Hasbro acquires Porsche licence for Transformers

[Cat]

It does differ by country too. This does look like Porsche Japan and America are onboard, which is a positive sign.
, as we've seen they can go in very different directions when laying down the law, eg with Alternator/Binaltech Windcharger and what could be allowed re his muffler gun thingie in ?Honda? form. It was fine in Japan but not allowed in the West.

Besides, we've technically already got a MP Jazz. He comes with Skyfire.

[Kranix]

With the current trend in MPs, I think MP Meister would surprise us in terms of how much it would deviate in order to be so slavishly cartoon-like. I mean, Optimus Prime's cartoon model doesn't fundamentally differ from the toy that much, and yet MP Convoy 3.0 just goes to a whole 'nuther level with complexity, achieving cartoon-likeness in places that a lot of people barely even noticed, if at all (e.g. Optimus Prime's stripes not existing in his truck mode etc.). Some of the key differences with Jazz's cartoon model include:
* No door-wings
* No shoulder wheels
* Bonnet-chest is less protruding
* Rear wheel sections are shrunken
* Spoilers fold down and are shrunken
etc.
These may seem like small things, but in terms of MP level toy engineering, they can make a significant difference. If they made the MP in the same vein as the early MP Cars (e.g. MP Datsuns), then yeah, it'd be pretty similar to the G1 toy. But in a post-MP Inferno era, I expect that it would be much more complex. I wouldn't mind if they went the Skids road and made it simpler again, but given how much more popular Jazz is, I reckon an MP Meister would be more like the more recent MP Cars (ex. Skids).

And let's face it, MP consumers aren't exactly price sensitive. With MPs they can afford to throw in the money to make the toy more cartoon-like, and we fans will pay it.
The joys of a collector-centric line targeted at adults with disposable income.

P.S.: Not sure if TakaraTomy can legally get away with "MARTINII (sic) RACING." TakaraTomy did acquire the rights to use Alitalia's name for MP Wheeljack, which is why that toy has Alitalia spelt correctly as opposed to the G1 toy's deliberately misspelt "Alitalla." I'm not sure if they can get away with putting Martini's name on a toy, even misspelt. I don't think it would cause the same issues as Marlboro did for MP Exhaust. I reckon they could get away with a further deliberate misspelling, like SMARTINII RACING, and just let fans cut out the "S" on the stickers; similar to what they did for the Red Cross stickers on MP Ratchet. or just give us a sticker of the Martini logo with no text... or even have the red circle and black rectangle as separate stickers and let fans work out how to put them together.

For me, I'm a hybrid MP fan. I don't need a toy version, or a toon version of Jazz. Masterpiece to me was the best version of the character. Simply being toon, does not make a Masterpiece to me, but neither do I want a revised version of the original toy. Some MP look better with more toon, some with a bit more toy.

So, MP Jazz doesn't need to have Martini livery for example. It doesn't even have to use the wing doors for me to perhaps like it. However, I get the feeling if they remove all details and try and do some trickery to change the shape of the chest and legs etc to strive for pure tooness, I'll not be a fan. It may depend on what source they actually choose to base MP Jazz on, like the picture you use would be good but sometimes, he is drawn quite differently in the cartoon.

Still, I'm crossing my fingers that I'll like what they produce (should we get an MP Jazz). I'm open to it, I've always looked at every MP and tried to decide if I will like it, rather than say, it'll be toon, no way!

[GoktimusPrime]

eg with Alternator/Binaltech Windcharger and what could be allowed re his muffler gun thingie in ?Honda? form. It was fine in Japan but not allowed in the West.

Considering that TakaraTOMY are the only ones doing MPs atm, I don't see this being an issue. And if it is, I'd just opt for the TakaraTOMY version.

Besides, we've technically already got a MP Jazz. He comes with Skyfire.

Correct. And technically we do already have an MP Blaster and Twincast. Not to mention MP Chip Chase --- COURAGE!

For me, I'm a hybrid MP fan. I don't need a toy version, or a toon version of Jazz. Masterpiece to me was the best version of the character. Simply being toon, does not make a Masterpiece to me, but neither do I want a revised version of the original toy. Some MP look better with more toon, some with a bit more toy.

I totally agree, but the majority of fans prefer "'toon accuracy" (a term that I personally don't use), and of course TakaraTOMY are going to cater for what the majority want. Having said that, the higher level of cartoon likeness does help to further separate MPs from CHUGs, now that CHUGs have gotten so good that they're practically cheaper MPs.

[Magnus]

Hopefully ROTB Mirage will sell well enough to convince Porsche to grant licence for future Transformers. The important thing is that this has now established a precedent. For decades, Porsche has refused to grant licence based on the grounds that they don't want their vehicles to be "affiliated with war."

For anyone who wants to know where and how the whole 'war toys' thing came about, TFWiki cites a single TFArchive forum post from a user who was supposedly a Porsche employee who asked the marketing department about granting Hasbro/TakaraTOMY a licence to make a Porsche for the Alternators line.

Finally I came around and called the licence department while being at work yesterday.

I told about that I wanted to know the trademark policy of our company towars toys, especially the Transformer toyline, as the BInaltech/Alternators are realistic sports cars and if Porsche has had talks with Takare and Hasbro.

The woman I got connected with wanted to know the background of my inquiry, so I told her about collecting sports car models and Transformers and that "we" were asking us if there would be a Porsche Alternator.

She said "No, because I do not want that" and the reason is, becasue Transformers are not worthy carrying the Porsche trademark. They are war machines and the toyline and in no way represent the lifestyle and ideas which Porsche represents.

As I understand it, Lamborghini's licensing with the MP Sunstreaker mould had two conditions:
1. the bonnet cannot split
2. it must be packaged in factory standard/default Lamborghini Countach form, not the modified Super Tuning form that is iconic to Sunstreaker
So TakaraTOMY worked around this by giving MP Sunstreaker a non-separating panel that went over the feet to form a seamless bonnet, as well as engineering the rear half of the car to transform between the standard Countach and Super Tuning modes.

Different licensors seem to have different conditions (e.g. VW clearly don't care about splitting the bonnet like Lamborghini or Corvette do).

By the way, do you have a source for Lamborghini not wanting the bonnet to split on a Countach? I had thought that the reason the bonnet lid wasn't made as a splitting item was to aid in creating narrower feet for the robot mode.

Also, this is the first I've read of Chevrolet not wanting the bonnet to split on a Corvette - Chevrolet were obviously ok with the bonnet splitting on the Corvette C5 Z06 for Alternators Tracks, the 2009 Stingray Concept for RotF Sideswipe, and the Corvette C3 for Masterpiece Tracks.

P.S.: Not sure if TakaraTomy can legally get away with "MARTINII (sic) RACING." TakaraTomy did acquire the rights to use Alitalia's name for MP Wheeljack, which is why that toy has Alitalia spelt correctly as opposed to the G1 toy's deliberately misspelt "Alitalla." I'm not sure if they can get away with putting Martini's name on a toy, even misspelt. I don't think it would cause the same issues as Marlboro did for MP Exhaust. I reckon they could get away with a further deliberate misspelling, like SMARTINII RACING, and just let fans cut out the "S" on the stickers; similar to what they did for the Red Cross stickers on MP Ratchet. or just give us a sticker of the Martini logo with no text... or even have the red circle and black rectangle as separate stickers and let fans work out how to put them together.

So, MP Jazz doesn't need to have Martini livery for example. It doesn't even have to use the wing doors for me to perhaps like it. However, I get the feeling if they remove all details and try and do some trickery to change the shape of the chest and legs etc to strive for pure tooness, I'll not be a fan. It may depend on what source they actually choose to base MP Jazz on, like the picture you use would be good but sometimes, he is drawn quite differently in the cartoon.

For anyone who doesn't know, the Diaclone toy that became Jazz is based on the Martini Racing-liveried Porsche 935 that won the 1976 6 Hours of Mugello, driven by Jochen Mass and Jacky Ickx.

Tomy has made models of cars (including Porsches) with Martini Racing livery in the past through their Tomica line of model cars, so this could help secure permission to recreate the Martini Racing livery for a possible Masterpiece Jazz. In fact, Shogo Hasui is quoted as saying that Tomy's relationship with car manufacturers was a big help in securing the rights to the Lancia Stratos to make Masterpiece Wheeljack, complete with the original Alitalia livery from the car from the 1977 Giro d'Italia.

Actually, thanks to Tomica brand, we can negotiate with many car manufacturers such as Fiat. This is a great result of merger (of Takara and Tomy). I had a Lancia Stratos Tomica when I was little. The style and colour scheme is very unique and hard to forget. It was my favourite but as I was young, I don't think I remembered the name.

I for one am hoping that a Masterpiece Jazz gets the Martini Racing livery. If that's the case, then later on there will be a more screen-accurate version of Jazz with a single dark blue stripe if MP-20+ is any indication.

[Kranix]

I for one am hoping that a Masterpiece Jazz gets the Martini Racing livery. If that's the case, then later on there will be a more screen-accurate version of Jazz with a single dark blue stripe if MP-20+ is any indication.

I would love to see a, detailed, realistic, full livery MP Jazz. He would be something very special. I think it unlikely, though. So, I need to keep my expectations in check.

It would be very cool if they could follow the MP Wheeljack scenario, where they release the detailed version and then the toon + later. However, I expect that since the vast majority of collections are on the toon train, it wouldn't make business sense. Jazz would surely be designed to look as toon as possible from the outset, then possibly we could see them try and make a revised toy like version but really we have only seen that happen with MP-36 Megatron. I think that was a Hasbro Asia initiative too. Jazz has quite a few alternatives, like G2, Stepper etc. No need to do the same.

The one unknown is what Porsche may want. They may want to licence a more real life accurate Porsche alt mode. I was always surprised that Takara were able to get that + version of Wheeljack through. A real life Jazz would look so perfect next to my original MP Wheeljack though!

[GoktimusPrime]

By the way, do you have a source for Lamborghini not wanting the bonnet to split on a Countach? I had thought that the reason the bonnet lid wasn't made as a splitting item was to aid in creating narrower feet for the robot mode.

I do not. It's something that I've heard several people say and seems plausible given that we've never had a post-G1 Sunstreaker with splitting bonnet, and that TakaraTOMY went through extra effort to avoid having the bonnet cover split. It does create narrower feet, but they could have also had the bonnet split and have some of the bonnet panels fold in. Admittedly this is something that I cannot conclusively prove, but does seem "plausible."

Also, this is the first I've read of Chevrolet not wanting the bonnet to split on a Corvette - Chevrolet were obviously ok with the bonnet splitting on the Corvette C5 Z06 for Alternators Tracks, the 2009 Stingray Concept for RotF Sideswipe, and the Corvette C3 for Masterpiece Tracks.

Oops, my bad. I meant to say that VW and Corvette don't care about their bonnets splitting like Lamborghini seem to do. Mea culpa.

[KELPIE]

But I don't want a Porsche Cliffjumper MP.... I want a Chibi Cliffjumper MP.

[High_Q]

But I don't want a Porsche Cliffjumper MP.... I want a Chibi Cliffjumper MP.

For Takara Tomy, the ideal outcome would be a chibi Cliffjumper MP that is Porsche licensed, just like they did with MP-45 Bumblebee. So you'll still get what you want if the licensing goes through, but it might take a while longer to get it.

[Cat]

But I don't want a Porsche Cliffjumper MP.... I want a Chibi Cliffjumper MP.

Wasn't the one we've seen already chibi CJ?

[Tha_Phantom]

Wasn't the one we've seen already chibi CJ?

Yep. I don't know why people are still speculating about this.