Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: Toy Fair 2025: Vortex, Onyx Prime, Alchemist Prime, Excellion, Sideways, oh my

[LordGigaIce]

The only things made to order should be restaurant meals and formal clothing. Screw that garbage.

There's an argument to be made for and against it, and hell... I can't even decide if it's a sign of strength or weakness. On one hand it could be seen as a scaling back. On the other hand... it could be seen as opening an additional outlet and devoting more time and resources to it, which you don't do with a sick brand.
Seems like the kind of thing you splurge on if you're happy where things are, from a corporate overlord perspective.

For me personally? I think it comes down to how it's used.
Big Convoy is a niche character as far as Hasbro's markets go. I dare say he's less popular than the Victory gang. I don't have any data to back that up, just a feeling.

So if they wanna do MTO stuff with him, or characters that operate on the same general level? Sure. Let's see how it goes.

If they start using it to gate off more desirable releases... that's when it becomes a problem IMO

 

[Shadewing]

I have a hard time believing "Guy that looks like Optimus Prime, but as a Mammoth" is someone that wouldn't sale at retail. There are guys I could fully believe they think wouldn't sale well that they could use this for. A Prime/Primal isn't one of them. Thunderwing, Pretty much any Pretender they've not done, Road Caesar, Dai Atlas/Big Powered, Sky Gary, Grandus. All of them i could see Big guys, that have some fame/following in the fandom but are almost absolute no bodies to the general public.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Maybe his Prime-ness carries him, but Hasbro's shunted most big ticket Victory releases behind HasLab so they're clearly uncertain about Japanese characters at a certain price point moving at retail.

 

[Sabrblade]

This strikes me as sounding similar to the old Figure Subscription Service that Fun Pub did.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Eh. Seems like any other preorder service to me. It'll still depend on price and if the toys look cool to me, otherwise I won't care.

 

[Shadewing]

Maybe his Prime-ness carries him, but Hasbro's shunted most big ticket Victory releases behind HasLab so they're clearly uncertain about Japanese characters at a certain price point moving at retail.

Yeah, and that's kinda what I am saying. The most successful so far, was Last Year where we had Optimus and Magnus. That was the fastest funding so far iirc. Those names/characters sale. You release Big Prime and/or Ultra Mammoth and they'll probably sale even at leader or Commander class. The other big name characters that should be large scale toys? Those guys I can understand having limited release becuase again, their virtually nobodies.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

This strikes me as an additional outlet. They want to reserve Commanders and Titans for absolute sure fire sellers, but the sales they get from more niche characters are significant enough that they don't want to give those up. Somebody wanted Black Zarak, but not enough for it to be a success, but maybe enough for it to be a success in this format, and they don't want to be a company that just doesn't make Black Zarak.

 

[LordGigaIce]

This strikes me as an additional outlet.

Yeah. This brand team has mentioned having lots of plans but not enough slots to release it all under, and they recently lost Buzzworthy as the "catch all random ideas" line.

So this seems like them trying to make up that lost ground.

 

[Rhinox]

All things considered, I think Hasbro has done pretty well in predicting which character will sell at which price point. Their Haslabs have all been winners. Commanders are some of the most sought after Transformers and the aftermarket can be painfully high. (i may be sitting on an 86 Prime for the next year or two in hopes of a down the road payday)

At this point, I think they've earned some trust when they say they can or cannot release a character at a certain size.
With that said, I do hope to see a new Big Convoy sometime down the road. I hope to see Grandius and Road Ceasar. But I'm willing to be patient.

 

[Haywire]

I have DVD copies of "The Challenge of the Gobots" series and "The Green Slime" because WB had a Made-To-Order program a few years ago (no idea if it still exists, but I highly doubt those discs would have ever existed otherwise). If MTO fills a niche somewhere between Selects and HasLab, then I am hopeful that it is a positive thing.

 

[LordGigaIce]

This strikes me as sounding similar to the old Figure Subscription Service that Fun Pub did.

I do find it kind of heartening that the stuff we thought we'd lose forever when FP lost the licence has been picked up by Hasbro, and even occasionally worked into the retail lines. Whatever we can say about this brand team, they care.

And if they do go through with this, MTO individual items sound more appealing than a full wave of Subscription Service figures you have to go all or nothing on, when it's maybe one or two you actually want.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Yeah. This brand team has mentioned having lots of plans but not enough slots to release it all under, and they recently lost Buzzworthy as the "catch all random ideas" line.

So this seems like them trying to make up that lost ground.

And they've got a CEO who claims he wants to see brand teams pounce on those random ideas if they think there's enough demand. MTO lets them skip the step of figuring out how many units they should make.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Yeah, and that's kinda what I am saying. The most successful so far, was Last Year where we had Optimus and Magnus. That was the fastest funding so far iirc. Those names/characters sale. You release Big Prime and/or Ultra Mammoth and they'll probably sale even at leader or Commander class. The other big name characters that should be large scale toys? Those guys I can understand having limited release becuase again, their virtually nobodies.

Difference there is Car Robots got released in the US as Robots in Disguise while Beast Wars Neo was not. Only people plugged into the Japanese scene at the time will have nostalgia for the character, everyone else will have had to come to it later.

Also IIRC, there was never even an official English sub of Neo, further limiting exposure for that character. That said, they did Magmatron, so who knows.

 

[Sabrblade]

That said, they did Magmatron, so who knows.

Whose original toy got a Target exclusive release in the US back during Beast Machines.

 

[Cybersnark]

"What we deal with now" are different things. I'm not US-based, so there are a few different hoops to be jumped through and middlemen to be navigated for even a Target exclusive.

There have been alternatives popping up of late, but idk how much of that is reliable long-term.

Come to that, will this MTO thing even be available outside The Country, or is it going to be like Pulse?

 

[Shadewing]

Difference there is Car Robots got released in the US as Robots in Disguise while Beast Wars Neo was not. Only people plugged into the Japanese scene at the time will have nostalgia for the character, everyone else will have had to come to it later.

Also IIRC, there was never even an official English sub of Neo, further limiting exposure for that character. That said, they did Magmatron, so who knows.

And my point is still being missed. I'm saying that someone like looks like Optimus Prime in a Fur suit is released, his design looking so much like G1 Optimus Prime that he has marker lights on his chest, that you could sell him on that prime connection alone. Hell, do him as Nemesis Prime first, since that was an actual american release of his toy.

 

[Shadewing]

Whose original toy got a Target exclusive release in the US back during Beast Machines.

And Big Convoy got a release in Universe.

 

[Exatron]

And my point is still being missed. I'm saying that someone like looks like Optimus Prime in a Fur suit is released, his design looking so much like G1 Optimus Prime that he has marker lights on his chest, that you could sell him on that prime connection alone. Hell, do him as Nemesis Prime first, since that was an actual american release of his toy.

I'm not convinced this is a safe assumption. Everything you say about Big Convoy is every bit as true for Lio Convoy. LC actually has a ton of advantages as well, including numerous domestic releases going all the way back to the online offering of his original toy. And yet, Legacy Leo Prime can still be easily found at places like Amazon and BBTS on heavy discount. The same is NOT true of his wavemate Tarn, despite his getting a product refresh and a trivially minor redeco, in addition to the mold also getting multiple releases as Bludgeon.

Based on that, I'm betting that the sales numbers are showing Hasbro that a legacy Japanese-exclusive Prime isn't as good a seller as a fairly new comic-exclusive character. That's not a real great sign of strength. Now add in that Big Convoy lacks the familiarity of all those previous releases and would almost certainly need to be bumped up a price class to be made at the same size due to his bulk.

I would really like to get a new Big Convoy, and I love how much the design team has dipped into the well of really obscure characters. If they haven't already done him, especially after they've explicitly mentioned wanting to do so, you have to assume there's a reason why. I'd be willing to bet that concern over sales is the reason why, and that they have some solid data to back up that concern.

If a program like this is what it takes to overcome all that and get him out in some way, then I'm all for it.

 

[unluckiness]

Come to that, will this MTO thing even be available outside The Country, or is it going to be like Pulse?

This is the exact thing I don’t like about this business. $400 Omega Prime and $500 Liokaiser are enough for me to reject anything supposedly direct from Hasbro. At least our current importers only tack on $10-$20 as the Eastern hemisphere tax. I don’t want to bug my relatives in the United States too often over playthings.

 

[lastmaximal]

The fact that they've also shuttered outside-US Hasbro venues like Hasbro Pulse Asia is another reason that availability is getting harder and harder to negotiate.

We've had exclusives languish and be widely available before, and sure, harder to find stuff can sometimes find a way to make it back to regular release... if demand is high enough and if there's space for it in a regular retail plan or later MTO batch. But that's a lot of ifs. Cosmos can get a rerelease, sure. But a smaller-run (as these would be), say, Greasepit or Red Wing?

It may be too soon to say for sure considering not much is known about specifics. But I think there's plenty of past experience that can speak to this being a potentially rough situation, especially for those who were already playing catch-up on a good day.