set the standards low to succeed, (suck seed?)

or set them high and aurpass yourself (wait that only works in sports and career applications...)

Clearly, your only acceptable standard is a realistic gun for Megatron's alt mode. So what's the point? You can either accept Classics Megs for what it is, or shell out cash for a MP Megatron, if you can even get one.

Hobbetimus Prime: MikePrime and Shockwave2005 are right. The reissues sold better for Takara because:

a/ They marketed exclusively at older collectors. All Japanese reissues, as well as Binaltech and Masterpiece toys, are sold "For Ages 15 and Up" - this would exempt the toys from certain child safety laws since they are not marketed at children. This allows Takara to strengthen springs in the launchers and reissue G1 Megatron. Twice. Compare this with Hasbro's reissues which were marketed at "For Ages 8+" - what 8 year old is going to want to buy a vintage Transformer? They're crap compared to most Armada and Energon figures as far as being toys are concerned, and these kids would be far too young to hold any nostalgic memories of G1 (which is the primary appeal of G1 reissues).

b/ Yes, the G1 reissue market is a small specialised niche market. This is also why Takara's G1 reissues were produced in limited quantities! (and even then some of them shelf-warmed badly, e.g.: God Ginrai). Compare this with Hasbro's reissues which were made in standard mass-production numbers. My local TRU still has piles of unsold G1 reissues from years ago that they just can't get rid of! Try looking for G1 reissues in Japan lately? Comparatively much harder to find because Takara's reissues were just made in smaller quantities. Sure, it makes it harder to find a reissue if you decided to wait five freakin' years to buy it (duh), but at the same time it's an understandable decision to make these toys in such small quantities if they're marketed at such a small niche group. Most eHobby exclusives are only produced in quantities of 1000 - that makes them a lot rarer than most convention exclusives.

 

As for the whole chrome argument, I think Hasbro was just being incredibly cheap. I see no reason why certain weapons and parts had to miss out on being chromed, particularly when it wasn't consistent. For example, Optimus Prime still had chromed grill, headlights and thighs, yet unchromed missiles. And what was with that cheap looking grade of plastic they used on reissues like Silverstreak? Eewww... (-_-)

And 'sif you'd worry about chrome-chipping on a line of toys that should have been marketed at adult collectors who aren't going to be rigorously playing with these toys. Takara reissues all had chrome (where needed) and I've not heard of any problems about that. Does anyone else here have problems with Takara's ample use of chrome? I don't.

Hobbetimus Prime: MikePrime and Shockwave2005 are right. The reissues sold better for Takara because:

 

I didn't say anything about the way they sold for Takara, thanks. Neither did MikePrime or Shockwave2005, as far as I can tell. They were talking about Hasbro marketing towards adults, which is a different situation. Takara and Hasbro serve different markets in different countries. It's unfair to say that just because one does something one way the other is free to do it in that same way.

 

Takara's line was for a completely different market with different toy safety standards. I wasn't arguing Takara's success, I was just trying to elaborate on Hasbro's situation.

 

I understand you're lucky enough to live in a country that both markets reach, but I think it's safe to say neither company makes production decisions based on your neck of the woods.

 

a/ They marketed exclusively at older collectors. All Japanese reissues, as well as Binaltech and Masterpiece toys, are sold "For Ages 15 and Up" - this would exempt the toys from certain child safety laws since they are not marketed at children. This allows Takara to strengthen springs in the launchers and reissue G1 Megatron. Twice. Compare this with Hasbro's reissues which were marketed at "For Ages 8+"...

 

Well, as Pete said, why would they risk cutting out any market at all, hence one reason for the 8 and up.

 

But also, it's only through the good graces of Toys R Us that the reissue line had a home. Likely there was a partnership of some kind involved and Toys R Us probably had their own requests regarding age range, safety standards and numbers produced on the niche market items to be carried in their store.

 

Compare this with Hasbro's reissues which were made in standard mass-production numbers. My local TRU still has piles of unsold G1 reissues from years ago that they just can't get rid of!

 

Right...they made a product with a small, small, small market, and it didn't sell. They probably figured it wouldn't, but wanted to give the fans something, so they had to cut some costs in producing it so they didn't eat it too badly when they couldn't move all the product.

 

As for the whole chrome argument, I think Hasbro was just being incredibly cheap.

 

Right, they were being cheap. Like I said, cost concerns.

As for the whole chrome argument, I think Hasbro was just being incredibly cheap.

 

Right, they were being cheap. Like I said, cost concerns.

 

They were not being cheap. If they were being cheap, they would have cut the chrome altogether, instead of haphazardly keeping it on some parts, while neglecting others.

 

I already went over this a few posts back. The loss of chrome was simply a side-effect of the manufacturing process. Certain parts had to be cast in different types of plastic than they were originally, as a result of modern toy standards (or at least, Hasbro's internal standards). Unfortunately, the electroplating process doesn't take to the new type of plastic, so the modified parts couldn't be chromed.

So why wasn't there any chrome on some unmodified parts like:

+ Grapple's hook

+ Prowl, Smokescreen, Jazz and Silverstreak's rifles

+ Silverstreak, Smokescreen and Prowl's missiles (unmodified since their launchers don't fire) - yet Hoist's missiles were chrome

...etc.

 

Takara's line was for a completely different market with different toy safety standards. I wasn't arguing Takara's success, I was just trying to elaborate on Hasbro's situation.

IMHO that was Hasbro's shortcoming, they should have marketed their reissues at the same market that Takara did, in other words, directly to adult collectors instead of also trying to include children. The inclusion of children was a mistake IMO.

 

I understand you're lucky enough to live in a country that both markets reach, but I think it's safe to say neither company makes production decisions based on your neck of the woods.

Er, no I don't. Australia gets all its TFs from Hasbro - and we don't always get everything that is released in North America. We got most of the reissues that were released in N. America, but I think there were some we didn't get - for example we never got Apex Armour Optimus Prime. Not that it would've sold because reissue God Ginrais were still shelf-warming at import stores -- but import stores don't count as standard distribution. I'm sure you have specialist importers in your country too - but as far as regular toy and dept stores are concerned, they get everything from Hasbro. We had MP Ultra Magnus here, but that was a special import from Hasbro - Hasbro Australia did some special deal with Takara and got their permission to import them here as Target exclusives. Aside from that, we pretty much get whatever Hasbro releases.

 

I got most of my reissues from Japan, but that's because I went and imported them directly for myself - either through an online store like HLJ.com or via trades with Japanese Transfans. I very seldomly buy Japanese TFs from local import stores as they tend to be quite expensive - it's actually cheaper for me to buy them from Japan and pay for the postage. Also because I purchase my Japanese TFs in bulk with some other Sydney-based Transfans so we save some money on postage (postage becomes cheaper per head when you ship in bulk).

 

Well, as Pete said, why would they risk cutting out any market at all, hence one reason for the 8 and up.

Because sometimes including a wider market can actually be bad. By including the 8+ kiddie market, Hasbro had to make the following compromises:

a. Modify the reissues for child safety, thus ruining the authenticity of these toys as G1 reissues - this affects the adult collector market, many of whom would opt to get the Takara reissues instead... this problem is compounded by the fact that TRU went and charged extravagant prices for reissues (at least here they did) - our reissues costed nearly the same price as buying a Japanese reissue from an import store - the TRU reissues were only AU$10 cheaper... many collectors preferred to pay the extra $10 to buy a more G1-accurate Japanese reissue. In some cases, the Japanese imports were cheaper than the TRU reissues. Now that's at import price - if you were like me and buying the toys directly from Japan and paying the regular Japanese retail prices, it was even cheaper!! I know that TRU's pricing policy isn't Hasbro's fault, but it really did hurt the sales of Hasbro's reissues here. The Takara reissues were simply better value for money, even at heightened import prices.

b. Produce the toys at larger production numbers (which you think would make the toys cheaper per unit) - this means that there are simply more toys to sell!

 

Also, marketing G1 reissues at children is, IMO, not a good idea because:

* These are reissues of toys made two decades ago. By contemporary standards, they're pretty crap. They sell well to adult collectors because it is the nostalgia that drives the sales. Children don't have this nostalgia because they didn't grow up with G1! I used to play the Armada boardgame with a bunch of 12-13 year old boys, who were watching Armada on TV at the time. I brought in the Transformers The Movie DVD to show them - they laughed at it and couldn't believe how bad it was. They thought that G1 Megatron, Starscream etc. were poor comparisons compared to their Armada counterparts. Now, from an adult G1 collector's POV, talk like that is tantamount to heresy, but you gotta look at it from a kid's POV... Armada Transformers are comparatively much better designed and crafted compared to a G1 Transformer. You could argue that in the context of the 80s, the G1 Transformers were very well made, and that's true - but kids don't know that. They weren't even born in the 80s so they wouldn't be able to appreciate that. To a lot of kids, G1 TFs are just little unarticulated brickformers that look like they would break too easily. And using stickers to add on details by today's standards of superior sculpting and air-brushed paint decos?! Har!

* Hasbro was trying to market these fossil-formers to kids at the same time that they were also selling Armada and Energon! Imagine you're 8 years old. You have a choice of either getting: (a) G1 Optimus Prime - it's little and boxy... the trailer is this plastic box that opens up with some really simply fold out launcher with dorky looking missiles and a buggy car, or (b) Armada Optimus Prime - it has a far more impressive looking robot with a self-transforming trailer. The trailer is a battle platform with multiple gimmicks that can be activated by Mini-Cons and armed by Optimus Prime. The battle platform can self-transform again to merge with Optimus Prime to form his super mode and it makes noises! -- which one are you gonna bug mum and dad to put under your Xmas tree? ;)

 

If Hasbro had followed Takara's example and marketed them at adult collectors, then they would have had the following advantages (again JMO):

a. More G1-accurate reissues since they don't need to make any modifications to cater for children. Instead of TRU, these reissues would most likely be sold in specialty stores like comic book shops etc. Arguably Hasbro might be able to reissue Megatron if it is sold at specialty stores to adult collectors (after all, they do sell real replica weapons from the Lord of the Rings etc.).

b. Be able to produce the reissues in smaller production runs; again, this suits the whole direct-sales approach.

 

...and for those who may think that such an approach wouldn't work for Hasbro, this was the way that Hasbro sold their Astrotrain reissue - it was made in smaller quantities and as a direct-sale product. I believe in North America it was available only through Hasbro's web site. In Australia it's a Kmart exclusive and is short-packed. But being made in such smaller quantities it's a LOT cheaper - selling for about AU$18... nearly a quarter of the RRP of TRU reissues! (which are still gathering dust at my local TRU despite numerous sales and price slashes to try and sell their dead stock).

Just out of curiousity, how many words a minute do you type Goki?

I understand you're lucky enough to live in a country that both markets reach, but I think it's safe to say neither company makes production decisions based on your neck of the woods.

Er, no I don't.

 

I was mistaken.

Just out of curiousity, how many words a minute do you type Goki?

A lot more than I read, that's for sure.

Maybe I'm too evil, but I'd love for gangsters, bank robbers, and other random gun-toters to start painting their(real) guns' tips orange.

 

Just to spite US law.

 

Just watch, it might happen all through the world. Someone shoots someone, goes to court and says in their defence:

 

"But your honour, my gun had an orange strip on it's barrel, so it's not my fault, it's the fault of the orange strip, it made me do it!"

 

With the way the justice system is, I really wouldn't be surprised if that does happen at some point.

 

-~`,;

Just out of curiousity, how many words a minute do you type Goki?

A lot more than I read, that's for sure.