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Profits peaked with the first two films, yes, but what remains is still a substantial improvement over pre-film years, so "decline" isn't really the correct word for the situation. The films did exactly what Hasbro wanted them to do, which is to catapult the general income from the brand over what it was before the films. Every year can't have a multi-million dollar international ad campaign with marketing tie-ins, so peaks in the film years are to be expected. I don't think the sized-up Legions are any indicator of decline, either. I think they're an indicator that they got rid of a bunch of designers, those that are left are working primarily on Movie 4 toys for next year, but they have to fill the shelves with something until May. Kids don't really care that much about articulation and detail (which is why those awful Spider-Man figures you mention still sell), so closing out the kid-targeted Beast Hunters line with sized-up Legions is a cheap and probably effective way to keep product on the shelves without reinventing the wheel, so to speak. If it really were a sign of serious decline, I don't think we'd be getting IDW characters and a Voyager Rhinox of such quality. Transformers are more than fine. What I would really like to know is (and maybe it's common knowledge among collectors of such things, but I haven't really looked), why are the Marvel toys so awful? Why was there almost zero toy push accompanying The Avengers last year aside from roleplay items and repackaged Marvel Universe figures? Do kids not "collect them all" anymore so full lines are pointless these days? Are there no adult collectors of Marvel figures, so there's no reason to put out product on the level you see from Transformers or the higher quality Star Wars figures? Those movies make insane money and it seems like the toys are barely an afterthought. I always look at the Marvel figures in the TRU aisle with the TFs and think how lucky we are as a fandom that we get quality product on a regular basis.
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Jul 3, 2013 17:43
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 22:18 |
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I would watch Prime on Hub, but I only get the SD Hub, so it's postage-stamped and ugly as hell. My only options are YouTube or waiting for the Blu-Rays.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:05
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fygar posted:- A more political quasi-reboot that examines the reasons behind the construction of Autobot City from the '85 film (but that's just because I'm old) This brings up the excellent point that they have never actually explored the time period between G1 Season 2 and the animated movie. Seems like there's probably some fertile storytelling ground somewhere in the intervening 20 years.
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Jul 4, 2013 06:23
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Revolver Bunker posted:That was before I got back into Transformers and had income to spend. Is he even possible to find in box for a decent price nowadays? You should be able to find a boxed one for $70-90 depending on condition. If you don't mind Japanese soundbites, I would recommend the Japanese version with its cool sparkly red coloring.
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Jul 4, 2013 10:42
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I celebrated America's independence by finally putting the stickers on Fort Max.  Man, you really do get only one chance with those things. Luckily only one sticker really turned out noticeably crooked, and it's on the side of city mode where I can't see it anyway.
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Jul 5, 2013 00:18
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Good news, everyone! MP Sideswipe is getting a reissue later this year or possibly early next year, and BBTS has him up for preorder at $79.99. If he for some reason doesn't get a domestic US release, at least this is a fairly reasonable option, and a reason to point and laugh at the poor suckers who paid $160 for it a month ago.
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Jul 5, 2013 03:54
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GD_American posted:Until 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime came along, the best TF toy ever made And sort of the resounding "WE'RE BACK MOTHERFUCKERS" of vehicle-based TFs after many years of beastformers. One of the all-time greats.
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Jul 5, 2013 04:17
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Deceptive Thinker posted:You're going to have a fun time with the new Metroplex then. I spent about an hour yesterday putting them on one and even with needle nose pliers I misaligned at least 10 of them Wow, Metroplex has actual stickers? When Hasbro goes old school, they don't mess around.
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Jul 5, 2013 08:52
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I like rubber tires from an aesthetic point of view, but I'm also okay with having a figure whose tires aren't going to disintegrate 10 years from now.
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Jul 5, 2013 19:54
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catch22 posted:The rubber tires on my G1 Red Alert are fine. I think the rubber tire issue was specific to one series. My G1 Ratchet's tires are barely holding together, but he's also the color of a banana at this point, so maybe I got a bad one. Fire Convoy's tires are still good. I dunno, plastic tires just never bothered me.
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Jul 5, 2013 21:22
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catch22 posted:Plastic tires roll like poo poo and they just have a real "cheap" quality to them. I don't mind plastic over diecast though, since a good paint job can look very similar without all the added weight or paint chipping issues. I roll a Transformer maybe three or four times. I display it for years. I'll take the long-lasting option over the "rolls smoothly" option. I'm certainly not against rubber tires, but it would never occur to me to criticize a figure for not having them. quote:Do you live in a dry area? Perhaps that plays a role in them cracking? Ratchet has spent his entire existence in the very moist climate of San Francisco, so I don't think that's it. Many other G1 figures that date back to the same time period with rubber tires show no sign of decay. It's a roll of the dice, it seems, and I'd rather have a guarantee that the figure will be intact in the future. The aesthetic benefits of rubber tires don't outweigh the importance of longevity to me.
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Jul 5, 2013 22:08
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Why cookie Rocket posted:He's not the main problem, but it would be nice if he pushed back a little when he got the scripts. In DOTM when Optimus yells "Let's kill them all!" it's worth noting that Cullen was complicit in that. TV/movies are collaborative mediums, and there's plenty of blame to go around. No, the blame on that one goes to Michael Bay, period. A Michael Bay film is exactly that: A Michael Bay film. It's collaborative in that Bay can't make a movie by himself, but by many reports, that's about it. You do what Bay tells you, or he'll find another person who looks/sounds just like you. Cullen serves as Prime's voice in the movies basically as a concession to the fandom, but if he becomes a problem, I have no doubt Bay would simply replace him with any number of people who can do a decent Optimus. Cullen can't "push back" on that line, he's there to read the lines and that's it. According to Hugo Weaving, Bay doesn't even attend the voice sessions, so there wouldn't be anyone there to complain to about it who could actually do anything. I'd like to see Cullen try to drive Optimus in a more multifaceted direction in the cartoons, where his opinion probably does have some actual weight, but I guarantee that none of the voice actors in the Bay films have any say in the creative direction of their characters. In part because most of them don't have one, granted, but of those that do, I'm sure it's "read the script, monkey" and that's that.
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Jul 6, 2013 21:15
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Ka0 posted:TFcon is going to have Pathfinder as another attendee exclusive. Pity that mold in particular didn't turn out so well. They're calling the Con one "Roswell," though. I can't decide if that name is clever or dumb. If you don't know the reference it makes him sound kind of like a butler.
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Jul 7, 2013 20:58
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Gammatron 64 posted:How can someone possibly be a nerd who collects toy alien robots and not know about the supposed flying saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico? It's one of the biggest American myths and is everywhere in pop culture. If you just flip to the History Channel for a second, you'll probably find some nutso talking about it, if they're not talking about Hitler, the Bible Code or Ice Road Truckers. You'd be surprised. It's been a long time since The X-Files. Kids today, I tell you.
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Jul 7, 2013 21:52
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The MSJ posted:I voted for a construction vehicle. Not enough of official ones lately. The last one I could think of was Payload. I can't think of a Payload that turned into a construction vehicle. Edit: I had no idea they named the Long Haul RotF repaint Payload. All I could think of was the 2007 movie armored car. Keldroc fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jul 8, 2013 |
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Jul 8, 2013 00:13
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Why cookie Rocket posted:Just "doing whatever you're asked because you're there for the paycheck" being somehow defensible is a completely foreign concept to me. I can't imagine fracking or chopping down old-growth redwoods for a living and still being able to sleep at night. I've refused to do things I didn't approve of at the workplace (ESPECIALLY when I worked for an online travel agency), but I wont bore the whole thread with specific examples. If you think injustice at the workplace or deforestation of ancient trees is comparable to reading voiceover lines in a movie, I don't even know what to tell you. I've worked in film and TV long enough to be able to tell you definitively that any pushback from Cullen on the lines he says for Optimus would simply result in him not getting paid and us having to hear someone else voice the character in the movies. The lines are set, they're in the script, they've been decided on for months, and some voice actor Michael Bay may or may not have ever met is not going to be able to impact that in any way beyond minor phrasing changes, if that. Maybe you think Cullen should push back and lose the gig because...what? Some people think Optimus' character is repulsive or unlikable? What would be the point? It's hardly the only fatal flaw in the Bay films. Nothing is going to save these movies. Frankly I'd rather Peter Cullen get the recognition and pay that comes with his role in the films, so that they benefit at least one person who deserves it after all these years. Better that than to see him give it up for some drat fool idealistic crusade, which benefits no one except Cullen's replacement.
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Jul 8, 2013 21:26
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Gammatron 64 posted:For once I agree with Keldroc on something. What the gently caress have you done, Rocket?! When Unicron appears, differences must be set aside.
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Jul 9, 2013 01:13
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Why cookie Rocket posted:Oh good, Keldroc. Even when we disagree you take the time to engage. I really appreciate that. Of course actual evil isn't the same as how a TF movie turns out, but I really can't think of better universally understood examples of not just collecting a paycheck and not giving a poo poo how your work impacts others. I would argue that the only lasting impact of the Bay films has been to make Transformers a household name on an unprecedented scale. quote:Who would have a problem with him not doing the voice? It'd be like omitting the sprinkles from a vomit sundae. It's still terrible without him. Again, if we have to have terrible Transformers movies every few years, I'd rather the guy who originated the role be getting paid for it. quote:Sure, getting paid is the smarter move in the short term, but when you're intrinsically attached to a fairly beloved character, it seems a little silly to willingly go along with a production that's making bizarre and contradictory changes to that character. It would be about as dumb as an actor going along with James Bond getting married (yes I know this actually happened). There's nothing silly about doing your job. It's not an actor's job to write the script or rewrite the dialogue on a macro scale. If the creative people in charge want your input on that level, they'll ask you for it. If they don't, telling them how to do their jobs with no invitation to do so is an excellent way to make sure you're never asked to work for those people again. quote:I don't even know why this is an argument, honestly. I have trouble identifying with people who don't really care about the impact of projects they work on. Wishing that Cullen had an anecdote about trying to change some of Bayverse Prime's crazier lines may make me hopelessly naive and idealistic (though I respectfully disagree with even that), but not even remotely "Unicron"-level evil. Caring about the quality of the project is not the same as being dumb enough to sabotage your career. Peter Cullen is hired to say Optimus Prime's lines as written. That's it. He is a creative collaborator in the sense that he is expected and invited to take the material written for Prime and perform it as best he can to make the character feel believable. He is not a screenwriter, story consultant, or executive producer, and it is not his place to demand, request or even suggest sweeping changes to the film's characters or narrative. It's not his job, and it would not be an appropriate thing to do, anymore than it would be appropriate for him to come into the VO booth and complain about the art direction or the live action actors' wardrobes. So yes, what you are saying is hopelessly naive and ignorant of how the business works. Producers don't want talent waltzing in and thinking they know better than the writer. Their job is to play the character and read the lines. What you are suggesting is no less than Peter Cullen intentionally building a reputation with some of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry as a person who is difficult to work with and doesn't know his role in a production, all over the portrayal of a toy robot who turns into a truck. What you suggest is tantamount to career suicide, or at least self-sabotage.
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Jul 9, 2013 04:22
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Why cookie Rocket posted:I'd say it has slightly more to do with him than the costumes, though, because he's the one that has to deliver the dialogue. And to quite a few people (for better or for worse), he IS that character. Other than that I think we're on the same page, but we will just have to disagree about what it all means. From the point of view of the people footing the bill, it doesn't have more to do with him than the costumes. In an ideal world, Bay would be a more open collaborator when it comes to people involved in the brand for 30+ years, but that's not the reality. Cullen can't do anything about Optimus' characterization in the Bay films. Nobody can except Michael Bay himself and maybe the screenwriters, if they can convince Bay their ideas are worthwhile. It's not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing. It's simply how it is. Cullen not getting himself fired is not some kind of moral failing on his part.
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Jul 9, 2013 05:09
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Specifically, Soundwave is gone. There are still about 40 Acid Storms left.
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Jul 9, 2013 07:56
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Why cookie Rocket posted:And that's where we have to disagree, no matter how many times you repeat yourself. Helping to teach kids (and these are movies for kids) that a "let's kill them all!" attitude is something to be cheered is, in my opinion, morally disagreeable. I understand that from your point of view, morality takes a back seat to dolla dolla holla. We understand each other. Let's move on. No, you don't understand my point of view at all. Morality cannot take a back seat, because there is no morality involved in this situation. Children are not going to learn to be murderous from these movies, and no, they are not movies for kids. They are PG-13 films that involve references to drug use, half-naked women and long lingering rear end shots of same, and destruction and violence on a massive scale. They are very clearly targeted at the teenage and early twenties demographic, which is where the money is, hence the films' constant success at the box office. Are kids going to see them? Sure, because they're Transformers movies. Is Michael Bay making the movies for those kids to see? Absolutely not, although he throws in a robot fart now and then to make sure they stay entertained. The Bay films are big, loud, stupid, meaningless fun for the vast majority of people who see them. People like us who dissect Optimus' character as a psychotic killer are uncommon and weird. Kids don't pick up on that aspect of the character, they just know that Optimus cares about his friends and fights the bad guys with all his might. If you think it goes further than that, you're in "violent video games cause school shootings" and "comic books are turning children into deviants" territory. In other words, off in crazytown. Making terrible creative choices in film is not a moral issue. The people who work on these movies do not display moral failings due to their inability to convince Michael Bay to make movies that don't suck. If you believe otherwise, I can only suggest a massive reality check is in order.
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Jul 9, 2013 21:06
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All the TRUs around here had dozens of Thundercrackers, but aside from him I have only ever seen one Rodimus, and that's it for MPs. Never seen a Grimlock or an MP-10 Prime on a TRU shelf in the Los Angeles area.
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Jul 9, 2013 21:40
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And TRU just refunded my payment for Soundwave.
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Jul 9, 2013 22:02
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Goldskull posted:Looking through a few days ago, there was a Black Zarak MISB that was upto $4000 with 22 bids. People really have the money on this day and age to rock that kind of money on a G1 Scorponok recolour? That's due to two things. First, a large chunk of the fandom likes Black Zarak a whole lot more than Scorponok, for reasons I have yet to really understand. I just hope it doesn't make Takara decide to reissue Black Zarak as an Encore before/instead of Scorponok. Second, Black Zarak is arguably the most notorious sufferer of Gold Plastic Syndrome, and it's not uncommon to find that Black Zaraks' gold pieces have crumbled while still in a sealed box. Therefore a MISB Black Zarak is an interesting collector's item, because what's inside it could be broken and worthless, or it could be one of the most sought-after figures in the franchise's history due to how few intact ones survive. So you end up with people who keep that box sealed, because as long as it's sealed, it might not have succumbed to GPS. It's like Schroedinger's Transformer. It's both worthless and super valuable. Opening it forces it into one state or the other, so most people choose to keep the box sealed.
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Jul 10, 2013 05:31
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I'm hoping for an Encore Scorponok. Thanks to Encore Fort Max, Scorponok is now one of only three Headmasters I'm missing.
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Jul 10, 2013 08:58
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Silhouette posted:I hope that CHUG Metroplex sells well so that CHUG Scorponok becomes a possibility. I'd be into that, but preferably after CHUG Trypticon.
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Jul 10, 2013 20:19
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GD_American posted:If they did a Trypticon, I'd hope it was a pretty radical redesign. As an original 1986 owner, I can testify that it's a pretty poo poo toy. As another original 1986 owner, you can shut the hell up.  But yes, a 2-foot CHUG version would need to be pretty heavily reworked. Maybe even as an anatomically correct T-Rex with horizontal tail? With defense towers as multicolored feathers? As long as the color scheme is the same I'd love to see them just go nuts with it.
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Jul 10, 2013 22:30
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Yeah, Nemesis would be the obvious alt-mode. Especially since Metroplex's city/battle station modes turned out mediocre at best. Nemesis as the main alt-mode plus a half-assed "battle station" and a kickass T-Rex mode? I'm in.
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Jul 10, 2013 22:41
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I'm sure most if not all the people in this thread know this already, but just in case: If you like giant robots even a little bit, you need to go see Pacific Rim right goddamn now.
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Jul 12, 2013 09:56
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Why the sudden Huffer rush?
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Jul 14, 2013 07:21
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Unknownone posted:So looks like a Transformers Arcade Light Gun game: Not in the sense we probably think of them, but the "Family Fun Center" model still exists in the form of Chuck E. Cheese and similar places, and it has been adapted into more "adult" forms like Dave & Buster's. All the games at such establishments are specifically designed to be difficult to replicate on the home systems, as one of the things that helped kill arcades was the fact that the home experience began to surpass the arcade; some believe that the high quality home versions of Street Fighter II were the real death knell, in fact. So you get things like the motion-sensing 9-1-1 Police Trainer shooter, all those racing games with moving cockpits, Dance Dance Revolution, etc. Anything that requires extra expense to play at home, essentially, and light gun games fall into that category. You still see new House of the Dead and Time Crisis games pop up now and then, and it wouldn't surprise me if House of the Dead folks were involved with this Transformers game, considering Sega is publishing. It's also possible that this was partially commissioned as something to put in Universal theme parks to accompany the TF ride, in which case any profit generated by regular arcades is simply gravy.
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Jul 15, 2013 20:40
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Gammatron 64 posted:
The 3DO version of Super Turbo was pretty much arcade perfect aside from load time. Of course, most people don't know about it because it was on the 3DO.
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Jul 16, 2013 03:14
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The Cyberverse Commander Shockwave is even worse, if you can believe it. They might as well not have even bothered with giving it an alt mode for all the good it does.
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Jul 16, 2013 06:31
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catch22 posted:Any word on whether or not Soundwave will be hitting TRU.com at midnight EST, or on the 18th at all? Nobody knows, and TRU ain't telling. Best guesses are midnight EST, midnight PST, 9AM EST or 9AM PST. As for finding it in a store, seems unlikely: quote:I hit a store in my area to ask if they had them ready to go. I was told they have no sign of the figure coming in yet and he wouldn't be surprised if it were a matter of weeks. He said TRU is slow with these kinds of figures and they only get item on a street date when its a movie or video game.
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Jul 18, 2013 04:54
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BXCX posted:Yeah, I'm not having any luck getting it to come up now, have to decide if it's worth staying up until 3AM EST or just bank on them going up at 9. It would greatly surprise me if an East Coast based company would wait until 3AM their time to launch something that will almost certainly crash their site. I would expect it at 9AM EST or 9AM PST, depending on whether they want to synch it with SDCC or not.
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Jul 18, 2013 05:07
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According to this article, TRU responded to people complaining about the cancellations of their orders with a specific date and time.quote:This product is not available for pre-orders at this time and will be available on July 18, 2013 at 9AM Eastern Time.
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Jul 18, 2013 05:15
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The Rage posted:Good point. Also if anybody wants to search by item and product numbers for Soundwave instead of just name, here you go: And the "R Web" number: 204083
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Jul 18, 2013 07:05
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And they're gone.
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Jul 18, 2013 11:12
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TRU is saying that today was a limited release to coincide with SDCC, and that larger shipments will be available in mid-to-late August. People on TFW who talked to the distributors up in Washington report that there were 1000 Soundwaves for today's sale, and 995 of them were marked for online order. They sold out in about 13 minutes. Hopefully TRU is taking that into account when placing their larger shipment orders.
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Jul 18, 2013 17:25
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 22:18 |
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Also everyone should probably be prepared for the August shipments to have a higher price, a la MP-10.
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Jul 18, 2013 17:28
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