The Energon Pub

Hey everyone,
A lot of the time, I see people hating on hasbro, and I felt like voicing my opinion on the matter; feel free to voice yours as well! This thread both expresses my appreciation for Hasbro, and also my arguments defending hasbro. I decided to break my opinions into a few categories:

Combiner Wars:
Okay, I'm not going to discuss alpha bravo, offroad, and Rook. While I do like those characters, I don't want this thread to turn into a flamewar, and I totally respect you if you like the original members that are going to be released. (note: I will stop respecting your opinion once you disrespect people who like those characters, or the characters themselves)

The issue I want to address is people complaining about the quality of the combiners, comparing them to 3rd party combiners. I present the fact that it's awesome that hasbro is actually bothering to do combiners. Hasbro could easily just do movie tie in figures and only "mainstream" characters that people know from the movies. Instead, they actually bother to service the fans and give us awesome figures. I mean, come on, for once we're getting accurate combiners, some of which haven't had iterations since G1 (I mean, c'mon, we're getting STRIPES later this year). So while Hasbro's affordable combiners may not be as awesome as your fancy FansProject guys, which I respect, I still feel like hasbro is bringing some awesome figures to the table with combiner wars, and we don't give them nearly enough credit.


RID Simplified Toys: These toys just aren't designed for collectors, they're designed for younger kids. While they may not be as complex as the figures you used to own as a kid, so what? It's not "corrupting the minds of the kids" or anything, they're just different, and I'm sure that kids probably do like the more simplified toys and eventually will move on to more complex figures like generations when they get older. So, I guess what I'm saying is, they're not meant for you, so don't whine about them not being good. However, I totally get why you may be upset over them using up shelf space, but, again, that's not necessarily hasbro's fault.

Hope you enjoyed, and once again, feel free to share your opinions below in a respectful manner. (I sincerely hope I don't accidentally start a flame-war). I also may post my thoughts on the Fan-built combiner later, but again, no need to start a huge flamewar.

I'll be in the bunker.

Burn wrote:I'll be in the bunker.

that might be a good idea. I really hope I didn't provoke anyone with this thread, that wan't the intent; I just wanted to voice my opinion.

I agree! -ducks for cover-

I mean naturally I appreciate what Hasbro does - the fact that Transformers is still a thing should be proof enough. But more to the point, I am glad for this recent string of Combiner Wars stuff - it's cool to see them further improving upon their method of engineering since the Power Core Combiner series and 2012's Bruticus set. And when it comes to third party stuff, it has its place, but for me personally I find it all comes down to personal preference.

And as much I do get disappointed walking down the aisles at Target and seeing mainly the three-step-changers and what not filling the shelves, they're meant for the little young-uns so it shouldn't matter much to the likes of me.

@Inaction, thanks for voicing your opinion! I do hope that if other people post in this thread, they post with the level headedness that you did.

Overall, I agree as well.

Sometimes I have to step back and remind myself that I'm a 35 year old grown-ass man. Hasbro isn't making toys just for me. The stuff they do throw out for the fans, when viewed from the overall market standpoint, is amazing. It really is. I have to remember that the fan community is not large enough to support a toyline all on its own. We need all the "kiddie" toys to clog shelves so wwe can get masterpiece and generations figures.

Those few times when Hasbro isn't going to make something we want? Well, then we do have the third party stuff to step up. We just need to remember that they wouldn't be there with out Hasbro leading the way.

To be honest, I'm pretty neutral on both matters, but I do have my own thoughts regarding both.

CW Combiners:

A good attempt, given the price of the figures, but not the kind of figs I personally collect, having been spoiled rotten by MP TF's. Nice, but I'm still holding out for a Masterpiece version of Menasor. Given my decreasing display real estate, it's got to be quality over quantity.

RiD toys:

I see them as a line that's almost solely for kids, so it's perfectly understandable that they'd be "kiddified" and super-simple. At least the cartoon's simplified aesthetics lend themselves well to the simplified toys, unlike the movie ones.

Overall, I do understand and agree with Hasbro's new policy for simplifying their non-collector toys--quicker transformation means a more fun and easier playtime for kids when they battle it out. Hell, we had plenty of fun as kids with those G1 bricks, didn't we?

Just one thing, though. Hasbro should reserve their "simple and fun" policy only for their kid-lines. Generations figures should be more complex and "presentable" for an adult collector's display case (i.e. more paint apps and clear plastic).

Yay! I actually have time to chime in!
(And I don't have to deal with any reports relating to duragrip or Rated X)

I simply, cannot see the point in putting down Hasbro.

Why should I? They don't owe me anything. Sure, they've given me 30 years of Transformers, they gave me a brand that at a very low point in my life, gave me something positive which I was able to build on.

Don't get me wrong, that doesn't make me a Hasbro fanboy, a sycophant, a lap dog, or some other term that would cast me as someone who can't see Hasbros flaws.

Far from it. There's things Hasbro does that I don't like.

But so what? Just like Ironhidensh said, they don't make toys for me. I'm not their primary target audience. And I'm okay with that.

I look at where I am in life, I have a mortgage, so funds are limited, I live in a town house so space is limited. Quite frankly I'm glad what Hasbro produce for fans like me isn't the main line or I don't know what I'd do in trying to keep up!

So no, I have no need to bag Hasbro, they're a corporate entity out to make money, and even if I did have a major hatred for what they're doing, well ... not producing plastic toys to my liking will not ruin my life. So I choose instead to concentrate on the more positives in my life. I can get by with occasionally satisfying the plastic crack addiction.

I really can't see the argument regarding "simplified" toys. None of the G1 toys I had were any more complex than the RID Warrior line, and they usually had far less articulation.

I think the one-step changers display some impressive engineering, at least in the better designed figures. My 4-year-old loves them, and it allows him to act out the cartoon without having to take five minutes to transform the toy to and from its alt-mode (something that bugged the hell out of me as a kid when I would PLAY with the toys).

I love Hasbro! I think they are doing a great job. They are creating young kids toys while still creating amazing toys, like Generations Springer, that kids or adults can love.

I find it funny when people complain about repaints. Didn’t you love having the seekers as a kid in the 80s. I didn’t care they were repaints (for the record I only had three). Now I have a daughter, guess what, her MLPs are all repaints. Twilight and Rarity are the same mold! People complain that Hasbro is milking a mold, but a Transformer is so much more complex, it Transforms! They have to strategize to get money back on their investment. If they can only financially put out 16 deluxes in a year, then you only get to choose from that amount. If they repaint them (I don’t have to buy all of them) (it is not like they were going to produce 32 new molds) but now I have twice as many to choose from. Like the MLP example, color makes a character. I love different colors and to have a greater choice is only fun. A different color makes a completely different character.

Great job Hasbro, keep them coming.

TK415 wrote:I love Hasbro! I think they are doing a great job. They are creating young kids toys while still creating amazing toys, like Generations Springer, that kids or adults can love.

I find it funny when people complain about repaints. Didn’t you love having the seekers as a kid in the 80s. I didn’t care they were repaints (for the record I only had three). Now I have a daughter, guess what, her MLPs are all repaints. Twilight and Rarity are the same mold! People complain that Hasbro is milking a mold, but a Transformer is so much more complex, it Transforms! They have to strategize to get money back on their investment. If they can only financially put out 16 deluxes in a year, then you only get to choose from that amount. If they repaint them (I don’t have to buy all of them) (it is not like they were going to produce 32 new molds) but now I have twice as many to choose from. Like the MLP example, color makes a character. I love different colors and to have a greater choice is only fun. A different color makes a completely different character.

Great job Hasbro, keep them coming.

Definitely agree about the repaints; I love it when a mold can be re used for 2 characters. I also feel like hasbro isn't necessary being lazy or wanting to make a quick buck, since a lot of recent figures that use the same mold have been re-molded with new parts.

Think HasTak is trying their hardest to please adult fans with the Masterpiece, CW and CHUG toys. Enjoying these toy lines as They are nice updates to the original toys.

Moosey wrote:

TK415 wrote:I love Hasbro! I think they are doing a great job. They are creating young kids toys while still creating amazing toys, like Generations Springer, that kids or adults can love.

I find it funny when people complain about repaints. Didn’t you love having the seekers as a kid in the 80s. I didn’t care they were repaints (for the record I only had three). Now I have a daughter, guess what, her MLPs are all repaints. Twilight and Rarity are the same mold! People complain that Hasbro is milking a mold, but a Transformer is so much more complex, it Transforms! They have to strategize to get money back on their investment. If they can only financially put out 16 deluxes in a year, then you only get to choose from that amount. If they repaint them (I don’t have to buy all of them) (it is not like they were going to produce 32 new molds) but now I have twice as many to choose from. Like the MLP example, color makes a character. I love different colors and to have a greater choice is only fun. A different color makes a completely different character.

Great job Hasbro, keep them coming.

Definitely agree about the repaints; I love it when a mold can be re used for 2 characters. I also feel like hasbro isn't necessary being lazy or wanting to make a quick buck, since a lot of recent figures that use the same mold have been re-molded with new parts.

Good points, I agree with you too.

The Chromia remold is awesome. The remolds go a long way. I really like re-paints, and I am impressed with re/pre-tools.

The Legends figures have been pretty amazing.


And, um... hmmmmmmmmm........

Well, the Legends are pretty amazing. I'd happily re-buy Bombshell and Shrapnel as Barrage and Chop Shop, even if they only retool the heads.
Hah, remember when a repaint was very lucky to get just that?

I like how there's only 13 posts in here

LegendaryAntiHero wrote:I like how there's only 13 posts in here

What about it? It's a fairly new thread posted in the middle of the week, plus some people are likely neutral on the matter.

I dunno, when I was a kid I would have been just as pissed off about the simplified "kiddy" crap as I would as an adult. If the kids are truly too young for the line, they should be sticking to the robot heroes line.

Not that I much care about what they do with RID15 anyway. I haven't been less interested in a line since animated, which I know a lot of people liked, but I just didn't, just my opinion.

My main problem with Hasbro is they just make it too hard to find what I want to buy. At least in the 80's if you couldn't find a particular figure right away you at least had hope you might find it sometime in the next year or two. Now, if a wave doesn't happen to hit your area, welp, too bad, shoulda ordered online.

The actual product, once you finally can get it, yeah, usually pretty good. I like your stuff, Hasbro, please let me buy it.

Optimum Supreme wrote:I dunno, when I was a kid I would have been just as pissed off about the simplified "kiddy" crap as I would as an adult. If the kids are truly too young for the line, they should be sticking to the robot heroes line.

Not that I much care about what they do with RID15 anyway. I haven't been less interested in a line since animated, which I know a lot of people liked, but I just didn't, just my opinion.

My main problem with Hasbro is they just make it too hard to find what I want to buy. At least in the 80's if you couldn't find a particular figure right away you at least had hope you might find it sometime in the next year or two. Now, if a wave doesn't happen to hit your area, welp, too bad, shoulda ordered online.

The actual product, once you finally can get it, yeah, usually pretty good. I like your stuff, Hasbro, please let me buy it.

Isn't not being able to find a figure more the store's fault rather than hasbro's?

Also, Optimum, I don't understand your point about Robot Heroes, care to elaborate?

Moosey wrote:Isn't not being able to find a figure more the store's fault rather than hasbro's?

Yep. My local K-Mart had price tags for CW and RID up for a MONTH with no stock while other stores around Australia were rolling their stock out.

Admittedly it could have been more of a distribution issue as well, which still comes back to the store.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Think HasTak is trying their hardest to please adult fans with the Masterpiece, CW and CHUG toys. Enjoying these toy lines as They are nice updates to the original toys.

Masterpiece is more of Tomy/Takara's baby tsu.

I really hate the "X" attitude toward Transformers. Those "true" fans that are actually egotistical hipsters who think Hasbro should only make pricey collectors items. Like only MP and 3rd Party level stuff. Why they conveniently chose to ignore the fact that mom/dad buying lil' Timmy his toy is what keep Hasbro afloat? Why are they always forgetting that kids need to make happy memories with Transformers so they can become future collectors and/or buy their kids TF toys? Why are they whining every single times Hasbro try something new, but they complain when they just do the same thing?

The hardcore "true" fan. The rotten part of any fandom.

Burn wrote:

Moosey wrote:Isn't not being able to find a figure more the store's fault rather than hasbro's?

Yep. My local K-Mart had price tags for CW and RID up for a MONTH with no stock while other stores around Australia were rolling their stock out.

Admittedly it could have been more of a distribution issue as well, which still comes back to the store.

Kmart were a bit slack compared to the other retailers here, and I think u north was a little slower than the southern states.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I really hate the "X" attitude toward Transformers. Those "true" fans that are actually egotistical hipsters who think Hasbro should only make pricey collectors items. Like only MP and 3rd Party level stuff. Why they conveniently chose to ignore the fact that mom/dad buying lil' Timmy his toy is what keep Hasbro afloat? Why are they always forgetting that kids need to make happy memories with Transformers so they can become future collectors and/or buy their kids TF toys? Why are they whining every single times Hasbro try something new, but they complain when they just do the same thing?

The hardcore "true" fan. The rotten part of any fandom.

I can't agree more. I look at my collection and forget they were (mostly) kids toys. Then I look again, see all sorts of characters that haven't had any fiction support since the original marvel comics and I realise that kids would have no idea who they are. Not just that, but we get characters like the "Big Ones" (Optimus/Bee/Megatron/Starscream etc) that don't reflect the current designs (movie-verse/Prime) but hearken back to the G1 days.

The fact that we have the classics-verse series is pretty amazing when you consider things. Hasbro could have gone the cheap way out and just focused on the current fiction lines - Animated, Movies, Prime, RiD etc, but instead they decided to roll the dice and give us a line that reimagines the characters and toys that got the older fans into the line in the first place. The fact that this line has continued on pretty much unbroken since 2006 says something about its popularity and the respect Hasbro has for it's entire fandom. Sure we're not their target market, but you can't say they don't think of us. Just look at Windblade and Arcee for recent examples.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I really hate the "X" attitude toward Transformers. Those "true" fans that are actually egotistical hipsters who think Hasbro should only make pricey collectors items. Like only MP and 3rd Party level stuff. Why they conveniently chose to ignore the fact that mom/dad buying lil' Timmy his toy is what keep Hasbro afloat? Why are they always forgetting that kids need to make happy memories with Transformers so they can become future collectors and/or buy their kids TF toys? Why are they whining every single times Hasbro try something new, but they complain when they just do the same thing?

The hardcore "true" fan. The rotten part of any fandom.

Couldn't have been said better. I totally agree with you on those "hardcore" types of fans.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I really hate the "X" attitude toward Transformers. Those "true" fans that are actually egotistical hipsters who think Hasbro should only make pricey collectors items. Like only MP and 3rd Party level stuff. Why they conveniently chose to ignore the fact that mom/dad buying lil' Timmy his toy is what keep Hasbro afloat? Why are they always forgetting that kids need to make happy memories with Transformers so they can become future collectors and/or buy their kids TF toys? Why are they whining every single times Hasbro try something new, but they complain when they just do the same thing?

The hardcore "true" fan. The rotten part of any fandom.

That "X" of seibertron?

As for defending Hasbro? Well, if not for the risk they took back in 1983 or so, we wouldn't have gotten "Transformers". For that I hat......am thankful for that My wallet has never been the same.

I may not like some of their lines (TFA especially and now Adventure (what's the OCD with flat noseless faces and over grown chins? )) but as long as they keep the line alive and not abandoned it like they did in the early 90s and the half @ssed release of G2 (the quality of the figs sucked) I'm good.

Keep the franchise alive Hasbro!