Hasbro AUS December Answers.

[griffin]

Also from Hasbro AUS, in an earlier email was this:

- Take careful note of how many websites submit questions. At least 12-14 websites each submit 5 questions (@ 60-70 questions - This is the equivalent of a college exam with only essay questions), this does not include the questions we get from Ozformers.
- Make note that very few of the questions are singular questions (we primarily get multi-questions)
- Contrary to popular belief, we do not have a large team. We do not have a lot of free time to go in-depth with questions, because we are busy trying to make toys and do our daily job. Note that many members of our team have to work through lunch and work long hours because there is so much work to do. But we do try our best to reach out to the fans.
- If you want more direct answers, please try to be less wordy with your questions. Sometimes we simply miss the third or fourth parts of the questions, for reasons mentioned above.

So please keep that in mind when critically evaluating/commenting on their replies.

[Gutsman Heavy]

very cool, thx Hasbro

[blackie]

im always open to be employed by hasbro to answer questions

[Kyle]

19 - What are Hasbro's thoughts on the Fans-Project City Commander (Classics Ultra Magnus Trailer/exosuit), and would Hasbro ever consider doing something like that in the future?
Designers generally like them but we are not sure about the corporate stance at this time.

[roller]

wow

this had to be the most questions i ever asked anyone that were releavant to the world!!! Go roller and his mighty brain!!!

now onto the bad news


5 - Is it likely to ever see a release of Generation 1 'Season 5' (about 20 Gen1 episodes aired in 1988, with added intros and closures, a bit like the Generation2 version done in the early 90s) on dvd?
Again a MADMAN question and their response was: “Very unlikely. The master licensor to our knowledge has never released master tapes with additional footage on them, or we’d definitely have used them as extras. It’s possible they no longer exist, certainly we’ve not heard of these being released anywhere in the world.”

what are we gonna do about this fellows? i need to see these eps before VHS machines become exstinct

ask your american friends for copies, tell them to burn them onto dvd

as for the other questions i asked, bit sad the answers- i wanna know what happens to unsold toys

[STL]

Thank you, Hasbro. I thought we'd seen the end of these.

Just wanted to emphasise these two points.

10 - What determines plastic/paint colour choice, when the Hasbro version differs to the Takara version? Like, is it just a cost issue for lighter plastic colours, or a visual/marketting decision?
We typically choose colours that work in our market. Takara does the same in theirs. Also, we normally do our colours first and Takara then has the opportunity to tweak things a little to make it more “collector” centric.

15 - Does Hasbro (US or AUS) have any statistics on the demographics percentages of the customers of their Transformers products, to see what age groups are buying them for marketting purposes?
Yes we do. We undertake market research periodically which has revealed that our primary audience is boys aged 6-9.

Maybe this might stop some of the complaints about how lazy Hasbro are. I don't think they are. They're just marketing to their primary demographic.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Maybe this might stop some of the complaints about how lazy Hasbro are. I don't think they are. They're just marketing to their primary demographic.

I wish, but doubt it very much

[Golden Phoenix]

Maybe this might stop some of the complaints about how lazy Hasbro are. I don't think they are. They're just marketing to their primary demographic.

I don't know. Lego's target demographic is about the same, and yet they keep releasing stuff for collectors fairly regularly.
Seems like a bit of a "You don't buy the most, so we are not really concerned with you" kind of argument when you put it like that.

[STL]

I don't know. Lego's target demographic is about the same, and yet they keep releasing stuff for collectors fairly regularly.
Seems like a bit of a "You don't buy the most, so we are not really concerned with you" kind of argument when you put it like that.

I'm not saying I like it but what what we need to recognise also is that Lego is not an American company, it has different practices and different levels of quality it aspires to. Hasbro does its market research and it knows exactly the consumers it aims to satisfy. Far it be from a bunch of collectors to judge them as lacking business savvy or being predatory on the fans.

I'm also very interested by that last add on comment in question 16. It seems like Universe performed very well for a subsidiary line w/out cartoon support and their happy about it. Could mean a lot of good things