Percentage of Repaints

[SkyWarp91]

That's not true. I'm not a fan of other lines bastardising BW moulds. I quite like the look of Alternators and really think that, coupled with RID, gave birth to G1-esk figures of goodness that we're seeing now in Generations, which also look quite snazzy.

I question why it's BW specifically that's been so heavily borrowed from? BM has 40-odd moulds that could have been reused in the time since, but even that line wasn't devoid of borrowing from BW: T-Wrecks, Dinotron, Rapticon, Terranotron... It's a smaller percentage, but they couldn't resist repainting their rider figures.

Haha my comment was only a joke - maybe BM isnt popular enough to be borrowed from?

[liegeprime]

Well Im just assuming repaints = more profits for Hasbro. Also less trouble coming up with a new mould for another character... but for same character repaints beats the pus out of me, mebbe as mentioned earlier = profits still behind as reason, coz lets face it, WE, are not the target customers of Hasbro.
It's the toy stores, who are targetted to buy the random repaint Hasbro offers up. Whether these shelfwarm or not is not anymore Hasbro's concern, it's the toy stores that have to make up for their losses.

Not all repaints are bad though, I can attest to that, at times better than original and even at times offer an incentive to the fandom (Hasbro throwing us a bone from time to time) e.g. G1 colored Generations/Classicverse whatever Starscream which I really prefer over the first release only because I didnt like the stylized wing deco - I sold the Classics one shortly after. Another would be the generations minicons combiners repaint... if it werent for that I wouldnt be able to get them as the G1 originals are kinda pricy for such little figs seeing as well that these are jap exclusives on first release.

As for the reuse of BW to Armada - even though there's no gimmick when one does attach a minicon to them (ending up with minicons just look like unsightly over growths) I guess coz Armada ended up more of a lumped up homage line which carried on to Energon so it kinda paid tribute to both G1 and BW - using the names of old character in new molds/characterizations, but with the BW moulds the moulds are still useable and quite poseable really, so instead prolly of major new mould creation , a reuse was decided - again this is just pure speculation.

Then, there's the filer line repaints.The very first generations line (filler) was filled in by whatnot recolours and slapped with the random names that the people at Hasbro thought would fit at times it works somehow - e.g. Nemesis Prime (Big Convoy) at times it just looks tacky as e.g. Purple Fuzor Silverbolt, i dont know what color Optimus Primal, eeeww - the bottom line is, for me, basically profit and cost saving

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah but that doesn't explain why Hasbro can't be more clever and creative with their repaints. Look at the Classicsverse Seekers -- a relatively inexpensive concept because you just need to repaint Starscream as Thundercracker and Skywarp, and repaint/retool Ramjet as Dirge and Thrust. It's such a cheap and simply idea that Hasbro should have done with Classics, but no, instead they let it drag on for five freakin' years across Classics, Timelines, Henkei/Gentei, Universe and Generations. They gave us Acid Storm long before they gave us Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust at retail! Whaaaa? (although at least Acid Storm was a new character and not something like "Sky Cruise Starscream")

I understand the need for Hasbro to do repaints, and I don't necessarily object to the practice per se, but what I'm not fond of is when it's done as a half-bum effort (IMO). Instead of giving us banal repaints of the same character like Battle Steel Optimus Prime, Battle In The Moonlight Optimus Prime, Lunarfire Optimus Prime, Firegutsburst Optimus Prime etc., give us Movie Ultra Magnus and Movie Nemesis Prime... as simple and mundane as these ideas may seem - and I remember a time when I was getting sick of all the Optimus Prime moulds being repainted white and black for Ultra Magnus and Nemesis Prime... but I much prefer it over "Yet Another Optimus Prime"!

[liegeprime]

yeah well, I dunno the r real reasoning for such random releases of recolours Gok. I don't wanna say it, but you might wanna refer to the part first of GiJoe the movie where Serpentor, Cobra Commander and the Cobra Officer were having a heated argument on why they always lose... and you'd get the answer hehehe

[Tober]

Some lines seem more susceptible than others. Animated didn't get many repaints (Starscream aside, but that was story driven at least). So far it doesn't look like there will be many for Prime either.

It does fet to me when they start re-purposing characters tho. Cybertron Soundwave as Classics Blaster...

[Quickstrike]

Haha my comment was only a joke - maybe BM isnt popular enough to be borrowed from?

Robots in Disguise and Universe both had a bunch of redecos of Beast Machines toys.

[GoktimusPrime]

Robots in Disguise and Universe both had a bunch of redecos of Beast Machines toys.

RiD had limited number of BM moulds redeco'd... and Universe 1.0 was just craptacular... or as I called it, "Beast Wars Generation 2" (cos we saw lots of BW (and BM) moulds re-released with weird colours, just like G2 started off with G1 toys released with weird colours)

[Cat]

Yeah but that doesn't explain why Hasbro can't be more clever and creative with their repaints. Look at the Classicsverse Seekers -- a relatively inexpensive concept because you just need to repaint Starscream as Thundercracker and Skywarp, and repaint/retool Ramjet as Dirge and Thrust. It's such a cheap and simply idea that Hasbro should have done with Classics, but no, instead they let it drag on for five freakin' years across Classics, Timelines, Henkei/Gentei, Universe and Generations. They gave us Acid Storm long before they gave us Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust at retail! Whaaaa? (although at least Acid Storm was a new character and not something like "Sky Cruise Starscream")

I understand the need for Hasbro to do repaints, and I don't necessarily object to the practice per se, but what I'm not fond of is when it's done as a half-bum effort (IMO). Instead of giving us banal repaints of the same character like Battle Steel Optimus Prime, Battle In The Moonlight Optimus Prime, Lunarfire Optimus Prime, Firegutsburst Optimus Prime etc., give us Movie Ultra Magnus and Movie Nemesis Prime... as simple and mundane as these ideas may seem - and I remember a time when I was getting sick of all the Optimus Prime moulds being repainted white and black for Ultra Magnus and Nemesis Prime... but I much prefer it over "Yet Another Optimus Prime"!

The Classics Seekers is down to one thing: popularity. The popularity of Classics took Hasbro by surprise. They had no intention of continuing it, thus when Botcon got them, they weren't going to be produced otherwise. (I've still got my Botcon Seekers, still love them for different reasons to the later releases).

Of course it ended up in drama, but it wasn't malice by Hasbro.

They ended up giving a fair distance between the Botcon release, and their own domestic release. In between that you had the Gentei releases in Japan, so at that stage, you had had two chances to get them.

Acid Storm was neat, I was pleased to have a totally new Seeker. It seemed obvious that the others were coming at some stage.

[Cat]

As for the reuse of BW to Armada - even though there's no gimmick when one does attach a minicon to them (ending up with minicons just look like unsightly over growths) I guess coz Armada ended up more of a lumped up homage line which carried on to Energon so it kinda paid tribute to both G1 and BW - using the names of old character in new molds/characterizations, but with the BW moulds the moulds are still useable and quite poseable really, so instead prolly of major new mould creation , a reuse was decided - again this is just pure speculation.

The BW moulds were used in Armada because the line was proving more popular than Hasbro had anticipated. They needed product, and they needed it QUICK.

Not enough time to create new moulds, so they dug out the ?four? BW moulds and released those, to fill shelves.

[GoktimusPrime]

Five. Don't forget the retool/repaint of TM Megatron.

Perhaps not releasing all the Seekers during Classics may not have been malice, but it was odd that they'd release Starscream and Skywarp for Classics but not Thundercracker. And then it took Hasbro years to release the rest of the Seekers in retail... why release Acid Storm before releasing Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust??? Acid Storm was a peg-warmer too - but surely it makes more sense to release the rest of the "core" G1 Seekers before venturing off with obscure characters like the green Rainmaker. If anything, Thundercracker should have been released in retail sooner and Acid-Storm should have been a BotCon exclusive (IMHO).

And why give us Classics Ramjet but not Dirge and Thrust?? If they didn't want to give us all 6 Seekers, they should have just released Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker in Classics -- it would have been inexpensive to do because they just repaint the same mould... then if they sell well, do the Coneheads.

And that's the thing that frustrated me... the whole idea of doing repaints is that it's such an inexpensive way of pumping out "new" toys because Hasbro doesn't need to invest in any R&D to develop a new mould. If the repaint shelf warms, then they don't lose out as much as with a new mould... so it's a relatively "safer" risk. Yet with the Seekers Hasbro were ultra ultra cautious... but took risks with other weird crap like Recon Ravage and Sea Attack Ravage - who peg-warmed something chronic.

They ended up giving a fair distance between the Botcon release, and their own domestic release.

Which was nigh on frustrating. Five years to collect the Classicsverse Seekers? Gah!!

In between that you had the Gentei releases in Japan, so at that stage, you had had two chances to get them.

Not very good chances considering that:

a/ They were limited exclusives
b/ They were f'expensive ($50 for a Deluxe?!? Owch!!)

I did get Gentei Thrust, Skywarp and Thundercracker... but it cost me a pretty penny.

Also, this would not have been part of Hasbro's plan because Hasbro and Takara are contractually forbidden from 'cross-contaminating' each other's market; i.e. Hasbro can't go and tell Takara to release Seekers that they haven't done to "cover" them or vice versa.

Acid Storm was neat, I was pleased to have a totally new Seeker. It seemed obvious that the others were coming at some stage.

It's easy in hindsight to say that the others were coming at some stage - I don't know about you - but at the time Acid Storm came out I really had no idea if Hasbro or Takara would ever release Thundercracker, Dirge or Thrust in retail. Why else would I have bothered to pay fifty freaking dollars each for Gentei Thundercracker and Thrust?? (I got Skywarp because he came with Thundercracker - I already had Classics Skywarp at the time)

I missed out on Gentei Dirge too... so Dirge eluded me for a long time. I was so desperate that I got Universe Dirge (repaint of Voyager Cybertron Starscream) as a placeholder in hope that Hasbro or Takara would release Dirge again (hopefully in retail) and that I would be able to get it. Three years later I finally got Generations Dirge and I sold off Universe Dirge.

I don't think it was any intentional malice... I highly doubt Hasbro execs sat back evilly laughing saying, "Let's make TF collectors wait 5 years to complete their Seekers, wahahaha!" -- that's not what I'm implying... but it does seem to be a rather unfocused, inattentive and sporadic effort from Hasbro. As Ultra Magnus says, Consistency is victory!