This whole milking a triple changer for two+ moulds of separate toys is a huge let down from Hasbro and short of anything BUT magic.

Honestly, its 2018... these models are CGI. I understand there will be some limitations to producing a 100% screen accurate toy but triple changers werent split into separate toys BACK IN THE 80s... where production capabilities were much more limited.

Imagine blitzwing always having two separate moulds and never just one... or sixshot having 5moulds - one for each alt... oh god i see a future hasbro line coming...

Hasbro is just getting greedy... probably just gonna wait until hype for this movie fades, then launch an MPM of shatter and dropkick, and blitzwing that actually does triple change at a premium...

And studio series was meant to be “screen accurate.” This is nothing close to being screen accurate...

Honestly, fuck you marketing for hasbro, we should stop feeding their culture of pushing how much they can cheap out and take advantage of a loyal fanbase.

 

Love Drop\'s chopper mode. Would make a cool gijoe Dragonfly.  Make it a headmaster with Wild Bill as its titan master lol

 

Carformers are abundant, especially in the movie toylines. Copterformers are much less common.

This figure doesn't look very Bayformish. With a headswap it could pass for a CHUG one. I think this mold will be reused in the future. IDW Swift could be made out of this, so could be modernized Whirl.

Might end being a rather small and light Deluxe, though.

 

I doubt we'll ever see deluxe class triple changers again. Parts/paint budgets being what they are. Especially not ones with realistic alt modes.

 

Did we ever have deluxe triple changers?

 

classics Astrotrain and universe 2008 Octane

 

I now remember why I forgot.

 

^This.

I don't think people realise that Hasbro have a budget to stick to at each class size. It's all very well saying they should make triple changers, but that would require extra parts and extra paint apps which would drive the cost up; or, the transformations can be simplified to reduce the number of parts and the amount of paint on each mode. People are already complaining about paying deluxe prices for smaller figures, so if a deluxe size triple changer was made and sold at the voyager price point, people won't be happy. And if the decos get any more sparse, same thing.

G1 and Generations are a different kettle of fish; none of the triple changers had to represent the kind of complex, near impossible transformations that happen on screen. The alt modes are often made up so they can share parts between them, and the robot mode is designed based on what is physically practical and the transformation between alt modes. G1 Blitzwing and Astrotrain are much simpler designs and were designed as a toy first.

It's different in the movies; the alt modes are realistic and can't really share much at all. The robots are designed by movie concept artists and don't take into account all the practicalities of making a toy. On top of all that, the toy designers don't have just one conversion to engineer, but essentially three (robot-altmode 1, robot-altmode 2, altmode1-altmode2). Take deluxe Drift: where would you store all his helicopter parts in car mode? And where would the car shell go to in helicopter mode? Now look at dropkick: a figure needs to be engineered to have two distinct alt modes in different colours, and also be able to get the kibble from each vehicle into the right places in robot mode, while also hiding other parts.

Plus there's the whole licensing issue of whether two different vehicle manufacturers would want to license something that converts into something licensed by another manufacturer.

I'm sure movieverse triple changers could be done, but to get any type of accuracy it's going to be very complex. And while a third party might manage it, you may have to pay a three figure sum for it.

I'd rather have two figures that have decent alt modes than one that doesn't do any of the modes particularly well or accurately.

 

Replace Dropkick\'s head with a Mono-Eye and you\'ve got Studio Series Whirl :lo

 

Very solid reasoning. Aces.  

Unfortunately?

You missed a whole bunch!  

Without delving too deep into the complexity of running a toy business well... let's just focus on a solid question that has been floating around the fandom for some DECADES now:

How do you feel about stores stocking these toys? Do they stock them correctly? Do half of these products consistently hit shelves, across the entire USA? Across Europe? Asia? etc.

It's very easy to say Hasbro is working with "budgets" and "fans complaining about every decision"... but it's even easier to point out how badly Hasbro distributes these products to its customers. And that's just one facet of poor decision-making.

For example, how would the TLK toy line have performed IF they started with Cogman and new characters, RATHER than the repaints? Do you think the decision to do Wave 1 as straight re-paints helped or harmed the company, in regards to budget constraints? Because we can make a clear argument that poor decision-making ELSEWHERE in the company causes enough losses to further reduce the TF budget and change production plans.

Now I'll sit back and wait for the inevitable, "Hasbro has no control over what stores stock" idiocy!   Cause I love that: manufacturers having little say and the notion that WALMART is designing TF/Marvel/etc. end-cap displays, not Hasbro?   Look, I don't care to finalize the incompetence on whatever side of the equation; I just want the problems fixed, both as a consumer trying to buy phantom products AND as fan of TFs, who hopes Hasbro can sell enough toys to continue making good toy-lines with more ingenuity and less low-cost compromises.

 

Also, I've got mixed feelings about this chopper toy!   I love that it's a helicopter (alt mode looks awesome!); but the robot mode is pretty meh.  

It's not like that feeling is different from my thoughts about Bay-movie toys in general (i.e. the alt modes always seem better than robot modes, imo)... but the rising price sticker is now making me leave the toys on the shelf.

$20 for a maybe-cool toy? No. $10-15 is a better price point. And that's me being reasonable - it wasn't too long ago that a deluxe was under $10.   (And had more paint apps. And had metal pins. And were larger in size. And had cooler transformations. And... wait a second. I don't need this toy. I need a time-machine!  )

 

(Just gonna address this right here)

The waves for TLK weren't perfect (could've axed the Dinobots completely except maybe Grimlock imo), but in theory wave 1 of TLK sounds like it makes sense. Barricade (a fan-favorite character returning), Bumblebee (cruddy repaint, but it'll please the kids), Berserker (new character/figure who can work as someone for Bumblebee or the Voyager Optimus to beat up), and Slash (cuz kids like dinos).

You don't want to, for lack of a better term, "blow your load early". You want to pace yourself with these figures (honestly this is the problem I'm feeling Studio Series might be having. It's not pacing itself as well). Why would you release Cogman in wave 1..? Wave 1 came out before the movie did. Think about how many more people would buy the figure after they see him in action. That's why they put safer figures in wave 1. They were going to sell regardless (it's just stores overbought for some strange reason).

 

I'm not justifying what they do, merely pointing it out.

Yeah that's more the problem, stores go mad with wave 1 (of anything) and wonder why it's not shifting (and that's got nothing to do with what stores are stocking but rather over-estimating how much they'll sell of a limited assortment). It also doesn't help that here in the UK imports from Asia are available from online sellers before they hit store shelves, so collectors will tend to go with that in case they figures never show up at all.

 

yo, i just wanna say, i remember when you were some shitty kid freaking out over everything, but this is a smart post. you've grown a lot and that's awesome.

 

The problem is that stores will always over-order wave 1 of anything. All this theoretical stuff makes perfect sense in a world where stores are operating under reasonable principles with their ordering and stocking policies, but after all these years of recurring patterns, toy companies have to face reality and accomodate for the fact that wave 1 is, without fail, what will end up being available in stores for months on end. If reality doesn't live up to the theoretical model, you can blame reality all you want, but ultimately you should really adjust the theoretical model to accurately reflect reality.

Realistically, Studio Series is doing it right by putting the heavy-hitters in the early waves, when the line is still fresh and retailers can be expected to stock the figures heavily, while relegating the more obscure characters to later waves, which stores are less likely to stock because they're still full of wave 1. Or, alternatively, if the popularity of the early wave characters actually helps them sell, stores have space for the later wave figures. That way, everyone wins!

 

I don't agree, I've repeated elsewhere numerous times elsewhere how I felt the TLK line was doomed by its casepacks. Hell yea I wanted Cogman! Did I find it? Hell no and that goes for many others. I even literally went halfway around the world or more to a country that actually had wave 3 and lo and behold, even there it was everyone else but Drift.

The reality is, you frontload waves with repaints of older figures and save the new for last, well guess where they end up? TJ Maxx, Ollie's, ROSS. Oh and hey just like the Everyman, I too, cannot find Cogman at those stores!

Yup, Nevermore has it right. Proof is how it's selling in my area. This doesn't reflect the entirety of the world, but it's worth noting that at this point, I'm starting to see wave 2 more frequently and consistently. Good on whomever at Hasbro came up with these casepacks. Light in a long-dim corner.

 

But there's a difference between a toy line for a movie and Studio Series. SS they can do whatever they want with, really. TLK they probably had issues with Paramount, not wanting to spoil things, keeping in mind when the movie came out, times it would be most seen, etc.

 

Over ordering Wave 1's?

That exactly happened here in PH.
Studio Series Wave 1 still clog the shelves.
Like 2/3 of studio series displayed are all Wave 1.

the 1/3 or 1/4 it's wave 2.

I don't know why there's this "fixed tendencies" of over ordering Wave 1's.
Because when the toyline hits X-Mas Sale 50% off, wave 1's are the ones getting on sale.

This kind of practice compromises later waves' fate in terms of stock availability.
I'll put THREE SCENARIOS happened here..

Thrilling 30 Generations.
- Too much earlier waves, later waves never got any regular restocks.
- Victims: T30 Arcee, Chromia (it's like a One and Done release)

Combiner Wars.
- Too much Aerial Bots, Combaticons & Protectobots they reach sale.
- Victim: Sky Lynx is not restocked much. He's the 1st one got a rare status and never seen again.

The Last Knight.
- Too much Wave 1
- Victims: Hot Rod only displayed once and never restocked again. Cogman never made it here.

Funny thing is that.
They're gonna over order Wave 1's.
Then they'll "control" the orders of the next waves.
The last wave of figures getting the short end of the stick or ended up as the collateral damage of over ordering wave 1's.

I know that "Projecting" sales doesn't have an absolute math.
The question is, is it gonna be always like this?
Retail Practice-wise?

The trending practice is..
Over-Order Wave 1 > Order Wave 2 at 2/3 of stocks > Order Wave 3 at 1/3 of stocks.

 

Combaticons yeah, but Aerialbots? I couldn't even find Skydive when the later waves started to show up. I think the Optimus Maximus and Sky Reign limbs hung around too.

as for SS... what TK/TRU needs to do is order more deluxes, like damn. The leaders and voyagers are easy to find in comparison.

 

In my country it’s 100% Wave 1 for SS.

The funny thing is, back for TLK I got Wave 2 early before half the other world did. Sadly despite the headstart Wave 3 and Hot Rod never came.