The Energon Pub

News Credits: 12 · by **GuyIncognito** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:15 pm

Just curious. :-?

News Credits: 241 · by **Jelze Bunnycat** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:15 pm

GuyIncognito wrote:Just curious.

Because Hasbro proper couldn't be bothered. Seriously, that's the truth.

News Credits: 2 · by **xyl360** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:13 pm

I for one am glad that they did.

Thanks to Kenner, who had a wildly different take on how to engineer transforming robots, gave us things like ball joints for increased articulation which are still in use on modern TF's today.

I believe there was a bit of that in G2, but not nearly as much as Beast Wars.

News Credits: 11 · by **Overcracker** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:30 pm

Habsro handed Kenner the TF license as they had been recently acquired by Hasbro. Kenner had been bought by Tonka a few years prior, so when Hasbro took over Tonka, they got Kenner in the deal.

They kept the brand for a while, but eventually merged it into their own brand.

News Credits: 668 · by **Autobot032** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:11 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
GuyIncognito wrote:Just curious.

Because Hasbro proper couldn't be bothered. Seriously, that's the truth.

...seriously? That's...

:shock:

YouTube · by **TrueNomadSkies** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:15 pm

I was gonna go with "because Kenner's fappin' awesome", but these answers all work too. Like, this isn't a knock on Hasbro, Matel, etc, but pretty much everything I own wearing Kenner's nameplate came with a level of marksmanship that I think a lot of us took for granted.

News Credits: 767 · by **Dead Metal** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:42 am

There was another reason that Kenner made them, Star Wars and Batman.
After Hasbro purchased Kenner they decided to brand all their action figure properties under Kenner, due to Kenner's success with action figure lines like Star Wars, Batman TAS and Aliens. Kenner was a more popular producer of action figures than Hasbro so it only made sense for Hasbro to mark their action figure properties as Kenner.

News Credits: 7 · by **alldarker** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:51 am

Kenner made MASK toys: my favorite toys EVER. 'Nough said. And Beast Wars rekindled my interest in Transformers, which adds even more kudo's to Kenner, as far as I'm concerned.

by **Optimum Supreme** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 8:54 pm

xyl360 wrote:I for one am glad that they did.

Thanks to Kenner, who had a wildly different take on how to engineer transforming robots, gave us things like ball joints for increased articulation which are still in use on modern TF's today.

I believe there was a bit of that in G2, but not nearly as much as Beast Wars.

Did Kenner actually do any design, or was it Takara still doing that?

I don't intend that as rhetorical, I really don't have any idea who was doing what as I wasn't into TF's at all between early G2 and RID.

TF wiki says "Takara designer Takio Ejima is credited for introducing ball joints as a standard feature of nearly all Transformers toys," but I dunno if that means Kenner had nothing to do with it at all.

by **Windsweeper** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 5:16 am

It seems to me that the Batman and Star Wars figures sold on the name of their franchises. There's no way anyone can argue a Kenner Star Wars figure was better than a Hasbro GI Joe figure.

The Joes had amazing articulation and came with a load of accessories. Star Wars figures had a weapon and maybe a cloak or something and were almost as brickish as G1 toys. Same with Mask.

The Joes had better vehicles too. The strength of Star Wars was the popularity of the films.

I like Beast Wars but Kenner were the first to stray from the traditional G1 look and give us organic, alien grimaces. With modern lines like Animated, Bayformers and Prime who also stray, I find myself missing the G1 look even more.

I have to admit I'm not a fan of Kenner's work.

News Credits: 668 · by **Autobot032** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 12:19 pm

Optimum Supreme wrote:
xyl360 wrote:I for one am glad that they did.

Thanks to Kenner, who had a wildly different take on how to engineer transforming robots, gave us things like ball joints for increased articulation which are still in use on modern TF's today.

I believe there was a bit of that in G2, but not nearly as much as Beast Wars.

Did Kenner actually do any design, or was it Takara still doing that?

I don't intend that as rhetorical, I really don't have any idea who was doing what as I wasn't into TF's at all between early G2 and RID.

TF wiki says "Takara designer Takio Ejima is credited for introducing ball joints as a standard feature of nearly all Transformers toys," but I dunno if that means Kenner had nothing to do with it at all.

Let's say he did. That doesn't diminish Kenner's efforts. Perhaps they hired him on as a consultant, or a designer, or something of that nature.