The Energon Pub

I want to protest these toys coming to America because what we need is....MOAR BUBBLEBEE!!

I went to Toys R Us and I was SHOCKED to only see a dozen Bubblebees hanging on the racks (oh yeah and the blue retool was there too). What do these characters have to offer compared epic-ness of Bubblebee?

What awesome writer decided to replace words and conversation with a series of bleeps and other electronic noises? Why just the other day fans were discussing that witty way he bleeped with perfect timing knocking us all on our collective asses.

To be cereal for a moment...

Japan hasn't contributed squat to the Transformer franchise. They stopped making and decent stories or video games so why are American markets left out of anything?

This Prime series is the best we have seen in quite awhile and yet it is saturated with crappy marketing of a supremely useless character while American fans are continually denied any chance of getting their favorites.

I suppose in the end some corporate asshole sees a graph showing the huge response given to BubbleBEE by six and eight year old kids and forgets the rest.

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:As far as they're concerned, they showed us the prototype at CybertronCon, and now they're going to announce the final product. What Takara did in the meantime is irrelevant.

If the "they" = "Hasbro", then something's a bit off since the Breakdown prototype pic we saw in the slides at Cybertron Con was of the Takara version since it had Arms Micron Ports on it.

maybe the fact that Brakedown has Micron ports all over him is why Hasbro is waiting so long to announce him?

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:As far as they're concerned, they showed us the prototype at CybertronCon, and now they're going to announce the final product. What Takara did in the meantime is irrelevant.

If the "they" = "Hasbro", then something's a bit off since the Breakdown prototype pic we saw in the slides at Cybertron Con was of the Takara version since it had Arms Micron Ports on it.

As Cybertron Con's presentation was a joint one with representatives from both sides of the pond, I think it's safe to consider that Hasbro's reveal as well. The only weird thing is that at Botcon, from what I gather, they went back and pretended there was no Breakdown toy, rather than just saying "we can't give any new information right now."

THEORY: Maybe they have a Skyquake situation, where they developed a toy that was originally going to be Breakdown with a blue deco, but around the time the toy would see release, the show was going to debut their MECH upgraded Breakdown, so they changed plans for the first use of the toy mold to look like that. Since that would sort of provide major spoilers for the show, they declined comment. And then Takara does their own thing and solicits preorders for characters they won't see in the show for another six months, so the fandom finds out anyway. Go figure.

The problem is, if Hasbro just comes out and says "Hey, we've got this toy coming out soon, and that one, and another" all through the year, then they aren't left with anything new or special to show off at Toy Fair and SDCC, where they're competing for attention with other toymakers. They need that attention, so they save a lot of big stuff for these events.

AlexSpastic wrote:Japan hasn't contributed squat to the Transformer franchise. They stopped making and decent stories or video games so why are American markets left out of anything?

Well, the Asian exclusive figures are for Hasbro's Asian markets. AKA, everywhere that's NOT Japan. Singapore, Taiwan, China, Korea, those places. They're getting the figures because apparently that's where the money lies right now. America isn't the best place to sell Transformers at the moment, it seems, so they're going to put the best stock where the money is. It sucks, but they're in the business of making money first and foremost.

AlexSpastic wrote:Japan hasn't contributed squat to the Transformer franchise.

United, Masterpiece, Alternity, Chronicle, Encore, and whatever else they released in recent years would beg to differ.

AlexSpastic wrote:They stopped making and decent stories or video games so why are American markets left out of anything?

They created the absolutely EPIC manga series Transformers: Animated: The Cool.

AlexSpastic wrote:This Prime series is the best we have seen in quite awhile

That is subjective.

That Bot wrote:

TimothyR wrote:i love how hasblo has decided to screw us over on breakdown.

makes absolutely no sense... especially if they're going to to have a repaint of him that'll be show accurate.. that gives people a reason to buy this mold multiple times.

you'd think after the whole first edition fiasco, they'd steer clear of screwing us over for a while.. looks like they're back up to their old BS.

There is no confirmation that we are not getting a blue Breakdown. Hasbro simply doesn't want to formally announce it to the community at this point, they will probably do so at SDCC next week. The reasoning behind this decision when the Takara iteration of the mold has been in the news for months is questionable, but Hasbro has little say in Takara's marketing decisions. As far as they're concerned, they showed us the prototype at CybertronCon, and now they're going to announce the final product. What Takara did in the meantime is irrelevant.

it sucks that we have to wait for conventions to see new stuff from hasbro.

but when ultra magnus, thundertron, and skyquake have already been confirmed for what, wave 4? and we know that dreadwing is coming up in wave 3 voyagers.. where does that leave breakdown? wave 5? or 6? by that point i'm sure that the normal version of breakdown could quite possibly be irrelevant.

plus, i've read before that voyager unicron and breakdown were both takara exclusives.. which, so far, is holding to be true. same with the winged vehicon.

unless sdcc has a whole bunch of contradictory news.. hasbro has once again screwed up, and screwed us big time.

i just don't get it.

That Bot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:As far as they're concerned, they showed us the prototype at CybertronCon, and now they're going to announce the final product. What Takara did in the meantime is irrelevant.

If the "they" = "Hasbro", then something's a bit off since the Breakdown prototype pic we saw in the slides at Cybertron Con was of the Takara version since it had Arms Micron Ports on it.

As Cybertron Con's presentation was a joint one with representatives from both sides of the pond, I think it's safe to consider that Hasbro's reveal as well. The only weird thing is that at Botcon, from what I gather, they went back and pretended there was no Breakdown toy, rather than just saying "we can't give any new information right now."

Ehh, I attended Seibetron con, and it was shown under the Takara panel, where only Takara staff were there. Hasbro had their own panel during different time slots (Where PRID, FOC Starscream, AE Repaints was shown) but no mention of Breakdown. Hopefully he does get a US release... I'm not forking out $48 for a figure with stickers. Plus, the whole micron as a hammer seems pretty dumb... I don't mind a mechtech hammer, chances are, i can gut the hammer part.

Sabrblade wrote:

AlexSpastic wrote:Japan hasn't contributed squat to the Transformer franchise.

United, Masterpiece, Alternity, Chronicle, Encore, and whatever else they released in recent years would beg to differ.

Most of the Movie toys were designed by Takara too... Not sure about the Prime figs... Maybe the only PRID figures Hasbro made were Cliff and Bee.

gavinfuzzy wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

AlexSpastic wrote:Japan hasn't contributed squat to the Transformer franchise.

United, Masterpiece, Alternity, Chronicle, Encore, and whatever else they released in recent years would beg to differ.

Most of the Movie toys were designed by Takara too... Not sure about the Prime figs... Maybe the only PRID figures Hasbro made were Cliff and Bee.

Takara makes (almost) all of Hasbro's toys (I say "almost" since I know Takara didn't make the Energon Grimlock/Swoop 2-pack). I was pointing out the lines that Takara specifically made for Japan without Hasbro's input.

Sabrblade wrote:

gavinfuzzy wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

AlexSpastic wrote:Japan hasn't contributed squat to the Transformer franchise.

United, Masterpiece, Alternity, Chronicle, Encore, and whatever else they released in recent years would beg to differ.

Most of the Movie toys were designed by Takara too... Not sure about the Prime figs... Maybe the only PRID figures Hasbro made were Cliff and Bee.

Takara makes (almost) all of Hasbro's toys (I say "almost" since I know Takara didn't make the Energon Grimlock/Swoop 2-pack). I was pointing out the lines that Takara specifically made for Japan without Hasbro's input.

More correct would be Hasbro designing the figures for its market, and Takara tweaking the designs and actually producing the molds and doing additional Japan-only designs. but indeed, Energon Grimlock & Swoop, as well as Energon Deluxe High Wire and Kicker were all Hasbro.