The Energon Pub

In November Bandai will be releasing transformers headphones as official licensed products.

Slightly perverse but cool none the less.

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN67190

And

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN67191

Priced ¥2363($30)

Neurie wrote:Slightly perverse but cool none the less.

Perverse? In what way?

I think they're cool.

Yes you read that title right, Bandai is now officially making Transformers products which means they have actually bought a licence from both Hasbro and TakaraTomy the circle is now complete. Why well almost 30 years ago Hasbro bought the rights to release a few of Bandai's transforming robots to sell them under the Transformers brand, and now Bandai is in on it.

However these are just headphones or ear buds, which ever name suits you better, they have no gimmick other than their design, so they don't transform like the older Music Label Rumble and Frenzy headphones.

Site sponsor HobbyLinkJapan.com has two sets for pre-order Cybertron (Autobot)and Destron (Decepticon) both priced at 2,362 yen, currently around 29.08 USD. If these are the only Transformers products Bandai plans on releasing or if there will be more is still unknown.

pretty cool, I like the Decepticon ones but why are they perverted?

I like them, they look very nice, that and i can always use another set or two of headphones >.>

This could possibly lead to Hasbro being able to do a reissue of Jetfire now. That would be awesome as I woould order 2 if that happened.

Perverse in the idea that the two companies were rivals for so longer and now working together

Still it's very cool, I'm ordering them along with the card holders and metal autobot mugs

Now if only Tonka would get back in the game too.

Ya know what would be cool is if Hasbro would give a license to some of these third-party companies. Look at some of the garbage that carries the Transformers brand (I mean don't these headphones), now why not let it be put on *decent* products? They already do this with GIJoe btw, this is not a foreign concept to them. I think marketing things like add-ons as adult collectibles also circumvents some of the toy safety laws they're held hostage by sometimes too.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'd be more apt to buy from companies like Crazy Devy if they were "real" transformers parts, it just adds something to them.

If nothing else, can we please get some Gobots with actual Gobots names now? Leader 1? Cy-Kill? Scooter even?

omega666 wrote:Now if only Tonka would get back in the game too.

Didn't Tonka just get all their products from Bandai? Other than that blue wheeled dinosaur thing I mean?

The idea this could lead to a re-release of G1 Jetfire excites me, also opens the door for the Deluxe Insecticons too. Liftgate's talk about the GoBots started melting my brain. GoBots were released by Tonka who got bought by Hasbro and manufactured by Poppy who was always a part of Bandai.

We could have the makings here of the unraveling of the causal nexus and the destruction of the universe.

Neurie wrote:Perverse in the idea that the two companies were rivals for so longer and now working together

Such a concept isn't uncommon.

Plus these aren't the first earphones Bandai have made, a quick search shows that they do a fair bit of electronics.

Jetfire reissue? Yeah, i'm not thinking so.

Liftgate wrote:

omega666 wrote:Now if only Tonka would get back in the game too.

Didn't Tonka just get all their products from Bandai? Other than that blue wheeled dinosaur thing I mean?

Nothing's ever going to happen with Tonka. Tonka is owned by Hasbro which is why you'll never see GoBots toys again in the US despite Machine Robo continuing on in Japan and also why you occasionally see GoBots homages and names pop up in the Transformers line.

Seibertron wrote:

Liftgate wrote:

omega666 wrote:Now if only Tonka would get back in the game too.

Didn't Tonka just get all their products from Bandai? Other than that blue wheeled dinosaur thing I mean?

Nothing's ever going to happen with Tonka. Tonka is owned by Hasbro which is why you'll never see GoBots toys again in the US despite Machine Robo continuing on in Japan and also why you occasionally see GoBots homages and names pop up in the Transformers line.

That's the thing I hate about Hasbro buying up Tonka. I don't like Gobots as part of Transformers.

nice to know, I was always curious to know if there were ever any Transformers toys/products made by Bandai, because I always see Super Sentai/Power Rangers, and Gundam in a lot of the Transformers toys and products, like design and color.

giantrobotlover8806 wrote:nice to know, I was always curious to know if there were ever any Transformers toys/products made by Bandai, because I always see Super Sentai/Power Rangers, and Gundam in a lot of the Transformers toys and products, like design and color.

G1 Jetfire is probably the most famous Bandai owned figure to be released by Hasbro. Many of the others are from other Japanese companies that were either gobbled up by TakaraTomy or Bandai. The deluxe insecticons, Whirl, Shockwave, and Roadbuster are believed to be held by Bandai.

SnapTrap wrote:

giantrobotlover8806 wrote:nice to know, I was always curious to know if there were ever any Transformers toys/products made by Bandai, because I always see Super Sentai/Power Rangers, and Gundam in a lot of the Transformers toys and products, like design and color.

G1 Jetfire is probably the most famous Bandai owned figure to be released by Hasbro. Many of the others are from other Japanese companies that were either gobbled up by TakaraTomy or Bandai. The deluxe insecticons, Whirl, Shockwave, and Roadbuster are believed to be held by Bandai.

I would love to see a Transformers/Power Rangers/Super Sentai/Voltron/Gundam/Robotech cross-over