Emailed to Hasbro today are the January Qs:
1 - Are the Toys R Us exclusive Universe Darkwind and Countdown being released here?
2 - Anymore word on the next lot of Universe Special Editions, that were mentioned mid last year?
3 - Is Universe Unicron still not intended for release here?
4 - Will Hasbro AUS be directly importing Takara's new Masterpiece, Grimlock, like the Ultra Magnus and Prime/convoy with trailer, which were available in Target?
5 - Given that the Official Transformers Collector's Club acquired an international license to prevent anyone else from setting up an official club outside of America, is it possible for Hasbro to apply a bit of pressure to make it more international friendly, and fairer to non-Americans, who pay twice as much, for less access to the discounts (the convention), and getting overcharged on shipping of items (they re-charge customers that are under-charged, but don't refund when they overcharge by a greater amount). The offer made to them last year to help administrate a local branch here on their behalf, still stands, as an incentive to keep the local non-American members in the club. But the excessive profiteering on shipping last year was the last straw with the local collectors, and many will not be renewing their membership this year if they don't feel like they being treated as part of that 'American' Collector Club.
6 - Do you get fed up with fan boards being generally pro-TakaraTomy and negative towards Hasbro?
7 - Why reuse the name "Universe" for the current "Universe" line? The two lines aren't related in terms of concept and storyline.
8 - Who is responsible for the poor pairing of names to toys that aren't featured on a cartoon or movie? I understand that certain names need to be re-used to keep ownership, but the thing that made the original series work so well was that the names reflected the alternate mode or an element or ability of the character. Why can't the people at Hasbro at least allocate the names you need to keep, to more applicable toys/characters?
9 - Is there a reason why Hasbro glue the plastic bubbles to the deluxe sized toys instead of taping them to the cards like TakaraTomy do? It makes it easier to open and remove the plastic without damaging the backing card.
10 - Apart from these Q&A's and the occasional online collector survey at the US Hasbro website, how else do Hasbro/TakaraTomy get feedback from their customers? Ever considered a feedback form inside the toy packaging, to post back or answer online? Otherwise, only the more serious collectors who are online ever give their feedback, and they are the small insignificant portion of your customer base.
(the other 2 questions are administrative questions relating to Toyfair and this website, that won't be posted publically yet)
Questions that didn't make the cut this month, that may be considered next month:
Will Animated Arcee finally give fans an accurate Generation 1 form
are we getting any other targetmasters in the universe or 25th ann. line? or head / power masters?
or breast masters. A Universe version of Lio Kaiser
Do Hasbro (or TakaraTomy) still have the moulds for Reflector and the three incarnations of Powerdasher? (Just about all the other Diaclone and Micro Change Transformers have been reissued, and these ones in particular are often missing from G1 collections because of their mail-order nature. A Reflector or Powerdasher set would be perfect.)
1. Does hasbro recieve feedback, (ie good or bad) about all their present repaints of old molds?
with the Timelines re-release of the Seacons boxset, will we see any more G1 combiner teams being released? Perhaps a G2 Stunticon boxset?
