Percentage of Repaints

[griffin]

But that's us here, who are being shafted with the prices... but I don't see redecos making toys cheaper, it just offsets a necessary price rise due to rising costs of production or weakening exchange rate.
If there really is any cost saving for hasbro to do redecos, imagine how much more expensive the toys would be here if they didn't do redecos.

I'd imagine that the only way to know for sure is being on the Hasbro board, or accessing their corporate archives, to know the reasons for redecos... so is all just guesses from me.

I did have a look at some figures though, to see how price has compared to inflation. Compared to inflation of about 34% in America since 1996, the rising cost of primary resources and fluctuating US$, a Deluxe class figure has (only) gone up 20% in that same time in America.
It's more difficult to assess that for us though with Hasbro America dictating our prices and everything being paid for in US$ before stock arrives in Australia, but Deluxe prices for us were at $20 during Beast Wars, went up to about $30 a few years back, and is now sitting at $25-30 at the major stores.

[SkyWarp91]

Sounds like not only are you not fond of repaints, but all other lines that aren't BW

[Verno]

Sounds like not only are you not fond of repaints, but all other lines that aren't BW

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.

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't mind repaints if there's some creativity behind it rather than just complete randomness. I tend to prefer repaints where the repaint is a new character instead of a variant of the same character.

Look at the CHUGUR Seekers for example - they're all repaints (and retools in the case of Ramjet, Dirge and Thrust) of the Classics Starscream mould, but people like to collect them because each one of them is a unique individual.

I don't want more versions of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee... I want more new characters! Instead of giving us another repaint of Movie Optimus Prime, why not paint him white and finally give us movie Ultra Magnus? We had Recon Ravage and Sea Attack Ravage pegwarming badly... why not repaint Ravage as movieverse Glit and Howlback? Or heck, even Steeljaw would have been preferrable.

Transformers Generations did pretty well in retooling/repainting certain moulds to give us new characters. e.g.: Drift/Blurr, Darkmount/Skullgrin, Sunstreaker/Red Alert, Tracks/Wheeljack, WFC Bumblebee/Cliffjumper, and the upcoming Junkheap (from Wreck Gar).

And we saw that there were other potential retools/repaints that they had planned for Generations but for some reason didn't happen (but it would've been so awesome if it did), e.g. Thunderwing/Black Shadow, Kup/Gears... and there's a lot of other potential repaints they could do with Generations that I reckon would sell, e.g. WFC Optimus Prime --> Ultra Magnus, Scourge --> Sweep, Cyclonus --> Armada, Warpath --> Treds...

And there's potential in RTS too like Jazz --> Ricochet, Windcharger --> Tailgate (just needs a new head), Perceptor --> Reflector etc. And Legends Starscream could be repainted five more times as the other Seekers and Legends Prowl could be retooled/repainted as Legends Bluestreak.

...there's a LOT that Hasbro can do with repaints to make them interesting and appealing with creativity instead of just random and banal with things like "Yet Another Bumblebee." Boo.

And Beast Wars did pretty well in this department - sure we had repaints and retools, but often they became different characters.
e.g.:
Cheetor/Tigatron(/Shadow Panther)
Terrorsaur/Lazorbeak
Waspinator/Buzz Saw
Tarantulas/Blackarachnia
Dinobot/Grimlock (Grimmie needs a GPS free reissue stat!!)
TM2 Cheetor/Tripredacus Agent
...etc. Far more imagination and creativity at work there instead of "Nitro Cheetor." Erm... okay.

[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...

[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

[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.