The Energon Pub

william-james88 wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I stopped by Target after work tonight, looking for Tarantulas or Blitzwing, but found neither. I also noticed that the endcap with the Creatures Collide 4-pack and naked Dinobot was also gone, but I couldn't find them anywhere else. I was there 2 or 3 days ago and there were 8 or 9 4-packs on the shelf. Could they have started clearancing them already? If so, I might get one just for Goldbug, I could still sell the others.

Scalpers more likely.

Doubtful, scalpers don't buy toys that are just sitting there after fans had their pick.

I've also noticed all the stores that had these Buzzworthy items have sold out of them, except for raw Dinobot. Maybe they actually were popular product

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I stopped by Target after work tonight, looking for Tarantulas or Blitzwing, but found neither. I also noticed that the endcap with the Creatures Collide 4-pack and naked Dinobot was also gone, but I couldn't find them anywhere else. I was there 2 or 3 days ago and there were 8 or 9 4-packs on the shelf. Could they have started clearancing them already? If so, I might get one just for Goldbug, I could still sell the others.

Scalpers more likely.

Doubtful, scalpers don't buy toys that are just sitting there after fans had their pick.

I've also noticed all the stores that had these Buzzworthy items have sold out of them, except for raw Dinobot. Maybe they actually were popular product

I see so many raw chicken Dinobots at Target now. I know it's pretty early to call something like this, but I think toy colors Dinobot was a miscalculation.

Wolfman Jake wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I stopped by Target after work tonight, looking for Tarantulas or Blitzwing, but found neither. I also noticed that the endcap with the Creatures Collide 4-pack and naked Dinobot was also gone, but I couldn't find them anywhere else. I was there 2 or 3 days ago and there were 8 or 9 4-packs on the shelf. Could they have started clearancing them already? If so, I might get one just for Goldbug, I could still sell the others.

Scalpers more likely.

Doubtful, scalpers don't buy toys that are just sitting there after fans had their pick.

I've also noticed all the stores that had these Buzzworthy items have sold out of them, except for raw Dinobot. Maybe they actually were popular product

I see so many raw chicken Dinobots at Target now. I know it's pretty early to call something like this, but I think toy colors Dinobot was a miscalculation.

All this stuff is just that, stuff. Stuff to have on shelves to sell whenever there's a want or need for this type of toy. And summertime is always a lul in toy sales due to spending less time indoors going and less (or less numerous) kid birthday parties. We'll see if they last past the holiday season, which is ultimately when all this stuff is meant to sell.

All that aside, I too think it is a weak effort from Hasbro since I don't think it would meet their expectation of whatever percentage amount they think they can get from fan sales.

Here's something many of you Americans thought you would never hear or see again: news of plenty of exclusive Transformers at a Toysrus in the US. The Toysrus store at American Dream Mall in New Jersey does indeed have the exclusive Buzzworthy Bumblebee Creatures Collide set. And from the looks of it, they have a lot. As the person who posted the photo below wrote, they are "swimming in 'em". They are currently being sold for $74.99.

Considering deluxes sell for 22/25$US, that's a pretty damn good price!

Anyone have seen that set at a Canadian TrU yet? How much is it? I bet it's like 150$ or more.

Wow, and i thought the 12 i saw at a local Target was a lot.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Considering deluxes sell for 22/25$US, that's a pretty damn good price!

Anyone have seen that set at a Canadian TrU yet? How much is it? I bet it's like 150$ or more.

Hasn't been found in Canada yet

That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

...didn't you go on multiple long tirades about how you were upset they weren't updating the Deluxe Insecticons, and now that they've actually started doing so the only way they can without potentially incurring legal trouble that's the last straw? Kinda sounds like you just have unrealistic expectations at this point, if they've done the thing you want and that's actively made you more upset.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Case in point.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

Only NOW did you finally notice what the Transformers brand have been doing since even before Transformers existed in the late 1970's?

Well, congratulation!
It's sad that you decide to leave a hobby after "discovering" a core building block of said hobby.

Goodbye and............................................... see you soon!

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

From what I can tell, your angry that ransack didn't get a new mold. Why did you think that he'd get one? As stated before, the rights of the Deluxe Insecticons are dubious at best. Thus what hasbro have done is the best you could hope for (officially at least).

As stated, redecos have existed within transformers since the very beginning, a concept baked in to extend the lifecycle of the molds (and make more money for Hasbro).

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

FYI, the majority of Bumblebee molds are not new. Like the goldbug in this set is a redeco of a cliffjumper retool.

william-james88 wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

FYI, the majority of Bumblebee molds are not new. Like the goldbug in this set is a redeco of a cliffjumper retool.

I thought goldbug was the Netflix bee redeco

ZeroWolf wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

FYI, the majority of Bumblebee molds are not new. Like the goldbug in this set is a redeco of a cliffjumper retool.

I thought goldbug was the Netflix bee redeco

Exactly, it's a redeco of that toy which was a retool of earthrise cliffjumper

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

FYI, the majority of Bumblebee molds are not new. Like the goldbug in this set is a redeco of a cliffjumper retool.

I thought goldbug was the Netflix bee redeco

Exactly, it's a redeco of that toy which was a retool of earthrise cliffjumper

Ahh I see where you were going with it now, apologies.

To further your point, look at the SS Dark of the Moon Bee which is a retool from another bee.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote: Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special?

Nothing

ZeroWolf wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

From what I can tell, your angry that ransack didn't get a new mold. Why did you think that he'd get one? As stated before, the rights of the Deluxe Insecticons are dubious at best. Thus what hasbro have done is the best you could hope for (officially at least).

As stated, redecos have existed within transformers since the very beginning, a concept baked in to extend the lifecycle of the molds (and make more money for Hasbro).

I don't think there's a legal issue here so much as a cost one. The transformations and alt-modes are similar enough that it wouldn't make sense to do a brand new figure for a character barely in any media. More generally, I think it's silly to insist that every G1 character needs a new mold, especially for molds originally licensed from other manufacturers.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:That crappy Kickback repaint is the reason I finally stopped collecting Transformers & will no longer give Hasbro any of my money. That is the final nail in my TF collecting coffin.

They just keep making the same old characters over & over & over & over again. While most of the others are completely ignored or given these lazy, pathetic repaints. If they can spend the money on tooling for 50 million brand new Bumblebeemolds then they can give us 1 brand new mold for every original G1 character.

Just look what they did to Doublecross, Repugnus, Grotusque & Fangry. And they never even bothered to make Horri-bull or Squeezeplay. Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special? Why do all these other characters constantly get crapped on?

I'm not doing this anymore! In the past few months I sold a huge chunk of my collection. And I don't regret it at all.

From what I can tell, your angry that ransack didn't get a new mold. Why did you think that he'd get one? As stated before, the rights of the Deluxe Insecticons are dubious at best. Thus what hasbro have done is the best you could hope for (officially at least).

As stated, redecos have existed within transformers since the very beginning, a concept baked in to extend the lifecycle of the molds (and make more money for Hasbro).

I don't think there's a legal issue here so much as a cost one. The transformations and alt-modes are similar enough that it wouldn't make sense to do a brand new figure for a character barely in any media. More generally, I think it's silly to insist that every G1 character needs a new mold, especially for molds originally licensed from other manufacturers.

This is also true.

Regarding Bee, let's not get into another debate on why Hasbro make toys of him. The facts are quite clear on this.

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote: Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special?

Nothing

Aside from, you know, being a cash cow big enough to name an entire subline after. Why is it so hard to understand that the best selling character in the franchise that's super popular with kids, the primary target for Transformers toys, gets the most toys? It's not exactly a tough concept to understand and yet both of you seem to struggle hard with it. It's the same reason why no company misses a chance to add Spiderman and Wolverine to their Marvel lineups, Batman to their DC lines, and even Mattel was making Grogu Star Wars toys, you make the most out of what sells the best.

Emerje

What makes Bumblebee so special? $4,847,276,426 USD worldwide! 4.8 BILLION dollars! That's what.

Emerje wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote: Why does Bumblebee deserve majority of their production budget? What makes bumblebee so damn special?

Nothing

Aside from, you know, being a cash cow big enough to name an entire subline after. Why is it so hard to understand that the best selling character in the franchise that's super popular with kids, the primary target for Transformers toys, gets the most toys? It's not exactly a tough concept to understand and yet both of you seem to struggle hard with it. It's the same reason why no company misses a chance to add Spiderman and Wolverine to their Marvel lineups, Batman to their DC lines, and even Mattel was making Grogu Star Wars toys, you make the most out of what sells the best.

Emerje

I think the issue is one of acceptance rather than understanding. I consistently say that the adult collector market is probably a bigger demo than fans think, but even I know they're not enough to justify cancelling Bumblebee related marketing. A healthy franchise and a healthy fandom should appeal to a wide range of demos, anyone not interested in that should feel free to leave.

Bee is just the easy character to hate on, the low hanging fruit. Which is really silly if you are a generations/non-studio series fan, because Bee really hasn't gotten in the way of anything in the Prime Trilogy, WFC or current Legacy lines at all.

We really don't have much to complain about with Bee in particular from the Warden and post Warden era, basically after Thrilling 30. Bee has had a total of 1 mainline release, and 5 molds one of which was a retool of the other. 3 molds were exclusive to Bee/Goldbug himself, but all exclusive.

The TR legends figure was the only mainline release, everything else has been an exclusive, at least in the US:
Netflix WV Bee (Walmart)
Buzzworthy Core Bee w/ Spike (Target)
Buzzworthy Worlds Collide Bee (Target)
Origins Bee (Target)
SG Goldbug (Pulse)
Buzzworthy Creatures Collide Goldbug (Target)

Of the 5 molds, the TR figure shared costs with Roadburn and the non-WV ER mold saw 3 other uses than worlds collide Bee and SG Goldbug. Target and Walmart helped with the mold costs for the core, origins and Netflix molds.

Not 1 of the molds took anything away from the regular retail release line, and 2 of them helped provide an avenue for lesser known characters like Roadburn and Hubcap.

Bee sells so he is always going to be included somehow. Also Target appears to love the hell out of him, so expect more. I'd much rather have him mostly in exclusives and all over the packaging for a subline than taking up one of the deluxe slots of Legacy retail waves, or take a Selects spot away from a lesser known character.

I could understand the anti-Bee sentiment when at the peak of Prime and DOTM, the toy shelves looked like this:



But now Bee complainers are redundant and ridiculous.

Add to the fact that fans desperately wanted more of that Walmart exclusive Netflix Bee.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I could understand the anti-Bee sentiment when at the peak of Prime and DOTM, the toy shelves looked like this:

200.gif

But now Bee complainers are redundant and ridiculous.

But are they wrong? If all Hasbro cares about is sales and they know Bee sells, shouldn't retail stores have a Bee-only section? Or would that negatively impact sales on other figures?