Is the animated line done for good?

Yea, that sounds more like it. It has been about 4 years since I worked at target, so my memory was a little rusty on that aspect. All I remember was something being out, and usually those items went on clearance soon afterwards.
maybe it was just a coincidence.

Was it anything like this?




(Note: I have nothing against Brian Goldner. I just can't pass up the opportunity for a cheap Star Wars joke, is all. )

This doesn't bode well for Arcee and Soundwave if true. However it just occurred to me, as there's going to be a Soundwave and an Arcee in the movie line, will Hasbro want two TF toys from different lines on the shelf at the same time.

Assuming this is true...this sucks and Hasbro really needs to send out some kind of announcement explaining exactly what is going on. Even if it's something Hasbro has no control over, they need to provide some explanation, otherwise they're going to catch all the heat for it, regardless of who's causing this situation.

I could definitely see how this could be the doing of the retailers, though. The ROTF mainline is due to come out at the end of May, with the Preview wave potentially at the end of April or early May. So, from now (roughly the beginning of March) until the end of May is only 3 months. Assuming Animated continued as planned, that's 3 months for retailers to have to do all of the following:

- Order, receive and sell 2 more waves of Animated figures (1 Deluxe wave, 1 Voyager wave)...keeping in mind that the last Deluxe wave is only just beginning to show up on store shelves now.
- Order, receive and sell 1 more wave of Universe Deluxes.
- Make space for the ROTF preview wave.
- Move out inventory of all Animated and Universe figures, including new and old waves, without having to clearance too much.
- Clerarance/put on sale the remaining Animated and Universe figures.
- Reset/adjust the Transformers portion of the toy aisle for ROTF.

Given that Animated Deluxe wave 6 is only just starting to show up, and Voyager wave 6 is only just hitting saturation levels, it wouldn't surprise me if retailers said something to the effect of "we don't have time to get in, and sell, another two waves of Animated before ROTF starts up...we're not ordering any more from this line." I'd wager Universe might be alright, since that's only 1 more Deluxe wave and the Dinobot/Smokescreen wave has already hit saturation, so they should have plenty of time to sell the Hot Shot/Ratchet wave.

However, even if this is due to the retailers, Hasbro bears some responsibility. If the Animated toy line had started on time (ie - when the cartoon started), there would have been plenty of time to get Voyager Wave 7 and Deluxe Wave 7 out without running up against ROTF.

Just idle speculation.

EDIT - Went back and read some of the 2nd page of this thread (25 post-per-page) and Kickback's note on page 3; I feel more optimistic now.

They had two Optimus at some point. I don't think it really matters...

...


Fuck.


I feel like going on a shopping spree and saving every TFA toy I can find from destruction. But then Hasbro gets more of my $$$ by transference, and I really don't want to encourage this behavior. Though I may at least go pick up some of the toys I've skipped, like all the Bumper Battlers and half the Activators.

I've liked nearly all the movie stuff, I really have, but this is starting to sour me on it. It's even making me have less desire to go to BotCon.


Dammit.

People must be blind to the fact that all this is probably because of Cartoon Network's decision to cancel the show.

BUT NO! Let's just keep swearing at Hasbro.

Just to add to the awful way the Animated toys have been handled, it occurred to me that this whole line hasn't even been in stores for a year yet.

It started hitting the test market of Cincy around last Botcon and didn't really start showing up nationally until May-ish. So if the line ends May 29th, it will then have been out about a year, as pathetic as that is.

At this point, however, these toys haven't even been available to the masses until last May (less than a year!)

I'm sure there are tons of people who don't have all the Animated figs they want just yet. And that just plain sucks.

What if Animated is being integrated into Universe? It would be a good way to stretch out both lines. Is something like that feasible?

I hope this news is as false as that one where it was reported UK cancelle the Animated toyline.