The Energon Pub

It's been bad news after bad news for the Transformers Live Action film franchise. While Paramount was working on a Transformers GI Joe film, they lost their director and the only news we had regarding a script was that it was not done yet. Fans waited to see if there would be any news at Cinemacon, since that's where the project was officially announced in 2024, and there was 0 news on it.

Adding to that is the fact that with Hasbro losing money on their film investments, they pulled the plug on any financial backing of their film projects, meaning that Paramount would have to find other investors for Transformers films to happen. And remember, Hasbro's money was the only reason we got more films since The Last Knight.

With all this bad news, how about some more? As a response to Trump's escalading trade war against China, China has released an official statement where they state the following:

“The wrong action of the U.S. government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability towards American films.”
“We will follow the market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.”

While this won't make or break the majority of US films, the Live Action Transformers franchise has made a big bulk of its business in China. For the latest film in the franchise, Rise of the Beasts, the Chinese Box Office accounted for $91M out of the film's total $441M gross, so 20%. With so many factors working against getting financing for that franchise right now, this is another to add to the list. Not showing this film in China reduce the return on investment and it could potentially limit Chinese investment as well.

Of course, the statement did also say that the Chinese government will also respect audience's choices so if they notice a high demand for a Transformers film to be distributed, it still could. But these choices come after a film is made, and the uncertainty in China's added revenue would come into play at the financing stages.

You'll let us know what you think and if you see a path forward for the live action Transformers film franchise to continue.

Overcracker wrote:The tariff thing is now super confusing. China is up to 145% is it? but other things from other places only 10%?

I am honestly very, very confused at this point.

You got it right. The 10% is for the next 90 days, then we’ll see.
Also, a majority of tech products are exempt from the tariffs against Chinese imports.

william-james88 wrote:Also, a majority of tech products are exempt from the tariffs against Chinese imports.

Which is infuriating. All the bluster about 'bringing back' manufacturing jobs by using tariffs to inflate the cost of imports, and tbe one thing that's exempt ia products for which overseas manufacture presents a national security concern,

Dr. Caelus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Also, a majority of tech products are exempt from the tariffs against Chinese imports.

Which is infuriating. All the bluster about 'bringing back' manufacturing jobs by using tariffs to inflate the cost of imports, and tbe one thing that's exempt ia products for which overseas manufacture presents a national security concern,

I never really thought it was about manufacturing jobs since US unemployment is low and most americans preffer working in the service sector. The initial narrative coming from Trump was that tariffs would help fund and enrich the US government.

What's sad here is that we can see how this isn't well thought out at all. With the current policy in place, a US company assembling electronics (like Laptops) in the US will be taxed on imported parts while a US company assembling electronics in China will be exempt. So the current incentives make it more worthwhile for a US company to move their production of electronics to China. So you don't get any extra money for the government and you potentially lose more manufacturing jobs.

But it's a fluid situation. Tariffs should be for finished products (like Chinese made EVs), not parts or resources that go into local manufacturing, and we are seeing that the administration is tweaking things so that it makes more sense. Like them no longer having tariffs on car parts/components that go into US car assembly.

I'll reserve comments on Trump's tariffs because I'm Canadian except one: the WH sure know how to wreck the economy of the world in the short term at least, and I bet very likely for the full term of his presidency and then some.

With that obvious, pointless rant out of the way. Back to the future of the TF movie franchise.

I way I see it. China will probably not let another Bay movie in, with his general "Rah rah America F***k Yeah" and love for American military hardware use in his live-action films.

TF:One CGI animation sequels though? I still think it's likely there's still an "in" to Chinese theatres. Considering the "Internal Market Demands" of TF goods inside China. Things like licensed Yolopark AMKs, Blokees, 3P, 4P are all the rage these days. Chinese love their "deformating" robots.

IMO it's about the financial health of Paramount and how confident is the product first, then Paramount betting on the chances of whether the film have a spot in the Foreign film quota. But as we all know, Paramount has been fumbling left & right for years in its multiple projects/franchises, and its future is already bleak without the tariff war coming into play. So I honestly hold no anticipation of another TF/Joe movie unless the license is passed to another studio.

william-james88 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:The tariff thing is now super confusing. China is up to 145% is it? but other things from other places only 10%?

I am honestly very, very confused at this point.

You got it right. The 10% is for the next 90 days, then we’ll see.
Also, a majority of tech products are exempt from the tariffs against Chinese imports.

Nope, he already reversed that.

Business Insider (because I'm not visiting Truth Social) wrote:"There was no Tariff 'exception' announced on Friday," Trump wrote. "These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff 'bucket.'"

As usual his dementia causes him to say one popular thing and then turn around and double down on the opposite. And what does that even mean? They're currently at 20% (instead of 10%) and will be moving to their own bracket at a higher rate? A lower rate? The same rate plus another rate? I'm sure ChatGPT will figure it out for him later.

Emerje

Transformers is loved the world over.
They could just pander more to the Chinese govt as done in the past.
Painting China as heroic, brave and steadfast there should be no problem with views, and money, coming from China.. but can you put a tariff on a movie tix? Hmmmm

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:The tariff thing is now super confusing. China is up to 145% is it? but other things from other places only 10%?

I am honestly very, very confused at this point.

You got it right. The 10% is for the next 90 days, then we’ll see.
Also, a majority of tech products are exempt from the tariffs against Chinese imports.

Nope, he already reversed that.

Business Insider (because I'm not visiting Truth Social) wrote:"There was no Tariff 'exception' announced on Friday," Trump wrote. "These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff 'bucket.'"

As usual his dementia causes him to say one popular thing and then turn around and double down on the opposite. And what does that even mean? They're currently at 20% (instead of 10%) and will be moving to their own bracket at a higher rate? A lower rate? The same rate plus another rate? I'm sure ChatGPT will figure it out for him later.

Emerje

Man this is confusing. But it does mean that the electronics are spared the really high 145% tariff on chinese imports.

william-james88 wrote:I never really thought it was about manufacturing jobs since US unemployment is low and most americans preffer working in the service sector. The initial narrative coming from Trump was that tariffs would help fund and enrich the US government.

The right seems convinced that there are American citizens clamoring to work in U.S. factories, while no one on the right actually seems to want one of those jobs. I incessantly hear, "Bring those jobs back to America," but I don't know if I've ever heard it from someone actually unemployed.

Largely, I'd say the argument is either made in bad faith, or it's made with the implied evaluation that many jobs Americans currently hold should be eliminated, so that the bodies can be reallocated to factory work.

Either way, it's still one of the talking points coughed up anytime tariffs are discussed:

REPRIORITIZING U.S. MANUFACTURING: President Trump recognizes that increasing domestic manufacturing is critical to U.S. national security.

If the U.S. wishes to maintain an effective security umbrella to defend its citizens and homeland, as well as allies and partners, it needs to have a large upstream manufacturing and goods-producing ecosystem.

This includes developing new manufacturing technologies in critical sectors like bio-manufacturing, batteries, and microelectronics to support defense needs.

From 1997 to 2024, the U.S. lost around 5 million manufacturing jobs and experienced one of the largest drops in manufacturing employment in history.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/ ... -security/

Dr. Caelus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I never really thought it was about manufacturing jobs since US unemployment is low and most americans preffer working in the service sector. The initial narrative coming from Trump was that tariffs would help fund and enrich the US government.

The right seems convinced that there are American citizens clamoring to work in U.S. factories, while no one on the right actually seems to want one of those jobs. I incessantly hear, "Bring those jobs back to America," but I don't know if I've ever heard it from someone actually unemployed.

Largely, I'd say the argument is either made in bad faith, or it's made with the implied evaluation that many jobs Americans currently hold should be eliminated, so that the bodies can be reallocated to factory work.

What got a good laugh out of me was when a Republican pundit proudly exclaimed on TV that they're going to (paraphrasing, can't find the clip I saw on YouTube) "bring manufacturing jobs back to America and we're going to automate them!" Oops! Said the quite part out loud. It was never about jobs, it's about control and not understanding that a lot of manufacturing is very specialized and can't be automated. Action figures are essentially hand made, they can't make a specialized machine for every single figure ever made. The molding can be automated to a point, but the assembly, painting and packaging is all done by hand.

They also don't understand that even if we move electronics production to the US we don't have the natural resources to do it to scale. China owns the majority the resources, quality silicon especially. By comparison the US produced 310 thousand metric tons of silicon in 2022, which sounds like a lot, that's 310,000 elephants or 6 Titanics. But that's only enough to make us the 5th highest producer behind Norway, Brazil, Russia and China. On the other hand China produced 6 million metric tons in 2022. But that's not all, China bought up the mining rights in a bunch of other countries, too, including Brazil, it's virtually impossible for us to produce more silicon than we already have. And that's just the one resource. For example the vast majority of the world's lithium comes from Australia. And yet we'd rather alienate countries than work with them because the people in power don't understand that we're at our limits. However, there is one virtually untapped country that's full of resources used in chip manufacturing that I'm sure the Trump administration is frothing at the mouth for the chance to strip mine.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Dr. Caelus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I never really thought it was about manufacturing jobs since US unemployment is low and most americans preffer working in the service sector. The initial narrative coming from Trump was that tariffs would help fund and enrich the US government.

The right seems convinced that there are American citizens clamoring to work in U.S. factories, while no one on the right actually seems to want one of those jobs. I incessantly hear, "Bring those jobs back to America," but I don't know if I've ever heard it from someone actually unemployed.

Largely, I'd say the argument is either made in bad faith, or it's made with the implied evaluation that many jobs Americans currently hold should be eliminated, so that the bodies can be reallocated to factory work.

What got a good laugh out of me was when a Republican pundit proudly exclaimed on TV that they're going to (paraphrasing, can't find the clip I saw on YouTube) "bring manufacturing jobs back to America and we're going to automate them!" Oops! Said the quite part out loud. It was never about jobs, it's about control and not understanding that a lot of manufacturing is very specialized and can't be automated. Action figures are essentially hand made, they can't make a specialized machine for every single figure ever made. The molding can be automated to a point, but the assembly, painting and packaging is all done by hand.

They also don't understand that even if we move electronics production to the US we don't have the natural resources to do it to scale. China owns the majority the resources, quality silicon especially. By comparison the US produced 310 thousand metric tons of silicon in 2022, which sounds like a lot, that's 310,000 elephants or 6 Titanics. But that's only enough to make us the 5th highest producer behind Norway, Brazil, Russia and China. On the other hand China produced 6 million metric tons in 2022. But that's not all, China bought up the mining rights in a bunch of other countries, too, including Brazil, it's virtually impossible for us to produce more silicon than we already have. And that's just the one resource. For example the vast majority of the world's lithium comes from Australia. And yet we'd rather alienate countries than work with them because the people in power don't understand that we're at our limits. However, there is one virtually untapped country that's full of resources used in chip manufacturing that I'm sure the Trump administration is frothing at the mouth for the chance to strip mine.



Emerje

Europe won't even import U.S.meat, https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5364940/chlorinated-chicken-trump-tariffs-uk-eu
Not a new revelation.

It will be an uphill battle to import any U.S. manufactured good.
Now, I have capitulated this for along time, but the effort taken to try to advance this optic is mind blowing.

I didn't quote you to scathe, but to iterate the U.S.is not an exporter,but an importer..
"I believe" the U.S. is planning to isolate like WW2 Germany and industrialize and wage economical and physical war against the rest of the world, unfortunately. Our aggression towards Iran(weakest and equally the strongest, of adversaries) is a result of current administrative desires to flex a power move.(I'm not afraid of nuclear weapons)

Current attempts to strengthen relations with nations like North Korea, Russia and other authoritarian govts is not unwarranted, but is misguided since the U.S.is supposed to advance Democracy and not Autocracy.

I could go on, but I want to say it seems current U.S.policy is less about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and more about one individuals view of existence.
The toys that we love as adults, I'm confident 99% on this site are, are endangered regardless of any tariff imposed

DISCHARGE wrote:The toys that we love as adults, I'm confident 99% on this site are, are endangered regardless of any tariff imposed

I don't think you're wrong.

Looking at social media response to mainstream media coverage of this specific topic is jarring. Some people are saying there are bigger problems right now, and that's fair. But other people are suddenly villifying the toy industry and its consumers. The same people that have diatribed about the evils of communism are scolding American consumers for indulging in materialistic pursuits. The same people who say kids are too young to learn about gender, are now saying it's about time that parents stopped buying their kids such childish things and kicked them out of the house.

Condemning children's imaginative play and adult's hobby collecting in favor of committing to a focus on sports and fitness goals might seem like a simple agree-to-disagree thing, but if it becomes tied into the American nationalist identity that you see them trying to manufacture, then the 30s are going to look really familiar.

DISCHARGE wrote:I didn't quote you to scathe, but to iterate the U.S.is not an exporter,but an importer..

No worries. I get it, you get it, Trump does not get it. He calls it a trade deficit when the developing African country of Lethoso exports one thing to the US (jeans) and they import nothing from the US so Trump calls that a 99% tariff on US exports and counters with a 50% tariff on imports (at the time the largest tariff imposed until China refused to fold). He also imposed tariffs on penguins in Antarctica, it's all nonsense.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:What got a good laugh out of me was when a Republican pundit proudly exclaimed on TV that they're going to (paraphrasing, can't find the clip I saw on YouTube) "bring manufacturing jobs back to America and we're going to automate them!" Oops! Said the quite part out loud.

It was no random Republican. It was the Secretary of Commerce Lutnick himself that said the factory will be automated, and American labor will be used to fixed the robots. LOL. Right, and all the MAGA crowd wanted was to bring back laborious jobs that need hammers & pickaxes so that they can get lung cancers. These are people that dream of the good old days working at simple, monotonous and mono-skilled production lines... the same people who resist changes at all costs (mostly to their own detriment and dragging the world world with them)... and you expect them to repair robots!? LMAO.

Here's the clip from WP (starts around the 1min mark) : https://youtu.be/38R81esuNEs?feature=shared&t=60

Being a Canadian, honestly, I was hoping in 2024 that Americans won't re-elect Trump. Since that didn't materialised, I switched to wanting to see America burn their own economy to the ground after the barrage of Executive Orders, DOGE, illegal ICE kidnappings and the Tariff Wars on Canada, Mexico and then to rest of the world. But it's not out of hate or revenge that I say this, it's that I honestly believe the USA is at that precipice where it need a baptism by hellfire to shake off Trump-style "democracy" for decades.

Will China overtake the US and strengthen BRICS in a decade? Will NATO and Western alliances ever be the same? This Tariff War fiasco - the critical blow is less the % of the tariffs, but the DAILY "will they or won't they, back & forth" inconsistencies - that really burn bridges and eroding trusts amongst US allies.

Makes it really, really hard to find sympathies to my country's Southern neighbour even though I KNOW over half of Americans didn't ask for this and are suffering. But hey, that's American gerrymandered democracy! FIX IT!

cloudballoon wrote:Being a Canadian, honestly, I was hoping in 2024 that Americans won't re-elect Trump.

Republucans' relentless messaging that the previous election was stolen pressured the middle and left to publicly commit to the stance that overall our electoral process is totally secure - beyond suspicion. Then the Republ8can candidate openly threatened the owner of one of our largest media platforms, and the world's (publicly) richest man, with direct control over another massive media platform as well as a small army of computer experts, swooped in and made a mind bogglingly large investment in the Republican candidate.

If January 6th and the subsequent four years of Republicans' lies and Democrats' reassurances hadn't happened, we would have raised more questions.

I can imagine this will only be a good thing for the quality of movies in the future. The Chinese Communist government has been ruining movies for years with all the racist and communist propaganda they have forced(with Hollywood gladly relenting cause they love that red money). Disney and others have edited movies at the behest of the communist Chinese party, covering Black Panthers face on movie posters in China, making Finn smaller in the new Star Wars trilogy posters, removing things they didn't like that painted China in a bad light, etc. Everyone has watched a few South Park episodes right?

I for one hope we don't get anymore live action movies for one very big reason. Too many damn crappy movie toys taking up space on shelves and pegs that would otherwise go to stuff people want like Studio Series and Age of the Primes. Bad enough collectors have to look at junk like Earthspark or whatever else that's supposed to cater to kids, but just ends up sitting around collecting dust. Besides which, we've had 7 live action movies already, plus One. That's enough movies. More space for collector oriented figures.

The more Trump does things the more angry I get. Cant wait for him to be fired in 2028.

BW Megatron wrote:I for one hope we don't get anymore live action movies for one very big reason. Too many damn crappy movie toys taking up space on shelves and pegs that would otherwise go to stuff people want like Studio Series and Age of the Primes. Bad enough collectors have to look at junk like Earthspark or whatever else that's supposed to cater to kids, but just ends up sitting around collecting dust. Besides which, we've had 7 live action movies already, plus One. That's enough movies. More space for collector oriented figures.

Hate to say it, but if that stuff wasn't on the shelves they'd fill the space with something totally different and unrelated. Only time retailers care about stocking multiple pegs of the same line is when there's something new to promote. Those lines don't take resources from the collectors lines nor do they take retail space, if anything they're a draw, they make the "better" lines more noticeable. If not for them Transformers would be nothing more than four Deluxe pegs and two wide on the shelves (two rows of Voyagers and two rows of Leaders).

Emerje

JusticePrime120$ wrote:The more Trump does things the more angry I get. Cant wait for him to be fired in 2028.

Man you're patient. I look forward to the mid-term when he'll become a lame-duck. But I'm probably hoping against hope as enough of the US government officials have already lost their minds & already too gutless to fight against Agent Orange, he can still rule like the Mad King with nothing but Executive Orders, and DOGE & every branch of "law Enforcement" and the milatary will abide by him. I dont' know...

It's probably too morbid to discuss, but it's America we're talking about here, I'll not be surprised worse news would come to Trump before 2028 since his Tariff Wars & DOGE messed up so many lives.

Hasbro's CEO Chris Cocks warned early on that Hasbro would pass on any extra expenses they may incur from tariffs to consumers, and that it would disproportionally affect toys bought by fans so that toys targeting only kids and families would rise less in price. And it looks like that will be happening very soon. A message has been popping up on Hasbro Pulse that preorder prices can be locked in for the next few days but that will end May 9th at 12:01. So you have until May 8th to place preorders on the items you want, as prices will probably be higher on those same items going forward. Now prices going up was not said in their notice, but if not then why warn fans?

The message is now at the top of the website and comes up when searching Hasbro Pulse.

My buying has already ended. This news made it permanent
I know the tariffs are out of their control but with every thing going up aside from my pay, I'm done.

"...Prices going up was not said in their notice, but if not then why warn fans?"

Why indeed? I'm not inclined to blame this wholly on the tariffs, though that's certainly part of it. But Hasbro has proved already that they are opportunistic and greedy, and will take any happenstance as an excuse to jack up their prices, jack up their profits, and 'pass it on to the consumers'. The tariffs were simply the excuse they were looking for.