Why doesn't Hasbro do Q&A sessions for Transformers?

Discussion in 'Transformers General Discussion' started by Pimpimus Prime, Jan 8, 2008.

  1. Nevermore

    Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

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    Before Kickback posts his own subjective view again:

    Before the launch of the Armada line, Aaron Archer started to post on the "2005 Boards" (which were then part of Transfandom.com) under the alias of "Orson". The 2005 Boards staff eventually learned that he was a Hasbro designer (he has been promoted since then) and gave him his own sub-forum, "Orson's World", where fans were able to ask questions, but not answer threads. "Orson" would then answer the questions he was willing to, and ignore others. He was famous for his bad spelling. His true identity was kept a secret by the staff, and people who found out somehow were allegedly banned.

    Later, the 2005 Boards split from Transfandom and were relaunched as part of the all-new, all-different TFW2005. "Orson's World" remained with TFW as per Archer's permission.

    It was around this time (early 2003) that Hasbro would try to severely crack down on stolen prototypes and other advance "leaks" of upcoming toys (they would eventually drop that stance again by the end of the year), possibly due to photos of various resin prototypes having popped up on fansites and message boards.

    Eventually, Aaron Archer was told by his higher-ups that he were to immediately stop his activities at TFW2005 and have all records of his presence there deleted.

    Initially, Aaron (and TFW's owner, Tony Bacala) blamed Jack, the owner of TFormers.com. Now, Jack is indeed an individual with questionable business practices, and I despise his site and its way of reporting oftentimes inaccurate news stories and posting uncredited images with giant watermarks on them that pretend a false "exclusivity" ever since I had my own falling out with him.

    However, as far as responsibilities for the shutdown of "Orson's World" are concerned, I've heard too many sides of the story to simply write them all off as false.

    Here's the different versions:

    1) The Aaron Archer/TFW2005 version: Jack was jealous that "Orson" was giving TFW2005 an "unfair advantage" by posting there exclusively, and thus sent Hasbro a "sour grapes e-mail".

    2) The Jack/TFormers staff version: Aaron Archer was being rude to the fans and behaving extremely unprofessionally. Furthermore, he undermined Hasbro's "no prototypes" policy at that time by exclusively providing TFW2005 with prototype photos, thereby hurting the interests of his own employer. Having him stop posting at TFW was a FAVOR for the fandom.

    3) The former TFormers staff member version: Jack asked Aaron to stop posting at TFW and set up shop at TFormers instead. When Aaron rejected the offer, Jack decided for a "scorched Earth" tactic, concludind that if HE couldn't have Aaron, no-one else should either.

    4) The former Transfandom staff member version: It wasn't Jack. It was the administration of Transfandom.com that CONSTANTLY complained to Hasbro about Aaron's presence at TFW, because they were just THAT socially inept.

    So, with that many different versions, I honestly can't say for sure what the true story was anymore.

    In any regard, after "Orson's World" was gone, Hasbro relaunched their Transformers.com website in late 2003, complete with a weekly Q&A section. Some of the questions were actually useful ("Will there be a new version of Armada Wheeljack with blue instead of yellow paint applications?"), others were pretty useless ("When is Alternators Autobot Hound coming out?", weeks after the first sightings of the toy had already been reported at TFW). Hasbro stopped doing website Q&As for a few months prior to OTFCC 2004 in order to not spoil the surprises there, then picked up the feature again after OTFCC. Eventually, the once weekly Q&A updates became more and more sporadic, and ultimately stopped altogether.

    The other feature was the "Ask Vector Prime" column featured on Hasbro's Transformers website when it was redesigned to commemorate the launch of the Cybertron line in mid-2005. This feature was more aimed at kids, and thus featured rather simple questions. The column was initially also weekly, and in later months a few more collector-aimed questions were featured too.

    Like the previous Q&A feature, "ask Vector Prime" also started to become more and more sporadic after a while and eventually faded into oblivion altogether.
     
  2. $5HotRod

    $5HotRod Trailbreaker Fan

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    I see and in some cases...daaaaayyyyyuuuumnn. Thanks, Nevermore for explaining all of that.
     
  3. KA

    KA Well-Known Member

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    you guys can post your TF Qs to me in this thread from now on.
     
  4. signals3

    signals3 Frightfully Important

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    Wow. I love this stuff. People should just get a clue and enjoy these stupid toys and stop ruining it for the rest of us. Must politics and peoples petty attitudes invade everything? I remember when this stuff happened and how much I loved Orsons world. Que sera sera. Great explanation though, for those who missed out.
     
  5. Steevy Maximus

    Steevy Maximus Old School Snarkster

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    Stepping back from the various political fan brew-haha for a sec, do we really need a Q and A?

    Seriously, Star Wars has a huge collector base to warrant the interaction, and GI Joe is basically catering to an older collector crowd. And if you look at GI Joe's Q and As, they've all pretty much boiled down to "Will/When is character x coming?" or "Will be get vehicles?"

    With Transformers, we're at the highest brand point any of us have ever seen. About the only questions that would end up asked would be "Will Alternators/Masterpiece/Titanium/*insert limited fan line* continue/start/whatever?" or "Will we see character x in Universe?"

    Anything else we pretty much know the score on, so there just isn't a real need for a Transformers Q and A.
     
  6. KA

    KA Well-Known Member

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    brouhaha.

    sorry. reflex.
     
  7. Team Jetfire

    Team Jetfire Pop-POP!

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    Crazy...but I agree that we don't really need it. All the news we need is right here.
     
  8. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    Then you are unaware of just what kind of news orson was bringing us. he beat everyone to the punch. we heard of and saw a lot of stuff looooooong before the ebay testshot stealers ever got their hands on it.