Transformers disruptions and updates due to COVID-19

[G1Optimal]

Hasbro offices closed due to the coronavirus as a precaution
https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/03/14/hasbro-offices-and-branches-worldwide-closed-due-to-covid-19-pandemic-408038

[griffin]

IDW have just announced that (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/03/23/idw-publishing-a-letter-to-our-comic-industry-partners-408759) due to comic stores and sales being affected by the global economic shutdown, they have suspended their May publications (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/27044) (which featured the entire My Little Pony mini-series), and will have reduced publications until at least July. They will instead have some special publications later in the Northern Summer (obviously only if businesses are back open by then).

However, Diamond Distribution (the monopoly that forces the main comic companies to only sell to them and they wholesale the comics to every comic store around the world), has announced that this week (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/03/23/diamond-comic-distributors-coronavirus-effect-on-distribution-408750) will be the last week that they will be shipping out weekly comics until further notice, but will continue shipping special orders.
This shouldn't affect digital publications, or direct purchases of comics from the publisher websites, but with Diamond being the only source of comics for all comic stores, it will pretty much kill off many comic stores and collectable import stores around the world that get most of their stock through Previews Magazine (Diamond).
(at least, that's what I make from what it appears to be saying)

If that really does mean that no new comics are coming to stores from next week, the April comics from IDW might only end up being available through their website or digitally. I hope that Amazon in America get their comics direct from the publishers, and not through Diamond, as that would then be an easier option that shouldn't cost as much as ordering from IDW.

So, in these tough times for IDW, perhaps check out their discount sale on Comixology (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/27053-IDW-comixology-sale-until-APRIL-6th), to send some more money their way to keep them in business a little longer.


Meanwhile, the Hasbro CEO has just come out to say that (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/03/23/cnbc-hasbro-ceo-says-china-factories-almost-back-up-408739) the factories in China that make some of their products, will be fully operational by the end of the week, and expect demand to be strong in China and the rest of the world.
Despite the global pandemic shutting down economies and eliminating jobs (which would mean a lot less spending on non-essentials like toys), people seemed to believe his claims, sending the share price of Hasbro rocketing up 15%. Considering the amount of shares the CEO would be currently sitting on, he would have made a fair bit of money today from that statement (after probably losing a fair bit of money when the entire share-market collapsed last week).

[reillyd]

That's a small glimmer of light that Hasbro will be back to production. I think they're going to get a lot more purchases, especially online, as children in isolation are going to get bored quickly. At least for Cyberverse, they may prove quite popular.

I would dispute though that toys are non-essential ;)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

The only problem would be the supply chain to the stores, ships, trucks, and actual staffing at stores.

[shockNwave]

The only problem would be the supply chain to the stores, ships, trucks, and actual staffing at stores.

Which helps explain why K-Mart are in a state of emergency ordering when it comes to cardboard boxes. They're preparing for stage 3 restrictions which will force department stores to exist strictly online.
I know this because I work for IVE Group and we are shifting so many cardboard orders that we're as busy as the Christmas period. That means we're having four trucks a day arriving to pick up cardboard orders instead of two.

[reillyd]

Ah well that's unfortunate if Stage 3 includes department stores. Kmart online only sells (assorted) transformers not specific character, and they've been doing it so long they're unlikely to change. I think I'll have to go amazon if we loose department stores.

[Demonac]

Kmart aren't alone with the 'Random assortment' garbage. Target, Big W, Myers are the same.

[griffin]

With the cancellation of Wondercon in America, some of the IDW comic exclusives for the event are now listed on the IDW online store (https://www.idwpublishing.com/wondercon-web-store-exclusives/). I'm not sure if they ship overseas.


• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #88

Creator credits: Ted Anderson (Author) Tony Fleecs (Artist, Cover Artist) Heather Breckel (Colorist)

• Transformers #18, featuring My Little Pony
Creator credits: Brian Ruckley (Author) Umi Miyao (Artist) Bethany Mcguire-Smith (Artist) Josh Burcham (Colorist) Priscilla Tramontano (Cover Artist)
• Transformers vs. The Terminator #1, Livio Ramondelli cover

Issue #1 creator credits: David Mariotte (Author) John Barber (Author) Tom Waltz (Author) Alex Milne (Artist, Cover Artist) Gavin Fullerton (Cover Artist) Francesco Francavilla (Cover Artist) John Giang (Cover Artist) Livio Ramondelli (Cover Artist) David García Cruz (Colorist)

We are sorry to miss everyone at WonderCon this year, but are wishing everyone health and safety at this time. We are still excited to connect with fans and offer great comics from our creators in our WonderCon Exclusive web store. We’re happy to present these special offers and hope you enjoy these comics. We look forward to seeing you at WonderCon in 2021!

Free domestic shipping on all orders $35 and up! Buy 2 Get 1 Free on all WonderCon Exclusive products! Discount will be applied automatically to the least expensive product in cart. If all products are the same price, the discount will be applied to the last item. Sale through Sunday, April 12th.

[griffin]

SDCC has been cancelled for this year, so that will affect the reveal of new items this year. I'm guessing that there might end up being a lot more online reveals around July instead.

[DELTAprime]

SDCC has been cancelled for this year, so that will affect the reveal of new items this year. I'm guessing that there might end up being a lot more online reveals around July instead.

Given they have probably already been produced I wonder how Hasbro will sell this year's SDCC exclusives? Pulse exclusive or wider release?

[reillyd]

I just presumed no SDCC no production of exclusive toys...... but you're right Delta they're probably well into production by now. I assume HasbroPulse or some online retailers. Hopefully it will be cheaper than hitting ebay which is what I usually would do.

[Paulbot]

Probably exclusives like last year when HasCon didn't happen but the Refkrator 3 pack showed up with HasCon still printed on the boxes

[griffin]

We already heard that the global comics distributor Diamond is suspending its sales of comics until at least May, and that IDW was going to also have to suspend it's comics for at least a month, but as the situation in America continues to drag on with no end in sight for the virus in that country, IDW have announced that they have had to suspend a number of their staff until they can resume production of comics again (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/04/23/idw-publishing-furloughs-due-to-covid-19-related-comics-industry-slowdown-410398)... which at this point could be anything from next month to next year.

Unfortunately, while IDW are effectively closed down, and while Diamond aren't trading, new Transformers comics might be a while... for the few of us who were actually still buying the current ones.

[griffin]

With SDCC now cancelled for this year, it comes as no surprise that the Tokyo Toy Show in Japan (held in the same week), has also now been cancelled for this year (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/04/26/tokyo-toy-show-wonderfest-2020-cancelled-410525).
The Japanese Summer (mid-year) Wonderfest has also been affected, but they are postponing theirs to Autumn (November 1st).

[Paulbot]

With SDCC now cancelled for this year, it comes as no surprise that the Tokyo Toy Show in Japan (held in the same week), has also now been cancelled for this year (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/04/26/tokyo-toy-show-wonderfest-2020-cancelled-410525).
The Japanese Summer (mid-year) Wonderfest has also been affected, but they are postponing theirs to Autumn (November 1st).

I remember I almost didn't go to the meetup with the Australian Toy Fair because hayfever gave me a runny nose and we were starting to become a little wary. Who knew it was going to escalate the way it did

[griffin]

I remember I almost didn't go to the meetup with the Australian Toy Fair because hayfever gave me a runny nose and we were starting to become a little wary. Who knew it was going to escalate the way it did

Indeed... and with me (selfishly) hoping that the reborn BotCon in 2021 is worth attending, I am constantly keeping an eye on the stats and updates in America as well as Australia. Because America won't re-open while the virus is still around (or the Australian Government won't allow people travelling to infected countries)... so a trip to a convention in America will only happen when there is a vaccine or cure (could be 1-2 years away), or the virus disappears completely from lockdown measures, which now seems to be possible if we don't rush the wind-back of our lockdown restrictions (as we are seeing in countries that don't have cooperation between different levels of government).

But saying that, our stats are amazing compared to the rest of the world, as most of our states have had zero or single digits of daily new cases for the last week, and that's with over 10,000 tests done every day. If we keep going at this rate, and we don't have any more arrivals bringing in the virus (there's still quite a few Australians yet to get back), I don't see why we wouldn't be back to normal before the end of May - we would then only have to financially support the tourism industry until we can let visitors back in. I think it's amazing to see our different state and federal politicians put aside their political differences to unite against this problem, so that we don't have any senior politicians encouraging their supporters to reject or resist the restrictions (that are there for their own good). It has certainly been a significant factor in America, who had virus cases a week before Australia, and yet their daily numbers are still increasing, a whole month after we hit our peak day at the end of March. It certainly doesn't make it easy to coordinate a scientific national approach when you have a misguided and uneducated president asking one of the doctors at the daily live press briefing, if they can look into injecting disinfectant into people to kill the virus... while also encouraging people to protest the preventative restrictions, sabotaging efforts to fight a virus that will keep spreading over there until a vaccine exists.

At least if we end up having most of our industries free to fully re-open without a resurgence of the virus that we've seen in other countries that re-opened too early, it will once again make us the envy of the other developed economies (we were the only one to not have a recession after the GFC in 2008)... which should help our dollar, to make our toys and imported toys cheaper. ;)

[griffin]

We already heard that the global comics distributor Diamond is suspending its sales of comics until at least May, and that IDW was going to also have to suspend it's comics for at least a month, but as the situation in America continues to drag on with no end in sight for the virus in that country, IDW have announced that they have had to suspend a number of their staff until they can resume production of comics again (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/04/23/idw-publishing-furloughs-due-to-covid-19-related-comics-industry-slowdown-410398)... which at this point could be anything from next month to next year.

Unfortunately, while IDW are effectively closed down, and while Diamond aren't trading, new Transformers comics might be a while... for the few of us who were actually still buying the current ones.

Are IDW still releasing new comics digitally, or did they suspend those as well?
I'm guessing that if they have stopped releasing physical copies, and shut down a number of their operations, they would run out of issues ready to release digitally after a while anyway.

IDW have just noted that what was first hoped to be a short term closure of their office resulting in suspending a number of staff to save money, has now ended up requiring a more long-term outcome of letting go of a number of staff (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/05/21/idw-publishing-april-furloughs-become-may-layoffs-due-to-covid-19-related-comics-industry-slowdown-411632) (some may or may not have been people who were suspended in April)...


layoffs for Managing Editor Denton Tipton, Associate Publisher David Hedgecock, Senior Graphic Artist Gilberto Lazcano, Senior Graphic Designer Christa Miesner and Brand & Marketing Manager Spencer Reeve.
In April, IDW made the difficult decision to furlough several valued staff members, and two weeks ago, IDW welcomed several of those staffers back full-time. However, as we continue to adapt and deal with these challenging times, we have been forced to lay-off some of our longtime co-workers and friends. Although tough decisions like this are an unfortunate business reality and there is never a good time for them, these changes are necessary to ensure the long-term health of the company.



Regular readers of their comics may recognise some of those names. I only recognise Denton (https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Denton_J._Tipton), as he has been with IDW since 2008, working on quite a few Transformers issues (including writing an issue).

[reillyd]

IDW did suspend comics digitally (you can?t sell those print copies at stores if people have already bought the digital versions) but DID release two or three non-tf on Saturday. Of note is that one of these is the highly anticipated Clone Wars comic, which should see heavy sales and thus revenue to idw to keep it going. It?s also a weekly comic for five issues, to promote new clone wars cartoon. Things should revert back to normal shipping this week to all comic stores through Diamond, and we should start to see new comics again. I?m pretty sure IDW will survive this one.

Of note, to ?See? the new Star Wars Adventures: Clone wars comic you need to be using a VPN but can then download it normally.

[griffin]

This year's NYCC has also been cancelled (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/08/12/new-york-comic-con-2020-cancellation-online-metaverse-announced-for-october-8-11-417016), as the virus didn't just disappear as quickly in America as it was assumed it would earlier this year.

It looks like they will be looking to do some online presentations like SDCC did last month.
I'd also expect Hasbro to do some product reveals online during that time like they've done in the last month in place of their usual SDCC reveals.

[griffin]

A very early announcement - New York Toyfair next year (February) has been postponed (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/08/28/toy-fair-new-york-2021-postponed-toy-of-the-year-awards-and-hall-of-fame-induction-virtual-for-2021-418285) for a few months... which I don't think that there would be enough change in Covid between a few months. If it doesn't go ahead in February, I'd be surprised if it goes ahead at all.

[griffin]

The Australian Toy Association has just announced that they will be waiting until October 31st before making a decision on if next year's Melbourne Toyfair (http://www.toyhobbyretailer.com.au/news/breaking-ata-reveals-future-of-2021-toy-fair). If the virus is still active enough in Victoria to believe that it would prevent a public event in March, then it will go virtual like the New York Toyfair.
Since that is a four month gap from the decision to the event date, there is no way they could know for sure what the situation would be in March. Even if the virus was reduced completely to zero new cases in Victoria by the end of October, it only takes a couple of weeks of cross-border cases or foreign returns to have a city or state in lockdown or limited crowd numbers in public.

The only way we will have Toyfair next year in Melbourne is if before October 31st we have a vaccine approved for Australia and a full rollout is announced to happen by the end of the year.
It will be a shame though, as I've been travelling to Melbourne for the Toyfair (and meeting up with fans) since 208 and next year will be the first year I won't be.

[griffin]

An announcement (https://www.licensing.biz/hasbro-joins-festival-of-licensing-with-new-peppa-pig-content-pj-masks-toy-plans-and-more/) by Hasbro that an upcoming licensing fair in October for Europe will be digital/virtual/online... and it notes that 2021 will be the 35th Anniversary of Transformers, which I'm sure was meant to refer to the 1986 Movie anniversary.
With Unicron coming out next year and a number of 1986 characters rumoured to be released in the Studio Series line, this isn't much of a surprise... but a useful confirmation.

[griffin]

The American Toy association has announced plans to delay their 2021 Toyfair event until May (https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/10/06/toy-fair-new-york-2021-planned-for-may-1-4-at-jacob-k-javits-center-421293) (it is usually in February).... obviously if they have the virus under control by then, or have a contingency plan in place if it isn't.

At this stage, the Melbourne Toyfair hasn't been postponed yet, so could still be on for March if Melbourne re-opens before the end of the year. If we still have ours in March next year, we could have a first look at some toys before America... unfortunately, it could most likely mean that we wouldn't be allowed to share photos of the exhibit if Hasbro America hasn't revealed them by then.

[griffin]

The US (New York) Toyfair has been officially cancelled (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/01/07/toy-fair-new-york-2021-cancellation-toy-association-sets-2021-2022-trade-show-plans-426991), due to the worsening situation with Covid. It was postponed to May 1st, but instead of having a digital version like SDCC and the Melbourne 2021 Toyfair, they have decided to just abandon it completely this year.
Expect some online reveals for Transformers (and other toys) like they were doing last year around SDCC and NYCC times.

As noted in the Oz news section back in November (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/27555), the Melbourne Toyfair for 2021 was already decided to go online, in case the virus situation wasn't resolved in time for it to be safe for people to travel around the country to Melbourne.

Meanwhile, the event in Japan (Winter Wonderfest) that is usually on at the same time as the US Toyfair in February, has also been announced to be cancelled for 2021 (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/01/08/wonderfest-2021-winter-convention-cancelled-in-japan-427030).

With the rollout of the vaccine in America falling way behind, and the delay in the amount of time a full rollout will stop the spread of the virus among those who are not vaccinated, I'd be surprised if SDCC (in July) goes ahead this year as well. And if it does, they might limit attendance to people who can prove that they have been vaccinated.

[griffin]

The Japanese Winter Wonderfest has announced an online event (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/01/19/wonder-festival-2021-web-online-announced-in-japan-427514), for their exhibitors.

[griffin]

Wondercon in America in March is going online (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/02/11/wondercon-anaheim-2021-wonderconhome-ii-march-26th-27th-428795), and last year they featured some Transformers cartoon and comic content... so might have some announcements this year as well.

[griffin]

The Japanese Winter Wonderfest has announced an online event (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/01/19/wonder-festival-2021-web-online-announced-in-japan-427514), for their exhibitors.

The major Japanese event that usually occurs the same weekend as New York Toyfair, had it's online version on February 7th, and the reason why we didn't hear any news from it was because TakaraTomy was apparently not participating in the online event... so no new Japanese reveals this year.

[griffin]

As covid gets worse in Japan, the Autumn Wonderfest has now been cancelled (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/08/23/wonderfest-2021-autumn-convention-cancelled-in-japan-439866).

[griffin]

The US (New York) Toyfair has been officially cancelled (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/01/07/toy-fair-new-york-2021-cancellation-toy-association-sets-2021-2022-trade-show-plans-426991), due to the worsening situation with Covid. It was postponed to May 1st, but instead of having a digital version like SDCC and the Melbourne 2021 Toyfair, they have decided to just abandon it completely this year.
Expect some online reveals for Transformers (and other toys) like they were doing last year around SDCC and NYCC times.

As noted in the Oz news section back in November (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/27555), the Melbourne Toyfair for 2021 was already decided to go online, in case the virus situation wasn't resolved in time for it to be safe for people to travel around the country to Melbourne.

Meanwhile, the event in Japan (Winter Wonderfest) that is usually on at the same time as the US Toyfair in February, has also been announced to be cancelled for 2021 (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/01/08/wonderfest-2021-winter-convention-cancelled-in-japan-427030).

With the rollout of the vaccine in America falling way behind, and the delay in the amount of time a full rollout will stop the spread of the virus among those who are not vaccinated, I'd be surprised if SDCC (in July) goes ahead this year as well. And if it does, they might limit attendance to people who can prove that they have been vaccinated.

It has been announced NY Toyfair is back for 2022 (https://news.tfw2005.com/2021/11/08/hasbro-returns-to-new-york-toy-fair-in-2022-at-newly-expanded-javits-center-444537), for February 19-22... and Hasbro has been confirmed to be there once again.
As we had noted in the Oz news section (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/28372), the Melbourne Toyfair will be back as well, in late March, and I would expect Hasbro to be there too.

[griffin]

How quickly a new virus variant can change things... just 2 months after the previous post, it is being suggested that Hasbro may not end up attending NY Toyfair (https://news.tfw2005.com/2022/01/06/rumor-hasbro-will-not-attend-nytf-2022-447799), as it is only about a month away, and case numbers are not likely to come down enough before then to make it a safe event to participate in (maybe to risk having their people infected and taking even more time away from the office at the end of the event).

If their appearance is indeed cancelled in America, it is possible that they may not be at the Melbourne Toyfair in March... so I'll have to contact the local office about it, as the whole event may end up being cancelled if case numbers in Victoria keep climbing.

[High_Q]

If their appearance is indeed cancelled in America, it is possible that they may not be at the Melbourne Toyfair in March... so I'll have to contact the local office about it, as the whole event may end up being cancelled if case numbers in Victoria keep climbing.

Hasbro won't be attending Toyfair NY 22; nobody will. It's cancelled (https://www.toyassociation.org/PressRoom2/News/2022_News/toy-fair-new-york-2022-cancelled.aspx). :( Chances aren't great for Melbourne Toyfair 2022.

[griffin]

After the cancellation of the New York Toyfair was noted above a couple weeks ago, the big global Toyfair in Germany (https://www.spielwarenmesse.de/en/) is also cancelled.
And the other major Toyfair for the beginning of the year in London, will probably be cancelled as well, as Hasbro has pulled out (https://news.tfw2005.com/2022/01/24/hasbro-steps-down-from-london-toy-fair-2022-448906), and the other two big Toyfairs were cancelled after most of the big exhibitors withdrew from them (the Toyfairs are run by businesses that have to make money, and if the event host isn't going to make a profit from enough exhibitors and advertising, they would have no choice but to cancel the entire event).


As we had noted in the Oz news section (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php/28372), the Melbourne Toyfair will be back as well, in late March, and I would expect Hasbro to be there too.

That news topic has now been updated as well, to note that the Australian Toyfair was just cancelled today.