Or maybe pissing on Bay.  

That's really not how it works. If you have to think of it as "I had to take him away from this other task", then that means you don't have enough employees, and really nothing more.

BTW, something else I just thought of, about the the horrible marketing.

- A company should tell you what you're getting, buying, what, how, why, who, etc. Done. You then make a decision to buy, or not buy.
- But we're having to ask everything, glean whatever small tidbit of info we're given, and having to speculate based on these scraps of data. We're being told damned-near-nothing, shown a few pretty photos, show some sloppy prototypes in action, and that's it. "Please pay us $625, thank you, come again!"

WTF?  

 

This always happens with premium products, no matter the type or format or setting. There are always some folks who don't think that a premium product should exist or should cost that much or whatever. Sometimes it's a matter of princple. Sometimes it's because they can't afford it or don't want to pay it. The MP-44 thread is basically the same thing - folks objecting to the $450 Optimus Prime (though it's $313 if you got it through Amazon.co.jp), because they think the $450 Optimus prime is ridiculous, a bad precedent, unfair or w/e.

It's always pointless. Like I didn't get how, of all Star Wars vehicles that could possibly be made for Haslab, the Sail Barge was somehow highly prized. If it were me, I would have wanted like... Echo Base. Or the Star Destroyer to end all Star Destroyers. Not... Jabba's sail barge. But who was I to go out of my way crap on the idea of people who wanted it? If it makes people happy good for them. It certainly looks cool.

People just... waste their time trying to make other folk unhappy. There are other productive things to do.

Not that the Bayverse movies are sources of wisdom, but this guy said something smart:



It's a choice. It's an intensely personal decision. So much negativity... Who wants to live a life filled with hate?

That's actually like, really well put.

 

The TF fandom is spoiled. We feel entitled to pay little for a figure with decent transformation, nicely painted, and articulation. While fans of other franchise are just happy to pay premium price for a premium statue.

 

I fail to see how a plastic mass-produced toy is a premium product.
Put loads of diecast/metal into it, hand-painted details, take fan feedback on design flaws prior to production, then maybe we can consider it a premium item.

 

One thing I have to agree with other people in this thread (sorry if I don't quote explicitly, it's morning here and I just caught up the hundred of posts made when I was sleeping) is that if Hasbro would ever learn a lesson from Unicron failing, it's not going to be "the product wasn't good enough, for the next one let's put even more money in the design, keep the price low, invest more in marketing, offer payment plans, put lots of extras". It would be either "TF high end market isn't worth pursuing" or "Unicron turned out to be not so popular after all, but fans are definitely going to be thrilled when we announce the new Haslab giant movie Bumblebee".

 

Pfft hahaha

 

"Yes. Yes! Make me more powerful! Your hatred feeds me! Hahahaha!"

Honestly. You're the only ones who are being pointlessly negative on this entire page.

 

That's redefining premium to the point of uselessness.

With respect to our hobby here, yes, it is a Premium product. Strictly speaking, this is a CHUG product. It's labeled as WFC Unicron. It's detailing is done in the WFC style. But there is no compromises in its design and engineering. Hasbro designed a zero compromise CHUG piece, and set a price for that.

Now look at the Titans we've gotten. Great products? Absolutely. But they're covered top to bottom in compromises. Metroplex is largely hollow, only had one gun, a cheap Scamper and no Sixgun . Fortress Maximus reuses Metroplex parts, lacked his little minions, and while cool looking had a compromised design in order to reuse Metroplex parts (he couldn't make a G1-style city mode). Trypticon is largely unpainted and features a mass-market-economical leg and tail joint system that had a crucial design flaw. He had no Brunt, and lacks many of the extra parts that the G1 toy had. Those are high level and mass market, but ultimately not premium products.

If WFC Unicron were not premium, he would be:
(1) Released at retail.
(2) Titan class, even if on the larger size. He would top out at no more than 7 lbs. No stand either.
(3) Largely done in just colored plastic, not fully painted like the Haslab Unicron is.
(4) He would have a fraction of the parts count, and likely not transform into a full sphere. You would see hemispherical calves and robot mode parts while in vehicle mode.

Basically, imagine a larger version of the Supreme mold, just more hollow, no electronics and a different method for transforming the hemispheres rather than the wings. That is what a non-premium product looked like.


Very simply, I don't know how you can define a fully painted, 20 lb, 36 inch transformer that is essentially a made-to-order product, released only in an exclusive window, as anything but premium.

Or let me pose this a different way. Masterpiece Transformers are by definition a premium product. If this figure eliminated almost all the surface details, was deco'd in the style of the recent Masterpiece releases, and released as "MP-50 Unicron", would you call it a premium product? Most would. I certainly would. Because one of the most important aspects of "Premium" (and the price that goes with it) is the target audience.

These other aspects you describe - diecast, hand painted details... that wouldn't make it intrinsically premium. The Walmart G1 re-releases have diecast. They are considered premium because they are re-issues of classic figures, targeted torwards collectors, and therefore sold at a premium price. But their original releases in 1984 and 1985 were mass market, and die cast was normal then. There was nothing premium about them.

Consider the iPhone. The iPhones are broadly considered technologically inferior to Samsung Galaxy and Notes. They're made of much of the same materials. The Galaxy just does a lot of things the iPhone does better. But though Galaxy has made strides in upping its quality, it is not considered a premium product the way an iPhone is. Apple doesn't market the iPhone as the phone for the everyman. It's a special product, meant for those who want to be included in an elite circle of belonging. the Iphone XS may be inferior to comparable Galaxy, but the fact it is an iPhone XS, a status symbol, whose intent is to be for a certain customer, Apple charges a premium. For the everyman, they have the XR, or maybe even the Iphone 8, at a more affordable price. And keep in mind, the XR and XS were largely the same aside from the screen and casing.

Unicron isn't being made for everybody. It's being made for the "elite collector". It is being made for adults, not kids. And no expense is being spared. That makes it a premium product by definition.

 

Holy shit. I just read thirty plus pages of batshit lunacy. From the sounds of it there are a bunch of you who would straight up freak out and never collect TFs again if this fails. Do you know how insane that is??? Wow. It's almost enough for me to get on the "let the world burn/campaign fail" peoples side just to see a portion of the fandom go completely insane.... Almost, I said.

So many bitching about numbers, completely made up and completely real, and people arguing over what WORDS fucking mean. Jesus, it makes me wish Hasbro never announced this project because, clearly, the tTF fandom isn't mature enough to handle it. I mean, wow. The mental gymnastics some have shown just to "prove" this thing is funded is...

I would LOVE a 1:1 sized Cookie Monster but not a possible one like what Hasbro is trying to sell and certainly not at the price they've asked. $100/150 for a high quality plush/Puppet thing would be IDEAL and could have been an easy sale for SS 30something fan.

1.) Voyagers are already like $35. 2.)How does this carry over to retail products? Hasbro and Takara have been raising prices since AOE (recent example) and last I checked, the movie Age Of Extinction and toy line didn't just come out 3.) This is niche, small run product. Of course there's going to be a price premium attached to it. 4.) This also weights as much as 3/4 retail Titan class figures, if you add the price of THREE Titan figures you get about $450 or so. Having as much plastic as three/four of those figures 5.) If Hasbro made, using made up numbers here, say $50 pre Titan figure, I don't see $100-150 profit on each Unicron as being an unrealistic thing for them to do for a figure that has as much material as three of four Titan figures. Honestly, being "pissed" about that kind of just screams "wah! wah! I want it CHEAPER!!!!111" Hasbro has a right to charge whatever for their stuff but I do agree that the whole pressure of "buy it now cause we'll never make another one again!" "Buy it now and be a part of Transformers history" to be very off putting. Off putting enough that it turns me off to buying this Unicron.

I never knew you where a chick but it's right there in the profile pic. lol

Eh, I would think that if they hit 7000 they would probably pull the trigger on this and just sell the extras on Pulse at a slightly higher markup. I do think that this will get funded or, at the least, get SUPER CLOSE to funded (like a few 7500/7800) that I could see Hasbro just going "fuck it" funded it and then selling the few extras on Pulse.

That's what scares me about this, I don't trust the TF team to design such a high end, premium product (which is the category this is priced in). TFs are just now feeling like they're worth the asking price (not all of them, sheesh that Impactor and Mirage.....) and unlike the SW team and the Barge the TF team hasn't earned that trust yet from me.

 

No.
Fit & finish is what defines premium.
That has an audience, but audience doesn't determine premium.

 

They have the absolute right to charge what they want just as we have the absolute right to say nope that's too expensive. And at that weight anyone is playing a big risk to display it more than 6 inches off the ground. Because IF it fell off a shelf, if 1 joint fails and it topples, I guarantee it breaks and that is alot of money to risk on something irreplaceable

 

All those panels on his legs turn into the Pringles with one fall.....

 

I see compromises, no point listing them it's been done to death.

It's big and heavy, so is my truck but I wouldn't call that premium either. I don't think made to order applies, yours will be identical to all the rest.

Then they aren't "great" are they? Trypticons hips explode that's not compromise it's trash!

Hey if you want to consider yourself "elite" because you bought a "premium" product go right ahead. Just realize others have different metrics for those terms. Premium is going to be subjective and I wouldn't throw around words like elite in reference to purchases well, ever...

 

I love the idea of this and aren’t even really bothered about the price per se...but I’m more in a G.I Joe and customising mood at the moment and just went crazy splurging all the money I could have backed for this on other stuff instead (strongly considering dropping my OP v3 order too). I wish it well, I think it’s terrific but I’m gonna pass.

 

That's exactly it. The label "premium" is a two-way street. The company can call something "premium" all it wants, but it's not premium unless the market agrees. In order to reach that agreement, you need careful planning, high quality control, rigorous testing, marketing research, consumer feedback, etc. And we got none of that with the Unicron. It's a big overpriced Siege toy, the end. Nothing premium about it.

I'm still unsure if I want to back it, but I won't lie to myself about what it is.

 

Sometimes these things can be surprisingly tough. I had the combined mode of ToyWorld Devastator take a dive of the top of a 6foot bookcase and it’s pretty much unscathed. Of course, being a Combiner it was designed to come apart but still.
This though? Would probably break badly under the same circumstances.

 

I've even had diecast break, screws sheer off, yet the plastic was fine.  

 

Cookie Monster failed to meet its target - hopefully the same doesn't happen here. In Cookie Monster's case, there wasn't a sudden a rush of backers at the end.