Ending Titaniums is not something I'll regret. The majority of those figures held very little interest to me and the few that did interest me were dissapointing. So no loss for me there.

 

 

Alts...is a completely different story. Sorry to hear this line is definitely ended, although I am not surprised and was expecting this.. Alternators definitely were my favorite line and I think with the end of Alts the amount of TF's I'll buy will shrink to almost non-existent. In the end I think the line was killed by lack of variety (all cars), overkill on repaints (three of the same mold is too many, even though I thoroughly enjoyed all of them...even Rollbar) and lack of size classes (all voyager). Plus the absence of promo material in the shape of a cartoon or even comic.

 

A pity.

 

 

Animated has some interesting sounding characters, mainly Magnus and some Dinobots. But the comment that the toy-show accuracy will be in the 90 percent region has me worried. I really don't like the style of animation used, so does this mean I won't like the look of the toys? Time will tell.

 

 

Classics...is unexpected. After hearing so many times that a lot were on shelfwarming in the USA, I got the impression that this filler line wasn't doing so well. Although hearing this will continue as a new sort of universe (probably going to get some repaints of older figures), I do hope they will also expand the line with some new basics. Really felt that one of the major problems with classics was the size of the figures: the autobot cars were too big in comparison with the Seekers; using basics for the A cars would've been better IMO. Will see what time will bring.

 

Movie figures could be very interesting. Botcon already showed some interesting molds and the leader Prime repaint looks amazing (definitely the one for, I'll skip the regular). Also the desert camo Brawl has me interested.

Glad to hear Hasbro has brought classics back as universe. This gives hasbro a lot of freedom with the figures they can release in this line. It's also nice to know that the Universe line won't be full of straight repaints. It would be cool if Hasbro pulled out some canceled figures for the line.

 

Animated toys sound cool. Too bad I won't be able to see the show, :tdown Stupid lack of cable.

 

 

:thumb Keep up the good work Hasbro.

There is no denying that a lot of Alts. were hard to find, my point is: Did sales suck because distribution was poor, or was distribution poor because a lack of sales caused stores to not want to stock the product? None of us know.

Come on people, the problem with Alts wasn't Hasbro's "distrubtion" - if Hasbro had distribution issues we'd certainly have noticed it with other sublines - stores simply thought the Alternators sucked and didn't buy very many of them.

 

People forget that ultimately Hasbro's true customers are the stores that buy their products, and not the end user. They can have the best distribution in the world, but if the stores don't stock them...

If stores simply "weren't stocking them" then why were the shelves filled with Rico and Rolly & Sunny repaints for months and months. The stores certainly bought something.

maybe its not a distribution issue so much as an assortment issue. Who wants an entire assortment of "high end collectibles" that are 3rd generation repaints? Meanwhile Prime and Mirage were nowhere to be found.

 

The repaints should have filled in the line not been the entire line. That mentallity may work when your average figure is $6-$10 but not when the customer is being asked to pay $20-$30.

 

Had the final assortments before christmas 06- been Mirage/Prime/Rumble/Ravage - I believe they would have flown off the shelves.

 

BTW - i shed no tears for the loss of T!T. There was not one figure released in the T!T line that i didnt think would be cooler and cheaper as a Classics Deluxe.

There is no denying that a lot of Alts. were hard to find, my point is: Did sales suck because distribution was poor, or was distribution poor because a lack of sales caused stores to not want to stock the product? None of us know.

Come on people, the problem with Alts wasn't Hasbro's "distrubtion" - if Hasbro had distribution issues we'd certainly have noticed it with other sublines - stores simply thought the Alternators sucked and didn't buy very many of them.

 

People forget that ultimately Hasbro's true customers are the stores that buy their products, and not the end user. They can have the best distribution in the world, but if the stores don't stock them...

If stores simply "weren't stocking them" then why were the shelves filled with Rico and Rolly & Sunny repaints for months and months. The stores certainly bought something.

maybe its not a distribution issue so much as an assortment issue. Who wants an entire assortment of "high end collectibles" that are 3rd generation repaints? Meanwhile Prime and Mirage were nowhere to be found.

 

The repaints should have filled in the line not been the entire line. That mentallity may work when your average figure is $6-$10 but not when the customer is being asked to pay $20-$30.

 

Had the final assortments before christmas 06- been Mirage/Prime/Rumble/Ravage - I believe they would have flown off the shelves.

 

BTW - i shed no tears for the loss of T!T. There was not one figure released in the T!T line that i didnt think would be cooler and cheaper as a Classics Deluxe.

 

I agree with Hunter on the whole case assortment being what killed the Alt line. I will miss it but the other lines are making me happy enough, now that Classics will continue.

 

 

As far as Titanium, I like the Rodimus and Prime ones. And wished I could have found a Ultra Magnus G1 in stores. Now that WW Prowl was awesome looking. But the rest I had no need in getting. But Titanium being cancelled is no biggie for me. It was more of a filler line for my Classics filler line.

I'll grant you that the assortments didn't help matters, but that's the way the big box stores like to order things, they don't want to front the expense of paying attention to which particluar figure is selling and which isn't.

 

Hasbro may have shot themselves in the foot with the undesired repaints, but that basically just gets back to their main point of "time and expense" killing Alts. They simply didn't sell well enough to not repaint at least once. New Alts did sell like hotcakes, however, by the time they hit that second assortment they usually shelfwarmed a fair extent. The only ones I'd say that never shelfwarmed were Mirage, Camshaft, Rumble and Ravage - and it isn't because they were super great figures, it's just that they came at the end.

I'll grant you that the assortments didn't help matters, but that's the way the big box stores like to order things, they don't want to front the expense of paying attention to which particluar figure is selling and which isn't.

 

Hasbro may have shot themselves in the foot with the undesired repaints, but that basically just gets back to their main point of "time and expense" killing Alts. They simply didn't sell well enough to not repaint at least once. New Alts did sell like hotcakes, however, by the time they hit that second assortment they usually shelfwarmed a fair extent. The only ones I'd say that never shelfwarmed were Mirage, Camshaft, Rumble and Ravage - and it isn't because they were super great figures, it's just that they came at the end.

repaints once sure - but Rico, Rolly, Sunny were all third tier guys.... and then who was the last bot in that assortment? Skids? I likee him a lot but jeez. Talk about the least interesting assortment EVER.

repaints once sure - but Rico, Rolly, Sunny were all third tier guys.... and then who was the last bot in that assortment? Skids? I likee him a lot but jeez. Talk about the least interesting assortment EVER.

 

I think the problem was by the time that even Rico and Rolly were released in Spring '06, for the most part Alts were over (as Takara was already essentially finished with BT); however, neither Alt-fan or Hasbro was quite ready to admit it.

*Will miss Alts*

 

*Gets chubby over Classics*

Yeah, between Classics and Titaniums, Classics wins. The only downer for me about Titaniums ending is wondering what will happen to Don's War Within designs.

 

Whether it's the stores or Hasbro, somebody is controlling/deciding the proportions of characters for the case assortments and production. They may not have time/feedback to react to what people are buying (way of the system setup, I suppose) but there were a LOT of Swindles in those mid releases.

 

Alts were 4 to a case. When BBTS was selling them by the freshpacked case, I started making a little spreadsheet to track what chars showed up in what cases and how often. Swindle was packed once or twice in about 3-4 assortments, and significantly more than any of the other characters, Autobot or Decepticon.

Here's hoping the new Classics/Universe line has like G2, BW & WW designs too!