Dear Volkswagen,
You have undoubtedly received many Emails from fans of the 'Transformers' toy line requesting that you grant Hasbro/Takara the rights to produce a VW New Beatle as part of their collector-oriented Alternators/Binaltech line; surely you must see that this makes sense - in the 1980's, the character was a cultural icon, emphasising the epitome of what a cute, loveable and, most importantly, non-irritating, cartoon character should be.
It has been reported that the reasoning behind the decision not to grant a licence was the 'war' aspect of the toy - something which the Volkswagen corporation would want to disassociate itself from given its origins - but this is ridiculous: the character a) exists in a fictional continuity, where b) the war is between alien robots and c) he was a 'good guy'.
In conclusion, if nothing else, think of the marketing opportunities - an advert involving a 'transformer' (of sorts) popularised the Citroen C4, a car that otherwise no-one would have cared about - imagine the impact of an advertising capaign involving the Bumblebee character - the consumer response would be unprecedented, especially as the character is more 'human' - 'he' could even talk, as the cartoon voive actor is still, to the best of my knowledge, alive and well.
Yours Sincerely, Luke Giles.
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