Hasbro Investor Day 2015 Presentation: Possible Micronauts and Transformers Team Up

I wonder if these new Micronauts will be able to fit in the cockpits of Jetfire/Seekers, Whirl, and HotSpots basket? It would be cool to finally get some little guys that can do that and maybe see some cameo appearances of Spike, Sparkplug, Daniel, Carly and some other characters from the cartoon.

Once again Hasbro suprises us with something (I am not sure if the micronauts were ever released in the US) a little new and old. I gotta say I never expected the micronauts to be back, but its awesome, and I surely do like it!

Does anyone else think this Microman reboot could be a Western repackaging of Takara's Diaclone Reboot? Those little men...

Railbomb wrote:I wonder if these new Micronauts will be able to fit in the cockpits of Jetfire/Seekers, Whirl, and HotSpots basket? It would be cool to finally get some little guys that can do that and maybe see some cameo appearances of Spike, Sparkplug, Daniel, Carly and some other characters from the cartoon.

Think the small pilots were more of a Diaclone thing than a Microman thing, though I think Diaclone was originally a spin-off brand.

Starsaber468 wrote:Once again Hasbro suprises us with something (I am not sure if the micronauts were ever released in the US) a little new and old. I gotta say I never expected the micronauts to be back, but its awesome, and I surely do like it!

Micronauts were indeed released in the U.S.! There was even a Marvel comic that outlasted the toyline(much like ROM Spaceknight). I've not read any of it though, mostly cause I've never run across it in the wild and haven't had the notion to track it down. It was supposed to be quite good and there's a crossover with the X-Men, and I think Man-Thing popped up for an issue or two in the regular series.

The figures came out in the very late 70's I believe, and there was a sort of revival around the early 2000's in the U.S. However I do remember reading reviews that the 2000's Microman figures weren't of great quality and broke pretty easy. I remember seeing them at Suncoast on clearance once back in the day but didn't pick any up.

Oh yeah and Micronauts big bad Baron Karza wasn't from the original Microman line but a repainted/remolded super robot called Jeeg.

william-james88 wrote:

I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

That's top line revenue to Hasbro in that chart, afaik, and has nothing to do with things like profit or sales to consumers. This is showing that the brand as a whole is performing well in getting retailers to buy product of any variety, and you can see in here that the 3/4 of a year thus far has generated almost as much as those two full years where Prime was the focus.

Additionally, I'd hold off on judging how Combiner Wars has done until figures such as this are shown next year. If the line does well for retailers, logic would say that their orders, and thus revenue to Hasbro, will be up come next year.

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Not to kick you while you're down, but most of that probably comes from Robots in Disguise anyway. Now that the brand has become mainstream the movie and cartoon years are the best performers. It's quite the contrast compared to the 2005 and 2006 years when Transformers Energon and Cybertron were on TV. Just think of how flooded the shelves were with figures back then just to get those low numbers.

Emerje

This kinda seems like its micronaut doesn't it?

Emerje wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Not to kick you while you're down, but most of that probably comes from Robots in Disguise anyway. Now that the brand has become mainstream the movie and cartoon years are the best performers. It's quite the contrast compared to the 2005 and 2006 years when Transformers Energon and Cybertron were on TV. Just think of how flooded the shelves were with figures back then just to get those low numbers.

Emerje

Well a lot of people did focus on getting combiner wars figures though plus combiner wars did get more figures, so I don't know but I would supsect RID mainly being meant for children would be sold for children, but usually whenever I am at a store getting some figures the RID figures would be full while the Combiner wars section of figures would be empty

Starsaber468 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Not to kick you while you're down, but most of that probably comes from Robots in Disguise anyway. Now that the brand has become mainstream the movie and cartoon years are the best performers. It's quite the contrast compared to the 2005 and 2006 years when Transformers Energon and Cybertron were on TV. Just think of how flooded the shelves were with figures back then just to get those low numbers.

Emerje

Well a lot of people did focus on getting combiner wars figures though plus combiner wars did get more figures, so I don't know but I would supsect RID mainly being meant for children would be sold for children, but usually whenever I am at a store getting some figures the RID figures would be full while the Combiner wars section of figures would be empty

Children's toy lines always sell better than collectors lines, this is a long proven fact. The reason you're seeing more RID and less CW on shelves is because stores are ordering more RID than CW. It my area both are in short supply, but I find new RID figures long before I find new CW stuff.

As for Micronauts, they've been working on plans for a movie for years now so it's no real surprise that they'd use movie Optimus Prime to promote it. Probably he'll find their planet in his post-Age of Extinction trip through space. Should be interesting if it ever happens, to date Hasbro has yet to do anything with the Micronauts license even though they've had it since 2009.

Emerje

ScottyP wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

That's top line revenue to Hasbro in that chart, afaik, and has nothing to do with things like profit or sales to consumers. This is showing that the brand as a whole is performing well in getting retailers to buy product of any variety, and you can see in here that the 3/4 of a year thus far has generated almost as much as those two full years where Prime was the focus.

Additionally, I'd hold off on judging how Combiner Wars has done until figures such as this are shown next year. If the line does well for retailers, logic would say that their orders, and thus revenue to Hasbro, will be up come next year.

I know that.

But I was hoping it be...more. A big bulk of the Combiner Wars figures were released in the first 8 months.

Emerje wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Not to kick you while you're down, but most of that probably comes from Robots in Disguise anyway. Now that the brand has become mainstream the movie and cartoon years are the best performers. It's quite the contrast compared to the 2005 and 2006 years when Transformers Energon and Cybertron were on TV. Just think of how flooded the shelves were with figures back then just to get those low numbers.

Emerje

There is that.

But how many families that had to buy RID figures would have to make up just me for Combiner Wars?
I have 2 of almost all the ones released in Canada thus far.

I'm not making this all about me, but I sure there are a few that are buying way more Combiner Wars figures than just the 1 of each.

Emerje wrote:

Starsaber468 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Not to kick you while you're down, but most of that probably comes from Robots in Disguise anyway. Now that the brand has become mainstream the movie and cartoon years are the best performers. It's quite the contrast compared to the 2005 and 2006 years when Transformers Energon and Cybertron were on TV. Just think of how flooded the shelves were with figures back then just to get those low numbers.

Emerje

Well a lot of people did focus on getting combiner wars figures though plus combiner wars did get more figures, so I don't know but I would supsect RID mainly being meant for children would be sold for children, but usually whenever I am at a store getting some figures the RID figures would be full while the Combiner wars section of figures would be empty

Children's toy lines always sell better than collectors lines, this is a long proven fact. The reason you're seeing more RID and less CW on shelves is because stores are ordering more RID than CW. It my area both are in short supply, but I find new RID figures long before I find new CW stuff.

As for Micronauts, they've been working on plans for a movie for years now so it's no real surprise that they'd use movie Optimus Prime to promote it. Probably he'll find their planet in his post-Age of Extinction trip through space. Should be interesting if it ever happens, to date Hasbro has yet to do anything with the Micronauts license even though they've had it since 2009.

Emerje

Ok that probably makes sjnce though the RID line where I live kinda is shelf-formers though. Btw isn't this probably I redesigned familiar micronaut cough cough a certain robot one cough cough

Sorry...server lag....duplicate post.

I believe "age of extinction" didn't sell better cuz:

1. bad quality toys (poor paint apps, overpriced)
2. No legion class

ScottyP wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

That's top line revenue to Hasbro in that chart, afaik, and has nothing to do with things like profit or sales to consumers. This is showing that the brand as a whole is performing well in getting retailers to buy product of any variety, and you can see in here that the 3/4 of a year thus far has generated almost as much as those two full years where Prime was the focus.

Additionally, I'd hold off on judging how Combiner Wars has done until figures such as this are shown next year. If the line does well for retailers, logic would say that their orders, and thus revenue to Hasbro, will be up come next year.

I'm even more confused about what these numbers mean after reading the comments above.



In 2014, did they make approximately $500,000 profit after expenses, salaries, and other expenses related to business, employment, and operating costs? That's not a lot of money all things considered. The ROI seems extremely small. Something about these financial numbers is escaping my understanding at the moment.

BERSEKAEL wrote:I believe "age of extinction" didn't sell better cuz:

1. bad quality toys (poor paint apps, overpriced)
2. No legion class

Thats definitely not why... plus Legion class isn't that improtebt for prime or bayformers... plus its probably because the downfall of popularity with the bayformers though I feel like transformers 5 will give an another boost to the franchise. Plus Bayformers basically keep the franchise going even with hate it we gotta admit it probably without the bayformers we wouldn't be getting great figures even masterpiece figures & third party figures

Starsaber468 wrote:Ok that probably makes sjnce though the RID line where I live kinda is shelf-formers though. Btw isn't this probably I redesigned familiar micronaut cough cough a certain robot one cough cough

I really hope that's not supposed to be Biotron, though I'm more likely to believe it's Phobos. But to be entirely honest the colors make it look more like some sort of Ant-Man robot. Who knows?

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Starsaber468 wrote:Ok that probably makes sjnce though the RID line where I live kinda is shelf-formers though. Btw isn't this probably I redesigned familiar micronaut cough cough a certain robot one cough cough

I really hope that's not supposed to be Biotron, though I'm more likely to believe it's Phobos. But to be entirely honest the colors make it look more like some sort of Ant-Man robot. Who knows?

Emerje

Its probably part of the micronauts looks kinda obvious when its revealed as "Mysterious Figure"

Emerje wrote:

Metroplex79 wrote:I'm kinda sad Combiner Wars isn't making a killing this year.

How can it not be beating Prime?

Not to kick you while you're down, but most of that probably comes from Robots in Disguise anyway. Now that the brand has become mainstream the movie and cartoon years are the best performers. It's quite the contrast compared to the 2005 and 2006 years when Transformers Energon and Cybertron were on TV. Just think of how flooded the shelves were with figures back then just to get those low numbers.

Emerje

There is also the fact that the graph is comparing 9 months to a year and that the 3 months missing are the holiday months which account for the greatest percentage of revenue for toy companies.

Starsaber468 wrote:Ok that probably makes sjnce though the RID line where I live kinda is shelf-formers though. Btw isn't this probably I redesigned familiar micronaut cough cough a certain robot one cough cough

You probably meant Shelf-warmers. Also, the RID line is not confirmed to be shelfwarming yet. Unlike previous lines, this one is big on repackaging older toys in cases with newer ones. I did a test with a friend on the site once who wanted every single skrapnel left in my area (that insecticon "seemed" to be shelfwarming like crazy). So I bought them all. The next week, there was a fresh batch and I bought it too since he couldnt get enough of them. And it kept going with them restocking a few at a time. Somone who has no interest in them would just see theme very week and think i twas the same 2 always shelfwarming when it wasnt. Since then I think twice before declaring anything a shelfwarmer and I think we should stick to the initial and true definition of a shelfwarmer: a toy that is still there once the line (Line, not wave) is over. Especially with the RID line, it is not possible to call them shelfwarmers yet.

Also, I love showing this pic I took while waiting in line at TRU (which shows what the person in front of me was about to purchase) whenever someone asks if one line sells more than the other:

Starsaber468 wrote:

BERSEKAEL wrote:I believe "age of extinction" didn't sell better cuz:

1. bad quality toys (poor paint apps, overpriced)
2. No legion class

Thats definitely not why... plus Legion class isn't that improtebt for prime or bayformers... plus its probably because the downfall of popularity with the bayformers though I feel like transformers 5 will give an another boost to the franchise. Plus Bayformers basically keep the franchise going even with hate it we gotta admit it probably without the bayformers we wouldn't be getting great figures even masterpiece figures & third party figures

He's joking out of frustration since all he collects is legion class.

Late to the party, but no less excited by this news. There is a giant Microman/naut Transformers crossover going on on the shelf behind me right now!

This is great, and I'm actually not that surprised after we heard at SDCC that IDW had some Micronauts in the works for next year.

Emerje wrote:I really hope that's not supposed to be Biotron, though I'm more likely to believe it's Phobos.

That sure looks like a strange reboot of Biotron to me. That head with those horns does look like Phobos, but those colors and that chest seem awful Biotrony.

Emerje wrote:As for Micronauts, they've been working on plans for a movie for years now so it's no real surprise that they'd use movie Optimus Prime to promote it. Probably he'll find their planet in his post-Age of Extinction trip through space. Should be interesting if it ever happens, to date Hasbro has yet to do anything with the Micronauts license even though they've had it since 2009.

Around 2007 or 8, the short lived Orphanage animation studio (the crew behind Sym-Bionic Titan) did a short stint of development for a Micronauts animated feature, but it was quickly put on the back burner when the owner of the film rights, James Cameron's asking price was a tad too high. It's great that Hasbro has acquired all the pieces to put this all together. I believe they have had the rights to the toys for a long time now. At least since Palisades went belly up.


The green alien character isn't ringing a bell, and the female hero character's name escapes me, but I think that fella in the middle might be Acroyear. I don't recall anyone else who carried a flaming energy blade like that.

Oh MAN! This is exciting!
Can't wait to learn more.

Edit: Just came back to me. The female character was Marionette, and maybe the Green dude is Bug. Maybe?

Interesting sales. Interesting stuff. Funny how the best year over the past 10 was the RotF year.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Interesting sales. Interesting stuff. Funny how the best year over the past 10 was the RotF year.

Makes sense though, there was a lot of product that year.

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Interesting sales. Interesting stuff. Funny how the best year over the past 10 was the RotF year.

Makes sense though, there was a lot of product that year.

There really was, though given it is still kinda interesting and cool that the "worst" of the films in many eyes actually sold the best

Double post, sorry.

to make use of it: I wonder if RiD will then be the big thing for this year since Prime and Animated were used for their respective years

Seibertron wrote:In 2014, did they make approximately $500,000 profit after expenses, salaries, and other expenses related to business, employment, and operating costs? That's not a lot of money all things considered. The ROI seems extremely small. Something about these financial numbers is escaping my understanding at the moment.

I need to go listen to the audio to see if it provides more context. That said, I'd expect this is top line revenue only, in thousands. That's $500 million to Hasbro for the brand in a movie year before any expenses whatsoever and that sounds about right to me.

Again, I need to go listen to the audio to be sure. Guess I might throw that on while working and come back here after.

Seibertron wrote:In 2014, did they make approximately $500,000 profit after expenses, salaries, and other expenses related to business, employment, and operating costs? That's not a lot of money all things considered. The ROI seems extremely small. Something about these financial numbers is escaping my understanding at the moment.

I need to go listen to the audio to see if it provides more context. That said, I'd expect this is top line revenue only, in thousands. That's $500 million to Hasbro for the brand in a movie year before any expenses whatsoever and that sounds about right to me.

Again, I need to go listen to the audio to be sure. Guess I might throw that on while working and come back here after.

Edit: They don't clarify, the slide is just there as an example of how they built a brand through storytelling. Some google searching led me to a figure that Hasbro's Transformers toy revenue from the 2007 movie was $470 million, which lines up with the graph in the presentation. So yeah, revenue to Hasbro from Transformers (in other words, what Hasbro sold themselves, which would be to distributors/retailers, not what consumers purchased from said channels), was $500 million dollars in 2014.

Exactly what goes into their revenue calc depends on their corporate accounting policies - does it include merchandise returned by distributors? Do they even allow that? Does it account for purchase orders made where payment is expected but not received? We don't know, but here's two takeaways for anyone skimming this post:

1. The numbers shown are not indicative of retail sales figures (the amount of product, in dollars, sold by stores to folks like us, kids, parents, etc.)
2. The numbers shown are not profit.

Hope that helps. These threads always make my head hurt, but this stuff is both boring and not everyone's cup of tea so I try to keep that in mind.

ScottyP wrote:
Exactly what goes into their revenue calc depends on their corporate accounting policies - does it include merchandise returned by distributors? Do they even allow that? Does it account for purchase orders made where payment is expected but not received? We don't know, but here's two takeaways for anyone skimming this post:

1. The numbers shown are not indicative of retail sales figures (the amount of product, in dollars, sold by stores to folks like us, kids, parents, etc.)
2. The numbers shown are not profit.

Hope that helps. These threads always make my head hurt, but this stuff is both boring and not everyone's cup of tea so I try to keep that in mind.

On those two points I highlighted:

I read that Hasbro does not allow distributors/retailers to send back inventory. And that makes sense since Hasbro items are very common at discount chains, meaning that Walmart and TRU bulk sale their leftover stock rather than sending it back to Hasbro.

That means that while the sales numbers are of what sold to the retailers as opposed to us, I would assume that since there is no buy back, retailers will buy what they think they need. And thus that amount does reflect the aniticipated demand for figures depending on the year. Since 2007 saw such a big demand from retailers, they asked for more for the next film and I guess that didnt work as well as planned since they cut back the following movie year.

Duke of Luns wrote:

Starsaber468 wrote:Once again Hasbro suprises us with something (I am not sure if the micronauts were ever released in the US) a little new and old. I gotta say I never expected the micronauts to be back, but its awesome, and I surely do like it!

Micronauts were indeed released in the U.S.! There was even a Marvel comic that outlasted the toyline(much like ROM Spaceknight). I've not read any of it though, mostly cause I've never run across it in the wild and haven't had the notion to track it down. It was supposed to be quite good and there's a crossover with the X-Men, and I think Man-Thing popped up for an issue or two in the regular series.

The figures came out in the very late 70's I believe, and there was a sort of revival around the early 2000's in the U.S. However I do remember reading reviews that the 2000's Microman figures weren't of great quality and broke pretty easy. I remember seeing them at Suncoast on clearance once back in the day but didn't pick any up.

Oh yeah and Micronauts big bad Baron Karza wasn't from the original Microman line but a repainted/remolded super robot called Jeeg.

The marvel comic not only outlasted the toys, the characters outlasted marvel's right to the license! The characters had been heavily integrated (much more than the TF's with Spidey and a few other things) into the mainstream marvel universe, so after they had to stop calling them micronauts, they started calling them Microns.


I do wonder, when did Hasbro acquire the brand? They weren't the company that put out the original US line, after all. I'm not sure Tak could just hand it to them, as while they own the toys, the name Micronauts originated with the US version.

Mego is the company who licensed the toys from Takara in the 70's in the US. There were 2 or 3 other companies who licensed the toys in Europe.
Not sure what happened to the license after Mego went out of buisness. Around 99 to 2001 a company called Palisades had the license for the toys, and did a bunch of reissues. That was also the same time Takara was doing their Microman reissue revival, and reboot series.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think Hasbro scooped up the toy license when Palisades went under in the early 2000s. Takara has no claim to the Micronauts license, only Microman.

Actually SOTA had the license for a short time but let it expire when they couldn't get any retail interest (likely thanks to the Palisades debacle). When MEGO folded it's likely everything associated with Micronauts reverted back to Takara. That would explain why the names persist rather than being forced into the Japanese names.

I do think that's Bug in the image, Hasbro seems like him, enough so that he made a cameo in Transformers Animated. Let's keep in mind that's likely not finalized art and just something they could use to promote the series to retailers and licensees.

Emerje

william-james88 wrote:That means that while the sales numbers are of what sold to the retailers as opposed to us, I would assume that since there is no buy back, retailers will buy what they think they need. And thus that amount does reflect the aniticipated demand for figures depending on the year. Since 2007 saw such a big demand from retailers, they asked for more for the next film and I guess that didnt work as well as planned since they cut back the following movie year.

Bingo! This hits the nail right on the head.

Hence why earlier in the thread I stated that next year's revenues would be a better indicator of the success of RiD and Combiner Wars than the current year's numbers. These are a trailing indicator of retailer demand, which they do their best to try and match to consumer demand. They like money.

That said, not all Retail Buyers (that's a formal term for the people at retailers that place the orders for product with Hasbro's distributors, e.g. "Six cases of Assortment XYZ for each B-level store in the Midwest region plz") are good at what they do. Some are better than others. Others may be told not to micro-manage assortments, just to use historical numbers to grab an assortment of stuff from a brand to make a segment of shelving look like it has product for that brand. What's that, your Walmart has 23 AoE Deluxes, 678 Power Attackers, 3 Flip and Change Grimlocks, 98 RiD One Step Changers, and 1.2 Combiner Wars Voyagers because someone package swapped and returned a few Energon Mega-Class figures in the boxes? Blame Walmart, not Hasbro. Or be nihilistic about it like you're in a Final Fantasy themed SRPG where life is pain. Whatever makes you feel better.

Places like Amazon and to a lesser extent, EE and BBTS influence this as well, but not on the scale of a Walmart or Target where it seems the majority of folks tend to get most of their toys.

Emerje wrote:

Starsaber468 wrote:Ok that probably makes sjnce though the RID line where I live kinda is shelf-formers though. Btw isn't this probably I redesigned familiar micronaut cough cough a certain robot one cough cough

I really hope that's not supposed to be Biotron, though I'm more likely to believe it's Phobos. But to be entirely honest the colors make it look more like some sort of Ant-Man robot. Who knows?

Emerje

Thanks for the link in your post. I had no idea what you were all talking about. I never looked into the Micronauts line before.