Certainly enough people bought them to cover the (IMHO) limited number that Hasbro made. Which, again, is good for Hasbro. Again, if you're one of the people who thinks the prices charged were reasonable, we're not really in disagreement about what Hasbro can accomplish. It's just that there are a lot of folks who think that reissues, being of molds that already exist (or, at worst, remade from designs that already exist) should be cheaper than they usually are. That said, it's also the case that, if Hasbro would make MORE of them, they could probably sell them at a lower price. But at that point, we do get into the question of how well "old" molds will sell vs. all-new molds. Hasbro's tended to be more conservative on the numbers when it comes to reissues, for good or ill.
Yes, they can. It's the same way KO companies make KO's. Unless they have access to the digital files, but else the new mould is created by making a negative from the original parts. Thing is, you never get a perfect copy that way: details become less clear, joints can become too loose of too tight, and parts don't fit properly. Things you want to correct before turning them into very expensive steel moulds. Traditionally a cast is made from the existing toy, then a resin prototype formed from this. This prototype is inspected and where needed changed to work: there's shrinkage and other elements to take care off including sharpening details. Possibly an in-between mould is made to do some tests with new adaptions. When everything is right a new mould is made for production. The whole process should be more digital these days -- scanning the object and changing them in the computer -- but it still requires work and thus time and thus money (and the original should also be digitally available). Thus the only question is: does HasTak think it's worth it? Sometimes they very clearly do. Others apparantly not. And some choices pointed out in this thread, are indeed baffling. KO companies often skip a lot of this fine tuning, which is why KO's sometimes are more tight or more loose than the officials. HasTak cannot afford to have that quality so they have to do this fine tuning. Perhaps a thing to also take into consideration are safety regulations. Regulations have become much more strict since the 80's. Would a figure like Swoop pass today's safety regulations with his thin and/or pointy parts? If not, then they either have to limit the market and only sell to adults making it less viable and more difficult to sell through stores, or change the design to fit the regulations.
Ironically, since several years ago (more than a decade, actually), many fans are looking for 3P and 4P products because of their better quality. Sadly, the times of high quality official products are in the past. We live in strange times, in which the better quality is found with unofficial products.
Starscream images via a post in Transformers Generation One G1 FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/557159560981166/permalink/5993950847301983/?mibextid=Nif5oz
Won't it be awesome if the other two knucklehead goons Tc and Sw got the facial treatment too? Leaning toward Ss
Are these out yet? Because I pre-ordered both from Walmart but I'm pretty sure the release date is still mid-January.
I wish they’d remold Hot Rod an animation accurate spoiler and Starscream accurate null-rays. (Really surprised they’ve never done that between all the reissues) these colors look pretty great, but not enough to get me to throw down again, but something truly “new” just might. nice as these boxes are, man the internal presentation could not look anymore budget.
I'll enjoy picking up that starscream when it inevitably goes on super clearance like every other g1 Walmart reissue.