Masterpiece Crosscut Revealed and Additional Picture of Masterpiece Nightbird

First-Aid wrote:In the end, all it says is that TF collectors are suckers because we think putting a new coat of paint on something makes it completely different (Scourge and the Sweeps, Starscream/Skywarp/Thundercracker/Sunstorm/Acid Storm/Ion Storm/Thrust/Ramjet/Dirge/Ghost Starscream, Bumbelbee/Goldbug/Cliffjumper/Bugbite/Hubcap, Ironhide/Ratchet, Hoist/Trailbreaker, Tracks/Roadrage) from an absolutely identical previous toy.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:That aside, Crosscut came much sooner than I expected.

First-Aid wrote:I've said it before, and I will continue to say it in the future: a BIG reboot is needed. I've felt that current toy technology level would allow HasTak to finally create the ultra-futuristic TransTech line we thought was coming after Beast Machines; I remember those released sketches and they were phenomenal. There needs to be new blood....er, Energon infused into the line. While we collectors may continue to suck up these rehashes of G1 over and over (until they price us out), I'm not sure that the line can survive remaining stagnant and redoing the same characters over and over in the future.

incidentally, the kids sucked that up while the collectors whined that it wasn't G1).

Emerje wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

First-Aid wrote:I've said it before, and I will continue to say it in the future: a BIG reboot is needed. I've felt that current toy technology level would allow HasTak to finally create the ultra-futuristic TransTech line we thought was coming after Beast Machines; I remember those released sketches and they were phenomenal. There needs to be new blood....er, Energon infused into the line. While we collectors may continue to suck up these rehashes of G1 over and over (until they price us out), I'm not sure that the line can survive remaining stagnant and redoing the same characters over and over in the future.

From the top of my head Prime from 2011 was the last for the category you think of. However, this line here:

incidentally, the kids sucked that up while the collectors whined that it wasn't G1).

... that's where the problem is, because they're more intertwined than you think. A good deal of collectors are parents themselves, and as a possible stereotype they favor the old and will prohibit the kids from buying the new if they don't like it. Is it true? I can see it happening in a good minority, and that's all it takes; they scream the loudest, and the general public listens to the ones with the biggest mouths.

[/rant]

It's hard to "reboot" the franchise and expect fans and nostalgia driven parents to be on board when they're also releasing a G1 line right alongside of it. It'd be even harder today with two G1 lines (if you count SS86 as a line) and the popular SS movie line which is itself a massive overhaul of the franchise. The only way they could ever reboot the franchise properly again is if they cut off all of their other lines and made it the only thing on the shelves and that's never going to work with retailers. Really the best time to do something like Transtech is back when they were going to do Transtech, back when G1 was just a memory. Now G1 has created a whole new fanbase and any attempt to replace it with something new would be seen as a sign of the end rather than a rebirth.

Emerje

Sabrblade wrote:You can pinpoint the exact year of when this shift from constant reinvention of the brand to constant recognition of the brand occurred to 2015, the year that the Hasbro Transformers brand team switched from Aaron Archer and Friends to John Warden and Friends. TF: Prime was the last TV series whose line Hasbro put the focus on above the Generations lines, and its ending marked the end of the Archer Era. From Robots in Disguise 2015 onward, the TV lines suddenly became secondary to the G1-heavy Generations lines in the Warden Era, with the TV lines themselves also becoming more G1-based beginning with Cyberverse using the G1-based evergreen designs. Prior to 2015, the movies were the focus of the brand, while from 2015 onward, the G1-based Generations line and evergreen designs became the brand's main focus.

First-Aid wrote:Dude, you are seriously amazing. Do you actually have room for any other information in your cerebellum BESIDES TF trivia and notes? I mean, seriously, how does your brain still have enough space to encourage cardiac, pulmonary, and GI/GU functioning when you have so darned much minutia stored up there?

ZeroWolf wrote:I'd also forgotten to mention the new things given to us in Rescue Bots and its sequel series. We'll also probably get new characters in the Nickelodeon series to boot.