ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:I know from personal observations I saw the Micromasters being slow to shift. I think one factor is Micro Machines being dead at the time, robbing them of a potential synergy source.
And another is under-promotion. I don't think Hasbro did nearly as much as they could have with stock photography to hawk the revived "micro play" pattern. Barely any photos showing off the play potential with base bots, stuff like Astrotrain's tender and Optimus Prime's trailer, or even the Micromaster Playset-based Modulators. Takara put in a bit more effort on that score, but that doesn't help the US market much. This undoubtedly also hurt the Modulators' sales. The WFC cartoon and the 2019 IDW continuity didn't exactly do anything to hawk the Micromasters either, which can't have helped.
I think the Battlemasters might have done better if we'd had orange Lionizer as the regular release (the inaccurate black also ends up making him look very dull, undoubtedly less appealing to kids) and the gun guys had seen more investment (instead of "three molds and one of them is Rung"); Firedrive and Blowpipe were the only solid updates out of the whole lot.
As someone who witnessed the complete failure of marketing that was the 2015 BIONICLE reboot, I can concur that very poor promotion probably killed the Micromasters (and the Modulators, which didn't even appear in the tie-in show).
As for the Battlemasters, it probably didn't help that, being weapons, they required a completely different figure to fully use and enjoy their alt-modes, while the Weaponizers could be played on their own even without becoming weapons for other toys.
Emerje wrote:-snip: Mugenbine-
Emerje
You know, I keep looking at characters like the Shifters or the Stentarians, which are meant to transform and/or combine into anything, and thinking this is the perfect way to translate their gimmicks to toy form.
Gauntlet101010 wrote:While I was reading IDW I kinda wanted a Monstructor, but now ... eh. Making him as small as his original self would not make him desirable, at least not to me.
I actually really want Ariel and transformable deluxe-sized Lithones. The closest we have to Ariel is Energon Arcee and she's just much too small now.
I actually forgot about Ariel/pre-Elita. For a minute I thought you meant Seaspray's girlfriend Alana in her bot mode...which would also be a cool figure I'd like.
And yeah, I'd also like transformable Lithones. They've had the vehicle mode designs since the
Universe books in 86, why haven't they been used yet? I'd much prefer to have a non-transformable Quintesson Executioner in the "Pit of Judgement" set than a non-transforming Kranix (especially since there probably won't be a better opportunity to launch that figure and get all "classic" Quintesson types from the movie).
On another note, who'd like to get Esmeral and Lyzack to match the upcoming Deathsaurus?
EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLEPOST: So, remember Doctor Arkeville from G1, and how he got progressively more cybernetic in his debut? Would anyone like to see a fully-Transformer version of him, like
Prime's Silas/Breakdown?
even though Herbie was from the 60s.
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