Let's just have a little fun.
So the rights to make Transformers toys are up for grabs, what toy company would you like to see handle the property and make them?
I'm not the most up to date with all the toy brands out there, but the first that came to mind was Mattel, who along with Hasbro is one of the most recognized brands out there. Financially i dont know how much of the toy market they cover but i would imagine they have the resources to hire a design team and have a factory that can make the figures relatively cheap to provide to the consumer at an affordable price.

The other that came to mind was Bandai. TT wouldnt be happy but hey this is all make believe. I base this pick solely on their history with Gundam. The designs would be top notch, and would be able to carry an affordable kids line a la Cyberverse all the way up to Masterpiece. And of course their branch of the entertainment wing means cartoons/anime to support the toys.

 

No one.

Transformers require a higher level of skill and knowledge to design over any old line of action figures. I don't think anyone would come close to doing it as well as they do.

 

1.) This thread probably doesn't have a long life span, it's already been done in various forms, and people can't behave/control themselves.

2.) Mattel is in dire straits, financially, and there was a rumor a while back that Hasbro was considering merging with them.

3.) Bandai is not the answer. They're part of the reason our MPs are so expensive and their product lines are good, but some fall short of the mark. Sentai has had a bad track record with broken clips, etc.

4.) Honestly? A 3rd party, such as Wei Jiang would be a reasonable, if imperfect, option. They already produce toys, they know Hasbro's molds in and out, basically, they price competitively. That or... Maybe Playmates? They're pretty good. Their Voltron was top notch.

 

Especially Bandai, who for some reason can't put articulation into Sentai Mecha unless it's a Soul Of Chogokin release.
And even then, Daizyujin has some issues.

 

well, that was a buzz kill

theyre just toys, not rocket science. 3P proves it's not hard to do (if anything they make too hard at times)

 

Maybe Sentinel. They make great looking figures, but not necessarily the most functional. I have two of their Mospeada Riobots. Very very complicated.

 

Mastermind Creations. They already have the playability down, they have at least one of Hasbro's designers, and their sculpt is on par with Has/Tak.

 

 
Yeah. I wonder why that is.

Funnily enough I agree with Avalanche that Weij Jiang might be a good pick.

 

I wouldn’t trust the QC at any other major company aside from maybe Mattel, Bandai, or Playmates. I’d see Mattel, Bandai, or Playmates as a step down but I think they could handle the engineering and tolerances. Bandai could handle all the complexity and some of the durability. Mattel could handle all the durability and some of the complexity.

No other toy company springs to mind unless we’re talking non-transforming figures or a much, much higher price point.

EDIT: Some of the KO companies probably could. I’d trust them ahead of original third parties. Somebody like KBB could theoretically pull it off with a bunch of Hasbro/Takara designers.

 

Kenner 

 

People complain about cost-cutting in the TF line now. If Playmates were to produce the line? Whoo boy.

 

I thought Bandaid was a gaming company? Anyways if I had choose I'd probably go with Weijang.

 

They already do now, they're called licensed third party (ThreeA, Flames Toys, etc).

Anyway, just to play along I'd like to see the guy(s?) that designed Unique Toys' Challenger and Peru Kill to be designing official toys.

I'd love to see MMC take over the Generations line.

The company I'd least want to see with the TF brand is NECA. Most of the figures I've bought from them have had something wrong with them, from poor paint to limbs snapping off at the joints.

 

I think it would be interesting to get someone else's take on real Transformers. I miss the bigger, bulkier designs from the early 2000s. I know they didn't have the same "super articulation" and "perfect representation of the character", but they certainly did their job better - in my opinion at least - of fitting together in each mode, and not having that current stylized look. Haha, so maybe we need Aaron Archer to have a big toy company?  

 

I'd like to see Bandai produce some SOC MP TFs...assuming they would actually be able to be purchased without F5'ing at 3 a.m. in competition with the rest of the developed world for the 5 seconds they are available online...

 

I also say Wei Jiang, because (and I don't know if this is common knowledge or not) the original transforming toys they develop for Star jet and Jaki are really impressive. I have handled a toy from their Robo Saviors line and the way it was put together was just really smart, very easy to disassemble and put back together.

 

I would say this. I don't think Hasbro would ever sell off the production of the toylines. It is the baseline business. What wouldn't surprise me is if the TF movies fail post-Bumblebee and the Paramount relationship goes kaput you could see Disney making a play for the film/TV rights.

 

I hope they never do.

 

MMC’s Reformatted line has produced some of my all-time favorite TFs. If anybody would get a shot other than Hasbro, I would pick them. Granted, they’re small. I know that. But we’re only dealing in hypotheticals anyway.

 

Hah! I see what you did there.  

True, but if they had a real moneymaker, they might step up their game. They're one of the only companies out there producing playsets for their figures. Hasbro stopped that a long, long time ago. Heck, the line they did make playsets for, they don't even produce anymore! (G.I. Joe)

And I don't count Star Wars. A couple of cardboard cutouts taped together and sold at Target doesn't really scream "PLAYSET!" to me. Although, at this point, if they did something like that for Transformers, we'd probably lap it up. It wouldn't kill them to give us ONE playset in 35 years. Yes, yes, the city bots. I'm talking an actual Ark.

Aaron Archer is part of the reason we're where we're at now. He wanted nothing to do with G1 from some accounts, secretly collected 3rd party but talked it down publicly (to save his job) and then when he left (just as G1 was starting to make a resurgence in CHUG, I mean a real push) John Warden came in and showed everyone how G1 is supposed to be done. Yeah, some of the figures were restricted by cost-cutting on Hasbro's end of things, but Siege is what we've been hoping for for a long time and Studio Series really is impressive.

I'm guessing you grew up with Armada/Energon/Cybertron, which is why you're promoting such an idea, but the rest of us who've been here since the get-go know that that trilogy pales in comparison to what came before it. CR/RID was designed by Takara Tomy and not Hasbro. It was G1 design inspired, with BW/BM engineering. A/E/C (Unicron Trilogy) might have held together better in some modes, sure, but they lacked so much in all the other ways. Garish? Yep. Extremely limited articulation in favor of ridiculous gimmicks? Yep.

No, Siege is where it's at, and even some of the Prime Wars Trilogy before it. I'm sorry to piss all over this, especially if you grew up with the Unicron Trilogy, but unless you've experienced them all, from the get-go, you can't truly appreciate where we've gone or where we've come from. Going back to Archer is the worst thing we can do. Cyberverse is proof of that.

Yes, MMC could do great things with the line. And with an official license, they could put themselves on the map and become a real household name.