Hasbro Q&A round 12

[Dominic]

Except, uh, they pull us into the BS answer trap.

*sigh*

But, Hasbro loves hearing from us. It makes them feel big and important to ignore us.


Dom

[JediTricks]

Okay, my next question: Will there be any meaningful penalty for ignoring their submission guidelines? If not, I vote we chuck 'em.

Penalty? The penalty will be either generic non-responsive responses, or they simply will leave it entirely blank. How that differs from where we are right now is negligible, but I don't think they'll actively penalize us for trying. I mean, we are trying to support their brand, trying to help everybody understand each other and make it a better community for both sides, and we aren't getting much cooperation from TPTB, so I don't think it'd hurt to get more specific and inquisitive.

I suspect that we inadvertantly adhere to them anyway on account of the fact that we already know what kind of BS answers we're gonna get and mostly are able to word our questions in a way that doesn't fall into that trap.

This is somewhat true. If we had hopes of getting better answers, it'd make sense, but there is not much chance of a reward in this situation, so why take the risk? The only reason I can think of is that we've tried to ask the questions they want, and we get burned for it, so we're not risking something major by asking better questions that more folks want to know.

Except, uh, they pull us into the BS answer trap.

*sigh*

But, Hasbro loves hearing from us. It makes them feel big and important to ignore us.

I suspect Hasbro TF *wants* to love hearing from us, and just doesn't know how. Or maybe I'm being too generous, we're certainly not alone in the sub-par quality of answers in this program, look at ActionFigs.com's: http://www.actionfigs.com/index.php?cat ... cleid=2471 Yikes! By comparison, I actually feel like TFV's answers were relatively better. That first answer regurgitates the question, while the second feels like a kick in the balls (yet it does answer the question, so I guess it's all about how one takes it).

[Shockwave]

Wow. And they're message on that second was clearly "Bend over and take it".

[Onslaught Six]

Excellent post. The idea that "we don't wanna tell you because we might someday use it in the future" is ludicrous, there are plenty of molds from the past 10 years they know they won't be releasing again that could have fit the bill here. It seems like the individual answering these is not concerned with answers so much as with the corporate philosophies of management, even when it's not in their favor by casting them in a bad light. The problem is, it's just too easy for them to say "no" and pass the buck rather than use this as a tool to connect to their customers.

This. This is why I wanted to specifically mention Cybertron Snarl--he was a guy who I basically waited forever on the repaint for, and then we never got one (at retail, anyway--there was Dark Fangwolf in Galaxy Force and Weirdwolf, who was an expensive con exclusive.)

Dear God the Actionfig answers are bad. "Why is he Darkmount instead of Straxus?" "Well we couldn't get Straxus so we named him Darkmount." "Yeah, but...why Darkmount? Why not just Lord Straxus? Decepticon Straxus?" "Fucking because."

I mean, I can even stab a guess as to why they did it--Darkmount likely sounds more defendable. It sounds like a standard TF compound name like Fireflight or Wildride or something, while Straxus is just a made up word. I'd 'accept' that answer. That'd be a fine answer. And that's probably why he's named that. Plus, Straxus is an obscure comics character who everyone will just call by his real name anyway. It gets easier to call a toy by the wrong name if it's obscure enough--"Autobot Spark" for example. (Though why Spark was considered more defendable than Pyro is beyond me.) If you have a mainstream character like, say, Jazz, you're almost tied by the bounds of having to Call That Guy Jazz. (We know the reason he was called Meister repeatedly back in the day was because Hasbro wasn't fond of using the Autobot [x] prefixes on non-reissue toys, probably because it could occasionally make packaging look stupid.)

TFWiki's questions are always dumb and obscure. "Why do Transformers have gender, anyway?! Was Armada supposed to continue on from Rebirth?!" The second one didn't even get an answer.

[JediTricks]

This. This is why I wanted to specifically mention Cybertron Snarl--he was a guy who I basically waited forever on the repaint for, and then we never got one (at retail, anyway--there was Dark Fangwolf in Galaxy Force and Weirdwolf, who was an expensive con exclusive.)

Had I known we'd end up kicked in the head for a response, I would have included it.

Dear God the Actionfig answers are bad. "Why is he Darkmount instead of Straxus?" "Well we couldn't get Straxus so we named him Darkmount." "Yeah, but...why Darkmount? Why not just Lord Straxus? Decepticon Straxus?" "Fucking because."

Yeah, that was painful, took the wind right out of my sails.

I mean, I can even stab a guess as to why they did it--Darkmount likely sounds more defendable. It sounds like a standard TF compound name like Fireflight or Wildride or something, while Straxus is just a made up word. I'd 'accept' that answer. That'd be a fine answer. And that's probably why he's named that. Plus, Straxus is an obscure comics character who everyone will just call by his real name anyway. It gets easier to call a toy by the wrong name if it's obscure enough--"Autobot Spark" for example. (Though why Spark was considered more defendable than Pyro is beyond me.) If you have a mainstream character like, say, Jazz, you're almost tied by the bounds of having to Call That Guy Jazz. (We know the reason he was called Meister repeatedly back in the day was because Hasbro wasn't fond of using the Autobot [x] prefixes on non-reissue toys, probably because it could occasionally make packaging look stupid.)

Feeling ungenerous towards the top of the TF brand who has been giving us these lackluster answers lately and is usually the person who goes to bat with decisions like that Straxus one, my guess is they just went lazy and simply didn't want to justify a "_____ Straxus" name to the legal department. Honestly, I don't think the producers of the Doctor Who radio drama that it was used in were going to sue anyway.

You're mistaken about why Alternators Meister didn't get the name "Autobot Jazz", they addressed this directly back in the day, the line is licensed cars and at that time there was a real car company making a car called the Jazz, so the risk was much greater.

TFWiki's questions are always dumb and obscure. "Why do Transformers have gender, anyway?! Was Armada supposed to continue on from Rebirth?!" The second one didn't even get an answer.

I dunno, neither question struck me as bad, and the answer for the gender one was somewhat thought out.

[JediTricks]

I'm noticing something very odd about the Q&A. I'm going through the Star Wars sites' Q&As, and noticing that a number of those sites are now participating in Q&A. I suspect too many TF sites dropped out and Hasbro requested sites they had relationships with in other brands to fill the void.

Some of the questions are decent, some of the answers are annoyingly better than what we're seeing. There's one instance though where the same basic question is asked from 2 different sites and they get different qualities of answers.

[andersonh1]

What kind of questions are the Star Wars fans asking that are getting good answers? Maybe there's something we can learn from their approach?

[Shockwave]

Maybe there's something we can learn from their approach?

Ask in fluent Wookie.

[Dominic]

Wow, Hasbro is playing favorites, and people are dropping out of the program? Who would have thunk it.....


Dom

[JediTricks]

What kind of questions are the Star Wars fans asking that are getting good answers? Maybe there's something we can learn from their approach?

Pretty much everything that the TF team is skunking us with. I'm the editor on those SW questions that have been called the best in the brand's Q&A, so I tried to bring those skills to TF, but the Hasbro team ain't having none of it.

All I want is to help the fans get good questions answered, but I feel looking around at more answers that it's just not in the cards.