The Energon Pub

Does anyone else here suppose that when Hasbro goes to release their version of MP Ultra Magnus that it will only be the albino white Prime?

To me this may make sense from a marketing standpoint. It would cause people to buy the Takara version (MP-22) to have the large robot, but if they also wanted to display the white robot as well, they could just buy the Hasbro albino prime.

I think maybe Has/Tak thought of this well ahead of time.

Would an albino MP Magnus even do well on the American market? I think that's the bigger question.

Personally when I think of Magnus I think of his more colorful self (despite the albino Revoltech sitting on my shelf). So I wouldn't spend the $100+ to get an albino version, even though the US release would be notably less than Takara's.

That's just me of course. But it does make me stop and wonder how many would be in the same boat.

Blasphemous Prime wrote:Does anyone else here suppose that when Hasbro goes to release their version of MP Ultra Magnus that it will only be the albino white Prime?

To me this may make sense from a marketing standpoint. It would cause people to buy the Takara version (MP-22) to have the large robot, but if they also wanted to display the white robot as well, they could just buy the Hasbro albino prime.

I think maybe Has/Tak thought of this well ahead of time.

The problem here is that TakaraTomy would be the biggest winner here, as not everyone will be happy with "another lazy white Prime repaint", it would only appeal to completionists. Such a release would hurt Hasbro badly in projected sales.

Remember, Hasbro and TakaraTomy may share the brand, they're still separate companies, and as such, with TakaraTomy as Tomy in the US, are competitors.

You think the MP-01 mold is still viable after nearly a decade of use?

fenrir72 wrote:You think the MP-01 mold is still viable after nearly a decade of use?

The MP-1 mold has been retired, I think he was talking about a stand-alone white MP-10. Like how MP-10B Black Convoy has no trailer.

Blasphemous Prime wrote:Does anyone else here suppose that when Hasbro goes to release their version of MP Ultra Magnus that it will only be the albino white Prime?

To me this may make sense from a marketing standpoint. It would cause people to buy the Takara version (MP-22) to have the large robot, but if they also wanted to display the white robot as well, they could just buy the Hasbro albino prime.

I think maybe Has/Tak thought of this well ahead of time.

I doubt that Hasbro and Takara even think of each other when it comes to calculating projected sales. Yes, there is some importing into the domestic market. There may even be a bit of the opposite going on, with some Hasbro product ending up in Japan. But I doubt it is significant enough to be of concern to either company. So I can not see there being a master plan of, "Let's make two very different Masterpiece Magnuses, so everyone will want to buy both and we'll both make a lot more money! Mwa ha ha ha ha!"

I don't see any reason why Hasbro cannot sell the Masterpiece Ultra Magnus mold as is, rather then just giving us a very unsatisfying white MP-10 repaint as you suggest. They gave us the full MP-10, after all, including the trailer. And while Magnus's trailer section is a bit more complicated, as it isn't just a big plastic box that opens up, since his cab would be simpler (not forming a separate, core robot) I should think it balances out.

They'd be stupid to do just a white MP-10 cab. Masterpiece figures aren't ones they expect to sell to little kids. They know those are geared more towards the adult collector. And they know that those types of collectors are the sort who would know what was released in Japan. So they have to know that if they just gave us a lazy white repaint of Prime, the fan base would (mostly) be rather upset and reject it. So if we get Magnus, unless someone is being really stupid at Hasbro (and I admit, such a thing is perhaps possible) it would have to be the proper MP Magnus mold.

(I suppose, even though I did wish MP Magnus had been designed more like the G1 toy, and was armor around a core robot, I should be glad that didn't turn out to be the case. It would be a more complex toy that Hasbro would have had to set a higher price for, and may have lead to them leaving out the trailer, after all.)