It's starting to read like an infomercial in here. Where Ron is selling you a rotisserie and Carol, while watching an entire turkey spin on nonstick tines asks, "... so, Ron, you're saying you got an entire thirty pound turkey in that oven?!"

"Yes, Carol an entire, THIRTY pound turkey!"

"But, Ron, what about the legs? Surely you had to trim them off to make it fit?"

"Carol, you can clearly see the whole damned bird spinning on the stick through our shatter resistant glass window. Does it look like it's missing its legs in there?"

Question: So you're saying every order counts towards the crowdfund, not just the ones placed on the Pulse Campaign site? But what about the ones placed in Japan, will they also count?

 

War For Cybertron Unicron Pre-Orders Available In Australia Via EB Games And Zing - Transformers News - TFW2005

It's the same message on Oh my Primus and TFH. How do you crowdfund without paying upfront?

 

I'm inclined to go with what the stores actually say, over whichever editor played telephone with that info to post on the front page.

For the middle-man retailers working the international fronts, they're the ones paying into the crowdfund. The customers then have to pay them back (usually with interest). Non-refundable down payments help to prevent people from backing out and leaving them in the lurch. And even then, the secondary market demand will likely be enough that a few unsold copies could make them a healthy chunk of extra change.

 

Yep, retailers are paying up front, possibly getting a decent negotiated payment option out of Hasbro to offset the massive upfront payment for a large order. Probably also confident that, even if a customer backs out before the release, they'll be able to sell the figure to someone in their region easily enough.

Maybe even hoping a few initial preorders do back out so that they can bank on the non-refundable down payment and then sell the figure a second time for marked up profits.

Hasbro wants [however many millions] to eventually offset the production costs and make their profit. However, Hasbro also should have more than enough money to invest on the production of the figure on their own and then recover the money over time through whatever deals they've made with the various middle men.

Last quote I googled had Hasbro's net worth at $11 billion. They'll manage.

 

None of the Asian/Australian Unicrons need to be paid until the toy is released in 2021, so it doesn't look like they count towards the 8,000. Hasbro America just needs their total numbers at the end of August for when production starts, to add to the the Hasbro Pulse number if it gets above 8,000.
If the Asian/Australian orders did count to the 8,000 target, we would be required to pay the full amount at the end of August, so that it can be sent in to Hasbro America with all of the money from North American and Japanese backers that will be charged at the end of August (to pay for the toolings and production).
The thing that I'm concerned about is, if Hasbro America decides to count the Asian/Australian numbers to make it across the line to 8,000, one of the branches of Hasbro would have to cover that huge cost of our Unicrons until 2021 because the retailers here can't charge us until 2021 (it would be illegal after we've already committed to the sale "contract"... and a lot of people would just cancel their orders, which would affect Hasbro's total target anyway).
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Takara-Tomy Mall is the site for Japan so yes.

 

All of the websites offering this payment option, as far as I can tell, require an up-front, non-refundable down-payment. This signifies that they're locking customers into a payment plan, with the near-guarantee that they'll see that money in the future. So, with confidence, they're essentially "loaning" you the $600 USD and paying for Unicron for you, with the advanced agreement that you'll pay them back with interest later on.

These pre-orders can, and absolutely will be, accounted for towards that 8000 total.

 

The concept of this project only going through if the US backer count reaches 8000 just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand why all of the international backers wouldn’t be added to the total. What if the US backers only hit 6000 while the rest of the world adds another 6000? Where have Hasbro officially stated that non-US backers don’t count toward the goal? I’ve seen some contradicting info throughout this thread and it would be nice to get a final official statement...which I assume exists somewhere.

 

That's exactly right, and it doesn't make sense. That's why all the stores actually offering him specify that this is a global crowdfunding effort. The only time the idea that the North American campaign is its own separate 8000 comes up is when people play telephone from an international site, bad translations and all, or the doomsayers parroting this erroneous information.

 

When I seenbit in person it's quite a sight to behold. It takes me back to the days of the USS Flagg and Defiant type toys

Because from my perspective, this is the wrong choice for an ultimate release.

I really dont want a unicron figure/toy that's completely out of scale to everything in my collection. I dont think unicron is that cool to focus this much effort on.

I would have much rather seen a crowdfunded metroplex V2 or scorponok...something where all the other mainline toys can interact with.

Everyone is firing up on me for not being in awe of this thing..I just think it could have been something better. From the 1st pics, I wasnt that amazed...and when I seen the video I was even less impressed.

Does not look fun. Does not play/interact with any other TF toy...alt mode really is lame besides watching it in a movie...

Would have rather seen a crowdfund scorponok or something

 

Would it not be in folks best interest to see Unicron be successful in this case? I would imagine that a successful Transformer crowdfund would only help encourage Hasbro to move forward with others (ie. a larger metroxplex or scorponok)

 

No sane retailer is going to choose to be out of pocket by tens of thousands of dollars for 18 months ( "loaning" you money), when they can charge the full amount straight away so that they can then pay for their order if Hasbro America is wanting payment from Asia/Australia at the end of August. These retailers ALWAYS charge before they need to pay Hasbro - they've done it in the past, they will do it in the future.
The small non-refundable deposit is standard practice by these businesses, to make sure that they don't have people wasting their time with orders that they had little or no interest in paying for. That way if they fail to pay, the business has a little bit of money to offset any potential loss incurred on selling excess stock at a discount.

Besides, I was involved in making the Australian offering possible, so these are the FACTS - I was specifically told by an Asian retailer and by the Australian retailer that Hasbro isn't wanting the money for the Australian and Asian Unicrons until 2021... which means, Hasbro America doesn't get ANY of our money until after it is produced, NOT in August with the rest of the Backers. (as such, if our money doesn't go towards the tooling and production costs, it probably doesn't mean that we are part of the 8,000 target that is needed for that tooling and production cost... and if we are part of the 8,000 target, then Hasbro America must be covering our part of the expense or we are part of the profit margin and they don't need our money beforehand)
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Then the site needs to be reworded to say 8,000 NA orders instead of Worldwide like Takara-Tomy & many other sites offering to pitch into the order counts.

 

U have to see it as a funding issue. Project won't move forward unless it has X amount of funds and 8,000 backers are required to hit the funding target. The problem is: Asia fans ain't funding the project, there's no option for us (unless we go through a US proxy). Pre-ordering ain't crowdfunding.

I hope I am wrong. This is one confusing marketing campaign.

 

So you don’t pay anything upfront if you order through an Asian supplier? Not even a deposit?

 

Takara-Tomy Mall & Hasbro Taobao are Asian options.
I've pasted this like 10 times now.

I guess I have to search for an hour and post a GIANT LIST of stores all over selling this Unicron all saying it's a Worldwide Crowdfunding effort.

 

There's a small deposit, 10-20%, depending on the reseller ; a common strategy to ensure that customers honor the pre-order. It has nothing to do with crowdfunding.

 

If they are wrong, then they do need it corrected, which is why I have already asked for confirmation on that issue.
TakaraTomyMall could just be down to a translation error... while Asian/Australian listings are getting their information through 3-4 parties (US, Asia, Wholesaler, Retailer) before the retailer can post up their product listings. As long as they get the prices and dates correct, the images and info are never guaranteed to be accurate... just see how many official images are mis-transformed, or the number of times I've found a wrong description or a google-translation making up part of the product page. (the New Zealand listing calls Unicron a Deluxe toy, while the most recent Transformers listing on EB/Zing in Australia was entirely google-translated from the TakaraTomyMall page, which made no sense... but all they needed to include for us fans who know what the toy is anyway, is to list the price and release date)
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Ah, another good point!

I'm still not believing this thing had an 18-month lead time, everything seems rushed, seat-of-the-pants. Or at worst, Hasbro employees are unimaginative and narrow-minded. It's not way to do good business.

This entire campaign, so far, makes for a great marketing class case study of what not to do. So many places to improve on what was done, from the product, to the advertising, to the sales. They've blown so many opportunities here. Hasbro has a small-company mindset, yet the abilities of a larger company. What's sad is that they used this clout back in the G1 days.

Hasbro has not specified. Their words are all that matters on this. 3rd parties makes claims all the time that are untrue.

 

Lol. I would love to see some small ships made to go with Unicron. If not as a bonus included with him (I don’t expect it) then as a 3rd Party add-on set.