Transformers Generations: War for Cybertron Earthrise

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by Jtprime17, Oct 1, 2019.

  1. MehWave

    MehWave Well-Known Member

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    Ughhh. I'm with Thew on this one - time to rethink Arcee's design and/or altmode. There's just no way to cleanly get past that backpack without putting the bulk somewhere else. I would wholeheartedly support a switch of emphasis to her TF: Prime design.
     
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  2. DaveWire

    DaveWire Well-Known Member

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    I kinda prefer CBT Arcee\'s more stylized body but ER Arcee\'s more G1 cartoon accurate head. I wonder if they\'re swappable.
     
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  3. T-Hybrid

    T-Hybrid Gnodab Kidult (He/Him)

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    Which would be an option if Earthrise (and WfC in general) weren't specifically about leveraging the original animation designs.
     
  4. Fafnir72

    Fafnir72 XYxInfinity

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    I'm late and all but, Arcee v2 has a false breast panel compared to the Legends which actually folded in. The advantage of the former giving her a waste swivel. So a give and take from her previours iteration.
     
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  5. carnerd3000

    carnerd3000 "This is bad comedy."

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    Yeah, that definitely was the case for all the Fembots, lol. I'm not surprised at all, because after all it was a cartoon that was kind of hard to replicate in the first place, since the Fembots showed almost no features of their vehicle modes. I think Firestar and Chromia were the only ones whose cartoon models had wheels on their bodies.

    I do believe that Arcee's robot mode is better than the T30 version, or at least the molding is more cartoon-accurate. But in the end it's gonna come down to preference. If I didn't have T30 Arcee already, I probably would've gotten the ER version. My least favorite of Arcee's CHUG figures is the TR version, and that's simply because the mold doesn't resemble her at all, due to being a reuse of Blurr. I appreciate the figure's existence, and the fact that they made a HM Arcee toy, but I would've rather gotten a T30 that was retooled to be a HM (although that probably wouldn't have worked).
     
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  6. Pravus Prime

    Pravus Prime Wields Mjolnir!

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    Yes.

    Transformers is virtually a dead brand at Japanese retail. Transformers Prime did a tremendous amount of brand damage and their second chance in TLK's immense failure practically ended any chance of a quick recovery.

    In Japan, retail space is enormously competitive, so much so that not every brand even gets shelf space; only strong sellers do. Weaker brands are relegated to the back, where you have to ask an employee to get it out for you; if they're even carrying it. Some stores do pre-orders and then get it from you from the back, so you can still get it from them, but you won't see it on the shelf.

    Transformers was a B-brand, it sold very well, even it wasn't the best selling toys, doing exceptionally well through the Unicron Trilogy and Animated (and was a bit wobbly, but strong through the beast era) almost getting it to an A-brand, but Prime came along and completely torpedoed everything. It didn't sell. At all. Takara's own handling of it didn't help as they kneejerked a bit too hard, but the damage was beyond done. The toy sales were awful and the TV series was among the lowest in it's time slot. It was so bad that to save money, they ended Prime early and stopped the toyline and made their own show Go! and used the remaining molds and a few originals to create a new toyline. Go! helped a bit, but not much. However, hoping for continued unreasonable success, they persuaded vendors to ignore Prime as a fluke and go into The Last Knight. Which they did, and were now twice burned.

    Smaller stores skipped RID altogether. Bigger stores would vary, but most would have a tiny amount of shelf space for RID, while it was relegated to the back for larger pricepoints and other items. The sales didn't change anything for the brand other then illustrate that Transformers was no longer a power brand and was more of a D-brand. That was it really. Combiner Wars on, it was back room and pre-order only. There was even a point during TR where a friend of mine went to pre-order a figure and had to go to two stores, the first one was only getting one case in and had sold out that figure from the case and wouldn't be ordering another, so he had to go to a second store to get the pre-order in; he never saw TR on a shelf.

    There's more than anecdotal evidence that the brand alignment from Hasbro and Takara was entirely because it was the only way for Hasbro to continue their relationship and bail Takara out. Takara gets the freedom to experiment and do the engineering, while Hasbro gets the long term advantages and doesn't have to worry about the production process falling apart on them. So Takara uses the "modern" method of distribution to get the figures out to those who want them, via online sales and bypassing the market that considers the product toxic.

    Anyway, back on topic, I'm sticking with Cyberverse Arcee. I have a feeling that she'll be a fun figure.
     
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  7. Robogeek28

    Robogeek28 Proud grandpa

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    I've seen this mentioned a few times this past week, so my question is how?

    Most of the Prime toys were fantastic between the FE and mainline, so what caused the damage in Japan?
     
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  8. Mattymo

    Mattymo Banned

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    because Takara focuses on adult collectors where as hasbro focuses on everyone. They focus on adults and with their prices it’s not hard to see what happened. This isn’t the first time this has happened either. Beast wars was a failure in japan. Takara thought it would be huge like in the west and made beast wars II and beast wars neo and it just tanked. So much that they chose not to bring beast machines to their market and instead made car robots. They figured maybe distancing a bit form beasts would help and bring back the autobots.

    It’s not primes fault either that it failed in Japan. It’s a very western show. Nothing wrong with that. Takara tried to spruce it up with their arms micron commercials and that weird combiner spinoff to make it more accommodating to their audience but it still wasn’t enough
     
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  9. ArcanielRE3

    ArcanielRE3 Honorary Autobot

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    Maybe it had something to do with the direction Prime took both tonally and stylistically?

    I've heard from a few people around the fourms that Japan doesn't take Transformers very seriously as an IP, so maybe Prime failed in Japan as a result of that?
     
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  10. DecepticusPrime

    DecepticusPrime "Essential" Personnel

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    I believe it. Look at bw 2 and RID2000/CR....alot of VERY silly elements.
    Considering the arms microns had nothing to do with the show, they clearly only hurt Prime there.

    I wonder the plausibility of going the sentai route. Share the toys, and certain scenes of the animation. Dont be afraid to make unique scenes and stories for each market
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2020
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  11. Mattymo

    Mattymo Banned

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    it failed because Takara can’t market themselves well at all. It’s widely known.

    personally I don’t like comparing Hasbro and Takara but just think about how each promotes and sells their stuff on a business standing.

    hasbro promotes it to everyone. They do commercials, put ads out, make huge amounts of marketing campaigns, and put the transformers logo on everything. Titans return has bus stop posters. All these things have been reported and had articles on here. They even have gotten IDW to make to do theme events and crossovers to promote the new lines. They’re very hands on with conventions and do QnAs with fans.

    look at Takara. They use Twitter and a printed magazine primarily and half the time their promoting fucking grey prototypes! It’s ridiculous. Takara does Asian cons too but most of the time it’s stuff already been shown. Sure most of the time hasbros stuff at cons has been shown but thanks to stolen toys and leaks
     
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  12. bakerjin

    bakerjin Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for writing all this; it was highly informative. I’d be curious if you have any links or other discussion threads on this topic for further reading.

    I’m glad I preordered ER Arcee though I understand why others have their hesitations. Still looks like a good toy and will fit in with the other ER line.
     
  13. ArcanielRE3

    ArcanielRE3 Honorary Autobot

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    When you put it that way, it sounds like Takara isn't even trying to promote the brand in Japan!
     
  14. Mattymo

    Mattymo Banned

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    well...I mean kinda. Takara is weird and they’ve struggled. Hence the brand unification. Don’t get me wrong I’m really not trying to bash Takara. I like Takara. I got plenty of legends and I got the Seacons and super megatron and god Neptune on order but they just can’t sell! They can’t do it.

    prime was a good show! It was very fun and dark when it needed to be. It won a lot of awards and had more good toys than bad but Takara went and much like beast wars dubbed slapstick into it for no good reason. Check out the tfwiki page for the cartoon and read the Japanese version the show for more insight

    They screw themselves over more than anything. Throwing all those ports all over the toys for mini cons and putting zero paint on the toys with questionable stickers. Just terrible. I know WFC is covered with the same size ports but they don’t protrude and stick out like prime figures did.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2020
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  15. Fafnir72

    Fafnir72 XYxInfinity

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    Sometimes a hit in the USA/World isn't an automatic one in the Land of the Rising Sun. Cultural? In Prime's case that is. Timing? Aesthetics?

    The irony too, Diaclone ws a hit back in the 80s in Japan but was a klunker in America. Then Hasbro and Marvel did their magic and the same klunker became a Worldwide hit. Even in the waning days of TF in the early 90s, the brand in Japan was still a hit until Battlestars. People lost interest. I still don't know why it never recovered back to their 80s level popularity.

    Yet Takara still could still pull off an MP44. Highly risky that is.
     
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  16. Bravemaximike

    Bravemaximike Road Warrior

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    Trailbreaker force.jpg Give us your best "force"-field related puns
     

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  17. Mattymo

    Mattymo Banned

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    Another solid example is look at Shin Godzilla. Personally my favorite Godzilla movie, huge success in japan. Critically acclaimed in Japan. It dominated their version of the academy awards. Came to America and it was a dud. Fans enjoyed it sure but western critics were lukewarm toward it with a lot being very unfavorable toward it calling it boring due to its point of view of focusing on Japanese politics
     
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  18. Mirage232

    Mirage232 Well-Known Member

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    The budget for Arcee's paint was apparently nonexistent. They couldn't even be bothered to at least paint her lips.
     
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  19. City Commander

    City Commander Well-Known Member

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    Hi guys! Is there any chance to see an Earthrise Ultra Magnus? Some rumors about it?
     
  20. [Wing_Saber-X]

    [Wing_Saber-X] Takara Fanboy Collector

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    Need Trailbreaker. Hot. 
    pass on ER Arcee.