Hydrodive BB & Golfire Grimlock cancelled. End of Animated days?

[griffin]

The thing I worry about though, is that we know of at least 12 new characters for season 3 (from the club magazine), but only one has a guaranteed toy so far, because it was already released some time ago before it was planned to be in the cartoon (3 if Jetfire and Jetstorm make it to the cartoon). What of all the other new characters, and various season 2 characters that haven't had toys done. We are missing a huge cast of toy characters here, and we aren't going to see much new stuff over the next 6-8 months while the focus is on the Movie toys. Arcee (and sorta Ratbat) appears to be the only new character toy that we know is definitly still being released as a toy, and she's from the first season.
I just can't think of any official word or leaked toys for Animated right now (I could be forgetting some though).

[kup]

I would buy Animated Arcee just because she is the closest thing we have gotten to a G1 Arcee toy. It really took almost a quarter of a century to release an Arcee toy that resembles G1 and transforms into a car.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think that HasTak should just stick to the traditional formula of creating Transformers as a toyline first and then making it into a show, comic book etc., thus avoiding getting a large cast of characters (especially recurring characters) who appear in fiction but have no toys. Transformers should always be a toyline first and foremost IMHO.

[Golden Phoenix]

I think that HasTak should just stick to the traditional formula of creating Transformers as a toyline first and then making it into a show, comic book etc., thus avoiding getting a large cast of characters (especially recurring characters) who appear in fiction but have no toys. Transformers should always be a toyline first and foremost IMHO.

But then you get situations like during the beast wars where you have some toys with nothing but a box bio for fiction.
Chances are, it would also detract from the story. You'd get huge instances where they replace characters, in one way or another, purely to sell toys.

I think by getting a story going first, the potential is higher for better story telling and greater character depth

[GoktimusPrime]

But then you get situations like during the beast wars where you have some toys with nothing but a box bio for fiction.

Nothing wrong with that. We had that in G1 and G2 too. Also, the main reason why so many toys never appeared in the Canadian BW series is because CG animation is very expensive. With cel animation you can afford to throw in every toy - as we saw with Beast Wars II and Neo.

Chances are, it would also detract from the story. You'd get huge instances where they replace characters, in one way or another, purely to sell toys.

That depends on how Hasbro would want the toys introduced and how writers deal with such instructions from Hasbro. They could have characters appearing briefly - and we've had that a-plenty in Animated, e.g.: Wreck Gar, Swindle, Soundwave etc. Just so long as we don't get what we had in the first episode of G1 Season Four with all these characters appearing for like a few seconds and then never to be seen again (e.g. Sixshot)!!

But these are all matters of execution - I think the core concept is sound. For the majority of TF history over the past 25 years Transformers has been first and foremost a toyline.

I think by getting a story going first, the potential is higher for better story telling and greater character depth

While I'm a fan of both the live action movie and Animated, I'm not convinced that their stories and character depths are any better than other TF franchises which were developed as toys first. I know what you mean by saying that the potential is there, and I would agree with that, but I've yet to see the results.

[liegeprime]

Arcee (and sorta Ratbat) appears to be the only new character toy that we know is definitly still being released as a toy, and she's from the first season.
I just can't think of any official word or leaked toys for Animated right now (I could be forgetting some though).

Well if everything goes well, she'll be released. If Hasbro will follow their long "tradition" with Arcee, they're gonna F$@k all the fans up again and wont release/cancel/extremely alter her even with leaked pics and all. They didnt in G1, they released a redecoes/recolor/diff alt mode and slap the name Arcee in Energon, Universe and Movie. For some reason I dont get why Hasbro does this to her

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I was just having a look at the collectors club shop site and they still have Hydrodrive BB and Gold Grim up for pre-order.

This item is scheduled to ship within 4 weeks of the anticipated May 31, 2009 shipdate.

mind you, I am not sure how accurate they are.

They also listed Wingblade Optimus Prime as well as Blackout!

Animated Voyager Wave 3 2009-Blackout and Wingblade Optimus Prime 2 pieces. Pictures to follow.


This item is scheduled to ship within 4 weeks of the anticipated May 30, 2009 shipdate.

[jaydisc]

The Transformer Club has just cancelled pre-orders for Arcee.