I can't shake the notion that so much of this line is aimed at the 5 year old age range and the movie itself is (barely) PG-13. My kids (4 & 5) thought the Dinobots looked awesome in the trailer but there is no way I'm taking them to see this due to the rest of the content.

 

hasbro can make a killing selling the decepticons in the movie. I mean a voyager junkheap, two head shockwave, track drones etc. cut the gimmick crap. The generations figures are selling well here. It's just the the one steps and shit that is hurting them. I mean seriously only one decepticon. Lockdown doesn't count. Give us more cons damnit. No leader buy guy either dafuq. You know much I busted my ass for a leader grimlock. I don't want effin stomp and bite or what ever it is.

 

I like the toys....if only I could find the damn things.


It was a seriously dumb move to have only Toys R Us selling the Deluxes and Voyagers in the UK (not to mention the regular Generations line which seems to have come to a halt here).

 

My Walmart is odd, the Deluxes in the main aisle are cleaned out, Crosshairs being the only shelf warmer. The extra bits at the end of the aisle and cardboard construct have less success, the kiddy stuff is not selling. The over simplification seems to have something to do with bad sales.
I am also curious if the lack of Decepticons has something to do with the loss of general sales. I recall the concept of giant robots transforming from things to punch each other being the big draw for me in the beginning.

 

Hasbro's dumb-assery extends to the uk where the only good figures (generations) are a exclusive to a chain which is usually out in the middle of nowhere, barely updates stock, and over stocks on the first wave which causes shelfwarming.

I'm gonna go sit in the corner and sulk.

 

The movie designs just aren't fun... Hasbro has had the problem of split personalities with regard to Transformers in recent years.
The movie figures have too many folds, and subpanels that divide designwise in 10,000 different ugly ways. This says, "hey this is just a machine," and robs it of its personality.
The Animated / Prime designs are too simplistic / cartoony, and don't look real, mostly, because of undefined faces. They look soft, and incomplete. You cannot suppend your disbelief.... Hasbro is doing good things in the Generations line, but it hasn't been their priority. Even the new Jetfire seems a little simple to me, though.

3rd Party designers are outstripping them. Yes, Hasbro has to have more saftey tests, but I'm talking about aesthetics. Their most recent combiners cut a lot of corners. Abominus was abominable, and not in a good way. If they would have just filled in plastic mold gaps in the creatures, it would have made the difference between the Big Lots looking knockoff that came out, and something that actually looks like a whole, and complete figure.

 

How are different aesthetics part of the problem? Hasbro just can't rely on the classic G1 esque style in the TF franchise forever because that style eventually would wear thin. Just because you're not a fan of how the movies,Animated and Prime does their style doesn't make them bad. It just means you have a different taste. If Hasbro didn't try out different styles every now and then like what the Beast Era and like I mentioned,Movies,Animated and Prime then it would have still falling into stagnation and trouble in the public because it refused to evolve just as much as in the state it's in now. Not everyone's into the classic style.

 

I don't know if you've seen it, but this one isn't that bad. I still wouldn't take a 4 or 5 year old to it, but compared to RoTF this one is like a nickelodeon cartoon. It wouldn't be too hard to skip the inappropriate parts on a DVD or blue ray.

 

Over simplified transformation (PERIOD).

Regardless of the "hate" for bayformers, this line is way too oversimplified, and as a previous gentleman commented, the shelves are full of mostly non-transformable Transformers.

Regardless of your generation, these toys just suck. And we should have see it coming with the last round of Generations (classics) toys...holey plastic and simple transformation..UUUuuugggg...

 

My area must be different.

It seems like every time I visit the Transformers section in TRU or Target there's a kid or family there buying toys.

All of the lines around here have been seeing moderate sell-through. One Step Changers and Power Battlers maybe not so much, but they're good toys.

 

It is not just these toys that suck. All of the movie toys Hasbro has been making the last two years have been total crap. Hasbro has decided to go cheap on their movie toys lines and they started this back with their Avengers toy line. They have carried that business model over to all of their action figure lines and as a result us collectors are not buying their garbage. I collect many different toy lines and the last two years hasbro has just been putting out garbage and calling it their Movie toy lines.

 

This one is by far the worst. Autobots threatening to kill one another, smoking, cursing, murdering humans, Ratchet getting torn apart...yeah. Not for kids.

Maybe for some parents' kids I suppose, but I wouldn't take anyone under ten to see AOE.

 

In my case, I just have not bought anything Transformers related for over a year now because of the price increases (and because I didn't like the Prime designs, except for a a handful, but that doesn't mean that they weren't good-just look at the content of my digibashes).

But I agree with the conscientious saying that I believe that a majority of the problem is that there is just too much merchandise in this line, and it is overwhelming, to parents and children. You can choose transformers that transform, or stay in one form, or have a gimmick. To the parents, they see this as a money trap waiting to happen. In addition to this, the merchandising is all over the place, with such releases as Energon Grimlock without a Swoop, hardly any decepticons, and inserting random Beast Wars guys. It seems like Hasbro is planning a market census, seeing which types of toys sell.

But I would have to agree with the poor marketing decisions of the retailers. My closest Walmart buys like twenty cases of the first wave, and nothing more, and ends up clearencing the rest around Christmas. There was one point were I was worried that there wasn't going to be a transformers section there any longer since they basically skipped over Generations, and had only three Prime legend class figures on the shelves. But oddly enough, with the new stuff, they have mixed in wave one of the new generations legends.

I actually like the movie designs, and I am greatly disappointed with the Grimlock toys and with AoE and DoTM downsizing. I love the leader's robot mode, but cringe in disgust at his "trex" mode. As far as downsizing is concerned, it was frustrating that they 3 and 4 movie toys did not fit in with 1 and 2 movie toys.

Amen! Hallelujah brotha'!

 

It's very simple. The brand is sinking fast because they haven't made a proper Generations Repugnus. Listen to the fans Hasbro, but not the other fans I mean this one in particular.

 

I didn't notice until recently, but my local stores are really running out of generations. I was in my toys r us three days ago. The only generations deluxes they had besides the two packs were one strafe and one crosshairs, and I bought the strafe.

 

tf4 even turned bumblebee into an asshole. worst movie ever.

 

You know, this article kind of makes me happy. I'm hoping this is a wake-up call to Hasbro to stop making crap toys and actually make ones we want. Even children aren't buying into this nonsense.

 

I understand that there are different opinions on aesthetics, and I like that, but Hasbro has been pushing the current styles (movie, Animated, Prime) for several years now. I think the pendulum of preference has swung back to wanting more Classic like items, and Masterpieces. At least for many adults, most prefer the “Classics,” or War for Cybertron style. One only has to look at the average amount of viewers that are looking at the 3rd Party Toy Forum, versus the Hasbro Toy Forum. Lately it's been close to 100 more viewers at any particular time. TF Con's 3rd party display generated more buzz than Hasbro BotCon's.

 

Bravo sir. i commend you. I wouldn't know this working retail seeing all the parents that buy m rated games and gta for their little bastard kids.

 

Well yeah there is that, I was referring to the cussing, crude "humor", and sexual references so prevalent in the first trilogy (especially RoTF). And aside from ratchet, most children today are exposed to everything on your list by around age 8. I think the first time I heard the f word used was in middle school, and it was supposed to be a really good school.