Hasbr-uh-oh - Business and Tariffs Discussion

[CoffeeHorse]

Why would Hasbro even have a collection of animation cels? Do animation companies normally turn over production materials like that to the clients when they're done? Yeah we have surviving scripts saved by their writers, and storyboards saved by their artists, but the animation stage is pretty distantly farmed out.

 

[Sabrblade]

Further explanation from Maximal Denn:

Based on this, she is absolutely describing what is already publicly known, that Hasbro doesn't keep its prototypes for the most part. This is already on the wiki. There's a joke about digging up landfills in Rhode Island.

What I think happened here is that she heard Kirk complain about how Hasbro handles prototypes (from his perspective that's probably fair) and not liking the current CEO, and she connected the dots along the line and came to the conclusion that there was some kind of archive of all the prototypes and development documents that got totally cleared out by Cocks.

The weird thing is how she brings up animation cells, afaik Hasbro doesn't have any television production material that predates Animated or The Hub, and never really has due to how the shows were made from the 80s to the 00s.

And we know they keep at least the Hub era production material around because the Binder was used as recently as TF One.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

There's a joke about digging up landfills in Rhode Island.

Good luck with that. The Johnston Landfill is one of the highest points in the state. (Contrary to a long-running joke, it's not THE highest point. That's Jerimoth Hill.)

 

[Undead Scottsman]

I think what's most likely, if there's any real kernal of truth to this, is that there's some small collection of toys and ephemera from Hasbro's history and with Hasbro moving HQ, they have to budget moving all that crap as well and it's just as easy for word to come down to scrap it.

Or it's all untrue. Take your pick.

 

[Platypus Prime]

It's very simple, Hasbro's CEO hates fans, Transformers Fans in particular, and that's why at 12:79 PM., he will appear on the roof of their RI HQ with a mint-in-box set of G1 Optimus Prime and Megatron, which he will then messily depackage by tearing the boxes into small pieces, which he will then throw into a pigeon cage, after which the box pieces will be removed and burned. As this is happening, using only a nail file he will scratch up ALL the chrome on both figures, toss several small parts in random directions where they will be impossible to find, and then break the thinnest areas of plastic into small pieces, which he will then ceremonially eat, thus gaining Immortality by channeling the fan rage into his own soul through the medium of the plastic fragments.

Or not, depends on the meeting schedule that day. Fridays tend to be a bit up in the air.

 

[Sabrblade]

At this point, someone could claim that Chris Cocks went and robbed a bank and people would believe it.

 

[LordGigaIce]

I just think there are genuine reasons to dislike him.
Firing people just before Christmas is cold as hell, and regardless of what Hasrbo's intent was with Power Rangers, shuttering it all down as they did wasn't the best way to wrap it up.

You don't have to make up stories to find things you don't like about the guy.

My take is that while he's had some mistakes, he does seem to be effectively leading Hasbro through some uncharted and difficult waters. I don't need to like or even approve of all of his decisions to recognize he's been at the very least a stabilizing force for Hasbro at an unstable time.

Again, you don't have to like him, even with that. I get it.
But just hate the guy for real reasons.

 

[Princess Viola]

Friendly reminder that Chris Cocks poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Friendly reminder that Chris Cocks poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses.

He turned me into a newt!

 

[Platypus Prime]

You got better...

But I do see what's meant by 'real reasons'. I don't like fake news unless it's so obviously fake you can see it's satire. Something that's put out as 'real', with no support, still tends to get legs and go where no one expected, so I fully see the point...

 

[Steevy Maximus]

[2] what IS this that just keeps being called The Archive? was it a formally designated space and collection? The info from hindman quoted above mentions stuff that seems like it would be worth archiving like prototypes and cels.

Hasbro DOES, in fact, have a modest warehouse space where they have archival materials. Steve Evans went through part of it during a 10/27 presentation, and showed a blue print for one of the original 1982 GI Joe 3.75" figures, kept in a drawer with a bunch of other preproduction paperwork. But, it didn't look particularly well curated, and I'm sure some materials were lost in the 1995 warehouse fire (which, notably, destroyed a number of GI Joe toy molds). Not to mention anything (prototypes, papers, etc) that might have simply decayed over the course of 50+ years.
I don't care how historically important a resin copy of a 1982 GI Joe figure is, if it's decayed to literally falling to dust that's not really worth saving.

I find it unlikely even Hasbro management would be callous enough to just "throw it all away", but I can see situations where some materials might simply not be salvageable or have questionable use as a majority of design work from the past 15+ years has been dominantly done digitally.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The whole "Hasbro is going to have to be sold off for it to not be bankrupt" part of the story is a dead giveaway that this is utter nonsense from someone who dislikes Chris Cocks but is totally out of the loop on how things are currently going.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Chris Cocks burned down my lunch, crapped in my dog, and kicked my house.

 

[lastmaximal]

Signed, Power Rangers

 

[The Predaking]

Why would Hasbro even have a collection of animation cels? Do animation companies normally turn over production materials like that to the clients when they're done? Yeah we have surviving scripts saved by their writers, and storyboards saved by their artists, but the animation stage is pretty distantly farmed out.

I have seen a lot of 1980s and 1990s film cells and show materials end up in Swap meets. There is a channel on youtube called Pixel Game Squad(Used to be called Retro Liberty) that hunts for video games and old nostalgic things in Swap meets in California. They have run into stuff like that for at least a dozen different cartoon series from the 80s and 90s.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

The previously announced “Hasbro Legends” FAST channel has begin streaming, at least on Amazon Prime and PLEX. Unlike the Transformers and Power Rangers FAST Channels, Hasbro Legends is offering a range of programming across Hasbro’s original and acquired catalog.

Shows I saw airing last night:
Jem and the Holograms
My Little Pony G1 (yes, specified as such)
My Little Pony Tales
GI Joe ARAH
GI Joe DiC (yes, they are classified as two different series)
VR Troopers
Beetleborgs
Power Rangers Turbo
Duel Masters (2004)
Kaijudo (Duel Masters reboot, 2010 I think?)
Beast Machines Transformers

Unlike WB’s Cartoon Rewind, there seems to be an effort to keep some variety in play. Each show seems to run no more than 2 or 3 episodes at a time before switching. I’m at work and Google is either down or my work’s firewall is putting enough of a kink into Google’s functions I can’t use search and the Allspark’s ads are not working, so I can’t verify if any other shows are on tap. Like Cartoon Rewind, this channel seems more heavily focused on the lower tier offerings from Hasbro’s catalog.

Edit: But I CAN access Bing (uggh) and discovered Plex also offers a My Little Pony FAST Channel. As far as I know, Samsung TVs are still home to the Peppa Pig FAST channel.
Plex also has streaming channels for Monster High, Barbie, and Hot Wheels (featuring Max Steel) if you are into that

 

[lastmaximal]

That sounds like news that's too good to be in this thread, but it's nice to hear anyway. Interesting that this is the approach taken rather than also YouTube? (I forget if Turbo has been on their Power Rangers Official channel; I think it has.) But having multiple irons in the fire makes sense.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

lower tier offerings

From a certain point of view.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Power Rangers Turbo and Beast Machines?

Yikes.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Power Rangers Turbo and Beast Machines?

Yikes.

Which have both cycled through the “normal” FAST Channels for both properties. I was just mildly amused that for something having launched in the past few days (I don’t recall it being on Prime last weekend, for example), that they opted to rep Power Rangers and Transformers by two of their…”lesser perceived”…series

To be honest, I think, aside from general brand association at this point, I would have preferred Hasbro not even bother with entries from Power Rangers and Transformers and give focus on their other older brands/series. Conan the Adventurer, COPS, I think MASK is owned (At least the core 65 episodes run)? Ditch My Little Pony and show Maxie’s World and the Jewel Riders (?) show Kenner did circa 1995. Be ballsy and see if they got any rights to the Kenner pilot for Shadow Riders and maybe dust off INHUMANOIDS. I mean, they got TWO Action Man series to pick from!
I just find it disappointing that with the library of content they DO have…they aren’t digging very far into it to fill content. Looking at the schedule, those shows i posted are the EXTENT of the content cycling through at the moment. And Hasbro has a LOT more than that to exploit.