Anyone reading message boards online or social media comments may think Transformers fans are some of the hardest fans to please but that is just because these are great places to vent frustration and those annoyed and unhappy are always louder than those content with their toys. So I wanted to look back on this year and write the positives that came out of it, especially since there was some massive change in how Transformers toys were handled retail wise. Plus, from the onset, 2018 looked to be a really rough year with Toysrus now out of the picture in the US and Hasbro pushing for 4 different Transformers mainline to occupy the shelves at the same time (Generations, Studio Series, Bumblebee and Cyberverse). It makes it even more miraculous that, thanks to some management/distribution choices, 2018 has been the best year for collecting in a very long time.
The Generations Subline only lasting one calendar yearThe first two line in the Prime Wars trilogy lasted for a year and a half and had 6 waves each (one per quarter) so some fans were upset that it was not followed through with Power of the Primes. However this was the biggest move Hasbro has ever done to help the distribution woes and it actually worked. With the line only having 4 quarters, and them coinciding with the calendar year (meaning begging of the line is beginning of the year and end of the line is end of the year), this helped retailers manage their inventory better. By making it shorter, there was less of a chance for there to be a pile up of unsold toys from the same line, and thus every toy from Power of the Primes would be ordered. So no more skipping the last wave. This also assures that the toys for the next calendar year are put up for grabs as soon as Hasbro would allow it since it's seen as fully new product as opposed to a continuation of the same line (instead of say, wave 5 of the last year's line). And, more importantly, that means that the retailer is now certain that whatever stock they receive of that line during the year is of the current year (as opposed to them confusing it with remainder stock of last year). The result is that this year no mainline toy from any line was skipped by retailers in the US. I won't have to write
one of these articles next week.
Pic of US Target 3rd quarter
Pic of Canadian Toysrus 4th quarterExclusives were far more attainableI can't tell you how much I hated the Transformers Collector's Club. Not that I didn't like their product, but being an international fan (aka, not US based), buying from them was a huge pain. The extra costs to get these overpriced toys made them practically unattainable if you have any semblance of a budget. And of course going to conventions to get their exclusives wouldn't be possible. But with Hasbro doing away with the Club, and taking matters into their own hands, getting
most exclusives has been relatively doable. They were very smart to have most of their exclusives be Amazon, Entertainment Earth, or Hasbro Toy Shop exclusives which removed any American's dependence of having a brick and mortar location near by. Also, by having these exclusives made by them, and using their economies of scale, redecos like Nemesis Prime were very reasonably priced (that would have been an easy $100 price tag if it came from the club, probably more due to the exclusive accessories). And for international buyers, Amazon.com having surprisingly fair shipping rates helped.
Another HUGE helping factor was the brand unification. So for instance take any Movie Masterpiece toy, which are all exclusives in one way or another. Takara released the exact same toy at comparative prices. So if you could not get it through whatever channel Hasbro was using, you could get the Takara release off Amazon Japan, which recently decided to ship toys internationally (this might be their first full year of doing so). Same goes with other exclusives like the Throne of the Primes, which was integral to fans completing their Prime Master collection. If you couldn't get it from Hasbro Toy Shop, you could just get it off
Amazon Japan, which currently even comes out cheaper than having bought it off HTS (but that's because American's wont get taxed when purchasing from Japan). And as for Walmart exclusives, this was the first year in a long time that Walmart had a Transformer toy over $50 on the shelves (their exclusive G1 Devastator reissue). Needless to say, all these G1 exclusives fared far better than the Last Knight Walmart exclusives where a few were never even released by Walmart.
No more missing out on Takara versionsThe brand unification discussed above had another major impact on collectors this year, and our community as a whole. We don't talk about it much, but there has been some pretty intense elitism in this hobby in the past. A lot of it is based on the fact that there have usually been two different versions of the same Transformers toy with the one from Japan being an import and thus costing westerners more. That higher cost coinciding with differences from the Hasbro releases could make it seem like those only buying what they find in stores locally might be missing out. But 2018 marked an end to all of that with the exact same toy being released by both companies and the realization that the
higher prices had
nothing to do with the
products actually being different (in the cases where only the deco differed).
This helped in a lot of ways. This gave us another outlet for toys that may be exclusive in one company but not the other, it removed any possible feeling of false superiority or inferiority in terms of either the products being purchased or the fans themselves, and best of all it meant that now all that amazing Japanese product promotion was applicable to everyone. Every month, for years, we get these magazine pages showcasing all the upcoming toys from Takara and most of us just look at all the toys we won't be getting (at least not looking exactly like that or with those accessories). But now, we can relish in this joyous advertising, and it is proof that Takara is just as proud of their releases as ever before. And now we can all easily own these beautiful toys with no need to import. Plus, that means that reveals for toys we will find locally can come from both Hasbro and Takara. Meaning that reveals in Japan concern us just as much as reveals at SDCC, for instance. The unification works both ways too, with Hasbro releasing all Takara MP products in the US as well. Plus, completionists will be getting a break, especially with 4 mainlines on the shelves.
_
So in the end, 2018 was amazing because in a year where we had more product than ever before (
4 mainlines!), the final toys/waves in the toylines were not skipped, exclusives were more readily available (and affordable) and we no longer have to worry about which version of a toy we should get. Oh, and it also happens to be the year where we got a Masterpiece Beast Wars Dinobot, here is hoping 2019 treats us just as well.
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