Fit For Natalie

Chances are even badly posed photographs actually take hours to shoot, because they're going to take a hundred or so photographs, then choose the best ones. Occassionally, Hasbro have released photographs that were never used elsewhere, the photos were simply one of many that they took and did not use on the final packaging. They make poor business decisions and exceptionally poor marketing decisions. Despite a partnership with Hasbro, they frequently defy Hasbro's wishes (even though Hasbro was the only paying for the Transformers development) to suit their own plans. Remember how Galaxy Force was marketed by Takara as an entirely new continuity even though they developed it with Hasbro as a continuation of Armada and Energon? Last year, they suddenly changed their minds and decided that yes, Galaxy Force is now officially part of Armada and Energon's continuity even though their decisions in the cartoon borked everything up. I have no doubt that Hasbro were left shaking their heads after all the trouble they went through trying to rework the series.

Perception of previous series? While Takara had a fairly continuous Transformers line like Hasbro did since 1997, they didn't market it nearly as well as Hasbro did. For a start, the dub of the US Beast Wars cartoon, how shall we say, fundamentally changed the series. Gone was the relatively serious storyline and tone, instead, they tried to insert humour at every possible opportunity, to the point of giving most of the characters some kind of trademark gag or bizzare, such as BW Megatron screaming like a woman in terror when he's attacked. This was followed by two poorly animated Japanese Beast Wars series, and another bad dub of US Beast Wars seasons 2 and 3, where we got wonderful things such as Depth Charge singing 'Ito Maki-maki', a Japanese folk song, while transforming. The words translate to "Wind the thread"... because it's a fishing song...... So when I say Takara drove Transformers into the ground over there, I mean they broke the Earth's crust, went through the mantle and into the core.

Different kind of corporate set up and workload probably means the TF guys at Hasbro wouldn't have the time to do the photographs themselves. Besides, being like Takara (or any other japanese toy company that isn't Bandai) is probably something Hasbro doesn't want to copy in the interests of long-term company health.

Weren't you the one who thought RID Prime wasn't a real fire truck? I don't think Hasbro are that smart, but I don't think it was all dumb luck, either By 2000-2001, Hasbro had teamed up with the cash-strapped Takara to develop a new vehicle-based Transformers toyline with small partner robots (which we now know as Armada). Due to the retail dissapointment of Beast Machines, they imported Takara's failed Car Robots line as a 'filler' line, and were taken by surprise at how well it did. By the time Armada had finished its run, it was one of the most sucessful Transformers toylines ever. However, Hasbro underestimated the popularity of Mini-Cons among kids and collectors, which is why only two new sets were produced for Energon line, and why there was suddenly a bunch of Mini-Cons in the Cybertron line and Classics (which were meant for Cybertron). Classics was created as yet another filler line when the release date of the movie was moved from November, 2006 to July, 2007, as the changed date would have created a product line gap as Cybertron was scheduled to end in September-October 2006. The Classics line wasn't targeted specifically at collectors (given it had to take over from the Cybertron mainline), but the G1 theme was so that it would be extra-attractive to collectors and older fans. Shut up, fool! Claw Slash Ramjet is AWESOME. Ramjet likes his toast sliced, you see. I would expect a Leader class Starscream for TF2, should he become a more substantial character.

Well, it was a repaint of a toy who wasn't supposed to be a Decepticon in the first place. The Energon combiners were late additions to the line, inserted into the line at Hasbro's insistence. Apparently Hasbro themselves engineered the toys, but it was so late in the game they had a limited budget to implement it. I believe they explained at a Botcon that Hasbro has a central photography department staffed by people not involved in the design of the toys, so that's why they're posed poorly or mistransformed. I assume in Japan the people from the design departments help pose the toys for photographs.

Well, Hasbro does alot of market research into what kids want, and since they seem to do well most of the time, evidently the market research is mostly correct. Collectors often question that Cantina Han Solo that keeps popping up, the Chewbaccas nobody wants, the Snake Eyes and Dukes in the various GI Joe lines. Well, Hasbro makes them because they're the main hero characters, and if they didn't sell to somebody (in which case retailers would either return this unsold stock to them or destroy it at Hasbro's cost), then Hasbro wouldn't keep making them. Kids often put more emphasis on how the fiction sells the character than collectors do, and fiction often pushes the heroes. Like Armada Hot Shot, whom by accounts kids loved, despite most collectors hating his JaAm guts. Personally, for Transformers I prefer the Autobots to the Decepticons most of the time, which probably explains why I have so little affection for the G1 seekers compared to most collectors I know.

Power Rangers is the number 1 robot line in North America and certainly Transformers' biggest rival. Collectors cannot sustain a Transformers toyline alone. That is a fact of life in a toy market of western nations that still have comparatively young population, as opposed to Japan's much more collector-friendly toy market due to their low birth rate and rapidly aging population. Every Transformers adult fan, nerd, collector (and a good quarter of them don't even buy any toys) would reportedly total 10 to 20% (at most) of the purchasers of Transformers. Now, that's large enough for Hasbro to pay attention to, but not nearly large enough for devote significant resources into making products aimed at them regularly. As such, Classics was a toyline for everybody, but done in a way to appeal to collectors more than usual with it's G1 updated theme. As for exclusives, a retailer has to want the product for them to sell it as an exclusive, manufacturers can no longer force a retailer to sell products. Generally for Transforemrs, unless there's a big media push behind the line (such as a tv show or the Movie), they're less likely to want an exclusive repaint of a toy they already have on pegs or recently sold. That's a reason why so many retailer exclusives happen to use toolings from previous toylines no longer on shelves. Low production equals high cost, and TFs are generally more expensive to produce than most kids' toys. Fun Publications have created a successful convention/fan club business by making a (generally) making a profit. If you look at previous Transformers convention organisers who provided affordably priced exclusives and fees, some of them were once-off affairs or they went out of business. If I recall correctly, Hasbro said the chests would also transform differently and noted this wasn't reflected in the slides they showed. Unless I am misremembering things, the tooling for Thrust's wings were paid for by Fun Publications (like Dreadwing's head), and was noted to be the first convention exclusive toy to have a retool that affected transformation. Ramjet's parts were the ones that were part of Starscream's tooling in for Hasbro's anticipation of doing at least several versions of the basic tooling. They lopsided the line towards the Autobots because they're the good guys, and good guys usually sell better.

Animated Prime is also alot like Optimus Primal, who was essentially a nobody starship captain commanding a crew of nobodies on what was an unimportant mission. As I recall, they said the chests transform different, so presumbably Sideswipe ends up with the classic hood chest, while on Sunstreaker, the upper torso is turned around so he gets the hood on his back but the roof (with window) on his chest, giving him a reasonable facimile of his G1 chest. Probably different heads, too. Prowl is in the line, they'd like to do Jazz and Ironhide, but Ratchet won't be around, because of the two other Ratchets. The Seekers - at the time Hasbro wasn't considering making any more Classics toys (bearing in mind they plan out toylines months and months in advance). They didn't want to clog pegs with what are essentially six near-identical toys in a kid's toy market for a line that only lasted 6 or so months. Sure, adult collectors would buy them up, but wouldn't sell the majority of of them. So they let the BotCon team release the remaining three seekers in the Botcon set so the toys would come out in *some* way instead of never coming out. Hasbro doesn't really profit from BotCon stuff, Fun Publications/Master Collector does.

Of course, Pete could be wrong, but I'll live if Onslaught isn't a combiner. I'm pleased to get another non-tank land military vehicle. eriku: Classics were conceptualized and designed by largely the same people at Hasbro and TakaraTomy who worked on the other Transformers toylines in the past few years, and some of the concepts were by Don Figueroa, who has done a handful for this new line. You may be thinking of Alex Kubalsky he works for TakaraTomy, though he may have left the company recently. David: At the time, Marvel/Toybiz held the trademark of Onslaught. I assume Hasbro and Marvel worked out a deal for Classics because while Hasbro may have the current trademark for an action figure called Onslaught due to the Marvel license, they might not have automatically gained the right to use the name on a Transformers brand transforming toy.

According to Pete at Botcon forums, Onslaught is a Ultra class toy and is not a combiner.

Don Figueroa mentioned working on some Classics figures, two of which were smaller than Deluxe classes. Could those be Bruticus' limbs? Because... it conflicts with all known Generation 1 animated continuity? Because Hasbro specifically said this was a new continuity? The footage seen was from episodes that centered around G1 Prime anyway, specifically MTMTE and War Dawn, which deals with his very creation. Also, the dialogue at the end of War Dawn suggested that G1 Ratchet wasn't even online at that point, as he was the only Autobot in the group who didn't seem to know about Prime's previous life as Orion Pax or his role in the start of the Great War. It's just the usage of footage Hasbro owns for the purpose of nods and a reference to 'the past' of Transformers.

I think it's a hand-painted prototype, because Hasbro usually doesn't bother paint parts silver like that. I could be wrong, of course.

Well, Hasbro said they wanted to do a combiner, but didn't say which one, so fingers crossed. While Bruticus and the Combaticons were my favourite team, I would have prefered them try to do the Protectobots, because we got a pretty decent Combaticon-like team in Energon.

I should note that the usage of the G1 footage and references to the Great Wars is likely just a nod to G1 and the fans, and it's not an implication that this is a continuation of G1 or something. At the very least, if you take the footage at face value, one should consider the past of this continuity's Cybertron, not G1's past. EDIT: I typed this before I noticed a video had been provided I assume you have the Leader class (big ass) toy? I apologize in advance if I am not clear. 1. Start by pushing the head back down into his chest, then fold the fingers up and flip the hands into his forearm. 2. Automorph his feet (grip the bumper heel spurs and turn them towards the headlights, the parts will snap into place automatically). Fold out his kneepads and push them down - they're hood pieces so they should easily touch the grill. 3. Fold out the panels connecting the rear wheels to the thighs. Now, disconnect the waist from the upper torso and gradually rotate the legs up while rotating the waist towards his back, so in the in what you get is the waist being flpped upsidedown on its hinge while the legs are horizontal to the upper torso/truck cab.Connect the legs together securely 4. Time for the various panels on his back, unfold them and straighten them out, the flip them from the back of the torso/cab to the front, aligning the parts with the legs (which form the front of the truck) and connect them altogether. 5. Those silver spike things on the shoulder joints, fold them down, then turn and flip the blue flaps on the shoulder to cover the silver thing. Make sure the shoulder is level with the joint so the flap covers the area securely. The entire arm/shoulder assembly is mounted on the smokestacks via a hinge, so time to disconnect that from the upper torso/cab. Fold the lower arm up so it fits in snugly with the shoulder joint and the blue flap on top, forming an obviously block-shaped sleeper unit. 6. Fold down those red hinged pieces (that are painted black on one side) on the bottom of what were the lower arms, including the part with the gun attached, then turn the sleeper halves until they connect together, and connect the black painted parts to form the rear of the truck. If you haven't removed the gun, the barrel sits snugly between the halves of the sleeper. 7. Finally, connect the rear wheels to the rear of the truck, make sure all the wheels are level, and you're done.

Other countries as well. Too often, the way American fans talk about toy safety laws, it seems they don't even realize that Hasbro sells toys in other countries other than the US, and Hasbro would like to comply with their toy laws, too, preferably on a single toy so they don't have to do individual production runs for markets that may not justify the cost of doing so. For example, Australia has considerably stricter toy safety laws from what I've been told.

That's Hasbro's rationale for Transformers, not mine. I suspect it has to do with Transformers characters being comparatively expensive toys than those lines, are are released semi-regularly, so it's easier for them to foist $50 Optimus Prime on people if he's drastically different looking from the last one.

What do you mean by souless? I mean G1 toys lack character in their designs as they were never designed as characters. What gave them character and soul is fictional characterisation. So frankly, the fault is not because modern Transformers toys are 'souless' (if anything, Transformers are made with soul and character infused into their design, look at Animated Bulkhead), but of poorer modern fiction, particularly the Unicron Trilogy with it's obvious Japanese kids cartoon 'HEY KIDS BUY THIS TOY NOW!' stock footage. Also, if you are mainly concerned with the TF era you grew up with, then it's possible it's because of your nostalgia for them, because you watched the show or read the comics, or because they're the Optimus Prime you looked up to as a child or the Bumblebee who was your friend. In the same way, kids of the Armada era see Hot Shot as their best buddy (he was VERY popular with kids despite the hatred older fans had for him), and no doubt how kids of the 2007 Movie era will see Bumblebee. It's all a matter of perspective, I say.

Sorry, was a joke, based upon observation of comments made on this forum about first-run Yamato products breaking, and Yamato fixing it later with repaints instead of trying to iron out problems in the first place. I thought the Cybertron toys were quite excellent. Classics toys are largely based on Cybertron's design principals (lacking a main gimmick, of course) and asthetics. Revamping is Transformers' way of surviving in a relatively voltatile market of swinging children's tastes, despite it being one of the mainstays of American boys toys. But mainly it's a way of constantly making money - you can't sell the same exact characters to kids too many times, so they ditch continuities to start anew and flog all new versions of classic trademarks. Plus, Hasbro was always very dissapointed with how Takara and WE'VE handled the Unicron Trilogy. One would think the three series would have been less of a mess had American writers handled it. The three toylines did pretty well, though, in fact Armada was one of the most successful TF lines they ever had, so it must have appealed to children, and really, that's the single most important thing ever in Transformers, that kids like it. Us adults are just along for the ride, and that's fine by me.

Given they've driven Transformers into the ground and went nearly bankrupt in 2000, why not? Did you know that joint Transformer product development is largely funded by Hasbro? That's why both companies released mostly the same products while only recently (after the merger with Tomy) have Takara developed their own high price point Transformers products. Takara (or the Transformers design and engineering division of Tomy) deserves plenty of credit for their technical skill and genius, but the suits in charge of marketing and decision making are awful. By contrast, Hasbro has generally handled Transformers well on their side of the pond for the past 11 years, despite the shrinking toy market to video games and massive competition from Power Rangers (which is the most sucessful robot-themed toyline/series in the United States). I'm not saying Transformers could ever achieve that sort of status in Japan, but TakaraTomy could have certainly done alot better than make poor decisions and/or hamstring Hasbro's decisions, and then decide that their failures were down to the line's western origins.

Nah, I just prefer to defend them logically from a different perspective than the average internet fan IF there's an issue that can be defended or explained. I often find that internet fan passions and indignation over things not going the way the fans wanted often clouds ones mind to reasonable explanation and real world realities to what is essentially a business that owns a franchise of toys primarily made for children aged 5-10. That said, I think it's a serious mistake for Hasbro to delay Animated by 4-5 months after the series premiere (and presumably the airing of the first season) just because they wanted to make a few more quid on the Movie line. Hopefully they will have figured something out, such as delaying the airing of the series proper until the Animated toys actually appear. If you want to see REAL ass kissing, look at Kickback at TFW2005.com.

Hope you enjoy several hundred dollar 'collector items' breaking for no apparent reason

Because those unofficial toys don't really have to adhere to an overall design and development budget, among other things, such as safety testing, mass production costs, distribution costs ect. They aren't designed to be sold for $10 to children, either.

Movie Cybertron toy redecos. BIG DADDY! From Teletraan I, the Transformers wiki: "Hasbro actually has almost nothing to do with distribution (when Product A arrives in Store B) beyond making sure the manufactured product leaves the factories and shipyards of China at the desired time. Once the items arrive on US shores, they are almost immediately sent from the ships to the distribution centers for the retail chains that ordered them. From there, it's more truck rides to various regional warehouses, which is all controlled by the retailers, not Hasbro. After that, the schedule for taking product from those warehouses and putting it on shelves is dictated by each chain's inventory system. It's conceivable that Hasbro could take more control of the situation, but that would require chains like Wal-Mart to release the vise-like death grip they have on manufacturers' nuts that lets them dictate how the system works... and they're sooooooo not doing that." Blame your retail chain for not ordering enough Transformers in the first place for Hasbro to determine overall production numbers. Hasbro mapped out the toyline months and months in advance, and they're already going to release a bunch of redecos of the core movie cast, or retooled versions in the hopes of satisfiying demand. However, Hasbro is not faultless because they themselves did not believe the toyline would do as well as it has, and was going to end the movie line around March 2008.

Hasbro is probably trying to save very obvious G1 repaints of minor characters for Universe, possibly to see IF they can secure trademarks on G1 names. If you've observed lately, Hasbro has been trademarking every G1 name they can get their hands on, so they don't lose them again. Most of these mainline redecos and new toys were decided a long time ago, but Hasbto has at least THREE different releases of those characters you just mentioned in mostly the colours they appeared in the movie for 2008 - Screen Battles with human figures redecos, Target Allspark slight redecos and Premium accurate-ish redecos. Hasbro just doesn't want to bury people in the exact same decos, and likely they figure a shortage is better than steady supply to ensure demand. The point is creativity over comparatively unimaginative reproduction. One thing that seperates Hasbro from TakaraTomy (and essentially the West from the East) is that Hasbro looks forward and tries to find new ways to do things, or create new things entirely. TakaraTomy, in Asian tradition, prefers to refine what has already been created and to pay homage to 'the glorious past'. We wouldn't have been given the reimagined designs of the current Classics without Hasbro wanting a new take on the original G1 characters.

I'm still worried about the fact Hasbro moved the Animated line back to June to capitilise on how well the Movie line continues to sell, yet the Animated cartoon is airing in January. Of course, the Cartoon Network will probably air 4 episodes and then rerun them for 6 months.