Farming it out to a cartoon channel that is NOT a premium channel would be an excellent marketing tool..most cable systems have the HUB channel in another premium tier, which in this economy may not be in many family budgets.. so the kiddies get to watch the "free" cartoon channels which sadly doesn't include the HUB.

 

They have. It's on Teletoon in Canada, and I imagine other networks outside the sphere of influence of the hub. So is GI Joe renegades.

 

I don't know about Prime, but lack of toys is certianly hurting my patience!

 

Within the US, I mean. It's good on the Hub right now, as it allows Hasbro to present Prime as an intellectual property first, and a toy-selling device second (as there aren't any toys yet) - which is the general trend the company is trying to move towards over the last couple of years. It means we as fans get new material at a resgular flow, and better yet, material that's not at risk from being overwhelmed and cancelled out by the movie when it comes out a few months from now. But when the time comes, AS a toy-selling device, it's sequestered, barely-noticed existence is not going to do it any favours. So when THAT time comes, post-movie, and the toys come out, showing the cartoon on another network seems like a smart move to me. It won't hurt the Hub, because it'll already be miles ahead of these re-runs, and it'll help get the show a much wider level of attention than it's garnering on the obscure channel its on right now.

But I dunno, it might be viewed as diluting the Hasbro "family" of brands, or something like that, but allowing them to move outside of their channel. I'm just spitballin'.

 

Actually its the other way round. The Show is there to promote the toys. I think thats what Hasbro has been forgetting in the wake of the movies and why Animated ended up having a very haphazard toy line release schedule.

SOmeone at hasbro needs a good kick up the arse to remind them that they're a toy company first and foremost and the media side comes second. Thecartoons really are just extended toy commercials after all.
The fact Hasbro weren't initially planning a toy line for prime at all just proves they're losing thier focus and begining to belive their own hype.

 

Doupt it, when the premiere of the show has double the views of the channels premiere you know it's good.

 

Yes. The only solution is to release the toys right now.

 

The difference between Animated and Prime is that this time, Hasbro has full control on when to give the cartoon on the Hub an extra push and make people notice. It's much safer for them this time to release toys later on than it was with Animated, which ran on Cartoon Network at crazy times.

 

I don't feel it'll hurt the showe at all. I'm going to pre-order my figures as soon as they become available to do so. Until I shall watch the show as loyally as ever.

 

By the time the toyline debuts there will be enough reruns to run weekdays after school, prime time so to speak. Perfect time for a post movie season marketing push.

 

Not really sure how we'd find out.

I know I'm looking forward to the Prime toys but skipping the Dark of the Moon toys. But then I'm just one fan.

Since we are such a small part of the overall Transformers sells the really important question is how will the kids market take to the Dark of the Moon and Transformers Prime toys?

 

The fact that most episodes of Prime (thus far) feature pretty self-contained tales will help here tremendously. I don't think we'll see many multi episode arcs until season 2 hits, when it'll (hopefully) be in full swing.

I actually believe hasbro's strategy could work out quite well. With Prime quitely simmering away and gathering momentum, they'll be ready to hit the ground running once the movie hype machine dies down.

 

I'd like an answer to that question too. Do you guys think a poll is in order?

 

I'm skipping most of the DOTM toys and just looking to grab the Prime toys when they're out.