New Age Of Extinction Pre-Orders At Target.Com (1-Step Magic 6 Pack And Silver Knight FE Optimus)

after one wave. the line nearly burnt out.

Autobot032 wrote:
Platinum Edition Silver Knight Optimus
 

This surprised me a lot. It means Platinum editions are no longer toysrus exclusives. I wonder if that means Target will also get that Dinobots set

I read an article yesterday that was talking about the horrible sales numbers for the transformers line in general. It noted the shoddy quality and cheap plastic they are currently using. It went on to say to look for current lines to start bundling toys at slashed prices to help sales. And this is a fine example.

As I predicted before, the transformers line in general is pricing themselves out of the market. The AOE line is selling horribly, and that is at the reduced $10 a deluxe price. Toys in general are down 17% from last year alone. Their current $15 and future $16 price point will be the death nail for this line. Mark it down.

Well, the best Transformers movie we've had in ages, and it's accompanied by one of the worst toylines in years. I mean, we've had amazing Generations/classics stuff, the Prime line was pretty decent (and also proved that simple toys don't have to be terrible- PRID Arcee is very simple to transform and she's a great figure), the DOTM line was nice (5mm posts, oh my!)... and then this load of duds comes along.

Granted, Prime relied heavily on movie magic to transform, and Galvatron completely defied the laws of physics, but they can do better than this. Most of the line seems to be this simplified dreck like the 1-step changers and the power attackers (and all the non-simplified stuff is TRU exclusive in the UK) and even the more complex toys have taken a hit in quality (although some do look pretty good, like Scorn and Crosshairs). After the huge amount of attention and decent figures the last 3 movies got, I'm very disappointed to see the mess that is the AOE line. Maybe they should shelf the Generations/classics line for a bit and use the budget to make more and better AOE toys, before coming back to the Geewunner bait after the AOE toyline finishes.

Hey Silver Knight Optimus Prime! Making an ugly mold even uglier with bad paint apps will not help you sell more toys Hasbroke!

This line would be better if it had more decepticons. 60 bucks for that huge eye sore? No thanks.

"Silver Knight" = "Here's a bunch of Optimus Prime figures with lots of dull gray unpainted plastic.

Delta Magnus wrote:Well, the best Transformers movie we've had in ages, and it's accompanied by one of the worst toylines in years. I mean, we've had amazing Generations/classics stuff, the Prime line was pretty decent (and also proved that simple toys don't have to be terrible- PRID Arcee is very simple to transform and she's a great figure), the DOTM line was nice (5mm posts, oh my!)... and then this load of duds comes along.

Granted, Prime relied heavily on movie magic to transform, and Galvatron completely defied the laws of physics, but they can do better than this. Most of the line seems to be this simplified dreck like the 1-step changers and the power attackers (and all the non-simplified stuff is TRU exclusive in the UK) and even the more complex toys have taken a hit in quality (although some do look pretty good, like Scorn and Crosshairs). After the huge amount of attention and decent figures the last 3 movies got, I'm very disappointed to see the mess that is the AOE line. Maybe they should shelf the Generations/classics line for a bit and use the budget to make more and better AOE toys, before coming back to the Geewunner bait after the AOE toyline finishes.

I don't think it is that the toys are any different than DOTM toys. It might be because children are just losing interest in the line. Which is no surprise, because the toys are so expensive. Even at $10, it is too high. But, you can't effectively make a Transformer for the profit margin Hasbro wants. They had a good idea with the one step stuff and the like, but pricing them at $8-10 is joke. $5 would be more ideal. Hasbro is either going to have to lower their profit margin, which will NEVER happen, or they are going to lose money until they finally scrap the line like they did in the 90's. The difference is in the 90's they could keep the prices down. Now, it is impossible with their expectations. Especially from the shareholders who jumped on board due to the 2007-2011 level of success with the line.
The only market for them that will continue is that of the people who will spend whatever they command for "premium" toys. The third party people better get ready for shutdown. Soon enough Hasbro will fall back on that market for revenue, and when they do people like iGear and the like will be a distant memory. I do think the brand will survive, but I think it will be a situation where most TF's will be of the Masterpiece type quality and will command large amounts of money to collect. But, I hink the days of getting deluxes for $10 or even $15-16 are going to be up very soon. Based on their pricing model and increase, by 2020 a deluxe would be going for about $20 each. And there is no way they could survive at that price point. Hell, even Generations last wave, with Skywarp and Scoop, was self warming at $15 until they lowered the price. and even now they are moving at a slow pace. I would expect more changes to the line come 2015, and maybe even a cancellation of the entire deluxe and voyager models in general. Just like you saw with the legion and commander class toys this year. The new "deluxe" is the legends line in generations. If that even survives.

GuyIncognito wrote:

Cute, but you need to erase "sky" and replace it with "stock". That would be more fitting of the scenario. Hasbro lives and dies by its shareholders. And they, not the fans, dictate what direction the company goes in.

The shelfwarming problem seems to depend on the area. Here in my side of the world all the AOE products would not sell. Then the movie came out and now everything is gone. Even the simplified stuff.

Sadly, this line is flawed, there are no Decepticons, the good toys are very limited and there are A LOT of simplified lines AT THE SAME TIME, they end up clashing with each other. I'm ok with simplified stuff for little kids, but we already had RB for that, so having One-Step changers, Flip changers, Power Attackers and those damn ugly Titan figures the line is overloaded, they should've just focused on one line, like they did in the first movie with the FABs, those were simple, but very well engineered, they looked like Hasbro actually cared.
And aside from the actually silver deluxe Silver Knight Optimus that comes with Grimlock, all the others are an insult, they are a very cheap excuse for very cheap looking toys, and that's the worst part, we are getting unpainted grey blobs in most of the lines, even in the Titan Heroes line, that is the worst offender in my opinion.

Hasbro has been making cheap piece-of-crap TF toys and TF merchandise (alongside the "good" toys) since Gen 1. It hasn't ruined the brand or the company yet, so I don't see why anyone is worried.

Looks like my days of collecting are nearing its end. *Jumps ship*

Wait... Collector?!?! Platinum Edition?!?! They are for kids, right?! In the case of that Optimus, blind kids, probably... Man, they would actually have to pay me to get those figures. An empty shelf space has currently more value for me. I understand that Hasbro is trying a new simplified approach towards kids, that's ok (although, again, they really say collector and platinum there?), but these new simplified toys are taking a lot of shelf space on stores and crowding out the old deluxes/voyagers... Is this new strategy really working in terms of sales? I am honestly curious.

The pics from Transformers Colombia has changed my mind, they have pics of chromed up Silver knight Prime. And the chrome works really well with the gunmetal gray accents and metallic silver paint. Not gonna lie, i think i'll pick this up.

Notice how the Dinobots 5-pack contains all four of the in-movie Dinobots plus Slog? I'm hoping that the set contains movie-accurate versions of the four onscreen Dinobots and a G1-accurate Slog to go with the SDCC Dinobots set.

I swear, if I see another Silver Knight Optimus Prime, I am going to explode. The Silver Knight repaints are not good at all!!!

Who said that AOE is doing poorly? It's making money hand over fist. The only problems with the toys, at least from what I can see, is that stores bought a ton of those simplified figures and aren't carrying the Generations figures as much.