I know I've posted this before but the current discussion warrants its re-posting.
Hasbro basically stated at BotCon this year that they don't prioritize G1-accuracy (or accuracy to any past media) above all else. Here's a transcript of the answer they gave to a fan asking about the differences between Hasbro and Takara Computron during the Q&A session of the Hasbro Brand Panel:
Q: What goes into the decision-making process of things like for the figures’ prime character still having a Superion head versus a few months later Takara comes out with a Generation 1-accurate Computron head?
John Warden: That’s a good question. A complicated question.
Ben Montano: Yeah, I don’t think it’s something we can get into the full details here, it’s something we definitely know and acknowledge for you guys it can be confusing, but it’s a decision we make on, a lot of it is timing-based, what we kinda wanna get on the market certain things and in our stories. And some of it may have to do with what we’re doing outside of toys and video games, you know, stuff that’s influencing and impacting how we approach our characters and our stories, so we often have an eye to the future that the things we introduce here we expect to see that kind of evolution of that character and that look in other spaces. So, a lot of what you see here is an homage to the past, but as John and Eddie have talked about, a lot of what we’re doing too is an eye towards the future of bringing new fans in and kind of giving us a chance to tell a new story versus kinda being chained to only the old stories. Hopefully you guys all see that big part of the new Machinima Combiner Wars story is there’s a lot of story that’s untold, a lot of gray area, a lot of gaps in our continuity, and that’s part of what we see the opportunity to do with the toys. Like, let’s fill in some gaps, let’s do some cool things that kind of open up the freedom whether it’s a comic or animation just to introduce something new.
As for Takara's adherence to media-accuracy, there's also a cultural factor at play. As seen above, Hasbro seems to be looking more towards the future and moving things forward with not as strong a regard for the past as TakaraTomy, who instead resides in a culture that has a much stronger reverence and respect for the past than the culture that Hasbro resides in.
Hasbro's mindset seems to be more about making their products look "good" instead of "bad", even if it doesn't look accurate to any preexisting media of the past. Whereas Takara's mindset seems to be more about making their products look "right" instead of "wrong", even if that ever results in a bland/under-detailed look that favors the use of solid coloring and ignores sculpted detail instead a colorful/detailed look that uses less solid coloring and makes use of said detail.
For better or for worse, Hasbro goes for what looks "cool" to them , while Takara goes for what looks "correct" to them.
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