a marquee brand, and from the looks of sales around here, stores will be caught up to the new stock once the holiday season begins in earnest.  TF obvisiously doesn't look to have that high a priority because it has established itself, but Star Wars is still a far larger property, and the DVD will probably spark a fresh round of sales for Christmas, and GI Joe: Sigma Six is essentially a new property.

 

My only hope is the filler line and/or the movie comes to fruition and actually makes a home run out of the park, because it's pretty much all we've got lined up for us and we're pretty much screwed if either one falls through.

 

So enjoy these figures while you can...I hope I'm not right, I enjoy these toys...I really do. :(

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know where you pulled some of this BS.  Transformers is still quite healthy.  I highly doubt Walmart and Target would stock several $50 and $40 products if the line couldn't support it.  Personally, I'm quite surprised to see the $50 pricepoint remain after Unicron.

The toy industry does not turn on a dime, it takes time for ideas to go from design to product.  The reason that all we have lined up is the G1 revisit line and movie line is because...well...that is all that is lined up!  We still have a full year of Cybertron left, but Hasbro already has plans and workings up for at least 2007 and 2008.

considering how many plans Hasbro has for 2006, i'd say that tf's will continue to prosper in North America even if they flop in Japan. i just hope that the design elements don't suffer in Takara's absence. but then again without Takara, there wouldn't be any articulation sacrificing gimmicks so maybe it will even out.