I know this thread may come across as "wah wah wah", and a few people giving me the "if you don't like it, don't buy it" remark, but I hadn't seen a thread dedicated to this topic pop up in recent memory and wanted to hear everyone else's opinion on it. So why not?

Construct-Bots, Flip-Changers, One Step, RPMs, Titan Guardians, Robo Fighters, Bot Shots, costumes....you get the idea.

With the exception of Kreo (and from what I've seen, that's mostly due to the appeal of Kreons), I don't really see a lot of Transformers fans of any ages really interested in these other product lines as Hasbro thinks they are. Yet, it seems Hasbro is expanding further into these lines within the past few years. I don't see products of these lines moving off shelves (or if so, VERY slowly).

In my experience, it's always the main line of Transformers (meaning figures from the Deluxe, Voyager, Leader size classes...I'll throw in Cyberverse in there as well) that seem to sell the best, not just with collectors but with kids as well. A handful of times I've seen kids walk through the toy aisles during my "toy hunts" and either laugh at, ignore, or seem disappointed with these secondary lines, and instead buy or ask their parents to buy figures from the main lines.

Think about it. How many times have you gone into a Toys R Us and seen the shelves of costumes and Optimus Prime voice changers just sit there for months, even after clearance? Or in recent memory those huge non-Transforming Titan Guardian figures?

Am I saying that no one likes these products? Of course not. There are very young kids who like Transformers and I can see the appeal in buying one of the more kid-friendly versions of a character, or wanting the Optimus Prime helmet to look cool/roleplay. I understand that. But in my experience of collecting Transformers and visiting the toy aisles of major retailers on a weekly/biweekly basis, the main line figures always seem to outsell these secondary lines by a fair margin. And there seems to be a lot more of these secondary line figure on the shelves than people seem to be interested in buying. From what I've seen from people talking on here, it's hardly an isolated case where I live. To me, that seems like wasteful investing in products that don't sell nearly as well.

What do you all think? Do these figures have an appeal like Hasbro believes they do, or do you think the fat needs to be trimmed?

 

I am with you. I watch that stuff sit on shelfs until it ends up on clearance. I think some of the AOE one steps and power battlers(or whatever they are) are an attempt by Hasbro to trick unknowing parents into buying the wrong figure for their kids. The packaging is way too close to the mainline deluxes. Also I think without any media(comics, movies, or TV show) to back it up, the toys fail. Beast Hunters and the not onscreen Prime characters almost all ended up on clearance or at discount stores. Hasbro FAILS - Built to Rule(so bad most of you probably don't even know it), Kre-O (except the microns, nobody seems really interested and they go to discount stores, Construct-Bots (ended up at discount stores before even being out very long). Clearly Transformers fans want TRANSFORMERS, not Lego and Bionicle ripoffs.

 

Granted, several here will voice that they do not care for 2ndary products like the one you mentioned. And despite any (lack of) success with said product, those companies are attempting to cater to a motley variety of consumers with a special place for their main target audience: the kids.

Many of us won't give a damn about that stuff. I, for sure, am one of these said people. But I won't condemn any company for wanting to branch out into other branding (such as Lego and what-not) as it is another venue for them to reach out to kids (and thus their parents $$).

Are we estatic about it? No. But then again the world wasn't created to satisfy just "us". If any company sees a chance to make $$, short or long term, they will go for it and in the end that's pretty much the bottom line: Them making $$

 

I have bought way too much kreo.....at least 2 of each.....for the build sets not the kreons.
the construct bots look what I made thread will verify just how many of us fans have branched out into the line, again multiple sets bought by many, myself included.
my kids have hundreds of bot shots, just started getting them recue bots stuff and they love oversized gimmick toys....... the rotf devastator (big ass solid none transforming light up figure) they love em, and Hasbro makes toys that sell.......just cause you don't buy them, or members of your social circle doesn't mean they don't sell. kids love gimmicks and sublines, adult collectors like generations and main line continuities of the brand.
the demographic is changing, younger kids are in the target audience now, hence rescue bots, bot shots etc. older kids only want technology based gifts these days, games, consoles, phones etc.

my point, as a parent I buy the stuff that supposedly shelf warms, as do my parent friends, shops restock then clearance after a while. in the modern world stuff is overpriced so when it clearences it still makes a profit.

 

I used to be really into Constructbots, but my enthusiasm for that line has been killed by certain product not coming out here in the UK and also the design decisions taken for the AoE ones.

Apart from that I don't really much follow the other secondary product lines. The only times I ever pick that kind of thing up is dirt cheap secondhand at car boot sales.

Although I understand why Hasbro have branched out, I feel perhaps they've spread themselves a bit too thin and somewhat neglected the main line of late. I certainly wouldn't miss any of it if all the secondary lines suddenly vanished. It's very disheartening to regularly go into stores and all the TF product I can find is the secondary stuff.

But I know I mean nothing to Hasbro and it's all about the kids, but it really does knock the edges off my long-term fandom of TF when I can often go months without anything TF in stores I actually want to spend my coin on.

 

If Hasbro loses enough money through it, then they'll stop. If they've been doing it for a couple years now, we can only assume that these secondary lines actually sell a lot better than we probably think...

 

I'm pretty sure that hate it or not some of this shit has to be selling, Hasbro may indeed be run by a bunch of caked-up Barbary Apes these days but even they can read focus group reports and sales figures.

Do I care about any of it? No. Do I want any of it? No. Do I worry that somehow it must be taking some sort of resource/effort away from stuff if rather have......? Sometimes. Do I decry others if it floats their boats........not really no.

I would rather everything was an MP Level work of pure artistic divinity but strangely enough I have figured out that the world is unlikely to reward me with everything I want all the time.

So it goes........

 

yup, as I said kids eat up novelty stuff.......
my 5yr old and 3yr old sons do.

 

The 1-Steps and Flip-and-Change figures are a Godsend from Hasbro to parents.

 

The biggest problem I've seen since the movie line release,
That toys aimed at very young , are over running the shelves
And I don't think the stores know the difference between
Them and the generations versions so their only getting
The easyformers not knowing there's two different lines

 

the problem for me is the amount of stuff that's secondary. there doesn't need to be so much. and to just do away with something like the human alliance line is rather lame.. especially considering one of the reasons it didn't sell well was because hasbro royally screwed it up by releasing repaints of bumblebee and skids in the first wave of dotm.

there's just too much stuff. and it's obvious, to me anyways, that the budget was used for quantity over quality. rather than focusing on a few different things and making those the best they could be, they decided to focus on a lot of shit and we've all seen how that's turned out.

hopefully this is just a bump in the road and the next line will be different.

so far, in the stores that i've been to, the main line figures have moved rather well, but the rest of the stuff just sits there.

on another note.. sure, there maybe a constructbots thread.. but those people sure as hell don't live in my area.. before the targets in my area had to get rid of them.. i counted at least 42 sets on clearance in one of them.. that's insane. there may be a select few people who like them, but those don't sell well at all here.

 

I buy all sorts of tat - I just only buy it when it's on sale and if it's really naff then it goes in the carbootsale buy category - I don't buy statues but that is my only hard and fast rule I even have a few Bottlecap bots - I'd never have actively collected them though.

Most of the Generations Age of Extinctions is getting ignored not out of choice - but simply as Hasbro UK are foolish and decide they didn't want peoples money. And i'm not sure I can be bothered to import them - so the Generations movie toys I'll have to reluctantly pay £10.50 or such for in a TRU sale - even though they are not even worth that to me and frankly paying like more than £17.00 for a bog standard Voyager disgusts me.

It's a real pain that I didn't have to buy a single Hasbro UK Prime toy for full price - every single one came into stock on clearance and I was regularly picking Voyagers up for like £11.00 - this time I might have to pay anything up to £25.00 for toys that are not as good. once I've bought just a few things like that I could have bought a combiner instead.

So with math like that the only thing I can conclude is "Ignore AOE toys" and buy them when buyer regret sets in from other people and in the meantime buy Third party.

Hasbro has pushed me out of their bed and into the loving arms of the third parties - silly Hasbro.

 

To take this from another angle, I wonder how often non-transformer fans will buy some of this "secondary" loot because they are into that genre of toy. There are probably costume collectors, building toy collectors, motorized car collectors who will buy some of this stuff not because it is transformers, but because of the kind of toy it represents.

 

I don't have a problem with the secondary line stuff, I don't buy any of it apart from the odd bit here and there, but I do object to the fact that all the lines now have the exact same packaging. That's going to catch a lot of people out, especially once it all starts getting mixed together on the shelves. Must be a nightmare for the shop staff as well, 'Is the the generations Drift, the one step changer drift, the flip and change Drift, or, what the fuck actual Drift is this? I'll just stick it on this shelf with all the other blue cars.'

 

my sons like the constructibots, kreos, and the bot shots. so yes, I've bought them all.

some of their secondary stuff for the new movie looks bad compared to what they had back for the first movie. Those pull back cars front he first movie that popped open were great. and the simple to transform guys from rotf were better looking than the new stuff in my opinion.

 

I sometimes enjoy the secondary stuff more than the mainlines.

Kre-o and Construct-bots might not be the most serious lines, but they're a lot of fun

 

I don't have a lot of interest in secondary lines, but I can see the appeal of some of it. Constructabots look pretty cool, but they're not for me. I'll sometimes pick up Kre-O sets and am addicted to the Microchanger and Combiner sets.

I'm both sad and glad that Bot Shots died though... I bought too many of those damn things, and would have continued to do so if they hadn't changed up the formula and then died.

 

Ha, I think the OP has it wrong, One Step, Flip Changers and Power Battlers are probably considered 'mainline' by Hasbro.

As for the question, it depends on what it is. If it's a good well thought out product I can dig it, but if it's not (or totally not aimed for my demographic, ie, kids movie costumes) then I just ignore them. I won't actively treat it with distain though. A good example of what I mean is Botshots, which went from a well designed product to a not well designed one in the space of a year or so.

Botshots used to be great super deformed self transforming representations which all followed a uniform aesthetic, ie, they all looked heavily related to each other. So I bought quite a few of them, enough for a decent game with multiple players at any rate.

But then Hasbro did exactly what Spinmaster did with Bakugan, they shoehorned in one too many gimmicks (Spinshots are awful, a bit like the jumping Bakugan) dialled down the quality (where before their launchers transformed into trailers, later ones didn't) and threw series uniformity out of the window.

Crucially though, their worst mistake was the stats on the figures themselves. Over a period of a couple of years Bakugan power numbers went from sub 500 to 1000, which meant it was impossible to win the game (even with card boosts) unless you kept buying new toys.

Botshots did pretty much the same thing, the whole point of them was they were supposed to be cool pieces that you played with in a game, and the paper/scissors/stone game kinda helped allieviate it but the little stats became more and more inflated too, coupled with all the other 'gimmickshots' meant the game became unplayable! The game was supposed to be the core of the toyline but somewhere along the way it got totally lost thus killing the main reason to buy these things.

Thusly it went from a 'subline' I dug to something ignored.

So yeah, I have a few bits from RPM's, Stealth Force and wotnot. It all depends.

 

Didn't like them when I was 9, don't like them now. Even non-show characters its taken until I was older to be ok with the fact I have a CHUG Tread Bolt and Countdown but not a CHUG Bee or Ratchet. The only bot shot I ever bought was because he is (as far as I can tell) a error release. Even the activators took the fun of sitting on my bed transforming the fellow Voyager Starscream I'd gotten so while I'd get a Animated Activators Bee for scale if I cared about that stuff at all before I turned 13. I wanted to like Kreo but the '11 ones often crumbled in my hand and they never shipped the later stuff over until this year. I definitely don't care for one step changers now, and theyre not even as nice as the activators. The construct bots certainly aren't selling here and I only considered Soundwave on clearance and then couldn't bring myself to buy him.
In short, no they're mostly pointless and the construct bots just aren't for me.

 

I like RPMs :3 They're cute...