Toys r us in Lancaster PA

 

And who says PA doesn't get anything first?
Congrats on the find.
Saw it myself in one of the tru's i hit yesterday(cottman ave or horsham).
Forgot all about it.

 

Heh. That's my TRU!

 

Good luck finding space on the shelf for this. There's already enough crap that's not selling. TRU has space but my Walmart's are loaded with the gimmicky crap.

 

His derp level is over 9000!!!

 

There's going to be a MASSIVE clearance on this stuff one day... I can just see it. If you guys have any interest in these at all, you might as well wait for the 50%+ off that'll be necessary to clear out the piles of unsold movie toys.

I think the big problem is marketing the message that these are EASY to transform: the majority of parents/grandparents I see in toy aisles seem to prefer the sparklers or non-transforming Titan toys. And why? Because they hate transforming the toys for their kids and feel intimidated by toys that require IKEA instructions. I think it's sad. Parents today are too busy to be bothered to play with their kids, I guess.  

 

 

It will be interesting to see what choices the retailers make when they start paring down stuff related to the moive. Lot of big clunky figures out there, that are potentially eating up valuable sq footage if they are selling slow (especially with downsized toy sections).

 

It would be nice if some dumbass at Hasbro would figure out that one step is borderline stupid in most cases. Also if you need the instructions every time you transform something its also a pain in the ass.

Most G1 toys could go from one mode to another rather quickly. I think since the originals this is something that has gained way to much in the way of complexity.

 

That's one big Bee.

 

One step Transformers? Might as well make them Action Masters.

 

I tried to show some support for movie toys, By buying some a full price if we buy them all for 50% they wont make anymore. but the Power Attack stuff is not selling at all and most of the one step small ones. So I will wait for 50% off. the Larger One-step are not that bad and are kind of fun to play with with the kids and the look ok in both modes..

 

Oh god, the fucking titans are back.

 

Most of TFW is clearly not the market for these. On the other hand, my 4 year old son will be all over these.

This also looks like the butterfly knife transformation that one-step drift uses, so that pretty cool!

 

Every time an adult complains about a Transformer designed for a kid, a new Bumblebee toy is made.

 

No... I'm gonna' complain about this. There are so many kid formers in this line that they've significantly taken away from the main line. Only 3 waves of real toys. When has it ever been that small? But all of the resources are sunk into this simple crap.

 

I am sorry, but there is not a single year of my childhood where this hunk of scrap would have interested me, G1 Optimus was not a complicated toy, not in the slightest, and didn't look like total crap. I appreciate they wanted to make simpler versions of things, but they went far far overboard, it nearly seems like they panicked and made some seriously rash decisions with this tripe. If they wanted to make Transformers for toddlers they are called Rescue Bots and belong in the toddler isle, not wasting shelf space for better product.

Toddler toys in toddler isle, is this unreasonable? If these hunks of dog spit were not clogging up shelves in the real TF section it probably wouldn't bug me at all, if it weren't for these toddler one step toys there would be more room for generations.

 

If it makes you feel important knock yourself out, myself I aim to buy all my TFs at under 66% RRP.

Just saw this mega bumblebee on amazon, it's £34.99 over here in the UK, I might pick it up if it goes to the bargain shops for £10.

 

Nope - I love that they are putting a better focus on toys for the younger audience. My son has no interest at all in the rescue bot toys and wants figures that look like the ones that I buy for myself. The problem here is that they are too complex for him and he would rather play with Ninja Turtles or Power Ranger toys.

The one-step AOE toys are the first line that actually captured his interest and blew his mind at the transformation, so I'm pretty grateful for these.

And I think retail stores aren't stocking a ton of generations toys for a reason - they just don't sell as much! I've seen the same stock of generations week after while the one-step figures are getting regularly replenished.

Fact of the matter is that if you want Hasbro to continue to pump out figures for adult collectors, then they need to nurture a new generation of fans that would share the same passion for this stuff, as we do, when they get older. These toys are a part of that plan and definitely deserve to share the shelf space.

Now what NEEDS to die are those Titan statues and anything else that doesn't transform.

 

I, too, often wonder if the G1 toys would be more popular, were they to be re-released side-to-side with these simply AoE toys. The one big thing I liked is that G1 toys were fairly intuitive, didn't have annoying spring gimmicks that malfunctioned constantly, and even featured crazy stuff like sparks shooting out of mouths!

Pure and simple truth: kids like toys that work. The spring-loaded crap (i.e. Botshots and some of these one-steppers) irritate them. That's been my observations. But apparently, Hasbro has a different test group that enjoys toys not transforming properly. Go figure.

Since collectors aren't the majority of the market (apparently), your actions have little effect on expected sales. Besides all of that, most parents/grandparents are already paying full retail (they can't be bothered to transform these toys, so I doubt they bother to bargain shop for them). Anyway, it's still a nice gesture on your part, but don't go overboard and expect your altruistic spending to be rewarded with anything but more BBs!  

Butterfly knife transformation? Good. Spring-loaded one-step? Total crap. I've figured out the irony here: these "1-step" toys are actually re-labeled ACTIVATORS. Remember those? Wow, did they suck.

Brilliant.  

I'm thinking these toys are selling quite badly. There's too many left on shelves, and the TF movie is getting bumped out of show times by... Planet of the Apes? Heck, look at the critical scores, and virtually EVERY Summer action movie got good scores... except for TF4.

Just sayin', no matter what Bay or D'Lorenti spin about this new movie, I'm already seeing the buzzards circling above.

For us, this hopefully means that Hasbro learns a lesson or two and goes full-bore on the 2015 Generations combiners and head masters. It's really inevitable that they revisit more G1 toys: times are tough, and EVERYONE is relying on nostalgia to sell their product. It's amazing to me that Hasbro remains steadfastly stubborn about reviving G1 in a time where everything is seeing some sort of revival.

Some faults here:
1) You've "seen" the one-step figures getting "regularly replenished"? Really? Or are you talking about one or two stores locally? I'm concerned your experience may be more isolated than you think.

2) Hasbro honestly believes that boys stop buying toys at 10-17, but then turn 18 and buy them again. I have a small suspicion that you and Hasbro both are wrong about this: the 18+ crowd is really the 30+ crowd. I'd like to see actual evidence that 18 yr old boys suddenly care about TFs again. Cause I don't believe it. I could ask a random sample of 17 yr old boys what they look forward to the most when they turn 18, and I sincerely doubt "BUY ME SOME TF FIGURES!!!" makes the top 50 list.  

But I get what you mean about getting younger kids into this... I just think, once again, that Hasbro is missing the big picture: adults are now a large part of your market and they need to stop pretending it's a baby-only club.

3) The non-transforming toys are BRILLIANT. The majority of parents/grandparents do not want to buy complicated, IKEA instructioned, Rubix-cube action figures. The non-transformers are an excellent product for them, offering them an alternative. True, the one-steppers could step in and replace the need for these... but I get the feeling that Hasbro botched up the marketing of these toys, much like they botched up the marketing for the upscaled Voyages from Prime BH. It's nice that you and I know the new TFs are much easier to transform, but do the majority of parents know that?

 

Feel free to complain, I'm just letting you know that a new Bumblebee toy just got made   I didn't realize my humorous little post would actually get serious responses.

It seems like there will only be 3 waves of any of these lines. We got our Generations movie figures (deluxe, voyager, leader) what else do we need? What are we missing out on? Sure they stopped doing HA, but it seems they stopped doing them at the end of DOTM so clearly they weren't being ordered by stores to justify continuing to make them, which means we don't buy in the quantity to justify multiple lines for us.

That simple crap is stuff kids can actually enjoy, based on research by the very people who stand to make or lose money. It certainly isn't for adult collectors so I take every adult collector saying it's a bad idea and think it's more selfish, "I want more of my stuff" and less concern of the overall business model for Hasbro.

We always had simple stuff (Robot Replicas, Robot Heroes, FAB, Bumper Battlers) that's a lot of simple stuff, that some adult collectors have forgotten about.

Maybe for you, you can channel your inner 4-7 year old and say with 100% certainty that you would have never been interested in the stuff that Hasbro is putting out.

These "simplified" toys often have more articulation or equal amount to many of the G1 figures. One step grimlock has more articulation than any Throttle bots and has equal amount to most of the minibots. Power Battlers are too complex for the average toddler so it's geared towards 5-7 year old, and these are really just like the FAB figures, so nothing has really changed.

As a parent I'm thrilled for the Rescue Bot line it's perfect for my son (4 years old), but the one step figures are something that he can do as well, even though he has no connection to the characters and won't for many years.

I've asked before what exactly are we not getting, that we as collectors so desperately want? Given the overall reaction to the Bay movies from collectors it seems like half of the adult collectors have 0 interest in movie figures anyway.

Though Generation figures in my area sold really well the first month or so, now I find they're just as plentiful on the pegs/shelves as any of the rest of the toy line.

I have talked to a Hasbro employee about those Titan statues, and apparently they sell EXTREMELY well especially in other countries. As many have said they are so cheap to make they must make them a big profit, and it's true, they are cheap which is why they're out there. Remember Hasbro is not a non-profit organization for collectors they are a corporation, so big profits is a good thing.

My son would argue with you that the Titan figures don't transform. He transforms his every time he plays with it. Sure it's just laying the Optimus down on his belly and driving the robot around, but that's transforming to a kid with imagination. This is also a kid who has Rescue Bots (which he loves). Not every kid is going to like the Titan figures, but some do so what's the harm?