I don't think they see the US as a real market for their toys.

Some time ago, there was a translation of an interview from the BT book circling around. In that interview the designers stated they were well aware of the fact that the Hasbro alternators were more popular in japan because they could be played with and posed without chipping or balance issues. But they were equally aware that the BT were very popular in the western world because of the diecast.

 

 

I'm not a BT collecter perse (I only buy them when I think the BT version looks better than the alt, or when there isn't an alt), but I really hope the line isn't dead.

 

Having said that, I'm inclined to agree with Trench: both BT and Alt are dead or dying. KISS seems like a final attempt to keep it alive or at least get the last bit of money out of it. The focus on the little girls (the Autolooper is basically an anime girly with a little TF as extra) and now the girly box and the overtly sexual portent of these and the girly box, all seem to attempts to attract a wider audience (in Japan).

 

Personally, I have no problem with the little PVC girls. Marissa is okay (even though her face makes her look younger than she is), but the one that comes with Hot Rod/Rodimus is over the edge. But it really doesn't matter. I would buy Convoy without any hesitation. I really like to have Rodimus.

 

Even the fact that they're all plastic doesn't really bother me. Die cast is nice, but it can result in balance issues or chipping (paint on plastic doesn't chip as easily as painted diecast).

 

But there's the price. The price is way too high. THis is probably the result of the included CD (although the RM with DVD's weren't this expensive). A CD I can't even listen to. If Takara want this to be a bigger succes they should find a way too lower the price (maybe a version with CD and one without).

Unfortunately I would say that the line is dead. At least it will be as far as sales in the US goes. There is no reason for us to import a product that like Pasquale said, we can get at 1/3 the cost and not have to deal w/ all the other issues that are part of the KISS line. I loved it while it was here, but I think that TT has decided to forget the US market (if they ever considered it in the first place) and focus exclusively on the Japanese market. Even then, I don't see this line continuing for too much longer, not w/ the QC issues, and having only repaints.

Takara dropped the ball on Binaltech long before Tomy got involved - there were quality issues as early as Swindle. They sealed the lines fate when when BTA Red alert was so badly molded, they decided to ship it in robot mode to hide the mis-alignment problems.

 

 

Also bearing in mind the fact that it balances on the rear spoiler, the Ram mold may not have been stable with diecast. Even in all plastic, it has some stability issues.

 

 

 

As for Alternators, it's end has been predicted by someone at least once a week for a long time. There's no evidence to suggest the line is ending;

 

Mirage will be repainted AT LEAST once.

 

The Civic mold will be used at least twice.

 

There's also a Mustang repaint (who it apepars is NOT Barricade?)

 

There's an XB repaint due.

 

There's also the XLR and XK molds, both of which will be used at least twice.

 

That's 7 more Alts. Bearing in mind that Hasbro specifcally said at SDCC that Alts are winding down for a while, and that 7 Alts would cover a fairly large period of time, predictions of the end of Alternators is premature.

^ yes, those should all be coming.

 

However, Hasbro has stated (at SDCC) that Nemesis Prime was the last alternator of the year. THat's one huge gap. Camshaft saw the light in july, as did NP, so that means there won't be an alternator for something like 5 months.

 

(Of course, Hasbro also stated at SDCC that all the new alts will be shown at SDCC (none) and botcon.)

I picked up Camshaft off of HTS last week sort of because all indications point that there won't be another Alt until next year, and he looked pretty good. Despite what people say on the boards, he does look pretty good....I like the color scheme and I can see why Alt Prowl has the baby blue--they didn't want to make the figures too alike.

 

It does look somewhat bleak for the BT line in Japan though. Without die cast that's okay if they price the plastic BTs lower. I think the plastic alts are just fine, and they don't chip and there's no balance issues either. That could be the reason for Kiss Convoy to be all plastic. The legs could be die cast, but that would leave something on the top to be metal as well, and with his loose legs, he's bound to fall over. It doesn't look necessarily like a QC issue with the loose knees/hips as it seems everybody has this problem, so that have been an issue.

 

As for Alternators dying out....I'm not sure what to make of it. That picture of alternator Rumble is real, and they even had a little bio for it that is similar to all the other (lame) repetitive bios for the recent alts ("A twist here, and a twist there"). So I would think at least Rumble would come out. But we've never seen anything about the XLR. And while there are possibilities for repaints with the xB, Ram, GT since there are only one figure out for these molds thus far, I'll wait and see how they look. (I'm sure they'll have mult repaints of these figures a la RID Brawn and Prowl molds, be it in the alternator line or not)

 

It's like I said before, if the Japanese aren't making more of these toys then that's it for the line as the line only goes on when you have new molds.

If I were a BT collector, the loss of die cast metal would completely turn me away from buying them. Why should I pay the same price, or even a little more, for a toy that's not much better than Alternators. Heck, the BTs had better packaging than Alts, at least the regular BTs when the line started. I can appreciate new word fonts and such, but nothing beats the original Transformers logo.

 

 

I am an Alternator collector, though. I won't mind if there won't any new Alternators for the rest of the year. It will save me money for the Classics line. I think Alternators will come back next year, especially when the new movie comes out. Alternators are not movie toys, but people may be looking for Transformers who transform into real cars, so the movie may at least give Alternators some attention.

As for Alternators, it's end has been predicted by someone at least once a week for a long time. There's no evidence to suggest the line is ending;

 

Mirage will be repainted AT LEAST once.

 

The Civic mold will be used at least twice.

 

There's also a Mustang repaint (who it apepars is NOT Barricade?)

 

There's an XB repaint due.

 

There's also the XLR and XK molds, both of which will be used at least twice.

 

That's 7 more Alts. Bearing in mind that Hasbro specifcally said at SDCC that Alts are winding down for a while, and that 7 Alts would cover a fairly large period of time, predictions of the end of Alternators is premature.

Just because pictures of a prototype have been seen (the Civic Alt) doesn't necessarily mean it will be produced - after all, there are numerous pictures of Transtech prototypes floating around on the net. And Hasbro doesn't always repaint every single figure.

 

I imagine there will be "Alt-esque" toys based on the movie designs, but I'm not holding my breath that the Alt line will continue after this "hiatus." While there's a big rush for a month or so when new ones come out and all the fans scramble to find them, after this point, they're all pretty much shelfwarmers so I honestly don't think they really sell very well to the general public.

The Alt Rumble we saw was NOT a prototype. It was an official Hasbro product shot, indicating that the figure is very much finished and simply waiting for release.

The Alt Rumble we saw was NOT a prototype. It was an official Hasbro product shot, indicating that the figure is very much finished and simply waiting for release.

You sure about that? Usually at even the "test-shot" phase quite a few manage to leak out of the factory.

 

I find it a bit odd that they'd go that far and then sit on it for over eight months or more.

 

Guess we'll find out at Botcon...

Well, it looks like an official product shot to me. It was definitely professionally done, and not just some leaked test shot. You be the judge: