The Energon Pub

Sledge wrote:I think Hasbro are accomodating fans pretty well. Hell, we're getting whole lines (Alternators, Classics) that clearly aren't aimed at children watching the cartoons. Seems to me that when people complain about "the fans" being ignored, they really mean that they are being ignored. I'm sure it would be great if Hasbro could release every single thing every single fan wanted. But I'm not sure the 80s TV show-based gestalt that I'd love would sell well enough to justify the costs.

By the way, can anyone name a petition about anything that actually achieved it's objective? My experience is petitions achieve nothing, because you can get people to put their name on a petition for anything. If you doubt that, consider that people have signed petitions calling for a ban on dihydrogen monoxide.

Yes ban that nasty concoction.

I support banning dihydrogen monoxide in its pure form.
Drink Beer!!

Maximal Primal wrote:
1. release a super metal finish Leader Class Megatron (mostly silver with gold, and gun metal in the areas you normally want to leave black and Optimus Prime with metallics in colors and silver.

2. release a leader Starscream, Blackout, and Bonecrusher

3. release a voyager Bumblebee and barricade

4. release a realistic and fully posable frenzy, who turns into a slightly miniature boombox, size would be that of a leaderclass or bigger.

how's that?

Well, to me, those suggestions border on "frivolous" and "unnecessary".

megatroptimus wrote:

Maximal Primal wrote:
1. release a super metal finish Leader Class Megatron (mostly silver with gold, and gun metal in the areas you normally want to leave black and Optimus Prime with metallics in colors and silver.

2. release a leader Starscream, Blackout, and Bonecrusher

3. release a voyager Bumblebee and barricade

4. release a realistic and fully posable frenzy, who turns into a slightly miniature boombox, size would be that of a leaderclass or bigger.

how's that?

Well, to me, those suggestions border on "frivolous" and "unnecessary".

not quite, they did manage to get us a US Accurate version os Starscream, and a super metal finish Ratchet and Megatron in Voyager class.. so if Hasbro has already done that, then A. they listen to the fans, and B. it's not a frivolous request.

why not have them do it in Leader Class?? money constraints, who knows.


Maybe because the leader class costs more to make because of the electronic gimmicks?

What is so funny is that every one complains when we get a super posable and very Media accurate toy in Leader class, that has no electronic features what so ever, but then when we get one with electronic features, we can't get it to be painted right to begin with?? And still complaining because it's not posable or accurate enough?? WTF!!

Damn!!! I see Maximal's point, we should be uniform in our bitching...

I really don't think we need an Ultimate Frenzy.

Maximal Primal wrote:1. release a super metal finish Leader Class Megatron (mostly silver with gold, and gun metal in the areas you normally want to leave black and Optimus Prime with metallics in colors and silver.

2. release a leader Starscream, Blackout, and Bonecrusher

3. release a voyager Bumblebee and barricade

4. release a realistic and fully posable frenzy, who turns into a slightly miniature boombox, size would be that of a leaderclass or bigger.

how's that?

Now I see why the rep didn't answer your questions...


(just yanking yer chain )

Seriously though, as far as wanting Hasbro to do these suggestions:

1) I assume you mean the Movie Megatron. Probably not unless they are planning to rerelease him in the Power of the Allspark line. As far as I am aware, the movie toyline is done and Hasbro is focusing its energies on TF Animated toys. Optimus was already released like this as Robovision Optimus Prime; a Target exclusive.

2) I agree these figures would be cool but probably won't happen in the near future. If we are lucky at the most we may get one but I highly doubt it. If these characters make a comeback in TF 2 then we might have a better chance of getting them at this size than we do right now.

3) & 4) Again they are focusing on TF Animated figures right now and won't be working to add new figs to this line.

I don't know if you are aware of this but Hasbro (and many toy companies) work at least 6-18 mos. ahead of when the toys actually hit the shelves. So right now they are probably working on concepts to the second season of TF Animated figures. They didn't start working on the TF Movie toys until late 2005/early 2006. The best we can hope for is that some characters like Starscream will be returning in TF 2 and Hasbro will make the figures in the sizes you want.

SnapTrap wrote:

Maximal Primal wrote:1. release a super metal finish Leader Class Megatron (mostly silver with gold, and gun metal in the areas you normally want to leave black and Optimus Prime with metallics in colors and silver.

2. release a leader Starscream, Blackout, and Bonecrusher

3. release a voyager Bumblebee and barricade

4. release a realistic and fully posable frenzy, who turns into a slightly miniature boombox, size would be that of a leaderclass or bigger.

how's that?

Now I see why the rep didn't answer your questions...


(just yanking yer chain )

Seriously though, as far as wanting Hasbro to do these suggestions:

1) I assume you mean the Movie Megatron. Probably not unless they are planning to rerelease him in the Power of the Allspark line. As far as I am aware, the movie toyline is done and Hasbro is focusing its energies on TF Animated toys. Optimus was already released like this as Robovision Optimus Prime; a Target exclusive.

2) I agree these figures would be cool but probably won't happen in the near future. If we are lucky at the most we may get one but I highly doubt it. If these characters make a comeback in TF 2 then we might have a better chance of getting them at this size than we do right now.

3) & 4) Again they are focusing on TF Animated figures right now and won't be working to add new figs to this line.

I don't know if you are aware of this but Hasbro (and many toy companies) work at least 6-18 mos. ahead of when the toys actually hit the shelves. So right now they are probably working on concepts to the second season of TF Animated figures. They didn't start working on the TF Movie toys until late 2005/early 2006. The best we can hope for is that some characters like Starscream will be returning in TF 2 and Hasbro will make the figures in the sizes you want.

I always love Snap trap's responses, he's always level headed and makes perfect sense when explains stuff to people..

I don't see anything wrong with making these kinds of suggestions. You never know what could happen. Hell, 10 years ago I'd have thought a Masterpiece line to be the most awesome and ridiculous thing ever conceived. "$100+ for big cartoon accurate versions of my favorite toys? Sure I'll take one but it'll never happen..."

We might not get 99% of what we ask for but that remaining 1% might be enough to knock our socks off.

i think you kno my story, the topic "omfg my bb did get stolen!" topic provides all of my story!

skywarp-2 wrote:
not quite, they did manage to get us a US Accurate version os Starscream, and a super metal finish Ratchet and Megatron in Voyager class.. so if Hasbro has already done that, then A. they listen to the fans, and B. it's not a frivolous request.

Those releases were already planned well before fans started asking for them. They planned a few G1 decos to please the G1 whores, a few non-G1 redecos to squeeze more money out of the molds and that was it. If there were no mainline Blackout or Starscream figures at all, I could understand, but to demand Leader versions for scale purposes is frivolous.

Does Hasbro ignore the fans?

Geez, the hundreds and hundreds of Ultra Magnus repaints, seeker repaints, Rodimus repaints, Constructicon repaints not to mention the entire Classics line and numerous G1 homages in Armada/Energon/Cybertron are all things that fans (at least the G1 fans...) have been asking for, and they'll all got it.

Yet, fans still find ways to complain, even though Hasbro gives them just about everything they want on a silver platter.

megatroptimus wrote:

skywarp-2 wrote:
not quite, they did manage to get us a US Accurate version os Starscream, and a super metal finish Ratchet and Megatron in Voyager class.. so if Hasbro has already done that, then A. they listen to the fans, and B. it's not a frivolous request.

Those releases were already planned well before fans started asking for them. They planned a few G1 decos to please the G1 whores, a few non-G1 redecos to squeeze more money out of the molds and that was it. If there were no mainline Blackout or Starscream figures at all, I could understand, but to demand Leader versions for scale purposes is frivolous.

so you don't or wouldn't ask Hasbro for a Leader class version of Starscream or Blackout??

So what your basically saying is that since you have classics Starscream, the Masterpiece Repaint being released through Wal-Mart is frivolous??

skywarp-2 wrote:

megatroptimus wrote:

skywarp-2 wrote:
not quite, they did manage to get us a US Accurate version os Starscream, and a super metal finish Ratchet and Megatron in Voyager class.. so if Hasbro has already done that, then A. they listen to the fans, and B. it's not a frivolous request.

Those releases were already planned well before fans started asking for them. They planned a few G1 decos to please the G1 whores, a few non-G1 redecos to squeeze more money out of the molds and that was it. If there were no mainline Blackout or Starscream figures at all, I could understand, but to demand Leader versions for scale purposes is frivolous.

so you don't or wouldn't ask Hasbro for a Leader class version of Starscream or Blackout??

So what your basically saying is that since you have classics Starscream, the Masterpiece Repaint being released through Wal-Mart is frivolous??

I personally think most repaints are frivolous. Its an excuse for hasbro to get more money out of the consumer and to their credit it's working.

skywarp-2 wrote:so you don't or wouldn't ask Hasbro for a Leader class version of Starscream or Blackout??

So what your basically saying is that since you have classics Starscream, the Masterpiece Repaint being released through Wal-Mart is frivolous??

1-That'd be cool, but it's not necessary.

2-Irrelevant, since Masterpiece SS is only a redeco of an existing Takara mold (MP-03). I really doubt Hasbro would venture into designing AND producing a masterpiece-like figure of their own without Takara doing it first.

lanzajr26 wrote:I don't see anything wrong with making these kinds of suggestions. You never know what could happen. Hell, 10 years ago I'd have thought a Masterpiece line to be the most awesome and ridiculous thing ever conceived. "$100+ for big cartoon accurate versions of my favorite toys? Sure I'll take one but it'll never happen..."

We might not get 99% of what we ask for but that remaining 1% might be enough to knock our socks off.

Heres hoping that 1% contains leader Blackout & Starscream.

BLACKOUT2007 wrote:

lanzajr26 wrote:I don't see anything wrong with making these kinds of suggestions. You never know what could happen. Hell, 10 years ago I'd have thought a Masterpiece line to be the most awesome and ridiculous thing ever conceived. "$100+ for big cartoon accurate versions of my favorite toys? Sure I'll take one but it'll never happen..."

We might not get 99% of what we ask for but that remaining 1% might be enough to knock our socks off.

Heres hoping that 1% contains leader Blackout & Starscream.

It won't

Hasbro do just as good a job as any other toy company. It might not be much, but at least they aren't Disney or something.

They created the Classics line more or less to sate the appetite of the older collectors who have been whining about wanting G1 characters remade since G1 was around. They didn't have to do that. Another short Transformers line full of repaints probably would have done just as well with their target market of children. They made it purely to make older fans happy. (perhaps as a payoff for the movie line?)

Other figures have obvious nods to G1 figures etc etc.

Their customer service sucks, and they rip off everyone who lives outside of the USA, but at least they try to make figures that older fans, and not just their larger market of children will enjoy.

I'll just play devil's advocate here.
We asked Hasbro to freakin' knock it off with the White Primes. Did they listen?

I don't know. Did they?
We asked for die-cast metal to be used again. Did they listen?

We asked for updated versions of G1 characters. Did we get any?

I don't know. did we?

We get a lot of things that we ask for.

On the other hand,

This is "Menasor" I ask for a Classics Menasor and I get this instead. WTF? Hasbro also says this

Is Menasor. Isn't Menasor supposed to be a combiner or something?
Personally, my biggest gripe is that distribution in my area is even worse than in the UK. I haven't seen a Transformer in months.

6Ti Menasor and Classics Menasor are still closer to G1 Menasor than Cybertron Menasor.

(but I still hate them)

Okay, I'll play Underdog's Advocate...

Ultra Magnus Titanium isn't exactly what most fans were thinking they would get with their requests, I for one was hoping Ultra Magnus would make it into a new TV and toy series..but titaniums is hardly a series that measures up to classics or anything else for that matter.. more on that in a second...so did they listen??? sort of, it was more like selective hearing in that case..

Die cast Metal Titaniums... hmmm... it's almost as if they had forgotten how to incoporate Diecast into toys anymore, and or Hasbro thought it would be fun to teach us a lesson while seeing how many fans would buy them.. about why they hate diescast in toys.. the problem was they didn't realize when we said diecast, we really meant, Diecast in certain areas..support mainly to give weight to our toys and not weighted arms that drag on cheap plastic and fall apart easily, or don't transform well, or have paint application issues..ect... ect... ect...so did they listen...??? Again they have selective hearing..

we asked for updated versions of G-1 characters, yes we sure did... but Hasbro didn't make those.. they imported it, and made them palastic, and not because we asked, but because at the time before they came here, we were spending huge amounts of money importing them...Hasbro wanted a share fo that gold mine.. until the well dried up...so did Hasbro listen??if you count them listening to the chaching in their pockets with their latest import, whose only deal was, they didn't have to incopoirate diecast.. and sell them for cheaper..but inmass, which still meant more profits..MUahhhhahahahahahah Corporate greed strikes again!!



and as far as menasor is concerned... they'll reissue some more repaints of characters already made into Menasor a couple of more times until they get enough complaints and do something like the Ultra Magnus.. and feel that they have satisfied the fans...ahhhhh

No Hasbro does not ignore the fan base. We get a lot of what we want like Classics, Alts and Titaniums. No toy company is going to tailor to all the fans demands. Collectors alone are not enough to off set costs as much as some people want to believe they are. Hasbro has done a fine job and keep getting better.

skywarp-2 wrote:we asked for updated versions of G-1 characters, yes we sure did... but Hasbro didn't make those.. they imported it, and made them palastic, and not because we asked, but because at the time before they came here, we were spending huge amounts of money importing them...Hasbro wanted a share fo that gold mine.. until the well dried up...so did Hasbro listen??if you count them listening to the chaching in their pockets with their latest import, whose only deal was, they didn't have to incopoirate diecast.. and sell them for cheaper..but inmass, which still meant more profits

If you are referring to Alts, it was a joint effort with Takare. Hasbro did the work of securing the lisences. As for Classics, they were not released in Japan. The only difference for US reissues were firing missles. They were still diecast if the original toy was.

I say Hasbro does listen to the fans. The Titanium line is a good example of this since many figures are based off of the defunct DW War Within Comic series; which itself has styles based loosely off of the G1 toon. Just because they listened to the fans (more G1 figures; die cast construction) doesn't always mean the line will be successful, especially with kids.
While Hasbro might not exclusively listen to what TF fans want they do hear us and try to implement our wishes in their toylines. As fans we will never have a higher priority of what we want over what kids want unless the US has a declining birth rate (like Japan is experiencing right now) which Hasbro would have to cater exclusively to collectors to survive, or the TF collector fanbase grows much bigger than it is. Right now the TF collector market is way too small to really influence decisions at Hasbro.

megatroptimus wrote:

skywarp-2 wrote:
not quite, they did manage to get us a US Accurate version os Starscream, and a super metal finish Ratchet and Megatron in Voyager class.. so if Hasbro has already done that, then A. they listen to the fans, and B. it's not a frivolous request.

Those releases were already planned well before fans started asking for them. They planned a few G1 decos to please the G1 whores, a few non-G1 redecos to squeeze more money out of the molds and that was it. If there were no mainline Blackout or Starscream figures at all, I could understand, but to demand Leader versions for scale purposes is frivolous.

Agreed. If scale collecting is your thing, it's kind of a frivolous arguement for more versions of figures to be released just so you have versions that are of relatively accurate heights. Plus, if we get all steamed up about not having 7 movie Starscreams to choose from just so we have our figures to scale, we will miss out on my favorite arguement of late being that Hasbro produces these toys only for children to enjoy, and that we as collectors are simply an afterthought (sarcasm). Of course, that's why we get Masterpiece and Alternators and reissues and movie figures in G1 colors. We all know how badly children feel when their Starscream is not to scale with their Megatron.....

Hasbro refuses to make Transformers more avalieble in my area. I seriously have it worse than the Brits down here. Why do they refuse me? Because I am alone in asking.
But when the entire fanbase cries out for something they have wanted for as long time, Hasbro eventually listens. A lot of things people complain that Hasbro ignores them about are things that only a few people want. If you want Hasbro to listen to you, have strength in numbers. Otherwise, you are just another fan bothering them. Their goal is MASS MARKET APPEAl after all.

The Chaos Bringer wrote:Hasbro refuses to make Transformers more avalieble in my area. I seriously have it worse than the Brits down here. Why do they refuse me? Because I am alone in asking.
But when the entire fanbase cries out for something they have wanted for as long time, Hasbro eventually listens. A lot of things people complain that Hasbro ignores them about are things that only a few people want. If you want Hasbro to listen to you, have strength in numbers. Otherwise, you are just another fan bothering them. Their goal is MASS MARKET APPEAl after all.

I dont know if availability in your particular market is hasbro's fault or the fault of the retailers not seeing the demand as sufficient to maintain orders. If it doesnt sell where then retailers wont order it. Up until the movie line came out I have never seen transformers consistently sold out like it has been.