The Energon Pub

Seibertron.com has received the latest reply from Hasbro on the Q&A session.
Check out below for further details:

"1) With the surprise induction of Beast Wars DINOBOT into the 1st annual Transformers Hall-of-Fame, are there any plans yet to bring back some popular Beast Wars characters?

We're thrilled that fans chose to honor Dinobot during the first Transformers Hall of Fame induction however there are no plans for Beast Wars figures at this time.

2) Will Generations Deluxe Class SCOURGE come with his Targetmaster partner Fracas like Cyclonus did with Nightstick?

Unfortunately, he will not."

Seibertron, Ultimate Transformers Resource!

Sorry, no offense to anyone but I have to say it:

Seriously? We wasted a question to know if Scourge would come with a target master? Something easily deduced from the multitude of pictures we've seen since the questions were submitted?

That's not the thing to focus on...the good news is there are no plans for Beast Wars figures at this time!

Overcracker wrote:Sorry, no offense to anyone but I have to say it:

Seriously? We wasted a question to know if Scourge would come with a target master? Something easily deduced from the multitude of pictures we've seen since the questions were submitted?

I think these were submitted prior to the pictures coming in. (not sure)

Overcracker wrote:Seriously? We wasted a question to know if Scourge would come with a target master? Something easily deduced from the multitude of pictures we've seen since the questions were submitted?

Gotta agree with you on that. They said it straight out at Botcon, I don't know why there's any confusion.

Edit: Ahh, I see it wasn't mentioned back in the Botcon reporting thread. My bad

Kibble wrote:That's not the thing to focus on...the good news is there are no plans for Beast Wars figures at this time!

Yay for that. I love BW characters as much as (some of) the other fans, but if Universe Cheetor and Dinobot are of any indication, they should just stay locked up.

Mkall wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Seriously? We wasted a question to know if Scourge would come with a target master? Something easily deduced from the multitude of pictures we've seen since the questions were submitted?

Gotta agree with you on that. They said it straight out at Botcon, I don't know why there's any confusion.

Kibble wrote:That's not the thing to focus on...the good news is there are no plans for Beast Wars figures at this time!

Yay for that. I love BW characters as much as (some of) the other fans, but if Universe Cheetor and Dinobot are of any indication, they should just stay locked up.

These questions are almost two months old -- sent on September 13th.

In the pictures I've seen it looks like Scourges gun transforms. Is it possible that it is a target master under a different name?

All I have to say is stay tuned for this weeks Twincast to learn Seibertron.com's future regarding these Q/A sessions.

I'm a little disappointed that there won't be more Beast Wars characters made. Sure Cheetor and Dinobot were a little disappointing, but I'm sure that they could make great figures if they put the effort into it. Too bad we won't see that Voyager class Rhinox.

As for the Scourge question, it's valid enough to ask I suppose. It seems like it would only make sense that his gun would be able to transform since we did get Nightstick, but if he is just a gun, at least he will be an homage of sorts.

Kibble wrote:That's not the thing to focus on...the good news is there are no plans for Beast Wars figures at this time!

Despite my loathing of Beast Wars - I would still like to see a new Tyrannosaurus or Transmetal 2 Megatrons. Modern engineering could do wonders for those two.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:In the pictures I've seen it looks like Scourges gun transforms. Is it possible that it is a target master under a different name?

No, it's a solid gun designed to look like his targetmaster in gun mode. Kinda disappointing really.

hasbro will only answer questions they want to answer
to give us an illusion that they are giving us what we want to hear
but they actually are in control and tell us really nothing

Why go to the trouble of making his weapon have the look of a Targetmaster and not just go ahead and make it a Targetmaster? They already did it with Cyclonus. Seems like a step backward rather than forward.

Ultra Markus wrote:hasbro will only answer questions they want to answer
to give us an illusion that they are giving us what we want to hear
but they actually are in control and tell us really nothing

We won't be participating in the Q&A any further for a variety of reasons. I hope that we can start up something here on Seibertron.com where we do our best to answer your questions. I think this approach might provide more answers to our average user than our experience has been with the "official" Q&A program.

El Duque wrote:Why go to the trouble of making his weapon have the look of a Targetmaster and not just go ahead and make it a Targetmaster? They already did it with Cyclonus. Seems like a step backward rather than forward.

I agree. I don't know why they'd give us Nightstick for Cyclonus but no Fracas for Scourge. Seems like a great opportunity lost. Had they done Fracas, and not made Fracas and Nightstick gangmolded with their respective partners (ala Power Core Combiners Mini-Cons), they could've given us two easy repaints I think many fans would've loved to have had -- Artfire and Stepper (Ricochet).

Seibertron wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:hasbro will only answer questions they want to answer
to give us an illusion that they are giving us what we want to hear
but they actually are in control and tell us really nothing

We won't be participating in the Q&A any further for a variety of reasons. I hope that we can start up something here on Seibertron.com where we do our best to answer your questions. I think this approach might provide more answers to our average user than our experience has been with the "official" Q&A program.

Good on ya Ryan. The Q&A's were "good" for awhile but since they adjusted the parameters for the questions it's gone down hill.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:hasbro will only answer questions they want to answer
to give us an illusion that they are giving us what we want to hear
but they actually are in control and tell us really nothing

We won't be participating in the Q&A any further for a variety of reasons. I hope that we can start up something here on Seibertron.com where we do our best to answer your questions. I think this approach might provide more answers to our average user than our experience has been with the "official" Q&A program.

Good on ya Ryan. The Q&A's were "good" for awhile but since they adjusted the parameters for the questions it's gone down hill.

I have to agree the Q&A has been rather redundant as of late, rather get answers from the knowledgeable folks here than some hasbro drone. On another note why is hasbro not bringing back any Beast war characters? The generations line is perfect for it. Dinobot got into the hall of fame so why not play off the love for Beast Wars with toy sales? Then again the 15th anniversary is around the corner (if my math is correct) so maybe we'll get lucky and this is just a ploy at misinformation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who could see Hasbro's Q&A has always seemed to be a joke. They like to give answers that arn't really answers at all, basically like politicians do.

But I realize they gotta keep their secrets safe from the other companies who make competing robot toy line like umm... and ummm.... and the one who makes umm... Yeah, those other tranforming robot lines, the ones you see all over toy aisle shelves.

these were horrible terrible questions...I know theycant answer anything crazy like "Will we ever get a non repaint Ultra Magnus with armor?" but still targetmasters and beast wars? Ugh.

ShardFenix wrote:these were horrible terrible questions...I know theycant answer anything crazy like "Will we ever get a non repaint Ultra Magnus with armor?" but still targetmasters and beast wars? Ugh.

I'm working on doing our own answers for the questions that were asked right now. You should see the guidelines we have to adhere to in order for our questions to be considered. That's why you end up with lame questions. Trust me ... this isn't our fault.

Over the past two or three years that this Q&A program has gone on for, we've asked tons of great questions yet we get the typical lawyer safe answers like these ones ...

"We cannot discuss this at this time."
"There are no plans to do this at this time."
"All shall be revealed in due time."
"We are not allowed to answer this at this time."

I think the magic 8 ball could provide us with more informative answers most of the time.

• As I see it, yes
• It is certain
• It is decidedly so
• Most likely
• Outlook good
• Signs point to yes
• Without a doubt
• Yes
• Yes - definitely
• You may rely on it
• Reply hazy, try again
• Ask again later
• Better not tell you now
• Cannot predict now
• Concentrate and ask again
• Don't count on it
• My reply is no
• My sources say no
• Outlook not so good
• Very doubtful

For those of you criticizing the questions, please wait until Seibertron.com has had a chance to answer the questions you guys asked. Also, for a refresher, here are the rules that severely limit the types of questions we can ask.

Hasbro’s Transformers team greatly appreciates the collector-fan community’s continued passion and support, and is always listening to its valuable feedback – particularly with regards to the Q&A program. As we proceed into the next year of Q&A, the Transformers team wants to ensure that fans continue to get the most out of this forum by being able to provide answers to questions that are of interest to your readers. As a result, we thought it might be helpful to share some insights into what types of questions the team is able to elaborate on and what types of questions cannot be answered for various reasons.

• Unfortunately, there are some things that we cannot comment publicly on due to confidentiality, legal or competitive reasons. Examples of these types of questions are ones that relate to the upcoming TV series or movies that have not had details announced yet, “When will X toy be made/redesigned/released?”, Hypothetical scenarios or “what if questions”, Sales/Cost Data, Product Idea Submissions, Potential Design/Redesign and Future Movie/Entertainment.
• With that said, that leaves a lot of room for a whole host of other discussion points. Topics that are open for discussion are things like Deco Decisions, Current Design Choices, Design Process/Development, Character choices and Redeco/Retooling choices. Also, questions pertaining to past and current Lore/Storyline, Line Strategy and Marketing are open for discussion too.

Throw in this to make it more challenging ...

Participating outlets will submit two (2) questions per round – no longer three (3)

And not allowing us to submit questions after their extremely strict 10am cut-off time (regardless if the deadline is on the day after BotCon after you've worked your butt off promoting their brand all weekend), even though they can be a month late with their answers to our questions.

well judging by all the rules they impose yeah this gets pretty useless. Though i truly am wondering who the competitors would be...i highly doubt they mean people like iGear or Headrobots or FansProject. No offense the third party stuff is great but it is still just that. I would gladly buy any well made Hasbro/takara mold before a third party mold on the same character.

Seriously? Thats the only ones they answered?

Amelie wrote:

Kibble wrote:That's not the thing to focus on...the good news is there are no plans for Beast Wars figures at this time!

Despite my loathing of Beast Wars - I would still like to see a new Tyrannosaurus or Transmetal 2 Megatrons. Modern engineering could do wonders for those two.

They kind of did that with the 10th anniversary figure and, whilst I like it, I couldn't say it worked out great...

How depressingly pointless. Really, I hope we never have to have these dumb Q&As ever again since they rarely contribute worthwhile information. Hell, I don't even trust the people who run this hole either.