If true, I wonder if that would spell trouble for 3p too. My (simplified) understanding is that Hasbro looks the other way because 3p sells to a market segment they don't touch and its not worth the trouble to try and shut down. But if Hasbro shifts to making all it's money off of IP, they'd have incentive to get really aggressive about protecting their licenses.

 

I think the situation doesn't change, because 3P does not work in media. Hasbro being more interested in making their own games and cartoons and what not isn't really affected by "Another 3P Dinobot Set, this time in MICRO-LEGENDS Scale!" or whatever and at the end of the day it's still gonna be a fool's errand of dealing with chinese legal system.

 

Situation potentially changes Dramatically - Hasbro would be forced by Takara Tomy to defend the IP as they would continue to release. If Hasbro abandoned it, it would be a possible violation of their agreement with them & thus a lawsuit. It would also impact their products in other formats because you can't abandon part of an IP it's an all or nothing stance for holding it if they intend to go forward or no product they produce is subject to protection.

Hasbro is further incented to finally capture a piece of that income by suing, winning a settlement & then forcing them to license the IP, making it like the Star Wars contract they have atm - making money based on production & not sales. Basically, a chance to finally see 3rd party/KO's go legit.

 

You know tfw2005 forums isn't the best place to be discussing this topic when within the first 3 pages we already had people rambling about strongly related topics such as:
1) TF comics
2) Gundam
3) My Little Pony
4) Having a hard time finding Velocitron Cosmos

 

You're lucky. This is perhaps the most tame thread discussion we have had to date.

 

I don't think anyone even read the article or saw Hasbro's recent investor reports, because in none of them did Hasbro report declining revenue due to weak interest or sales, as much as they reported problems with revenue margins due to increasingly more expensive shipment/inventory.

 

You say that whilst they literally make 90% of Revice shit to become PBandai

Their stuff is definitely good but they would get a LOT more money if their shit just wasn’t some exclusive

 

If you were to look at the market in a broader sense, you could come to the same conclusion that I have. The most important aspect of business is lying. When in doubt, tell a lie. When not motivated to do something, tell a lie to excuse it. When you want something, tell a lie to get it. If I were to submit a resume for an executive job, it would be the words "I love to lie" in size 720 font and absolutely nothing else. Hasbro, like any other company, when faced with a problem, will do absolutely everything except what is actually necessary to solve it and then tell us it's unsolvable. Or as Judge Judy used to say, "piss on us and tell us it's raining."

Edit: Ugh, I'm just in a grumpy mood. I'm so tired of having to pay more for less just because and the unmitigated gall of rich assholes forcing what they want to sell instead of offering what I want to buy. I was at a restaurant yesterday that used to be really good where they cut their menu from eight pages to one and try to claim that three types of hamburger is a "wide selection." Also the dingbats at Dodge decided to discontinue the Challenger and Charger to sell electric cars because there's _totally_ an overlap between those market segments. Makes as much sense as discontinuing them to move into fucking breakfast cereal. Guess who everybody that actually works for a living will be bailing out _again_ in a few years. Why is corporate/government leadership so full of people that seem to start out the day by drinking a tall glass of lead and slamming their head in a car door?

 

You, sir, have my respect    

 

I mean I don't mind? As an American I have access to P Bandai. The God Gundam upgrade set has been available for a few days. P Bandai always gets three or four go-arounds at product. Plus with the Gunpla drought it's not like there's anything to buy in person.

 

I'm gonna point out that MM's didn't do well because they were more a token "give the poop flinging monkeys something G1.5 to shut them up" than a serious effort to actually understand what made the OG's so special and quirky fun... they tried to force Micromasters and Targetmasters together into the same product and created something that instead of being good as one or the other sucked at both.

 

For the most part the target master gimmick was unobtrusive. The big problem was they added too much articulation to something that falls over ridiculously easy, especially when the bottoms of the feet are slanted slightly for transformation. The end result is something that needs to lean forward to stand, and falls if you look at them too much.