It would be great to see Hasbro and TakaraTomy release a Special Edition Outback to raise funds for the bushfire efforts here in Australia. It would be a great way to engage the Transformers community and raise awareness.

Hell, if they still have the molds floating around in storage, throw in a redeco of BW Snarl and Iguanus while they're at it.

 

It's not a bad idea. However, production of figures, especially special releases pushed forward for the moment of urgency, aren't cheap. Then to produce in small number to warrant the desire of "got to get it now and make a difference..."

To produce even a limited run and then gamble on selling them all to break even on the initial expense before donating profits [even with the "limited run, goodwill" factor] is risky.

If the intent is to support Australia, which it should be, they'd be better off just donating money and writing it off on their taxes.

 

All great points.

A straight-up donation would be an incredible gesture, but something to engage the fandom would be that much more so.

 

Oh, I agree. I just don't know that, from the business side of it, compassion can outweigh, well, the business of it.

T-Shirts and teddy bears are cheaper and easier to produce because they typically just need a little bit of silk screening or extra stitching. Even a recolor of Outback requires getting out the tools, finding the color scheme, getting the card art and pushing back production on something else.

It can be done but by the time they get into production you'll be two months down the road or another hundred thousand or so in expenses. Money which would be better used to send directly to the fire fighters and various other disaster support groups.

There's also the other side of it. And it sounds terrible but when you do something like this for Australia, the next time some island country has an earthquake or volcano, there's going to be a "how about us?" demand.

Personally, I think that the most brilliant thing I have seen/heard of by radio so far was that Instagram personality who was offering photos of herself for proof ten dollar donations. Don't quote me on the figure but I think she raked in some 300k in contributions before Instagram shut her down.

 

Haha, yes, there have certainly been some inventive ways of raising funds.

 

Here we are. Though $700k seems a bit exaggerated. But possible, I suppose.

 

Perfect example of appealing to a fandom  

 

Getting the figures made and shipped before a crisis would be damn near impossible, however they could do a sort of croud funding. Order now and a percentage will go to help then you get you toy once they're made.

 

I myself have donated quite a bit but i would definitely support this as well. Put out a repaint of inferno/hotspot in CFA colours and a Skullcruncher for Outback to fight.

hell ill buy a boxset