Hasbro has answered the questions that the staff of Seibertron decided we should submit based on ALL the fantastic entries from our community. If you have questions that you would like to ask Hasbro, please post your questions in this thread.
Mold Ownership
Seibertron.com: It is no secret that Paramount has quite a bit of pull and ownership when it comes to Transformers Movie figures. Can Hasbro please elaborate on who owns the molds. For example, would it be feasible to see the upcoming Voyager Bludgeon, ROTF Brawn, Mindwipe etc figures re-released (or re-deco'd) under a non-movie related line such as Universe? Or is that not possible because Hasbro doesn't actually own the molds?
Hasbro: While we certainly appreciate your concern over who owns what, what we can say is this: Hasbro owns all of our molds and can determine what we want to do with those molds.
Collector Market
Seibertron.com: Setting aside the 2 limited G1 Reissues released recently this year, how does Hasbro plan to reach out to the adult collector market? With Alternators not planned for the near future, the homage based Classics "on hold", and no further Special Edition figures announced (didn't Overkill, Dragstrip, Megatron, and Optimus Prime sell well?), there appears to be more incentive for adult collectors to purchase reissues and other more targeted merchandise from outside import vendors and '3rd party' companies. Why has Hasbrotoyshop.com not established a collector service to provide Encore, Alternity, and Masterpiece figures in the same manner that MattyCollector is attending to their adult fan-base? Where are the previously seen 'Red Classics Mirage', and upgraded Classics Cliffjumper going to appear (theorized to be next in line as Special Edition toys)? Is there anything in the plans that caters more to the Transformer collector market, rather than just the whole of the Transformers brand market?
Hasbro: We think one of the reasons it may feel like there's not as much collector-specific products is that we are right in the middle of the "movie madness" and we haven't made any formal announcements for the Fall 2010 line and exclusives. We continue to look for opportunities to bring out the G1 re-issue characters that haven't been released as re-issues before or do them in a new, different way. We are trying to avoid releasing the same versions that were released in 2003/2004. We will continue to find these opportunities (like we did with Soundwave at Comic Con in 2009... hint hint). We will continue to bring Masterpiece toys as retailer exclusives where appropriate - there will be one in 2010. And as discussed at BotCon, we will be continuing the "Classics/Universe" toys in the back half of 2010 with a new name (it won't be called Universe 3.0, but that's the idea). In addition we also try to include fan favorites in the movie line like Bludgeon and Brawn as well as assortments like the Human Alliance assortment.
Planning Ahead
Seibertron.com: How much of a line is decided before the line is actually in distribution? For example, is it known how many waves it will consist of? What the average figure size breakdown will be (legends/scouts/etc) and which figures will be in it? Or is there a set amount of each size class of mold that you use as a guide when you go to produce/design each new line?
Hasbro: While this question gets into business related topics that we cannot discuss in this forum, we did want to give you some insight. Generally speaking, we plan out the entire line and all of the assortments well in advance, but it is also very fluid process. We view our yearly plans as "living organisms" that change and adapt over time, thus nothing is ever truly set in stone.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So there are the answers that we received. Thank you again for participating! Stay tuned for information about upcoming Q&A sessions with Hasbro, which will be going on a temporary hiatus due to the holidays.
Seibertron.com - The Ultimate Transformers Resource
Ask Hasbro a Transformers related Question
Vector Sigma Database
Comprehensive Photo Galleries
Most Recent Transformers News
