I just wish they had completed the paint on his face

 

You mean you wish they had stuck with the paint version you like. The paint is not "incomplete". It's just different from the mockup.

 

They just decided not to paint his nose. That's all they mean by "didn't complete the paint."

 

i think his white nose looks fine, kind of like a roman helmet look to it

 

The nose IS painted. Painted white.

 

why no new heads?

Because Has/Tak are cheap..

 

1000% Correct, just trying to squeese more money out of a mold that is already there, just the same as they do with all the other TF lines. As I had said before if there were atleast a minor remold I would buy these.

 

Yeah I agree, new heads would have made them seem much more worth the money I shelled out for them. Surprisingly it did wonders for Swerve.

 

Because remolds of any kind cost money, and who knows, maybe Has/Tak is contractually obliged to use these molds upwards of 1-2 times in order to get the rights to release the car.

 

Yeah - but from a strictly business point of view - the extra couple of cents - and that's all we're talking about - per unit - spent on an new head sculpt could signal the difference between a sell out product and a shelf warmer that will end up being nothing more than a tax write off.

And even if they don't use completely new moulds - they could still play mix and match a little within the alt/bt range.

Cost savings of this kind can end up being false economy. Alt/Bt's arn't quite the same mass market item as many other tf product is - they're aimed (at least in part) at a slightly different market - when I see straight remaints though - I think that the bean counters are forgetting that.

 

I think remolds cost more than you seem to. How many of these toys do you think are made? I'm guessing in the low tens of thousands. I can't locate the source material on the web at present, but I seem to recall being told that any remold (such as a new head) would cost about $10,000 for Hasbro to do (or maybe that was just 3H's cost. Anyone with a link can feel free to use it). If this is the case, and say, 20,000 toys are made, we're talking about 50 cents of cost just for the new head. That's a fairly significant amount, to my thinking.

 

Yeah, they forgot the nose when they put the face coat on... 

 

I'm also believing that Hasbro has been unwilling to go that extra mile for new head molds due to cost. One would've liked to believe, since Alternators was to be a "collectors" type of line, that they would've paid more attention to that type of detail. Seeing as any head remolding in the new BW anniversary line has been also ignored, they obviously are trying to keep things cheap. Its disappointing since I would've expected better from a collector geared line, but Hasbro is what it is and I guess I've learned to temper my expectations of them. I do take some consolation in that it isnt only TFs they do this with. Almost all their toy lines that have portions geared towards the collector crowd have flaws that tend to sour the line a little.

 

Maybe if they weren't doing about 4 different lines at once they could afford some new remold changes.

 

Yes, it is - but Hasbro will only charge an outside entity that much - it costs them much less to do it internally.

I'd agree with the notion that the extra sales would probably pretty much always make up for remolding costs, but until they try it we'll never know.

The other heads aren't cast on to the molds (though it would be smart of Hasbro do do so...). The fact the sculpts are pre-existing doesn't save much money.

Phazer