KO MP Ratbat

[reillyd]

That seller is also selling some.... strange items. There's Dr Wu's sword in funky colours, and what appears tobe an AOE sword as a keyring. I'm wondering if it is a factory worker selling QC stock rather than a ko.

[GoktimusPrime]

Nope they were blind and didn't listen to any forums, I am surprised it took so long for the ko company to figured this out as well.

You're not referring to English-language forums, are you? Because you know that most TakaraTOMY employees don't speak/read English, right? If people want to voice the opinions to TakaraTOMY about future products, then the most effective way to do this is via their online survey. Expecting TakaraTOMY to scour English-language forums for feedback from fans outside of their market makes as much sense as expecting Hasbro to scour Japanese-based online groups for comments/feedback about their figures. I doubt that either company does this; and let's not forget that both parties are legally/contractually forbidden from doing this without the other's prior consent anyway. It'd be easier for both parties to directly consult with each other and compare notes when developing products for both markets (as they have done on previous occasions, e.g. Unicron Trilogy etc.).

When was the last time you frequented a Japanese TF forum? A lot of them aren't worth trawling for meaningful feedback on Transformers. Not unless you want to sift through hundreds of threads about hentai (and other even more inappropriate stuff) just to find the rare TF-relevant post. It's far more efficient and effective for TakaraTOMY to set up a dedicated online survey, which they have.

[kurdt_the_goat]

You're right, but i don't think he's talking about a thorough investigation. A cursory glance and even common sense in this case should have been enough!

[GoktimusPrime]

The language barrier and legal/contractual obligations could possibly rule out even "cursory glances." As for 'common sense,' okay, I probably would've done it differently. If it were up to me, I'd release an MP Ratbat with a repaint of another MP Cassette and sell them together as a two pack (same way as Buzzsaw/Frenzy & Ravage/Rumble), e.g. repaint Frumble as MP Enemy or something. But I think one thing that TakaraTOMY wanted to do was to provide an additional incentive for people to consider purchasing MP Soundblaster, a repaint that they may have decided to do to help keep down the cost of producing MP Soundwave in the first place. There's not a whole lot of other repaint potential for this mould.

If they sold MP Ratbat in a two pack w/ another Cassettron, I'd get it in a heartbeat. But I'm not going to buy an MP Soundblaster just to get Ratbat, and there's no way in hell I'm going to buy a counterfeit of MP Ratbat either. MP Soundwave is backward compatible w/ G1 Ratbat, and that's good enough for me.

[Sinnertwin]

I wonder how many people soiled themselves when Soundblaster was announced and shrugged at Ratbat being the cassette?
Blatantly obvious move by TakaraTomy to shift another black repaint and i'm hardly surprised at the rate of sales these KO Ratbat's have experienced.

[liegeprime]

next comes a KO Wingthing .... well Ive been waiting for just a MP Ratbat myself.... I don't wanna shell out for an MP SoundBlaster ... he just doesn't interest me....

[drifand]

I thought there was a time when they wanted to ko soundwave?
That hasn't happened?

[leej84]

Fyi: KO mp ratbat is on the tfdirect website for the same price as eBay if anyone missed out.

[pw_sd]

On Taobao, it's 50 RMB. about $9. dont trust that price on ebay.

[drifand]

On Taobao, it's 50 RMB. about $9. dont trust that price on ebay.

As far as I am concerned 99% of the people here will not be using Taobao.
And eBay is backed with PayPal for any risk they take.