Are there too many Exclusives in the Siege Toyline?

[BigTransformerTrev]

Are there too many ‘Exclusives' in the Siege Line?

This year we have seen an unprecedented amount of ‘Exclusives’ released in the Siege toyline. The numbers speak for themselves as in the line we have:
48 General Releases
19 Exclusives
(bear in mind this does not count Unicron as we are unsure whether he will be made yet)

This means that Exclusives make up nearly 40% of the Siege line. But even that does not convey the whole story. Most of these Exclusives are made up of 2 to 10 figures. In fact the amount of Exclusives comes up to an even 40 individual figures. Some of these like Covert Clone Sideswipe and Holo Mirage are simply recolours of toys from the general release line. But many of the figures are of G1 characters there have never been a Classicsverse figure of before. This makes it a real headache for completionists.

Very few of these Exclusives have been made available on our shores. Some such as Slamdance have been made available through the Australian Amazon site, but the majority have not. This has necessitated Aussie fans either joining up to US Amazon Prime or to try and source it somehow from the US stores such as Walgreens.


So consider the following questions:
1: Do you think the Siege line has too many exclusies?
2: What Exclusives have you bought/are intending to buy?
3: Has the Exclusiveness, and associated cost, of these figures impacted your buying of them?
4: What figures from the Siege line would you have bought if they had been given a general release, but now will not be doing so?


My personal answers:
1: Yes, way too many. A few would have been ok, but not when it equals 40 individual toys!
2: I got Greenlight & Dazzlestrike and have the Autobot Counterstrike force (G2 Sideswipe, Raindance, Grandslam & Trenchfoot) shipping to me as I speak. I've also preordered Lancer and the Refracktor Pack (Spectro, Viewfinder, Spyglas & Kremzeek) with BBTS but depending on funds may have to cancel the Refacktor pack.
3: Definitely - I would be buying a lot more from this line if they were more widely available.
4: To be honest most of them, definitely all the ones I don't have a Classicsverse toy of already such as the Micromaster 10-pack and the Seekers 3-Pack. I would have skipped the likes of the Decepticon Impactor and Holo Mirage anyway though. As it is, because of the hassle and cost, I'll be skipping most Exclusives - a first world problem I know - but its annoying since I'd like to get a Classicsverse version of every G1 character possible. The fact that the general line contains big expensive characters like Omega Supreme and Jetfire is another contributing factor for me and the spare funds I have available.

[Defcon]

I voted 1 to 5, but to be honest with the number of exclusives, its enough to turn me off buying all together. I haven?t bought any exclusives yet, if I do i?ll be very selective. The hassle and extra expense really don?t help when I contemplate buyers remorse when I could prioritise other things instead.

[griffin]

The timing of a lot of them wasn't good, as we just had about AU$300 of SDCC exclusives last month at the same time as quite a few of the exclusives were either hitting stores, or showing up as pre-orders for people to jump on in fear of missing out. At least we dodged a bullet with Unicron, as the American fans were also faced with about AU$850 of expense this month as well... all in a 4-6 week period.
At least for us, we have a lot of time to pay for Unicron, and the cost of most of the exclusives that we want (including SDCC) will be spread out over several weeks as we track them down online or on ebay, as most of the original pre-orders would have been difficult for us to jump on (like Hasbro Pulse or US Target).

And since the majority of exclusives at EB/Zing are Japanese Transformers, it kinda sucks having our one major source of exclusives, to not actually focus on getting too many Hasbro Transformers exclusives. (I was really expecting Amazon Australia to pick up the slack of us losing TRU, as they took on a couple items last year, but now seem to have pulled back.... particularly after we could order from Amazon America again, so maybe the local branch didn't see a point of competing with itself.)

[DELTAprime]

I need basically all the exclusives for my collection, but I'd prefer them to be general retail though. It really is a case of too many exclusives, not just for Siege but in general with the LG-EX and Gen Select lines also.

I still need to track down a Ratchet and place a preorder for Star Convoy and the Seacons.

[BigTransformerTrev]

The timing of a lot of them wasn't good, as we just had about AU$300 of SDCC exclusives last month at the same time as quite a few of the exclusives were either hitting stores, or showing up as pre-orders for people to jump on in fear of missing out. At least we dodged a bullet with Unicron, as the American fans were also faced with about AU$850 of expense this month as well... all in a 4-6 week period.
At least for us, we have a lot of time to pay for Unicron, and the cost of most of the exclusives that we want (including SDCC) will be spread out over several weeks as we track them down online or on ebay, as most of the original pre-orders would have been difficult for us to jump on (like Hasbro Pulse or US Target).

And since the majority of exclusives at EB/Zing are Japanese Transformers, it kinda sucks having our one major source of exclusives, to not actually focus on getting too many Hasbro Transformers exclusives. (I was really expecting Amazon Australia to pick up the slack of us losing TRU, as they took on a couple items last year, but now seem to have pulled back.... particularly after we could order from Amazon America again, so maybe the local branch didn't see a point of competing with itself.)

For the purposes of the thread I discussed specifically the Siege line and the large amount of it that is 'Exclusives' but of course all this can come into play too. Ecto-1 along with SDCC Ghostbusters Prime, the various MP's on the way such as Hound, Lio Convoy and Blackarachnia, the Exclusive Seacons, The Botbots, Cyberverse - there are so many conflicting calls on ones TF budget. Gone are the days where it was just one or two TF toylines each year on offer (and indeed were stocked on the actual physical shelves of stores) and one could more easily afford what they wanted.

[Sinnertwin]

No

[Dimi194]

I'm defintely not a fan of the exclusives-esp the ones that aren't straight up repaints but are actually totally separate characters.
The biggest annoyance for me is that the combiner that was available at mass retail in POTP (Orthia) is being finished as an exclusive >:(
And making characters who are so mainline (Ratchet) exclusives also confuses me :(

[Raider]

1: Yes.... very very much a yes on this one.
2: Most and intend to buy all. Stupid need to complete everything...
3: It is just frustrating the time, effort and cost to acquire them. It is getting a little ridiculous.
4: N/A as I will be buying all (assuming I can source them all).

[SharkyMcShark]

I have no intent to buy them.

It really only bothers me if it's a brand new mold (like Counterpunch last year) or or a significant retool (like Grotusque).

[griffin]

For the purposes of the thread I discussed specifically the Siege line and the large amount of it that is 'Exclusives' but of course all this can come into play too. Ecto-1 along with SDCC Ghostbusters Prime, the various MP's on the way such as Hound, Lio Convoy and Blackarachnia, the Exclusive Seacons, The Botbots, Cyberverse - there are so many conflicting calls on ones TF budget. Gone are the days where it was just one or two TF toylines each year on offer (and indeed were stocked on the actual physical shelves of stores) and one could more easily afford what they wanted.

I got a bit sidetracked on all cost side of things to miss talking about the point you were making in that Siege seems to have an unusually large percentage of exclusives that aren't part of the regular release line.... and how important they are to collectors of the line because of how important they are as characters and not just obscure random redecos that most wouldn't care about.
I wonder if they just had too many ideas for the line to fit in the retail line and retailers only wanted a certain amount this year for Generations.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I got a bit sidetracked on all cost side of things to miss talking about the point you were making in that Siege seems to have an unusually large percentage of exclusives that aren't part of the regular release line.... and how important they are to collectors of the line because of how important they are as characters and not just obscure random redecos that most wouldn't care about.

All good mate, the amount of other figures out there and the associated cost is a very valid point. As is what you were saying about how Siege figures are not the only exclusives out this year (Seacons, the Dai Atlas set, Unicron etc) - there is just so much on offer at the moment both online and (sparesely sometimes it seems) on store shelves. I guess that makes us spoilt for choice, which can be a double-edged sword.



I wonder if they just had too many ideas for the line to fit in the retail line and retailers only wanted a certain amount this year for Generations.

Possible. On the one hand they could have saved a bunch of these for next line years, but then on the other you no doubt would have had many fans complaining that that line was simply full of recolours of the previous years line. Transformers fans - we are a hard bunch to please eh :o

I think right now I am spitting most that I will probably not have the funds to get Redwing and the Seekers 3-pack. Except for Acid Storm they are all Seekers I don't have any toy of at all :( If they had been on shelves here I would have bought them in a heartbeat!

[1AZRAEL1]

Would love to buy some of them, but without releases here and higher online prices, I feel I'll miss most of them. I feel Hasbros tendency to make so many exclusives we have no local access to is disappointing.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I'm not interested in most of the exclusives myself (just want the Rainmakers if we ever get them for a reasonable price), but there do seem to be a lot of them for sure.

[Bidoofdude]

Some exclusives I can get around like the Rainmakers, G2 Sideswipe or even a character like Lancer.

Guys like Ratchet and Bluestreak should be regular retail toys, whom I’d happily swap out for Barricade or another redeco. They’re important characters, and having them all in different retailers, particularly as an overseas buyer is frustrating.

[Jellico]

I had some aims this year based on previews.

Finish Orthia
Get CHUG Ratchet/Ironhide
Get CHUG 1984 Seekers
Get at least the 1984 Fairladies

The see a pattern? Anyway by putting all of the above so close together Orthia blew my online budget so by the time I can go again, good luck finding Ratchet, Skywarp, and Bluestreak.

I think the exclusives work as a reasonably mainstream way of getting 3rd line characters out there. I think that there needs to be some fine tuning of which are 3rd and 2nd line. Eg good Ratchets are rare so would be snapped up while Seekers are a license to print money at Voyager scale. Bluestreak is borderline.

Coming at it from the other direction, who gets dropped from mainstream release? Did Hound need a second release? Poor old Chromia is shelf warming, but the line needs at lease one girl.

[Paulbot]

Interesting observation here (https://twitter.com/jessewittenrich/status/1164151925975199747?s=21) that might be relevant to this topic?

[DELTAprime]

Interesting observation here (https://twitter.com/jessewittenrich/status/1164151925975199747?s=21) that might be relevant to this topic?

Interesting... I wonder which ones they were going to be making Hascon exclusives?

[Tha_Phantom]

1: Do you think the Siege line has too many exclusies?
2: What Exclusives have you bought/are intending to buy?
3: Has the Exclusiveness, and associated cost, of these figures impacted your buying of them?
4: What figures from the Siege line would you have bought if they had been given a general release, but now will not be doing so?[/SIZE]

1. Yes, as in too many figures are being made as exclusives rather than regular releases. I'm not upset with the range of characters we've been getting lately.
2. Pulse G2 Megatron, Ratchet, Bluestreak, Rainmakers, Refraktor 3 pack, clear Mirage (splitting the set with a friend), G2 Sideswipe (splitting the set with a friend), Ironworks (splitting the set with a friend) and although they are not Siege I did also buy red Swoop and Richochet this year.
3. Yes, I would have purchased Thundercracker and Skywarp in addition to the Starscream I already have, but decided to skip them in favour of the Rainmakers to satisfy my Tetrajet itch. I also considered the Galactic Man Shockwave for a while, but with everything else coming out he's just not that important to me.
4. Skywarp (and also Thundercracker even though he is already a retail release).

[Miss Kitty Fantastico]

1: Do you think the Siege line has too many exclusives?
I mean if having exclusives is part of what keeps the lights on at Hasbro, I don't know - to my mind ideally everything would be available to everyone, but I guess that's not how the business works. I feel like major characters like Ratchet and Skywarp being hard to find is a bad move, but then again I'm sure everyone's a major character to someone.


2: What Exclusives have you bought/are intending to buy?
I'd like to get Greenlight, Ratchet, Atalancer, Bluestreak, Skywarp, Smokescreen I think? I cant keep track of them all - but that depends on whether I can find them somewhere I'm ready to shop from. See below:


3: Has the Exclusiveness, and associated cost, of these figures impacted your buying of them?
Cost not so much (so long as it's not ridiculous), but their not being in local stores, yeah that could be a problem. I'm kind of knee-jerk averse to online shopping, I like keeping things on the simple level of walking into a shop and saying "Here is money, give me toy," and either everyone's happy or I've accidentally walked into a hat shop and we're all confused. I buy from BBTS occasionally (my She-Ra source), so I've picked up a few bots from them, and if they get any of the exclusives they can have my money. If that rumour about EB getting Ratchet in turns out to be good, also yay. Otherwise I'll probably just let them pass.


4: What figures from the Siege line would you have bought if they had been given a general release, but now will not be doing so?
Well obviously any of the exclusives I can't buy as above I won't, but besides that... not sure. I recently decided not to get Omega Supreme, and maybe seeing all these exclusives appearing and raising the strong possibility of not being able to get the 'complete set' I'm after (mostly the 84/85 ones) might have played a part in that decision; Omega isn't really a favourite of mine, plus he's not cheap, and I don't know that I've got somewhere suitable to display him alongside the others anyway (I mean he'd just tower over most of them, it wouldn't be a balanced display) but I am the kind of person who'll complete a set just to complete a set, so I was tossing up getting him. Seeing these exclusives popping up and facing the possibility that I wouldn't be able to have the complete set anyway, well, that may have been a factor.

Also, kind of out of left field, that Powerdasher, Aragon - I never had the original, he wasn't in the cartoon, but I remember seeing him in the catalogues or whatever, and he was such a bizarre little twerp that I have a kind of affection for him, so even if he is just a repaint of something else I could've seen myself getting him and kind of hiding him at the back of the shelf as an in-joke (same with the other two Powerdashers, whatever their names are, Techolas and Dimli or whatever who knows). If I saw them on a shelf I'd probably get them (I've bought plenty more ridiculous stuff) but if they're only available out of the back room of a karaoke bar in Minsk I won't lose any sleep over missing them.

[GoktimusPrime]

It's pretty obvious why there are so many exclusives in CHUG now. As of this year CHUG has been in production for 13 years. CHUG has existed for about half a decade longer than G1 itself! :eek: It's little wonder that a lot of these toys being released are limited exclusives because most of the better known and more popular characters have already been done as CHUGs (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/21027-Classicsverse-Catalogues). Most of what's left are lesser known characters who may not sell as strongly as mass retail releases.

https://i.ibb.co/DCXwM0h/G1-CHUG-timeline.jpg

Now I know that as fans most if not all of the characters being released in Siege are already known to us. But that's because we're fanatical about Transformers (the very meaning of the word "fan" itself as a shortening of "fanatic"). But look at it from a non-fan's POV, because that's part of the market appeal of store-released repaints. Repaints themselves can be a hard sell to the general market but repaints that make obscure references? Let's look at what we're getting from Selects so far...
* Combat Megatron: a repaint of the store-released Siege Megatron based on an aborted prototype of 1994's G2 Combat Megatron
* Galactic Man Shockwave: a repaint of the store-released Siege Shockwave based on the pre-Transformer version of Shockwave released via Radio Shack in the 80s
* Autobot Lancer: redeco/retool of the store-released Moonracer mould based on what was a generic background character who appeared in only 1 episode of the G1 cartoon
* Redwing: based on a BotCon exclusive toy that was conceived by mistake and never even made. I've got to be honest, I didn't even know who he was and had to look it up. :p
* Nightbird: an obscure and formerly Obscure character from the G1 cartoon
* Cromar and Zetar: if they were any more obscure than this then we'd be looking at a CHUG Time Warrior (yes please!)

With the sole exception of Smokescreen, we can see that all of these Selects toys are repaints based on obscure (and formerly Obscure) characters. They're not widely known and they're all repaints. Not that long ago all of these toys would've only been possible as BotCon exclusives. Today they're made available as mail-away figures which makes them far more accessible than convention exclusive toys. :)
I'm personally quite happy that we're getting these toys, and the idea of plain-packaged mail-away exclusives is reminiscent of the G1 mail-aways. How fitting is it that Powerdasher is being released as a mail-away exclusive toy? ;) If only they required us to clip and send in Robot Points from the store released toys! :p

[Bidoofdude]

With the sole exception of Smokescreen, we can see that all of these Selects toys are repaints based on obscure (and formerly Obscure) characters. They're not widely known and they're all repaints. Not that long ago all of these toys would've only been possible as BotCon exclusives. Today they're made available as mail-away figures which makes them far more accessible than convention exclusive toys. :)
I'm personally quite happy that we're getting these toys, and the idea of plain-packaged mail-away exclusives is reminiscent of the G1 mail-aways. How fitting is it that Powerdasher is being released as a mail-away exclusive toy? ;) If only they required us to clip and send in Robot Points from the store released toys! :p

I think a big part of this exclusive fatigue has to do with all the different lines and retailers at once. Especially as an international buyer where stuff is not confirmed to be coming from somewhere easy to access, there’s just so much effort required as fans. As someone purely into G1 cartoon characters, obscure repaints aside, I still have to go to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens/whatever Asian store stocks Ratchet, and Hasbro Pulse PLUS regular retail to get all the guys I want, and half of those aren’t even here.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think a big part of this exclusive fatigue has to do with all the different lines and retailers at once. Especially as an international buyer where stuff is not confirmed to be coming from somewhere easy to access, there’s just so much effort required as fans.
I see this more as an issue with our local distribution (or lack thereof) rather than what I would call "true exclusivity." After all, we also missed a lot of the Thrilling 30 stuff but those toys were readily available in stores overseas. Even store exclusives aren't the same as mail-away/online exclusives because people can just walk into any of these stores and grab the toy. We've had our fair share of store exclusive stuff too (e.g. Target exclusives, TRU exclusives etc.). I know that the end result still sucks for us, but it wasn't by design. Not in the same way as Pulse or Takara TOMY Mall exclusives; I regard those as "true" exclusives if you take my meaning.


As someone purely into G1 cartoon characters, obscure repaints aside, I still have to go to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens/whatever Asian store stocks Ratchet, and Hasbro Pulse PLUS regular retail to get all the guys I want, and half of those aren't even here.
Once upon a time most of these figures would have been picked up by local retailers, but for whatever reason that eludes me it doesn't seem to be happening with these store-exclusive Siege figures. :( But even all of these store exclusives appear to be repaints and/or retools of pre-existing moulds, and again many of them are based on fairly obscure characters (with characters like Ratchet and Skywarp being exceptions).

Although if you're looking to build a CHUG collection based just on characters who appeared in the G1 cartoon then you're at a considerable advantage. Not only do you have fewer toys to collect but also most of those characters have already been done as CHUGs anyway. Obscure and generic cartoon characters aside, we've got...
* Season 1: all done
* Season 2: all done
* Season 3: almost all done; there are a few outstanding ones like retail CHUG versions of the Battlechargers and... that's it
* Season 4: most done; we need the remaining Throttlebots, Autobot Targetmasters, Headmaster Horrorcons and Scorponok
So as far as the Anglophone G1 cartoon is concerned, the overwhelming majority of the cast already exist as CHUG toys. You're just filling in a few gaps now with the latter two seasons.

If you're also looking to complete the Japanese G1 cartoon cast then that's a different story, but again we have had some progress here including characters like Go Shooter, Metalhawk, God Ginrai, Dai Atlas, Sonic Bomber, Grand Maximus, Lio Kaiser etc., and arguably King Poseidon with the upcoming Seacons. When I look at both the store and online exclusives for Siege, aside from obscurities from the G1 cartoon, I can't see any toy based on a character that doesn't already exist as a CHUG figure. As much as the decision to include Smokescreen as an exclusive figure instead of Barricade just confounds me, but the fact is that CHUG Smokescreen toys already exist.

And honestly... we live in an age of online shopping. Making toys exclusive like this isn't nearly as difficult as it used to be before online shopping. In 1985 we missed out on Shockwave and the Deluxe Insecticons which just sucked. The internet didn't exist for any of us to bug our parents to shop online. I mean, we had a modem on our Commodore 64 (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/25/8f/fe/258ffe3db03bb487c3970a9650c6adea.jpg) but all it could do was allow computers to remotely communicate with each other... but it wasn't the internet! Heck, a lot of us could've probably imported G1 Megatron if online shopping were a thing.

And I'm talking as someone who has, for a very long time, resisted online shopping. I didn't really get into it until 2013 (the year when we started missing those sweet sweet Thrilling 30 toys). I still greatly prefer brick and mortar shopping over online shopping but the fact is that we're doing pretty well considering that online shopping even gives us the option to obtain toys that we're missing at local retail. Especially as local retail seems to be increasingly unreliable. :(

[Tilarta]

I want the Seacons:
https://www.allspark.com/2019/06/first-look-at-the-new-generations-selects-seacons/

But I am uncertain if I can afford them, from memory, when I did the price conversion, the complete set came to around 500 AUD.
From what I was told, they're not a Titan size Combiner, they're about the same size as the regular Combiners, Victorion, Volcanicus, Defensor, etc.
So paying substantially more then it would have cost me to get a Titan Siege Omega or Titans Returns Predaking is not something I'd be wanting to do.
Especially as that price was just for the toys alone, without factoring in international shipping and other charges.

I'm hoping Hasbro release the Seacon set as less exclusive later, with a fairer pricepoint.
If they do so, I'll jump at the chance to get them, (if the scale is not Titan size) as Pihranacon was always one of my favorite Combiners.
What I consider fair is 50 AUD for Snaptrap, 25 AUD for each of his limbs (plus Overbite, who is technically a gun).

[Bidoofdude]

Once upon a time most of these figures would have been picked up by local retailers, but for whatever reason that eludes me it doesn't seem to be happening with these store-exclusive Siege figures. :( But even all of these store exclusives appear to be repaints and/or retools of pre-existing moulds, and again many of them are based on fairly obscure characters (with characters like Ratchet and Skywarp being exceptions).

Although if you're looking to build a CHUG collection based just on characters who appeared in the G1 cartoon then you're at a considerable advantage. Not only do you have fewer toys to collect but also most of those characters have already been done as CHUGs anyway. Obscure and generic cartoon characters aside, we've got...
* Season 1: all done
* Season 2: all done
* Season 3: almost all done; there are a few outstanding ones like retail CHUG versions of the Battlechargers and... that's it
* Season 4: most done; we need the remaining Throttlebots, Autobot Targetmasters, Headmaster Horrorcons and Scorponok
So as far as the Anglophone G1 cartoon is concerned, the overwhelming majority of the cast already exist as CHUG toys. You're just filling in a few gaps now with the latter two seasons.:(

It is still a little fresh for me as I come to completion on my ‘84-‘86 cartoon cast, as a lot of the older toys are quite dated or not ideal. Thankfully the new versions, like with Ironhide and Ratchet or the Datsun bros, are pretty definitvd, in my eyes at least. Honestly it’s crept up on me, with only 2 1984 Autobots, a few 85 bots and some unmade 86 bots and cons.

I myself have definitely gotten a lot more picky, both as becoming an adult and given the collecting climate changing in recent times, to the point where most characters are not only possible, but likely for an update. While a collector like myself would have settled for something like GDO Springer back only half a decade, there are now multiple options for anyone who wants a particular Springer, be it cartoon, IDW or somewhere in between. Definitely don’t envy the times back in 2002-2008, where with most characters it would be a UT redeco, and getting a new mould toy would be THE option for a character.

I think a lot of the collector base has shifted from the “filling a spot” mindset to a “get a definitive version of everyone” one that not only creates a lot more diversity between collectors, but means Hasbro keep pumping out different options. That’s why a lot of these exclusives are still hot property. Hasbro are trying and it shows.:)

Gonna be time to pick up the slack and head into 1987 territory, given I skipped basically all of them so far.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I managed to get the Siege Rainmakers and Micromaster 10-pack from a mate visiting the US and I've got a few other shared exclusives preordered through BBTS. So really it's now just Redwing, Ratchet & Aragon that it's irking me I'm missing out on.

That said, it would have been a lot better if a lot of the others had been easier to access/purchase.

[MayzaPrime]

I will only be getting Unicron... so I voted 1-5

[BigTransformerTrev]

I will only be getting Unicron... so I voted 1-5

Yeah I only voted from 1 to 5, but I've ended up getting/will get:
*Rainmakers
*Micromaster 10-pack
*Chromar
*Zetar
*Nightbird
*Lancer
*Greenlight
*Autobot Alphastrike Counterforce
*Reconnisnce 3-Pack

Didn't even count Unicron but I'm grabbing a couple of him too

[1AZRAEL1]

I managed to get the Siege Rainmakers and Micromaster 10-pack from a mate visiting the US and I've got a few other shared exclusives preordered through BBTS. So really it's now just Redwing, Ratchet & Aragon that it's irking me I'm missing out on.

The fan vote 3 pack with Aragon is on OMP for about AU$124. Can always sell the other 2 off. I'll be selling the holo Mirage when it arrives.

[DELTAprime]

The fan vote 3 pack with Aragon is on OMP for about AU$124. Can always sell the other 2 off. I'll be selling the holo Mirage when it arrives.

Yeah, I just mailed off my Holo Mirage and IDW Impactor today to some folks that wanted them.

I have all the 2019 exclusives I want now except Ratchet which is in the mail, Lancer which is on preorder at BBTS, and Zetar which is on preorder at OMP.

I hope Hasbro doesn't look at the success of the exclusives and decide to do them again next year.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I hope Hasbro doesn't look at the success of the exclusives and decide to do them again next year.

Yeah that's a good (and worrying) point

[griffin]

My thinking is that if the brand has been dropping off a little with the retailers lately (too much to choose from in a very competitive product area), and they decide to cut back to the three main lines that have cartoon/movie media support (Rescue Bots, Cyberverse, Movie Universe), then Generations as a whole could become the online exclusive toyline like Mattel did with the 2000's MOTU toys. It would also be one of the first toylines they could implement their "all-green" packaging, to see if it can work. Amazon have been doing it for a while with their Transformers exclusives, and I guess young kids don't care what the toy is packaged in.... most will just rip open the packaging and throw it away these days, making artwork and viewing windows a wasted effort.

[Paulbot]

This is what I was suggesting in another thread. I think Generations will become an online-only toyline with the basic (no need to be store friendly) Select packaging.

It could do away with "short-packed" figures (good) or it could lead to more cases where toys are priced based on popularity (as most of the online retailers seem to do already). I'd imagine if Hasbro could remove the middle men and sell them straight from their online stores they'd do that too. (Where is the Hasbrotoyshop.com.au site anyway...?)

[Tranceblade]

I'm surprised Transformers aren't already available in the Direct Market, I'm sure the demand is there if hobby/comic shops do it right.

[UltraMarginal]

I don't mind online if the prices are reasonable but when theres US Only Store Exclusives making up a large portion of the product, importing them here is a ridiculous expectation for most.

[BigTransformerTrev]

My thinking is that if the brand has been dropping off a little with the retailers lately (too much to choose from in a very competitive product area), and they decide to cut back to the three main lines that have cartoon/movie media support (Rescue Bots, Cyberverse, Movie Universe), then Generations as a whole could become the online exclusive toyline like Mattel did with the 2000's MOTU toys. It would also be one of the first toylines they could implement their "all-green" packaging, to see if it can work. Amazon have been doing it for a while with their Transformers exclusives, and I guess young kids don't care what the toy is packaged in.... most will just rip open the packaging and throw it away these days, making artwork and viewing windows a wasted effort.


This is what I was suggesting in another thread. I think Generations will become an online-only toyline with the basic (no need to be store friendly) Select packaging.

It could do away with "short-packed" figures (good) or it could lead to more cases where toys are priced based on popularity (as most of the online retailers seem to do already). I'd imagine if Hasbro could remove the middle men and sell them straight from their online stores they'd do that too. (Where is the Hasbrotoyshop.com.au site anyway...?)

Siege is the first line where I really got famous-character fatigue and skipped a lot of characters like Megatron, Optimus, Thundercracker etc. If the Generations line became all online I would hope that at least it would be made easy to obtain in all countries, unlike many of the Siege exclusives. But with the added cost of postage attached to every figure, I might dial my collecting back to only characters I don't have a Classicsverse version of yet.

I think it would depend on how many other TF lines they had going at the time, because Hasbro would want to make sure that kids are still getting a visual reminder that Transformers toys exist when they go to a toy store. At the moment besides Siege there are BotBots and Cyberverse, the new RBA toys are starting to show, nearly a year later there are still ad's for Bumblebee movie toys and those Evergreen figures - whatever that line is called - have been cropping up here and there. So yeah, there would still be TF toys on shelves. But if it was in the middle of a big gap between movies and there was one of those short lulls between cartoons, they might still want to make sure there is some Generations toys out there, even if simply to ensure that stores are earmarking and maintaining shelf space dedicated to TF toys.

[Bidoofdude]

Siege is the first line where I really got famous-character fatigue and skipped a lot of characters like Megatron, Optimus, Thundercracker etc. If the Generations line became all online I would hope that at least it would be made easy to obtain in all countries, unlike many of the Siege exclusives. But with the added cost of postage attached to every figure, I might dial my collecting back to only characters I don't have a Classicsverse version of yet.

I think it would depend on how many other TF lines they had going at the time, because Hasbro would want to make sure that kids are still getting a visual reminder that Transformers toys exist when they go to a toy store. At the moment besides Siege there are BotBots and Cyberverse, the new RBA toys are starting to show, nearly a year later there are still ad's for Bumblebee movie toys and those Evergreen figures - whatever that line is called - have been cropping up here and there. So yeah, there would still be TF toys on shelves. But if it was in the middle of a big gap between movies and there was one of those short lulls between cartoons, they might still want to make sure there is some Generations toys out there, even if simply to ensure that stores are earmarking and maintaining shelf space dedicated to TF toys.

I want to get Thundercracker and Skywarp, as their Tetrajets were in the actual pilot, but I'm just so swamped with Omega Supreme, Springer, Astrotrain, Smokescreen, Ratchet and the like that I just might not be able to. The new Earthrise Starscream amongst all the other new guys like Hoist and Grapple make it even harder to justify.