Hasbro AUS December Answers.
Hasbro AUS sent their answers to the December submission today. They couldn't find the November submission email, and didn't know one was sent until it was mentioned on the December submission.
As such, they will endeavour to answer November's submission next, and still accept a January submission. I also offered to reduce the submission to 10 per month, to make it easier and quicker for them to answer, and they said that from January we can submit 12 per month. Still better than the US/global fan-sites, who only get 5 every 2 months.
So the January submission topic will be re-opened, and you can have a read through their December answers below (there are a couple of good answers this month).
And before the critics jump on the first and 17th answers, I think it is necessary to remind people here that this is an AUS Q&A submission, so if they can't get answers from US Hasbro (or track down the specific person responsible), they will give us a 'best guess' based on what they do know. It's either that or no answer at all. Either way, people will complain, so please just accept the bad with the good. And there is some good with this submission program, both below, and in future as it grows.
Some good answers below - 5 (states why it hasn't yet been able to happen), 6 (is at least not an outright no), 9 (officially confirms what we assume), 10 (the reasoning makes sense if TakaraTomy can tweak the Hasbro product in hindsight), 11 (good news, maybe), 15 (I don't think that statistic has changed since BotCon 2007's marketting presentation), 18 (is that official confirmation of TF2 preview figures? - it was the alterior motive behind that question).
Quote:
1 - For Universe Bruticus, why did Hasbro choose to implement Swindle as a helicopter and Blast-Off as a tank?
It’s likely that there was a name/characteristic analogy here basically because tanks blast things and helicopters don’t blast off. Not everything will be literal to G1.
2 - Will Hasbro Australia be planning any specific publicity stunts, Eg: competitions etc, in the lead up to the live action movie sequel?
Lots of activity is in the works but can’t disclose anything yet.
3 - Any idea if there will be an Australian DVD box set release of remaining TFs cartoons, like 'Robots in Disguise', 'Energon', 'Armada', 'Cybertron'?
This is a MADMAN question and their response was “Not at this time, but Madman is definitely looking into it. The status of the license isn’t clear as to who owns it, but there may be an option to sublicense. No promises at this stage”
4 - Will Hasbro ever do again their Checklist type full colored catalogues like they used to in G1, with all the different products - toys and merchandise - listed and included rather than the "sample" type little catalogue they include now in packaging of the toys?
Unlikely as G1 showed the entire range. We would need to have several waves of toys completed at once to do this and unfortunately we don’t have either the time or manpower to achieve this.
5 - Is it likely to ever see a release of Generation 1 'Season 5' (about 20 Gen1 episodes aired in 1988, with added intros and closures, a bit like the Generation2 version done in the early 90s) on dvd?
Again a MADMAN question and their response was: “Very unlikely. The master licensor to our knowledge has never released master tapes with additional footage on them, or we’d definitely have used them as extras. It’s possible they no longer exist, certainly we’ve not heard of these being released anywhere in the world.”
6 - The Hasbro people at BotCon this year said they were looking to release a Sari Sumdac toy, is that still happening?
This is an idea still in discussion but we cannot confirm at this stage.
7 - Would they consider releasing combat heroes packed in with a reference transformer from the GI.Joe series as a series of 2-packs, e.g Megatron with Cobra Commander.
No not at this stage as we don’t currently mix brands in the heroes range.
8 - Does anyone actually decide the 'Conversion Difficulty Level' on the toys, or is it just given a standardised number based on its size class?
We are looking into this and will try and find out more.
9 - How does Hasbro decide what classic characters get a "Universe makeover", especially with the lesser known characters like Dropshot and Heavyload - do you redeco a mould to match a character, or match a character to a mould redeco?
There is not one specific “ritual” that we abide by when deciding to bring back lesser known characters and there are cases where both scenarios happen. A couple of other factors include the need to use registered names every so often to keep our copyright on a product and additional sometimes we just wish to reuse older moulds which leads to a redeco.
10 - What determines plastic/paint colour choice, when the Hasbro version differs to the Takara version? Like, is it just a cost issue for lighter plastic colours, or a visual/marketting decision?
We typically choose colours that work in our market. Takara does the same in theirs. Also, we normally do our colours first and Takara then has the opportunity to tweak things a little to make it more “collector” centric.
11 - TF Universe had a 'webisode' recently on the Hasbro Transformers site - will there be more, or any other fiction for Universe?
More are planned.
12 - Why was the name for 'Animated' changed from 'Heroes'?
Heroes was just a working title. Hasbro and CN worked together to decide on “Animated” as a more relevant name.
13 - Do you ever get stuck with toys that none of the retailers want? If yes, what do you do with them?
Transformers success is based on a variety of products and as such retailers buy a broad range of items. We don’t often see items that do not gain retail support at all, however of course some lines will receive more than others.
14 - Do Retailers ever return stock they can't sell?
Sorry but we can’t discuss any of our sales trading practices.
15 - Does Hasbro (US or AUS) have any statistics on the demographics percentages of the customers of their Transformers products, to see what age groups are buying them for marketting purposes?
Yes we do. We undertake market research periodically which has revealed that our primary audience is boys aged 6-9.
16 - Do you have a percentage breakdown of units sold in Australia of Animated, Universe, Movie, and 'Other' to see which is the more popular line?
We had an incredibly strong ‘hangover’ from the 2007 movie products in 2008 and this drove sales well above our expectations for the first half. In the second half of the year Transformers Animated was our primary focus and largest range so this performed best for us vs. Universe, however Universe has performed really well and is not that far behind in sales.
17 - Why does Universe Galvatron have bright orange parts to it?
My guess is that the orange is being used as a highlighter colour. It’s meant to contrast and complement the purple while giving distinct colour breaks on the figure.
18 - Were the Movie 'Preview' (Protoform Optimus and Starscream) concept figures last April considered a success or failure to Hasbro in terms of sales and retailer interest?
This is a common strategy in our collector business and we believe they are successful because they garner early interest in both the brand as a whole and the new movie. We want collectors and other consumers to gain a sneak peak into what is to come and this will continue in 09 for both TRA and Joe.
19 - What are Hasbro's thoughts on the Fans-Project City Commander (Classics Ultra Magnus Trailer/exosuit), and would Hasbro ever consider doing something like that in the future?
Designers generally like them but we are not sure about the corporate stance at this time.
20 - Have these been taken up by an AUS store yet, or still TBC:
- Voyager Sunstorm w/Activator Ratchet and Voyager 'Gen1' Shockwave w/Activator Bumblebee. (2009 TBC) TBC
- Nemesis Prime (Universe/Classics Voyager Decepticon) (US SDCC/AUS maybe in 2009) TBC
- Battle for the Cyber Planet Keys (Deluxe 5-pack - repack) (maybe Jun-Jul) TBC
Thanks again to Hasbro AUS customer service for this. :)
