Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

As all of you are probably aware by now Disney made big news last week when they announced they had purchased Lucasfilm for over 4 billion dollars. It looks like Mickey and company haven't put away the old checkbook just yet. MTV Geek is reporting a rumor that Disney is now in negotiations to purchase Hasbro! It's just a rumor for now, but according to MTV Geek a reliable source has stated high level discussions are happening at this moment. Click here to visit MTV Geek for the full story.

Is Opti-mouse Prime in our future?

MTV Geek wrote:Well, we have it on good authority that serious discussions are happening at the highest levels of both Disney and Hasbro to fold the largest toy and game company on the planet into the Mouse.

MTV Geek wrote:The acquisition would give Disney the rights to Transformers, G.I. Joe, Dungeons and Dragons, Beyblade, Battleship, Nerf, and Magic: The Gathering among several dozen other game titles and IP. When you add Marvel and Star Wars to that list it’s a pretty comprehensive lock on boy’s entertainment; a far cry from a few years back when Disney was heavily criticized for losing its grip on boys.

The ramifications to the Transformers hobby could potentially be extremely significant. Everything from the upcoming 2014 Transformers movie to BotCon locations to potential exclusives being available at Disney stores could be affected by this decision. Tell us what you think by clicking here.

Wait wait, something's not entirely right here... Disney buying a toy company? An entertainment company like Lucasfilm I can understand, but a toy company like Hasbro?

I wouldn't be a bit surprised. When you got the money greed knows no bounds. Disney don't know when to quit. Won't be long before we end up as a country of monopolies.

...No.

Just..... no.

This makes perfect sense. Hasbro owns Star Wars, and Disney is looking to ensure a lock on that brand. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Maybe Disney can actually help the TF line out there will probably be more animated movies of some sort. Maybe better toys who knows or they can send it to hell but they don't seem to be doing to bad with marvel.

I'm waiting to see that Transformers will only be available at Disney parks. Now that'd put a spin on store exclusives.

dont mess with the toys and we wont have a problem

Pretty soon micky will be our president.

This is just stupid. Disney and Marvel? Ok, they did good.

Disney and Lucasfilm? Like to see were that goes.

Disney and...Hasbro? No. Hasbro is handling both the toys AND the entertainment right now. If Disney, SOMEHOW, ends up sinking Prime, I'll be more than a little pissed.

ALSO, with how up tight Disney is with its Tradmarks, how long would websites like this one last?

Someone give me some positives here?

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Wait wait, something's not entirely right here... Disney buying a toy company? An entertainment company like Lucasfilm I can understand, but a toy company like Hasbro?

Disney does make toys, after all. This also means less competition. And just more profits in general. Watch them buy Lego next.

I'm starting to think Disney is the New World Order...

Coming soon to theaters: The Transforming Star Wars Avengers; Mickey's Revenge

first marvel then star wars(& all the companies it built) and now possibly hasbro? i always said they were trying to take over the world, better them than microsoft or google. But i hope this is true cause then maybe the hasbro brand will get some stability. Oh and disney instead of spending so much money buying stuff how about spending some money to continue Gargoyles. Fans want it the original creators want it but you have to be dicks about it. Hey if they get hasbro wouldnt they get the old gargoyle toy molds too? Kenner put out the line back in the day and hasbro bought them. Reissues would be awesome, but itll never happen. Oh and speaking of kenner did hasbro get the alien & predator toy molds? I dont know how it works do they store the molds or destroy them when they're done?

I am honestly not upset by the prospect of Disney acquiring Hasbro.

BeastProwl wrote:Someone give me some positives here?

Disney tends to manage companies well. Prime is doing well, so few worries there.

What you might see is either the incorporation of FunPub or no renewal on the contract as its services are handled internally. BotCon would another way for people to visit Epcot or San Francisco.

Disney works well with Japanese companies, since several of its properties are huge in Japan and Disney is the NA licensee for Ghibli Studios. More than likely a better collaboration with Takara would result here - possible some of those better paint apps we're all so fond of envying?

Could this potential acquisition go bad? Definitely. Could it go much better? Definitely as well.

datguy86 wrote:This makes perfect sense. Hasbro owns Star Wars, and Disney is looking to ensure a lock on that brand. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Hasbro is also the proprietor of Marvel toys, so yeah, this makes alot of sense.

I can't see this being a bad thing. Maybe it would force a refocusing of the Transformers brand and letting side toy lines fall by the wayside. I am okay with that.

Hmmm... This is an interesting one. On one hand, Hasbro's toy quality is falling while the prices continue to rise. I don't know if Disney would be able to help the prices, but I feel like the quality of the Transformers toys may improve. On the other hand, though, I feel like being a part of something so large as Disney, the developers will lose touch with what a lot of the collectors want. I'm worried it'll be all Bee all the time, with a little bit of Prime.

(see what I did there.)

Also, if Disney buys Hasbro, what would that mean for The HUB? Another Disney channel?

Megatron Wolf wrote:first marvel then star wars(& all the companies it built) and now possibly hasbro? i always said they were trying to take over the world, better them than microsoft or google.

Mickey Mouse is taking over the world!

Seriously though, it think Disney is buying up all of these properties because they can't come up with any new entertainment ideas of their own. When was the last time Disney had a good original movie on their own? It's been a while.

I'm actually surprised that this is taking everyone by surprise, i mean the disney crossover figures in the past few years should have been a foreshadowing. Also, with disney's help the budget on all of hasbro's toylines us focusing on transformers, Hasbro may be able to get a chunk of that beautiful disney money, allowing for better quality and larger TF figures just like the good ol days.

I can definently see things going bad but given their track record with marvel, i see more things that could go RIGHT. Animated movies? bigger budget=better toys. i could go on.

the only thing that is really bothering me is going to be the mouse hanging over us... but aside from that, why the hell not?

Wow, big news after big news. So what would Takara do in this case? Do they still own the TF rights?

If Disney takes over, that's a game changer. One of you guys said, Lego's next, that may be possible. Kre-O is a potential line. But no better time for Disney to buy all these things. Then they put it in the vault.
Imagine if it does happen , and Disney pulls the plug on all Transformers everything. Just imagine. How would things be different. For one thing, all the collectors will be rich.
But back to sanity, I think it's bad. Disney is lately making depressing stuff through Pixar for example. UP was horrible. I hate that movie with a passion. And how sad was Toy Story 3. Though it would be cool if they had a transformer toy in Toy Story.

Too bad it's just a rumor. Pinch of salt gang.
Hasbro is too big to break that fast.

Rhinox23 wrote:Seriously though, it think Disney is buying up all of these properties because they can't come up with any new entertainment ideas of their own. When was the last time Disney had a good original movie on their own? It's been a while.

Wreck-It Ralph, which just came out.

Hmmm...the possibilities, and whether they're good or bad:

Transformers at Disney World: yessssss

TF content on Disney Channel, or at least Disney XD: Don't really care what channel it comes on, but it'd be good for the franchise as I'm sure more kids watch Disney than the Hub

Disney Store toys, more Mickey Transformers, park exclusives: meh. I wouldn't be willing to travel to Florida every time a new toy comes out, these exclusives would be not unlike most Takara exclusives to me in that I'll only bother when they're available to me at cons and stuff.

Cons: More money to have bigger cons? Or maybe a Transformers section at Disney events?? YES

Disney possibly halting production of Prime for whatever reason, or Masterpieces, or anything good: Please, I don't know why they would, but still..no.

A Transformers/Pixar crossover: Could anything bad possibly come from this? They can put Optimus in Toy Story!

Disney now owning both Lucasfilm and Hasbro: Doesn't exactly seem like Hasbro has a hard time for getting rights to toys or anything, but certainly nothing bad can come with this on the star wars side.

Rhinox23 wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:first marvel then star wars(& all the companies it built) and now possibly hasbro? i always said they were trying to take over the world, better them than microsoft or google.

Mickey Mouse is taking over the world!

Seriously though, it think Disney is buying up all of these properties because they can't come up with any new entertainment ideas of their own. When was the last time Disney had a good original movie on their own? It's been a while.

Disney's thing has never really been originality, they made their name retelling classic fairy tales. That said, all their recent animated films (Princess & The Frog, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph) have been very strong, and IMO Tron was good too. John Carter tanked pretty hard, but there's still Pirates which, despite losing steam, is still a successful franchise. And they have an upcoming remake of The Lone Ranger.

Sure, none of it is very original, but most of their big projects are not lacking in quality, so I have no qualms in that aspect.

Most of my fears have to do with their tight grip on their intellectual property and also the changes that could happen in regards to Takara and the handling of exclusives.

Overall though, this would probably have the potential to turn out better rather than worse.

kirbenvost wrote:

Rhinox23 wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:first marvel then star wars(& all the companies it built) and now possibly hasbro? i always said they were trying to take over the world, better them than microsoft or google.

Mickey Mouse is taking over the world!

Seriously though, it think Disney is buying up all of these properties because they can't come up with any new entertainment ideas of their own. When was the last time Disney had a good original movie on their own? It's been a while.

Disney's thing has never really been originality, they made their name retelling classic fairy tales. That said, all their recent animated films (Princess & The Frog, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph) have been very strong, and IMO Tron was good too. John Carter tanked pretty hard, but there's still Pirates which, despite losing steam, is still a successful franchise. And they have an upcoming remake of The Lone Ranger.

Sure, none of it is very original, but most of their big projects are not lacking in quality, so I have no qualms in that aspect.

Most of my fears have to do with their tight grip on their intellectual property and also the changes that could happen in regards to Takara and the handling of exclusives.

Overall though, this would probably have the potential to turn out better rather than worse.

Ok, I haven't seen Wreck It Ralph. It does look good and had a great opening weekend. I'll also give you the Pirates movies because they at least made a lot of money (even though the story suffered after the 1st one, but that's off topic).

I may be a little younger than some of you, but when I was a kid going to see the new Disney cartoon movie was always a big thing. This has dropped off dramatically since the 90's. Pixar (acquired by Disney) saved the day with a bunch of great movies, but not Disney themselves. They may have been retelling classic tales but they were the first to make them animated and that is how they first got big. The overall point is that minus Pirates and potentially Wreck It Ralph (we'll see how much it makes in the coming weeks, but it should be a lot) Disney has not given a lot of "blockbuster" or new classic animations on their own since the 90's. Hence acquiring Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar and maybe Hasbro.

I understand it and was just pointing it out. Also, I don't think this would be negative for Hasbro either.

I'm glad that Disney will never be able to touch Bandai and Lego as they are not US based companies. They have US branches, but their headquarters are located in their country of origin (Bandai: Japan, Lego: Denmark)

And even though Disney has got their SciFi on with Tron, I'd rather not have them buy out Hasbro. I don't want a big Disney logo on my robots.

Also, I'm surprised nobody brought this up. Transformers is coyrighted not only by Hasbro, but by Takara as well. So just buying Hasbro would not give Disney the rights to Transformers.