Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they please.

The modern comics universe has had such a different take on G1, one that's significantly represented by the Generations toys, so they share a forum. A modern take on a Real Cybertronian Hero. Currently starring Generations toys, IDW "The Transformers" comics, MTMTE, TF vs GI Joe, and Windblade. Oh wait, and now Skybound, wheee!
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Tigermegatron
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Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they please.

Post by Tigermegatron »

Theories on why Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they please with the TF comics. by ruining TF persona's & origins

post your theories if you have any.

My Theory is as follows: Hasbro is well aware that hardly anyone reads comics anymore. as hasbro's team of investigators sees the huge drop in sales/customers on the entire comic book industry as a whole with every passing year.

My guess is hasbro doesn't care because they figure with such low sales/customers on the TF comic books from IDW,A extremly low percentage in reading the IDW TF comics. with such a low percentage of readers/buyers. hasbro probably figures any stories told don't get read by than many people to make a impact on the established TF history.

In clearer/simplier words: Low sales/buyers on the IDW TF comic makes anything that happens INVISIBLE,NOT MATTER & NOT CANON.

Basically the TF media like the cartoons & movies get seen by more people. hasbro is more strict with the cartoon creators & movie creators on not to mess up established transformers character persona's & TF origin stories. Basically hasbro lets IDW do as they please because the IDW TF comics don't even match half of a one percent out of a hundred of the TF cartoons & TF movies audience/customers/fans
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by Shockwave »

I would like to see what evidence you have to back up this assertion? I would wager that IDW probably has a higher readership than HUB has viewership for Transformers: Prime. With the economy being what it is, a lot of people can't even afford cable and those that can probably aren't buying it for the privilage of watching Prime. And I'd also want to know what you mean by screwing up the origins? There's just as much evidence of Hasbro's influence on IDW as anywhere else, especially with the recent stories told about Megatron and Orion Pax/Optimus Prime being so similar to this "aligned continuity" that they're trying to cram down our throats. So I might give you those two on the "screwed up origin" thing but not the "lack of Hasbro involvement" thing. And as for the differences in personas, most of them are based on their original tech specs, not that crappy poorly made cartoon that so many people slavishly insist MUST be how it really was despite all the errors in it.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by Onslaught Six »

Deathy is talking about crap like how Galvatron isn't Megatron. (Remember, Deathy has a hard on for Galvy.)

Anyway, we know that Hasbro does care, because they veto'd one of the possible deaths in Last Stand of the Wreckers. (We were told the options were Kup, Springer and Perceptor; Hasbro said "No, don't kill this one," but we were never told which specific one.)
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People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by JediTricks »

No way do I believe IDW has more than 200,000 readers right now, the Hub on its worst has that many viewers times 10.

I assume Hasbro lets IDW do mostly what they want because they recognize that IDW is developing IP for Hasbro and paying for the right. Hasbro hasn't been keeping a close grip on the reins, instead giving way to artistic license for each expression, probably because it doesn't harm sales and does create an extension on the brand.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by Tigermegatron »

JediTricks wrote:No way do I believe IDW has more than 200,000 readers right now, the Hub on its worst has that many viewers times 10.

I assume Hasbro lets IDW do mostly what they want because they recognize that IDW is developing IP for Hasbro and paying for the right. Hasbro hasn't been keeping a close grip on the reins, instead giving way to artistic license for each expression, probably because it doesn't harm sales and does create an extension on the brand.
I agree with this 100%.

FWIW,Clearly those TF fans/buyers who don't have/can't afford the hub network channel. Have the super easy option of paying $19.99 for each TF Prime season that goes on DVD & is available at retail stores & on-line.

Hasbro knows the comic industry as a whole is dying & dying & dying each cycle. also hardly any kids read comics these days. these days the majority of comic readers are adult males & teenage males looking for sexy drawn busty women in the comics. in other words the IDW TF comics are invisble & hasbro doesn't care what IDW does with the TF comics. because in the end,a extremly small percentage reads them & not a large percentage.

Hasbro has gone on record several times via conventions & on-line Q & A interviews. that the adult TF fans barely make up 5% of their TF toy buying sales. Hasbro considers it's main TF toy buying customers to be kids & parents.

since the adult TF fans barely make up 5% according to hasbro. that 5% worth of adult TF fans who buy the IDW TF comics are way too small of a percentage for hasbro to care about. kids aren't buying the IDW TF comics,so hasbro lets IDW do as they please,because kids are hasbro targeted audience/buyers for thev hasbro TF brands.

The main reason several comic book distributors like IDW don't provide comic book readers with monthly/yearly mail away subsciptions. which would enable comic book readers to pay a monthly/yearly fee & get the individual comics delivered to their home mail boxes. because diamond comics prohibits this because they know this will make the majority of the comic book stores close down.
because lets face it,why would anyone want to waste gas,time & enter a filty comic book shop filled of degenerate workers,when they could have the option of getting the individual comics mailed to their house mail box each month.

most kids & parents are scarred & stay away from comic book shops these days. thanks to the filty store conditions. degnerate workers & adult themed porn comics available in the comic book stores. the majority of people who visit these comic book shops & buy from them are adult males & teenage males.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by Sparky Prime »

Shockwave is right that Hasbro does take an active role in what IDW does with the comics. Creators have gone on record to say certain things did or didn't happen because of what Hasbro approved they could do. And the push more towards "aligned continuity" stories has been quite apparently lately in the comics, despite IDW starting out as its own continuity. IDW also had plans to do a comic about the original 13 Transformers, but they haven't been able to actually cover it due to Hasbro taking charge of those characters. And speaking of the 13, seeing as Prime has slowly been revealing tidbits about them and we've now got a comic series where Transformers are seeking them out seems like too much of a coincidence not to be Hasbro's influence.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by BWprowl »

Sparky Prime wrote:And speaking of the 13, seeing as Prime has slowly been revealing tidbits about them and we've now got a comic series where Transformers are seeking them out seems like too much of a coincidence not to be Hasbro's influence.
Just a quick tidbit: I don't think the implication is supposed to be that the Knights of Cybertron that Rodimus and co are tracking down in MTMTE are the same guys as the Thirteen. Pretty sure those are different groups.

That whole Thirteen thing was BS, by the way. IDW had plans to do a whole miniseries about them, and then those fell through for whatever reason. Then Hasbro was apparently going to be working each of them into the toyline (or possibly even giving the Thirteen their own sub-line, it seemed), but that didn't happen either.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by andersonh1 »

Transformers is an intellectual property of Hasbro, and they take an active interest in it, particularly since its' so high profile right now. They'd don't just let IDW "do as they please", they do involve themselves in creative decisions regarding their characters and brand. I suspect they generally allow IDW wide creative latitude, but as the examples above indicate, they are involved in the decision making process.

So the OP's theory is wrong. Hasbro does care, and they don't just let IDW do whatever they please.
Tigermegatron wrote: Low sales/buyers on the IDW TF comic makes anything that happens INVISIBLE,NOT MATTER & NOT CANON.
With Transformers, EVERYTHING IS CANON. Or almost everything. IDW G1 may not be canon with regard to the movies, or other continuities, but with so many different continutites and timelines, to declare IDW's years of publishing and over 100 issues of printed stories as 'not canon' is just silly. Hasbro licensed the stories and approved them, so they're just as valid as any other published Transformers fiction.
Basically the TF media like the cartoons & movies get seen by more people. hasbro is more strict with the cartoon creators & movie creators on not to mess up established transformers character persona's & TF origin stories. Basically hasbro lets IDW do as they please because the IDW TF comics don't even match half of a one percent out of a hundred of the TF cartoons & TF movies audience/customers/fans
The comic market is smaller than TV or movie market, but Hasbro keeps a hand on the reins, regardless. It's still their intellectual property, and worth millions, and they aren't going to let any licensee run free with no supervision.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by Sparky Prime »

BWprowl wrote:Just a quick tidbit: I don't think the implication is supposed to be that the Knights of Cybertron that Rodimus and co are tracking down in MTMTE are the same guys as the Thirteen. Pretty sure those are different groups.
No, they are one in the same. They say in The Death of Optimus Prime that the Knights of Cybertron were the original Cybertronians that turned the planet into a paradise and then left to spread peace and enlightenment to the rest of the universe.
That whole Thirteen thing was BS, by the way. IDW had plans to do a whole miniseries about them, and then those fell through for whatever reason. Then Hasbro was apparently going to be working each of them into the toyline (or possibly even giving the Thirteen their own sub-line, it seemed), but that didn't happen either.
According to the QnA with IDW at last years SDCC, Hasbro has plans for the 13 that they want to accommodate first. And the club comic has also mentioned they've had to put their story with Nexus Prime seeking out the pieces of the Star Saber on hold due to Hasbro's own plans for the 13. It's Hasbro that's holding things up for what ever reason, rather than plans falling through. They have slowly been introducing new elements of the 13 though, particularly with the Prime cartoon and Exiles novel.
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Re: Theories, Hasbro doesn't care & lets IDW do as they plea

Post by 138 Scourge »

Oh lordy. Maybe it's just my whole distaste for prequels and origins and the like, but I cannot think of anything that'd be more boring than the original thirteen's adventures. I could put up with Vector Prime or the Last Autobot here and there, because one ancient Autobot from back in the day was all right, and one survivor from back in the day would be something interesting. But man, having the OG13 still running around? Ugh.

Of course, I'm not reading the comics or watching Prime, so I guess I'll be okay on that one.
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