Universe Ironhide in Package

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Originally Posted by kurdt_the_goat

I wonder how long until Hasbro exhausts it's supply of baby blue paint!

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Remember when Hasbro was going crazy with bright day-glo yellow? Now they're going whacky with baby blue... I dread what's next. :/

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Originally Posted by 1orion2many

At the end of the day these are toys designed for kids, the more colour the more attractive it is to the younger audience I am guessing where the windows are concerned with the blue colouring.

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Being made for kids doesn't justify bad taste in colours and excessive use of brightness! With some notable exceptions (e.g.: Masterpiece, Binaltech, G1 reissues, KISS Play etc) most Transformer action figure lines are made for kids, including ones in Japan (even though Takara does appear to cater better for collectors their primary market is definitely children - the Henkei comics are clearly targetted at young children (when it comes to TF comics I absolutely prefer those made in English-speaking countries over those from Japan, other than convention-exclusive manga of course)).

G1 was made for kids and it's not as if it was dominated by bright and awful colours for the majority of its run. We did get some horrific colours toward the end (e.g. Turbomasters) though. But it's not as if say Seaspray was coloured with day-glo yellow and baby blue! ;p

The bright colors are not there necessarily for the benefit of the end consumer but there so that it looks like a product that would stand out on a store's shelf.

Hasbro's costumers are not end consumers, its the retail stores. Retail stores want items that will be noticed by browsing shoppers. So the bright colors are not really an artistic choice but rather a marketing one.

I personally would not mind the bright window colors so much in Ironhide. What annoys me is that they neglected to paint the edges of the windows and as a result the alt mode looks as if it has 'broken' windows as you can clearly see the red lines of the unpainted edges.

There is also a chance that Takara may make the same neglect in Henkei. I have also notice the same sort of 'unpainted edges' neglect in Binaltech Asterix Alert. Some of its black parts that come together in the car mode show an out of place white line between pieces when its supposed to have the illusion of a solid surface. I have painted the edges black since then to maintain that illusion in car mode on my now converted Binaltech Prowl.

I will still wait for the Takara version and will possibly get it since they will likely use a more G1 solid red as they have done with Henkei Prime as well as possible added painted detailings.

I agree with kup, but will add that 20 years ago, G1 toys were competing with other toys that followed the shelf stylings of that time. Put G1 toys on the shelves today, against myriad other brands dominated by bright colours, and they'd be lost. The market has changed and so forced their hand. Japan is different; there's so much on the shelves (and packaging so busy) that everything is lost regardless of colours ;)

I understand their motivations for their bright colors but I don't necessarily agree with it nor I endorse it. I personally believe that a good product will sell itself on its own merits.

Normally the bright colors look garish as hell and even though they are effective at standing out on a shelf, it hardly means that I will buy it. When I was a kid, I hated the G2 repaints because of the colors and even at the age of ten, I found the 1990 Action Master Orange as horrible so I am unsure how effective these bright colors are with the current generation of kids.

Well I think at least they didn't mess up with him being generally a RED vehicle, unlike what they did with Powerglide... guess they still at times pay attention to that much detail.. sometimes. makes me wonder , As Hasbro likes to save up on cost of Production always, will ratchet end up white or just plain blank gray plastic with a bit of red here and there?

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Originally Posted by liegeprime

As Hasbro likes to save up on cost of Production always, will ratchet end up white or just plain blank gray plastic with a bit of red here and there?

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As far as we know, it looks as though we're only gonna get a Henkei Ratchet (Atleast we know TakaraTomy aren't very likely to screw his paintjob up :))

I don't agree. It's not any form of "subliminal advertising through bright colours", which doesn't exist, it's to do with brand awareness and character recognition.

Does Lego use fluro orange/pink/yellow/green for all of their bricks? Heck no, they are a brand that everyone knows.

What about other movie franchises? They are recognised as the characters from the movies.

So no, colour has very very little to nothing to do with moving inventory. Recognition of the packaging and toyline does, plus position in the store. The movies and the cartoons are what does the sell, the choice of what colour beads to add to the plastic mix doesn't. You guys fail at selling. :D

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Originally Posted by MV75

I don't agree. It's not any form of "subliminal advertising through bright colours", which doesn't exist, it's to do with brand awareness and character recognition.

Does Lego use fluro orange/pink/yellow/green for all of their bricks? Heck no, they are a brand that everyone knows.

What about other movie franchises? They are recognised as the characters from the movies.

So no, colour has very very little to nothing to do with moving inventory. Recognition of the packaging and toyline does, plus position in the store. The movies and the cartoons are what does the sell, the choice of what colour beads to add to the plastic mix doesn't. You guys fail at selling. :D

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Yeah I agree with all of the above regarding what actually sells a toy and that is why I don't understand the strong push for unnecessary and out of place fluro colors in Hasbro Transformers.

Don't Toy Companies try to make the packaging as attractive/appealing as possible to make it stand out from the competition?

"Mummy! Can I please get that toy? Please? Please?"

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Originally Posted by Pulse

Don't Toy Companies try to make the packaging as attractive/appealing as possible to make it stand out from the competition?

"Mummy! Can I please get that toy? Please? Please?"

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Hasbro does that too which makes the fluro on the actual figure a bit redundant.

Although Hasbro's packaging is a bit extreme (with twist ties, over sized boxes relative to content, etc) They generally do a good job in making attractive boxes that stand out positively even though it can be hard to tell individual figures apart at a distance when they are all stacked together.

However I still like the Takara packaging better as it stands out the same or better but feels much more elegant in execution as the individual figures stand out more with no 'tricky' attempt at making a figure seem 'larger' than it actually is through the size of the packaging.