huh, not a single "NO"... you'd think they would get the hint.

Somehow it seems unlikely they lost the molds to the Dinobots. I mean, they were releaed during G2 (minus Sludge and Swoop).

 

Besides, it should be possible to recreate the molds. It might be expensive but overall profits should make that acceptible. I mean, the Dinobots would be big seller. I would buy them and I think that pretty much any fan that can afford them would do so.

 

Given all the advancements in technology it should be possible to recreate these figures. If bootleggers can copy the various gestalts then surely Hasbro should be able to copy the Dinobots from figures bought online.

Somehow it seems unlikely they lost the molds to the Dinobots. I mean, they were releaed during G2 (minus Sludge and Swoop).

That doesn't make any sense. G2 came out 13 years ago. How the hell does it "seem unlikely" that they lost the moulds to the Dinobots if they haven't been made in the last 13 years? Judging from the fact that:

a) There have been NO Dinobots made from any of the G1 moulds in 13 years.

b) After 6 years of reissuing G1 toys, they've gone and reissued obscure late G1 stuff like Star Convoy and even a G2 Transformer like Battle Convoy, and yet NO Dinobot reissues? Doesn't seem logical, does it?

...I'd say it's bloody likely that they no longer have the moulds!

 

Also, it's not cost-effective for Takara to completely re-cast a Transformer from scratch. Yes, bootleggers do it, but they're not aiming to produce a toy of accurate quality, whereas Takara are. It was very difficult for Takara to reissue Convoy because they'd lost the arms from the original cast, and it cost them a lot of money to recast those arms from scratch. I reckon part of the reason why there have been so many different reissues of the G1 Convoy mould (Convoy, JafCon Convoy, New Years Special Convoy, TFC Convoy, Pepsi Convoy - then there are all the Ultra Magni) is to try to make back the money they spent on rebuilding that part of the mould. It was quite costly for Takara, who only produce reissues in limited numbers (because they only market them at the 15+ collectors age bracket, which is a far smaller niche market than marketing toys at children). And that was just to reproduce the arms!

 

Reproducing an entire cast from scratch would be hideously expensive and most likely not worth the cost (because then the price of the reissue would become very expensive, arguably nearly as, if not more expensive than buying an original G1 Dinobot, which would defeat the whole purpose of reissuing them!). This is why the Soundwave reissue was cast from the Soundblaster mould, because recasting the toy from scratch from an existing Soundwave toy would be too cost inhibitive.

 

And even Hasbro has backed this up saying that it is not cost effective for Takara to reproduce a G1 toy whose mould has been destroyed/lost. I believe it was Hasbro who announced that Takara had lost the Mirage mould at one of the BotCons. So really, after six years of reissues and considering that Takara was scraping the bottom of the barrel with reissues like Star Convoy and Battle Convoy... (these characters never even appeared in a TV show!) I'd honestly say that most of the popular characters from the first three years of Transformers would have had their moulds destroyed/lost. Cos let's face it, if Takara could reissue Mirage, Sunstreaker, Wheeljack and the Dinobots by now, I'm quite certain that they would already have done so by now.

 

This seems like a far more likely hypothesis to me. If you think it's unlikely, please justify your theory with some evidence other than just, "I can't accept that" or "I don't want to believe it." :/

Valid points indeed. I rest my case.

 

But there are plenty of other figures that could be released provided the molds are still available. The Head- and Targetmasters also spring to mind.

 

However, I am not sure if there would be much demand for those so I am guessing the reissue line is at an end.

 

It had been hinted that Grandus and Sky Garry would be released since Star Convoy did came with the piece to connect to those. But I think they simply included it to keep him complete.

 

They could always reissue Megatron, Optimus Prime and Starscream again in their original forms. I would be all over that as I missed them the first time.

 

Granted I could have bought that Pepsi Prime but that would have gone against everything I stand for.

Valid points indeed. I rest my case.

 

But there are plenty of other figures that could be released provided the molds are still available. The Head- and Targetmasters also spring to mind.

 

However, I am not sure if there would be much demand for those so I am guessing the reissue line is at an end.

 

It had been hinted that Grandus and Sky Garry would be released since Star Convoy did came with the piece to connect to those. But I think they simply included it to keep him complete.

 

They could always reissue Megatron, Optimus Prime and Starscream again in their original forms. I would be all over that as I missed them the first time.

 

Granted I could have bought that Pepsi Prime but that would have gone against everything I stand for.

 

theres no chance in those reissues being re-released unless it's some kind of exclusive by hasbro. primes been redone countless time, i can think of at least 3 versions of the megs reissue and 4 of SS. i doubt that the headmasters, targetmasters, and powermasters are iconic enough to have the kind of market that takara would deem necisary to make them. as a collector i'd love to see 'em all made eventually, but i don't think that they where made with the tf collector in mind, i think they where made for the older crowd to invoke some sort of nostalgic impulse buy. at least thats how i interpret what i'm seeing.

 

also, i gotta gree with goki, i don't think it'd be a good idea for takara to try to remould the toys from existing figures. i fear thats how the KO's where made and from my experiance that resaulted in huge losses of detail along with elignment issues and an over all sloppy outcome. takara could probably do it much better, but i doubt they'd come out as good as the originals.

 

>_> not trying to argue, just stating my opinion <_<

Most of the more popular G1 figures are the ones from the first three years (1984-1986). The post-movie figures are not that popular, hence why I think Takara were kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel with guys like Star Convoy and Battle Convoy. Remember how badly God Ginrai shelf-warmed at import stores?! Some importers, including HLJ, marked God Ginrai down to AU$20 just to get rid of their dead stock!

 

They could always reissue Megatron, Optimus Prime and Starscream again in their original forms. I would be all over that as I missed them the first time.

Not including Pepsi Convoy or any convention/e-Hobby exclusives, the original Convoy has been reissued three times (four times if you include the Hasbro reissue) and Megatron has been reissued twice.

 

You snooze you lose, my friend. :)

True but given how much people now pay for especially Megatron I could see logic in another reissue. Not that it is ever gonna happen.

 

As for Battle Convoy was just a dumb idea if you ask me. A G2 mold really did not belong in the reissue line in my opinion. And I doubt he sold all that well.

 

Star Convoy would have sold well, I bought him since the original is very expensive. Heck, that was the primary reason. But the figure is rather poor and the best feature is Micromaster Hot Rod. Good thing I got him for little over $50 along with BT Yellow Tracks for $20 (plus shipping charges) which was a fair price.

 

Slaughtermaster does have a point, the name/likeness of Optimus Prime are used to sell countless of toys most of which are not even that good.

Star Convoy and Battle Convoy seemed to have sold well. I think part of that reason is because Takara learnt their lesson from God Ginrai and have kept the production numbers of later G1 toys like these at a relatively low count. There were an awful number of Stepper reissues floating around, I thought that was overproduced too (especially with Hasbro doing Ricochet). But I guess a toy that size is a smaller loss to ride than something like God Ginrai.

 

True but given how much people now pay for especially Megatron I could see logic in another reissue. Not that it is ever gonna happen.

Well, it's logical for you, I dunno if it's logical for Takara. When a company makes a product they want to sell that product as soon as possible. And having already reissued Megatron twice in the last six years, I'd say that they've covered most of the Japanese fans who would have wanted to get a reissue Megatron.

 

Yes that's right, Japanese fans. Takara markets its reissues at the Japanese market. You could argue that there are a lot of Transfans outside Japan who buy their reissues, but it's actually against Takara and Hasbro's contractual agreement with each other to cross-promote their toys at each other's market. I've had the head of Takara's TF division tell me this himself in a telephone conversation I had with him, so this is pretty much coming straight from the horse's mouth.

 

Unless Hasbro specifically asks for it, Takara is legally not allowed to produce figures for non-Takara markets. And vice-versa. Other than import stores, Hasbro Transformers are typically sold in Japan via Takara as TRU or e-Hobby exclusives. Masterpiece Ultra Magnus was sold here as a Target exclusive because it was imported by Hasbro Australia.

 

So unless Hasbro specifically commissions or gives Takara permission to cross-market a reissue Megatron for Western fans, it's not going to happen. And considering what toy laws are like in most Anglophone countries, it's unlikely to ever happen.

"Takara is legally not allowed to produce figures for non-Takara markets."

 

Cigarette companies are legally not allowed to produce cigarettes for kids but those companies still expect (and hope) that kids will buy them.

 

But Hasbro and Takara's partnership is a very unique one so that has kept in mind indeed. I just hope Hasbro mananged to buy Bandai so they can reissue all of the "borrowed molds".

 

And Hasbro should just reissue Megatron, toy laws be dammed. The US toylaws do not make any sense at all, just ask Thundercracker:

 

http://www.insecticons.com/insecticomics/p...icalhumour.html

 

:tflaugh :tflaugh :tflaugh

 

Kidding aside, they could release him as an adult collectable and sell him exclusively though their website using creditcard payments. That way only adult collector's would buy him and those would be smart enough not to walk around in public with them.

 

Marvel is doing something similar with Punisher. The comic totally unsuited for kids so it is not advertised or sold on the newsstand. The perfect solution.

Cigarette companies are legally not allowed to produce cigarettes for kids but those companies still expect (and hope) that kids will buy them.

That's because it's the only way they can really sell their product. Let's face it, all smokers started smoking when they were kids - typically as teenagers. If you'd never smoked a single cigarette in your life until the age of 18, you are quite unlikely to ever take up smoking as an adult, cos it's just such a stupid habit to take up. Only kids are stupid enough to do it, so it's best to target them, because once they get hooked as kids, they'll continue to smoke as adults. I've never met an adult smoker who would recommend smoking to a non-smoker. These are addictions that they acquired in their youth. Kids are a much more vulnerable market, and tobacco companies have to lobby their merchandise at the youth market because that is the critical age at which they have to get them hooked on smoking. Once they hit adulthood, if they haven't taken up smoking, then it's effectively too late.

 

Those of us who are non-smokers are either people who never got into smoking as kids (and thus have never really been smokers), or former smokers who have managed to kick their addiction - but again, people tend to quit smoking as adults rather than as kids.

 

Kidding aside, they could release him as an adult collectable and sell him exclusively though their website using creditcard payments. That way only adult collector's would buy him and those would be smart enough not to walk around in public with them.

You can't actually sell something that's illegal under the proviso that it's an adult collectable. Owning a toy replica gun is technically illegal for everyone - both adults and children. Yes, those of us who own G1 Megatron are breaking the law. I know someone who got tackled by airport security because he was foolish to bring G1 Megatron with him in gun mode in public. My G1 Megatron, which he took without my permission and ended up breaking (a few months later, news came out that Takara would be reissuing him, so I demanded that he pay for my reissue - he refused to pay the full amount - so in the end he agreed to pay for 50% of my reissue cost, which is why I only paid AU$40 for my reissue Megatron when it came out).

 

The Punisher comic you mentioned before may not be suitable for kids, I bet it's not outright illegal to own.