BWTF has posted an interview with Hasbro’s Transformers brand team members Jerry Jivoin and Joshua Lamb. In this interview they talk about a few key points, including the whole current trend of simplifying some Transformers toys while aiming others squarely at collectors – the key driver behind this was Josh Lamb driving the question of “will the toys be fun for five year olds to play with”, and as Jerry Jivoin points out, previous efforts at finding a solution to please everyone, pleased nobody.
The interview also talks about the process of bringing the Dinobots into the live action movie universe, and reveals the brand team’s approach to homages – they do not want to remake the original Transformers of 30 years ago, but give everything a fresh, new approach. This covers not only the Movie continuity, but also the Generations toys.
Lastly, good news for those concerned about getting Swerve, Tailgate et al – the assortments may have been underordered by retailers which is why you’re not seeing them at retail, but what Hasbro is doing in an effort to get them out there is adjusting the case assortments to make sure they are in future assortments when those later assortments arrive at retail. A similar solution is being looked at for the last Beast Hunters releases – those may eventually see a release as store exclusives (though our UK readers may wish to note, these upscaled Cyberverse Voyagers are now appearing in Tescos stores)
03Mach1
Its odd that we seemed to have missed (or conveniently ignored) the fact that HASBRO pitched Bay and Paramount with the concept of Optimus riding Grimlock and not the other way around. But I'm sure people will continue to post about Bay's ridicilous ideas and his almost dictator-like control of the brand.
Fallout
seems like Hasbro does care about the fans a lot. heartwarming.
General Tekno
No, it means retailers underordered the wave.
As in Target/Wal-Mart/TRU.
It sounds like typical "they sold well so they ordered a ton and then those sat around, blocking new product" stuff.
Extendarr
I was wondering how long it would take before 3P Fanboyism broke out in this thread.
Thundershot
That's why they should stay the path they're on and make toys for the kids and the fans, then let the high end ones be the Masterpieces.
solarstorm
It's great to see the respect the fan's role is getting. Especially since it will be bringing us Jetfire and possibly a new Titan.
However, I have a bad feeling about what this entails. You can see some of it already and I know more is on the way. Fans will now throw a fit whenever a Generations toy doesn't have 1000 parts and a showcar paintjob.
Parts, labor, shipping rates, oil costs (what is plastic made of again?), etc… will still dictate that the toys get smaller and simpler. This new focus just means that they'll be striving to keep giving us more of the kind of figures we are ALREADY BUYING.
For those who say that they would gladly spend more to get a larger or higher quality item…It's easier to say that now than when you're in line at the store. We've been buying deluxes and voyagers for a long time and there's an expectation of what you should pay for a certain class of figure. Whether it be crap, like Armada Hotshot, or something as great as HFTD Jazz.
Not to mention, I would still wager that a lot of the Generations buyers are casual fans or people hit by nostalgia. I've struck up conversations with other people buying TFs who didn't belong to any forum (TFW, Allspark, Seibertron, etc…). A casual walk-in fan is probably not someone willing to pay $25 or $30 for a well-done collector pleasing deluxe. That would hurt the line.
Thundershot
When he says "under ordered" does he mean Hasbro under ordered from the factory? Because the online stores have yet to get their orders in and they keep getting emails from fans with wads of money wanting to buy these guys.
It'll be nice though to have them all in one wave. Makes it more likely to order sets from BBTS instead of fretting over individuals.
ex dtw2003
Uh….Optimus DID fly off the shelves. he was the first to go. Bee took a little longer but he's completely gone now also. It's just Screamer and Megs who are warming.
Slimshadow457
Josh is such a cool guy. I met him in person, he's really nice
Rodimus Mike
I really hope what they say about Swerve and Tailgate is true that they are gonna slip them into maybe the AOE line works for me.But I just hope we don't have too long to wait.
Yobuster
Definitely a good interview. Learnt a few tidbits. I'm pretty sure they will release at least another version of Metroplex especially given there is a Metrotitan and Necrotitan in the comics. Re-using a mold is #1 rule in toy making. You might break even with the initial production run but you don't really make money until your next production run using the exact same mold. The more re-use you can do, the more savings you have and the more profit you can make to fund your next projects.
I'm happy Hasbro finally decided to split their focus. Now they can work hard at two ends of the spectrum and probably have different teams and business development so that each focus can have the maximum attention without as many compromises. I;'m sure Hasbro has seen the explosion of third party companies and the price points collectors around the world are willing to pay. It's a good sign and a way to stop the 3rd parties from eating their lunch.
However we do need to keep in mind that Hasbro though will always be hampered by distribution channels and child safety. They will need to use "safe" plastic and their designs have to match certain safety standards. Even if the designs and transformations are complex, their accessories, sizes etc need to meet safety standards for which 3rd parties do not have that same constraint.
Splendic
Good nuggets here or there, but man was there a lot of fluff marketing speak around the Bay movie designs… if I heard "fresh" or "exciting" one more time!
Glad generations is getting the emphasis it is though.
Lbsammills51
To be fair, we haven't had any concrete proof of that until this weekend, when they said so. So it's been true before, but has changed sometime in the past year, at least, if not the past few years or so. Now, yes, the reality has changed and we know we matter in more than just a PR sense.
(I do worry that some will go in an extreme direction and feel their narcissism is now justified by what we heard this weekend though.)
It's not unprecedented. The RotF "combining" Devastator (the big one, not the Legends one) was technically released as a "Combiner Class" figure, not an "Ultimate" or "Supreme" class figure that it fit as based on size.
harrismonkey
That's fair. I'm sure they do take it seriously. It's just that what they're saying doesn't yet match the reality of the toys they're producing on the collector side. It would be nice if this philosophy lasts and manages to move things in that direction.
MagnusPrimal
Speaking as an adult fan… there are very, very few instances in which I would pay $35 for a Voyager. G1-sh Dinobots, Optimus, Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, Megatron… that's about it. So I certainly hope Hasbro doesn't stray into that price range.
Nice interview though. Very informative.
Gepard
No disagreement there. Things were damn good during the ROTF days (which is what brought me back into the fold after years of not paying attention to TFs).
I suspect they are taking it seriously, there's just hard limits on materials/increased labor costs/bad American economy/etc that's hampering the toys at 15 and 25 dollar pricepoints. I feel the engineers are doing hero's work within the limits that they now have…but those limits are pretty damn restrictive.
Personally, I wouldn't mind paying 30 or 35 bucks for a Voyager if it got us ROTF-level bulk and engineering back – but who knows if the split collectors/kids market that currently exists would support that. I suspect not.
As adult fans become more and more important to Hasbro's bottom line, we'll see how things evolve.
adambman
That was one of the most stimulating phrases in the interview for me. Admittedly I've stayed swayed more by the notion that there would be more than one Titan Class mold than not.
The basis of my logic here is the question, 'Why make a size class for just one figure?'. Of course the obvious rebuttal to this is that it's no big deal to throw a couple of words together to slap on the box art after the challenge of getting such a large toy developed. Of course in the comics, Metroplex's kin are collectively referred to as Titans, though I am curious to know if -as I suspect – that was derived from the toy development.
Speaking of developing a Titan Class figure though, I think creating that designation is not an afterthought; it seems to be an inordinate amount of effort to convince the powers that be at Hasbro/Takara Tomy to create just one mold of this size without contingency for at least a short list of some more should the first, Metroplex, be successful.
On that note, other than the phrase we both latched onto, it's also positive to see how these guys and Hasbro at large by implication are monitoring and developing the Generations line. It's worth noting FOC Bruticus here. Much aside from the figures themselves or collectively, for which opinions are varied (one board member even attributed its sales to their disappointment in what we saw at the NT Toyfair), the symbolism is worth emphasizing; Hasbro tried out its largest design for the Generations line at the time and a combiner at that when they were under no obligation to try. Whatever fans' opinions, it's worth noting that these guys seem to deem FOC Bruticus a success not only in itself but as an experiment, and I think more of us can take heart in that latter point. While it's tempting to go off on a tangent, speculating about more Generations combiner teams (which deserves another post), perhaps it's sufficient to note that while no other Titans were mentioned here, the same goes for Leader Jetfire, when we know there will be others in that category.
Notwithstanding a proper post on Generations combiner teams, it would be interesting to see if we got a Titan Trypticon around the same time as the guys that built him in the cartoon getting Generations figures, even with the range of 3rd party variants. Omega Supreme would be cool too, but when I saw another member posted about that, I had visions of how crazy Omega Spreem would look.
harrismonkey
When they put their money where their mouth is and make collector toys again rather than what was being justified as poor quality because it was for kids just last year- they'll have my attention and enthusiasm.
If this new philosphy they're talking about really takes hold, rather than being the talking point of toy fair 2014 we may actually start seeing improvemnts in the toys. Materials, paint aps and engneering were better around the ROTF era.
I'll believe it when I see it, but I really do hope they step up and take what they're saying seriously.
General Tekno
Well said.
The movie toylines, like it or not, are what's minting the NEW, younger fans.
People forget a lot of people remembered that Transformers existed because of the films, and saw the first movie, got interested, THEN found out about other media and got hooked.
I know people who got into it via the movies, then got hooked via Animated. And myself my own interest got renewed due to reading they were doing a film way back when in 06.
Gepard
I think it's interesting that they're being so forward with the importance of collectors (sorry, "fans") at the same time as they're openly aiming for a younger audience and simpler play pattern with their other lines. IMHO, that's not a coincidence.
Time was that collectors probably weren't important to Hasbro's bottom line, but we've known for a while now that the action figure market is imploding, as kids would rather get games and iPads than Transformers or whatever. It used to be that the demographic for toys was just "children," and as children grew out of the targeted age range, the assumption was that more would come along to replace them. I believe Hasbro is starting to realize that won't always be the case.
Basically, where they once sold to a large segment of the population for a limited period, now they're targeting a smaller segment of the population for life. Whichever kids they manage to hook on TFs with the "one-step" and "flip action" figures now, they will need to keep around through adulthood to remain profitable; it wouldn't surprise me if behind closed doors they're worried that in 10 or 20 years there won't be enough children interested in toys to form a viable market.
TL;DR: Collectors are becoming a proportionally larger slice of an ever-shrinking pie, and that's reflected in this new emphasis on telling us how important we are. It's a good time to be a fan.