AbsumZer0 wrote:Hasbro is trying to get product to kids of all ages. The FABs, Cyber-Stompers, etc. are there for the 5 and unders whose parents know their kids will get frustrated with the main line. Have you forgotten the big chunky Go-Bot subline they continued from Playskool? That's not around anymore, hence the more preschool-friendly lines to compensate. The primary line isn't just for the elementary schoolers, true, but their primary market group isn't adults. If that were the case the most expensive figure wouldn't be a goofy wiggling hunk of plastic. The target is boys 3-24, heavily skewed towards the 15-and-under crowd.
You don't think all the movie commercials are there to sell toys do you? Hasbro isn't the only one with huge amounts of money invested in this project. True, they may have more riding on it than, say, GM, but the advertisements are there first and foremost for THE MOVIE. How many commercials for the action figures did you see during the Mtv movie awards? Compare that to the number of movie toy commercials running on Cartoon Network from 2-5pm.
Like it or not, Alternators are marketed towards adults. They exist solely because the Japanese toy market has such a heavy reliance on older collectors; without that market it would never have been financially sensible for Hasbro to create the moulds for a full line because the United States, unlike Japan, relies on the money of young adolescents and parents. Parents not buying Alternators because of their fragility wasn't a huge blow to Hasbro because they were never counting on that money anyway, they were counting on older adolescents and adults buying them while kids and parents bought Energon and Cybertron. If they thought it'd bring in money from both demographics it would have been the main line to begin with. Adults still bought them despite their fragility because to them the detail, paint apps, and nostalgia factor and because they tend to use them as display figures. They were MADE with adults and late adolescents in mind. The same is true, to an extent, for Titaniums, though because of the cheaper development costs they don't need to rely on the Japanese market or cost-sharing with Takara.
Beast Machines was a crummy line; it didn't sell and its failure led to Hasbro pushing out the final waves in shortened amounts, completely scrapping Transtech, importing Car Robots as a placeholder and completely revamping the brand to appeal to a younger demographic with brightly colored, chunky toys and a kiddie cartoon. If the parents turn their noses up at the movie line because of fragility and QC issues and their kids are 6-13 and don't want the kiddiefied versions then that's definitely going to hurt Hasbro where it counts. Especially considering how much they've got invested in this. It won't kill the line, but like I said, it'd definitely be a kick to the balls of the brand and force them to restrategize. Whether or not the film itself succeeds is irrelevant to Hasbro because Hasbro's investment in the film is as a commercial; if the film makes a hundred billion dollars box-office and toy stores cut shelf space because the movie line didn't move, Hasbro still loses out.
And I thought I was the only one that made long winded posts...
Ok, we're not covering any new ground here, but the idea that the films success is irrelevant to Hasbro is ludicrous. If people hate the movie, then all those toys are gonna sit there. All the fans that already bought the figs will sell them dirt cheap on ebay, and tell everybody else not to buy them. The kids will turn up their noses because 'that movie sucks'. If the movie does well, then the kids will tell their parents to buy them TFs. We're talking about an expansion of the brand into new audiences, not retread kids who already buy them...which is not that many to begin with. If the movie fails to penetrate it's target demographic, then the toy sales will falter badly.
I don't like Alts. I'm aware of their target market, well aware of their problems, and was drawing parallel QC issues. Thanks for the history lesson. I can appreciate the sentiment that the target audience dictates design parameters, but with the movie, the designs handed to Hasbro by the studio limited what they could do, QC and otherwise. This is the first line in awhile to attempt to satisfy their entire TF market in one broad release (complex TF's, fun for the kids, enjoyable for the adult, appealing to the new consumer, no subline) while simultaneously using the same line as a vehicle for explosive growth in that sector...and I would say they're faring about average. With all that, they can't come close to making everybody happy, and some things, based on sheer volume alone, are going to suffer.
I just don't see the QC issue as big a dealbreaker as you do. If Hasbro sells 30 thousand Cybertron Downshifts with no complaints, but sells 300,000 Movie Bumblebees and has 50,000 complaints, they're still way ahead. And even those first 50,000 figs that broke within the first hour and produced a 'I'm never gonna buy that crap again response' is still a sale with a high percentage of those customers being brand new. If half the 300,000 have problems, and 150,000 customers never come back, you've still
quintupled your audience. That's why there are QC issues to begin with; Hasbro is playing the numbers game and betting heavily against the house that Spielberg and Bay have a bona fide hit. If every figure had Bumblebee-esque problems, then I might agree with you that QC is a real problem issue with long-term ramifications. But the first pressing of figures, sitting in store rooms for weeks, if not months, will be purchased mainly by loyalists like us and the subsequent batches should address increasing quality.
I was spoiling for an argument all day, and it looks like I got one. Generally I agree with you, but my contrary nature got the best of me this time.
EDIT: You know, too bad post count is not directly proportional to word count.
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