The Energon Pub

I have a couple of questions to pose to you:

1) Will Takara Tomy be picking up the Animated toy line and cartoon, and if so, why do you think that they have waited so long?

2) How could/would Takara Tomy be able to increase the quality of, or appearance of the toys? Would there be significant difference between US and Takara product? Or will Takara simply import US versions, and slap a sticker on the package?

3) For those staunch Takara Tomy supporters, would you feel the need to grab these versions as well, or are the US versions good enough?

I welcome your thoughts on the subject.

That would be interesting to see how many sex changes they'd make in animated... Hell, they turned Airrazor into a guy.

Animated was the first Transformers line ever to be created for the US market and not Japan. Having said that, I think it all depends on popularity. If the people of Japan have enough interest in it, I think it will eventually happen. If not, then it's something unique for us.

No losers either way.

I've heard rumors that, if you really push your cargo limit with Animated Deluxes and Voyagers, and basically bring nothing else, you can pay for your trip with the profits from the toys. There really is a demand for TF Animated over there, and definitely not enough supply. You also might want to bring some Cybertron Quickmixes and Galvatrons.

Yeah, the Animated toys are both popular and expensive here in Japan. Prowl sells for approx. 40 dollars alone. I guess Takara are waiting to produce a decent dub.

tigertracks 24 wrote:2) How could/would Takara Tomy be able to increase the quality of, or appearance of the toys?

Extensive re-design. In fact, just ignore the molds Hasbro have used.

3) For those staunch Takara Tomy supporters, would you feel the need to grab these versions as well, or are the US versions good enough?

Hell no. No amount of high quality control and decent paint apps would have me wanting to buy a second of any Animated characters

Delicon wrote:Animated was the first Transformers line ever to be created for the US market and not Japan. Having said that, I think it all depends on popularity. If the people of Japan have enough interest in it, I think it will eventually happen. If not, then it's something unique for us.

No losers either way.

what about collectors in Japan? It must suck for them.

I don't know if there's anything to it, but I think I read something along the lines that Animated's 13 episode seasons wouldn't fit into Japanese schedules. Perhaps when they finish seasons 3 and 4 they'll be able to syndicate them.

If they ever do their own versions of Animated toys, they can spare the chrome. That'd just look stupid. The most they should do is probably just better quality control. There's no major problems with the colour choices. There's several cases where small remolds could improve a figure(Jazz's nose is too long), but I don't think they really do remolds, so that's not likely to happen. Another thing is better materials. I don't like that rubbery plastic used on some figures, and I don't think it's always strictly necessary.

tigertracks 24 wrote:1) Will Takara Tomy be picking up the Animated toy line and cartoon, and if so, why do you think that they have waited so long?

No. Transformers look to have become strictly an collectors thing in Japan, which is why the only things out over there are G1 based as of the moment. Of course, there would be some interest in it, it wouldn’t do as well as something like Encore or Henkei.

I somehow feel their declining birthrate has something to do with it. Can’t sell kid targeted toys when there’s no kids…

2) How could/would Takara Tomy be able to increase the quality of, or appearance of the toys? Would there be significant difference between US and Takara product? Or will Takara simply import US versions, and slap a sticker on the package?

Most likely, it’d be the sticker method. They’d probably fix the paint applications up a bit.

3) For those staunch Takara Tomy supporters, would you feel the need to grab these versions as well, or are the US versions good enough?

I’ve tried, really hard, but I still just can’t get into this line, so that’d be a no. I do see a few that have put themselves on the want list, but I just can’t ever bring myself to buy one. They just don’t excite me.

I think they're waiting till they have more material maybe their own show or enough episodes.
And no I don't think they will have chrome on them.
It depends on the quality if I go and by TFA Hasbro or Takara.
If Takara gives them better plastic they have my money.

Considering the current situation, with like half of the toy factories in China going bankrupt, they're going to have enough trouble making the figures they're already making. I think adding a new line is unrealistic at this point.

It would be interesting to see what changes they would make to the figures. I'm sure it would just be changes to paint schemes and the addition of chrome. I never have cared enough about such small differenct to bother buying the Takara versions of figures that are available domestically. To be honest I've prefered the appearance of the original classics to their Henkei counterparts, with the exception of Megatron. As far as quality control goes, I personally feel the lack of QC on TFA is highly exagerated. I have every deluxe, voyager, and leader size figure that is currenlt avialable and have only had one QC problem. My first Lockdown had a bad hip joint, exchanged him for another who was perfect. I've actually had far more QC issues with my TFU firgures than I have with TFA. So for me it would be cool to see, but I wouldn't buy them.

Delicon wrote:Animated was the first Transformers line ever to be created for the US market and not Japan. Having said that, I think it all depends on popularity. If the people of Japan have enough interest in it, I think it will eventually happen. If not, then it's something unique for us.

No losers either way.

WRONG!

What about Beast Wars and Beast Machines? Hell, G1 was created for the US market too, just cuase the Japanese knew when they were on the easy streat to something good dosnt mean it was ment for their market.
And the G1 movie was created for the western market, it didnt get released until a couple of years later in Japan.

Delicon wrote:Animated was the first Transformers line ever to be created for the US market and not Japan. Having said that, I think it all depends on popularity. If the people of Japan have enough interest in it, I think it will eventually happen. If not, then it's something unique for us.

No losers either way.

The Titanium wasn't released in Japan either. But I agree with your statement that there might not be enough interest.