Hasbro Q&A round 11 thread

[andersonh1]

Those aren't too bad, all things considered. Particularly the reasonably straight answer about Thundercracker.

[Dominic]

Hasbro: Over the past 25 years there have been various interpretations of Transformers lore. In the original animated series, Orion Pax was best friends with Dion who subsequently dies at the hands of Megatron. In our mind Dion died during the war for Cybertron. Dion was never rebuilt into any other character. Jazz¹s Hall of Fame profile was based off the War for Cybertron/Exodus continuity, which Hasbro is going forward with as our new aligned continuity. We believe Orion Pax had many friends during the War for Cybertron.

Okay, lets parse this:

Dion is dead. Thankfully, this puts some really bad fanfics to bed. This also casts a shadow on the club figure. I suppose the club Dion figure could be reconciled as being from an alternate timeline or something. (The fact that there is an Ironhide and/or Magnus is most other timelines, including timelines where Dion died, still mercifully rules out the fanon of the 90s.)

If not for Side-gate, (the recent troubles at the wiki owing to the Almanac being written in a self-indulgent way), I get the feeling this would generate more buzz.

Their Thundergate answer was pretty much what I expected. They recognize a problem, but make no promises to do anything about it. Bah.


Dom
-happy to put some fanon in the trash where it belongs.

[Shockwave]

Yeah, so I guess that means we'll get regular Thundy in 2012. Assuming the Mayans are wrong

[andersonh1]

That's how I read the answer. Thundercracker will get a mass release at some point. I suspected as much, given fan demand, but it's nice to have confirmation.

[G.B. Blackrock]

I'm always mystified by questions like that Thundercracker one where the asker seems to legitimately fear that AM Thundercracker (which I do obviously very much want to see get made) may somehow get made, at retail, without a "regular" Thundercracker release. (For my part, I say, "May it actually be so!" But I don't for a moment believe that AM Thundercracker would actually supplant a hypothetical "regular" Thundercracker.)

(I'm almost as mystified that such fans don't count either the BotCon version OR the Henkei versions as somehow legitimate. Folks, you've had a couple of chances already! I'd love for AMTC to have had that many chances!)

[Shockwave]

(I'm almost as mystified that such fans don't count either the BotCon version OR the Henkei versions as somehow legitimate. Folks, you've had a couple of chances already! I'd love for AMTC to have had that many chances!)

It's not that we don't count them as legitimate (well I don't, but I admit to having a skewed perception of such things), the problem is that it's not a MASS RETAIL US release. We didn't have the chance. We couldn't just go to any old Target, Wal Mart or Toys R Us and pick one up like we could with Starscream (twice! ), Skywarp (Target only and here's where the fun began ), Ramjet or Acid Storm. It's really not the same thing. And mentioning Acid Storm is a perfect example of "demystifying" your first point: Hasbro decided to release the original (non conehead) seeker mold, but did we get MASS RETAIL US Thundercracker with it? NO!! Instead we got fucking Acid Storm! Seriously? That one thing that was in that one episode that one time next to that guy for all of two seconds? THAT'S the one we got? Yeah, and his color scheme was just barely this side of AMTC, so THAT'S why we worded that question the way we did. It's only paranoid if didn't happen.

[Onslaught Six]

It really is a big thing. The Botcon toys were woefully underproduced--I think 1500 of each figure exists, and of them, Thundy is obviously going to be the most desireable. The Henkei releases were rather limited in their home country alone, let alone online, and they sold out in a matter of days if I remember right. You can barely find one of those things for 'under fifty dollars.'

I'm not paying two or three times regular retail price for a repaint that should've come out on the regular shelves since day one. (In absolute terms, Thundy should've been released instead of Ramjet and nobody would have blinked an eye.) I'll pay it if it's an unlikely repaint that would have never hit in the first place (the latest Botcon toys are the only Botcon toys I've ever bought) but not for something that, if not in the original line, should have been 'number one' on the list of things to do in 2008.

[G.B. Blackrock]

G.B. Blackrock wrote:(I'm almost as mystified that such fans don't count either the BotCon version OR the Henkei versions as somehow legitimate. Folks, you've had a couple of chances already! I'd love for AMTC to have had that many chances!)

It's not that we don't count them as legitimate (well I don't, but I admit to having a skewed perception of such things), the problem is that it's not a MASS RETAIL US release. We didn't have the chance. We couldn't just go to any old Target, Wal Mart or Toys R Us and pick one up like we could with Starscream (twice! ), Skywarp (Target only and here's where the fun began ), Ramjet or Acid Storm. It's really not the same thing. And mentioning Acid Storm is a perfect example of "demystifying" your first point: Hasbro decided to release the original (non conehead) seeker mold, but did we get MASS RETAIL US Thundercracker with it? NO!! Instead we got fucking Acid Storm! Seriously? That one thing that was in that one episode that one time next to that guy for all of two seconds? THAT'S the one we got? Yeah, and his color scheme was just barely this side of AMTC, so THAT'S why we worded that question the way we did. It's only paranoid if didn't happen.

Acid Storm is not at all the same thing. It was a non-character who became a character. It never EXISTED before, and Hasbro tried to do something different. Acid Storm could just as easily be "random Seeker #11," and it wouldn't have been any different. Here, we're talking about something quite specific. A particular color-scheme.

Seriously, complaining that a specific toy (that has never gotten ANY kind of release) might somehow bump a "regular" Thundercracker (which HAS gotten TWO releases, if not at mass retail) is both petty and crazy-talk.

But, no, you have to bend over backwards to argue against a particular color-scheme that some of us are working hard to get released in any form.

[Onslaught Six]

Hey, I'd love a limited AM Thundy as much as anybody...but not if it means I'm somehow not going to get a mass-release Thundy for $15.

[Shockwave]

I think the main difference between mine and GB's argument is that I'm arguing mass US retail release only, while GB, you seem to be only looking at the bigger spectrum of everything that's been released ever. And really, those are two completely separate arguments that have almost nothing to do with each other. Yeah, in the scope of everything released ever, you're right, regular TC has been released twice. I'm arguing only in the scope of what's been released at regular retail, and in that sense, regular Thundy hasn't happened yet. In that scope I would prefer regular Thundy before anything else and really feel gyped that we got freakin' Acid Storm before him. Now, going back to the broader scope of everything ever, I would prefer AMTC before yet another limited regular Thundy.

Shockwave
-Actually regards things as "never been released" if I don't see them at retail.