I just dont get the folks who say “hasbro doesn’t care about us studio series fans…” when over 70 figures in 4 years have come out and are still coming out with huge feats like devastator and cameos like thrust get full on toys but okay, hasbro doesn’t care about studio series because they didn’t release a promo of the toy

 

How u been collecting figures for over 30 years and dont know wtf a checklist is ? Thats some OG G1 s**t right there bro do your research. As far as the collector market is concerned, explain why Hasbro is digging to the bottom of the barrel and doing the most obscure of obscure G1 characters in the MAIN LINE ? Alicon ? Slammer ? Freaking Slammer for crying out loud. Yeah keep thinking 8-9 year olds are watching G1 toons on youtube and demanding Alicon and Slammer get a figure. Thats collectors bro. The real market. All I see kids playing with now a days is iphones, video games, and remote control toys. I live in a big city so I cant speak for rural areas or lesser developed countries. But take a good look around you and youll realize action figures are basically collectors market now. That goes for all action figures not just transformers bro.

 

Yearly checklists and catalogs were awesome. They kind of did it with BotBots with Series Checklists. They took the stress out of knowing what Transformers to expect and just enjoy the hobby.

 

You mean the little posters with all the toys? Dude they stopped doing those in the late 80s early 90s. They weren’t even doing the full year by beast wars at least. That’s an entire era ago and it was easy to do that stuff especially when all the molds were imports from takara or repaints. They dont that stuff anymore so many reasons like they’re not sure what will be out for the whole year. Kingdom was four waves and rumors are now it’s gonna be five

Asking for those to come back is like an old man complaining about prices now and listing all this shit he can buy for a nickel back in the day

As for looking around me as I’ve said I see more kids in aisles then grown ass men and not to mention the 5 year old I saw in grocery store with his parents and kingdom Starscream in his hands 2 months ago or another with universe acidstorm years ago which both times brought a smile to my face…yeah sorry but no. 40 year old entitled men who still play with toys are not primary audience. They’re just the most vocal

 

dude if you’re stressing over toys I think you got some other stuff to deal with in life

 

The reason why Hasbro doesn't do yearly checklists anymore is because the entire distribution system, as well as the entire structure of the Transformers brand, has changed.

Back in the 1980s, there was just "The Transformers". One line, that's it. Hasbro didn't start distinguishing between different sub-sets of the brand until 1989, when the yearly checklist abandoned the "Autobot" and "Decepticon" sides in favor of a "Pretenders" side and a "Micromasters" side, followed by a "Micromasters" side and an "Action Masters" side in 1990.

Right now, we have:
- Kingdom
- Studio Series
- War for Cybertron Trilogy (Netflix and Selects)
- Cyberverse
- Botbots
- Buzzworthy Bumblebee
- Shattered Glass Collection
- Retro Headmasters
- Vintage Beast Wars reissues
- R.E.D.

Would you like to have one single checklist for everything? Or separate checklists for each line?

Then we get to the distribution system. Back in the 1980s, Hasbro had a bunch of assortments which retailers had to order separately, and barring some very few exceptions, those assortments would ship throughout the entire year, with little to no changes to the line-up. So basically, if a store got a shipment of Autobot Cars in October, those cases would contain the same figures that already shipped in May. So basically, what fans these days would call "shelfwarming repacks".

Ever since Kenner's original "Beast Wars" line-up in the 1990s, Kenner and later Hasbro would ship assortments with multiple consecutive waves. The stores would just continue ordering the same assortments, but the line-up would change every few months, introducing new figures while eventually phasing out old ones. (And for some fans, even a single figure shipping in another wave besides the one it debuted in would already be considered a "wasted slot", because heaven forbid a toy is available for more than that one day they themselves find it and buy it.)

So we have a completely different distribution system. Constant renewal of the line-up in order to keep the stock "fresh", rather than the same bunch of figures shipping throughout the entire year.

How would you deal with that in a "yearly" checklist? Just reveal the entire year's line-up at the beginning of the year? Because that would cause a problem when the new toys that are intended to ship with the September wave aren't finished yet by the time the checklist is supposed to get printed in order for it to be included with the January wave. So you'll alternatively end up with concept art only, unfinished early renders, or blacked out spots and possibly non-final working names. Sure you could update the checklist once the new toys are finised, but you are specifically demanding "yearly" checklists.

Or would you just do away with waves altogether and return to the way things were done in the 1980s? Because then you'll have to deal with fans whining that there is no new product being released throughout the year because the entire year's line-up came out in January.

And that's only for general retail releases. What about exclusives? Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Amazon and whatnot. Would you want them to be included in the yearly checklist, or would you prefer a checklist that's limited to the general retail assortment? If your answer is "get rid of the exclusives entirely and release everything at general retail", well, good luck with that.

Well, this whole "you'll be surprised when you walk into a store and see a new toy that hasn't been announced yet" argument that pops up every once in a while is silly as well, because this is the internet. A new toy that had previously not been announced will surprise exactly one person. That person will then post their discovery on the internet, where it will be reported across all the major fansites and other communities, which means everyone else will be aware that this toy will be coming out either way.

Uhm, no? This whole reveal, tease and surprise online hype is mostly aimed at collectors. Unless you think the majority of active members on sites such as TFW2005 and Seibertron are kids.

I completely agree with you insofar as being able to plan is important, but "yearly checklists" isn't the solution. Hasbro had this completely under control a decade ago. Back when they were cooperating with Hunter PR, they would consistently reveal new toys three or four months in advance. It was nice, it was structured, you knew when to expect something, at least roundabout. Then they cut their ties with Hunter PR, and everything after that were just haphazard attempts at doing things differently just for the sake of it.

For a few years, starting around 2014, new toys would only be announced at one of the major shows (New York Toy Fair, BotCon, San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic-Con), with a few additional reveals being given to Cybertron Con in Asia or Toy Fair Australia. We even had an official reveal at Dortmund Comic-Con in Germany two years ago, or at least we would have had if it hadn't been spoiled by Previews, who apparently didn't understand how international time zones work. The downside to this was that the distribution schedule wasn't always following the reveal schedule, especially during those long stretches between those shows.

Hasbro's more recent solution to this problem were smaller online reveal events such as "Fan First Fridays" or "Transformers Tuesdays". But they still don't work properly, primarily because of one specific problem:

The marketing department that is responsible for handling and scheduling those reveals is completely out of touch with the people who handle the distribution. This has been going on for many years now. It's like someone plans out a "reveal" schedule a year in advance, but then the production gets ahead of schedule, and the toys ship out to stores before they're officially supposed to be revealed. Too many of these reveals are scheduled way too far down the line, cutting it far too close, which is what's causing a lot of these problems.

But again, "yearly checklists" are a pipe dream that completely ignore how much different the whole distribution system of today is from the distribution system back in the 1980s. You cannot just turn back the time and run things like they were run back in the day, unless you somehow also manage to bring back Toys"R"Us, KB Toys, Zayre, Daehlkemper's and a gajillion other stores that were selling Transformers back then.


Oh, also, you know when those yearly checklists were released back in the 1980s? Along with the toys they depicted. So essentially, by the time you were holding the checklist that told you which toys were available that year, those toys were already available at retail. In other words, those magical 1980s checklists did not serve that purpose for which you are demanding their return to begin with.


As far as I'm concerned, the system that was in place ca. 2009-2013, during the Hunter PR days, was doing its job just fine. Hasbro should look into what went right there, and take notes. Not that completely outdated method from 40 years ago that doesn't in the slightest work with the current distribution model, and didn't even work the way you want it to work now.

 

blast them sideways

 

Cant say I agree with your logic on checklists. They were dope and reveals are stupid, bottom line. Im not saying I havent seen a kid holding an action figure. It happens. They are like unicorns. For every time I see ive seen 20-30 kids with an a nintendo switch sitting inside moms shopping cart. I dont think kids give 2 s**ts about 35 year old characters like Alicon. If its not among the top 5 most beloved G1 characters (Prime, Bee, Megs, Starscream, Grimlock) and maybe a few others they dont care. Collectors are keeping action figures alive. Hasbro live-streams be at 1200 noon on school days so go figure...

 

I really really like him.

 

Way too many talking points to discuss but ill touch on a few. First of all id be fine with concept art. Every (boxed) late wave 3-4 Seige figure should have had an Earthrise checklist to show you what to expect the following year. And every wave 3-4 Earthrise figure should have the Kingdom checklist. That would be way better than reveals. Reveals is treating grown ass men like they some f**king kids (in my opinion) We got money and are serious buyers. Skip the marketing strategy BS and just show us the goods. Treat it like the way they sell cars. Think of the yearly prototype auto show as a giant real life checklist. You get to see whats coming up close and personal. Thats how you sell s**t to grown ass men for real. Now let me break out the checklists...
First your claim that by the time you have the checklists in hand tge product is already in stors is FALSE. Heres some shots from 1988 of things that are "coming soon". While its still a dreaded "teaser" they at least confirm its eventual existence, give you its title, and a decent silhouette. Isnt that better than seeing it half transformed in a crappy photo on some factory workers desk ?



Another interesting point you made was exclusives. While no collector really likes the concept, we all get why chain stores want them and invest big bucks to get them. However, it would be real easy to handle exclusives reveals included in Transformers packaging. Its been done plenty of times. Granted these were exclusive offers rather than exclusive to one chain. But I dont think Target will complain or Walmart if their ad is thrown into a box that will be sold at other places. Thats free promotion.

But yeah bro, the checklists were really awesome. And I dont think it would take a rocket scientist to figure out when, where, and how to distribute them with Hasbro's modern distribution method. Its just a matter of what time to print them and which wave to slip them into the boxes. Its a win win for Hasbro and collector's alike. The only losers would be Primevsprime, Ton Ton, and a few other random dudes who have found a way to turn the fandoms anxiety into clickbait cash.

 

i mean i'm not into the grand show of a build-up to an action figure, but arguing it's somehow more childish than collecting a piece of advertisement paper of a bunch of action figures is pretty asinine. either way you're buying toys, the internet exists, hasbro could dump a bunch of jpegs without even giving anything besides a line name and fans would suss out the rest.

 

He kinda looks derpy, like his shoulders are too low or that collar makes his head sit high up.

Am I the only one who thinks his back looks better than his front? That said, I like the alt mode better in this color than with Starscream.

 

Honestly, all of this anger is just unnecessary. Either enjoy the hobby or dont.

I got back into collecting and buy the figures I do because they make me happy. If they made me as unhappy as half of the people I see frequently on these posts, i'd have stopped collecting long ago because y'all just sound miserable.

Would I, as a grown man (who started out here as a younger person who used to not understand things) like the catalogs? Sure. But things have changed a LOT in 35-40 years guys. What worked then doesn't work now.

 

Everyone\'s talking about Checklist. Here I\'m just wondering why Thrust looks morel like Acid storm than Thrust (less the psuedo conehead of course). 

 

I understand the frustration. 4 awesome movieverse figures have been leaked ‘officially’ in the past two weeks (grindor, thrust, jolt and sideways) that deserve to be on their own mantle rather than “just let the Asian market leak this”. With WFC series ending (thank god, it’s the only transformers show I haven’t managed to finish. And I didn’t like ‘animated’) I hope we get more studio series figures and not just a break before ROTB. One thing that’s guaranteed is we’ll get another G1 cast rendition... GIVE ME A NEW FIRE TRUCK PRIME, or something new. I’m only collecting SS because they’re different from the characters we already have had

 

The Bumblebee Movie Thrust is based on the Armada Thrust that was green instead of the G1 Thrust that was dark red. At least colorwise. The bot doesn't really resemble Armada Thrust except for the color.

 

Why use the Blitzwing head, and why not a cone head like in the movie? And why call Acid Storm Thrust?

 

The cone head hoodie on the toy matches the movie design. I'm not sure about the Blitzwing head being accurate, but I like it on this figure.

I give up on the Acid Storm/Thrust stuff, lol. I like G1 more than Armada anyways. 

 

pretty sure all the seekers had the blitzwing head in the movie, except starscream (now that i think about it, didn’t he have a visor?)

 

Acid Storm is not a conehead. Armada Thrust is a green conehead with a pilot's breathing mask-esque headsculpt. So...