Hasbro acquires Porsche licence for Transformers

[GoktimusPrime]

Already posted on the Rise of the Beasts movie news thread, but I thought that this might be worthy of its own news thread; particularly for anyone who isn't following movie news. Hasbro has revealed images of Studio Series Rise of the Beasts Mirage and on have also confirmed that it is a licensed Porsche.

This should now hopefully open the flood doors for future licensed Porsche Transformers, including the potential for a Masterpiece Meister and Cliff.

[Tha_Phantom]

This is indeed a historic moment for the brand. We've seen leaked copies of a Masterpiece Cliffjumper floating around for a while in various stages of development and it is my guess that it was meant to be officially announced sooner but they've held it back because of the ROTB film delay. I realise that these are separate lines and universes but there may be a deal in place to drop all the licensed Porsche products in a certain time window. Just a guess as I said, but anyway I'd like to hope we'll hear some official announcement about that Cliffjumper (and also a Jazz) very soon.

[GoktimusPrime]

I realise that these are separate lines and universes but there may be a deal in place to drop all the licensed Porsche products in a certain time window.

I'd say that this is likely, as TakaraTomy acquired the VW licence with MP21, which then allowed for Hasbro to make licensed VW Beetle Bumblebee toys for the Bumblebee movie and Netflix WFC figure. TakaraTomy also acquired the Lamborghini licence with MP12 Lambor, which has allowed for toys like AOE Lockdown, TLK Hot Rod, MP Sunstreaker/Cordon/Spin Out etc.

[Seraphim Prime]

The recent fan roundtable reported on by the American sites indicate that vehicle licenses tend to be relevant only for the specific figure and the year of release.

Having one licensed figure doesn't guarantee a license for another figure, but it does at least provide a relationship that can be used to hopefully allow for other releases.

[reillyd]

Hopefully there will be enough goodwill towards Hasbro for the heavy promo in their movie that Hasbro can live off that for a few years.

I could be misremembering, but I’m pretty sure I read once that car manufacturers were PAYING for their vehicles to be used in the Michael Bay movies as promotions, rather than Hasbro going cap in hand saying “please may I use your car likeness”.

[Tha_Phantom]

I could be misremembering, but I�m pretty sure I read once that car manufacturers were PAYING for their vehicles to be used in the Michael Bay movies as promotions, rather than Hasbro going cap in hand saying �please may I use your car likeness�.

You'll probably find that it goes either way depending on the car/brand in question. In Porsche's case, I'd wager that Hasbro came to them as they've used an older Porsche for the movie not a current one (given that this film is set in the '90s there's not really any flexibility there). We also know that in the past Takara have tried to approach them for licensing and been rejected, so my guess is that a rather lucrative film and merchandising deal helped win Porsche over as opposed to "let us do this one Binaltech." I realise what was said above about nothing being guaranteed but I will still be very surprised if we don't see a sudden influx of Porsche toys over the next 12 months or so across various lines.

[High_Q]

MP Cliffjumper is the MP i'm looking forward to the most, if it ever eventuates.

It'll be funny when Takara team shows the Porsche team what the MP Porsches look like, and the Porsche team asking what kind of car the chibi Cliffjumper is meant to represent. "Yeah, no. You can't put our logo on that thing. Make as many as you like, just don't put our name on it."

[Kranix]

Very exciting news! Lots of hope for collectors.

On a personal level, MP Jazz and MP Skyfire were my two grail Transformers. Unfortunately for me, Skyfire was impressive, but a little too far in the toon column for my taste. No surprise of course. I have the Siege version as my Skyfire (the only non MP in my collection) and I'm happy. Despite other MP collectors hurling the insults at those who would commit the atrocity of using a Mainline figure in an MP collection. He fits well but my collection ends at MP-36.

MP Jazz, I expect to go the same way. I imagine he will be full toon style in line with other releases except MP Skids. Possible that they could choose to follow that figure and use a bit more detail but I would not expect so. Although, toon Jazz did not deviate from the toy design as much as others, so I may be pleasantly surprised, and like the design. If not, my Transformers collecting journey probably ends here.

[GoktimusPrime]

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." They have clearly shifted on this stance (much to every TF fan's delight). For decades we've lamented about how Porsche refused to grant licence. Now that Porsche are doing the right thing by TF fans, I reckon we should all consider buying a ROTB SS Mirage to reward them for this choice, and also to cast a "yes" vote for more future Porsche TFs. Because buying or not buying the toys is the best way that we can tell these companies about what we want; demand generates supply.

And for those who just don't care about Rise of the Beasts; fine... may I suggest that you consider buying a Mirage toy anyway, and then just immediately selling it to other collectors? Because there will certainly be collectors out there who will want to buy this toy but have difficulty finding one locally. So you'd be helping out a fellow collector plus encouraging Porsche to grant future licences, which in turn helps the entire fandom. I've bought toys before just to sell or even outright give it away, just to incentivise Hasbro to make more.

MP Cliffjumper is the MP i'm looking forward to the most, if it ever eventuates.

It'll be funny when Takara team shows the Porsche team what the MP Porsches look like, and the Porsche team asking what kind of car the chibi Cliffjumper is meant to represent. "Yeah, no. You can't put our logo on that thing. Make as many as you like, just don't put our name on it."

I reckon they could work out a similar deal as they did with Lamborghini with MP Sunstreaker. 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. In a similar vein, TakaraTOMY might engineer MP Cliff to transform between the standard Porsche 924 Turbo, into the deformed Choro-Q form that is iconic to Cliffjumper; and the toy would be packaged in factory standard mode, just as MP Sunstreaker, Cordon and Spin Out were. And you can expect the same from an MP Hubcap. And MP Cliff would have two spoilers; the normal sized one and the oversized one, and Hubcap would only come with the normal sized spoiler. This would admittedly be the more expensive method; one of the reasons why MP Sunstreaker is substantially dearer than MP Lambor is due to the addition of two variant vehicle modes (it's not the sole reason for the higher price tag, but it would definitely be a significant contributing factor).

Or they may have TakaraTOMY release two different MP Cliff toys. One only transforming into a normal Porsche 924 Turbo, then a later one transforming into a deformed Porsche 924; similar to how MP21 Bumblebee is a realistically proportioned VW Beetle, but MP45 Bumble is deformed. Volkswagen allowed TakaraTOMY to release a deformed Beetle, but they had to do the realistically proportioned Beetle first. This is the cheaper option; although arguably dearer if collectors are purchasing the character twice. The Sunstreaker option would offer better value, as collectors only need to buy the toy once.

Or... Porsche may just not be fussed about insisting on a realistically proportioned 924, and just allow TakaraTOMY to go right ahead with the deformed version. Who knows? Different licensors seem to have different conditions (e.g. VW clearly don't care about splitting the bonnet like Lamborghini or Corvette do).

Although, toon Jazz did not deviate from the toy design as much as others, so I may be pleasantly surprised, and like the design. If not, my Transformers collecting journey probably ends here.

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.

[Tha_Phantom]

Or... Porsche may just not be fussed about insisting on a realistically proportioned 924, and just allow TakaraTOMY to go right ahead with the deformed version. Who knows? Different licensors seem to have different conditions (e.g. VW clearly don't care about splitting the bonnet like Lamborghini or Corvette do).

I'd say that this is the case since we've seen that a deformed MP Cliffjumper already exists.