Why was there a lack of fanfare for the 20th anniversary of a Beast Wars and could have this have caused Primal to win the prime fan vote?

Soundwave2.0

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Do you know why there was a lack of fan fair and do you think it could have caused Primal to win the power of the primes fan vote?
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
At the time, Hasbro wanted to instead celebrate the 30th anniversary of Transformers: The Movie, and probably felt that more fans cared about that than about celebrating the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars.

Evidently, based on the large fan backlash over that decision, Hasbro was mistaken.

In an attempt to rectify this, they later added in a whole bunch of Beast Wars characters into the Kingdom toyline, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Beast Wars in addition to celebrating the 35th anniversary of TFTM with Studio Series 86.

It all stems from the fact that TFTM and Beast Wars share the same years for their respective anniversaries.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Although come to think of it, TFTM's 30th anniversary didn't get much either. All I remember are the Platinum Edition sets, which... weren't great.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Although come to think of it, TFTM's 30th anniversary didn't get much either. All I remember are the Platinum Edition sets, which... weren't great.
A few TFTM-original characters also got new toys that year in Titans Return: Gnaw, Blurr, Scourge, Hot Rod, Galvatron. And the following year saw the releases of Kup, Arcee, Titan Master Ultra Magnus, and Titan Master Rodimus Prime in the same line.

There was also the 30th anniversary release of the movie on Blu-Ray.
 

Soundwave2.0

Member
Citizen
At the time, Hasbro wanted to instead celebrate the 30th anniversary of Transformers: The Movie, and probably felt that more fans cared about that than about celebrating the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars.

Evidently, based on the large fan backlash over that decision, Hasbro was mistaken.

In an attempt to rectify this, they later added in a whole bunch of Beast Wars characters into the Kingdom toyline, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Beast Wars in addition to celebrating the 35th anniversary of TFTM with Studio Series 86.

It all stems from the fact that TFTM and Beast Wars share the same years for their respective anniversaries.
So could that be one of the reasons Primal won the power of the primes fan vote?
 

Soundwave2.0

Member
Citizen
You are correct. A lot of us picked Primal to send Hasbro a message to stop ignoring Beast Wars.
I could have preferred deathsaurus, Megatron, Star Saber and ultra magnus.
Who would have likely won if they had shown a lot of fanfare for the 20th and could we get a another prime vote at some point ?
 
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Haywire

Collecter of Gobots and Godzilla
Citizen
We could make some educated guesses: most fans who would participate in these polls are savvy enough to realize that Megatron and Ultra Magnus are high enough tier characters that they will get a new figure sometime in the near future. Why waste a vote on them?

This leaves it as a choice between Star Saber and Deathsaurus from your list. Both of them had successful Haslab campaigns, so I really think it would be a toss-up between them (maybe slightly favoring Victory Saber, but Deathsaurus as a character is more interesting, so it's impossible to say for sure).

It's likely a moot point, though, as it seems like the fans choice votes have been done for a couple years. (Someone feel free to correct me if Im wrong, but I don't recall one in the last couple years) Seems to me that Haslab has kind of taken that place in fan-directed figure choice and design.
 

CoffeeHorse

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The problem with any thought experiment is that back then we didn't know the gimmick of the toy we were voting for, so we had no idea who should win. We picked Primal to send a message. But now we do know the gimmick, and we can't forget it.

It is impossible to imagine not knowing something once you know it.
 

Blot

Well-known member
Citizen
You picked Primal to send a message. I picked Hound because I like Hound. We are not the same.
 

Superomegaprime

Wondering bot
Citizen
The problem with any thought experiment is that back then we didn't know the gimmick of the toy we were voting for, so we had no idea who should win. We picked Primal to send a message. But now we do know the gimmick, and we can't forget it.

It is impossible to imagine not knowing something once you know it.

The benefit of hindsight, thou the gimmick that Primal ended up in, would of benefited Star Saber very well, even if they left out the Brain master, the whole evolution gimmick would of suited Star Saber very well, in my mind, they could of gotten a Star Saber out of retooling Optimus prime, a new smaller figure for the evolution gimmick but the rest of the body could of easily been retooled for Star Saber, but the past, is the past and there no much we can do about it, but Hasbro wasn't exactly forecoming about the gimmick, I guess they were in the very early stages of planning the gimmick when the fan vote was happening and taken off guard by the fact Primal won the vote, thou that's just specluation on my part and that was the last serious vote for a character getting a toy that I'm aware of, the votes since been mainly for Hall of Fame, thou no doult, we'll see the most resent winner get a toy within the next year or so
 

Soundwave2.0

Member
Citizen
We could make some educated guesses: most fans who would participate in these polls are savvy enough to realize that Megatron and Ultra Magnus are high enough tier characters that they will get a new figure sometime in the near future. Why waste a vote on them?

This leaves it as a choice between Star Saber and Deathsaurus from your list. Both of them had successful Haslab campaigns, so I really think it would be a toss-up between them (maybe slightly favoring Victory Saber, but Deathsaurus as a character is more interesting, so it's impossible to say for sure).

It's likely a moot point, though, as it seems like the fans choice votes have been done for a couple years. (Someone feel free to correct me if Im wrong, but I don't recall one in the last couple years) Seems to me that Haslab has kind of taken that place in fan-directed figure choice and design.
I would like a new Prime that is more interesting for the story not the toys.
Ultra Magnus got past round 1 and was in third place so what do you think about all the people who "wasted" votes on him ?
 

Haywire

Collecter of Gobots and Godzilla
Citizen
Honestly? I think anyone who voted for Ultra Magnus wasted their vote. There is a short list of characters who will 'always' have a figure in the works. ('Always' being a bit hyperbole, but not far off the mark) If there is an opportunity for a fan vote for a figure, voting for an upper tier character is almost like telling Hasbro to release stuff they would release anyway, thus wasting the vote.

In the case of Ultra Magnus, there was the CW figure, Siege, Kingdom, and supposedly a Studio Series in the works. And, while it's less common these days, Magnus still occasionally can be a white redeco of Optimus Prime, figures of which are always a dead certainty. The only way I would vote for Ultra Magnus in a fan vote is if it was Specifically Identified as either Robots In Disguise 01 Magnus or Animated Magnus. Otherwise, I might as well vote for a new Bumblebee figure.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
I was really pulling for Arcee to make it to the end. I would have loved to see what they would have come up with for her Prime design.
At the very least, a potential name Hasbro was floating for Arcee's Prime upgrade was "Arcana Magnus".

Which, frankly, sounds less like Arcee as a Prime and more like Brainstorm's Nebulan Headmaster binary-bonded to Ultra Magnus.
 

Soundwave2.0

Member
Citizen
At the very least, a potential name Hasbro was floating for Arcee's Prime upgrade was "Arcana Magnus".

Which, frankly, sounds less like Arcee as a Prime and more like Brainstorm's Nebulan Headmaster binary-bonded to Ultra Magnus.
Do you or anyone else know any other prime names for the other's in the prime vote ?

If so would they please say ?
 


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