Transformers are obviously onee of the top toys on the market for both children and collectors alike.

My question is, why hasn't (and will will Hasbro ever) Hasbro started a "for collectors only" line and/or website?

MattyCollector.com Online Store - Welcome was started by Mattel solely with collectors in mind. It has done well and has brought some great collector's only Masters of The Universe Classics and Ghostbuster's figures to light.

Now before you bring up TFCC, I think that's a little different. I'm not talking about a members only TF club but, a more mainstream collector's market run by Hasbro and meant for everyone.

Even still TFCC's releases are so few and far between. They're not as regular as mattycollector's once-a-month releases.

I think Hasbro had the right idea when they released the collector's only Universe Classics figures Dragstrip, Overkill, Megatron, and Prime as HTS only exclusives. IMO they abandoned that idea way too quickly and should've expanded on it.

What do you think? THANKS for posting!!

 

isn't that the Masterpiece line?

 

Zilch, they already tried it once and it bombed.

 

Not quite the same. Visit my mattycollector link above and you'll see what I mean.

TakaraTomy's Masterpiece line is something entirely different.

 

the market for he-man is different than the market for transformers

he-man's market, IS collector only, so much that the line can only survive through online-only sales

transformers, on the other hand, is a kids market, us collectors barely make up the sales for hasbro, the fact that we get the stuff like classics is gold

but hasbro won't make a line just dedicated to the collectors, that is suicide in business sense (not that i am saying doing a collector oriented line will cause hasbro going bankrupt, cause someone will read this post and believe that )

 

Well, that's what Alternators was supposed to be, and it didn't go over so well (below-profitability sales and a lot of the car companies wanting nothing to do with "war toys").

Then Takara went and did something even worse with the line.

The Classics style figures are probably the closest thing we'll get to a "collector's market" -aimed line, Masterpieces not withstanding. After all, Generations has given us Straxus and a few previously Japan-only figures (the Thrust and Dirge Gentei! retools and a Red Alert) that the average child can't possibly have known about before.

 

I don't think there's enough money in a "collectors only" line to warrant the effort on Hasbro's part. Besides, most of the Takara releases are what I would call collector's quality. Masterpiece being the prime example (no pun intended).

 

ZOMG! Kiss Players anyone.. hehe

 

there is a way to make Hasbro sell collector's lines! First, each and every collector have to buy about... 10-100 copies of every TF that comes out!

That way, we will have the market share of Hasbro's business enough to voice something at least! /sarcasm

 

Hey, without that line I would've never been able to procure a surfboard sword, fishing pole forearm cannon, and Autorooper.  

I pretty much view much of what TakaraTOMY puts out as a "collector's line."

Music Label, Device Label, etc etc.

 

There's just not a chance. I'm just happy that Transformers has gained tremendous mainstream popularity and therefore Hasbro has put out an abundance of toys aimed at both collectors and the kids.

 

I'm betting "never", or at least "nowhere near soon".

The closest I could imagine would be something like the old and dead "Hasbrocollector.com" site, which sold some Japanese TF merch, which tends to be more collector-oriented.

 

I don't think hasbro will look too much into the idea, considering how well the majority of their transformers products are selling and how a majority of the collectors are satisfied and impressed with the products.

 

With toys that are being enjoyed by kids and collectors alike at retail, I can't see Habsro diverting funding away from that to a collector-oriented line anytime soon.

As much as I'd like one!

 

Seconding this.

 

Blasphemy.

 

So an online store that sells new figures, aimed at collectors?

Can't happen.

See, Mattel can do it because their toys are pretty simple. They don't require a whole lot of engineering, parts, or even much assembly.

Transformers usually start at around 40-50 parts each, and that's just talking scouts. We get into around 100 for deluxes, and it just keeps climbing based on complexity.

So their engineering, sculpting, and manufacturing costs per figure are much higher than Mattel's. This is why they will not, and can not do it. This is easily the biggest reason. Hasbro's manufacturing costs per figure with Transformers are probably the highest in the toy industry as far as actual "actually playable" toys go.

"They could do repaints!", you might say. They tried a line of four really nice repaints in the universe line. They were only available outside of asia via hasbro toy shop. They added two new characters, dragstrip and overkill, to the line with this move. Sounds great, right? They were in stock for a year, and finally were sold off to discount stores around the country where they are often STILL being found to this day.

The collector market for Transformers is not large enough to make it worth the trouble.

And yeah, they tried it several times at retail, doing collector lines. reissues bombed (mostly due to the prices TRU insisted on charging for them) and then again with Alternators, which they kept trying their hardest to bring back before finally giving up long after it stopped making sense to keep it going. Then titanium. same deal.

 

Mattycollector recycles alot of parts to make new figures. I don't think that'll fly with TF collectors if Hasbo did that.

 

There's a reason why Binaltech, Alternators, Kiss Players, and Alternity failed - it's too outside what collectors wanted. Optimus as a Ford Truck that turns into an ugly blocky robot mode? Do not want dudes, do not want!

If HasTak decided on creating a premium (and I mean premium) line that fell in between the Classics and Masterpiece line quality-wise, I think it would actually do pretty well. Hasbro did do that with the Premium line for the first movie figures, but I have no idea how that went sales-wise.

There is also the part of having the market to support that kind of endeavor to think about...