Takara G1 Reissue & Classics Extravaganza!!

[kup]

Shockwave is a bit unlikely as Radioshak still has the license for it I think. But the Deluxe Insecticons, Roadbuster and Whirl are possible if Takara sees Market value in them.

I am personally hoping for Deluxe Insecticons.
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BRUNETTE PORNSTAR

[Adzma]

It's also no greater guarantee of any Dinobots being reissued for reasons that I've already outlined on Page 1 of this thread.

Well maybe it will if Takara realise there's great potential in sales, and they could possibly attempt to recreate the moulds, wouldn't be a true reissue per se, but it'd be as close as we could get.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Riding on the wake of Sky Lynx and Omega it seems almost any reissue is possible. Personally I'd love to see Shockwave, Trypticon, Scorponok, Bludgeon, Thunderwing, and a bunch of Headmasters & Powermasters! One can dream...

[Trailer Park Ninja]

Well maybe it will if Takara realise there's great potential in sales, and they could possibly attempt to recreate the moulds, wouldn't be a true reissue per se, but it'd be as close as we could get.

If they can put a man on the moon....how hard could it be???

[Robzy]

I remember years ago people saying Megatron wouldn't be reissued because of gun laws. Also, many people said Soundwave would be impossible because the mould was broken. Even 6 months ago Sky Lynx and Omega would've been only a transfan's dream... but look what's happened!

I guess any character being reissued is "possible"! It just depends on who makes the decisions.

[GoktimusPrime]

a/ Megatron hasn't been reissued in countries where gun laws prohibit it! Those toy-gun laws don't exist in Japan so it's not a problem there. Why do you think we have the MP-05 Megatron Gun Club?

b/ Soundwave's mould is lost. They had to retool a Soundblaster mould.

c/ Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme were considered unlikely because Takara didn't own the moulds. TakaraTOMY have since someone acquired the rights to those moulds - possibly because companies like ToyBox were bought out by TOMY, I'm not sure. But it wasn't unreasonable to not expect Takara to reissue toys from moulds that they don't own. Encore Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme technically won't be reissues because these Transformers were never released in Japan during G1!

If they can put a man on the moon....how hard could it be???

Great, as soon as TakaraTOMY gets government funding along the lines of NASA, then we should be seeing those Dinobots rolling in no time flat!

Well maybe it will if Takara realise there's great potential in sales, and they could possibly attempt to recreate the moulds, wouldn't be a true reissue per se, but it'd be as close as we could get.

I hate to tell you this, but adult collectors compose a small minority of the Transformers consumer group. The majority of people who buy Transformer toys are children (and of course, adults who buy them for children) and thus adult collector oriented toys like G1 reissues only appeal to a very small and specialised niche market. As a result, Takara produces their reissues in more limited production runs and markets them specifically at adult collectors instead of kids (Ages 15+).

"But why don't they make them in regular production runs and market them at children too?"
...because G1 Transformers suck to kids these days? ;p Oh look, a really non-poseable brick-former that looks cumbersome, cheats by using stickers for details, and is less durable than more recent Transformers!

But just to give you the benefit of the doubt, Hasbro did do exactly that! They marketed their G1 reissues at kids (Ages 8+) and as a result had to do some nasty modifications to the toys for them to comply with current toy safety standards... missiles were ridiculously lengthened, launchers were neutered and for some reason that nobody can understand, they were stripped of chrome. And remember how these things shelf warmed? Yeah... that sure was fun. Not.

Re-constructing a mould for Takara is prohibitively expensive. It already cost them a bucket-load of money to re-cast the arms of Optimus Prime from scratch, but a character like Optimus Prime was justified because ... well.. it's Optimus Prime! And even then, look at how many times they've reused that G1 Prime mould again and again and again and again and again to milk as much money back off it! Phwoar!

And that's just the arms... you're talking about re-constructing the Dinobots from scratch?

...I just don't see how that could be economically viable, let alone profitable, for TakaraTOMY. :/

[STL]

Re-constructing a mould for Takara is prohibitively expensive. It already cost them a bucket-load of money to re-cast the arms of Optimus Prime from scratch, but a character like Optimus Prime was justified because ... well.. it's Optimus Prime! And even then, look at how many times they've reused that G1 Prime mould again and again and again and again and again to milk as much money back off it! Phwoar!

And that's just the arms... you're talking about re-constructing the Dinobots from scratch?

...I just don't see how that could be economically viable, let alone profitable, for TakaraTOMY. :/

This keeps getting tossed around like it's fact. Until someone gives me a rational explanation for why this is the case, I'll continue to be skeptical.

If you look at how easy KOs are getting done, you're essentially saying that Takara is so inefficient that they can't embark on a process that cheap, inferior production plants in China can.

There's no logic behind it to me. And asking me to believe something that illogical is a tough ask.

If it is the truth though, I'd love to hear an explanation. It confounds me that it could cost -that- much to simply recast arms...

[Robzy]

a/ Megatron hasn't been reissued in countries where gun laws prohibit it! Those toy-gun laws don't exist in Japan so it's not a problem there. Why do you think we have the MP-05 Megatron Gun Club?

That's not what I mean - I'm saying he has been released regardless of what country we're talking about! (it's perfectly legal to import reissue Megs but not MP Megs - but that's another issue! ) So my point still stands... People said Megatron wouldn't be reissued... He was! They said Soundwave wouldn't be reissued... He was! They said Omega would NEVER be reissued... He is! People also say Shockwave and Grimlock won't be reissued... let's wait and see

Encore Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme technically won't be reissues because these Transformers were never released in Japan during G1!

Then why are they part of the "ENCORE" line?

G1 Transformers suck to kids these days? ;p Oh look, a really non-poseable brick-former that looks cumbersome, cheats by using stickers for details, and is less durable than more recent Transformers!

I agree!

Re-constructing a mould for Takara is prohibitively expensive. It already cost them a bucket-load of money to re-cast the arms of Optimus Prime from scratch,

How expensive was it? This is the first I've heard of it.

[GoktimusPrime]

This keeps getting tossed around like it's fact. Until someone gives me a rational explanation for why this is the case, I'll continue to be skeptical.

If you look at how easy KOs are getting done, you're essentially saying that Takara is so inefficient that they can't embark on a process that cheap, inferior production plants in China can.

There's no logic behind it to me. And asking me to believe something that illogical is a tough ask.

If it is the truth though, I'd love to hear an explanation. It confounds me that it could cost -that- much to simply recast arms...

Remember that:
a/ Bootleggers don't have the produce to the same production and quality standards that Takara sets for themselves and that their consumers would demand.
b/ Bootleggers have far less operational costs than Takara. For one thing, they don't have to pay for R&D/engineering which is an entire division in Takara.
c/ Bootleggers don't have to pay for licensing. Believe it or not, but licensing cost craploads. Remember those little comic books that I published for the Sydney TF conventions? Do you know how much Hasbro asked me to pay to purchase the licence just to publish those little comic books? AU$10,000. That's right. Just imagine the cost of licensing for action figures with registered trademarked and copyrighted names etc.
d/ Bootleggers don't pay for marketing. Advertising costs a lot of money.
e/ afaik most bootleggers operate entirely from very low-wage countries like China and paying their employees entirely in cheaper currencies like RMB. Companies like Takara are based in Japan paying full wages to employees in JPY. Sure, their primary production is done in factories in China, but their design and main operational staff are located in Japan. Then there's the cost of coordinate their operations between Japan, China and the United States with Hasbro - all legit, which means they pay taxes. Somehow I doubt bootleggers pay full tax. (-_-)

Takara themselves have stated that reconstructing a toy from scratch is heniously expensive. Do you remember how they were... well, not complaining, but they certainly weren't hiding the fact that recasting Optimus Prime's arms were a massive expense for them. And we've seen how they've kept remilking that mould... since they did the arm recast on the G2 Prime mould, we've seen...
+ reissue Convoy
+ Convoy black version
+ New Year Special Convoy
(+ Commemorative Edition Optimus Prime <--as requested by Hasbro)
+ Transformer Collection Convoy
+ Pepsi Convoy
(+ Pepsi Optimus Prime <--as requested by Hasbro)
+ iPod docking station Convoy
+ Encore Convoy
...Optimus Prime has been reissued more times than any other G1 mould, and it's easy to see that Optimus Prime is also the most sellable character simply because he's Optimus Prime (not rocket science).

If you really doubt all this, feel free to contact Takara, ask to speak to the head of their Transformers division (last time I checked it was Mr. Takagi) and ask him directly (yes, Takagi-san speaks fluent English - I've spoken to him myself).

That's not what I mean - I'm saying he has been released regardless of what country we're talking about! (it's perfectly legal to import reissue Megs but not MP Megs - but that's another issue! )

Err... G1 Megatron's kinda in a legal limbo... afaik it's still technically illegal to import this toy, but it's just that Australian Customs aren't actively seeking this toy like they did with MP Megatron. But before MP Megatron none of us ever worried much about importing a gun Megatron... I think that the Megatron Gun Club should extend itself to include G1 Megatron (and all other forms of gun Transformers, for all those Megaplex and Browning lovers).

So my point still stands... People said Megatron wouldn't be reissued... He was! They said Soundwave wouldn't be reissued... He was! They said Omega would NEVER be reissued... He is! People also say Shockwave and Grimlock won't be reissued... let's wait and see

I've never heard of people saying that Megatron and Soundwave would never be reissued period. I've only heard people say that Megatron would never be reissued in the Hasbro markets. And how long did those rumours last anyway? 8 months? Because the first Takara reissue (Convoy) came out in June 2000 and the first Megatron came out in Jan/Feb 2001... so... that's kinda weird.

People said that Omega Supreme and Shockwave would never be reissued because they're not Takara moulds. The fact that TakaraTOMY has somehow since managed to acquire the Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme mould and been able to reissue them is fantastic news, but it doesn't mean that people's doubts were unfounded. It's not unreasonable to assume that moulds that don't belong to Takara can't be reissued by Takara!! Remember that Takara were never even able to release these moulds during G1 (they were Hasbro exclusives)!

So I'm not saying that a Grimlock or G1 Dinobots reissue is impossible, but I'd say it's highly improbable. If Takara was able to reissue any of the Dinobots why wouldn't they have already done so in the last eight years of continuous reissues from Takara?? We've seen them go through the first reissue series (no special name), the Collector's Edition series, the Transformers Collection series and now the Encore series. That's four different series of reissues in eight years and not once have we seen a Dinobot reissue. And it's not as if people aren't asking for them. I've been asking, other fans I know have been asking - a lot of fans have been asking them for years and years in the old self-address cardboard survey slips that we kept filling out and mailing back to Takara many, many times. I'm sure we're not the only ones who have been asking. They've released other less-popular characters like God Ginrai, Star Convoy, G2 Laser Prime, Landcross, the Micromaster gestalts and Wheelie for crying out loud. As if you'd reissue Wheelie before Grimlock! The fact that they did indicates to me that in all probability, they are just unable to reissue Grimlock.

But hey, if they did, I'd be pre-ordering one lickity-split. Prove me wrong, Takara! But er, yeah... I wouldn't hold my breath.

Unfortunately the current online survey system doesn't let you submit suggestions for future reissues like the old snail-mail ones did (probably got fed up from all the relentless requests from dirge for a Time Warrior reissue/Binaltech/Masterpiece ). If you're really keen on suggesting it, feel free to call TakaraTOMY.

Tokyo centre: 0011-81-3-5650-1031
Osaka centre: 0011-81-6-6395-1031
Weekdays 10:00~17:00JST (12:00~19:00AEDST) excl. public holidays

How expensive was it? This is the first I've heard of it.

I haven't heard an exact amount, but I've heard that Takara said it was a lot.

[Robzy]

Err... G1 Megatron's kinda in a legal limbo... afaik it's still technically illegal to import this toy, but it's just that Australian Customs aren't actively seeking this toy like they did with MP Megatron. But before MP Megatron none of us ever worried much about importing a gun Megatron... I think that the Megatron Gun Club should extend itself to include G1 Megatron (and all other forms of gun Transformers, for all those Megaplex and Browning lovers).

Well, I guess it depends on where you live in Australia! I've had no problems importing a G1 Megatron reissue recently, and my MP Megatron arrived in the post too! Also, several stores I frequent have had no problems getting Encore Megatron or MP Megatron in (Shintokyo had 8 MP Megs delivered before Christmas!) It seems like the eastern states are the only ones with the problems unfortunately!

I've never heard of people saying that Megatron and Soundwave would never be reissued period. I've only heard people say that Megatron would never be reissued in the Hasbro markets.

I remember reading "concerns" on several TF websites (Seibertron etc...) about Megatron. I definitely remember people writing on the forums that the Soundwave mould was broken/lost. Then all of a sudden it was announced as one of the TFCs. After that, I stopped believing what I read by so-called "experts"!

That's four different series of reissues in eight years and not once have we seen a Dinobot reissue. And it's not as if people aren't asking for them.

I wonder what the reason is!