Okay guys. This will be brief and dirty but I wanna articulate the thought and get some discussion happening. There will be at least one Transformers movie per year from now on for the known future and they're actually really trying to improve on what they started in the first four. Movie toys are not going away. There is way more to the TLK line than we've seen I'm sure and then there's the BB movie next year, TF6 in 2019, Transformers One somewhere, and many more to come after that. Every movie will get a toyline. Probably an exclusive line (Mission To Cybertron) and then a full line imprint after that to segue into the next line proper. The movie toys are now a Generations esque mainstay. After the TLK line drops they won't stop being designed, produced, and shipped unless the TFCU tanks sooner or later or comes to a conclusive end years and years from now. So the idea that an onscreen character won't get a toy is patently ridiculous. This isn't DOTM or AOE. This is a new animal and a new era. I bet anyone here tree fiddy that they start reaching back and redoing old characters too Spoiler especially characters like Starscream and others who have apparently been fiddling about with Nazis and stuff and will probably show up in the BB movie. fight me
Well, it still took like 30 years to get an Arcee figure, so... The problem I see is that the Movie lines will stick to a quick 3-Wave-pattern (because Movie hype is down and Generations hype is up), and since TLK is thoroughly disinterested in making toys for its new characters this would mean the next TF film would have to pick up those bots while also doing its own new bots while also doing the obligatory main cast. Which probably ain't happening.
I've said it before even just today but the fixation people have with Onslaught is insane. Anyone would think that we'd seen the movie and he was an actual memorable character and not that all we know about him is his name, what his alt mode is and that his robot mode seems to just be made of reused parts of other background Decepticons from previous movies. It's especially ridiculous considering that this is the fifth film in a series that is notorious for giving villains little focus and usually no lines and at least since ROTF always has a ton of characters not get proper toys. But then again, if we can't flip out about Hot Rod and Onslaught, what is Lazerwave going to talk about in literally every thread ever?
I will say this. I get the feeling that the way movie toys work in general has changed (I don't mean transformers- I mean everything, star wars, turtles, avengers). I've been watching the recent star wars lines and pretty much everything that shows up on shelves seems to show up very early on. I get the feeling that 2-3 waves is just it now. I've also noticed with Star wars that figures from the previous movie that weren't widely seen have been showing up in the next movie's waves.
I'm surprised nobody has complained about someone complaining about other people's concerns yet, or uttered the obligatory phrase "If you don't like these threads, don't click them".
Since it's confirmed that we'll see Hot Rod be in a two pack in the TRU sub line it's pretty possible that Onslaught will have the same thing happen to him.
These movies are the definition of product-line blockbusters. Even if they're setting up a cinematic universe (seriously, good luck with that using a franchise with so little narrative coherency), neither Hasbro nor Paramount/car companies/whoever want to focus upon old product. With these movies also being flash-in-the-pan critical failures (say what you will about AOE being "more of a Transformers film", it was still a dismal movie), there's little interest in going crazy with top-end collector lines (even Prime 1's stuff is very limited edition). As the toylines get shorter, there's less and less chance of these characters getting a second chance to have a toy. I don't go crazy about any of these movie characters anymore, but I remember when I did. I'm thankful that this short toyline crap didn't happen whilst I was into the movies, and I have sympathy for current fans who might not get the characters they want. A lot of it's about imagination. Wheeljack did next to nothing in DOTM, but by God was I excited to see him in a movie, and wow did I lap up every moment with him that I could. I remember him fondly because of the hype and possibilities my imagination came up with before and after the movie came out. It's the same with G1 - people say Prowl or Sideswipe or whoever were their favourite character - what exactly did those guys actually do? Nothing, but they were stimulants for your imagination. At the end of the day, it'd be lovely for all of us to get what we'd like to have, but in the meantime, I'm grateful for what I've got and I have sympathy and respect for those who remain patient for what they want to have.
