No.

Companies exist to make money.

 

Moved to third party discussions this was not intended for third party companies only..

Makes me wonder why hmmmmmm

 

Its all for the money.

If trolling is what brings money, trolling they do.

If people behave like idiots, they are gonna milk them.

Simple as that

 

Shooooooort Answer to the thread question: Yes. 100%. The industry is on the verge of changing due to an ever dwindling market for children's toys.

Got a lot more to share. But evidently my post count is too low  

 

Don't blame companies. Blame collectors, sometimes are little adults with a mind full of sh*t.

 

Not blaming anyone. It's a market opportunity, and the big players are doing A/B testing live with real consumers in the real marketplace right now.

Right now.

There are reasons for a lot of the oversaturation of similar products etc. Some of it intentional, much of it pivots to leverage happy accidents.

The market is evolving and the big players are fighting to retain control. It'll probably work out in the end no matter how the Fandom rolls. But they can also influence the outcomes if they wise up just a little.

 

We are being trolled by KO Companies.

To this there is no doubt.  

 

I don't think companies care or think about the fan community NEARLY as much as we might think/want to believe. So much of this is our own ego.

Hell, remember when Hasbro's lead Transformers designer was a member of these boards, and we chased him off? Yeah, they've got better things to do than troll.

 

Unfollowing thread. That kind of thread are like if someone wants to start another war.

 

Not yet. Wait until the HasTak fanbois join the discussion. heh

Back to the discussion though: At the end of the day, HasTak and 3Ps (and KO) companies are all about making money. Period. What matters is how much money they make to keep shareholders happy and the business thriving. It is true there are fans behind these companies, but the bottom line is not about satisfying toy collectors. Excluding KO companies, we're still lucky we have 3Ps to fill in the gap. They have an easier time listening to what fandom wants because they have fewer stakeholders, probably just themselves.

It's just the fans that always get carried away. And fans think they hold so much influence over these companies, HasTak at the very least, they clamor and complain. If we did, then Bay would not have had a chance at making those sequels; after all, he never had a TF-loving spark.

It's pretty simple really: Want it? Buy it. No money? Get some or just let out a sigh of disappointment. No need to get all angry about it. Crowdfunding made sense for a figure like Unicron, no sense mass producing something that expensive just for it to end up in the bargain bin.

 

Trying to doll this out in small chunks over a few days so that the robots can figure out that I'm hooman  

The industry is on the verge of changing due to an ever dwindling market for children's toys. Hasbro's betting big on the Kiddie RescueBot stuff and Kiddie Power Rangers, and all the other kiddie stuff, but for what has been traditionally "boys toys" they know they need to move the needle to make Fan-Goods the primary market and kid's a secondary target.

They also know that with the 3P guys eating up a big chunk of that market they can't keep up.

Suing companies out of existence, especially when they're in China, is hard.

 

There was that shiny Silver Drift KO that came out - it sold out and it didn't even really have a fictional reason to be made. But people liked it.
The overscale KO War For Cybertron Optimus in Shattered Glass and in white also seem to have sold out too (everywhere I've looked at least).

It's like that Prime Optimus Prime First Edition KO that just came out - on one level it's nice to have it for those who missed the original - but a few extra weapons isn't making me put it that high up my list - I might get it just to display with the open face mask perhaps - but like I said it's not high up the list. Now for the Chinese Market who might only now playing catch up it may make sense, but from across the sea - I'd personally be looking for a Black, Blue or Purple repaint.

I'd like the Black repaint to be based on The Takara Transformers Arms Micron version though all be painted - as that is he Nemesis Colour I expect to see not a Black and Gold deco - so if they KO'd the Black and Gold Deco i'd just roll my eyes.

It seems obvious to me with the way the Gold Sideswipe is/was so popular that making other KO colours is a sensible thing to do.
Like Chrome Bluestreak for example. The amusing thing is that the lower end is all about the crazy colours but you increase the quality and all imagination goes out the window.

It's sad really as I'm not the only one sitting here twiddling my thumbs hoping that the Candy Coloured Combiner Wars KO's actually get made - but supposedly they couldn't get enough people to order them to put them into manufacture yet.

That is a shame as they were Just the sort of thing I wanted. It's not like there is a complete lack of novelty colours though, there was the rather spiffy Grey Brawl Leader Class KO, and the recent Sandy deco Movie Hound too. But I agree it shows a lack of imagination to not be making preemptive KOs of the likes of Deep Cover.. or even going really left field and making MP Sideswipe in GoBot Sideswipe colours of Blue and Yellow.