Fan-backed Hasbro project: Unicron

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Originally Posted by Lint

Actually upon closer inspection the face is bothering me more than anything :p. I prefer the cold passive expression for Unicron and every shot I've seen he's got his cheap halloween chompers out.

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^agreed! I honestly prefer the look on Armada Unicron

https://i.ibb.co/bs6BTGm/meme-unicronjaws.jpg

The mouth can close can?t it?

I used to own the Takara 2010 edition. There?s no comparing the two, this is a true masterpiece.

As much as I love the look of the robot mode, I?ll be displaying mine in planet mode ( if it gets the go ahead and we get a chance to purchase) They absolutely nailed it.

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Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

Is it really *that* much though?
I've seen the video, and it's a bunch of clever nerdbombers drawing up the plans with CAD files or whatever and then transferring that into 3d forms. It's not like the 80's were they carved everything out of wood and prayed it worked. Unless they're charging 10K per hour to drag a mouse around, I dunno?

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oh yea, NRE is often the biggest cost in a design.
imagine, you've got one primary design lead who does a lot of the broad strokes heavy lifting, rough transformation scheme, then maybe 4 or 5 junior engineers working on the details (specific size of every hinge, fastener, type of fastener, the assembly process has to be laid out piece by piece to make sure it can actually be manufactured, how thin can pieces be before they're not strong enough, or how thick can pieces be before they don't fit in or through a space in the transformation, there are people working on the colour scheme, surface detailing, gimmick/mechanisms and all of this needs to be reviewed at some point to make sure no horrible mistakes have been made before going to prototype, someone going over the design to make sure it meets all the safety standard and requirements everywhere it is going to be sold.)

so maybe a month of time for a lead at $100 an hour
a month or two of time for 10 -15 other engineers, artists, safety engineers etc. at say $60 an hour
160 x 100 + 12.5(380 x 60) = 301000

of course this is a really rough uneducated guess, not knowing what sort of wages they're paying people in japan and the states, it could easily be twice that for something complex like Unicron or a Movie MP.
then there's marketing, artwork blah blah blah that they do for all their promotions, I'm sure that hooks into the company budget.
I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't already sunk close to a million in to this.

Not to mention the price of the moulds. Moulds are not cheap to create or maintain. Unicron will easily be a six-figure cost for the mould.

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Originally Posted by danny-boy

The mouth can close can?t it?

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I've seen a shot where the mouth is more closed and the teeth are gnashed together but still very much showing. It'd be nice to have the mouth hide the teeth completely but from the pics I've seen I doubt this is the case.

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Originally Posted by danny-boy

As much as I love the look of the robot mode, I?ll be displaying mine in planet mode ( if it gets the go ahead and we get a chance to purchase) They absolutely nailed it.

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I'd do the same thing. It appears to be the mode that the entire transformation is based around, much like Darth Vader/Death Star.

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

Not to mention the price of the moulds. Moulds are not cheap to create or maintain. Unicron will easily be a six-figure cost for the mould.

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Remember Aaron Archer said the moulds alone for Generations Metroplex cost $300K USD. Taking into account the massive size difference and parts count, as well as the increased production costs in 2019, UMs estimate of $1M USD for production seems to be quite reasonable (and they haven’t even cut the moulds yet).

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Originally Posted by Trent

Remember Aaron Archer said the moulds alone for Generations Metroplex cost $300K USD. Taking into account the massive size difference and parts count, as well as the increased production costs in 2019, UMs estimate of $1M USD for production seems to be quite reasonable (and they haven’t even cut the moulds yet).

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I was being, shall we say, very conservative thinking maybe 400K for the moulds:eek:. Honestly, if they can get retailers to sell him I bet we will see Unicron available many times over the coming years in order to pay for R&D and tooling.

Anyway here are a bunch of videos of said Eater of Worlds on TFW. https://news.tfw2005.com/2019/07/18/...-videos-392410

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Originally Posted by Lint

I've seen a shot where the mouth is more closed and the teeth are gnashed together but still very much showing. It'd be nice to have the mouth hide the teeth completely but from the pics I've seen I doubt this is the case.
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The video linked above shows the mouth closed without the teeth showing or maybe a little. Hard to tell if that?s fully closed but looks much better. This is the greatest transformer ever made. These clips have left me speechless.

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

Anyway here are a bunch of videos of said Eater of Worlds on TFW. https://news.tfw2005.com/2019/07/18/...-videos-392410

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Absolutely amazing. Simply stunning.

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Originally Posted by griffin

I agree with this sentiment, as I think they probably wanted to see just how much support there would be by the really obsessed people who want a (realistic) Unicron toy, could afford this at short notice... and if they got above a certain amount (which their bean-counters would already have designated), they would still go ahead with it. I think the Japanese listing will help get the numbers they need, and it should mean Hasbro HK should be offering it somehow as well, as they have a significant customer base as well (big enough to support BOTH Hasbro and TakaraTomy toys in their countries).
And since this would be a once-only toy (until probably the 50th anniversary) because this release will take out most of the people willing and able to afford a toy like this of a character that will only appeal to certain eras of the fandom, they are going to need to make sure this one production run pays for the entire process, and makes a bit on the side. My guess is maybe reaching six or seven thousand backers they will go ahead and produce their minimum number, and then sell off the rest to those who were able to save up their money during the 20 months it took to release it (or keep pre-selling it during that time until the total number are sold).

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What I don’t understand which someone can perhaps explain to me, is why producing only a certain amount and charging near $600US would be preferable to the companies rather than mass-producing it and charging a lower price.

I mean, this is yes the biggest official TF toy ever produced to my knowledge, but it’s not gigantic in the grand scheme of plastic toys. And plastic and screws only cost so much. And this is a figure I could see a massive proportion of the fandom and even toy collectors in general wanting. So if the main cost is the design, why not mass-produce the hell out of it, stick on a more realistic price tag and make it available worldwide?

Then you'd kill the exclusive nature of it.
You can't have the common man owning one when you can make twice as much $$$.
Just look at all of the previous MP repaints for instance like SW and TC. R & D done, moulds ready, all they did was change paint and printed new boxes and booklets.