The Energon Pub

Hi all, newly registered, but i've been lurking for a good while now.

Since Generations is now up to Wave 4 in the U.S and the UK is still on Wave 1, i thought i'd ask Hasbro UK if they can tell me what's happening.

They did... and it's not good news.

Emails pasted below:



Hi,

I was wondering if any more products from the Transformers Generations line would be shipped to retailers soon?

The first wave from both the Hunt for the Decepticons and Generations lines were shipped about 6 weeks, maybe two months, ago and in the last couple of weeks the second wave of Hunt for the Decepticons toys started to ship to retailers.

However, there’s no sign of a second wave of Generations, and the line has yet to appear at all at some of the larger retail stores.

Can you confirm when new waves of Generations toys will be shipping to retailers?

Thanks in advance,
Graham

Dear Graham,

Thank you for your interest in our Transformers product line.

Regrettably, I can confirm that we will not be offering any further case assortments from the Generations line.

I can confirm however that we will be fully supporting all other Transformers lines, including the newly released Stealth Force toys.

Please continue to check your local retailer for new products.

Kind regards,
Sarah

Hasbro UK Customer Service
00800 22 42 72 76

Hi Hasbro UK,

I'm a reasonably well off professional who's willing to spend hundreds of pounds on Transformers, what's that, you don't want my money!?

Oh, okay, I'll give it to Mr Internet then.

Cheers,

PLH

P.S What's Stealth Force?

P.P.S So we're definitely getting all the HFTD and PCC stuff then!?

I have officialy had e-f king-nough.

I will NEVER buy another Hasbro-UK/Euro product again, I am fed up with being treated with such disdain and contempt.

Rant over.

For now.

I had at least hoped to get Darkmount before resorting to BBTS, but even that small wish won't be granted. And BBTS have sold out of him now.

I actually work near Newport, I'm very tempted to withdraw a large amount of money, find the CEO, slap them a good few times round the face with the wad of cash and walk out.

as crap hasbro UK is, and as disgruntled i am to hear of this i'm not going to jump to any conclusions

i will email hasbro myself to see if i can get a reply

not saying i don't trust you new guy, but i like to look before i leap

Primacron's Little Helper wrote:I had at least hoped to get Darkmount before resorting to BBTS, but even that small wish won't be granted. And BBTS have sold out of him now.

I actually work near Newport, I'm very tempted to withdraw a large amount of money, find the CEO, slap them a good few times round the face with the wad of cash and walk out.

dude you can always go to kapow or toyzandgamez

I passed over WFC-Megs and Darkmount at AA2010 thinking I would just grab them at retail..

The "Transformers United" announcement has come at a good time, now I don't have to give them any of my money, UK branch or otherwise.

I might email them too, just to be told that they will pass my concerns to the marketing dept.

Electron wrote:

Primacron's Little Helper wrote:I had at least hoped to get Darkmount before resorting to BBTS, but even that small wish won't be granted. And BBTS have sold out of him now.

I actually work near Newport, I'm very tempted to withdraw a large amount of money, find the CEO, slap them a good few times round the face with the wad of cash and walk out.

dude you can always go to kapow or toyzandgamez

Okay, maybe just a pie of some description then!
It's not so much that I mind buying stuff online - I bought Blurr from BBTS as I anticipated a delay, it's more the not knowing - with Bludgeon we waited for ages before it was confirmed he wasn't heading our way, and with this, releasing Wave 1 was just kind of teasing us. I'd rather they'd have just said right up front: we're not releasing Generations.

The ONLY line I want to collect and its not coming....

Primacron's Little Helper wrote: It's more the not knowing - with Bludgeon we waited for ages before it was confirmed he wasn't heading our way, and with this, releasing Wave 1 was just kind of teasing us. I'd rather they'd have just said right up front: we're not releasing Generations.

Prolly my biggest gripe with them, absolutely no marketing or communications.

At least we're getting STEALTH FORCE!

Stealth force over Generations? What is wrong with those people.

WOOOOOO!!! STEALTH FORCE!!!! I.....um...... well, yeah,....... um, no. just NO

Thats like...... totally missing the point of vehicles that turn into robots. Hasbro wont give us the best line they have, but we get the MASK ripoff. All of a sudden i dont mind paying high rates for figures, at least the sellers are actually supplying what we want

So... it sounds like Hasbro UK is about as crappy as Hasbro Europe... if they aren't all actually the same entity. As far as I can tell, the UK selection of Transformers is exactly the same as the Dutch selection. Oh well... Transformer available in the shops here in the Netherlands are so expensive that it usually pays off to import them from the US or Japan anyhow.

I'm shocked that this guy got a reply and not that crap about passing it on to the marketing dept. We need to rally a protest. Phone them, email them, make them realise they are losing money here.

That sucks!

So they're only going to sell kids stuff like Animated and ROTF?

My advice would be to pre-order them all from BBTS and make yourself a big Pile of Loot

LOST Cybertronian wrote:Stealth force over Generations? What is wrong with those people.

It's like they're more concerned with kids than fans or something.

Seriously, Generations and HFTD isn't selling where I live(albeit I live in the States), but the "crap" like Stealth Force IS. No joking, my TRU had to bring out extra shelving(those ones on wheels that go by the registers) just to fit all the Generations they have in stock(and Wave 1 is ALL Hasbro is sending them). If they're not releasing them there, Hasbro as a whole has their reasons.

I feel for you UK guys, I do. It really does suck.

So today I saw Hailstorm, Payload (Longhaul repaint), Seaspray and some new Deluxe Mudflap for the first time in my local toyshop.

Tescoes had Sureshot and a few other solo PCC's.

Not sure what lines/waves these come under.

Any of these give us hope?

Jazz-1982 wrote:That sucks!

So they're only going to sell kids stuff like Animated and ROTF?

My advice would be to pre-order them all from BBTS and make yourself a big Pile of Loot

I totally disagree that Animated and ROTF is kids stuff, they are appealing to kids and collectors alike. Although if you really think about it, aren't all TF kids stuff by definition? Ya know, with them being toys and all?

Windsweeper wrote:So today I saw Hailstorm, Payload (Longhaul repaint), Seaspray and some new Deluxe Mudflap for the first time in my local toyshop.

Tescoes had Sureshot and a few other solo PCC's.

Not sure what lines/waves these come under.

Any of these give us hope?

Not for Generations, no. It's good to hear about Hailstorm though - he's a non wave 1 HFTD. Strange that he doesn't show up on the website.

Oh My God.
Hasbro have decided that non-transformabl-really transformers for three year olds will sell more then some fricking awesome figures, in a very coll style, for ages god-knows-how-young to god-knows-how-old.
They don't even deserve an angry emoticon.

LOST Cybertronian wrote:

Jazz-1982 wrote:That sucks!

So they're only going to sell kids stuff like Animated and ROTF?

My advice would be to pre-order them all from BBTS and make yourself a big Pile of Loot

I totally disagree that Animated and ROTF is kids stuff, they are appealing to kids and collectors alike. Although if you really think about it, aren't all TF kids stuff by definition? Ya know, with them being toys and all?

Maybe so but you have to agree that Animated and ROTF are definitely aimed at kids and are kids toys.

The toy market on a whole has totally changed over the last few decades. Toys are no longer "kids stuff", especially action figures. There are some toys of course that are primarily aimed at kids but look at things like Hot Toys and Sideshow collectibles, NECA etc - these are toy/figure companies who are targeting the adult collector. Yes, a lot of TF toys are kids stuff but look the Masterpiece, Alternators, Classics, Generations and Encore lines which are targeting us, not kids.

Check out Big Bad Toy Store and Toy Wiz, 50% of the items they carry are for adult collectors as much as they are for kids.
Toy/figure collecting, especially Transformers where there are the new generation of Bayformers fans and the older original G1 generation fans like most of us, is no longer just kids stuff. They are the biggest target audience for most toys but the adult market is huge now and due to the polarization of the TF market Transformers therefore can no longer be called kids toys.

Perhaps I've gone to far to make my point but I stand by it

PS I'm not saying that HasTak isn't hoping to sell all of those TF lines to kids as well (with G1 characters given names like 'Turbo Tracks' or 'Special Ops Jazz") but the fact that what our generation wants plays such a big part in who gets released proves my point

WHAT!!?? no Jazz or Coneheads I was happy to hand over my money to them now that they are not coming thats so f-ing stupid hasbro uk do you not want to sell toys because if you do you'd release the generations now i'm gonna have to look online I swear the uk always misses out on certain toys

Well, we'e gotten Ramjet and Thrust over here so hopefully Dirge will make an appearance.