So I got to thinking the other day, playing with my Chomp and Stomp Grimlock. (Which I'm having a lot of fun with, btw, as it's encouraged me to pick up some of the one steps and they are surprisingly done! Check out onestep hound at the very least!) That at an $80 MSRP, and massive 20 inch robot mode, he's basically Hasbro's "giant scale big ticket toy" for this year. The big one that kids are meant to spot on the shelf and be their parents for Christmas. Seems reasonable, right? But it got me thinking that basically that's what Metroplex was for last year: Giant expensive neat looking toy for Christmas, and act as a play set for your other TF toys. (Which C&S Grimlock also does to a lesser degree.) Once I saw that, I suddenly realized that C&S Grimlock is basically filling Metroplex's "slot" for this season. It may not be a "Titan" class, but it's doing the same sort of thing from a marketing perspective. So What I'm getting as is that a pattern may be emerging: Hasbro doing one large, big ticket expensive TF toy a year, revealed at toy fair and dropping in the third quarter. As such, I think "Titan class" may have more life to it. Now, as C&S grimlock is a price point reduction on Metroplex, we may see varying degrees of size and complexity for each year's "big ticket." And they may alternate back and forth between Generations and Rid. A retool of Metroplex may yet be the best option for another Titan class, (I'm really warming up to the idea that someone suggested of retooling him into Tidal Wave and emphasizing the carier mode,) But some other new, slightly smaller toolings along the line of C&S Grimlock may be up. Like say, how would you all feel about an 18-20 inch high Omega supreme that turned into an updated version of the rocket base that would work with the Legend class figures like Metroplex did? I think I would be up for it! What do you all think of the "big ticket toys" for the years to come?
Titan Class needs Trypticon, Unicron and Primus at least in new molds. Necrotitian, SG Metroplex ect, for the Metro Mold are easily possible to do as well. I would like to see the entire Guiding Hand done in Titan scale, so that's a few years of wishful thinking if they continue a trend of one biggie a year.
The question that has gone unanswered is whether or not Metroplex sold enough at retail, and at etailers, to inspire Hasbro to do another Titan class figure, even if its a redeco. I would dearly love to see a Trypticon figure for the Titan class. I'd even take a Metro or Necro titan. Just give me a base the size of Metroplex for my Decepticons.
I would actually like to see a reissue of Metroplex. Being sold during Christmas time was good for sales, but it was it hard to get a hold for me personally due to its price. If Hasbro decides to release trypticon, I think they should also bring back metroplex to stores as well.
I think this may be the deciding factor more than anything, and we may not like the answer since Target and Walmart, etc. didn't sell Metroplex stateside. The only brick and mortar big box store I know of that sold it was TRU, plus etailers like BBTS and Amazon.
I would guess the only way we would see a new titan class is if Hasbro did it the way Takara did it for certain exclusives....give a window for orders....then produce the product based on the amount of orders obtained during the order window period. I could see a metroplex redeco working this way....but not a totally new mold. and since hasbro is ran by monkeys high on crack rock......don't hold your breath.
Titan Metroplex was real? Never saw it...ever. Not even my Toys R Us had one ever. Actually i noticed when ROTF came out it was the devastator but hardly any stores around my area. I wouldn't be surprised if Chomp and Stomp Grimlock is never seen. Maybe the stores are thinking they don't want giant toys sitting on their shelves.....yeah i am probably wrong.
I wouldn't be surprised if Hasbro is going this route now as they do it yearly it seems for their Star Wars stuff. Anyways, I highly doubt the Titan Metroplex sold well enough for them to do it. I think I saw it a grand total of...twice, at TRU, and at that period I was going to TRU regularly. I ended up getting mine at Costco. With only TRU selling it and Walmart and Target skipping, I just don't see it having the sales necessary to continue with that line. Then again, stranger things have happened.
Walmart and Target @ first said they would carry Metroplex when the idea of a Titan class transformer was pitched to the different retail entities... BUT when that fucktard box was made and it came time for people to see how much retail space it would take up....Target and Walmart declined to sell it. And that is way a part of Hasbro's fault for looking to deal with the retail issues of a large box. They easily could have made an endcap display that would accommodate that giant box so the shelf space complaints would not be an issue. They used endcap displays for the 2007 TFTM exclusives for walmart...and endcap displays for the exclusive ROTF sets that target carried and also for the target exclusive Beast hunters: predacons rising line. That would have made Metroplex getting carried everywhere a more of a positive possibility anyway.
I just don't see how you would have made this thing any smaller unless Metroplex was a put-it-together deal. The box HAD to be that big just to fit all the stuff in it, and even then one of the arms had to be detached.
Yes the box had to be that size. BUT hasbro could have helped with a end cap display to hold the boxes instead of just counting on retail companies to just jam it onto a retail shelf. that giant falcon star wars toy that came out years ago had the same problem....it sucked up too much shelf space. Hasbro should of had their marketing people work on some sort of way to put in an endcap to hold the metroplex boxes... Besides, if you have it on the end cap facing the traffic pattern inside the store....it would have more prominent display value and would have been one of the first toys the public would see on the walking towards the toy isle(area).
Just put them in the store room and put ONE on display. You can hardly miss the largest TF ever made. Take a paper ticket to the counter and they bring one from storage. Problem solved.
I, personally, would love to see Trypticon, but since major retailers didn't carry Metroplex (Aside from having to order online from their sites) I don't see that happening any time soon.
That's too bad. I would have immediately bought a Trypticon. It seems he sold at the retailers he was released (unlike, say, certain masterpieces and platinums which are shelf-warming at my TRU). But I guess with something like that, it needs to be bought by more retailers.
