Not the end of Animated toys, new figures announced!

Yeah yeah, haven't posted in a bit, and when I'm going to, it's potentially bad news.

Both the local Targets and local Wal*Marts (Colorado Springs, CO) have marked the Transformers: Animated line as canceled and won't be stocking up any new figures for it past what has already shipped. That means that the March/April waves won't be showing up at all in these stores.

Oddly, Universe seems to be continuing even as the seasonal reset makes a ton of room for the Revenge figures beginning to surface.

Unfortunately, the Hasbro rep checking the Wal*Mart aisles didn't really know what to make of the changes, as she knew about upcoming figures, but also confirmed that retailers were 'dumping' the Animated line. :S

Eh, with the news of the new Voyagers being cancelled over on BBTS, and the loads of Deluxes and Lugnuts shelfwarming here, I have no doubt in my mind that this line is cancelled. It was a nice run at least.

Source?

Originally Posted by Ackula

Source?

For the wave cancellation? www.bigbadtoystore.com . As another thread indicated, they've sent out emails confirming that some of the new toys (I forget which all were included) were indeed cancelled.

As for the local stores dropping the line, well.. erm.. the stores themselves. Target is a bit more obvious than Wal*Mart, since all the Animated toys are marked with a 'silver button' on their peg marks, which means canceled.

Dang, well I need to get a few of these before they dissapear for good. I was hoping that this wouldnt happen, but having so many TF oriented lines on the shelfs at the same time, and also having animated season 3 coming on the air soon, and ROTF movie line coming out in a few months, I knew something was going to get the axe. They need to cancel that crappy SW/TF cross over line, and let animated run its course. They should have tried to get animated on the air in january and not wait to the spring to try and bring out season 3 and also the toys to go along with it.

When you have Transformers animated, SW/TF cross over line,Marvel/TF cross over lines, Universe, the '07 movie line, and you add in the new animated figures, and the ROTF toy line coming out soon, that is to much Transformer for me, and should have been spaced out more or something.

Personally I would have rather they killed the Crossover lines, but they're insisting on expanding them instead. Are they really that popular? Particularly in comparison to their main lines? I can't make sense of canceling Animated in favor of Marvel Crossovers...

Hasbro's done the same thing with regard to their GI Joe line. They cancelled a bunch of product. Apparently they realized they had too much to release right before the movie line.

I'm surprized it was Animated that got shut down as opposed to TFU since Animated is the "kids' line". Plus Animated by and large has had much better figures imo. Aside from Cyclonus and the Lambors nothing has really stood out, but I've been highly impressed will all but a small handful of the Animated figures I've picked up.

Further evidence that Animated is for the chop. What a shame. Personally I'd love to see Universe continued, though I can't see that happening till long after ROTF. I'm disappointed that it looks like Animated is being dropped over the crossover lines. I've never bought any of those and I probably never will. I've got most of the Animated toys and I'm going to miss the show when it's gone.

No, really. This can't be true. Was this the store or the website?

In-Store (which I can personally confirm, as I was told this morning by the Toy Dept. manager that no more Animated toys will be stocked) sort of, and online with BBTS for the Voyagers.

What was distribution of the show like in the US?

Non-stop new episodes for 5 months straight, barring the Ben 10 debut weekends.

What, did Hasbro take a cue from Takara?

Originally Posted by secretcode

Non-stop new episodes for 5 months straight, barring the Ben 10 debut weekends.

Is it somewhere a large number of kids get to see it? In the UK, IIRC it's buried on a network with extremely limited subscription. (Entirely possible I may be thinking of previous TF shows, though...)

Cartoon Network, which is easily accessable.

But on my Sat CN airs TF:A at 3 am. 6 am EST, but I am on the west coast. 3 AM PST. Not really good time for Kids.

Originally Posted by Clay

What, did Hasbro take a cue from Takara?

Selling child porn? Having no other lines? Merging with the idiots from across town? Chroming anything that isn't nailed down? Producing 65,000 Optimus Prime toys a year? Cultivating a smallish following of American otakus while failing miserably in their domestic market? Commissioning an intentionally stupid official timeline?

Originally Posted by Cliffjumper

Selling child porn? Having no other lines? Merging with the idiots from across town? Chroming anything that isn't nailed down? Producing 65,000 Optimus Prime toys a year? Cultivating a smallish following of American otakus while failing miserably in their domestic market? Commissioning an intentionally stupid official timeline?

Actually, it was "canceling lines that are 92% finished, even after the adverts and catalogs are printed," but you're right. We should start a checklist to mark Hasbro's decline into Takara-grade stupid.

Originally Posted by another tf fan

But on my Sat CN airs TF:A at 3 am. 6 am EST, but I am on the west coast. 3 AM PST. Not really good time for Kids.

Yes, now they do during times when no episodes air. Also, there are two different Cartoon Networks now. CN West and CN East, both are adapted to the various time zones.

Originally Posted by secretcode

Yes, now they do during times when no episodes air. Also, there are two different Cartoon Networks now. CN West and CN East, both are adapted to the various time zones.

Yeah, but Dish Network only runs the EST feed here on the west coast. Out here in the woods Dish is almost the only way to get tv. Really doing a lot of Kids a disservice running TF: A at 3 am.