But if they don't sell and pegwarm and take up space for the Generations line, you'll be worried.

 

Hopefully, this is just what people are saying, a downgrading at the tail end of a line to cut costs.

Still, the level of this downgrade is troubling. Deluxes have been the meat and potatoes of TF collecting for a while now, and to see them suddenly replaced by the cheaper, kid-oriented legions is worrying. It could be that they've decided their deluxes have gotten over-complicated for their target demographic. It could spell plans to move to simplier toys for the mainline in the future.

Though, as long as Generations stays true, I guess it's not to much trouble for me. Prime has been a freak line in that it was a mainline that actually held some interest for me. Since it'll soon give way to TF4 figures anyway, and previous movie figures have had very limited interest to me, it probably won't affect me much, either way.

 

aaaahh..not really. Its not a random theory based on no evidence.

They did exactly what I said with GIJOE. Those came out of nowhere. They didn't announce they were exclusives or anything. They just showed up.

Im still doubting these will be on pegs next to mainline transformers at big box stores.

 

if they DID in fact say these will be mainline figures...I would be blown away. I still say theres something more to it.

Mabye they heard everyone bitching about how they missed scouts and these may fill that void?

its still boggling

 

I don't usually comment in these threads, mostly hang out in sightings threads & such. But these upscaled legion toys... suck. To me it's the idea that sucks more than the toys. If the toys were an experiment at a lower price point it'd make sense to me, but these things are official "deluxe" at official deluxe price.
I understand the argument that it's a cost cutting measure- but why isn't hasbro sticking with the "repaint it" measure to save costs? Does hasbro have to fill a certain quota of toys in a wave to be a wave? Can't they take the handfull of real deluxes from the Crock-out wave & double it, or do a revision case?
Hasbro is a toy business, not an artist preserving an idea or art form of transformers, but this decision is confusing to me.
Though from my transfan side I'd have repaint that awesome generations Waspinator into beast wars Buzzsaw & put him on a beast hunters card & things like that!

 

Prowl looks interesting but I think I'm done with BH. If they made an upscaled Abominus I think it will look like a mess. If I really wanted to collect creature robots, I'd collect Beast Wars but not interested.

 

The bolded bit is the important bit, I think.

What deluxes from Prime and BH have they not repainted/redeco'd?

Cliffjumper, Arcee (BH & PRID), Ratchet (both regular and BH), Soundwave (again, both BH and regular), Airachnid (...), BH Wheeljack, BH Knockout, Rumble (at least not in the US), Kup (see Rumble), Vehicon, BH Bulkhead (completely new mold), BH Starscream (new mold!), and BH Dreadwing (again, completely new mold). (Sorry if I forgot any)

And the list of Voyagers is pretty long as well.

So why not take some of these, there's sixteen afterall, and make 4-5 (!) waves, just full of repaints, squeeze the everliving heck out of these molds, and make a like... THE BEAST BATTLES BURGER BOMBSHELL BODACIOUS BLASTING BOOBS BOX BANANA okay I'm done but you get my point... line. As for the "they're too hard" line, well... a lot of these are some pretty damn easy TFs. Rumble may be kind of rough, and have some fiddly panel bits, but Cliffjumper and Arcee are fairly easy. Soundwave is the definition of easy. And there's TWO to repaint. Can't come up with a name? Who the fuck cares. Name them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc. etc. for all anyone cares, they're still WAY better than upscaled Legends.

 

I'm interested in this line if they upscaled that Megs, and if the Predacons combined still. How cool would it be if they combined upscaled. It'd be ugly but cool

 

They had $13 on their cards. These are late 2013, and you can't tell me Prowl and Bumblebee aren't coming out before September and that's an entire Christmas season without new product... and here's your Christmas toys guys! giant, upscaled pieces of shit, toys. Main line. They said so themselves. They said it was "too complex". Bull. Fucking. Shit. Even so, don't make people pay for $13 giant hunks of unarticulated garbage.

The GI Joe Dollar Store line was good because if anything, it was the EXACT SAME Joes, just heavy repaints of already released figures, with few accessories.

Here's an idea. REPAINT THE SIXTEEN DELUXES YOU HAVEN'T YET HASBRO.

There is absolutely no excuse for this abomination of a line.

You said it yourself, too, that your son likes the small stuff. You liked the small stuff when you were a kid. Every KID likes SMALL stuff. Make more Legends. Don't make giant Legends. The appeal of SMALL toys is their SMALL nature, relative to a child's size.

It's a dark day when a dude without a marketing degree can figure out marketing better than people with one.

 

Those who "complained" may have thought of the same thing but they may also be thinking voicing their opinion may help Hasbro take notice of their displeasure. Now I won't say I know about Hasbro's business practices and what they do for research but I do believe it's worth it to post opinions on this site just in case they do research Fan sites. So it's not necessarily a study in futility or uselessness. Just as your assumptions of why Hasbro maybe going down this avenue is exactly the same as theirs an assumption or best guess.

I'm not personally educated in economics etc, but I know when it comes to business it all comes down to the bottom line. As such just like you I'm not worried yet, Hasbro is just exploring new avenues currently. So while I agree with your general point of not worrying just yet I'm also a proponent of those voicing their displeasure.

That may have been your intention but it was poorly worded and I can see how it can be interpreted as "complaining about complaining". If your interest was to educate why didn't you post this in the original thread? Again I'm not making assumptions just curious what the purpose of creating a new thread was rather than responding to those you say you want to help enlighten with a different potential view was.

Total win for referencing Monty.  

 

Did they present those G.I. Joe figures at a convention alongside mainline stuff?

 

This morning I decided I support upscaling. The reasons Hasbro stated are fair enough, and there's an added benefit of a more solid toy. I was thinking about Knock Out and what a mess he is. A deluxe legion would be most welcome.

 

Exactly. This is one figure I would have bought.

 

I think these new types of figures are fantastic! I am truly excited for them.
They make it easier to save money.

Thank you, HASBRO, from the bottom of my heart.

 

I don't buy this rationale. I don't think they're putting a bigger design budget into each generations toy than they ever did. Is IDW Bumblebee any more polished an effort than 2006 Classics Bumblebee? Anyway if they did that, they'd probably turn Generations from a reliable fallback into an expensive loss-making line. Hasbro are not going to generously pour the savings of their cost-cutting into things better for us.

I think it's more likely that, since they've had waves of staff cuts, that they simply don't have the manpower to do all-new Beast Hunters toys.

The reason they haven't done this on Generations is because it'd be suicide for the line. Generations is aimed at older fans. It doesn't have cartoon promotion. If the quality isn't there, it fails. If 'Trailcutter' was merely scaled up from his legends toy, collectors wouldn't want it.

There was already re-use in the Beast Hunters line, and now they've gone further. It could also be argued that Beast Hunters figures carry additional costs because they have to spread the cost of the show.

New theory: By going back to low articulation and inferior toys, they'll create ongoing demand for further Generations figures decades down the line.

 

Oh. Hey. Someone trying to apply some hopeful logic to the practicies of a corporation more or less gears towards milking you of every penny they can. Time to take my brick of reality and bring it to someone's head.

Yes. One can argue it's targetted towards younger kids. Except it's the parents who pay for them. So it is targetted to appeal to kids by offering them characters they may want, that their parents will pay for, for a second time. This isn't a cost cutting measure. This is a blatant milk them a bit more tactic, while selling it as a cost cutting measure, so we can do it more often, measure. There is not end consumer here to which this benefits. This is Hasbro wanting to make more money, having their PR people put a spin on it that they will think people will agree with or not mind, and drilling that line of thinking into the minds of the those speaking publically on the matter.

In short. THIS IS NOT BEING DONE FOR OUR BENEFIT. Delude yourself if you wish, but I've been in the retail game and watching the signs for a while, and I know a blantant money grab when I see one.

No. No it isn't. The cost savings isn't used for that, and unless you can cite me specific sources and documentation that states that this is the case, I'm going to scream bullshit until the sun goes super nova because that's all it is. At one point business was about providing a service for people and giving them what they want. That line of thinking is more or less out the window to a degree, as most businesses just want one thing. Money. Sure they'll invest in it for a while, but the game for a while has been "Lets make money. Money is money. I want money."

That said. Designers and people in touch with the community know what we want. They usually want to give it to us. However, in the end, they often have little power in that regard as there will be some guy above them with an MBA telling them that they should do it this way, not that way. Why? Because he has an MBA and fuck you, that's why. The generations line is there because it's known they can put stuff out that we'll buy, but we're lower on the totem pole then others. It's an olive branch, of sorts. A bridge that keeps us in gear because Hasbro does know that we have the power granted to us by our wallets, and if they do piss us off, we won't buy. Ala New Coke, and X-Bone.

Should this line of up sized commanders fail(And god I hope it does.), that will impact us in the short term. That will mean less money going to the brand to recoup their cost, but in the long term it will be a good thing, because Hasbro will realize it was a mistake and we're not interested. So my advice to you is to not buy those upscaled legends. Buy Generations. Get your kid a Metroplex. Get him a new Generations Bumblebee for fucks sake. Get him a new Rhinox and reenact him blasted the bejeezus out of Waspy. But for the love of god don't buy those new upsized legends. You are the masters of your own destiny for this matter, so take the path you want the future to be. More like Generations, or more like Playskill Palbots. The choice is yours.

 

Honestly, I personally think that the only one they really screwed was Bumblebee(but that's typical). Also I do agree completely with the OP.

 

Totally agree.

All my money next year will be going to Generations toys  

 

I'm thinking Hasbro may be emulating what KO manufacturers are doing to get back at them. Ditto for Third Party figures, look at the upcoming Generations Legends Cosmos for example.

Anyway, if they make a Voyager Hardshell that's an upsized version of the Cyberverse Commander, I will get around three of him. Or as someone has mentioned a Breakdown, but it will surely be "primitive" looking compared to the AM version.

With all that being said, I do hope this experiment will be a success so Hasbro will make more MPs, Classics, etc. I mean an increase in revenue might make them amenable to releasing the aforementioned, as well as those figures that still don't have Hasbro versions, like AM Breakdown.