Why can't Hasbro be this honest with us?

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by BenjaminXavier, Jan 7, 2013.

  1. LigerPrime

    LigerPrime Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, Mattel should just stick to Barbie toys and Hot Wheel cars (and whatevtanking that allows for minimum retooling) and stay far, far away from collectors toys.
     
  2. Astronopolis

    Astronopolis Well-Known Member

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    I feel the same way. Also that was the first Transformers related joke I actually laughed at
     
  3. Psycho Grimlock

    Psycho Grimlock Well-Known Member

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    Be glad you're not GI Joe fans, because if Hasbro treated Transformers like Joe, the highlight of Botcon would be a huge display of prototype figures and playsets made from existing parts that look REALLY awesome...but you're NEVER going to get them, not even from TT.

    Hasbro, like all large public companies, only tries to give out information that it feels serves the interest of itself and its shareholders. "Fan loyalty" is a marketing strategy and nothing more. The second that materials accounting does a cost/benefit analysis of any projected line (often based on flawed or misleading data) and the projections don't meet their expected profit margin, it's dead, period.

    While they may have "brand teams" who are legitimate fans, those folks don't call the shots and are often instructed to be intentionally dishonest to support whatever business strategy the higher-ups intend to employ, and unlike Steevy Maximus, I don't buy their story about the Dollar General GI Joe figures for one second for the simple fact that their regional distribution mirrors Hasbro's 'regular' retail channels identically.
     
  4. bumblebeeprime2

    bumblebeeprime2 Banned

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    that and DISNEY just bought starWars with ALOT of MONEY so i bet they took the toyline too! cause starwars wont be on Cartoonetwork anymore insead it will be on DisneyXD! dont know when it will be on the disney show! but i can see Disney buy there Marvel ToYS too and what ever disney onwns they will get it!
     
  5. Ash from Carolina

    Ash from Carolina Junior Smeghead

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    Yea the other Hasbro brands have it made compared the GI Joe collectors. Hey guys look at this really cool stuff that will never ever be in your collection. Or hey remember that important character from the cartoon that showed up in several episodes, well if you can't make it to Comic Con you are out of luck because we love to make characters Comic Con exclusives not just uniform colors.
     
  6. LigerPrime

    LigerPrime Well-Known Member

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    I get what you mean but to be fair to Hasbro, IMO G.I Joe isn't as popular as it once was. I also suspect poor sales had something to do with it more than anything else. There's been a lot of products shown at toy fairs that were never released - even for Asian toy companies. For exams, Bandai had yet to release a regular version of Goku (from Dragonball Z fame) after his debut at a toyfair 3 years ago?

    I won't be surprised if Disney had a 'say' in it. I recall reading somewhere that when Disney bought over Marvel, someone mentioned that it was requested that Marvel kill off one character within a time frame (like a year or story arc).
     
  7. Boy Blunder

    Boy Blunder Terrorcon King

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    ...except that Disney doesn't own a toy company, at least one that can compare with Hasbro's quality in the Marvel and Star Wars lines. They've said more than once that they're pretty hands-off with the properties they've bought, and there's been no evidence to the contrary.
     
  8. archieboy

    archieboy Well-Known Member

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    I'm not a native English speaker, so I've always wondered if this is "homes," as in "homies," or "Holmes," as in like Sherlock.
     
  9. Superquad7

    Superquad7 OCP Police Crime Prevention Unit 001 Super Content Contributor

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    In the context, it's usage is "homies". You are also correct to use capitalization of the 'h' in the name "Holmes". I also must applaud your post there, as you managed to write effectively in English. I wished some of our native, English-speaking posters could stop being lazy and manage to do the same.

    On the topic, I think Hasbro does a pretty good job communicating certain things with the fandom.
     
  10. PlanckEpoch

    PlanckEpoch Red and black red and black

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    You can blame the GI Joe movie "Rise of Cobra" for the failure of GI Joe. As far as I am concerned, the failure of GI Joe is a Hasbro fuck up. They tried this movie push to reinvigorate it like Transformers...but Rise of Cobra was so awful that I don't think many people really bought into it. Last I heard, that was the reason why the Pursuit of Cobra subline was changed to be more like ARAH...movie stuff didn't sell, so they went back to a more classic aesthetic.

    Then Renegades came out, which I thought was GREAT! What a way to sell GI Joe to a whole new audience and to push toys and see a resurgence in GI Joe...but again, Hasbro fucks it all up again. GI Joe Retaliation looks like it's going to be a decent movie, but with so much stigma from the first movie it's hard to say how well it's going to do. At least the upcoming toys look FANTASTIC. Going away from the goddamn stupid launchers and packing a lot of accessories like Pursuit of Cobra/Modern Era stuff.
     
  11. RedAlert Rescue

    RedAlert Rescue Banned

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    Perhaps they can re-work the Droid factory leftover into other releases - it might be really interesting if the sold the bits in an open face box (like those mix-and match Hotwheels cars come in) and linked it to a modern version of the 1980's droid factory - it's something that could tie to clone wars (and it's droids) or to something like a giant Jawa Sandcrawler toy release.

    They should make more dioramas that are not cardboard. It's not long until Toyfair now though so I guess we will see then what Hasbro has in mind for it's various lines in 2013.

    As I've said before I'd quite like Star Wars Transformers Botshots sometime.
     
  12. Steevy Maximus

    Steevy Maximus Old School Snarkster

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    Actually, aside from the 6 month delay and the removal of any actor likenesses...PoC didn't change a whole hell of a lot between its initial unveil and plan at Joecon 09 and the product we finally got in 2010.

    A majority of the items we didn't get were either too closely tied to the film, or the the line had shrunk enough by that point Hasbro couldn't fit it (like City Strike Scarlett)
     
  13. wildfly

    wildfly Fermenting pork tube.

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    My first instinct would be to suggest Hasbro have placed different expectations on the Transformers brand due a combination of box office receipts and the fact they own the brand. As opposed to it being a licensed one.

    I don't mean to infer for a second that their expectations are realistic.
     
  14. SlaveToLogic

    SlaveToLogic Logic > Megatron

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    Because they're a business.

    We're adults, we should know how business are run.


    I'm a bigger Star Wars fan than Transformers, and honestly, I'm not bothered that they canceled this line. Frankly I'm still happy we're having toys from 30 year old movies being mass produced and distributed to stores each year.

    In the end Hasbro is a business, and they make business decisions, granted we may not agree with them, or like them, but for some reason or another they chose to make them.


    I'm no Hasbro supporter, and some of the choices they make with the actual products make me scratch my head or wonder why they did something so idiotic.

    Though when it comes to their business decisions, I'm not going to argue with them, I haven't taken business classes, I don't know how things work, and I'm not going to pretend I do.
     
  15. Grandum

    Grandum Well-Known Member

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    *gasps* But everyone keeps saying that kids are Habsros main demographic, that they can't possibly target adult collectors - how can this be?

    Yes, we're really fortunate as transformers fans to not be in a situation where we actually have to pay more for a lower quality product....oh, wait....

    kidding aside, maybe there is still hope for our hollowed out, smaller figures to go back to what they were like before if He Man returned to the same quality it was before.

    You are aware of the fact that we would be comparing it to TFCC, right? Faxes, site unavailable for weeks, double charges (without membership discount), credit card frauds, extremely bloated shipping charges...Mattycollector might be bad, but TFCC was by far the worst shopping experience of my life.
     
  16. micah1199

    micah1199 Well-Known Member

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    *gasps* But everyone keeps saying that kids are Habsros main demographic, that they can't possibly target adult collectors - how can this be?

    Oh snap! I put as much stock into people pontificating about Hasbro's business practices as I do the people that said we will "Never" get transformer reissues xyz.
     
  17. Ash from Carolina

    Ash from Carolina Junior Smeghead

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    Outside of the US the next Joe movie might do well because some nations can't seem to get enough of 3D movies. In the US it seems like a big gamble to release the movie in a month not known for big box office returns on action movies.

    Cancelling the Renegades cartoon when Hasbro owns the Hub also seemed like a really bad idea. Transformers Prime and the live action movie do okay with not being exactly alike and characters being different so I'm not sure why live action GI Joe and cartoon GI Joe can't run at the same time?
     
  18. Bossguy

    Bossguy Banned

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    Why does everybody hate hasbro? I have received several arms micron figures and their plastic quality is the same as all hasbro figures. Sure, maybe united gives us better paint jobs, but takara uses the same mold as the U.S. ones.
     
  19. Autobot Burnout

    Autobot Burnout ...and I'll whisper "No."

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    Not entirely. Most of the Arms Micron "bulk" figures are retooled to have mini-con ports for the Microns.
     
  20. Bossguy

    Bossguy Banned

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    True, but that only makes the mold look worse IMO.