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The beginning of this article scared the crap outa me at first, thinking the game was suddenly going to be made (or not made) without the Dinobots.

Pretty great origin story. It makes it kinda cool that Grimlock has such a hatred for Shockwave in Shockwaves spotlight, even though it was from a seperate incident.
Honestly though, considering the garbage Hasbro let fly with Michael Bay, I am surprised they gave Matt such a hard time. All worked out in the end I guess, so whatever. Sounds like Hasbro just wants to grow the future brand, rather than cater to the older crowd. High Moon to the rescue!

orangeitis wrote:Hasbro almost RETIRED the Dinobots? WTF?

I can't get behind a company retiring ANY ideas or characters. It's just... lazy to think that old ideas and characters can't work. You just have to have some dedication and creativity. Though I'm hoping Matt Tieger proved this point to Hasbro once and for all. I'm not too sure about it, but I'm hoping...

Lord Onixprime wrote:Unfortunately, Generations has only been Deluxe class figures.

Well if the first "Generations" line ended, and Generations is going to completely fill 2013's toy lineup, I think it's safe to say that they're planning to give the line more size classes. It might be a bit odd only seeing deluxes on the shelves after TF: Prime finishes.

Don't worry, people like TFC, Make Toys and iGear are praying that Hasbro drops the ball with the Dinobots. Hasbro know if they don't do the Dinobots properly they will be prime designs for 3rd parties to jump all over. If they fail, while being expensive, we will see voyager sized FoC Dinobots eventually.

So Hasbro was seriously going to retire the Dinobots, apparently because they don't have a logical place in the live-action movies.

Interesting term there, "RETIRE". So if Hasbro retires a part of its I.P., with no intention to ever use it again, could that mean that it becomes public domain? As in, had they not turned around and made the sound decision to include them in FOC, 3rd party companies could have started cranking out Voyager-to-Masterpiece-sized toys that look EXACTLY like G1 animation and comic model dinobots, or even unlimited KOs of the actual Dinobot toys without ANY fear of legal reprisals?

Someone please, please ask this question at a panel! And follow up with a question about allowing sales of fan art, 3rd party items, and KOs that strongly resemble "retired" concepts and characters. Yes, it's a dickish issue to push, but I think we'd all like this clarified long before BotCon 2013.

Now I'm really sorry I can't go this year.

WTF is wrong with Hasbro? I can't imagine any good reason to retire 5 of your most successful characters. They should all be slapped in the back of the head.



On a side note, I hope some of you give them a hard time at Botcon for some of their more idiotic decisions this past year.

orangeitis wrote:It might be a bit odd only seeing deluxes on the shelves after TF: Prime finishes.

I highly doubt Prime will only run till the end of the year.

Lord Onixprime wrote:

orangeitis wrote:It might be a bit odd only seeing deluxes on the shelves after TF: Prime finishes.

I highly doubt Prime will only run till the end of the year.

True, but that Hasbro rep did say there'll be 40 Generations toys coming out in 2013. That's statistically at least half of their yearly main line quota, unless they made so much from DotM that they can have more. I'm not discounting the possibility at all, I'm just really doubting that every single one of those 40 figures will all be deluxe.

orangeitis wrote:

Lord Onixprime wrote:

orangeitis wrote:It might be a bit odd only seeing deluxes on the shelves after TF: Prime finishes.

I highly doubt Prime will only run till the end of the year.

True, but that Hasbro rep did say there'll be 40 Generations toys coming out in 2013. That's statistically at least half of their yearly main line quota, unless they made so much from DotM that they can have more. I'm not discounting the possibility at all, I'm just really doubting that every single one of those 40 figures will all be deluxe.

Have the last classics and older "generations" lines been all deluxe? Either way, they could just as easily introduce some "reveal the shield" type of line and have voyagers show up. Who knows... ?

MINDVVIPE wrote:Who knows... ?

Yeah, it's all speculation till we get more info.

By the way, how about those FoC Dinobots? I heard they almost didn't make it to the game.

The words are a broken record, but those images are fresh and pretty. :9 mmm...

NatsumeRyu wrote:The words are a broken record, but those images are fresh and pretty. :9 mmm...

How is it that we've gone this long without talking about how SICK those screenshots are. Damn, the anti-aliasing looks nice and clean. Hopefully still looks that way when seen on the Xbox.

retire the dinobots? this is just more proof that hasbro has no clue what they're doing anymore. But at least they were smart enough to change their minds. Im just really glad to see that there is an actual back story for the dinobots and that they werent just thrown in for the hell of it.

Retiring the dinobots would be corporate suicide in my book. They're like the definitive GET KIDS' ATTENTION item. Kids like robots. Kids LOVE dinosaurs. Dinosaur robots? Can you say EASY MONEY? That's why I seriously hope they make toys of them. And I hope Grimlock and maybe Sludge are Voyager sized. They're dinosaurs, if anything can sell at a $20 price point it's that. So thank you Mr. Tieger for saving the Dinobots from the depths of obscurity.

So. Reading this again after reading the thread at TFW2005... this was just a fluff piece with Tieger trying to make himself look like a good guy.

The reason I say this is that the idea that Hasbro would retire the Dinobots is preposterous. They were in Animated, Masterpiece Grimlock happened, and there was that Power Core Combiner. Plus, they're gonna show up in Prime on Earth.

He didn't rescue them from extinction, he came up with a reason to put his favorite character on Cybertron in a way that fit the story. I'm extremely happy about it, I love the Dinobots, but Tieger is setting himself up as a hero.

Downbeat wrote: Plus, they're gonna show up in Prime on Earth.

When did we learn that?

Botcon


Dinobots and combiners

Downbeat wrote:Botcon


Dinobots and combiners

They said they'd love to, not necessarily that they were actually going to.

Lord Onixprime wrote:

Downbeat wrote:Botcon


Dinobots and combiners

They said they'd love to, not necessarily that they were actually going to.

Their exact words about the dinobots in Prime were that the Dinobots were "on the radar", which is vague enough to have different meanings.

Though, this decision could have even come about after High Moon convinced Hasbro to let the Dinobots be in FOC. We know that this decision did happen, but not exactly when it happened (unless I missed it in the article).

Sabrblade wrote:

Lord Onixprime wrote:

Downbeat wrote:Botcon


Dinobots and combiners

They said they'd love to, not necessarily that they were actually going to.

Their exact words about the dinobots in Prime were that the Dinobots were "on the radar", which is vague enough to have different meanings.

Though, this decision could have even come about after High Moon convinced Hasbro to let the Dinobots be in FOC. We know that this decision did happen, but not exactly when it happened (unless I missed it in the article).

Well, game development take 1.5-2 years usually. So, they could have been pitching the Dinobots full force during DoTM, and Hasbro could very well have been in the Bay mentality at the time that Dinobots are stupid and don't make sense. Never know really.

They really gave Tieger crap over this but let Bay get away with all kinds of inconsistencies...

MATT TIEGER FOR PREZ!!

r3devi7 wrote:They really gave Tieger crap over this but let Bay get away with all kinds of inconsistencies...

That's because Bay could make a movie about humans literally pissing all over the Transformers and it would still make a billion dollars. The game has no such guarantee of success, even if it is comparatively the better entertainment.

Why take a frequently and rabidly requested concept and do away with it?