New TFPRIDE Voyager Pics

[Quickstrike]

Yessss, I was hoping they'd make a bigger Ultra Magnus as soon as I saw the Cyberverse one.

I love how Thundertron looks. That's such an attractive deco he has. It's interesting that they're actually selling him as a Star Seeker and not just calling him a Decepticon like they did with Lockdown.

I look forward to seeing better pictures of 'em.

[5FDP]

Kids and parents won't care. Especially parents. I, for example, loved my Hun-Grrr so much as a kid; despite not having a clue who he was outside of the bio. Same with a lot of G2 toys.

That's a fairly broad and sweeping comment that neither kids nor parents wouldn't care. I understand that you're using your own experience as an example however from my experience as a parent and talking to other parents is that most, if not all, only buy toys of characters that appear in shows so that their child can act-out a scene from that show.

My experience as a child of the 80's was exactly that also; I was only interested in the characters that appeared in the show and my parents acted on this by only buying those toys. Even by the time G2 came around and I had my own cash flow, my purchases were still guided by what I knew about a certain character.

Put simply, there is a reason why we have so many Bumblebee toys on the shelves - kids relate to the character far more than any other and in most parents' eyes, he IS Transformers.

[ITZTRU]

I agree with Griff and 5FDP. I really want to be able to get Ironhide, Kup, Rumble etc etc but I just can't have them on my "Prime" display if they're not even part of the cast. And it looks like it might be the same for Magnus. As awesome as he looks so far and as much as I'd want him next to my FE Prime, I just wont get him because he has no place in my cast of Prime figures.

[Doubledealer]

I for one only collect toys of characters that interest me therefore if there is no supporting story, I'm likely to leave the toy on the shelf.

This. Can't wait for Skyquake and Dreadwing, they look AMAZING. Hope everyone got their pre-orders in for Breakdown in time!

[griffin]

I can understand what Gouki is saying though, as when we were (are ) kids, our imagination could have us bond quite easily with whatever TFs toy we were given, but we still had our own preferences if we could get the ones we wanted.
Like for me, I got a Dinobot when I was a kid... If I'd had a choice, I'd have gotten Grimlock or Swoop, but since I got Snarl, he ended up being my favourite Dinobot (since then). Same with Wheelie. Who'd actually want Wheelie if you could only buy one mini-vehicle? I got it as a present, and since I only had less than a dozen TFs at that time, I loved the toy. The Kup toy was one I didn't like though, but it was the 4th TFs toy I got, and I spent so much time with it in my very small collection, I have a soft spot for it (I still think it is a terrible toy, especially with all the good ones at that time)... and any of the other "rare" gifts I got in those early years.
I drooled over the catalogues, WANTING certain high-profile character toys, but bonded with the 5 or 6 toys I got in the first 3 years of Gen1, no matter how obscure or ugly they were.

So yes, kids won't care if they have no choice (are given the rare gift of a Transformers toy)...
...and parents/relatives won't care if the target child isn't with them to point out the right toy, or there is no obvious marketing tool to remind them that a certain character is high-profile to "need" to buy (like with all the OP & Bee marketing lately).

Everyone's experience is different, but in the end, if characters aren't being promoted in a TV show or movie, retailers won't buy as much stock (if any), and kids & parents are less likely to want the toys... not that a dedicated young fan wouldn't be happy to get what they are given, and bond with it none the less.

[GoktimusPrime]

yeah, I agree. Especially considering that most Transformers are released as toys first before we see them appear in media. Kids are often drawn to well designed toys, even without awareness of their media. Look at 1984 -- the first year of G1 had grossed US$1.4 million during a time when the media was still in its infancy. The G1 comics had only run four issues and most kids wouldn't see the G1 cartoon until 1985; but still, it broke the world's record for the highest grossing debut toyline based primarily on the strength of the toys. Look at RiD when that first came out in Australia -- it was months before the cartoon aired on TV here, but yet the toys were flying off shelves when it came out! And let's face it, RiD isn't the most awesome TF story ever written (it's clearly aimed at a very young audience) but people love it because of the toy designs (i.e. contemporary engineering with licensed vehicles as alt modes). A crap toyline will sell poorly even with a higher awareness of media -- look at Beast Machines... the cartoon came out shortly after the toys (and in N. America they managed to get the cartoon out before the toys hit shelves) -- yet it shelfwarmed terribly (though the fact that the cartoon was only available on Foxtel didn't help ).