Hasbro Answers Your Transformers Questions 2009 Part 4

Lol. Cool lil' gif

agreed with a lot of the things you say, trust me i've been in business for 10 years and i know exaclty how it works. greed and money. Let me ask you this, do you think if they promoted classic/universe with a cartoon of their own, don;t you think that is promotion enough to sell more toys than not having something of that nature. I'm sure animated did better in sales because the cartoon was brought to a wider audience. thats why the movie toys will be big because it's to a broader audience.

either way hasbro will be getting less of my money. you guys can pour your wallets into their crap and make em richer instead of making a stand and saying we are not going to accept this.

It's no different if owned a restaurant and served you what i think you should eat, or you ordered something and i served you crap or something that obviously didn't taste good. are you going to eat because i served it to you or are you going to complain and demand the good quality food you deserve when paying.

comparing getting bad food, with getting toys that you dont want to buy is a poor analogy

As long as frenzy_rumble and his ilk pay for their figures before they customize, them, I really don't think hasbro will really care too much about professional kitbashers. After all, they are essentially providing free advertising and exposure of hasbro product (albeit in modded form)

Of course, their above statement is their official line, and I wouldn't expect them to say any differently. They would never say "Nah, we don't really care what fans are doing with their figures. Rock on, modders," but I dont think they'll be sending the flaming ninjas round FRs house anytime soon either.

As for fans projects like the City Commander set, I don't think selling these is any different to manufacturers selling 3rd party accessories for Ipods and Xboxes (speakers, fascias etc). The CC set is useless without a classics magnus/prime figure, which you have to buy from hastak.

Guys, please stop using FP to refer to FansProject. Fun Publications has been called FP for far longer, and I think deserves dibs. This especially gets confusing when things like BotCon are mentioned in the very same sentence.

First of all, I agree that the caliber of questions needs to get better.
There are always the same types of questions and they always get the same types of answers.

I don't know that Hasbro is specifically going to pursue FansProject or not, but they have made their position clear so if they choose to follow legal action then it's not like the defendants can claim ignorance.
I really expected something of this sort once products started being announced that did not require a Hasbro\Takara toy.

I completely disagree with the statement that Hasbro doesn't care about the fans.
The fact that they entertain these Q&A sessions several times a year is proof to me that they care.
The fact that I have toys of War Within versions of Optimus Prime, Megatron, Grimlock, Prowl and The Fallen are all clear indicators that they care.
They made toys of an incomplete story from a failed comic book company.

I also don't find the fact that they choose not to reveal plans for 2010 any kind of "evasion".
Product announcements are always timed for impact and why would they want to let their competitors know what they are doing?

Really sucks Hasbro are like that towards the fan made parts and such... Maybe if they would step in and actually produce some stuff as bad ass as people create. I guess i can understand them but i dunno if i was a company and i saw this stuff comeing out id buy out there supplies and or grab them to help create stuff liek that for me.

Every time one of these Hasbro Q/A threads pop up, the stupid post quotient increases by at least 60%.

[quote=Smasher;3697150]I completely disagree with the statement that Hasbro doesn't care about the fans.
The fact that they entertain these Q&A sessions several times a year is proof to me that they care.
The fact that I have toys of War Within versions of Optimus Prime, Megatron, Grimlock, Prowl and The Fallen are all clear indicators that they care.
They made toys of an incomplete story from a failed comic book company.

Reason we got those is because there was an out cry of fans demanding it. again and out cry of fans demanding it.
if not for that, they woudln't have done it. that doesn;t tell me, hey lets do this for our fans to give em something cool. lets do this cuz there is money to be made. and even with that you only got a handful of figers
not to mention the quality of the entire titanium series was crap

Great post.

AND they worked hard to release the last few toys from a line that retailers didn't want and that didn't have stellar sales.

AND they show up at Botcon every year and are NOTHING but gracious and accommodating and friendly.

AND they've put out more fan nods/tributes/homages in the last ten years than I can count.

etc...

Yeah, they just HATE the fans.

you know what guys, i've just made a decision to support more of the little guys like fans project and there sutff. I'll put more money into what they are doing because they ared oing things to make things hasbro does better or things that hasbro doesn;t want to do. the little guys will get more of my money from know on.

never said they hate us, said they don;t respect us. two different things. they don;t listen to what we really want cuz they know the tf community will suck up everything and anything they trow at us.

So how in you're little world, do you think Hasbro need to show their respect?

Your blind rage is just like a 12 year old who loses while playing video games....spits their dummy out and yells until everyone can hear them. "its not fair, its not fair!" Stomp stomp stomp

It's not about these guys versus those guys. Just buy what you like and want to own.

Suppose you run a business... when you're doing your planning for the year, who "matters" the most? The folks that make up 90ish% of your buyers or the folks that make up 10%? It's an easy answer.

The fact that they DO care about the adult fanbase and do cool stuff aimed at us in EVERY line (G1 chatracter repaints, homages, etc...) is WAY WAY WAY more than they have to do, from a "how much fans matter to the bottom line" perspective.

I don't think some fans will be happy until they can tell Hasbro exactly what THEY personally want them to do. And then Hasbro will go out of business, because fan-based stuff on a large scale fails.

I agree with this.

I agree, ... cuz I said that one page back.

you guys are complacent and take whatever they give you.

i understand the concept of business but ti think you can balance out the two between your fan base and the rest of the world.
as for respect, stop tap dancing around question and be forward. do a poll and let fans have a say in what they would like to see. little things that can go a long way.
I feel like it's me against the entire room on this, so this will be my last post.
I love transformers and am too much of a fan to just accept whatever is thrown at me. I'm a transformers fan not a hasbro fan.

Who makes your favorite soda?

Do you think that company "respects" you?

Do you still drink this soda?

Really, your expectations are ridiculous and immature.

YO DAWG SHOW ME RESPECT OR I'M NOT BUYING UR TOYS

Know me that well, do you?

I'm not sure the two can be mutually exclusive.
Not in a complete sense like you seem to intend.

And this is where you fail.

Waiter! One facepalm with extra sauce please.

I would Take something I was given.

However I BUY what I like.

I see your point man, no reason to get upset. But it feels a bit like overreacting. It's ok though, we're all different kinds of fans, that's what keeps things interesting.

yeah ok

You can, but it's a bad idea. As a publicly traded company, Hasbro's PRIMARY responsibility is to maximize shareholder value; the shareholders are their bosses. Their respect for you, as a customer, begins and ends with that one overriding requirement. They're not evil, or intentionally disrespectful to anyone; they just have a job to do, and are bound by law and ethics to accomplish that mission for their bosses.
Those bosses, by the way, are some very large mutual funds and investment banks, who care nothing for our fandom. You want to blame someone, blame the fund managers...for wanting to maximize their income, like everyone else in the world.

Fans are a useful part of the customer base, and it is necessary to appeal to us because we provide, in addition to a small amount of income, a great deal of free advertising, advocacy, and promotion to the brand. But we're also fragmented, factionalized (people hate movies, or Animated, or BM, or comics), and nearly impossible to please as a group, so we're difficult to appeal to. The shareholders will look at our behavior, output, and spending practices, and will logically tell Hasbro to spend as little money as possible to keep about 80-90% of us reasonably happy. If Hasbro's employees disobey, they'll be fired. If their CEO disobeys, he'll be replaced by the shareholders.

Folks, if you really want to have a say in how Hasbro treats the fandom, buy stock in the company, attend the shareholder conferences, and use your shareholder votes. Sure, it's not much, but your voice will at least get heard, and you'll get a more direct "no, we don't care" answer than you will from Hasbro's PR department (the conference call is at least real-time, whereas everything Hasbro prints is run through their legal department, whose people also have a job to do, and are also bound by law and ethics, regardless of what they feel or whether they love TFs or the fans).

As an example, look at the materials for Hasbro's Toy Fair Investor Meeting:
http://library.corporate-ir.net/libr...webcast_2a.pdf
TFs get 9 out of 109 slides. Nowhere are fan interests or the old-guard fandom mentioned. The FAQs pertain to profitability and future growth. Their internal statements are standard boilerplate about responsible corporate behavior. Their gross income was over 4 billion dollars. That means we, and our concerns, are barely a blip on the shareholder's radar, and rightfully so. Financially, we're worth about as much to them as a kid who offers you a dollar to hang out and play with him while you're late for work.

best advice ever on this topic.

Pretty much what everyone has said here is totally correct. Hasbro are a massive business, and they don't just deal with Transformers; board games, other toy lines, video games, cartoons, all that kinda thing, that all factors into their company.

The fact that Transformers gets an officially licensed convention where Hasbro shows up every year to give slideshows on upcoming toys, designer panels and extensive Q&A sessions, as well as the fact that the Universe/Classics line exists (along with Alternators), is pretty spectacular when you take all that into account.

Transformers will always cater to the primary market, which is in this case, children. They don't have to make little nods to the more mature fanbase in the toys and fiction, but they do. They didn't have to let Animated have an abundance of references to past franchises, but they did. These, amongst other reasons, show that they acknowledge and are prepared to cater to the existing fanbase, as well as their primary market. They cannot, however, tend to every whim of the fanbase: they are of course not their primary market, and things must be done in the interests of said market in order to keep the business running.

In regards to the fanmade figures issue: Hasbro own the characters the designs are quite obviously based upon, so if the situation were to get out of hand (ie. all the indie companies start producing full figures of their own that are based on TF characters), then they'll obviously take action. It's understandable that the companies are only trying to make something the fans have wished for, but they are also making money off of a copyrighted character that they do not own.

as much as I like the designs of FP's full figures I agree with Hasbro that they shouldn't be made. but the Add-ons and upgrade sets should be left alone. I'm glad I got the city commander upgrade. I wasn't going to purchase ultra magnus until this came out, so Hasbro should thank them for this peice at lest. It's like someone posted before, if Hasbro wasn't planning on making these add-ons, then what's the big deal? Complete fully articulated figures is another thing all together. (sorry for the rant but I really love my city commander)

All comes back to the simple point. The company's business target.
The transformers toys are aiming at the 5 and up age group and that is what Hasbro wants their money from.
For collectors item they could follow the footstep of companies in the toy-making kingdom Japan.
Take big companies like Bandai. They have toys for younger kids which is affordable at the 10s of dollars price range. They also have the toys for big kids which is at the 100s price range. Difference? younger kids got something simple but playable toys while the big kids got toys made in sturdy material with more detail and higher play value.
Hasbro could do the same but they didn't. That is their decision. They probably think that line will not last for long and will probably cost them a lot in return. I will say if they start dumping transformers toys that are made with gold and diamonds then they finally get the idea of doing collectables.

As for buying license from Hasbro...
Take 3rd party makers in japan like Kaiyodo Max Factory and Half Eye.
Those companies do buy license from big companies like Bandai and a few others to do diecast robot toys. Price for diecast toys from Bandai is around 100US but it is 200~300US from Max Factory. Resin kits from Kaiyodo and Half Eye flys up to 500US...
The license holder only provide the license for those makers to use the image and name... but the makers have to redo the design for the toy from scratch. I wonder how much the license cost for these makers put a price tag that cost an arm and a leg for fans to purchase their products. If you say aftermarket groups are making more cash then the license holder, talk to these guys first.
Kaiyodo, Max Factory and Half Eye also design their own brand of robots toys. Since there is no licensing involved the price is dropped back to the 100US level. Take that as a hint.
For their originals people said "hey, that looks just like this robot from XXXX or that robot from XXXX. They are copying somebody's work!!"
All the makers have to say is "We are "inspired" by those toys. We use our knowledge, designs, and techniques to produce our own brand of robots." I heard no complains from any parties after their comment.

The world has changed. For all makers please stick to your own work. Try to think of better ways to keep your fans happy. Spending time sticking your head into others work is just non-productive.

Well, if a FEW people would compile a FAQ and put it somewhere prominent (not buried like so many things that aren't "ZOMG Michael Bay sneezed at 9:41 AM EST!"), then we wouldn't have to rely on EVERYBODY knowing everything or scouring every forum. Since nobody's apparently willing to do or support that, you're going to suffer through these kinds of questions until the end of time.

How dare anybody show interest in anything but what Habsro's selling right now or next month! While I agree in the futility of asking for specific toys because the answer is almost always a half-truth or non-answer, I don't see any tangible difference between that and the equally stupid questions that are espoused as "better."

This supposed lack of decent questions is an imaginary problem. The real problems are Hasbro's unwillingness to answer so many questions and the ineptitude of everybody involved in the filtering process.

That said, I don't post questions to these threads on any of these boards. Why should I waste the effort, only to be passed over by some idiot who's just dying to know if that stupid Mt Dew machine is going to get a toy this year? We may as well go back to Hasbro telling us which G1 toys cost eleventy trillion dollars to repair and what Vector Prime's favorite color is.

Hazzah! They (sorta not) answered one of my questions (sorta paraphrased) I submitted!



Ok, carry on arguing amidst yourselves.

The only thing I'd add is that the DESIGNERS often have our backs, so to speak. They're the ones making sure the fans get a little tip of the hat once in a while.

I'm very fond of this slide from the Hasbro tour at Botcon 2007 (I believe I took this picture, actually). It illustrates that we're at least a consideration, but we clearly are an ancillary group, not part of the "core" demo.

PICT5039 - Hasbro Tour - TFW2005.COM

Well, looks like the Hasbro Defense Force is already here to lecture us savage fans.


Hey Hasbro, if the fans are making full toys, maybe that is a hint that we would in fact buy them.

Interesting!

That frigging Springer will be my Toy of the Year unless movie voyager Bludgeon is fast-tracked. I don't care about the Autobot logo on it, the price or who made it and their views on the State of TransFandom. :eyeroll :harumph

<B>Who asked these questions</B>
Did Hasbro site the source of the question, Did Hasbro pick which questions they want to answer? In that case this could be the reason why we get the same question answered.

<Hasbro doesn't respect the fans>
Maybe, maybe not. Hasbro can be the GM of the action figure industry. Every year as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan produce new age vehicles, GM produce the "same" vehicles year after year. (Pontiac and Saturn excluded). Ford is getting models from other markets. So when I asked myself, who the heck they are trying to sell there vehicles to??? Same with Hasbro. There could be a change of "goal". The toys they are sell to is primary to the kids, especially since the Xmas season is coming soon (Yes I know 6 mos.). Older fans, however, have to look to Takara Tomy, Fans Proj, and whatever money is allocated by Hasbro to devote to the older fans. So in a since, someone of Hasbro does respect us, but not when the movies are released. Just my opinion.

As long as FP doesn't reproduce any part of new Hasbro figures, and calls them different names, I don't see how Hasbro can do anything about this. It's a separate toy with no Hasbro engineering whatsoever. It's like buying aftermarket parts to soup up a car, or hanging an air freshener on a rearview mirror. Then there's the completely separate figures that have enough differences to qualify them as separate unrelated toys.... Heck Hasbro does this with real cars, and jets. They make them slightly different so they don't have to pay a license. All this is is hipocracy, legal doubletalk, and just an "official" statement to defend their patents.

True, but the best part of these fan creations, from an adult fan's perspective, is that they're NOT Hasbro, and thus not bound by the compromises Hasbro designers are forced into, like weight, parts count, package size, breakability, and of course, safety.

The result is a toy that focuses purely on "cool factor", with the understanding that you're paying a lot of money, and if you snap a piece in half or cut your finger on a sharp edge, it's your own damn fault.

I LIKE that my Shadow Commander's sword is very, very pointy. :-)

Transformers Wiki - TFWiki.net (which has been down on and off this week) always compiles every round of QnA's into one readable page.

They do have to weigh the cost of manufacturing them versus the number they'll likely sell. Hasbro is still a business and are in it to make money as much as we the fans would love to get classics versions of every Transformer made in the eighties, it just isn't practical. Will they eventually get to Springer, Wreck-gar, etc... probably, but they can only release so many figures at a time. Most people buying this stuff aren't going to buy everything mold so releasing 4 figures at a time compared to 8 figures makes sense.

Just like Fun Publications have stated in relation to producing a new mold that the cost is to high, so why would Hasbro risk releasing a figure if they're not sure the return on investment will be there.

The only reason that some people jump to the defense of Hasbro is that some fans have unrealistic expectations and demands and Hasbro can't fulfill every fans wish list.

I agree with the idea that we're asking the wrong questions. I don't agree with the sentiment that we're not making an effort. Hasbro will answer simple questions, they're not going to give you the answers to the big questions. As well as they'll answer logistical questions, such as stuff about the design process and so forth. Anything relating to the future, that's really going to get you a non-answer. We're very good about asking "Well, so what's next?" and they may know, they may not know, but they won't say. They don't want to spoil the surprise. Hypothetically speaking, if Hasbro has the next 20 years mapped out, and they just laid it out, would anyone really be happy over that? I don't think so.

Really, they know what brings them money as well. They need that. Unfortunately, the retailers have so much more control over that than Hasbro does. If the retailers want movie, and Hasbro only sends them Animated, the retailers will simply let it sit in the warehouse until they reorganize the shelving pegs and then send it back. Yea I'm not happy Animated and Universe are on hiatus. Hasbro has said removed my fear that hiatus was merely a euphemism for canceled. They are planning releases in Universe and Animated within the next year and half. I personally think that they know what's done well with us. Best example: Botcon 2007 figures. I wish I could have gotten them, but they were huge. Hasbro was taken aback by how popular Classics were. The reason they did the set the way they did it was because they expected very little feedback on it and it was meant to be over with that set. It was so popular we got Classics 2.0 which was one of their best figure runs, which Animated caught the wave on. Universe Hound w/ Ravage and Inferno as well as Animated Ratchet and Ultra Magnus are four of the best figures I've ever owned.

Yes Hasbro is aware of us. I think they do want to ruin things, which is why they give non-answers and do the ninja thing. They know what they're doing, and they like to drop bombs. Big ones too. The bigger the bomb the better. If you have something you know the majority of people will like, and you want it to be huge, you're going to cover it up like a nudist in Antarctica. Then when no one is expecting it you drop this huge bomb and people go nuts and they love it. If you can do that, just a month before a release and build up the hype and back it up, then you're going to make money and you're right where you need to be.

Not trying to defend Hasbro here, but just the people who work there:

Having worked with a lot of corporate lawyers, many of them are actually very cool, average people who built up a couple hundred grand in student loans and simply couldn't turn down a six-figure paycheck; can't really blame 'em. They're not hypocrites by nature (okay, most aren't); it's just what pays off the debts.

They HAVE to protect their employers; that's their job. Part of that protection is zealously editing anything that is said to the outside world, especially in this age of blogs and instant information transfer. The designers may write "we love FansProject!" (and the lawyers may actually agree), but to do their job right, they have to edit that to say "we will protect our IP, booga booga".
More than once I've handed material to Legal and gotten back "this is awesome stuff, but we can't, in good conscience, allow you to produce it". Just a fact of life in the modern business world.

Hasbro can do The Song and Dance shtick all they want. I'll just sit back and watch them trip over their feet.

Hmm...so the movie crap is not doing it for you, but you will buy the Human Alliance toys. From the same movie line.


Wish it would work out that way. But the rights of the copyright owner usually extend beyond 20 years. Could go for as long as 75 after the work is published.

That's the problem. People complain Hasbro doesn't do enough for them, but when the Universe toys did come out, the retailers were telling Hasbro they weren't selling well. Why blame Hasbro for not making toys for Universe when Wal-Mart and those retailers don't want them Hasbro will just be wasting their resources.

You're right, you're not.

Really, did you see the Botcon pics?
Universe Hardhead?
Universe Skyfall, who's a homage to an obscure Micromaster?
Universe in general?
The Hasbro team determined to see the rest of the Animated toys released despite the fact that retailers don't want them?
ROTF Smokescreen?
ROTF Nightbeat?
Re-issuing Perceptor & the Insecticons, whom U.S. fans are more likely not to have as opposed to another re-re-issue of Prime, Starscream, or other first-tier characters?
ROTF Lockdown?
ROTF Breakdown?
ROTF Bludgeon?

If you still think that after the absolute MOUNTAIN of homages/things Hasbro never had to do, you either aren't paying a lick of attention or you are clinically insane.

they have to use the same character do to copyrights. they recycle the names so they don;t lose the copyrights and/or have to get new ones. thats cost money too. so the fact they pay homeage doesn;t really go as far as it should. I want them give fans what they want. i mean how many repaints of classic starscream can they come out with?

reason universe didn;t get a big push was because there was no push into it. it's a line that wasn;t introduced by a cartoon to the general public. do you think animated would have done as good as it did if not for the cartoon.

reason universe didn;t get a big push was because there was no push into it. it's a line that wasn;t introduced by a cartoon to the general public. do you think animated would have done as good as it did if not for the cartoon.

they have to use the same character do to copyrights. they recycle the names so they don;t lose the copyrights and/or have to get new ones. thats cost money too. so the fact they pay homeage doesn;t really go as far as it should. I want them give fans what they want. i mean how many repaints of classic starscream can they come out with?


reason universe didn;t get a big push was because there was no push into it. it's a line that wasn;t introduced by a cartoon to the general public. do you think animated would have done as good as it did if not for the cartoon.

I don't understand what you expect Hasbro to do?

They decide to give us a movieverse Bludgeon and Lockdown.
If they were just reusing names then Bludgeon might be a motorcycle and Lockdown might be a jet.

Instead they created figures that are in the spirit of the original characters but set in the movie paradigm.
If that is not evidence of respecting the fans then what is?

What about Universe Hot Shot and his JAAM license plate?

I just don't know what Hasbro is supposed to do so that you will think they are going "as far as they should".

Like this. I'm not clear on what you mean.
Would more Universe\Classics Starscream repaints be good in that they could be more Seeker characters?
Or did Hasbro make too many U\C Starscream repaints?

Easily done. Just give them what they need to fulfill your desires: write them a very, very large check.

You pay about twenty bucks for a toy. That's enough to pay ONE designer for ONE HOUR of work.

LOL, that powerpoint is awesome. Anyone notice how the adult fanbase for GIJOE is estimated to be around 25million where the adult fanbase for TFs is 15 million?

Sounds like if hasbro is going to be investing any effort on an ADULT fanbase, GIJOE will get the primary forcus for those resources, IE: Resolute.

Looks like Transformers will be a core Demographic Franchise and GIJOE will be the adult entertainment franchise for now no matter how important we feel we are.

We are getting sex and gore from GIJOE!?