1984forever wrote:Amelie, if you want to talk toys...
I didn't buy Skids or Springer because I didn't like the IDW design. My son loves Devastation, but Hasbro didn't make enough of those G1 based characters that were featured in the game, so I couldn't buy them for him because they didn't make them. Money lost there as well. My son doesn't like the pack in comics. He can't trade them at school for Pokemon cards or Lego people because the other 8 year olds don't like them either. So no new little TF fans there.
The packaging says 8 and up, so the comics should appeal to 8 and up. Not just to adults who have witnessed every fight between Prime and Megatron for the last 30yrs, and now they want them to make love not war.
Firstly - Transformers toys are playtested with children. They're tested for play value and safety. If the group of carefully selected children don't like a toy - they're asked why and its sent back to the design room - Skids wasn't just released on a whim - it takes over a year for a toy to go from drawing-board to manufacture.
Secondly - We know Skids and Springer sold well. I'd argue strongly that you not liking Springer would put you in a very small minority of toy collectors. Hasbro can't please everyone, so they're going to go where the money is. Spinger, in fact, has been popular enough for him to be released twice by Takara and soon to be reissued through Platinum by Hasbro.
Thirdly - Pokemon Cards and Lego are more popular than Transformers. Trying to trade a free comic bundled with a toy at school is like trying to exchange your Gobots in the playground back in the day. Not happening.
Fourthly - Whilst the toys are aimed at 8 year olds - the comics are not. I personally don't see why they were included in the packs either (they're only on the USA editions I might add) other than purely as an added incentive for IDW comic collectors and toy collectors.
Fifthly - Hasbro didn't need to make enough of the Devastation toys. The combiners within were the Combiner Wars toys and the others were "accessible" in some form as follows.
- Bumblebee was clearly the Classics version.
- Megatron was his Combiner Wars self - who, at the time, was available on toy-shelves just like the combiners on display in the game.
- Sideswipe, Optimus Prime, Grimlock and Wheeljack were all effectively the Masterpiece toys.
Devastation wasn't as heavily marketed as War\Fall Of Cybertron and didn't have any tie-in figures. I wouldn't know the reason why for that, personally - maybe War\Fall toys didn't sell too well or maybe as I pointed out above that Hasbro felt there were options out there for the toys, even if they were expensive.
Using anecdotal evidence to make a statement about the entire health of the Transformers brand is asinine - as already stated - if using IDW designs was damaging the brand, then Hasbro would do something else, but as it stands Transformers is in a good place as a brand which is why they continue to support IDW fans with toys and homage.