The Energon Pub

by **rockman_fan** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:31 am

basically, buy both and mix and match. i'm sure has/tak didn't plan this at all, and it's just total coincidence that they want you to buy both. :HEADHURTS:

News Credits: 4835 · by **william-james88** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:32 am

rockman_fan wrote:basically, buy both and mix and match. i'm sure has/tak didn't plan this at all, and it's just total coincidence that they want you to buy both.

Its not a conspiracy theory dude.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:37 am

william-james88 wrote:
rockman_fan wrote:basically, buy both and mix and match. i'm sure has/tak didn't plan this at all, and it's just total coincidence that they want you to buy both.

Its not a conspiracy theory dude.

..or is it? :-$

(It's not.)

News Credits: 56 · by **o.supreme** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:59 am

No its not a conspiracy, but back to the whole lack of cooperation thing. In this day and age when adult fans clearly have access to Takara product, Hasbro developers cant exactly be feeling good, or proud of their work when their sister company does things so much better. If Hasbro is content to produce an inferior product because of cost-to-produce limitations, I think Hasbro needs to fire some people, or just let Takara do all the developing, and Hasbro just releases the toys for the markets they have rights to.

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:01 am

o.supreme wrote:No its not a conspiracy, but back to the whole lack of cooperation thing. In this day and age when adult fans clearly have access to Takara product, Hasbro developers cant exactly be feeling good, or proud of their work when their sister company does things so much better. If Hasbro is content to produce an inferior product because of cost-to-produce limitations, I think Hasbro needs to fire some people, or just let Takara do all the developing, and Hasbro just releases the toys for the markets they have rights to.

Doesn't that assume Hasbro's target audience is the adult collector? I'd think that Hasbro keeps us in mind, but the target audience is still children....

News Credits: 2 · by **Ultra Mad** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:02 am

I catched that review yesterday evening before going to bed. It somehow made me less excited for UW Computron. Anyhow, I don't see what is all the big fuss about the new feets/hands. I'm quite happy with the ones we got with the other sets and I thinks it will look better if all my combiner teams have the same sets of feets/hands on my shelf. But again, I know it's all about personnal preferences at this point.

News Credits: 4835 · by **william-james88** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:02 am

o.supreme wrote: If Hasbro is content to produce an inferior product because of cost-to-produce limitations, I think Hasbro needs to fire some people, or just let Takara do all the developing, and Hasbro just releases the toys for the markets they have rights to.

I can guarantee you one thing: Hasbro is content with their CW toys

News Credits: 4835 · by **william-james88** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:04 am

Agamemnon wrote: I'd think that Hasbro keeps us in mind, but the target audience is still children....

But so is Takara's audience, they keep saying that time and time again. Both sell for the same price point in either country anyway so its not like either is a higher end collectable.

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:06 am

Hasbro simply isn't as obsessed with meticulously matching the 30-year-old cartoon's look as Takara is.

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:10 am

william-james88 wrote:
Agamemnon wrote: I'd think that Hasbro keeps us in mind, but the target audience is still children....

But so is Takara's audience, they keep saying that time and time again. Both sell for the same price point in either country anyway so its not like either is a higher end collectable.

Sabrblade wrote:Hasbro simply isn't as obsessed with meticulously matching the 30-year-old cartoon's look as Takara is.

Indeed, I can see that both are true. And also, it appears that Takara has very different corporate goals and toy laws to deal with. It is a complicated situation, and I don't think we can compare Hasbro and Takara apples to apples. It bothers me a little to see the hyperbole that someone should get fired because of something completely out of their control...

News Credits: 2 · by **Ultra Mad** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:10 am

Sabrblade wrote:Hasbro simply isn't as obsessed with meticulously matching the 30-year-old cartoon's look as Takara is.

I'm not sure that this particular 'obsession' isn't a good thing. As an adult collector, I really do appreciate it. But even as a child today, wouldn't you want your RID figurs to have paint jobs and details as close as possible to the show version?s I'm pretty sure I would appreciate it even if I wouldn't care about it as much. :-?

News Credits: 56 · by **o.supreme** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:13 am

Agamemnon wrote:Doesn't that assume Hasbro's target audience is the adult collector? I'd think that Hasbro keeps us in mind, but the target audience is still children....

I would think the target audience for Rescue Bots would be Young Children, and for RID would be the 8-12 year range, but obviously Generations is for older fans. Unless you had a parent or older relative who was into Transformers you would have no idea who these characters are because they have no current representation on TV.

william-james88 wrote:I can guarantee you one thing: Hasbro is content with their CW toys

I'm not talking about the line overall...but specific examples....and of course in public its going to be all smiles..

But suppose The Technobots/Computron was "your" baby...you spent a year or so developing them..put all your heart and soul into it...No doubt *if* Takara & Hasbro were at all communicating as some people believe...and you would no doubt have seen Takara's proposal long before the public did...how would you feel? :-?

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:15 am

Ultra Mad wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Hasbro simply isn't as obsessed with meticulously matching the 30-year-old cartoon's look as Takara is.

I'm not sure that this particular 'obsession' isn't a good thing. As an adult collector, I really do appreciate it. But even as a child today, wouldn't you want your RID figurs to have paint jobs and details as close as possible to the show version?s I'm pretty sure I would appreciate it even if I wouldn't care about it as much.

Of course, but we weren't talking about the RID figures' decos. The differences between UW Computron and CW Computron were the subject in question.

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:15 am

My 10 year old son loves the CW line! :WHISTLE:

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:15 am

o.supreme wrote:I would think the target audience for Rescue Bots would be Young Children, and for RID would be the 8-12 year range, but obviously Generations is for older fans. Unless you had a parent or older relative who was into Transformers you would have no idea who these characters are because they have no current representation on TV.

Just because there's no fictional representation doesn't mean the main target audience isn't kids. They're sold on the merit of them being good toys and nothing else.
It's true that the Generations line is heavily geared towards older collectors, hence the characters and designs they use, but it's more like they're able to make and sell these toys with the excuse that it'll still appeal to kids. If it was mainly older collectors buying them I doubt it'd be viable for Hasbro.

News Credits: 56 · by **o.supreme** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:21 am

Agamemnon wrote:My 10 year old son loves the CW line!

so does my 10 year old son...and probably any kid who's father is a fan and had been indoctrinating them since birth... 8-)

...

But what about all the kids whose dads are not fans like us? ...they are into their *whatever kids play with these days*....if they have any interest in Transformers at all, it would be RiD.

News Credits: 4835 · by **william-james88** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:24 am

o.supreme wrote:But suppose The Technobots/Computron was "your" baby...you spent a year or so developing them..put all your heart and soul into it...No doubt *if* Takara & Hasbro were at all communicating as some people believe...and you would no doubt have seen Takara's proposal long before the public did...how would you feel?

They answered that already, and it wasnt all smiles, just straightforward business. They saw what Takara was planning and just went another way, I dont know why we are thinking there is more to it and we dont need to speculate, they say it all right there, just go to the 3:08 minute mark. They also didnt spend too long developing them since they werent even planning on doing them in the first place.

Also, Hasbro made it quite clear who the audience for Generations toys were: 10 and up

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:24 am

o.supreme wrote:
Agamemnon wrote:My 10 year old son loves the CW line!

so does my 10 year old son...and probably any kid who's father is a fan and had been indoctrinating them since birth... ...

But what about all the kids whose dads are not fans like us? ...they are into their *whatever kids play with these days*....if they have any interest in Transformers at all, it would be RiD.

That's kind of a bold statement. Sure, the half hour commercials are on TV for that. But, really, I see kids all the time in Target, etc. picking out RiD, CW, TR, the old Generations stuff. Not everything Generations being sold at the stores is going to older collectors. There is a healthy mix of both, but I would still maintain that these lines are more intended for children.

[Edit] Sniped by WJ88.

News Credits: 79 · by **Sigma Magnus** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:26 am

Sabrblade wrote:Hasbro simply isn't as obsessed with meticulously matching the 30-year-old cartoon's look as Takara is.

Personally, when it comes to G1 Classics stuff, I just want a quality, accurate, fun toy of the cartoon incarnation before they do reinventions of the character. In the case of Computron, now that we have the Unite Warriors box set, which is all three of those things, I'm fine with them doing re-imaginings of the Technobots (such as the CW box set).

Another example...Fortress Maximus. If we had gotten a Titan-sized Fort Max, that was, in terms of appearance, accurate to the cartoon(s), and in terms of engineering, basically the G1 toy with more articulation (and with all of his accessories), I would've been totally fine with the Titans Return toy (I still have that one on my shelf, mind you, but I'm getting all the upgrade kits, and I'm still a bit disappointed with it).

...does that make sense? I'm terrible at explaining things like this... :HEADHURTS:

News Credits: 56 · by **o.supreme** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:29 am

Agamemnon wrote:Not everything Generations being sold at the stores is going to older collectors. There is a healthy mix of both, but I would still maintain that these lines are more intended for children.

I'd love to see the look on the 8 year olds face who's Grandma just got him Generations Rattrap or Jhiaxus as a gift...has no idea who or what it is :lol:

.

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:31 am

o.supreme wrote:
Agamemnon wrote:Not everything Generations being sold at the stores is going to older collectors. There is a healthy mix of both, but I would still maintain that these lines are more intended for children.

I'd love to see the look on the 8 year olds face who's Grandma just got him Generations Rattrap or Jhiaxus as a gift...has no idea who or what it is .

Jhiaxus is cool looking. The look would be enough for any kid!

Rattrap? Grandma would never touch that toy. Ever! :lol:

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:35 am

Yeah, again, this assumes that the kids and their parents are that into Transformers fiction that they only care about the characters they saw on-screen. They're more likely to focus on those characters - the toy shelves that can't get enough of Optimus and Bumblebee show this alone - but it doesn't mean they won't be happy to get any transformer that's cool to them. And on the other hand, a lot of parents don't really know much about Transformers beyond "my kid really likes that Mega Optimus Bee guy. Hey, this looks like one of them transfarmers, he'll love that!"
Heck, the Cybertron and ROTF lines were full of characters that didn't have any fictional representation despite Cybertron and ROTF actually having fiction. Didn't stop peeps from buying them.

News Credits: 4835 · by **william-james88** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:36 am

o.supreme wrote:
Agamemnon wrote:Not everything Generations being sold at the stores is going to older collectors. There is a healthy mix of both, but I would still maintain that these lines are more intended for children.

I'd love to see the look on the 8 year olds face who's Grandma just got him Generations Rattrap or Jhiaxus as a gift...has no idea who or what it is .

I was given beast machines Tankor from my grandma when I was 10 and he looked nothing like anything I knew even if i was watching the show. But I liked transformers and just played with it and enjoyed it. Same goes for all those Beast Wars toys that never appeared on the show.

Also your comment just dissed a ton of G1 toys that never appeared on the show. And yet kids loved em enough that we are now getting them redone for a new generations.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:39 am

william-james88 wrote:
o.supreme wrote:
Agamemnon wrote:Not everything Generations being sold at the stores is going to older collectors. There is a healthy mix of both, but I would still maintain that these lines are more intended for children.

I'd love to see the look on the 8 year olds face who's Grandma just got him Generations Rattrap or Jhiaxus as a gift...has no idea who or what it is .

I was given beast machines Tankor from my grandma when I was 10 and he looked nothing like anything I knew even if i was watching the show. But I liked transformers and just played with it and enjoyed it. Same goes for all those Beast Wars toys that never appeared on the show.

Also your comment just dissed a ton of G1 toys that never appeared on the show. And yet kids loved em enough that we are now getting them redone for a new generations.

To be fair, a lot of those toys ended up appearing in the Marvel comics instead like the wreckers. I think the only ones that never got fictional representation - before the cartoon ended - were the deluxe Insecticons, the Omnibots and the Powerdashers... and I certainly don't see them getting remade any time soon, bar the odd occasional Chop Shop because what else do you repaint Shrapnel into

News Credits: 42 · by **Autobot N** » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:40 am

I'm hopefully going to try and get UW Computron around Christmas, and then I can mix-and-match to create the perfect Computron:
Scattershot: UW
Strafe: CW
Nosecone: UW
Lightspeed: CW
Afterburer: CW
Scrounge&Cybaxx: CW

Since UW Strafe looks amazing on his own, he'll go to the centerpiece display. CW Brawlcone will go to the extra figures bin, CW Scattershot will either go there or replace the retail Scattershot on my Betatron, and I don't know what I'll do with UW Lightspeed and Afterburner.