Emmm prime like arms? WTF? He doesn’t have Prime like arms, I’ll give you the lower shin but I can’t see anything that is stand out prime on the arms, I mean Prime never had doors hanging off his shoulders. And heads can be swapped in and out all the time, didn’t they even say they make a body then just see which character would fit it best then make a head it fit.

 

Perhaps all Binaltech in the future will simply become Alternators USA Edition? I mean we all saw this coming in a way, Started with the Yellow Tracks I believe, and it's just gotten to a point where one party is done with it. It's a shame because I personally love the Diecast version, but I guess now I have more money to put towards Primus, but does a G1 styled box merit the extra money, which he'd inevitablely become a shelfwarmer at your local KB Toys?

 

My only reaction to this: my wallet is saved.

 

Guess I better stop dragging my feet on getting the BTAs

 

What about the Cybertron characters? Armorhide and that other one? Also, Is Takara prone to make statements like Hasbro? "Currently, we don't have any plans to..." then a month or two later, it's on the shelves

 

Ok, so I may buy the alt and then put a ginrai liscence plate on it in protest of the mold being prime.

 

  I love my Binaltech.

Randy

 

So what's up with preorders? Now I don't get one? wtf. Damn you Takomi

 

Way to fuck up, Takara.  

 

Those were jointly designed by Hasbro/Takara.

I would like to point you to the "Transformers toys design process" sticky thread at the Allspark boards, but unfortunately the Allspark boards are down for the time being.

 

Can someone enlighten me as to what else Takara is selling that's doing better than Transformers? I thought they were a cash cow for them? Does Hasbro still pay takara for licensing fees?

 

Aww, time to switch to plastic.  

 

You think people would be ok with Prime being remolded into a character less significant in terms of rank? Honest question. Not trying to be an ass. Maybe it's been done before but I don't recall. Magnus or Scourge/Nemesis Prime are the only remolds I see that would be acceptable. At the end of the day I think I would be accepting of it but would be hard to swallow and I'm not even that big of a fanboy. But I guess the ultimate question is will Hasbro do it (remold Prime into a lower ranked/less significant character such as trailbreaker or Ironhide for example).

 

Wah-hahahahaha! That's too funny! Yay for Alternator Prime! But that means something else... it means we might get for the first time a Binaltech (Convoy or Ginrai) of a totally different mold that its Hasbro counterpart. How about Prime as a car like G2 Go-Bot Optimus Prime?

 

...plays patient card, climbs mountain to ask guru the meaning of life. guru say "metal, for it is the material all robots are made from." climbs back down two years later, buys metal binaltechs after takara realizes error of their ways.  

 

Guys, guys... Don't worry. I think it is almost a certainty that we will get a Trailbreaker or Hoist or Ironhide. Based on past history, almost every Alternator mold gets reproduced as two other characters. They spent a lot of money on the licensing and tool costs. And it's only being released in the US. They will want to recoup their expenses, and the best way to do that is make new versions over and over. They'll probably just make a new head, ala Ravage, Shockblast, Swerve, etc.

 

First off I'd like to point out that the BT-17 Ginrai and BTA-04 Black Convoy figures were never officially announced by Takara in any form. The news started when amenbo posted pre-orders for the figures.

None of my normal dealers offered the figures and when I'd asked both of my main dealers they said that Takara hadn't made anything official.

As Nevermore stated, the vast majority of figures are done with Takara and Hasbro. Nearly all the engineering for figures is handled by Takara - we've seen what Hasbro does on their own, you can almost tell when Hasbro has had too much to do with a design.

As for Takara being infallible - they're not, but Hasbro certainly isn't a gem. I do think Hasbro is one of the better American toy companies though - if you've any experience delaying with ToyBiz you'll know what I mean. It does amuse me that rumors and speculation go out about how Takara ruined this and ruined that. For the longest time people insisted that Takara changed the Nitro Convoy character into a male, I had people who claimed they worked for Hasbro telling me that's how it went down and yet at BotCon it was made clear that Cartoon Network asked for the change and Hasbro picked the most female looking character.

Point is - there are a lot of BS lies about what Hasbro does, until you hear it from Hasbro themselves (which is rare) don't believe it. Both companies have their strong and week points.

As for these being canceled, it doesn't mean forever. For a long time the BT line hasn't done well with Takara. They cost too much because they cost a tremendous amount to design and engineer - it's why they have to use the molds two and three times. To compromise the price they do die-cast.

Incidentally to whomever mentioned the yellow tracks - Hasbro opted to paint Tracks blue because the yellow plastic had some transparency effects since it's plastic and not discast that allowed the interior black to show through some so blue was used.

As for toy lines that do well in Japan - most of the focus is shifting to Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Tokusatsu Hero (Justiriser, Ryukendo, etc) lines. They're for one very toyetic - you pay very little in design and you can make several versions of the toy (think about how the main power rangers characters are all very similar).

Takara also has to cut cost corners as much as it can. Mergers are just happier names for buyouts, so there was a lot of money spent - they have to spend wisely to show good returns. As a result Takara is focusing on toys they know will sell which means lots of reissues. As was stated trucks aren't popular there, and if Takara really feels it won't sell well then they won't do it at this time.

While it does make sense for their to be a comprimise between Takara and Hasbro over the design and it does seem possible - remember that Hasbro couldn't have done this on their own, Takara had to engineer it and at that time they may have thought it doable. They may have thrown the idea out to vendors and gotten minimal response.

All in all, it's sad we won't see them but it's not terribly surprising (at least on my part). And just because we won't see them now doesn't mean ever.

Thanks for reading,
-Blake

 

I second everything chemnerd just said... were looking at one mistake that takara has made, but think of all the things that hasbro has done wrong. the blame can be pushed on both companies for numberous other things. dont get me wrong though... it grinds my gears that bt might be finished...

 

I'm happy to see BT get put on the shelf. Overpriced diecast nonsense. Concentrate on reissues instead, Takara. And engineer us some cool movie figures.

 

I am very worked up about this. Harsh words in the direction of faceless corporations to follow.