Ugh.. plsease dont remind us of this fiasco.

 

I doubt there is a big market for Transformers in Japan. There is no on-going Anime series in Japan right now, and I think most people's impression of Transformers are from the year 2007 movie.

As much as you people dislike to read this; the ship for Generation 1 has pretty much sailed. It does not matter how many characters from G1 has gotten an updated toy, it only matters if there are still enough people buying them. The Transformers cartoon started in the year 1984; all the 8 year old children back then are already in their 40s. Collectors aside, how many people are still interested in these G1 updates?

Not to mention, I think Hasbro is pretty dumb not to integrate their main cartoon series with the Generations toy line. If I was an 8 years old right now, I would be wondering why Generations Grimlock is not the black Tyrannosaurus from the Robots in Disguise cartoon? I had the same question when I was 8 years old; why is Grimlock blue coloured? He looks cool and fun, but I do not know this character.

To be fair, the Transformers community is badly spoiled. Despite complains of cheap plastic and lousy quality control, Transformers toys are very under-priced for what they are. Which other toy company makes decently complicated transforming robot toys and sells them at normal action figure prices? If the same Deluxe Class toy was produced by Bandai of Japan, you can bet it would come with premium paint, extra accessories, and die-cast, but also cost $100 upwards each.

 

Do you have data to back up your claims?

You know Bandai of Japan make children toys as well, do you?! You think Kamen Rider gimmick figures cost like 60$ S.H.Figuarts?! Haven't you seen better and not quite expensive 3rd party options?! There's no spoiled here, we have realtioship between consumer and a business, not some fan and philanthropic fansite or whatever. If you think Hasbro who killed many of their competitors is undercharging and not making a good profit, you gotta be insane.

 

Yes, to all of this.

 

Is Takara Tomy In Hasbro's Gunsights? - Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) | Seeking Alpha

 

Yeah, I have seen this article too. It isn't well written as there many issues it doesn't take to account such as international sellings though the internet, Japanese business culture, Hasbro' history of "merging" with other toy companies, etc. There's no specific data on toylines such as Legends, so you can't draw conclusion about it anyway.

 

A lot of bad theories and leaky hole filled arguments about what is going on with Legends from others in this thread and elsewhere. That bit above is something that needs to be highlighted. You are absolutely right, demand exceeded supply and that doesn't happen when nobody wants to buy something. Clearly there's a market, and they want this particular product.

 

Uhh. No.

 

what if.... what if Hasbro makes Abominus in Toysrus exclusive box set in purple.

 

That would be sweet, but it's not likely to happen is it?? I think our best chances lie with PE coming up with a nice chest upgrade, I t could be the same colot as the pinkish purplish thing on hungurr, but as long as those stupid stickers and white chest is out, I will be a happy man

 

Hasbro is a $12 billion dollar multinational corporation. They don't care about petty concepts like being "shown up". Takara-Tomy is a completely separate company and not beholden to Hasbro. This is purely a financial decision on TT's part and nothing more.

 

So does that make their price a bit cheaper since it's an identical release?

 

Seems to be the case. I'm seeing 4320 Yen MSRP for Legends Deluxes, vs. 3024 Yen for PotP, for example.

Which, by the way, is roughly equivalent to the cost of a Deluxe figure anywhere outside the US (barring the unfortunate places where cost of goods is jacked up even higher).

 

Ok.. Coz I'm considering them as "catch-up" figures if ever I fall short on completing most of POTP by hasbro.

 

I'm hoping they're cheaper because they're identical mold releases. I'd really like more paint and/or some different coloured plastics used on the Leaders.

Also POTP figures probably won't be coming with extra stuff like the Takara Legends releases.

 

Wait, is Takara seriously thinking that collectors will double-dip on their version of POTP toys when they are EXACTLY the same shit packaged in the same type of packaging?!?

 

But corporations are people and people have emotions. Or is this another of those instances where consequences would apply to a person so they're conveniently not?

The anti-G1 crowd keeps saying this but that doesn't make it true. When they scrape up their pennies and actually buy some BW/AEC/BF toys instead of posting more empty wish lists, they might start to be taken seriously. It really says alot that the latter half of G1, filled to the brim with garbage concepts like HeadMasters and Pretenders, gets this kind of attention while other iterations languish in obscurity with only billion dollar Hollywood spectacles keeping Bayformers in public view. Even the late G1 stuff didn't have the kind of support people wanted us to think it did, though, as Titans Return stalled out completely by wave 3. POTP is dipping right back into pre-movie G1 because that's what'd sell even without the endless cheapening.

 

Maybe they're thinking folks will forget they bought the same figures half a year ago.

 

I think not. We should consider first that Takara's primary market to sell this toys are the local japanese market.
Maybe by "Brand Unification", aside from cheaper prices (& production costs) vs.from what Tak-Tom usually offers they're thinking they can attract the local market to buy POTP.

Heck, I think with brand unification Tak-Tom's only cost concern in this is the packaging like Japanese label etc.

 

Makes a sort of sense, but I'm thinking the 'local market' may prefer to do a bit of online shopping now, than wait till almost the middle of this year for their POTP goodies (which pretty much the rest of the planet will already have gotten) to turn up locally.