February Qs to Hasbro (closes 25th Jan)

[GoktimusPrime]

I think that would be a Paramount decision, not Hasbro's. I guess we'll know for sure at the TF2 premiere - assuming that it'll be a big deal like the last one.

[griffin]

This month I'll only send in 5 questions, as we are still waiting on November and January submissions. If we keep sending them in faster than they can process them, they might stop the program completely.

1 - Any actors from the new movie or any voice actors like Peter Cullen coming to town any time soon?

2 - We were assured that there wouldn't be a repeat of supply problems of Christmas 2007, but we have seen a lack of stores restocking in the last 4-6 weeks, leaving us about 2 months behind Asia and America with Hasbro Transformers Product. Is this a Hasbro supply/import problem, or a retailer re-ordering problem (cutting back on inventory in the economic
downturn)?

3 - Is Masterpiece Grimlock going to be a store exclusive here, or a general release item?

4 - Does Hasbro receive much feedback (good or bad) about the toys (like why there are so many redecos of old molds)? And is it mostly from fans, or do you get feedback from non-fans as well?

5 - If Hasbro says that TakaraTomy are able to improve on the colour schemes of the toys afterwards, why not include them in the colour choice procedure beforehand, to produce more collectable product for consumers and collectors?

- - - - - -
Remaining questions I will send in March's submission (provided Hasbro catch up a little). If you don't like any rewording done to your question, please let me know.

Do Hasbro (or TakaraTomy) still have the moulds for Reflector and the three incarnations of Gen1 Powerdasher? (Just about all the other Diaclone and Micro Change Transformers have been reissued, and these ones in particular are often missing from G1 collections because of their mail-order nature. A Reflector or Powerdasher set would be perfect.)

With the Official Club's 'Timelines' re-release of the Seacons boxset, will we see any more G1 combiner teams being released by Hasbro? Perhaps a G2 Stunticon boxset?

Is there any reason why Animated Swoop's two wing hinges/rivets are on different sides of the wing, for each wing?

Is Hasbro planning to make a transformable toy out of the (Animated) Henry Masterson Headmaster unit?

Will season 3 and season 4 of Animated be released together (like Season 1 and 2), or are there no plans for a 4th season yet?

Who was responsible for the JAAM number-plate on Universe Hot Shot? Can we send him/her cookies?

- - - - -
Questions already answered, but can fill a month we are short on questions, to get an update.

Are we getting any other targetmasters in the universe or 25th ann. line? or head / power masters? Or breast masters. A Universe version of Lio Kaiser

Are any new dinobots being considered for Animated? A proper Snarl and SLudge would be soooo cooool!.

Will Animated Arcee finally give fans an accurate Generation 1 form
Are there any plans to release Animated Omega Supreme as a transformable toy?

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Questions unlikely to get an answer / can be answered already.

How does something this get past QC? (TFU Prowl)
(they will have a 'standard public response' answer to this sort of thing, saying that it is unintentional or isolated occurance, or it shifted in transit, and assure their standards meet certain requirements, etc etc...)

Why does Animated Snarl have his club unpainted, yet has a painted club in the photo on the back of the box?
(packaging always has prototype/pre-production figures shown, which usually differ to the mass-produced toys in the packaging - absence of paint decos from the prototype is common, as a last minute cost cutting measure)

Since Hasbro allow the comics industry to produce comics with characters/toys 20 yrs old and no longer on shelves, would it allow the tv industry to produce another tf tv show? Like a continuation of 'Robots in Disguise' for example or G1.
(I would be guessing that the answer is 'yes', otherwise we wouldn't have the Gen1 characters being used in the comics. But it would be interesting if they would allow a third party to produce a 'new' cartoon. This will be considered for submission, but can wait for a quiet submission month)

Will Hasbro be doing another premium line for the TF 2009 movie?
(Movie questions can't be submitted. At least, not until after the movie)

What is Hasbro's stance on internet sites that show Transformer episodes for free? Not allowing them for downloads, just letting people watch them.
(Hasbro would take the same stance as any other property owner - they wouldn't be happy about it. But they did provide free viewing of many cartoon episodes on their main TFs website, so there would be no financial gain if they spent time and money chasing after other websites.)

[NoenGaruth]

This Question
"Will season 3 and season 4 of Animated be released together (like Season 1 and 2), or are there no plans for a 4th season yet?"

Is unlikely to get much of an answer due to the rumors that Animated is getting canned. If anything maybe try your luck and just replace the second part with "or is Animated not continuing after season 3?" Who knows they might actualy fill us in on what's happening.

[griffin]

I worded the question so that it not only asks if there will be a season 4 (what you are suggesting), but also asks when season 4 will be released, on the off chance it exists and they can tell us. If they can't answer the latter, we lose nothing because we still asked the former.
If the questions are worded creatively enough, we might be able to get more out of them in the answers.

[GoktimusPrime]

Is there any reason why Animated Swoop's two wing hinges/rivets are on different sides of the wing, for each wing?

Eric Siebernaler has already answered this question in an email that he sent to Hot Rodimus which was posted on the animated swoop thread:

There is an explanation for why the joints are screwed in from different sides of the wings on this toy. This is actually a very clever engineering system designed to minimize manufacturing errors. Explanation - Left and Right wings look pretty similar... Left and Right wing Joint pieces look very similar... In efforts to minimize confusion of “which parts go where?”, the screw setting has been designed to fit one way on the Left set, and another way on the Right set. This method makes it very difficult to Mix up opposite parts.

[griffin]

Excellent. Thanks. I didn't follow that topic beyond the first few posts. At least that is one less question to submit.