I simply don't share that opinion.

 

Hasbro has showed us a trend of having sublines running alongside mainlines - Universe, Alternators, Titanium, Classics (because let's face it - Classics did run alongside Cybertron)

 

That's true, but Hasbro called Classics a filler line from the beginning, so I'm certainly not expecting to see any more from it. Any other word we've gotten about Classics continuing on past the release of the movie has been hemming and hawing and "we'll see" and "it depends", all of which I consider the Public Relations version of "No".

 

Lord knows I've been wrong before, but I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for anymore Classics.

I agree with Hobbes. Classics was a filler for the main TF toy line:

 

ARMADA-ENERGON-CYBERTRON-classics-MOVIE-TF:ANIMATED

 

The Titaniums are made by a different group (the Galoob people), so it wouldn't be a diversion of any resources to keep that line going. As for Alternators & Universe.... heh. well we've seen what's happened to them

 

There's always the possibility of Hasbro repurposing old molds... but releasing new Classics molds? At this point, I doubt it.

 

It's also worth considering that Hasbro had said that we might see Classics Sideswipe/Sunstreaker/Jazz/Cosmos if the line did well enough... perhaps it didn't. Collector enthusiasm alone is not a proper indicator of actual sales.

Seriously? The difference between Ramjet and Dirge's wings is pretty minimal.

 

I see many people saying this. But have any of you ever considered that this also means that remolding the wings is a pretty minimal effort as well then.

 

I mean, if they added the forward wings and replaced the ramjets with a flat surface it would have been 90% there already. You can't convince me that that is too expensive to do, as it doesn't involve very detailed work. All that would have remained to make it perfect is removing the spikes from the front of the main wings and adding extra upward wingtips, both of which also aren't that hard to do.

 

As you can see there was no need to make completely new wings. Remolding the existing ones on Ramjet would have been just fine. All of this combined would have left about half of Ramjet's wings unchanged.

 

I simply don't share that opinion.

 

Hasbro has showed us a trend of having sublines running alongside mainlines - Universe, Alternators, Titanium, Classics (because let's face it - Classics did run alongside Cybertron)

 

That's true, but Hasbro called Classics a filler line from the beginning, so I'm certainly not expecting to see any more from it. Any other word we've gotten about Classics continuing on past the release of the movie has been hemming and hawing and "we'll see" and "it depends", all of which I consider the Public Relations version of "No".

 

Lord knows I've been wrong before, but I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for anymore Classics.

 

 

I find it so ironic that they've finally put a line of TFs on the market that has some pretty darn awesome molds in it and they only make it a short line. I really hope Hasbro will listen to the demand and continue the line.

I mean, if they added the forward wings and replaced the ramjets with a flat surface it would have been 90% there already. You can't convince me that that is too expensive to do, as it doesn't involve very detailed work.

It may not be detailed, but it does require the casting of completely new molds, which is the expensive part.

Seriously? The difference between Ramjet and Dirge's wings is pretty minimal.

 

I see many people saying this. But have any of you ever considered that this also means that remolding the wings is a pretty minimal effort as well then.

 

I mean, if they added the forward wings and replaced the ramjets with a flat surface it would have been 90% there already. You can't convince me that that is too expensive to do, as it doesn't involve very detailed work. All that would have remained to make it perfect is removing the spikes from the front of the main wings and adding extra upward wingtips, both of which also aren't that hard to do.

 

As you can see there was no need to make completely new wings. Remolding the existing ones on Ramjet would have been just fine. All of this combined would have left about half of Ramjet's wings unchanged.

 

I simply don't share that opinion.

 

Hasbro has showed us a trend of having sublines running alongside mainlines - Universe, Alternators, Titanium, Classics (because let's face it - Classics did run alongside Cybertron)

 

That's true, but Hasbro called Classics a filler line from the beginning, so I'm certainly not expecting to see any more from it. Any other word we've gotten about Classics continuing on past the release of the movie has been hemming and hawing and "we'll see" and "it depends", all of which I consider the Public Relations version of "No".

 

Lord knows I've been wrong before, but I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for anymore Classics.

 

 

I find it so ironic that they've finally put a line of TFs on the market that has some pretty darn awesome molds in it and they only make it a short line. I really hope Hasbro will listen to the demand and continue the line.

Well the collectors have gone nuts for these guys... I wonder how they've sold with kids.

Hellion, if you are referring to my first post in this thread, I completely disagree. I did nothing other than state our position

And your position came across as, "It's selling just fine, so you (collective) are obviously wrong."

Of course I take exception to that, who wouldn't?

My point exactly.

Some in this thread are not asking questions, are not asking respectfully why we do what we do, rather they just throw insults and accuse us of being unethical with no facts and so on.

Some in this thread haven't questioned ethics/finances/manhood/etc. Some merely asked for clarification on points that shouldn't be up in the air at this juncture.

we are limited to what we can remold. We have to be very careful in what we choose and so on. Look at the numerous toy companies out there that have FAR more resources than we do, yet they still often only do a straight repaint than new molding. Add in the fact that we are only doing a production run of well under 2000 and you can see why we must be very selective in who gets remolded.

This is all understood and, as far as I'm concerned, not the issue.

The people who decided that Dirge would be fine without a remold, that those funds should go towards other characters, have been involved with this hobby for over 20 years. We have a pretty good pool of experience and the OVERALL reaction I have seen is that Dirge is fine the way he is, especially if we put the resources for remolding towards other "more needing" characters.

"'More needing' characters." I'll skip the grammar nazi bit and try to infer your intended meaning from that vague statement. So that's characters, with an S, meaning plural. That would imply that more than one remaining character has received some sort of remolding. The one obvious choice would be Thrust (but since you're declining to provide actual information we'll just have to work from best-guess here). It should also be safe to rule out Thundercracker from the retool lineup. Assuming those are correct (a dicey proposition to be sure), that would mean one or more of Dreadwind, Bugbite, or Mystery Bot X would be required to fulfill the plural statement.

 

I find it hard to believe that a group with such experience would decide that Dirge, a bit character whose only distinguishing feature is the unique wings, is less of a priority than bit characters with distinguishing features (if any) few can remember.

Guess you'll just have to wait and see

There's that phrase again. You know, you should feel privileged to be in this line of work. Most companies have to actually present a product before people are willing to buy it. Your company, however, is in the enviable position of being able to collect money sight unseen. Here's a question... is anyone who preordered the set, yet is unsatisfied with the final product, entitled to a return/refund?

I see many people saying this. But have any of you ever considered that this also means that remolding the wings is a pretty minimal effort as well then.

...

As you can see there was no need to make completely new wings. Remolding the existing ones on Ramjet would have been just fine. All of this combined would have left about half of Ramjet's wings unchanged.

I can't remember where this was mentioned, but even a minor retool pretty much equates to an entirely new mold/die, and those things cost quite a bit (on the order of thousands or tens of thousands of US dollars). They probably make up more of the added cost than the actual labor of the design work (ignoring royalty costs).

 

Hence, the argument, "it's only a minor mod of these couple pieces," works much more easily in the context of a designer or of a hobbyist modding a single toy, but isn't as applicable in the context of production scale manufacturing.

 

I find it so ironic that they've finally put a line of TFs on the market that has some pretty darn awesome molds in it and they only make it a short line. I really hope Hasbro will listen to the demand and continue the line.

The only way for Hasbro to "listen" to the demand is with sales figures. Economic demand has a specific meaning of desire backed up by purchasing power. Everyone wants stuff but demand is the willingness to pay for it. If the Classics line is really a profitable enough moneymaker, I'm sure it will be considered if not done so. Hasbro's marketing and management are aware of collectors and do create product lines specifically targetted towards them.

Well the collectors have gone nuts for these guys... I wonder how they've sold with kids.

I wonder if Hasbro will ever learn to stop placing mass market expectations on products that appeal primarily to collectors. I bet Alts/Universe/Classics/etc wouldn't be the big shelfwarmers/"failures" that they were if Hasbro hadn't expected the kids to [get their parents to] buy them at rates comparable to the cartoon-backed lines. :schin

Well the collectors have gone nuts for these guys... I wonder how they've sold with kids.

I wonder if Hasbro will ever learn to stop placing mass market expectations on products that appeal primarily to collectors. I bet Alts/Universe/Classics/etc wouldn't be the big shelfwarmers/"failures" that they were if Hasbro hadn't expected the kids to [get their parents to] buy them at rates comparable to the cartoon-backed lines. :schin

What choice do they have? Hasbro deals with big box stores; that's their business model. I think a lot of people both in the fandom and at Hasbro would like to make more collector-friendly stuff and not have to worry about kid concerns, but it's pretty rare that that can happen with a company (and more importantly, a market & distribution network of Hasbro's size. I get the sense that they are exploring the possibility of web exclusives, which to me seems a logical idea... then again, some collectors rely on what they see in stores and don't necessarily check online, so the question of getting the word out about online product offerings could be an issue for them.

Guess you'll just have to wait and see

There's that phrase again. You know, you should feel privileged to be in this line of work. Most companies have to actually present a product before people are willing to buy it. Your company, however, is in the enviable position of being able to collect money sight unseen. Here's a question... is anyone who preordered the set, yet is unsatisfied with the final product, entitled to a return/refund?

Actually, everyone can see the pictures of the set before they pre-order it. However, they choose to pre-order before those pictures are released. People do this with a lot of pre-orders at BBTS, JRS, etc., when new toys are announced and we have no idea what they look like. They pre-order because they want to ensure that they get it.

 

I'm sure if someone doesn't like the set they can cancel. Dunno about returns those.