william-james88 wrote:Hellscream9999 wrote:but, of course if that's what you meant, and TT doesn't sell their toys at b&m in japan at all, then it would make sense that they're hemorrhaging money and need to borrow the potp figures from hasbro
Yes, thats what i meant. Takra doesnt distribute these legends toys at big box retailers in Japan, as far as I have looked into it. Hence the 15 year old age on the box.
Takara has limited the age range for these toys and I have no clue why when its the same toys Hasbro markets to kids.
Anyways... I thought this pic was awesome and well thought out
1/ Takara haven't limited sales of the toys to only online. I showed photographic evidence of this already of the Legends toys being sold in a major chain retailer in Japan. Here is the picture again. However, although most BM retailers are not carrying these figures, that's not so unusual as Transformers have never enjoyed a strong presence in such shops in the time I've been in Japan.
I interviewed a shop assistant at that shop and they were unaware of the 15+ age on the box. Once told why, he stated that their shop (Yodabashi Camera, I think) allowed unaccompanied children of any age to buy toys, but didn't allow such children to buy videogames that the shop consisted graphically violent, or sexual in nature. When asked why the Legends toys were rated 15+, the staff postulated that this was due to the "original version of the toy being aimed at the same age" (we didn't understand this idea) and/or that the transformation was more complicated/the toy had sharper, more dangerous parts than regular released TFs).
2/ The increased age range is probably due to the use of "nsfw" imagery and themes in the attached comics that came with some of the figures (such as Octane, for example).
3/ These could be related to dwindling sales or a lack of money at Takara. TFwiki postulated that when Binaltech sales were low (possibly due to complicated transformations, etc), Takara aimed the toys at an older market, which meant that they could employ a more nsfw themes to entice a specific demographic (certain, older male "otaku" that liked nostalgic and/or "adult" references in their Transformers media). Thus, this seems to be a similar situation, with low sales/limited availability of Legends toys and similar adult content.