Simply put, there are too many legal obligations and difficulties resulting in using anything from outside sources for any toy company, any company in fact unless there is a specific contract involved defining exactly what is required out of the outside source as well as what is and what is not included in any sort of financial dealings.

 

I know I tried to offer a design for a GI Joe toy back when I was younger and basicly the response was (paraphrasing) "thank you for your interest but we have inhouse designers and will not solicit any ideas from outside sources due to legal ramifications"

The problem with soliciting the fandom is that they don't represent a balanced perspective. Try telling a kitbasher that his design has to pass a drop test, or be appealing to kids in the way that the marketing department guys want. There's a lot more to it than just pleasing the fans IMO.

Not to mention we as kitbashers are willing to complicate any given design to accomlpish our goals of, what in our own minds constitutes perfection !! the common comsumer requires over simpification.

Try telling a kitbasher that his design has to pass a drop test, or be appealing to kids in the way that the marketing department guys want.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does that drop test only require that it not  break or would having the thing render a kid unconcious be an issue? :eplus

Try telling a kitbasher that his design has to pass a drop test, or be appealing to kids in the way that the marketing department guys want.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does that drop test only require that it not  break or would having the thing render a kid unconcious be an issue? :eplus

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm pretty sure that 20th Prime would fail that test...

I'm pretty sure that 20th Prime would fail that test...

 

 

What do you mean by fail.........?

:tard

I'm pretty sure that 20th Prime would fail that test...

 

 

What do you mean by fail.........?

:tard

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If it dropped off a shelf and landed on a kid, it'd probally knock the kid unconcious.

 

Aoi

trully... I think they dont care at all... If they does... Some alts never would be like they are.

Some very good points are being rasied here. I personally think that from a business standpoint it would make tons of common sense for Hasbro to make it a rule for their designers to join the forums here to solicit what the fans want. I would hope Hasbro does not think that the hardcore "Collector" fans only make up a small percentage of their Transformers revenue. How many of us were kids back in the 80's that grew up with the line, only to introduce our children to it years later? It would be simple good research, good cheap marketing and plain old common sense to have a voice for Hasbro that could communicate with the fans. It would cost Hasbro nothing, yet they probably don't see it that way. Only time will tell if Don Murphy's interaction on his board with Transformers fans will produce a realistic version of what we fans have only dreamed of. Perhaps it will be the same here. My thinking is that it would take someone who has been on the inside or IS on the inside now to explain if they can how the process works from start to finish. It seems that lately a lot of the designs that have been released as toys to the general public seem to have a much bigger G1 flavor to them than 5 years ago. So I would like to think that Hasbro is at the very least listening in some regard. Perhaps if we start a monthly petition of some sort for a figure we all want and send it off to Hasbro consistently every single month or something?

 

You never know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, hopefully with the way the movie is being handled so far with fan involvement, Hasbro might take a similar approach to their toylines.  The only problem with that is the bickering in fandom.  With any luck, it doesn't turn them off to the idea.

 

The problem with soliciting the fandom is that they don't represent a balanced perspective. Try telling a kitbasher that his design has to pass a drop test, or be appealing to kids in the way that the marketing department guys want. There's a lot more to it than just pleasing the fans IMO.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I believe fandom has a pretty balanced perspective.  I think what we find appealing, many kids would also. Also, as Maximal Prime brought up, we as adult fans/collectors grew up on G1 and now are kids are growing up on Armada, Energon, Cybertron, etc. I don't have children myself, but when you buy your kids transformers toys, do you buy them based on what you find appealing or them?  I would think it's a little of both.  If there was nothing on the shelf but Backstop and Armorhide, which one would you buy your kid?  In a way, I think pleasing the fans has quite a bit to do with it.

for anybody that cares i did a quick google and found an article on toy safty requirements that explains what they are and such....

 

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:FSUWTq...lient=firefox-a

 

for the original pdf go here

 

http://www.conformity.com/0404product.pdf

 

my take on this whole thing is this

 

hasbro doesn't HAVE to solicit fans about anything that mimics their existing "product" to any degree, so why would they?  i think they've got an ear on the pulse, but it's like Vector Sigma said.  so many kitbashers and guys that create stuff from scratch would scoff at hasbro or takara wanting to change their masterpiece.  has/tak i'm sure has much more experiance in this field which is why they've decided to just decline any fan submitted ideas.

 

i think we have some part of their ear, i mean seriously, collectors account for quite a bit of income, especially on bigger more complex items such as binalternators and the mp products, but they probably make alot more on kids wanting what they see on television so they have to design their main line with children in mind, and sorry to say, children today not only lack immagination and have to have everything given to them up front, but they realy don't care for realism or show accuratness, something that we as collectors hold high.  thats why you get all these outlandish supposed earth vehicles and things of that nature.

 

i guess what i'm trying to say is that while they do hear us, they only nod at us with certain pieces due greatly to the fact that we just don't account for that much income.