With all the talks about these two toys being cancelled or not cancelled, I've been asking Fan to Fan to check back with Takara whether they can get a definite answer.

Today I got the following response from F2F:

Because I know some of you (Hi, Phazer!) will still insist "nah, it's just one online store", I also asked Doug Dlin to check back with Hirofumi Ichikawa. I hope I will get an answer from him soon as well.

 

UGH!!!!!!! The ONLY reason the Ram is Prime is that Takara insisted that it be Convoy. Now those fuckers cancel it!? We could have had Trailbreaker damnit!!!!

 

If this is true, which seems more than likely now, there are not words to describe my hatred towards takara right now, they forced this mould to be Prime even though it looks nothing like him body wise and now they cancel now its to late for Hasbro to make it some one else.

 

My sentiments exactly, thanks a lot Takara. No really, Thanks.

IT just HAD to be prime didn't it.


Assholes.

 

No big loss for me, but it does suck that the only reason we were forced to have an alt prime doesn't matter now.
Now we've seen prime in packaging though is it definitely too late for the character of the mold to be changed?

 

Yeah it's well into production.
               

 

well at least theres the chance now that we may get a trailbreaker remold, with takara it'd have to have been black convoy or whatever

 

It's sounding like Takara might be through with BT & BTA (for now at least).

 

yeah! with those Prime-like arms, and Prime-like legs, and Prime-like head... he looks nothing like Prime! screw you Takara!

 

Dude, Hasbro said their selves that the Ram was originally intended to be "someone else" and that it was Takara's call to make it Convoy because they don't have pick up trucks in Japan.

 

I'm kind of glad. However much diecast is used, the Ram mold is still lacking.

Plus the whole Black Convoy/Scourge/Nemesis Prime thing is overplayed. Plus, I've never been convinced that the diecast and prettier packaging was a justification for the massive price difference.

Takara have done me a favor as far as im concerned.

 

Yes yes, Hasbro said. You seem to be placing a lot of trust into something Hasbro said. The only place I remember this being mentioned was in this thread and it was paraphrased. "Was a compromise...Hasbro wanted a truck, Takara said they don´t have trucks in Japan but they´d make it if it was Prime so the Japanese fans would be willing to buy it." Nothing mentioned about it being another character. Maybe Hasbro said it more clearly that Takara put their foot down on the matter at BotCon but I wasn't there so I don't know.

For all we know Hasbro decided to go it alone with both the designing and engineering of the figure and Takara would just sell it in Japan but since Hasbro did such a poor job Takara decided not to sell it at all.

 

I'm sorry, I forgot that Takara is infallible.

 

To bash Hasbro over this is nonsense. With mergers ALWAYS comes strict spending and business running practices until the new roles of everybody are more clearly defined.

Blame Hasbro for Prime? Blame Takara for the mess that is Alt Prowl and his silly legs.

 

That's pretty funny for someone so set to blame one company to be lambasting another for bias. When all he did was question the accuracy of everyone's interpretation of that quote. But whatever.

The toy was still conceptually a Prime, and so he shall be.

 

Hasbro rarely design and engineer a toy all by themselves.

Certainly not high-profile toys such as Binaltech/Alternators, even less so when they are intended for a Japanese release as well.

The only toys that are purely Hasbro designs with zero Takara input are Energon Mega Dinobot and the European "Power Masters".

 

Takaratomy just went through a merger. A lot of stuff is getting delayed a few months.

Phazer

 

another famous toyline from Takara will still get releases after March

Microman will see it's action figures grown with Ryukendo, Evangelion, Acroyear and Microforce figures will be released starting in April

so apparantly it may only be Transformers that wont be getting new releases, and not because the Tomy merge
Maybe Hasbro has something to do with it? Afterall, Hasbro is Takara's partner for TFs, whileTakara works alone on Microman

 

Thank you.

I sure it was Prime form the design phase on, but before that, when the two companies said "lets make a Transformer out of a Dodge Ram" one side said "Let's make it [insert name here] and the other said, "Well we don't have many pick-ups here so it needs to be an icon of a character so it sells well."

Thus Alt Prime/BT Ginrai was born.

I am not saying that this design was made with a different head on it originally, or that Takara bullied Hasbro into making it Prime, but what I am saying is that there is a chance that if it was known from the beginning that this would (might) be a US only release that it may have been a character other than Optimus Prime.

At the end of the day, this is a disappointment for me, I already have an Optimus Prime that I feel fits nicely with my Alternators and that this was a missed opportunity to make a new version of a character that would be more fitting of this alt mode.

It's a disappointment, not a reason to burn down Takara and slaughter their children but a reason to say, "Damn it Takara, why, why did want it to be "Convoy" or Ginrai if you are not even going to release it in Japan."

All in all it's not the end of the world, collecting alts is after all just a hobby for me, but I do have every right in the world to be miffed at Takara for their involvement in this.




-D_C not a Hasbro fanboy, or Takara hater, just a guy who likes cool Transforming robot toys.

 

"I got an official reply from Takara. Both BT-17 & BTA-04 have been cancelled, no plans on releasing new ones either at this point."

no plans on releasing new ones? I'm assuming BT's all together. Damn.