Hasbro destroys third party companies by being way better

[Dominic]

I will take your word for that. Not sure why people want to pay 4 or 5 times as much though.

Dom, you're crazy, and wrong. The First Edition Prime toys came out. I saw them at Toys R Us. I bought friggin' Starscream for crying out loud! The Voyagers were a pain in the ass to find outside of Canada, yes, but they still came out. Whoever told you First Edition was canceled was lying to you, and you should hit them.

My mistake. Hasbro made the toys short-run, and cancelled a great many orders. If you did not find, them (and they did not turn up around here in any real quantity if at all) you aint getting them.

You doin' okay, JT? You seem a little on edge here.

The brand is being badly managed, ("Prime" toys coming out after the ends and such), and JT really gets ired by stuff like that.

[BWprowl]

My mistake. Hasbro made the toys short-run, and cancelled a great many orders. If you did not find, them (and they did not turn up around here in any real quantity if at all) you aint getting them.

From what I understand, the six ‘First Edition’ molds (Optimus, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Arcee, and Starscream) were created while Prime’s first season was airing, but before Hasbro was certain there would be a line based around the show, the idea being that they could be released in Generations or something if they decided not to do a full line. Well, once the show proved to be a success, they started to design a full, new line around it, this RiD Revealers thing, complete with its own line-wide gimmicks (clear weapons, etc) and so forth. Well, Hasbro still had these six molds that didn’t ‘fit’ with that line, apparently, and indeed all those main characters were getting new molds that did fit in with the RiD line, but Hasbro didn’t want to let the molds go completely to waste, so they put them out in TRU ahead of the actual Prime/RiD Revealers line as ‘First Edition’, a sort of teaser for the actual line since they already had the molds ready to go, but couldn’t use them anywhere else. So yeah.

And again, while we they were somewhat rare down here, these things were apparently EVERYWHERE in Canada, which I wouldn’t say is too bad. America’s not the center of the world, you know.

The brand is being badly managed, ("Prime" toys coming out after the ends and such), and JT really gets ired by stuff like that.

I don’t see how the brand’s being ‘mismanaged’. The DOTM line performed well, from what I understand, Prime is a hit as a TV show (and it won an Emmy, not too shabby-wait, I don’t even like the show, why am I defending it?!), they continued to sneak new Generations product out each time we thought the line was over for realsies, and they’re gonna have three different lines on shelves later this year (Prime/RiD/Revealers, whatever the latest incarnation of Generations is called, and that Movie Trilogy thing). Transformers is still going strong! Am I the only one who still enjoys the hobby and is excited about where it’s going?

[Dominic]

America may not be the center of the world. But, dammit, having to order toys from Canada because Hasbro was indecisive makes the hobby less fun. This is the kind of thing that made me skip "Classics" in 2006. (Poor distribution of late run "Cybertron" soured me on buying toys for a while.)

There is no reason that Hasbro could not have synchronized the released of the "Prime" figures and show. They have *decades* of doing exactly that sort of thing.

3 TF lines is a huge amount of product for retailers to absorb (or simply pick and choose over). That may well have played a role in "Prime" toys being spottily distributed. 3 lines did not help matters in 2010, and it will not help now. You yourself tacitly concede that the name of "Prime" is confusing.

JT coughs up money to host this board, so I really hope he likes the hobby. (Well, maybe he is a masochist. I dunno.) I like the hobby well enough, but I am not going to give Hasbro a pass for idiotic decision making any more than I am going to give them bonus points for doing something smart like keeping a popular line (such as "Generations") going.

As another example, (the one that started this thread), this new Bruticus needs to be amazing given how long it took Hasbro to actually make a new mould combiner at the standard "Deluxe" price-point. Takara's "Legends" scale RotF Devastator should not have been so obviously superior to the center-piece of the RotF line. As much as I like PCC, those should not have been Hasbro's best attempt in years to meet demand for a combiner team.

I am looking forward to the possibility of a good Bruticus as much as anybody here. But, (and I believe that JT and I agree on this), I am not going to sing Hasbro's praises for *finally* getting around to making this toy, as nice as it may be to have confirmed.

[Sparky Prime]

On the subject of the Prime 'First Editions'... Hasbro released a statement that they may still get released, or more distribution I guess is the case.

[BWprowl]

There is no reason that Hasbro could not have synchronized the released of the "Prime" figures and show. They have *decades* of doing exactly that sort of thing.

Except that they weren’t sure if they even wanted to put out toys for the show. From what I heard (and admittedly this is all rumors) Hasbro specifically did not want the Prime toyline launched at the same time as the show, since they wanted to promote the Hub as just a TV channel first, and having brand-new, show-matching toys on shelves just as the network was launching would have gotten even more groups riled up about a ‘whole network of toy commercials’. It was a business decision, like any other, just one that swung a bit differently than we’re used to.

3 TF lines is a huge amount of product for retailers to absorb (or simply pick and choose over). That may well have played a role in "Prime" toys being spottily distributed. 3 lines did not help matters in 2010, and it will not help now. You yourself tacitly concede that the name of "Prime" is confusing.

Multiple lines alone isn’t really what’s been crippling distribution lately (when they started, I had no trouble finding TF 2010, Generations, and PCC in stores next to each other). The trouble starts in when stores over-order on all the lines for the first couple waves, then become content to sit on that stock through a whole season, instead of having to order refresher waves with new toys in them, which is why so many tail-enders have been missed in the last couple years. Hasbro needs to figure out a way to circumvent this, either by infusing more variety into case assortments, or creating some incentive for stores to order later waves. Or by who cares, they’re just toys, as long as they’re on shelves with the brand name then kids, parents, and stores aren’t going to give a crap which specific toys they are. We’re the only ones who really care if they all make it into stores or not.

JT coughs up money to host this board, so I really hope he likes the hobby. (Well, maybe he is a masochist. I dunno.) I like the hobby well enough, but I am not going to give Hasbro a pass for idiotic decision making any more than I am going to give them bonus points for doing something smart like keeping a popular line (such as "Generations") going.

I am looking forward to the possibility of a good Bruticus as much as anybody here. But, (and I believe that JT and I agree on this), I am not going to sing Hasbro's praises for *finally* getting around to making this toy, as nice as it may be to have confirmed.

What can I say, I like rewarding Hasbro for their good behavior instead of frothing at the mouth on the internet where they aren’t seeing how angry I am.

By the way, has Hasbro ever given us a straight answer as to why they’ve been so averse to proper Combiner Teams? Why did they decide to finally make one now? I kinda wish I was going to BotCon now, I’d ask them these questions.

[Dominic]

Hasbro was trying to open up a media wing independent of marketing toys?

I am all for content, but Hasbro needs to be honest with themselves about their business model.

The sheer amount of RotF merchandise that I still see remaindered proves that it takes more than branding to sell a toy. Non-movie repaints are not goint to resonate with the general public as much as toys based on characters with context. Having 3 lines only makes thing worse because stores have to allocate precious shelf-space for 3 similar products and make decisions about how to do that. Yes, stores made transparently stupid decisions in 2010. But, Hasbro did their part in giving stores the opportunity to be that foolish.

I have no idea why it took Hasbro so long to do a proper merge team.


-late edit: I do not know if anybody else has noticed this, or what has been said about it.... But, it strikes me that the vehicle modes for Brawl and Blast-Off are very similar. What differences there are between the images could be more due to the fact that they are different images. Brawl looks to be a more or less finished toy while Blast-off looks to be CGI. Those could easily be the same moulding for the final toys.


Dom
-wait and see to be sure....

[138 Scourge]

-late edit: I do not know if anybody else has noticed this, or what has been said about it.... But, it strikes me that the vehicle modes for Brawl and Blast-Off are very similar. What differences there are between the images could be more due to the fact that they are different images. Brawl looks to be a more or less finished toy while Blast-off looks to be CGI. Those could easily be the same moulding for the final toys.

Um. That's Brawl and Swindle, chief. Unless you've seen pics of Blast-Off somewhere else? Anyhoo, I don't see that they look too terribly much alike, really.

From what I understand, the six ‘First Edition’ molds (Optimus, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Arcee, and Starscream) were created while Prime’s first season was airing, but before Hasbro was certain there would be a line based around the show, the idea being that they could be released in Generations or something if they decided not to do a full line. Well, once the show proved to be a success, they started to design a full, new line around it, this RiD Revealers thing, complete with its own line-wide gimmicks (clear weapons, etc) and so forth. Well, Hasbro still had these six molds that didn’t ‘fit’ with that line, apparently, and indeed all those main characters were getting new molds that did fit in with the RiD line, but Hasbro didn’t want to let the molds go completely to waste, so they put them out in TRU ahead of the actual Prime/RiD Revealers line as ‘First Edition’, a sort of teaser for the actual line since they already had the molds ready to go, but couldn’t use them anywhere else. So yeah.

Ooooohhhhhh. Okay, see, now this whole thing makes sense. The whole First Edition thing's been just perplexing to me, now it's a little more understandable. Didn't affect me personally, though, since I really don't care about the show enough to want the toys, but it seemed like such an odd move for Hasbro.

As for still liking the brand and being excited for where it goes? I want to be there and all, but since we're kind of between lines right now, and the new one that's hitting isn't one that I'm interested in at all, my enthusiasm for the brand's kind of at a low ebb. Then again, I've been buying the hell out of fake Lego robot Transformers lately, so I'm not totally out.

[Gomess]

O man I hope the jeep IS called Blast-Off

And the inevitable space shuttle is called Decepticon Movor or something.

[Onslaught Six]

Nah, I doubt it.

Blastoff isn't a retool of Brawl at all:
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... ys-174328/

And here's the fully combined toy:
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... ed-174327/

I'm hoping it's kind of mistransformed. The legs look okay but those arms need sucked in.

[Gomess]

Guess they kinda gave up on the G1 colour schemes halfway, then.