I always thought that Alternators were marketed towards collectors... I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or cartoon about them

 

I'm not sure that Hasbro really ever marketed the Alternators to anybody...

I always thought that Alternators were marketed towards collectors... I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or cartoon about them

Quiet you!

 

You and your truthiness make Goki's arrogance implode on itself.

 

EDIT: and after the fact roffle to Trench

I always thought that Alternators were marketed towards collectors... I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or cartoon about them

 

I'm not sure that Hasbro really ever marketed the Alternators to anybody...

 

Except to people who bought Universe and Energon...

 

Which were mostly kids. So, essentially, no.

Actually, I just remembered -

Alternators were marketed to comic book readers... they had those goofy ads in the comics...

 

Simmilar I guess to the movie toy ads that appeared in the comics.

Actually, I just remembered -

Alternators were marketed to comic book readers... they had those goofy ads in the comics...

 

Simmilar I guess to the movie toy ads that appeared in the comics.

I suppose that's as "marketed to collectors" as you can get, considering that there's already the interwebz providing free publicity for such things anyway.

I always thought that Alternators were marketed towards collectors... I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or cartoon about them

 

I'm not sure that Hasbro really ever marketed the Alternators to anybody...

 

Except to people who bought Universe and Energon...

 

Which were mostly kids. So, essentially, no.

 

Silly rabbit, Alternators weren't for kids! Well, they might have been but to completely dismiss Universe OR Alternators as simply for kids is a bit off-base. Don't remember many kids with these figuers in the first place.

...You misunderstand. I was saying that by marketing them in toylines that primarily sold to children, they were, in effect, not marketing them at all.

Actually, I just remembered -

Alternators were marketed to comic book readers... they had those goofy ads in the comics...

 

I actually remembered both the ads in the little toy-included catalogs and comic ads when I posted, but decided not to let that stand in the way of a bit o' funny.

 

 

My serious answer would be to say the real problem with Hasbro and the Alternators (as well as with the 6" Titatiums) is that Hasbro, as a business, simply isn't set up for selling anything that could be considered an "adult collectible."

 

Back in the halcyon days of Alternators I recall posts from both hobby and comic shop folks stating that their stores wanted to carry Alternators, but Hasbro had unrealistic minimum order and other requirements (such as being told they'd have to carry the entire Transformers toy line), which basically killed the desire to sel them.

 

Some hobby/comic shops did get Alts via secondary distributors like Entertainment Earth and Diamond (or by scalping them from local big box stores), but this usually resulted in sales prices that weren't particularly attractive compared to the big box stores.

The later Alternators packaging with the see-through bubble top makes me think it's also marketed at kids. Why would you create a package that consumers would have to tear through if you were marketing it to collectors? Binaltech boxes on the other hand don't require any butchering other than cutting sticky tape, which means that people have the option of displaying the toys in vehicle mode in box (which I used to do because the collection room at my last place didn't have enough space to display my BTs in robot mode).

 

 

The product surveys for Binaltech also make it seem more like it's aimed at collectors, particularly model car enthusiasts - one of the questions specifically asks "Why did you buy this product?" and one of the answers that you could choose was "Because I collect miniature cars." The BTs came with text stories written by widely established and renowned Transfan Ichikawa Hirofumi (Hasbro could've elicited Dan Khanna, Doug Dlin, Ben Yee et al to do something similar for Alternators). And the biggest key indicator that BTs were marketed not at kids was the fact that the boxes actually stated, "For Ages 15 and Up."

 

I'm not sure that Hasbro really ever marketed the Alternators to anybody...

 

LOL! :D

The product surveys for Binaltech also make it seem more like it's aimed at collectors, particularly model car enthusiasts - one of the questions specifically asks "Why did you buy this product?" and one of the answers that you could choose was "Because I collect miniature cars."

 

While BT was undoubtedly aimed at collectors, I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression one of the contributing factors to BT's eventual failure in Japan was that they never did really catch the attention of model car collectors (specifically those who didn't already collect Transformers), at least not to the extent that Takara was hoping they would.