The Energon Pub

Wes Crayon wrote:Hrm, apparently I misunderstood your original idea -- as you've revised it, I doubt this would be all that successful at all. The interchangeable heads/hands/weapons thing could work, but if you want the parts to be interchangeable and still have them turn into relatively seamless alt modes (barring potential color clashes), you're basically suggesting that they sell disassembled regular figures for people to assemble themselves. That being the case -- and given that the only room for individual customization here is significantly limited -- I think most people would rather just buy the assembled figures. It could work as something on the Internet -- and if the sticker sheets took top focus, like if Hasbro had a program that would essentially let you draw your own decals for the figure and then order them (which would be easy enough to do), that could be neat -- but yeah otherwise I don't think this would do all that well.

I still like the idea of wacky Frankenstein robots and alt modes, though. :mrgrin:

what was you understanding of my initial idea?? I think my initial idea had something to do with just them selling parts in a box, which you then had to decide on what parts to use to make a bot.. kinda like Lego has parts in a box, and sheets of what possible configurations are able to be created.. so that the parts make a seamless altmode... that actually might be a better way. your right... hmmmmm

I've been thinking about this a bit, and it may just work.

Next time you guys are in a toy store, peel away from the TFs a minute and head over to the toy car aisle.

They have several versions of Pimp my ride / custom car type toys out there. There is a base car and body you buy. It comes with wheels and engines and stuff, and then there are accessory packs you buy with "cooler" wheels, engines, whatever.

I could see a TF line like this. It might have to be a separate line, where the bots are engineered to accept the parts. You could swap out heads, hands, forearms, wheels, weapons, etc. Each basic bot could have different transforms, as long as those "replaceable" parts could fit in the transform. I could see a line of cars, though not all the same body style. I could see a line of planes, again not necessarily with the same frame. But like G1 era combiners they might have similar transforms.

There's my $0.02.

rpetras wrote:I've been thinking about this a bit, and it may just work.

Next time you guys are in a toy store, peel away from the TFs a minute and head over to the toy car aisle.

They have several versions of Pimp my ride / custom car type toys out there. There is a base car and body you buy. It comes with wheels and engines and stuff, and then there are accessory packs you buy with "cooler" wheels, engines, whatever.

I could see a TF line like this. It might have to be a separate line, where the bots are engineered to accept the parts. You could swap out heads, hands, forearms, wheels, weapons, etc. Each basic bot could have different transforms, as long as those "replaceable" parts could fit in the transform. I could see a line of cars, though not all the same body style. I could see a line of planes, again not necessarily with the same frame. But like G1 era combiners they might have similar transforms.

There's my $0.02.

that sounds good, and plausible.. though the quality of the engineered Bot should be on par with that of the fully manufactured Bots...

Yes Yes Yes!!! That would be TOTALLY AWESOME and I bet at least half the fans would buy them! They would make tons of moneys from it ^__^ We should start a petition and send it to hasbro. I have two cool characters I'd love to create ^_^

Now that I am thinking about it, doesn't some company make a series of models that some with different parts that you can assemble to make your own custom "statue"?

I haven't seen anything quite to the degree of what we are talking about here because what I've seen is non-articulated models, not fully functioning Transformable toys. The idea still has merit, although I'm wondering if Hasbro has come up with something like this before but passed because they thought it might only appeal to a small market of people. I think the Trans-scanning movie figures could be an intersting way of testing such a market. A similar, although not as full developed, idea as what you're proposing.

Swerve wrote:Now that I am thinking about it, doesn't some company make a series of models that some with different parts that you can assemble to make your own custom "statue"?

I haven't seen anything quite to the degree of what we are talking about here because what I've seen is non-articulated models, not fully functioning Transformable toys. The idea still has merit, although I'm wondering if Hasbro has come up with something like this before but passed because they thought it might only appeal to a small market of people. I think the Trans-scanning movie figures could be an intersting way of testing such a market. A similar, although not as full developed, idea as what you're proposing.

what's interesting is that Takara Tomy hasn't decided to go that route, there are Gundam Models which you assemble and transform into various Jets and such, but those are just Models, and not transformable, assembly required, toys.

the distinction would be, if made by Takara Tomy, and given the nature of the Japanese Hobby Market, which is huge..that they are toys...

Let's be honest, the Japanese toy markets are way below what ours is in terms of Popularity.. the Japanese love customization and building things, Especially Anime Robots!! It's no wonder why Takara Tomy's share of the Toys market is very small, on an even smaller toys scale then what we have here.. Americans love toys, that is a fact, we cherish already put together toys that are already painted.. that's why we demand so much from the Manufacturers and are always demanding the Bar be lifted higher and higher..

It's no surprise to me that Takara Tomy would Invent and Produce the Trans-scanning Movie line up..It gives that portion of the Japanese Markets and psyche of their peoples the opportunity, however small to be creative..Considering the toy Giant Bandai has an Uber amount of Gundam Models for sale, and floods their market, I would think that transformable durable toys that you assmeble and can customize with a wide array of attachments would be of importance to them, that idea and concept though already employed by Bandai, could yeild Takara Tomy an advantage if they were to follow that route..

The disticntion between their transformables and Bandai's would be that bandai's are Models with inferior Paint applications, whilst the Takara Tomy Transformers Customizers series would be the top notch way to go.. with superior mouldings, colors, and durability because they aren't model quality plastic, rather, they are of toy quality..

Honestly, for those who think this concept is not possible, in terms of actually making it work, take a look at some of Bandai's Transformable Gundam Kits, or the Transformable Model kits you assemble from Macross.. or even still B-Club's Transformable Gundam Resin Kits.. it's not too far gone to have the same thing with the Takara Tomy Transformers.. All I ask is, as a consumer and Transformer Collector, is if they do it, make sure it's as good a quality as their regular toys..