missing figures

[Dominic]

Admittedly, I have only been half paying attention. But, is anybody else bothered by the fact that Hasbro does not even have plans to make some characters from the movie? I am thinking of guys like Mirage/Dino or to a lesser degree Crowbar.

The line just seems kind of half-assed and incomplete without them.


Dom
-not actually collecting the line, but will still complain about it.

[Onslaught Six]

We were BSing about this on Skype the other night. Mirage may have licensing issues with his vehicle mode--we're actually assuming at this point that Hasbro had the toy all lined up, and then legal issues stopped it from happening.

I'm more worried about the fact that Wheeljack and Soundwave haven't come out yet.

[Gomess]

It's especially surprising when relatively popular little characters could be cheaply manufactured for a presumably decent profit. I don't know anything about Hasbro's business model, but "non-toy characters" have always been a tradition in TF...

[Sparky Prime]

Mirage may have licensing issues with his vehicle mode--we're actually assuming at this point that Hasbro had the toy all lined up, and then legal issues stopped it from happening.

I'd think Hasbro could find a way around licensing issues by making his vehicle mode a more generic red sports car that maybe sorta resembles a Ferrari. That's what they did for the non-tranforming "Speed Stars" toy of him they released. Still, it seems like if Hasbro were going to release a transforming version of the character, they'd at least have shown it off by now.

I agree though, the line just doesn't seem complete missing some characters from the movie.

[Shockwave]

I coulda swore I saw over on TFW news that Soundwave and QueJack were being produced but not out yet. As long as they don't pull a Playmates with it.... Y'know, I'm not collecting this line either so I really don't care if they get made or not.

[Onslaught Six]

Mirage may have licensing issues with his vehicle mode--we're actually assuming at this point that Hasbro had the toy all lined up, and then legal issues stopped it from happening.

I'd think Hasbro could find a way around licensing issues by making his vehicle mode a more generic red sports car that maybe sorta resembles a Ferrari. That's what they did for the non-tranforming "Speed Stars" toy of him they released. Still, it seems like if Hasbro were going to release a transforming version of the character, they'd at least have shown it off by now.

I agree though, the line just doesn't seem complete missing some characters from the movie.

They could if they'd had advance notice, like with ROTF Sideways--but I seriously think that they had already started sculpting (or even moulding!) the toy with the Ferrari in mind, and then--whoops--somebody fucked up and now they can't license it. Hasbro would probably rather axe the toy than spend money remoulding it.

[Sparky Prime]

They could if they'd had advance notice, like with ROTF Sideways--but I seriously think that they had already started sculpting (or even moulding!) the toy with the Ferrari in mind, and then--whoops--somebody fucked up and now they can't license it. Hasbro would probably rather axe the toy than spend money remoulding it.

What makes you think Hasbro didn't have advance notice? More than likely they would have started dealing with licensing issues when Ferrari agreed to have a car be in the film in the first place. We know Nelson Lauren (the web master for Michael Bay's site) said Ferrari didn't event want the character in the movie sharing the name of the toy because of their toy license with Mattel. And again, Hasbro released the "Speed Stars" Mirage with a generic sports car design.

Even by some chance if Hasbro had started creating a sculpt based on the Ferrari, that doesn't mean they'd just scrap making the character. Look at Alternators Jazz. We know Hasbro made a sculpt based on a Porsche, but when they couldn't get the licensing for it, they remade him as a Mazda RX8 instead.

[Shockwave]

Well I think it's pretty well known that the name change from "Mirage" to Dino was last minute so I'm wondering if the licensing issues could possibly have arose out of that?

[Sparky Prime]

Well I think it's pretty well known that the name change from "Mirage" to Dino was last minute so I'm wondering if the licensing issues could possibly have arose out of that?

Actually the movie call sheets referred to him as "Enzo" and concept art called him "Rush". He was never going to be Mirage in the movie. That's just the name Hasbro gave the character. Just like how it's Que in the movie, but the toy is Wheeljack.

[Gomess]

There's a Bayformer called Que? Is he Hispanic?

Senator Ratbat might have some competition.