My two cents on this: Hasbro generally (and the other toy companies) need to dial back what they're doing. There is a massive over-saturation of the market for product and it is not helping. Transformers is a prime example. In addition to Generations and the mainline/gimmick line, we also have Kre-O, mashers, Constructbots, walkie talkies, RC cars, "Titan" over-sized figures, and up until recently Botshots (no doubt I am missing some). These items might all make for good toys, but none of them is helping either the mainline or Generations to sell. All they are doing is diverting cash away from what ought to be the main series.

Marvel is another good example: ten years ago, when the licence was with Toybiz, we had Marvel Legends, Spider-Man classics, and intermittent movie lines which remained compatible with those lines as far as possible. Now look at the mess of different, almost mutually exclusive, toylines they're producing! If ever anything illustrated the value in keeping things simple it's this.

In Transformers' case, it seems pretty clear the over-simplified idea hasn't worked. It was a good idea in many ways, but it could have been introduced in a way which didn't divide the movie line in two and set collectors, kids, and older kids against each other. No kid is going to want a toy which they perceive as being for "babies". Hasbro could have avoided this perception if they had worked on the one-step and flip and change concepts a bit more and created toys with the level of articulation and detail of Generations but using these new transformation styles. Collectors still would have complained, but to be honest if Hasbro announced they were giving every collector a solid gold lifesize statue of Optimus Prime for free collectors would complain, either because it was Prime and we have too many Primes, or because it would be released in America on Tuesday and over here on Wednesday, or something.

The main point is they need to rein it in. Stop flooding the market with products that, basically, aren't Transformers. Bring things back into status quo and go from there. It's the one strategy they haven't tried yet to address the situation with the toy market, and it's the one that might work.