One thing seems to be clear - the reissues are NOT big money-makers for Hasbro or Takara. If they were, we'd still be getting them. As much as I would have liked to see them continue indefinitely, why in the world would they keep producing them if the returns did not meet minimum expectations? And even more so, why in the world would they spend time reconstituting old molds if that additional cost would cause that profit margin to be reduced even further? A sad reality, but true.
I don't know if you realize, but Kyde only has a very tiny minor role to play with Hasbro. He's just another employee. The receptionist at Hasbro has just as much credibility.
And so do you. In fact, you have even less than the receptionist, since you don't work for Hasbro at all. Aaron Archer, on the other hand, IS CREDIBILITY.
I never denied Archer's credibility. But Kyde is definitely the most overrated "insider" (that word makes me laugh) ever. I don't even know why people are even considering his opinion given the terrible work he's done for Hasbro so far.
What terrible work would that be, by any chance? And care to say that to his face (or, at least on a board that he actually posts at). And I personally don't consider toy designer and colour layout artist particularly minor jobs. He's not a file clerk. He's had an active role in many of Hasbro's products, TFs included. Besides, we're not considering opinions here, we're considering facts. Kyde's made a point of enlightening us with all sorts of details that go into the toy manufacturing business. General expenses included.
I'd be fine if they stopped the reissues, just as long as they continue to expand the current classics with updated articulation. Give us some real gestalts and some huge fortmax sized toys and we're set. No need to look back.
I don't see the connection between Kyde's credibility and your opinion of the quality of Kyde's work.
To elaborate more on that rumor... It's said that the reason Hasbro/Takara said the molds were lost was because they don't have them anymore. They sold one or more of the factories they used in the 80's, along with all the equipment in them. Supposedly, the Swoop mold was in one of those factories and it's current owners are making these things as well as the tape reissues. Rumor has it that other molds "lost" by Has/Tak were also in that factory. We will get confirmation of this rumor when/if we get the other Dinobots, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, or Mirage.
That's like bragging about being in the car industry and being the guy responsible for the Lada Samara. He well knows what I think about him, and he posts here as well. You want to brag about being an insider and go public about it, well, just like any other actor in this business, be ready to be criticized. Armada Overload is a terrible toy, so are most of the Minicons and decos he worked on so far. Have the MP-03 detractors complained to the designer's face? Since the guy is not here to defend himself, maybe you guys should refrain from posting negative comments about that figure? C'mon. Right now, I'm more impressed by the guy behind Ironhide's toy design.
id say the odds of seeing these "lost" molds pop up within the next couple of years are pretty good. who would have thought we would ever see a swoop again. but as far as the reason the reissues failed was toysrus price markups. IT was really hard to justify buying silverstreak for 45 dollars when it came out, but once all those hit 15 dollars i bought em all up. and it happened rather quickly, at least around here. i think most of the price markup was toys r us's doing and not hasbro. considering you could get a reissue from japan for the same price after shipping. even though they are out of production, you can still pick up every re issue almost on ebay for 30-40 $ now soundwave hit my toys r us beginning of february. bought one and went back three days later and they were all sold. it stickered at 30 bucks. so if this is one of the reverse engineered expensive molds? why would they re-release it at the lowest starting sticker price of all the reissues? i think its all a matter of supply and demand and thats it i dont think hasbro or takara have wallets so tight that they couldnt do this, but rather they are biding their time. we saw the shortlist of re-issues supposedly coming up and the only g1 figure i believe was optimus prime. basically what im trying to say is that hasbro stands to lose a LOT of money by simply releasing too many re-issues. if my local toys r us (or god forbid a wal mart(who actually stocks more than once every 6 months)) had as many g1 reissues as they do cybertron brown monkey primes, i probably wouldnt shell out 40 dollars on one when i came across it in the dusty clearance shelf at toys r us.
I'd figure that with the movie coming out, pumping out reissues would make more of a killing than they did before as shelf warmers. If kids are dumb enough to buy some of the new toys that are, quite frankly crappy, then why not repackage reissues in movie boxes or whatever? I mean, regardless of this movie sucking, they should be able to do sell a dried up dog turd as long as it's labeled Transformers. If they could get away with it any time, this should be it. Then again, I'm a dick from New Jersey and have no basis for what I'm saying with regards to toy profits.
1) I'm pretty sure Overlord was the first Transformer he had such a large role in designing. How many times have you gotten something right the first time you've tried it? Perfection takes practice. 2) For a first attempt, it was pretty cool. At the very least, it had an interesting look, it used a headmaster-like gimmick, had a cool sound gimmick, and it used a very cool part-jumping transformation that I've only ever seen before on Takara's 1997 GaoGaiGar toy. There were plenty good things about the toy IMHO. 3) It's not like he did the engineering on this toy AFAIK. He just made some initial designs and the Takara engineers took it from there. If the toy wasn't perfect, you can't know for sure that the problems you have with the toy are Kyde's fault and not the Takara engineers' faults.
What difference does it make? It's pretty clear that reissues are a bleeding wound to Hasbro/Takara. They got some nostalgia sales, but that was about it. Their new products offer a lot more, from sales to mold usages, otherwise we wouldn't constantly have new lines, and record profits for Hasbro. Plus, without all the recent lines, there wouldn't be a Transformers brand to market with anyway. I agree, it would be cool to get reissues, but if the choice was reissues or classics, I'm going to go with Classics every time. I myself only picked up 6 reissues during the entire run, and only 2 were US release versions.
I think with the movie comming out, There will be more people like me who missed the reissues the first time snapping them up just for nostalgia. Just dont make them tru exclusives.This way the price will be right at walmarts and targets.
Considering that design =/= engineering, and that I haven't seen a truly bad deco since Kyde came on board (Universe exclusives notwithstanding, which I'm quite sure he had no part in anyways), I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you. The personal touches he made to Armada Thundercracker, specifically his red face, rock hard, and distinguish his work from someone who's just cashing in off of things that came before him. And this whole attack on Kyde's work is skirting the issue, anyways. Whether you agree with his design style or not does not invalidate the fact that he plays an active role within Hasbro, and thus knows full well the inner workings of the company, and should well know the feasibility of projects.
Very true! If we suddenly start seeing reasonable-quality KO Wheeljacks and Mirages, it'll be reasonable to surmise that the molds - assumed lost - have resurfaced in some factory or other. Does anyone have any info on the Reflector mold?
a ko reflector was seen recently theres usually a few on ebay if u look heres a link http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/G1-Transformers-Microx-Reflector-Camera-RM-Reissue-NEW_W0QQitemZ120091881903QQihZ002QQcategoryZ753QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
