You're right. Things are different. But the retail excuse isn't valid nowadays. Retailers don't usually carry Titans or Commanders. But Hasbro doesn't crowdfund those. Brick-and-mortar is dead. Unless you go to smaller toy stores, you can't find that kind of product. I find more Leaders in a toy store in the mall food court than at a Walmart. Keep in mind, this toy store runs off of pre-owned figures. They don't directly order things from Hasbro. And you're right: not every risk works. Pretenders, Action Master, etc. But Beast Wars was a risk. Armada was a risk. Classics was a risk. And if you're going to charge $600 dollars for a figure, make sure it has ALL paint apps that were shown off and doesn't need assistance standing up
If he can support himself just fine why doesn't he get a job?
He's a trust fund baby.
Oh, he's got one. His current position is Chaos Bringer, wherein he regularly performs all duties as assigned.
It's important to note that Haslab isn't really a crowdfunding service; it's a made-to-order preorder service with a minimum required production number. It just masquerades as a crowdfunding service. It's not Kickstarter no matter how much they want it to look like Kickstarter.
Also note that demand for a $550 (would cost even more now) Unicron was low enough that they had to cheat on that campaign and extend it out in order to get it over the finish line. It would have totally tanked at retail without the FOMO of "This is the only time this will ever be offered" hanging over it.
Also note that demand for a $550 (would cost even more now) Unicron was low enough that they had to cheat on that campaign and extend it out in order to get it over the finish line. It would have totally tanked at retail without the FOMO of "This is the only time this will ever be offered" hanging over it.
I guess it just boils down to the old notion of fictional giant piloted robots being more popular in Japan than fictional giant living robots.
Getting into the weeds a bit re: copyright and trademark. Copyright would apply to the specific toys of the Rock Lords back in the day. Get too close to those, and arguably Bandai could have a claim to win a lawsuit. Copyright lasts a long time. Decades.
Trademark, on the other hand, applies to the names and characters, but doesn't last for more than a few years unless actively maintained by the rightsholder. Thus, in the absence of any new Rock Lords media in decades, Hasbro would have legitimacy in creating new toys for those characters, so long as they don't resemble the originals so closely as to trigger a copyright infringement suit.
Also note that, while the only GoBots we've gotten have been "quick and easy repaints," a rock design, in and of itself, is likely to be able to repurposed a great number of times. Hasbro may consider that worth the investment.
With the Star Wars Haslabs, I would say the resent failures is partly down to misunderstanding what the fans want and expect of a product, I do kind of expect maybe one day, Hasbro might revisit the Rankor, of course, one also needs to factor in the fact a lot of fans are feeling disintersted right now after seeing a bunch of bad products produced by Lucasfilm and people working for them, actively going out of their way to insuilt them online, plus the media running with this Toxic fandom narative, thou I would says its more toxic media than fandom, so people are walking away from Star Wars and Disney in general, but that is a whole another story, full of stupidy and bad management choices!
Rock Lords, I recall handling one as a kid, belonging to a friend (at the time) but it wasn't really something great, so Rocklords today, their alt modes would make great paper weights, thou if they were to do them, I can see a crossover with Star Wars, High Republic being done, thou it would be a one off because, well, they are a rock:
Rock Lords, I recall handling one as a kid, belonging to a friend (at the time) but it wasn't really something great, so Rocklords today, their alt modes would make great paper weights, thou if they were to do them, I can see a crossover with Star Wars, High Republic being done, thou it would be a one off because, well, they are a rock:
Am I the only one who is shocked we have no BM or MW representation? I don't think they would be that hard. I also think that Cybertron Metroplex should've been Energon Omega
I'm not surprised. Beast Machines designs are either difficult or unpopular or both. Tankor should be a relatively easy one, yet the T30 toy was horrible.
Machine Wars is doable but its popularity is always a question. It never gets a fair chance to prove itself.
Machine Wars is doable but its popularity is always a question. It never gets a fair chance to prove itself.
If the original Cyberverse sub-line (with the Legion and Commander size classes) had continued, I feel like that would have been a good place for a continuation/redux of Machine Wars. Make the Basic figures in Legion class, and the larger ones as Commanders. Each Legion mold would have at least 2 redeco uses (and the Commanders would have their European counterparts for future redecos), and maybe even throw in a few new decos or molds in the Machine Wars style.
I will never NOT want more support for smaller-scale figures, but I feel like Machine Wars would lend itself particularly well to it.
I will never NOT want more support for smaller-scale figures, but I feel like Machine Wars would lend itself particularly well to it.
Machine Wars was a wave or two of the relatively less popular late G1 molds with random colors and legacy names slapped onto them. Add on to this, it was only sold exclusive to one retailer and with no official release in other regions. I doubt they'd go out of their way to make the Machine Wars specifically but they'd probably not miss out on making Selects redecos for the recent Skyquake for example or a hypothetical Thunderclash.
Also, IIRC, didn't the Machine Wars Botcon set do particularly badly? Probably not the best metric but if even the nichest collection of superfans didn't like it very much, I'd expect Hasbro to take notes.
Also, IIRC, didn't the Machine Wars Botcon set do particularly badly? Probably not the best metric but if even the nichest collection of superfans didn't like it very much, I'd expect Hasbro to take notes.
He really just needed to be a Voyager or Leader. Then again, Tankor has always been two size classes smaller than he should be, so I guess it sorta fits.
He needs a set of core-class maximals to stand next to so he can look extra big.
The rumor was that Bombshell was going to be a Kickback retool. Someone got their hands on a copy and... I would have never guessed he was a retool.
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Transfomers Legacy Evolution Deluxe Bombshell First Look & In-Hand Images
Via @maddie_is__gone on Instagram we have our first in-hand images of the new Transfomers Legacy Evolution Deluxe Bombshell for your viewing pleasure. We have clear images of Bombshell in robot mode showing his poseability and his G1-accurate deco. We also have a glimpse of his rhinoceros beetle...
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I'll be honest, I'm buying the regular Insecticons, but I don't really care that much about like my third modern set of them. What I care about is the Deluxe Insections. Give me a decent Chop Shop, Barrage and Venom and then I'll be happy.
-ZacWilliam, insert requisite request for a Beet Papil homage here...
-ZacWilliam, insert requisite request for a Beet Papil homage here...