The Energon Pub

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:38 pm

Emerje wrote:Part of the issue with Unicron getting funded was that they were going to collect the funds the same week MP-44 was going to be released. Expecting fans to shell out $1,100~ at basically the same time for Transformers would have been too much for most people. It was terribly timed.

Not to mention running Cookie Monster's campaign at the same time, which itself failed to fund.

News Credits: 4838 · by **william-james88** » Tue Aug 10, 2021 4:10 pm

Sabrblade wrote:
Emerje wrote:Part of the issue with Unicron getting funded was that they were going to collect the funds the same week MP-44 was going to be released. Expecting fans to shell out $1,100~ at basically the same time for Transformers would have been too much for most people. It was terribly timed.
Not to mention running Cookie Monster's campaign at the same time, which itself failed to fund.

I dont see a giant overlap there in terms of fandom

by **Railbomb** » Sat Aug 14, 2021 4:43 pm

Sabrblade wrote:
Emerje wrote:Part of the issue with Unicron getting funded was that they were going to collect the funds the same week MP-44 was going to be released. Expecting fans to shell out $1,100~ at basically the same time for Transformers would have been too much for most people. It was terribly timed.
Not to mention running Cookie Monster's campaign at the same time, which itself failed to fund.

I'm convinced the Cookie Monster campaign was designed to fail as a threat. As a way to show people that if a campaign doesn't reach funding it won't be made. Sure, a full sized Cookie Monster is cool but I don't understand how Hasbro could've gotten the market data to say enough people want to buy something like that to even develop a prototype to show. Assigning a team to throw something together to have something to show on a website and conventions certainly isn't impossible. Then make it something simple enough to engineer for mass production quickly if by an off chance it does succeed. It was even pruned off before Unicron ended to show people "if the goals aren't met these things will NOT be made".

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Mon Aug 16, 2021 7:28 pm

Emerje wrote:Part of the issue with Unicron getting funded was that they were going to collect the funds the same week MP-44 was going to be released. Expecting fans to shell out $1,100~ at basically the same time for Transformers would have been too much for most people. It was terribly timed.

I think part of Galactus' reason for having a higher backing goal is Hasbro's insistence in him having electronics. There's a major silicon and chip shortage right now that's effecting everything from computers and video games to automotive. It's even more expensive if they're doubling down and using blue LEDs, which cost more, under that blue plastic. I'm thinking 14K might have been the minimum order their supplier was willing go with and that's still a pretty small bulk order for custom electronics like this.

Emerje

Not to mention just how expensive Unicron was. My Sentinel and Razor Crest between them were only about $50 more than Unicron was going to be my himself after tax. That and Hasbro seemed to learn some hard lessons from Unicron to apply to later campaigns, such as better incentives, more clear cut looks at all the components of the project, etc. Unicron turned out to be a big lesson.

william-james88 wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
Emerje wrote:Part of the issue with Unicron getting funded was that they were going to collect the funds the same week MP-44 was going to be released. Expecting fans to shell out $1,100~ at basically the same time for Transformers would have been too much for most people. It was terribly timed.
Not to mention running Cookie Monster's campaign at the same time, which itself failed to fund.

I dont see a giant overlap there in terms of fandom

You'd be surprised. At the time, I watched a lot of people cancel CM preorders for Unicron, or forgo cookie for Unicron.

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Aug 27, 2021 11:08 am

This is the original HasLab Victory thread, so...

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Sat Aug 28, 2021 4:53 am

Railbomb wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
Emerje wrote:Part of the issue with Unicron getting funded was that they were going to collect the funds the same week MP-44 was going to be released. Expecting fans to shell out $1,100~ at basically the same time for Transformers would have been too much for most people. It was terribly timed.
Not to mention running Cookie Monster's campaign at the same time, which itself failed to fund.

I'm convinced the Cookie Monster campaign was designed to fail as a threat. As a way to show people that if a campaign doesn't reach funding it won't be made. Sure, a full sized Cookie Monster is cool but I don't understand how Hasbro could've gotten the market data to say enough people want to buy something like that to even develop a prototype to show. Assigning a team to throw something together to have something to show on a website and conventions certainly isn't impossible. Then make it something simple enough to engineer for mass production quickly if by an off chance it does succeed. It was even pruned off before Unicron ended to show people "if the goals aren't met these things will NOT be made".

I recently heard in a video about these various crowdfunds being put on by Mattel, Hasbro and the like that Cookie Monster wasn't Hasbro's idea. Apparently they were approached by someone with the rights to make it and Hasbro wasn't invested in it at all so it made no difference to them if it succeeded or not. They probably made some money off of the effort regardless.

Emerje