Target exclusive movie Scout Elita One in packaging

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:01 pm

From That Auction Site again... Yet another Energon Arcee repaint.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d75/b ... ing_01.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d75/b ... ing_02.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d75/b ... ing_03.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d75/b ... ing_04.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d75/b ... ing_05.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d75/b ... ing_06.jpg

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:00 pm

Kinda funky. Not gonna rebuy, but I prefer to the pastel.

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:21 pm

I wonder if the mold is worn out by now.

- Superlink Ariel
- Energon Arcee
- Superlink Ariel Paradrone Type
- Universe Arcee repackage
- BotCon Chromia
- BotCon Flamewar
- BotCon Flareup
- Target exclusive Movie Arcee
- Target exclusive Movie Elite One

Took the RiD Car Brothers (Car Robots Mach Alert/Speedbreaker/Wild Ride, Car Robots Super Mach Alert/Speedbreaker/Wild Ride, Car Robots Clear Mach Alert/Speedbreaker/Wild Ride, RiD Prowl/Side Burn/X-Brawn, RiD Super Prowl/Side Burn/X-Brawn, OTFCC Side Swipe/Sunstreaker/Shadow Striker/Roulette, Universe Prowl/Autobot Ratchet, Universe Wal*Mart exclusive Prowl/Side Burn) and the Space Mini-Con Team (Armada Space Team, Micron Densetsu Space Microns, Micron Densetsu X-Dimensions Space Microns, test run for unreleased store exclusive Armada Space Team redecos, Wal*Mart exclusive Energon Space/Race Team repackages, Energon Ultra Magnus Space Team, test run for unreleased TRU exclusive Universe Spacewarp Space Team, Cybertron two-packs) a similar amount of uses to become declared unusable.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:27 pm

At a rough guess, how many copies of a mould exist? I'm assuming some sort of parallel production, and companies keeping the masters these days rather than dumping them into offices that then get sold off indirectly to bootleggers...

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:43 pm

I'm not sure there's such a thing as "multiple molds" for toys other than the likes of G1 Prime. Steel molds presumably costs in the ten thousands of dollars in production and thus are the most expensive part of the toy development process. Hence the need for repaints to recoup the costs.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:03 pm

And it's quick enough to achieve production totals by only having one machine churning out, say, Starscream limbs? Weird to think of it like that.

Do we have any idea how many of a typical basic get produced in a normal first wave? (Apologies if I've asked this one before...)

secretcode · Post by **secretcode** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:13 pm

So...

Anyone else think this looks more like Arcee than E-Arcee?

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:30 pm

ugh.. that bio... She's Cybertron's first slut and pin-up girl. Thanks, Hasbro.

Post by **zigzagger** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:06 am

On that note, it's interesting that token female characters (generally) in the TF Universe are either excellent marksmen or archers, rather than warriors, etc.
(edit: aside from Strika)

secretcode · Post by **secretcode** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:56 pm

Originally posted by zigzagger
On that note, it's interesting that token female characters (generally) in the TF Universe are either excellent marksmen or archers, rather than warriors, etc.
(edit: aside from Strika)

[sarcasm]Strika is a girl?[/sarcasm]

On that note, what about Override? He/she sorta counts as a girl, right?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:01 pm

Originally posted by Denyer
Do we have any idea how many of a typical basic get produced in a normal first wave? (Apologies if I've asked this one before...)

No, we don't, and it was me who asked

I'm also pretty surprised that there's only one master... I mean, I don't disbelieve or anything, but it does seem like something of a difficulty... but then, on the other hand, let's say 100,000 , I dunno, Classics Bumblebees were made... would it really take that long for a factory line of several hundred people (disclaimer: I know very little about factories, though if Gloster could do 16 Hurricanes a day...) to do that? I mean, regardless of distribution, the toys are all made in one (maybe 2) countries, aren't they? A single factory handling the figures one at a time wouldn't be that slow, would it?

Post by **Clay** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:02 pm

Originally posted by Nevermore
I wonder if the mold is worn out by now.

- Universe Arcee repackage

Would those have been another production run, though? I thought the Universe repackages were just that - repackages.

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
No, we don't, and it was me who asked

I'm also pretty surprised that there's only one master... I mean, I don't disbelieve or anything, but it does seem like something of a difficulty... but then, on the other hand, let's say 100,000 , I dunno, Classics Bumblebees were made... would it really take that long for a factory line of several hundred people (disclaimer: I know very little about factories, though if Gloster could do 16 Hurricanes a day...) to do that? I mean, regardless of distribution, the toys are all made in one (maybe 2) countries, aren't they? A single factory handling the figures one at a time wouldn't be that slow, would it?

I think the toy molds are done in the exact same way that model kits are done - on runners or sprues or whatever they're called. If a typical deluxe mold, say Classics Bumblebee, is only made of four or five main sprues (and maybe a smaller one with the clear parts like the eyes and windows), then an industrial mold and injector system would spit them out like lightning. Assembly would be the relatively slow part of the process, even if you many people putting together doing different jobs like any other factory assembly line.

That's my guess, anyway.

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:10 pm

And considering that the BotCon Customizing Classes featured unassembled toys that were still on their sprues, that sounds about right.

Also, the only solid number I could find was Hasbro having sold three million Transformers Movie toys by July 23.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:20 pm

As an aside, would the number of releases really effect a mould that much? Wouldn't it have more to do with how many units full-stop were chruned out? I mean (leaving aside any possibility of moulds getting lost or accidentally set on fire) something like Powerglide was probably used much more than, say, one of the Cyberjet moulds, even if it was only for one, maybe two, runs at the Cyberjets are looking at around half-a-dozen releases each (i.e. I'd expect the number of examples of Powerglide produced to vastly outweigh, say, the combined run of Hooligan/Jetfire/R. Blade/Universe Wind Sheer/a couple I've probably forgotten)... Convention exclusives, short-run store exclusives, short-packed figures and the like probably don't put much stress on a mould compared to a "full" prouction run.

Do HasTak put more care into maintaing some moulds as well? You'd expect the (original) Prime cab to be pretty knackered by now, seeing as there've been so many reissues over just the last 10 years (What, four plus from Takara plus exclusives, 1 from Hasbro, the two Magnus reissues and the exclusives, Pepsi Prime, etc.). These things must be fairly hardy, or at least if they're treated/used well.

secretcode · Post by **secretcode** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:27 pm

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
Do HasTak put more care into maintaing some moulds as well? You'd expect the (original) Prime cab to be pretty knackered by now, seeing as there've been so many reissues over just the last 10 years (What, four plus from Takara plus exclusives, 1 from Hasbro, the two Magnus reissues and the exclusives, Pepsi Prime, etc.). These things must be fairly hardy, or at least if they're treated/used well. [/B]

Holy Crap... I'm Being Serious.

Question on subject of that though. Did Hasbro used the same mold for Prime's and Magnus cabs on the first run? Or are the molds all seperated, such as Prime and his stuff and then another mold for Magnus and his brick armor?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:31 pm

I'd guess not... Assuming the thing about sprues is correct (and it makes sense) Takara would have had, say, the three sprues from the Battle Convoy cab, so they wouldn't have gone to the expense to make any new casts for Powered Convoy's cab, just spent the money (which wouldn't have been a lot by that stage in Diaclone, I'm guessing) just to create, say, three new sprues for the trailer and other combined robot parts. I mean, seeing as it looks like the idiots physically altered Soundwave's master mould to create Soundblaster (insert usual potshot as to poor looks of reissue here), I can't see them making a fresh mould for an identical figure, unless they'd managed to give the original to Taiwanese bootleggers already.

Post by **Clay** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:01 pm

Yeah, there are/would be a set of sprues for the cab, and another set for trailer A, and another set for trailer B. That's why Takara/Hasbro can make Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, or Ipod Prime independantly from each other without having extra trailers for each cab.

It'll still be different from toy to toy, though. I know with Alternators/Binaltechs, the heads are obviously on their own sprues. For example, Swerve is identical to Tracks except for the head mold. We know that they're on their own sprues because of the amount of character shuffling that went on before each release (Decepticharge's head was originally supposed to go on the Mustang mold as Windcharger, not the Honda S2000).

But, the toy that was used for the customization class at Botcon last year (Cybertron Scrapmetal) had both its normal head and the super-rare Japan-only Convoy giftset version head on the same sprue (as testified by the people that took the class), so all the spare heads produced for each Scrapmetal were apparently just melted back down.

Now that I think about it, that probably explains why Trypticon and Fortress Maximus were re-released in the late 90's with some of the superfluous bits missing. The big sword and assorted other guns and whatnots were probably on their own sprues that couldn't be found, or didn't have any essential parts on them and weren't cast to save money.

Post by **zigzagger** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 11:38 pm

Originally posted by Maju Garzett
[sarcasm]Strika is a girl?[/sarcasm]

On that note, what about Override? He/she sorta counts as a girl, right?

Begging your pardon, but....your point being?

secretcode · Post by **secretcode** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:25 am

Originally posted by zigzagger
Begging your pardon, but....your point being?

Mainly the whole all-girls-being-archers-or-marksmen thing.

Transformer Kamen · Post by **Transformer Kamen** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:15 am

Originally posted by zigzagger
On that note, it's interesting that token female characters (generally) in the TF Universe are either excellent marksmen or archers, rather than warriors, etc.
(edit: aside from Strika)

That's why I have given several of my Transformers sex changes...at least in my head.

I like this mold, though not enough to pick it up again, especially since it kind of shows up again as Deluxe Movie Arcee. I will, however, definitely pick up Air Raid and Armorhide.