Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:The only concern I have, however, are tied to both IDW and Shout! Factory. Both have licenses to brands that are owned by Hasbro. We all know that. So with IDW, I am wondering how this will affect them. Will they have to hand over their ReGeneration One stuff to Marvel if this is official? And will they be permitted to publish anything they worked on? And Shout!Factory - Will everything they collaborated on have to be submitted to Disney? Does this also mean that Disney will be able to obtain the animated movie? And if so, will they give us the original or edited feature?

I'm assuming that whatever deals and contracts Hasbro has in play such as with IDW, Shout! Factory, Paramount, Activision, the Hub, etc ... would all remain. When those contracts end, I'm sure they'd do whatever put (or keep) the most money in their pockets.

Personally, if this is true, I'm not really concerned about the toys, maybe because I've decided the hobby is getting too expensive and I'm going to be picky about buying from now on. My concerns are regarding entertainment. How far can Disney stick its nose into the new movies? How much pressure can it put on Bay for what it wants to see? Even though Johnny Depp has raked in the cash for Disney, it still held him up on "Lone Ranger" until the budget was slashed by 20%. And what about the shows? Right now I can stream G1, BW, and Prime on Netflix for $8.00 a month. Netflix no longer has a license with Disney. In fact, I'm not sure Disney streams anywhere, so will I go back to forking out more money for DVDs, a format supposedly on its way out? I think this will lead to more penny-pinching to maxmize profits, and more cash getting squeezed out of us. And I think Seibertron.com would be gone in New York minute.

Wow, this is funny because when the announcement was made about Disney buying LucasFilms, I was talking to a friend of mine about this exact scenario! Hasbro already produces a lot of Disney owned lines (Star Wars, All of Marvel, etc) so this makes absolute perfect sense for Disney. Am I a little nervous about it, hell yes ... But this could also be a good thing. Like others have stated, Avengers was great and you didn't see an ounce of Disney anywhere in there, they let Marvel handle what was already working and just reaped some ownership benefits. The same could happen with all of Hasbro's lines. People have been clammoring for Hasbro to get their act together and either rest TFs a couple years or get the size/pricing under control .. Well that may be possible with this.

Plus people are forgetting the biggest possible benefit ... The end of TRU exclusives like MP's, since most of them would probably become Disney store Exclusives. Disney store actually does cater to more collectors than a regular retail outlet so we wouldn't be seeing the huge distribution isses we're seeing with MP OP or when Mp TC first hit.

DISNEY EMPIRE
STRIKES AGAIN

Midnight_Fox wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Oncoming Storm wrote:I am so (Blanking) Sick of 'Disney'...
The 'Disney Company' IS Just PURE EVIL;
It is Satan's Own Personal Brand Name and is just another one of his 'Trademarks'!!!
--I swear that someone, somewhere just knows how to push my buttons about Evil,
Corporate Empires?!
(This is proof positive to me that the World as we now know it is going to end soon!!!)
As far as "Transformers Blasphemy" is concerned, Michael Bay was Nothing compared to this news...
It REALLY frosts my cornflakes!

What has Disney done that is so "evil"? Saying you don't like Disney or what they stand for is one thing, but saying they're "evil" is a whole other thing.

I think he's just anti-"corporation buys other companies", forgetting that Hasbro does the exact same thing. In fact, people said the same thing about Hasbro when they acquired Wizards of the Coast and said it about WotC when they bought TSR.

It's just a standard over-reaction when one company buys another that you like.

Well said!

The one thing I do not get is why people hate Disney so much. I mean, when they created both Disney XD and purchased Marvel, they said it was due to the fact that they were neglecting their male fanbase. The purchase of LucasArts was going to happen since Disney and George Lucas believed in each other's visions. And with all, including this (if it happens), they will not intervene unless it is necessary.

And besides that, as I said before, we may get Scramble City and Zone as well... As I do not see why Toei would want to be stubborn to Disney, like they have been with Sony and Shout!Factory.

If this deal goes through... Then Transformers will be a thing of the past for me!

said it before and will say it again

Disney are like a cancer that wont stop

Thanks for ruining Star wars disney....Now thanks for ruining transformers as well

morphobots wrote:And I think Seibertron.com would be gone in New York minute.

Why do you think that? Do you think the Star Wars fansites are in jeopardy? Aren't Marvel fansites still around 3+ years after that Disney's acquisition? I don't think Disney is in business to piss off fans of established sites.

I do think watching our Ps and Qs is really important at this stage of the game. I think this is the end for 3rd party stuff though. Disney's pockets are much deeper than Hasbro's.

As far as Shout! Factory goes, this has the potential to be the biggest change as far as I can see. Disney is not known for contracting out to other companies the DVDs of its properties. It is also not known for releasing its TV shows on DVD, preferring to focus on its movie properties instead. There have been exceptions, of course, but on the whole it's rare for Disney owned series to be released. That could be problematic for future TF DVD releases. On the other hand, it could work in just he opposite way, and give TF:RiD its first DVD release in Region 1.

As for the toys, this may very well be the end of my collecting if it happens. If they leave Hasbro alone to do their thing, I don't see myself changing my habits of not buying the general release figures, and focusing only on more collector oriented lines. As far as TFs go, that means third-party and Masterpiece. If Disney starts shutting down the third-parties, that just leaves Masterpieces.

Only time will tell, and I'll make my decisions based on events as they happen, and not on the rumors.

All I hope is that the s and s would rule Disney, kill every Nickelodeon character to take the Power Rangers back (Nick messed things up), kill Phineas and Ferb to take Marvel back, show little kids G1, Beast Wars and Car Robots/RID, make the G1 Transformers come in Toy Story (show some dynamic battle scenes (even if Megatron has to punch Woody, Jesse and Buzz in the face really hard) for some hardcore battles), halt the obssesion w/ the Bayformers there, make Ralph get kidnapped by Megs so OP could save the day and make the original voice actors arrive to take the roles of their characters. Plus, I hope they unharm the warlike feel.

Anyone, ANYONE on this website, please show us some photos of the thoughts I told you about with your toys, artwork, etc. PLEASE, do this for me and hopefully, these thoughts would possibly come true.

I do worry about 3rd party. I loves me some 3rd party. I'd be sad if Giant didn't exist. Or Colossus, or Protector, or...well, you get the idea.

If 3rd party could still exist, and TF anything doesn't suffer...I guess I wouldn't be opposed to it.

Although, Disney got rid of Power Rangers, which still surprises me... So, yeah, I dunno.

CommanderHazar wrote:As far as Shout! Factory goes, this has the potential to be the biggest change as far as I can see. Disney is not known for contracting out to other companies the DVDs of its properties. It is also not known for releasing its TV shows on DVD, preferring to focus on its movie properties instead. There have been exceptions, of course, but on the whole it's rare for Disney owned series to be released. That could be problematic for future TF DVD releases. On the other hand, it could work in just he opposite way, and give TF:RiD its first DVD release in Region 1.

As for the toys, this may very well be the end of my collecting if it happens. If they leave Hasbro alone to do their thing, I don't see myself changing my habits of not buying the general release figures, and focusing only on more collector oriented lines. As far as TFs go, that means third-party and Masterpiece. If Disney starts shutting down the third-parties, that just leaves Masterpieces.

Only time will tell, and I'll make my decisions based on events as they happen, and not on the rumors.

I think it's best to compare this to what Disney did with Marvel. We still get Marvel DVDs, right? Any reason to think this wouldn't be any different with Hasbro?

XDMan wrote:All I hope is that the s and s would rule Disney, kill every Nickelodeon character to take the Power Rangers back (Nick messed things up), kill Phineas and Ferb to take Marvel back, show little kids G1, Beast Wars and Car Robots/RID, make the G1 Transformers come in Toy Story (show some dynamic battle scenes (even if Megatron has to punch Woody, Jesse and Buzz in the face really hard) for some hardcore battles), halt the obssesion w/ the Bayformers there, make Ralph get kidnapped by Megs so OP could save the day and make the original voice actors arrive to take the roles of their characters. Plus, I hope they unharm the warlike feel.

Anyone, ANYONE on this website, please show us some photos of the thoughts I told you about with your toys, artwork, etc. PLEASE, do this for me and hopefully, these thoughts would possibly come true.

...There is something seriously wrong with you, kid.

P.S. - Nick doesn't own Power Rangers, they just air it. Saban owns it and they wanted to make Samurai the way it turned out to be. But considering that they hadn't worked on that show in about a decade, it's no wonder their first go at it in 10 years was subpar.

Seibertron wrote:I think it's best to compare this to what Disney did with Marvel. We still get Marvel DVDs, right? Any reason to think this wouldn't be any different with Hasbro?

The movies, yeah.

TV shows? I haven't seen any from the characters I know or follow, at least not since Disney bought Marvel. It's not unlikely that Transformers could go the same way: The movies get released on disk, the TV series are broadcast and ignored for disks. It's not guaranteed, but it is a possibility to be aware of.

Still, I do acknowledge that the only R1 Transformers example we've had to go on was RiD, and that could be turned around by this acquisition. Unless Saban reacquired the rights when he reacquired Power Rangers.

Seibertron wrote:

morphobots wrote:And I think Seibertron.com would be gone in New York minute.

Why do you think that? Do you think the Star Wars fansites are in jeopardy? Aren't Marvel fansites still around 3+ years after that Disney's acquisition? I don't think Disney is in business to piss off fans of established sites.

I do think watching our Ps and Qs is really important at this stage of the game. I think this is the end for 3rd party stuff though. Disney's pockets are much deeper than Hasbro's.

I concede that I didn't think about the Marvel sites, and I wasn't implying anyone trying to piss off fans. I was thinking about Disney guarding IP. I know you state on the site that it is "unofficial". Would that still continue, or would this and other fansites have to get official permission to continue with a threat of shutdown like we were concerned with if SOPA passed? Sorry, but I'm just not up on the details of copyright law.

CommanderHazar wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I think it's best to compare this to what Disney did with Marvel. We still get Marvel DVDs, right? Any reason to think this wouldn't be any different with Hasbro?

The movies, yeah.

TV shows? I haven't seen any from the characters I know or follow, at least not since Disney bought Marvel. It's not unlikely that Transformers could go the same way: The movies get released on disk, the TV series are broadcast and ignored for disks. It's not guaranteed, but it is a possibility to be aware of.

I saw Spectacular Spider-man Season 2(the season that originally aired on Disney XD) DVDs this morning at TRU. Marvel shows do get released on disk by Disney.

morphobots wrote:Sorry, but I'm just not up on the details of copyright law.

Actually, that would fall under trademark law, not copyright, and it might depend on how diligent Disney's lawyers feel they have to be. If they start going after the third-party toy companies, the lawyers might say they'd have a better case if they cracked down on all infringement, including fan-sites.

I don't know trademark law as well as I do copyright, but I believe that a trademark case requires that the trademarks be both used and protected in order to be able to uphold the claim of infringement.

Any actual lawyers here who can clarify this?

morphobots wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

morphobots wrote:And I think Seibertron.com would be gone in New York minute.

Why do you think that? Do you think the Star Wars fansites are in jeopardy? Aren't Marvel fansites still around 3+ years after that Disney's acquisition? I don't think Disney is in business to piss off fans of established sites.

I do think watching our Ps and Qs is really important at this stage of the game. I think this is the end for 3rd party stuff though. Disney's pockets are much deeper than Hasbro's.

I concede that I didn't think about the Marvel sites, and I wasn't implying anyone trying to piss off fans. I was thinking about Disney guarding IP. I know you state on the site that it is "unofficial". Would that still continue, or would this and other fansites have to get official permission to continue with a threat of shutdown like we were concerned with if SOPA passed? Sorry, but I'm just not up on the details of copyright law.

I think Seibertron.com has a very good working relationship with Hasbro, Activision, Shout! Factory, IDW and many other companies associated with our Transformers hobby. I would like to think those relationships would continue. There is a marketing value of fansites like Seibertron.com to companies like Hasbro and to Disney. This is a large enough fansite, that we've been officially invited by these companies to many events over the past decade or so, have received many promotional items for review purposes and have been recognized in many ways by those companies. I'm assuming that they'll continue letting fansites do what they do best because ultimately it just makes more money for them and allows them a way to communicate directly with fans.

if things go south i might not get new TFs. i would get old TFs i missed out on which are a lot. they would not get my money. they have enough.

Midnight_Fox wrote:I saw Spectacular Spider-man Season 2(the season that originally aired on Disney XD) DVDs this morning at TRU. Marvel shows do get released on disk by Disney.

I've not seen any sign of a Season 2 release for that series in R1. Just a Season 1 and individual volumes. S2 is not listed on Amazon, and any volumes that include S2 episodes may have fallen under a previous contract for the series since, based on what I have read and remember, Marvel was bought during that show's run., and all the DVD releases I've seen have been from Sony, not Disney.

Or maybe I'm wrong. I'll even say as much if shown hard proof.

Seibertron wrote:

KUMA-NIN Maximus wrote:The only concern I have, however, are tied to both IDW and Shout! Factory. Both have licenses to brands that are owned by Hasbro. We all know that. So with IDW, I am wondering how this will affect them. Will they have to hand over their ReGeneration One stuff to Marvel if this is official? And will they be permitted to publish anything they worked on? And Shout!Factory - Will everything they collaborated on have to be submitted to Disney? Does this also mean that Disney will be able to obtain the animated movie? And if so, will they give us the original or edited feature?

I'm assuming that whatever deals and contracts Hasbro has in play such as with IDW, Shout! Factory, Paramount, Activision, the Hub, etc ... would all remain. When those contracts end, I'm sure they'd do whatever put (or keep) the most money in their pockets.

Hasbro actually owns a majority of The Hub, which means that Disney could decide to buy out the rest as it is a profitable channel. Plus, they could use it to show old Disney Channel shows, as well as expand their educational programs.

And I feel a bit safe for IDW, because BOOM! only lost their rights on account that those were solely Disney and Disney-Pixar properties. Plus, Disney has currently said both Marvel and LucasArts will be handled as independents. So with Shout!Factory, I also have to assume they will see the benefits, or until Disney chooses to intervene.

Plus, with Activision... I think they are safe. Disney does like licensing series, and Activision may benefit from this. Especially since it could mean them having High Moon doing a TRON game that is both fun AND playable.

No comment on Paramount, on grounds that my cat and Michael Bay share the same birthday. (Which is weird, as I was born in the same city as Jeffry Combs... And my mom was born in the same city as Steve Blum.)

And with the money... I think they will look into expanding their educational programs, maybe even offer a program to qualifying Hasbro employees. Plus, they could branch out more on art and music through Hasbro, maybe even starting a program for the two. Maybe even start classes tied to voice acting classes that have them start doing roles in future Hasbro series.

But honestly, I have to ask my cousin if she knows how they handled their money tied to their education programs, as she used to work for Disney.

This actually seems to go hand-in-hand, as this combines all of the previous Transformers tie-ins, namely Star Wars and Disney itself.

I can't be for or against it until I see the results if such a merger pushes through.

But...

If it does...

Does that mean we'll be able to get more paint-apps in our figures? *crosses fingers*

Sabrblade wrote:...There is something seriously wrong with you, kid.

P.S. - Nick doesn't own Power Rangers, they just air it. Saban owns it and they wanted to make Samurai the way it turned out to be. But considering that they hadn't worked on that show in about a decade, it's no wonder their first go at it in 10 years was subpar.

Please don't feed trollish behavior. (Until I'm convinced otherwise, I'm inclined to believe he's trolling.)

As for Power Rangers, Saban did make Samurai (and Super) the way he wanted it. But, as for subpar? I don't think so. It was usual Saban quality, but slightly better. The special effects, the cleaner looking Sentai footage (his was always so ugly and grainy, I really don't understand it) only enhance his usual cheesiness.

His handling of the show has certainly helped toy sales. When Disney shoved the shows on XD and ABC Saturday mornings (which stations could opt out of), kids didn't really get to see the show(s). Now that it's on Nick and that's on every basic cable and satellite system, everyone can see it. RPM and MMPRv2 didn't have the best toy sales and some toys never made it to the US, or production for that matter. Now, with him in control again, almost everything seen on screen has made it to some form of toy. With more expected. And they're selling rather well. The figures and the Zord system, especially. Role Play, not so much.

CommanderHazar wrote:Still, I do acknowledge that the only R1 Transformers example we've had to go on was RiD, and that could be turned around by this acquisition. Unless Saban reacquired the rights when he reacquired Power Rangers.

Saban reacquired the rights to all seasons of Power Rangers when he bought it back. Their video release are now handled by Lionsgate.

Autobot032 wrote:As for Power Rangers, Saban did make Samurai (and Super) the way he wanted it. But, as for subpar? I don't think so.

I meant story-wise, not production-wise.

Disney do like to make toys for their characters and movies, so why not buy a big toy manufacturer (which has kind of branched out to be more general entertainment based in recent times). Our world has crossed with Disney before with those Mickey and Donald transforming figures, and wasn't Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story a Hasbro product?

If a result of a takeover means we get a Transformers movie more on par with The Avengers then I'm all for it. While I won't deny Hasbro have done some things right with Transformers in recent years (the PRIME animated series, First Edition figures (sort of), letting IDW just get on with the task of writing great comics and High Moon do Fall of Cybertron, and making a **** tonne of money from the movies and repaying us with hundreds of poor quality Bumblebees), there have been quite a few times where I've felt like I'd quite like someone new cracking the whip.

Bottom line: I'm open to this, but it does seem like Disney are getting a bit carried away.