Hasbro Q&A round 14

[JediTricks]

Here's round 13's Q&A voting thread. I want to hear from you guys on what we should ask next, either as votes on existing questions, or as suggestions for new questions.

The next round is due on Nov 1st, so I'll need the questions by Oct 30th.

Here are the existing questions:

1. - I'm really glad that Red Alert is getting released in the Generations line. My question is, what was behind the decision to use a different lightbar and black head for this release as opposed to the Japanese Henkei lightbar and red head?
2. - What are some features from recent toys (Hunt for the Decepticons, yellow-box generic "Transformers" line, Generations etc.) that didn't make it to production, along similar lines to Universe 2.0 Galvatron's removed "walker-tank" mode?
3. - To what does Hasbro attribute the long-term popularity of the Generation 1 characters and concepts? We get reissues, remakes that have appeared in Classics/Universe/Generations, Masterpiece figures, and the G1 characters currently appear in IDW's Transformers comics. What do you think gives these characters lasting appeal that most characters from the Beast era, RID, or the Unicron Trilogy don't seem to have achieved?
4. - At Comic-Con, it was mentioned that the Drones in the Power Core Combiners line originally were conceived as having robot modes as well, but the idea got costed out as the line developed. Why then use vehicle-only limb drones instead of robot-only limb drones? Was there a conscious choice to make them "faceless" vehicle drones that are not characters? Was the original PCC concept with robot-to-vehicle-to-limbs also meant to be drones, or were they to be unique characters like classic TF combiners?
5. - Hasbro has stated that they are moving towards having a more centralized continuity with Exodus, War for Cybertron, and Prime. With Transformers, Hasbro has never had a problem before with multiple continuities, why the move towards centralizing it now? Will Generations be a true part of that new centralized continuity, and if so, how will that work with the line borrowing from so many previous continuities?
6. - The TF Fan Club has just revealed that Hasbro will be bringing Masterpiece Rodimus to the US, but without his Rodimus Prime trailer attachment, despite the fact that this MP Rodimus was designed specifically to transform to 2 different vehicle modes, the Hot Rod standalone car, and the Rodimus Prime RV mode which works with the trailer. This is not the first MP item or even the first MP trailer to not get released in the US, but this is the first MP figure where a core element of the figure won't get released here. What is it about the Masterpiece trailers that Hasbro doesn't feel will work in the US market? Will there be any way for US collectors to get Rodimus' trailer without having to get the overseas release?

Thanks for participating!

[andersonh1]

Based on this:

"So here is a guide: questions that ask about why certain deco schemes, designs, names are chosen for the line are great. Additionally, questions about the lore, storyline, etc. are also great questions"

I'm going to give it a shot. Let's see if we get a canned answer or not.

- To what does Hasbro attribute the long-term popularity of the Generation 1 characters and concepts? We get reissues, remakes that have appeared in Classics/Universe/Generations, Masterpiece figures, and the G1 characters currently appear in IDW's Transformers comics. What do you think gives these characters lasting appeal that most characters from the Beast era, RID, or the Unicron Trilogy don't seem to have achieved?

[andersonh1]

We've got more questions!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=641&p=18257#p18257

Dom:
- Are the drones in PCC vehicle/limbs instead of robot/limbs to accent the fact that the drones are not characters unto themselves?

Shockwave:
- Hasbro has stated that they are moving towards having a more centralized continuity with Prime and WFC and Generations. They've never had a problem with multiple continuities before, why the move towards centralizing it now?

[Shockwave]

And another: I'm very pleased that Hasbro has released a figure of Straxus, a fairly obscure character from the original Marvel comics run. Are there any plans to release other comics only characters from that era? Perhaps Emirate Xaaron, or Death's Head or others?

[138 Scourge]

I would bet that Death's Head would be a negatory, since Marvel owns that guy. Then again, since Hasbro's got the Marvel license at the moment, you never know. That would easily be the best character to get the Marvel TF treatment. But maybe like....

"While he's always been a Marvel character, Death's Head has always been closely associated with the TF franchise by a fair amount of fans. Is there any hope for a figure with visual callbacks to Death's Head, or maybe a Death's Head figure in the Marvel toyline?" Might not get anything but a "not our department" asking about other divisions of Hasbro, but what the hell.

Yay, I'm helping!

[Shockwave]

Death's Head was the only other one I could think of at that moment. Maybe Macabre, Scrounge, Traachon, Rack N Ruin... The list could on really.

[Shockwave]

And now another damned question (boy I'm full of it this month): The fan club mag has just reported that MP Rodimus will be released here. WITHOUT HIS TRAILER!!! WTH? That's my question: Seriously Hasbro WTH? Why does the 'Bro hate trailers!?

I'm pretty sure we can edit it so that it doesn't include the nerdrage, but I seriously want to bring to task for this.

[Dominic]

Hasbro will likely answer Shock's question with something about costs.

"While he's always been a Marvel character, Death's Head has always been closely associated with the TF franchise by a fair amount of fans. Is there any hope for a figure with visual callbacks to Death's Head, or maybe a Death's Head figure in the Marvel toyline?" Might not get anything but a "not our department" asking about other divisions of Hasbro, but what the hell.

Actually, this is exactly the kind of question that Hasbro says they do not want. Of course, given how they answer questions that are written to spec.......

And,

From Shockwave: Why has Hasbro decided to unify continuity with "Generation", "War for Cybertron" and "Exodus"?

From me: Did Hasbro decide to produce the Power Core Combiner limbs transform from limbs to drones, rather than from limbs to robots, as a way to accentuate the fact that the drones are not characters unto themselves?


Dom
-not expecting good answers to these.....

[Shockwave]

Except that in this case we're are specifically GOING to get an inferior toy to what will already be produced in Japan and we have a unique opportunity to take Hasbro to task on it BEFORE it happens. I think just to keep them from weaseling out of that by giving us some "cost cutting" crap, we should word it to imply that the move to not release MP Rodimus as is implies that Hasbro isn't surviving as a company. If they can't even direct import a toy that is being sold and produced by Takara in Japan to their markets, why should we believe that they're surviving?

Ok, I think I have the perfect exact way to word it:

"The upward trend in cost cutting measures by Hasbro recently indicates that the company may be struggling financially. The most recent case is especially indicative of this with the announcement that MP Rodimus would be released domestically but without the trailer that apparently Takara has the resources to release to it's markets. Is Hasbro doing so poorly that they cannot afford to import a complete toy to their markets or was there another reason for the decision to release only half of MP Rodimus in the US?"

And if we need to somehow back up the "upward trend" comment, I'm sure O86 has a listing of all of the removed gimmicks from the ROTF line and I'm sure we could also scour the previous Q&A threads for the number of times Hasbro has used "cost cutting" as an excuse for an answer. Plus, as JT describes it, the questions go through Hasbro's PR firm and then to Hasbro. And the PR firm isn't going to want a missing trailer to indicate financial problems so they're going to want to get
a better answer from Hasbro than that. Shockwave- Does not see how this could possibly go wrong.

[Onslaught Six]

Have they said it's cost-cutting, though? Remember, Hasbro are absolute 'jerks' about the whole Multiple Primes thing. They really, really don't like characters whose names end in Prime that don't start with Optimus. Remember Cybertron? All the leaders became Deconvified (the process of Deconvoying, or removing Convoy from one's name. ), and AniRodimus is getting neutered to Rodimus Minor. I'm sure if they could've gotten away with calling Sentinel something that wasn't Prime, they would have.