I am getting tired of GeeWun as well. Actually I am getting tired of the hobby. I think I'll stop buying new figures after the last few figures coming in.

 

I'm still skeptical IDW counts as G1, seeing as how it's an entirely different storyline that doesn't overlap with G1 at all. We've gotten a number of 3P toys in IDW style, and so that's a big chunk of not-really-G1 right there.

We could stand some G2 in the form of a better Jhiaxus.

But to be honest the main reason I think G1 is so attractive is because the toys of my childhood were just bricks. Even in the official lines, MP Starsaber is only a slight improvement over the original. Compared to Beast Wars and everything after that, the G1 guys mostly sucked. Seeing them better realized is a huge improvement over what can be done to improve the later toylines.

Besides which, anything post-Energon had people selling kits and add-ons and Shapeways stuff to improve as they were coming out. Energon Bruticus with the FP stuff is pretty awesome, and the Energon Aerialbots are pretty great as well. Even the horrid Airachnid toy is rendered more palatable by some clever Shapeways bits.

 

G1 is the best so of course they are going to focus on that

 

this is the exact reason. Once you distill away subjective criteria like preference, nostalgia, etc....it comes down to this:

the portion of the fandom that has had the longest exposure to transformers (and by extension, the most brand loyalty) are currently in their 30s and 40s.

That means most of the fans in their 30s and 40s were exposed to G1, and identify Transformers mainly with G1.

Anyone older than their 30s and 40s make more money.

You cater to the market with the greater flexibility to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on reconfigurable action figures. All else equal...that's not people in their 20s.

In 15 years...it may be a different story. But either the cycle will renew, or I will have exited the hobby by then.

 

For me I don't care about collecting certain lines or toys. I just buy whatever Transformers look cool to me, and transform cool too as I'm not one of those 'display' kind of guys.

That said there is certainly WAY too much G1 stuff being released. I get why, and I don't hate the companies for doing it, but I can still be annoyed at the fandom for it...again.

 

I don't think that it's too much G1, I firmly think there is too little creativity. Reuse the same name over and over and over.. I'll take the original iteration and move on to the next one. I am liking these female dinobots that are advertised.. because they are new, I liked Windblade because she was new... I am not to hot on the 4,731st representation of Optimus prime because.. eh. I'm in on the MP figures for one good representation of the character then will move on.

 

G1 is where the demand is.

There is nearly zero interest for original creations.

Hasbro's CHUG efforts have made third party CHUG generally unappealing.

Right now it's legends or MP or niche (FOC)

 

As others have said, the focus is on G1 because that's where the money is.

However, Takara just opened the floodgates with MP Primal and Cheetor, and I expect we'll start seeing a lot more Beast Wars in the next year or two. There is proven interest in it now.

 

Being one of those 30-40 year olds, I can honestly say that the trade off of being "Catered to" by 3rd Party Companies vs being sore for a day or so if you Sneeze wrong isn't as great as it sounds.

 

I wouldn't complain about their being too much emphasis on G1, in fact they haven't even made a proper updated, possible MP version of Runamuck and Runabout, a true G1 Bruticus or Menasor (and not a likeness of them !), MP Arcee or even Doubledealer, even though I wouldn't get him !!!  
But there is never enough of a line that is continually becoming better and better due to technology !!
And for the original poster, while I am a G1 fan, I would love an MP styled Armada Optimus Prime, and not the trailer combiner version... or even the Galaxy Force Convoy fully kitted out !! That would be the bomb !!

 

Sheesh - you wouldn't even ASSOCIATE with someone because of that? I don't suppose you have friends who *gasp* aren't even Transformers collectors AT ALL?  

Anyway, I don't think the current third parties are focusing too much on G1, HOWEVER, I do think it would be nice for other TF incarnations to get a bit of love, too. By which, I mean I don't want all the G1-style stuff to stop, but why not have some Beast Wars or Animated or whatever stuff as well?

Surely there's a market for it... a much smaller market than G1, mind you... It might very well not be worth it for some companies to make, but it sure would be nice if they could.

 

I'm surprised that being based in China 3P companies aren't doing more movieverse stuff.

Well, that is unless you count Weijiang KOs as 'third party'.

 

 

No, I think the fact that a lot of the fan base has dumped CHUGs for MPs has more to do with 3P doing more MP releases than the fan base preferring Hasbro's crap to a higher-quality 3P release. CW Devy certainly hasn't stopped GT's Devy from being successful, and Maketoys Cross Dimension line is certainly generating plenty of buzz. People who prefer CHUG-scaled figures are still more than willing to go for a good 3P toy, they're just not as large a market as they used to be.

 

There was a time when Transformers was an ongoing story.
Optimus dies, a new guy comes in to take his place. He wanders off to do whatever, and a new crew is on board to lead the Autobots. Then time passes, and there somebody new at the helm, with new troops. Even Beast Wars was a continuation of that. New settings, new characters, ongoing story.

Then at some point, what was it, Armada?? At one point they decided to simply bring back their classic characters with the big time name recognition like Optimus Prime and Megatron, they would just endlessly recycle, revamp, retell the same story over and over again. Movies included. It's not like just the 3P makers are focused on G1, everything is.

 

Bingo. Once they're done refreshing all the G1 '84-86 characters, and subsequently updating the the early 3P/MP releases that suffer from learning-curve-itis, I'm done. Then they can make all the Beast Armada Beyformers in Disguise they want. I will have moved on to another muscle car restoration or something else consuming my time and disposable income.

 

Exactly... Please excuse my use of the Startrek name... But Transformers needs a bit of that new crew new setting new feel like each new Startrek show had injected into it. However I do think it is Hasbro clinging to it's IP names and product recognition that keeps it status quo. It's not a story as it is it's a rehashing of g1 over and over for the sake of selling g1 character toy redesign #xxx. I prefer the g1 versions of the overused characters as they are the purest versions of them... but I also really like new original characters when they are created... Vehicons Windblade Rattrap....

 

From a toy/ product perspective, G1 ('84-'86)needed all the help it could get. It has the oldest least articulated molds of all the transformers figures released. They are classic, vintage gems of nostalgia bricks that are great alternate modes (cars, trucks, jets, guns etc) but mostly suck as playable robot toys. Some of them didn't even have articulated arms!!!

 

While i consider that recycled stuff geewun and not G1, i think we agree here.
It would be nice if Hasbro would take some chances a bit more and got back to the G1 formulae of refreshing the main cast with new guys on a regular basis instead of making everything a recycled version of each other.
They have been doing this with RID, but a lot of self entitled people are trying to pressure them into going back to playing it safe with the rehashed stuff.

Another good reason for the focus on G1 characters. You can count Armada into the list of toys that need updated toys, G2 obviously and some other here and there from the UT. And maybe some Beast Wars toys and maybe the Animated characters, but there are far less of them than of the G1 and G2 characters that need better toys.