Transformers Legacy toyline

[LordGigaIce]

Nintendo started as a playing card company. Companies change industries often enough:

Nintendo famously switched gears when they came to the US and saw that the US Playing Card Company wasn't exactly living the high life. Nintendo's executives realized that if the largest playing card company in the US wasn't going to be super successful, then what chance did they have in a country with a smaller customer base?
They radically re-oriented their company from that, but even then it took decades of experimental commercial enterprises and reinvention before they landed on video games and realized that was their golden ticket.
That's quite a different situation from Hasbro being a toy manufacturer and wanting to still be a toy manufacturer while also wanting to be a Marvel or DC or WB or whatever.

I mean...look at Marvel. I'm talking pre-Disney. They stumbled with the "we're an IP company" thing. They licenced their properties out to a number of different studios. Some of those deals worked, some didn't, but Marvel was basically just a licensing farm for movies.
They took a huge risk with Iron Man, because it was the first Marvel Studios film. It didn't licence Iron Man out to someone else, it was a Marvel movie made by a studio owned by Marvel. And that let them set the Avengers/MCU franchise up. The success of the Iron Man movie is when Marvel truly became an IP company.

Hasbro has Allspark Studios, but everything they're involved with is essentially what Marvel was before Iron Man. There's no blockbuster movie franchise that's 100% them. Transformers and GI Joe movies? Produced by Paramount. Battleship, Ouija, and Jem? Produced by Universal. The one thing that's hit theatres that they've both been involved with and seems to be a mostly in-house thing was the MLP movie. Which, hey, it made money! But that's still a far cry from Iron Man in 2008.

Basically what I'm getting at is that if Hasbro wants, truly wants, to make that transformation (ha!) they have to put out something that's an in-house production. Not something they just licence to Paramount or Universal. And that's hard. And expensive.
And given the above list of projects they have licensed out...yeesh. Maybe Hasbro's IP catalogue isn't strong enough for them to make a go at it on their own? Maybe Hasbro's best hope, if they want to be more than just a toy company, is to be acquired by a WB or Disney or Universal or Paramount outright?

 

[Sabrblade]

And let's not forget that the last time Hasbro tried to put out a major work of Transformers animation without also releasing an accompanying toyline at the same time, TF: Prime (since, in that moment, they wanted to focus on being a media company rather than just a toy company and wanted the TF: Prime cartoon to stand on its own without needing a toyline right away), the fandom went nuts over it and reacted like "Where are the toys, Hasbro? Give us the toys, Hasbro. We want toys, Hasbro! Why u no make toyz, Hasblo?! No toyz, Hasblo?! We wants TOYZ, Hasblo!!! GIVES UZ TOYZ, HASBLOOOOO!!!!!"

 

[Confuzor]

"Ha$bro"

 

[Steevy Maximus]

And let's not forget that the last time Hasbro tried to put out a major work of Transformers animation without also releasing an accompanying toyline at the same time, TF: Prime (since, in that moment, they wanted to focus on being a media company rather than just a toy company and wanted the TF: Prime cartoon to stand on its own without needing a toyline right away), the fandom went nuts over it and reacted like "Where are the toys, Hasbro? Give us the toys, Hasbro. We want toys, Hasbro! Why u no make toyz, Hasblo?! No toyz, Hasblo?! We wants TOYZ, Hasblo!!! GIVES UZ TOYZ, HASBLOOOOO!!!!!"

And it was stupid for other fundamental reasons. The whole point in being an IP company is to leverage your media to license out and make money. Disney or Warner don't make new Batman or Spider-Man cartoons to "stand on their own". They aren't made for an artistic expression. They're made to keep brand exposure high to sell more licensed crap including toys.
But by making better shows/movies, it draws in larger audiences to which more and different licensed crap can be leveraged.

Problem is that better typically means more money. And Hasbro seems unwilling to spend that money, even on their marquee brands.

 

[Sabrblade]

On the other hand, Animated's toyline was similarly slow to start and didn't see release until June 2008, when Season 2 of the cartoon was nearly finished airing in the U.S., and yet the fandom didn't act like the sky was falling like it did for the delayed release of Prime's toyline.

 

[Cradok]

I'm pretty sure that the Animated toys had been revealed but that we knew they were delayed to put more movie toys out, while with Prime there was either no toys announced, or just the First Edition ones had been revealed by the time the first season was over.

 

[Powered Convoy]

Prime toys also had this weird deal where the studio that produced the toys got some of the profit IIRC.

 

[Swerve]

More Transformers should have finger guns.

Or thumbs up. Or air quotes.

If the ever do a new Swerve I say he gets air quote fingers.

 

[DefaultOption]

The Gears version of the mold should get "who, me?" hands.

 

[Darth_Prime]

Picked up Dragstrip and Laser Prime today. How is Arcee? Thinking about grabbing her but I need to dig in my Prime box to see if I kept it sold her FE figure.

 

[LordGigaIce]

And let's not forget that the last time Hasbro tried to put out a major work of Transformers animation without also releasing an accompanying toyline at the same time, TF: Prime (since, in that moment, they wanted to focus on being a media company rather than just a toy company and wanted the TF: Prime cartoon to stand on its own without needing a toyline right away), the fandom went nuts over it and reacted like "Where are the toys, Hasbro? Give us the toys, Hasbro. We want toys, Hasbro! Why u no make toyz, Hasblo?! No toyz, Hasblo?! We wants TOYZ, Hasblo!!! GIVES UZ TOYZ, HASBLOOOOO!!!!!"

Yeah Hasbro is never going to get away from that...
Can they change industries? Absolutely. They could do that. Will they? That's not a given. In fact it's pretty unlikely. The analogues to Nintendo just don't work because they both overly-simplify Nintendo's journey from playing cards to video games and it doesn't take into account the different situations at Hasbro making a full switch unlikely.

Given the overall weak IP lineup Hasbro has compared to say a Disney or WB their best bets are either just being a toy company that licences out their IP or being gobbled up by a larger entity to use as their in-house toy manufacturer.

 

[MrBlud]

Nobody is going to gobble up Hasbro for an in-house toy manufacturer. Hasbro *pays* for the privilege of licensing stuff like Marvel and Star Wars. To the point the other company has leverage like when Disney threatened them so Hasbro wouldn’t buy Dreamworks. They’re going to gobble them up for their IP (even if it’s just primarily Transformers and MLP)

So it makes sense to strengthen that IP.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Can they change industries? Absolutely. They could do that. Will they? That's not a given. In fact it's pretty unlikely. The analogues to Nintendo just don't work because they both overly-simplify Nintendo's journey from playing cards to video games and it doesn't take into account the different situations at Hasbro making a full switch unlikely.

I mean, Nintendo was just an example. I linked a whole list of companies that had switched industries there.

And to hear about how the action figure market is shrinking because of iPhones and video games and such, well... I'm not saying it's inevitable, but I'm not saying it's impossible, either.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It's also not impossible that phones will eventually price themselves into "Don't let a child within ten feet of this" range and toys will have a chance to regain some ground. People will buy $1000 iPhones for some reason but there has to be a point where kids don't get to play with that anymore.

 

[Glitch]

I'll bet we'll get G2 Optimus and G2 Starscream in Selects, G2 Optimus being his Earthrise leader class figure with a black trailer, side cannons, stickers, the G2 insignia and backpack minus sounds. Starscream being the Earthrise fig in G2 colours with Earthrise Skywarps screaming head and just for reference, the G2 Matrix.

 

[The Phazer]

The notion that being an IP orientated company requires you to own an in-house production studio is a curious one and not really how it works, and Hasbro do own an in-house production studio anyway in E-One, but mergers take two years to start to be operationally effective.

 

[Princess Viola]

It's also not impossible that phones will eventually price themselves into "Don't let a child within ten feet of this" range and toys will have a chance to regain some ground. People will buy $1000 iPhones for some reason but there has to be a point where kids don't get to play with that anymore.

The problem with this logic is that it acts as if the entire smartphone market is nothing but $1000+ iPhones, which is just not true.

Even ignoring the fact that (average) people who buy these expensive smartphones don't blow all the cash on them at once (they're financed by the phone company interest-free over 24 months, so you're really just paying $41.66 per month for the phone), a parent can also:
- Give their kid their old iPhone when they upgrade to a new one after a few years, remember the iPhone 6S (which came out in September 2015) is still actively supported
- Buy a cheaper modern phone or a used older phone. There's plenty of Android smartphones that cost under $300 that are brand-new or you could buy a few years old Android flagship or an older iPhone for around the same price or even less, depending on how old it is.

So phones will never end up pricing themselves to a point where parents won't want their kids to even be near one because there will always be cheaper options for a smartphone than the $1000+ flagships that a parent can give their kids.

 

[Octavius Prime]

Seems like Legacy Titan Cybertron Metroplex will be revealed today

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Hasbro Reveals New Titan Class Transformers: Legacy Figure - IGN

www.ign.com

About what I expected.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

This will be the first Titan I have zero interest in buying. I mean it's fine but I've got the original and it's never really done anything for me. A just slightly better on is not something i need.

-ZacWilliam, the irony is I'd love more out of the box Titans, and I feel bad not supporting this but $200 is more the n I can pay for something I just don't much care about.