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Hasbro's TRANSFORMERS Q&A: The Answers!
Posted by Curto on October 13, 2008 at 12:30 PM CST:
We've passed on 5 of your burning Transformers questions! So check out the latest scoop we've got for you this bi-monthly Q&A session with Hasbro.
Cool Toy Review: Aside from them being solid and enjoyable figures, many fans were surprised to see the core Autobot and Decepticon teams of the Animated figures had a fair amount of accurate scaling between themselves and other characters. The only exception to this though is Lugnut! In the series he towers over Megatron but in the figures Bumblebee looks like he's ready to take his lunch money. He may not be the most liked character in the series, but surely he's "toyetic" enough to warrant a Supreme class figure. Between "The Punch", his missile salvo attack, a head design that easily lends itself to basic animatronics and a neat vehicle mode, he pratically sells himself. Short version of the question: Will you please make an Animated Lugnut that's (a lot) bigger than his Voyager figure?
Hasbro: Glad to hear you like ole' Luggie! We actually put more evaluation into who goes into the Leader Class other than scale in the show. And unfortunately for Lugnut, there were other characters that we felt had more face-time in the show or would have a broader appeal (ie: kid appeal). So we felt that the Voyager scale would be the best fit for Lugnut.
Cool Toy Review: I was late joining the bandwagon on collecting the Alternators and or Binaltech from Takara. As a result I have slowly been amassing a collection but since the movie came out, the secondary market has caused the prices on these to skyrocket and thus making it economically unfeasible to continue collecting these. Is there any chance Hasbro may re-release Alternators again in some repackaged format down the road? I think given the demand we see in the secondary market that many collectors still need these, especially those who started to collect since the movie. I would especially love to see Wheeljack or Mirage done with more classic paint schemes.
Hasbro: The Alternators line has been a fan favorite since it's launch, but unfortunately there wasn't enough mainstream interest to keep it viable. As of right now, there are no plans to re-launch the Alternators line as we have turned our attention to supporting the Universe line from a collector standpoint. However, as I like to say, "never say never".
Cool Toy Review: Being a Star Wars collector for many years I have come to a love/hate relationship in regards to repaints and remolds, most notoriously with clone troopers. It seems like with the new Universe/Classics line we are seeing almost equal parts repaint/remolds vs. new molds whereas with the first Classics line we were spoiled with all new molds. Is there any type of quota, official or un-, Hasbro trys to meet with regards to repaints/remolds vs. new molds released?
Hasbro: There is not any magic number that we try to use. When we launched Classics, the concept was brand new so we had to use all new molds. As lines get successful, many times we need to utilze more repaints than originally planned to help keep up with the demand. So that's what you have been seeing in Universe this fall - in Deluxe and Ultra classes we were able to bring in a lot of new molds. And the Universe concept was so well received that we added the Voyager scale later but needed to use re-paints to hit the same timing. You will eventually see new molds in Voyager scale in Universe.
Cool Toy Review: Whatever the reason to justify their existence, the Big Millennium Falcon and AT-TE playset/vehicles have changed things. With 2009 being another Transformers movie year and Season 3 of Animated green-lighted, can fans dare to dream of seeing an Animated Omega Supreme in the same beastly scale as the Falcon?
Hasbro: No matter what the scale is, I think most of us would like to see a large-scale Animated Omega Supreme. However, with the movie coming next summer our higher priced items will be in support of the movie. Also in order to do a toy at that size, we would need to get more exposure to the character in the TV series to ensure that the kids know the character too. So I wouldn't expect to see it in the next year, but we would like to do it at some point.
Cool Toy Review: Any chances of seeing newer moulds of Beast Wars characters? Alot of characters that were made originally were never done justice. If not at least a reissue here and there in the modern Universe packaging?
Hasbro: You're in luck! We have a couple of Beast Wars characters slotted for the 25th Anniversary Universe Deluxe assortment with all-new molds! The first character will be Cheetor. There will be one other new mold, but as of the time I am typing this I'm not sure if it's been announced... so what the heck - it's Dinobot!
Got any burning Transformers questions you need answered straight from the source? If so, send us an email or post your questions in this thread in our forums, and with any luck, you'll get your answers next time! |
  
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