PrymeStriker wrote:njb902 wrote:Autobot032 wrote:PrymeStriker wrote:njb902 wrote:Autobot032 wrote:G1 Smoketreader wrote:*Don't like his bot mode so much. Face is meh but will still buy.
Rumor is it'll be a Takara only figure. It'll be a redeco of Knock Out. (We have no idea if any retooling will be done.) I'm not the biggest fan of that news...
Oh and BTW...your wife is AWESOME. Her words are golden truth.
Isn't it odd(if the above turns out to be true) that we aren't getting some major show characters as toys here in the USA? First breakdown now smokescreen, I mean common!
Because, and it's been said many times, that Hasbro is putting Prime as
TV series before a toyline. Meaning they could care less what goes on in the toyline, hell, their main toyline was released in 2012 when Prime first aired in 2010. They're focusing on the media of the games and cartoons, not the toys.
It makes no sense, because they are a toy company, but it's true. That's what they've been saying.
All true. They also said they'd be focusing on multimedia, as well. Saying they're becoming a multimedia company, not just toys. It's looking like it's going to be exactly what I thought it was... They'll end up quitting the toys to make money in the box office and on the airwaves and if we want our merchandise, we can either import, or go pound salt.
Or, we might get lucky and a 3rd party (by that, I mean a company such as Bandai, not FansProject) could win the rights to produce the toys. I know it sounds silly to even say such a thing, right now, but I could see Hasbro either cutting toys altogether, or hiring a 3rd party to produce the toys for them and keep on truckin'.
Kinda like how Saban owns Power Rangers, but produces none of the toys. Bandai carries that burden. (Not the best example, but it at least gives you an idea of what I'm trying to say.) Hasbro owns Transformers, but could end up not producing a single toy.
This confirms a rumor I heard on a private forum. A poster there (well known) said he had heard that we wouldn't see toys of all the characters because the cost of the show was so high and it was their main focus and that it would be possible that we might not get the entire cast as toys. Looks like he was right.
Dang it.
Hmmmm not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand I love tf toys. On the other I love the tf media as well. I guess if I had to choose I'd pick media over toys. But I'd rather not have to.
I for one rather despise that concept. I like having the entire cast of a Transformers cartoon, comic, or movie in hand (that's the one thing I didn't like about ROTF, Animated, and DOTM, although I stopped watching Animated about half-way into Season 2, and around that time pretty much every character had a toy).
If I can't have an official toy of Insecticon, Shockwave, Vehicon Miner (I know, that's just obsessive right there), or Smokescreen (or one that doesn't suck. I'm still holding out to see how this KO repaint/retool/re-engineering will turn out), I might just have to turn to 3rd party or make a custom my damn self. It's rather sad when you're forced to do this
.
Exactly. Hasbro wants to be able to have their cake and eat it too. Problem is, that's not how it works.
They don't want 3rd parties to exist, yet they won't give us (and kids) what we want. Okay, so they can't give us a Maketoys Giant style Devastator. I'll give them that one. But they cut Breakdown out? Really? One of the main cast characters? And now, Smokescreen is possibly just a straight repaint of Knock Out, with a remolded head? (If we're lucky.)
Some things, I'll admit, Hasbro has trouble making happen. Some things, they NEED to make happen. There wouldn't be a market for 3rd party items if they'd actually give a damn, and they don't.
I know they can't make every figure we've ever wanted, but instead of making a Skyquake figure, since he was only in two episodes and one of them he's a zombie, why not put that money into Breakdown?
I've noticed something... I think Breakdown WAS going to be a Hasbro release. On FOC Jazz, if you look at the back of his legs, they're hollow and have what I call a waffling design. Breakdown and Dreadwing have this as well. The limbs aren't fully sealed, they're hollowed out and have a waffle like design. Plus thinner plastics, plus less pins and screws. A lot of things snap in place.
But, if you look at previous PRID offerings and Takara's exclusive Jet Vehicon (which we knew wasn't coming to the US, pretty much from the get go), there's a world of difference.
The Jet Vehicon has solid limbs and body parts. His weight (as a Deluxe) rivals that of Breakdown (a Voyager). Jet Vehicon doesn't feel hollow, not one bit. His weight is more akin to F.E. Bulkhead, actually. Breakdown is significantly lighter than Bulkhead, weight wise. (I'm not kidding.) Has pins, screws and nothing but ball joints snap onto this guy. He's clearly a Takara creation, through and through. (Yes, I realize his core robot is based on Hasbro's Vehicon. Which is why I said previous PRID offerings.)
But Breakdown? He doesn't feel like a Takara figure, at all. Even with the Micron ports, he doesn't feel like a Takara figure. He feels like a revised production Hasbro figure. So, it leads me to believe that Hasbro had the tooling done, then couldn't afford him in their budget and cut him. Takara, on the other hand, had already spent money putting the tooling out for production, plus it was a ready to go mold, and it was a figure everyone wanted, so *BOOM* Here he is. I think if Takara had made him, he'd have been more solid and hefty.
Another good example... Masterpiece Thundercracker at TRU, right now. TJ Duckett did a video review of him, and he said the plastic is thin and you can see in the video where pins have been removed in favor of snap together segments, much like the PRID toys. Which worries me about Optimus V.2 when it comes out. Hasbro is clearly cutting corners. Takara, last I checked, does not. They cater more to the collector, and then kids, whereas it's in reverse here.
I can't be the only one who's noticed this. I just can't be. Someone else had to look at Breakdown and think "Yeah, this was the US version and we just got shafted into importing it."
The quality between companies is astounding. Don't get me wrong, I love my Breakdown, but the Jet Vehicon is much more solid and feels like a real Transformer. Breakdown feels like a model, in some ways. Both in how it comes together and the materials used. It really does feel like model plastic in some spots. (Ridiculous, given the asking price.)
I have a feeling I'll end up being right (and no, it's not an ego thing, I'm not patting myself on the back.) and I really don't want to be. I want so badly to be wrong, on this one. I want this to just be a passing phase to make ends meet and when they rebound, return to classic TF toy making with quality materials and designs. But, if I'm right, then this is just the beginning of "Aww. This is pure crap. It's totes gonna break..."
NOTE: Realize that I am not a perfect Christian, nor do I profess to be. I apologize if anyone's ever offended by me, I'm not perfect. Don't hold my posts and opinions against other Christians.
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
