DOTM was a clusterf*ck, toywise, for many reasons. It was the one good slap hasbro deserved, sales wise.
DOTM was the second or even third time we saw many of these characters. They had the same vehicles and the ones that had any changes [Ratchet, Sideswipe and Bumblebee] seemed very minor.
So what does hasbro do? Release the first wave full of repeat bots. And then include Bumblebee remoulds/repaints in every wave until the end.
What do retailers do? Massively overstock on wave 1 and 2--ironically, the "repeat" waves. Toys are smaller, perhaps even inferior to the ROTF ones, kids/parents/collectors aren't that much into triple dipping into something inferior.
Hasbro goes on an makes a new voyager and leader class for a bot that had one memorable scene in the movie and dies halfway through it.
At least in AoE they've completely revamped the vehicle modes of the repeat bots, added new cars to the cast and even added a more unified look to their robots [they look to take upon Knights]. Fingers crossed the toys will be worth it.
Mmm, I think for DOTM Hasbro drastically over-estimated how much kids would want to upgrade figures... Prime and Bumblebee are understandable, they're the stars and despite the saturation Bumblebee seems to have gone more quickly than anyone else from DOTM. Ratchet, Ironhide and Sideswipe? They're the guys that are there for us, basically - not reeeeally doing a lot in terms of plot or close-up time, getting the odd cool bit, but that's about it. Ratchet especially has had a terrifying amount of toys.
Hasbro seemed to assume sales would pan out basically the same as ROTF and intentionally padded out the first couple of waves (Skids, Mudflap, made-up Ratchet deco) so they could spread out the screen characters...
Hmm. The flip side is that a legitimate amount of time can pass and double-dipping being viable. Blackjack made a point another thread that I hadn't ever considered... after a few years have passed, all the stock is bought and people that have wandered in after that have missed the train, so to speak. The problem with the previous movie lines is that two years in between seems to be on the 'too frequent to collect everything again' side of the line. The other component of the problem is that they're churning out new figures for characters that basically the same from film to film. A proper comparison would be the creation of a new batch of two or three Animated Bumblebee deluxe figures every 16 months. The well dries up fast at that rate.
Two years is certainly too soon -- with Beast Wars they had to wait ten years for a slightly-more-accurate reissue, and with Generation One around twenty plus years until Classics shows up?
Problem with DOTM is that in addition to oversaturating the market with repeat characters that appear in the movie (Ratchet, Ironhide, Starscream, Sideswipe -- new alternate modes notwithstanding, technically Barricade), they also saturate the market with repeat characters that don't appear in the show (Skids, Mudflap, Arcee, poor Jolt) and repaints of characters already in the toyline (at least Bumblebee, Starscream, Ratchet and Optimus had repaints that plugged the shelves).
The first two Deluxe waves had the following figures: Bumblebee, Crankcase, Ratchet, Roadbuster, Skids, Starscream, Barricade, Jolt, Sideswipe, Topspin. Out of ten, only three are new characters, and really, who wants Crankcase?
If Hasbro had any sense they would've placed, say, Soundwave or Laserbeak or Dino or Que or Leadfoot in the earlier waves and kick away the likes of Skids and Jolt. Painting Jolt white is also a bit of a headscratcher... surely the only people who want Jolt is people who care what Jolt looks like, and wasting resources to make a new mould for Jolt and painting him white is counter-productive?
And while we might be excited for leader class versions of Ironhide (or Jolt), kids would prioritize getting leader class versions of Sentinel Prime, or Shockwave, or even the new Megatron more than getting Ironhide... which is more or less similar, design-wise, to the three or four Voyager class Ironhides from movie lines past.
I mean, I certainly appreciate the amount of added detail and playability and design-awesomeness that a Leader Class Ironhide adds to the table, and I certainly appreciate having a Deluxe Class Starscream or something, but a lot of kids won't see that -- they just go 'oh, I already own this character' and move on. In a different manner I also do that as a character, where I readily dismiss Masterpiece versions of Bumblebee and Wheeljack even before seeing their pictures since in my mind I already own a lot of them. Yeah, better designed, more expensive, more collectible... but my generation one and Prime and Generations and Animated toys say otherwise. I'd rather buy a new character with my money.
Not to mention the whole downsizing aspect of the Deluxe class while still charging the same amount of money probably puts a sour taste in many collectors' mouths, not to mention shoving ugly-looking Mech Tech weapons everywhere. Some of the toys are also fairly disappointing -- Que and Crankcase were messy, Roadbuster was sticky and underdetailed, Shockwave had ugly shoulders, Megatron is sadly unpainted... and unlike ROTF, where the big toy you beg your parents to buy is the mighty Devastator, in DOTM the big toy you beg your parents to buy is... an out-of-scale Optimus Prime with butterfly wings. Which is available in the toyline from all sizes Cyberverse to Deluxe to Voyager to Leader.
It looks like the general opinion is DOTM was a botched toyline.
I have nice collection of movie toys and I have but a small selection of DOTM toys.
I did like the ones I bought but most of them were nice toys in new sizes of toys I already had.
Seems like Hasbro figures out how to sell the toys several years in advance but in the meantime the movie characters and plot change. I'm pretty sure initial planning for DOTM had the twins and Jolt in it. In the time it took to develop those figures the movie changed.
They might have guessed that movie 'Bee already had enough toys though - he was into double digits by the end of the ROTF toyline!
Interesting as well that the Voyager Prime for DOTM was a massive step back from the impressive HFTD Voayger toy - looking more like the '07 Voyager.
I can see Hasbro responding to consumer feedback that a lot of the movie toys were too complex for children (even now, there's an amusing amount of ebay auctions for ROTF Leader Class Prime in a right old state as wider consumers really seemed to have struggled with the thing) in the DOTM line's relative simplicity, but did they really think they could convince folk to shell out on more of the same?
DOTM went the way of just about every other Movie tie-in toyline (and so did ROTF really - a fair bit of that was remaindered) - initial interest followed by huge drop off and then clearanced to the hilt (see also : Pirates Of The Carribean, Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 2 & 3, The Avengers, The Hobbit - this one really impressive in the UK as the toys have totally bi-passed normal toy retailers and ended up straight in remainder stores clearly having shipped far too late for anyone to care).
ROTF was the most profitable/best selling/best of best line in the franchise.
And looking back and comparing it with everything that came after, I can certainly see why.
4 Unique leader moulds. 1 of them highly playable [Megatron], two of them extremely intricate and detailed [Starscream and Prime], one...so so [Jetfire]. Almost all of them with a more detailed repaint.
The voyager moulds/remoulds were very nicely done.
The deluxes were...wow. Either Sideswipe mould, with full on SILVER paint? Gloss, silver paint?
A HA line that rocked, mould and paint wise.
And everything was shipped okay except for the fact that HA Bumblebee shipped with EVERYTHING.
None of the above were true for DOTM. They got a fantastic LDR Sentinel, a fun voyager Shockwave and...not much else.
The more traditional and intricate figures will still be made, but those'll be lumped in under the Generations line, as per a Hasbro person at Botcon last year (I think). Have to say, it's an understandable recoil from the likes of the ROTF Optimus Prime. While I admire it greatly, I doubt any seven-year-olds got to enjoy it as a truck.
It's just the one that was already previewed elsewhere though, so nothing really new, other than the fact it looks like it will be released early-ish too.
New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.
Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).
I think we've seen 2 or 3 different Prime moulds, we just don't realize it yet.
That being said, this FE one looks like a complete shellformer. Literally the only thing on him that looks like it transforms are the shins, which look like they open up and the truck grill flips out. Everything else seems to just unfold from the backpack and envelope the figure.
I'm pretty sure we've just seen the one Prime mould, Leader Class sized (sadly), in various mistransformed robot mode displays, and with slightly varying paint and chrome decos. I think this is it, in packaging, all official, and the final deco has less chrome apparently (why leave the smokestacks unchromed but chrome half the robot? looks really shabby). And, I also think, sadly, this is him pretty much correctly transformed - sure the truck parts aren't just hanging off his back like most of the times we've seen him, but that backpack is huge and he clearly is a shellformer. I'm very disappointed, but my wife will be happy.
New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.
Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).
Knightdramon wrote:Aaaand we've seen 2 Prime moulds now. One is the FE, the other is unknown if it's a voyager or leader.
The First Edition is a Leader class the smaller one is for kids and it's a "ShellFormer" called Smash and Change.
First edition
Smash and Change
The First Edition apparently is like the Protoform figures from the first movie and will be a limited run, after that the Chrome will be back to Grey plastic for the same price so IF you want the Age of Extinction Leader Optimus... might as well get chrome.
Knightdramon wrote:No, no, seriously, 2 big moulds.
The accessories are slightly different.
The first one shown is the First Edition Minus the chrome and that will be the standard Leader class.
I don't see a difference between the two just different poses. Could you point me to the other one you're talking about because I haven't seen it and I'm not sure if I should pop on the First Edition or not.
EDIT: Found it. I'm 100% positive that it's the same figure, just that the First Edition get's special accessories. So the Yellow glowing Shield is FE exclusive along with chrome. I'd bet myG1 Prime on it!
EDIT 2: Yeah It's the same figure but with special accessories. Pretty sure on this. Alt mode has same details and figure is identical except the accessories. First Edition is a preview figure to be released with generations and to hype Age of Extinction. It is a premium figure with custom accessories and chrome paint with collector's packaging. The normal Leader class is the one without the chrome and the smaller red shield and it will come out in May.
I stand corrected! We have a voyager folks! Unless the figure went a few changes in the past few months. The First Edition is 10 inches and falls right in line with Leader class. This other one with the smaller Yellow shield is actually a Voyager... and I looks better than the Leader or First Edition imo. especially the Alt mode which has clear windows... why are the FE windows solid blue?
...to make up for the money spent vacuum metalizing his chest...?
Not a figure that's got me terribly excited, TBH. But then you've got a long way to go to beat the HFTD Voyager Prime in my book. And this falls far, far short of that figure.
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