Hasbro Question and Answer, round 5.

[SynjoDeonecros]

G1 Arcee sucked, the prototype was awful, it wasn't released for a reason, and I don't want to hear about it again.

Can we ask if they plan to release the G1 Unicron?

Okay, for serious, I like the first three. The thing about last one is, well, it seems unlikely to do much. I think that there's unofficial petition stuff already, and Hasbro apparently listens to fan demand when they can, but when it comes to "please teh diehards" or "do stuff that'll do well in general release", I can bet which one they're goin' for.

Of course, I can't be unsympathetic to Synjo's position here, either, because lord knows I've done my share of wishing for that Metals Ravage to be re-released, too. And asking for other re-releases that I didn't even get when they happened.

Still, an official fan suggestion/petition slot for Hasbro wouldn't hurt, especially since - as I've said before - they seem to be doing plenty of fan-pleasing with the Universe line, and if I remember correctly, Hasbro has done plenty of fan polls for which characters they want to see in a line, in the past. At least it would be a better question to ask them than "OMFG I WANT THIS CHARACTER PLZ GIVE US THIS CHARACTER!!!1!ONE!1ELEVEN"

[onslaught86]

One thing I 'would' like to know is whether they'd considered a BW Ravage-esque robot mode for Movie Ravage, and if not, why not. He certainly had precedent for such a simplistic transformation, and it could've been rather nifty. Possibly best to wait until the toy's hit full saturation, though.

[SynjoDeonecros]

One thing I 'would' like to know is whether they'd considered a BW Ravage-esque robot mode for Movie Ravage, and if not, why not. He certainly had precedent for such a simplistic transformation, and it could've been rather nifty. Possibly best to wait until the toy's hit full saturation, though.

I never thought of that, honestly; I know there was talk of Ravage being the Pretender stated to be in the movie, and it would have synced with his role in the movie, so giving him a humanoid form would make sense, if it were true. Of course, with the "killer chicken" mode that was found for him, it could also be asked if they had considered combining Ravage and Laserbeak into a single character.

[Onslaught Six]

Apparently Ravage can't even move his head from side to side, let alone down like that, so who knows. The Hasbro team 'has' recently showed, through Devastator, I think, that either they don't consider themselves engineer-savvy enough to pull off certain feats, or they really really can't.

[onslaught86]

But that should be Takara working that out, shouldn't it? Attempting to put the engineering of the existing Constructicons into a load-bearing state? I'd imagine that had a role in their decision. Damn that giftset. The individual constructs be cool, tho'.

Anyhoo, another thought. Are Hasbro phasing out accessories? The only new ROTF moulds with accessories have missiles, everything else is moulded on. Chromia is a notable exception.

[Onslaught Six]

Yeah, I dunno. I've been tired as hell lately.

I dunno about phasing out accessories entirely. Remember, the Movie designs tend to lend themselves well to more amorphous weapon-tucked-into-your-arm or made-from-car-parts than most other traditional TF designs. Animated and Universe both had their fair share of accessories--a lot of toys in the Animated line even came with accessories 'without any altmode storage,' which has been a pretty universal TF No-No since 'Beast Wars.' So I think if it's anything, it's just Hasbro adhering to the Movie designs and aesthetic. Even the accessories in the first movie line were generally trying to 'act' like they were generated partformer weapons--like the cruddy guns of both Prime and Bumblebee.

I'm not saying it's a bad question, it's a very interesting one--just offering up a possible explanation.

[Onslaught Six]

Here's an inneresting one, but it can totally wait until next round, or even past that. But it's a fun one.

While the financial success of the first movie cannot be denied, was there any "backup" plan as for what to do if the first movie bombed at the box office? What do you think Hasbro would have done?

[JediTricks]

I know the deadline is the 13th, but lets call it the 10th, to make sure we are in good shape. (We cut it a bit close with rounds 3 and 4.)

It's not really a problem to cut it within a day, it's a really easy submission process so as long as we get it all worked out within 12 hours, it's a done deal. In fact, their deadline is I think at 11am PST, so I mean technically I can get them in with 1 minute to spare, but I'd rather have 12 hours to be sure nothing bounces.

Also, please keep apprised of top questions beyond the top 3, I may need to last-minute fill either here or loan a question to ActionFigs.com.

While many of us understand the need for Hasbro to tighten up on its intellectual property, there are some worries about the ramifications it may have. For example, will art contests at conventions (such as BotCon) be affected by this? And, what about sellers that have sold items with semi-official sanction, such as the Lukis Brothers? Will they be grand-fathered in based on past precedent (the Vector Sigma accessories)? Will Hasbro attempt to fill the market void left by now banned fan-items?

The first part of the question is unnecessary, art contests are not a problem, anything done on a personal level isn't being done for any profit and they are ok with it. It was asked and answered, so that part should be cut. The second part is fine, but the last part is where I really want to focus, I'd add a part about "Clearly the demand for these items is high enough in collector circles to create the unlicensed cottage industry, yet you've made clear that there's no room in the Hasbro market plan for these sorts of collector-oriented extras, so might Hasbro be willing to find an appropriate licensee who can fit those sorts of complimentary pieces into their own business model?"

There are some elements of design that are clearly present in certain toys, yet aren't noted in the instructions at all. In some cases, these are obvious, in other cases less so. Sometimes these are unfinished and understandably left out (Ala Universe Galvatron's third mode), yet some are simply inexplicably left out of the documentation (Movie Knock-Out's wings, Fallen's arm-to-waist links). What do the designers think of elements designed into toys, but undocumented? Is there any possible outlet for 'correct' transformations and undocumented design elements? Are these intentional little "extras" that the designers like to add? Does Hasbro keep track of this sort of thing?

Can we get better examples than that please? Those seem somewhat lame to me. And I'd like to work in the term "Undocumented Features" to the first sentence, get it out there.

Can you possibly discuss any toys that have turned out better or worse than expected, in terms of sales or just being able to look at a finished product and think "________"? What toys from past lines would you revise? What would you not change a thing on?

This is a question I don't think we're going to get a very good answer on just because there's a MASSIVE number of toys to consider from. And "what would you not change a thing on" is a loaded question, they'll probably say all of them, so that needs to be more pointed "which one do you consider PERFECT coming out of the factory and wouldn't change at all" perhaps. If we could tighten the question up somehow, maybe ask about the differences from prototype to production, or limit it to just the ROTF line, something to make this stronger or else it's going to be a very short PR answer.

Given that a frequent theme in fan Q and A letters is "when will you make, or re-release, _____?", is it likely that there could be some kind of referendum process set up, (similar to local political referendums), to allow fans to petition/suggest certain toys be produced or re-issued?

Does anybody really think there's a chance this will happen? If so, let me tell you now, no, it won't happen. Hasbro listens to fans via Q&A and forums, but they make decisions based on a business model that only slightly incorporates a broader understanding of what we want. I would be extremely reticent to ask this one as it's a pipe dream that will never come of anything.

One thing I 'would' like to know is whether they'd considered a BW Ravage-esque robot mode for Movie Ravage, and if not, why not. He certainly had precedent for such a simplistic transformation, and it could've been rather nifty. Possibly best to wait until the toy's hit full saturation, though.

The number of design questions I could levy at Hasbro over this movie are staggering. Wheel feet would be #1 on my list, followed by Demolishor, Rampage, The Fallen's altmode, Mixmaster's gun mode, Soundwave's nothing-modes, and that's before I've even seen the film. Scorponok didn't get a bot mode in the first movie though, but his toy did, so it's not a bad question, it's just not first on my list.

Anyhoo, another thought. Are Hasbro phasing out accessories? The only new ROTF moulds with accessories have missiles, everything else is moulded on. Chromia is a notable exception.

I don't own any ROTF molds with accessories aside from Chrapia, not even missile launchers. The first movie didn't have many either, though, so I dunno.

Here's an inneresting one, but it can totally wait until next round, or even past that. But it's a fun one.

While the financial success of the first movie cannot be denied, was there any "backup" plan as for what to do if the first movie bombed at the box office? What do you think Hasbro would have done?

Honestly, with the understocked shelves for the first movie, I think that was their backup plan, they played it too small and it bit them in the butts, they had to puke out the Premium figures to fill the void of new molds.

[Dominic]

Here's an inneresting one, but it can totally wait until next round, or even past that. But it's a fun one.

While the financial success of the first movie cannot be denied, was there any "backup" plan as for what to do if the first movie bombed at the box office? What do you think Hasbro would have done?

I think "GI Joe" may indirectly answer this one for us.

Dom
-not nice at all.

[Dominic]

I tweaked the questions a bit. But, I still do not have any good examples for undocumented features. (Normally, I could rattle that sort of thing off. But, I am rather stumped for ideas right now.

Dom
-maybe something with Gigatron?