As noted, TakaraTomy are more focused on the smaller collector market because they don't have to produce as many units for their customers (Japanese Retailers), while Hasbro have a global marketing strategy that requires hundreds of thousands of units to be sold, via Retailers, who won't know if characters are "correct" to Gen1, but do have issue with a group of toys looking too similar if they are supposed to be different characters.


I love this toyline so much that I welcome the new characters and extra variety in the Hasbro line.... as we can't be 30 years and still have the same combiners and characters. I know it didn't quite work with the 4 Kreo Combiners that were released last year that were original characters, but there might be better reception for the regular toys, especially if it is a popular toyline. Already we have a couple of extra Voyagers and Deluxes, so I'd like to see more original characters in the mainline (if the fan-vote female combiner ends up being a limited edition exclusive).