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so let me get this straight in my head, Deluxe DOTM Soundwave isn't coming out. The Soundblaster repaint and the repaint with a G1 head aren't coming out as well as repainted deluxe ratchet with a G1 head?

funklizard wrote:Let's be honest: fans tend to be a picky lot who are often unduly critical of novelty. For the overwhelming majority of investors, fan response isn't a sufficiently quantifiable or reliable thing to track. Careful investors have a lot of hard numbers available in which they can put a bit more faith.

Too true, we are a picky and self entitled group. However, if we're not happy at all, then the numbers will suffer as well. They can't bend over backwards to make us happy, but they shouldn't lie to us either. I think they've probably lied to their investors in a way, too. I'm sure a court would say otherwise, but it borders on lying, at the very least.

funklizard wrote:If you have a look at Hasbro's stock price, it had a pretty lousy 2011. 2012 is looking better... but it's still early in the year. Based on this, I do think it's fair to say that investors have not been especially wowed by Hasbro's execution. There's a whole lot more that goes into this than Transformers, of course. But one of the biggest and most successful (monetarily) movies of that year could be considered a long advertisement for Hasbro's toys. That's huge. Hasbro would have to try really hard not to make money under such circumstances. Investors should be asking not only "Did they make money?" but, more to the point, "Did they make as much money as they should have?" And intelligent investors most definitely do ask that question.

At this point (well, actually probably some months ago), Hasbro has done the math and figured that distributing these figures outside Asia is not going to be sufficiently profitable. That means they've failed to capitalize fully on their investment developing these figures. That sucks; but it's the right call from a business standpoint today. Hasbro's advertising dollars are better spent promoting the new stuff. And movie merchandise that's perceived as "last year" isn't interesting to retailers. The bad decisions that got us to this point were the ones that led to a failure to integrate these figures into the DOTM line sooner.

I'm pretty sure everyone had a pretty lousy 2011. So, I do feel for them on that one. They say we're in recovery mode, perhaps we are, but I'd like to see it firsthand before saying we really are.

As for integration timeline, that's a good point, but it was said on another board that Soundwave couldn't be shown too early, because it would spoil a major plot point. Which is true, but the movie came out the first week of July, basically. By September, when the film hit video, he and Que should've been out.

All the waves this year were rather small and padded with previously released stuff and redecos. Not too many new molds this year. We all seemed to notice that and now we know what the deal was/is. But they could've at least given us a heads up to import the missing figures, rather than waiting until the last moment and letting the exporters raise their prices to crazy levels.

$99.99 for Que? No. But we'll see more of that and worse, because of this news. It's going to get ridiculous.

I'd have more respect for them if they had admitted defeat, rather than let us see it and then try and cover it up, y'know?

I'm truly disappointed with Hasbro and their offerings last year and this year, so far. If this trend continues, I may put my main focus on Power Rangers. I didn't think I'd be able to say that, but this is ridiculous. We've been at this for DECADES. Don't cut off our access to necessary figures after all this.

does this mean no darksteel either? i was hoping when target finally gets around to restocking (they have had the same 5 deluxes since december) they'd have his wave but if que & soundwave are a no go doesnt that mean not darksteel either? Looks like im never going to get to use this damn DOTM deluxe coupon. Maybe if hasbro would stop repainting the same damn bumblebee & optimus figures 50 times we could get more unique molds instead of 5 versions of the same damn mold clogging up the pegs. I go to TRU its filled with bumblebees i go to walmart filled with primes i go to target damn near empty, what the hell happened? There use to be a time where you could look at the back of a box see a figure you wanted and find it, if they didt have it that week they'd have it a week or so later. And even if they didnt have it there was still enough variety in the figures there that you could find something else to tide you over but now unless its in wave one your probably screwed. At least they could do is put the last waves up on their site and make sure they stay in stock for a while but god forbid they throw us a bone. Sorry about the rant but im fed up with this crap. They're pissing off collectors & upsetting the little kiddies because they cant find that one figure they really want. And its not just hasbro either there are plenty of other toy companies doing the same things. Collecting use to be fun now its just stressful.

Megatron Wolf wrote:does this mean no darksteel either?

I've seen Darksteel a couple times myself, so he got released.

Megatron Wolf wrote:does this mean no darksteel either? i was hoping when target finally gets around to restocking (they have had the same 5 deluxes since december) they'd have his wave but if que & soundwave are a no go doesnt that mean not darksteel either? Looks like im never going to get to use this damn DOTM deluxe coupon. Maybe if hasbro would stop repainting the same damn bumblebee & optimus figures 50 times we could get more unique molds instead of 5 versions of the same damn mold clogging up the pegs. I go to TRU its filled with bumblebees i go to walmart filled with primes i go to target damn near empty, what the hell happened? There use to be a time where you could look at the back of a box see a figure you wanted and find it, if they didt have it that week they'd have it a week or so later. And even if they didnt have it there was still enough variety in the figures there that you could find something else to tide you over but now unless its in wave one your probably screwed. At least they could do is put the last waves up on their site and make sure they stay in stock for a while but god forbid they throw us a bone. Sorry about the rant but im fed up with this crap. They're pissing off collectors & upsetting the little kiddies because they cant find that one figure they really want. And its not just hasbro either there are plenty of other toy companies doing the same things. Collecting use to be fun now its just stressful.

Since I was in rant mode in my earlier post, I left out something that Megatron Wolf touched on. It's not just the collectors that are getting frustrated. My nearest walmart has had literally only three figures for almost two weeks now: The walmart exclusive Bumblebee, the small human alliance figure that turns into a snowmobile (forgot his name), and human alliance Roadbuster. That's it. I've heard everything from "but I don't want bumblebee" to "I have these already" from little kids as I walk by. The worst one (and I totally can imagine how this kid felt, I mean I think he was only 5 or 6) was the one that was crying because he wanted to spend his birthday money and his mom told him they would come back again in a few days to see if the toy he wanted was there. His response was "but they never have it". I have no idea which toy he was looking for, but apparently a surplus of Bumblebee didn't help cause he looked pissed! Hasbro needs to realize that A: Most kids have at least one Bumblebee by now, whether they are new to the franchise or not, and B: A parent is not going to spend 11.99 and up on a toy that looks just like one they already bought their kid. Parents DO pay attention. My parents would have never bought me a duplicate transformer when I was a kid. The only reason I got Powermaster Optimus Prime one christmas was because he was so radically different from Gen1 Prime that my mom thought it was worth it.

Also, while I realize the times have changed, let me give the best example of how different Transformer buying was as a kid. The small halmark style gift shop in town had the constructicons. All of them. Two or three of each. At a damn Halmark. SO back then you could find an entire gestalt in a place not even reserved for major toy sales, but these days stores that sell toys like candy have empty spots on the shelf and legions of shelfwarmers that even kids are getting tired of. My friend years back managed to collect every single Beast Wars toy(excluding Beast Machines). He never left the city. He got them from either walmart, target, or Toys R us, and he never seemed to have problems finding a new figure he didn't have (spoiled brat lmao).

Final note: If Primes and Bumblebees are selling in such mass quantities that it prompts Hasbro to keep making them and repainting them...then how come they never even attempted to put at least those Prime First Editions of those two characters into US retail stores? They said we may see the molds again, but really, what sense does it make to break out the FE molds again after they've sold who knows how many versions of Prime? Should've used at least some of the figures as a "preview" line like the Movie Protoforms, or released ones like Voyager Prime since the weaponizer is way bigger it seems. Seems like a way to cash in on those molds. But I guess that just makes too much sense to be something Hasbro would do...

No Que or Soundwave...

Hasbro needs to buckle down and stop letting brick and mortar stores dictate toy releases. They saturate an area once and then never change their stock. Why aren't they trying to keep things fresh? Because they don't have to.

This is why I do my shopping online and why Hasbro should consider a shift to monitor online retailers as a bigger part of their formula. Regardless of which vendor you lean, you can't deny there IS no shelf real estate issues on a webpage and most reserve preorders for months (even years) on end.

Here's another intersting thought. Since the movies lines began, the Transformers brand has branched out into a number of new directions: the RPMs, the Power Bots, Gravity Bots, etc. Could the increase in the number of other options be leading to the decrease in sales of what I'm calling Actual Transformers figures? They also have the Legion/Cyberverse figures- lower quality, smaller, and cheaper, but focused on the target audience. With these things, it could affect Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader class sales.

Definitely not a good news to start a new week, but I don't really feel that bad either. The only figure I care about and want to have is HA Soundwave, but if I cannot get it from retails, including discount stores, I won't buy it online either. Just because he is really not that much have. You know what I'm talking about, Hasbro.

I'm sure Hasbro has already produced a lot of these already. Maybe we'll see them at Marshall's/TJMaxx or Ross during the Holiday season like we did last year with the Reveal the Shield and Hunt for the Decepticons lines.

cdavid3 wrote:I'm sure Hasbro has already produced a lot of these already. Maybe we'll see them at Marshall's/TJMaxx or Ross during the Holiday season like we did last year with the Reveal the Shield and Hunt for the Decepticons lines.

Not necessarily. Those RTS toys that made it into discount retailers weren't officially cancelled.

Alternately, these cancelled toys could make into Hasbro Asia's Movie Trilogy line, so importing them might still be possible down the road.

Everyone needs to be patient. I'm disappointed, too, but it's too early to give up hope of seeing these toys again.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:does this mean no darksteel either?

I've seen Darksteel a couple times myself, so he got released.

Darksteel is about $13 from Amazon.com. That's pretty convenient.

First-Aid wrote:Here's another intersting thought. Since the movies lines began, the Transformers brand has branched out into a number of new directions: the RPMs, the Power Bots, Gravity Bots, etc. Could the increase in the number of other options be leading to the decrease in sales of what I'm calling Actual Transformers figures? They also have the Legion/Cyberverse figures- lower quality, smaller, and cheaper, but focused on the target audience. With these things, it could affect Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader class sales.

very true also didnt hasbro say at some point that their profit margins were higher with the deluxe class? how much more so with stamped out molds for gravity bots,power bots,rpm's and the new (bakugon ripoff)botshots? it almost seems as though their moving away from actually transforming robots kinda tf's

truth be told ha soundwave looked then and now like a complete turd and as for the wreckers ive bot the 3 cyberverse versions along with sw so im covered.what really saddens me is the lack of a leader dotm megs.he finally gets a great update and not even so much as a prototype.
as for bb go to the galleries section and you will see 14 bb molds in deluxe,leader,cv,and ha so yeah id lend creedence to the idea the the wave asst completely sucked a$$

we got black bb
bb with lightning bolts
bb with flames
bb with grey plastic
bb with rocket boosters\
and my favorite neon yellow bb to make your eyes bleed

gantzrunner wrote:The part about this hobby that was the most fun to me was walking into a store, seeing an awesome figure on the shelf, geeking out and buying the damn thing by impulse. Now its a stressful hunt-slash-race to the finish line or you will never get what you want.

...Hasbro, you are killing Transformers for me. There I said it.

Sorry for the rant guys...

This part really hit home for me. It's really frustrating to go to the stores over and over again and see the same old stuff or nothing at all. Really takes the fun out of it, as does trying to beat the scalpers. Kinda makes me wish for the Unicron Trilogy days, back when every kid's grandma didn't know who Optimus Prime was, and every crooked TRU employee wasn't trying to make a quick eBay buck off new product.

kirbenvost wrote:

gantzrunner wrote:The part about this hobby that was the most fun to me was walking into a store, seeing an awesome figure on the shelf, geeking out and buying the damn thing by impulse. Now its a stressful hunt-slash-race to the finish line or you will never get what you want.

...Hasbro, you are killing Transformers for me. There I said it.

Sorry for the rant guys...

This part really hit home for me. It's really frustrating to go to the stores over and over again and see the same old stuff or nothing at all. Really takes the fun out of it, as does trying to beat the scalpers. Kinda makes me wish for the Unicron Trilogy days, back when every kid's grandma didn't know who Optimus Prime was, and every crooked TRU employee wasn't trying to make a quick eBay buck off new product.

You'll get used to it and pretty soon you won't even remember what it used to be like.

First-Aid wrote:Here's another intersting thought. Since the movies lines began, the Transformers brand has branched out into a number of new directions: the RPMs, the Power Bots, Gravity Bots, etc. Could the increase in the number of other options be leading to the decrease in sales of what I'm calling Actual Transformers figures? They also have the Legion/Cyberverse figures- lower quality, smaller, and cheaper, but focused on the target audience. With these things, it could affect Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader class sales.

I do worry about that, actually. I also see a day when TransFormers, on the whole, won't be what it used to be. An in name only, kinda thing.

I could be wrong, but that day is coming, I think. Not tomorrow or next year, but soon.

I think they'll do something for the anniversary and then start slacking off.

cdavid3 wrote:I'm sure Hasbro has already produced a lot of these already. Maybe we'll see them at Marshall's/TJMaxx or Ross during the Holiday season like we did last year with the Reveal the Shield and Hunt for the Decepticons lines.

I wouldn't be too sure. Some RTS made it to Five Below and Marshall's/TJMaxx/ROSS, but in small amounts of overstock and when they were gone, they were gone. And if they were the Legends/Windcharger/Grapple wave, very limited amounts.

Other than MOC Soundwave, there's nothing produced to discount store levels. I mean, we saw a bunch of US Leadfoots loose on eBay, but none in package and no Ques either.

RTS Rumble? Never saw the light of day in US packaging except the slide show. Did make it to Japan, along with Frenzy, however.

It Is Him wrote:Alternately, these cancelled toys could make into Hasbro Asia's Movie Trilogy line, so importing them might still be possible down the road.

Everyone needs to be patient. I'm disappointed, too, but it's too early to give up hope of seeing these toys again.

Hasbro clearly said the repainted figures we were shown at SD/NYCC would be heading to the line. Nothing was mentioned of the original molds. To be fair, it's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely. Considering Robot Kingdom had a shipment of the TakaraTomy versions, plus the US version of Soundwave and a lot of Asian retailers can get their hands on the same toys. Or in other words, they probably already have them or can get them, there's no incentive for Hasbro to make them at this, or any time.

alternator77 wrote:very true also didnt hasbro say at some point that their profit margins were higher with the deluxe class? how much more so with stamped out molds for gravity bots,power bots,rpm's and the new (bakugon ripoff)botshots? it almost seems as though their moving away from actually transforming robots kinda tf's

They did, yes.

It does seem like that and I'm almost certain we're about to have another Actionmaster moment in time. Last time that happened, G1 died and we went years without anything. (We did have G2, but it wasn't substantial and it would take years more before we got Beast Wars.)

Dead Metal wrote:

kirbenvost wrote:

gantzrunner wrote:The part about this hobby that was the most fun to me was walking into a store, seeing an awesome figure on the shelf, geeking out and buying the damn thing by impulse. Now its a stressful hunt-slash-race to the finish line or you will never get what you want.

...Hasbro, you are killing Transformers for me. There I said it.

Sorry for the rant guys...

This part really hit home for me. It's really frustrating to go to the stores over and over again and see the same old stuff or nothing at all. Really takes the fun out of it, as does trying to beat the scalpers. Kinda makes me wish for the Unicron Trilogy days, back when every kid's grandma didn't know who Optimus Prime was, and every crooked TRU employee wasn't trying to make a quick eBay buck off new product.

You'll get used to it and pretty soon you won't even remember what it used to be like.

I've been used to it for a couple years now, but it still sucks.

I really hope we aren't due for another 'Actionmaster moment' or TF crash. I have to admit it is looking pretty similar, with the over-diversification of the line and simplification and downsizing of the toys. Though I guess if it were to happen it would give my wallet a nice rest.

Why not release them on HASBRO TOY SHOP !!!!!!!!

ILL-Star wrote:Why not release them on HASBRO TOY SHOP !!!!!!!!

Hasbro Toy Shop is a separate company from Hasbro. Think of them as Hasbro's private TJ Maxx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

Autobot032 wrote:They did, yes.
It does seem like that and I'm almost certain we're about to have another Actionmaster moment in time. Last time that happened, G1 died and we went years without anything. (We did have G2, but it wasn't substantial and it would take years more before we got Beast Wars.)

That's EXACTLY what I've been thinking as I've been reading this thread and others like it. The Great Transformers Crash of the 1990's, and oh God, it was just AWFUL! I was there!

Suddenly, my beloved Transformers just started to...suck! We got Transformers that didn't transform at all, as well as several unpainted, ridiculously simplistic and ugly Transformers made out of day-glo plastic. Stupid looking kiddie-simplified pretenders, and scads of Micro Masters. The toys sucked, the box art sucked, and even the little fold-out catalogs that I always looked forward to started to SUCK. Then,a little while later, "G-2" comes out, but is not really a second generation at all, but mostly ugly repaints of toys I already had, peppered with one or two somewhat cool pieces like Laser Prime, Tanked Megs, and Dreadwing.

Then, the bottom dropped out, and TFs ceased to exist on toy shelves altogether. I remember being so starved for new characters that I was actually considering purchasing generic "Transformable Robot" knock-off-like toys with the intention of sticking faction symbols on them and adding them to my G1 collection.

Dark times, those.

Dark times.

Mkall wrote:Seibertron.com site owner Ryan and news admin El Duque spoke briefly with the Hasbro Transformers brand team this morning at Toy Fair in New York regarding a few loose ends from yesterday. From their discussion, they bring news that there are currently no plans to release DOTM Que, Soundwave (both deluxe and Human Alliance) and Target-release Leadfoot at this time. The main reasons for this is what befalls many toy lines as they come to a close - retailers show more interest in the next line than they do in continuing the existing line. It is possible that the figures could see a release at some point, but at this point there are currently no plans.

Save your money and start checking secondary retail stores (TJX Companies) in the late summer and early fall.

amtm wrote:

Mkall wrote:Seibertron.com site owner Ryan and news admin El Duque spoke briefly with the Hasbro Transformers brand team this morning at Toy Fair in New York regarding a few loose ends from yesterday. From their discussion, they bring news that there are currently no plans to release DOTM Que, Soundwave (both deluxe and Human Alliance) and Target-release Leadfoot at this time. The main reasons for this is what befalls many toy lines as they come to a close - retailers show more interest in the next line than they do in continuing the existing line. It is possible that the figures could see a release at some point, but at this point there are currently no plans.

Save your money and start checking secondary retail stores (TJX Companies) in the late summer and early fall.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Getting ahead of yourself there.

Soundwave (Deluxe) is confirmed to be in Hasbro packaging and being available via Robot Kingdom.

The Human Alliance version is in TakaraTomy packaging, but not Hasbro's. (Though, technically it is Hasbro's packaging with a stupid little sticker slapped on it.)

Leadfoot (US) was on eBay several times and is in the hands of collectors, but never saw a packaging release. TakaraTomy did a full release of the figure, minus the US tampographs.

Que was released in Japan. Wheeljack (which is what he would've been called in the US) was never produced on US cards. We never saw a packaged sample.

Chances are, they all went to Asian markets and there alone. Chances of them coming to the TJMaxx chains is slim to none. Plus, Hasbro themselves said Movie Trilogy (the line) is going to Asia, only. Plus they only mentioned the repaints, none of the original molds as is. The only MT figure we're receiving is Optimus with the trailer @ $29.99

Things can change, of course, but it's highly unlikely. I'd say our chances of NOT seeing them on US shores is around 95-98%

Fine by me.

Cobalt Prime wrote:Dark times, those.

Dark times.

The stuff of nightmares in fact.

Cobalt Prime wrote:Dark times, those.

Dark times.

I personally wouldn't mind if they slowed down a little bit and focussed more on design and quality over quantity of pseudo-figures (I'm looking at you Bot Shots and RPMs). It would give the fandom time to catch their breath for a period of time.

But that doesn't appear to be Hasbro's MO at the moment. Looks like it's going to be Prime this year, Classics next year and then another movie that'll last a year and a half.