They only have so many designers and so much time. Who knows how long they spent working on this.
I also feel that the sheer VOLUME of product between all the brand segments is an issue. When you’re making something like, 12-16 Legacy Deluxe releases, 6 or so “Kid deluxe” figures, another half dozen “movie deluxe” figures, and 8-12 Studio Series deluxe figures…PLUS exclusives for Amazon, Walmart, Target, Pulse, AND Fan Channel?I blame the extreme cost cutting. The voyagers, Leaders and Core are okay for the most part but the Deluxes get the brunt of it. Skids in particular is the worst toy I've seen in quite a while. Looks like a bad upsized knockoff of a Legends toy.
Also, in Armada Optimus' case, they may have had the scrapped prototype to work off.
Well they did give us a new Brave, so that tracks:Takara’s reported to have cut back on their funding as well. Transformers is effectively a dead brand over there.
Transformers has always been B-list at best there, with G1 initially selling because it was foreign. The AEC animes and movies helped it out a bit but it was never all that popular. It's largely seen as a franchise that literal babbies get until they develop a taste for karate bugman bikers as toddlers and eventually get old enough to build Gundam kits and/or buy skeevy anime statues like a proper otaku. I don't know if decent localizations of the TF shows would have helped but I doubt it.Takara should have tried not mutilating their cartoons.
If you haven't already, check out the "Hakai-oh - GaoGaiGar vs Betterman" stuff, as it takes place after Final and wraps up all the loose ends. There's a Light Novel that was fully fan-translated(which is how I read it), and an ongoing manga adaptation too, but nothing animated. If you don't mind a slightly changed ending, it also featured in Super Robot Wars 30, but because of the crossover stuff the final bit of the story was impacted there. The whole thing is basically a revival of the scrapped Project Z.Eh. Ship's sailed for Brave as far as I'm concerned. All I really wanted to know was what happened after the end of GGG Final and I don't really care enough for a new series, especially if they can't be bothered to animate it. Maybe if somebody comes up with a Genesic GGG that transforms and isn't made of glass.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?
I need to check this out.