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As revealed by the last Hasbro Investors Day, Hasbro is going to place a greater focus on its "larger" and licensed brands - which probably explains why the Micronauts cartoon and several of the planned non-Transformers films are no longer in their entertainment line-up. So that leaves the question: what to do with the other, lesser known brands? How to keep them afloat, and which ones should be preserved?

We've already seen some solutions. Some brands might be reworked into a "licensed" multi-property brand, like we've seen with the Stretch Armstrong Bumblebee; something like that could work with Micronauts, focusing on interchangeable parts not unlike Hero Mashers but at a smaller scale and with more articulation. Another may be to license the brands to another company, like Renegade Studios' tabletop RPG (I've personally always figured Visionaries or Xevoz could work as good RPG settings).

Yet another possiblity would be to absorb these brand's characters and concepts into a larger brand until they can survive on their own. MASK could easily be incorporated into Transformers (as a Human Alliance-esque subfaction of humans with transformable vehicles to fight with/against the Transformers) or GI Joe (not the first time it happened); ROM Spaceknight and his universe could easily fit into Transformers (he did have a Bot Shots figure planned at one point). And as I said before, Visionaries and Xevoz would work great in an RPG setting, so they could be incorporated into D&D (much like some races from Magic: The Gathering were added to the playable roster).

So, which other brands do you think could be kept? And what other possibilities do we have to save these brands?

I think M.A.S.K. is still technically in the Gi Joe universe. it would be nice to see mask characters and vehicles at the 3 3/4th scale with the rest of the smaller Joes.

Ok I have been thinking about other Hasbro Brands that could be made into 6" figs (no cloth or rooted hair for these)
Jem and the Holograms, each will come with a musical instrument or a mic with stand

wave 1 (Baf is the Synergy computer)
Jem (classic Pink outfit)
Hologram Kimber Benton
Misfit Pizzazz
Misfit Roxy
Riot

Wave 2 (BAF is Jem in another outfit)
Jerrica Benton
Hologram Aja Leith
Misfit Stormer
Stinger Rapture
Rio

wave 3 (BAF is Jem in another outfit)
Synergy
Hologram Shana Elmsford
Misfit Jetta
Hologram Raya
Stinger Minx


And another line of 6" figures
Inhumanoids

wave 1 humans (BAF Magnakore Pyre)
Dr. Herman Armstrong "Herc Armstrong"
Dr. Johnathon Martin Slattery "Liquidator"
Dr. Edward "The Fist" Augutter "Auger"
Dr. Derek Ericson Bright "Dr. Derek Bright"
Sandra Shore "Ms. Navigator"

Tendril
D'compose (possibly 14" soft plastic)

Wave 2 (BAF Magnakore Crygen)
Bradley Joseph Armbruster "Sabre Jet"
Redlen
Redwood soldier
General Granitary
Granite soldier


Metlar (14")

Cyber Bishop wrote:Ok I have been thinking about other Hasbro Brands that could be made into 6" figs (no cloth or rooted hair for these)
Jem and the Holograms, each will come with a musical instrument or a mic with stand

wave 1 (Baf is the Synergy computer)
Jem (classic Pink outfit)
Hologram Kimber Benton
Misfit Pizzazz
Misfit Roxy
Riot

Wave 2 (BAF is Jem in another outfit)
Jerrica Benton
Hologram Aja Leith
Misfit Stormer
Stinger Rapture
Rio

wave 3 (BAF is Jem in another outfit)
Synergy
Hologram Shana Elmsford
Misfit Jetta
Hologram Raya
Stinger Minx


And another line of 6" figures
Inhumanoids

wave 1 humans (BAF Magnakore Pyre)
Dr. Herman Armstrong "Herc Armstrong"
Dr. Johnathon Martin Slattery "Liquidator"
Dr. Edward "The Fist" Augutter "Auger"
Dr. Derek Ericson Bright "Dr. Derek Bright"
Sandra Shore "Ms. Navigator"

Tendril
D'compose (possibly 14" soft plastic)

Wave 2 (BAF Magnakore Crygen)
Bradley Joseph Armbruster "Sabre Jet"
Redlen
Redwood soldier
General Granitary
Granite soldier


Metlar (14")

Thing is, that Investors Day made clear Hasbro's not gonna launch a new line for one of the lesser known (read: not currently profitable enough) brands unless it's associated to one of the bigger (read: currently very profitable) ones or licensed to another company.

Jem at least I could see being licensed to a collectors-focused line like Super7, or as a band-themed multi-property brand, or being part of another in-house Transformers Collaborative - either Synergy as an Autobot or a retool of Blaster/Soundwave and some humanoid Cassetes into Holograms/Misfits/Stinger looks (the alt-modes would even fit the bands' 80's aesthetic).

Inhumanoids, sadly, is a lot harder. They couldn't be used in IDW's 2016 GI Joe because the rights to the name and characters already expired, therefore Hasbro would be forced to either spend a lot of time and money to get them back or rework the characters to the point of being unrecognizable. Besides, the biggest sell of the line, the gigantic titular monsters, were already far too expensive in the 80's to be profitable; add to that inflation and the rising price of plastic and it would be probably impossible (then again, Titans exist, so...). And there are so few characters in the cast compared to the other action franchises there would probably need to be a lot of original material for an Renegade Studios RPG or DnD setting.

It's a pity they never tried to make Inhumanoids an action horror movie like those two Ouija horror films.

The Inhumanoids toon got pretty dark too, it would have been cool to see some kind of horror movie about it though.

Well I just saw a surreal sight on my general retailer. A bunch of licensed Stretch figures (mostly DC heroes) all marked just as Giochi Preziosi trademarks...and then a "Original Stretch Armstrong" figure (their words, not mine), with Giochi Preziosi and Hasbro trademarks. Same designs, same packaging, same fonts and advertisements, but just the Armstrong one has the Hasbro logo. Can someone explain me what exactly that means for the ownership?

I also wonder if some of the toylines with Marvel-licensed comics like Rom and Micronauts could share a deal like they did with Sony and Spider-Man movies. Maybe they might even get Circuit Breaker back. My ideal contract would be something like this:

- Marvel would get the full media rights for new and old stories, including TV and movie adaptations, with Hasbro keeping a small cut of the profits and the right to reprint their IDW-published issues with no fee.
- Hasbro would keep exclusive rights for the toylines, including the right to license to other companies like LEGO, with Marvel keeping a small cut of the profits.
- For Circuit Breaker, Hasbro would recover the rights for the character while Marvel would be allowed to reprint non-licensed stories featuring her (I think it's just Secret Wars II?) with no fee.

Can anyone tell me if this would be a good or acceptable deal?

MaximalNui wrote:I also wonder if some of the toylines with Marvel-licensed comics like Rom and Micronauts could share a deal like they did with Sony and Spider-Man movies. Maybe they might even get Circuit Breaker back. My ideal contract would be something like this:

- Marvel would get the full media rights for new and old stories, including TV and movie adaptations, with Hasbro keeping a small cut of the profits and the right to reprint their IDW-published issues with no fee.
- Hasbro would keep exclusive rights for the toylines, including the right to license to other companies like LEGO, with Marvel keeping a small cut of the profits.
- For Circuit Breaker, Hasbro would recover the rights for the character while Marvel would be allowed to reprint non-licensed stories featuring her (I think it's just Secret Wars II?) with no fee.

Can anyone tell me if this would be a good or acceptable deal?

No one cares. For media, Marvel doesn't want to do film franchises for characters they don't own outright when there are so many that they do own. The amount of money in these older characters from toys, licensing, or from comics reprints is negligible. They'd end up paying more for the lawyers and negotiations than they would make back.

I hope we eventually get to see limited comics reprints, but it's not likely anytime soon, and these franchises aren't compelling enough to invest in over other options.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

MaximalNui wrote:I also wonder if some of the toylines with Marvel-licensed comics like Rom and Micronauts could share a deal like they did with Sony and Spider-Man movies. Maybe they might even get Circuit Breaker back. My ideal contract would be something like this:

- Marvel would get the full media rights for new and old stories, including TV and movie adaptations, with Hasbro keeping a small cut of the profits and the right to reprint their IDW-published issues with no fee.
- Hasbro would keep exclusive rights for the toylines, including the right to license to other companies like LEGO, with Marvel keeping a small cut of the profits.
- For Circuit Breaker, Hasbro would recover the rights for the character while Marvel would be allowed to reprint non-licensed stories featuring her (I think it's just Secret Wars II?) with no fee.

Can anyone tell me if this would be a good or acceptable deal?

No one cares. For media, Marvel doesn't want to do film franchises for characters they don't own outright when there are so many that they do own. The amount of money in these older characters from toys, licensing, or from comics reprints is negligible. They'd end up paying more for the lawyers and negotiations than they would make back.

I hope we eventually get to see limited comics reprints, but it's not likely anytime soon, and these franchises aren't compelling enough to invest in over other options.

While I'd usually agree with you, there are three points that raised my question:
a) It's kinda hard to believe given how famous they've gotten now, but the Avengers weren't the powerhouse they currently are. By the time the MCU began, most of the more famous superheroes had already been sold to other studios, and they had to make do with less popular/profitable heroes. Even now when their main team and members have risen to the star-power they have now, they still bet on relatively obscure properties, otherwise we wouldn't have Guardians of The Galaxy and Shang-Chi movies right now.
b) At least for Rom, there's a lot of connections to the more famous, in-house names they can't use at all. For example, did you know he was partially responsible for kickstarting Rogue's redemption arc in X-Men? Well good luck seeing that now, cause they can't print it!
c) Again, for Rom at least, they keep trying legal loopholes to reuse the names and/or concepts (remember Venom: Space Knight?), so clearly they recognise something useful in the IP.

So DND is getting new races. So is Mtg. Good, but not that good. I prefer the 1st edition ADND races of Humanoids including Human.