Was the movie the biggest thing to happen to TFs since Beast Wars?

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

That's an excellent point. One thing which the Transformers movie has done which no other TF medium has ever done before is make Transformers mainstream and no longer just something for children or nerds... which is good and bad in some ways. It's good that the franchise has grown exponentially since and we've seen the fandom swell. But it's kinda bad in other ways because... well... to be blunt (and I can't think of a better way of saying this without sounding like a snobby geek, sorry :p) we have a lot of 'faux Transfans' - people who are into Transformers atm because it's currently cool and they want to be trendy.

Before the movie it was really rare to see someone else wearing Transformers clothing, and if you did, chances are they were a genuine TF fan. Nowadays a lot of people wear TF clothes and sport TF logos on their cars just as random ornaments - it doesn't necessarily mean that they're "real" Transformer fans.

But on the other hand, a lot of my non-Transfan friends have gained a deeper appreciation for my hobby. :) So yeah... there's good and bad with the current rising "fame" of the Transformers franchise. :)

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totally and utterly agree with all of that

The movie was the best thing since BW, yes! agreed! no doubt about it!

appreciation, awareness, no longer geeky

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

In other words, do you honestly think that the reuse of Energon/Cybertron moulds in the movie line is an inherently or fundamentally good idea under its own merit (i.e.: regardless of your own personal motives/bias) or are you merely glad because you happen to personally benefit from it (i.e. "happy accident")?

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In a business sense, it is a good idea to reuse the older molds. Realistically we all want new molds for everything, instead of repaints, but we all know that Hasbro had a cash cow with the movie line and just repainted a lot of older lines. I don't think it's a personally bias thing neither to be thankful for these repaints of old molds we missed out on as new collectors. Isn't it also personal bias to not like repaints? Fundamentally I do not think it is wrong to have these repaints in the movieline. If it represents characters in the universe involved, I don't really see the problem. Sure, as collectors, you probably wouldn't want the same mold again but in the end it's the company who produced these figures who needs to be approached and told we do not like it.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

But how would you feel if you were in our position? For example, say if when the Revenge of the Fallen toys come out and Hasbro decides to flesh them out with repaints of Transformers Classics and Animated toys... for people who get into TF collecting next year after the 2nd movie it might be good news for them, but how do you think recent collectors of Classics and current collectors of Animated would feel about it?

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Simple. I wouldn't buy the repaint of what I already have unless it's an attractive repaint that I would want. I guess if one is a completist and need that character represented. Fundamentally if the entire 2nd movie line is ALL repaints, then we have reason to be miffed. As annoying as repaints can get, we have the option to not buy them and let those who want to. In the end it's a business model that they follow and the "casual/mass" market is still bigger than the collectors/fans and is perhaps the only reason they do so, because it sells and the movieline was the perfect platform to milk as much profits as possible. I know as collectors it is highly frustrating but thats what we get for saturating our lives with our hobby and breaking down every single minutae of said hobby.

In the end, I think there is enough room for everything and everyone of various commitment to this hobby.

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Originally Posted by Stompy

I wouldn't buy the repaint of what I already have unless it's an attractive repaint that I would want. I guess if one is a completist and need that character represented.

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^ that's how I feel about repaints. :)

Aye Gok. We really can't do anything with the repaints. I guess it's a necesarry evil as it is just easy business/profit for Hasbro to repaint.

I didn't realize that Beast Wars was the first to really invigorate the franchise. Although looking back, it was the only TF series that I was aware of after the original G1. From what I recall of what I've seen of the BW series, it was pretty darn good. The movie certainly did a lot to make the public aware of the franchise and make it cool again.

are you people all mad?

Machine wars was the biggest thing to happen to the entire franchise

Always has been always will be!!!

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

The movie was the biggest thing to happen to Transformers (full stop). Leagues bigger than Beast Wars - this is a movie that grossed 700 million dollars and sold thirteen million DVDs, not even counting the 'black' market. People of both genders and all ages watched it. The movie was bigger than 'G1'.

That doesn't mean it was better than Beast Wars (it wasn't) and a Transformers movie doesn't seem to have the sustained character development to sell toys the way the series do (e.g. Animated toys fly off the shelves while the movie's been keeping shelves warm all year.)

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Everything I wanted to say.

I do agree that the movie was the biggest thing since BW - but it isn't bigger than Beast Wars. The Transformers line was _dead_. Dead. Kenner took a chance with BW and brought Transformers back to life. While the film is a bigger medium, within the context of the franchise, it's not as big. Having said that nothing since BW comes close to matching the film.

I'm frustrated that Hasbro have thrown away a lot of the momentum from the film. From extremely tenuous "movie" themed repaints to some of the really poor merchandising which will clog shelves for a while, such as the turnarounds. I'm still amazed that Hasbro followed it up with Animated - which is so ridiculously different from the film that it can't really grasp the momentum the film generated.

I hope the lines following the future films are able to ride their momentum better, so that the films aren't a flash in the pan (:

Well, as others said, Beast Wars revived the brand completely, while the movie was essentially capitalizing on the success of the brand. I think the movie was bigger, though-it got a lot of people into Transformers (including me).

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I'm still amazed that Hasbro followed it up with Animated - which is so ridiculously different from the film that it can't really grasp the momentum the film generated.

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Although ridiculously different appears to equal popular on toy shelves. I've given up trying to get Animated toys from non-Hobbyco shops because THERE ARE NONE (besides the spinoffs and the ultra-expensive Leaders).

I've noticed that many of the stores I've visited seem to have slowish sales of Animated. The Activators are flying off shelves, and deluxes are doing okay outside of Grace Brothers and their stupid $40 price tag. Activators _should_ do well - the smaller toys always sell too fast for Hasbro (who import too many boxed TFs every single time, and not enough of the cheaper stuff which parents _will_ buy on impulse). I've noticed those silly bumper battler things (the Cyberslammer-esque things, I think that's what they're called) aren't moving - which doesn't surprise me since they're not good value for toys aimed at 2 year olds.

At any rate, I would have thought Hasbro would want to embrace new found fans with a more realistic line to follow up the film. Yeah, we get Universe/Classics, but I mean as the main line (wich cartoon).