Quote Originally Posted by Verno View Post
Do you think IDW are peeved that Hasbro are delaying (what should be) the current Generations lines?

This little pause in TF offerings (between the end of TF: Prime and the release of Movie 4) was clearly originally designed to be IDW's time to shine. Every Deluxe Generations figure slated to be released this year was to come packaged with an IDW TF Comic, be it a Spotlight issue or an issue from RID or MTMTE. For example, Waspinator comes with Issue #19 of RID. It was an obvious ploy to bring more attention to IDW's TF comics and try to get more people picking up the series'. And so they should - they're quite good.

However, with Hasbro delaying wave after wave, pushing figures further back into 2014, this relevance to then current IDW comics will be lessened. Again, using Waspinator as an example, Issue #19 of RID was first released in July of 2013, and yet Waspinator (who suffered from a pitiful first release and subsequent delays in production) won't be seen again until possibly September, by which time the issue he comes with will be 14 months old!

If I were IDW, I'd be pretty darn annoyed with these delays. Sure, their comics will eventually get seen, but the pivotal timing is so far off and the opportunity is all but lost.
Perhaps, though I assume IDW's business model revolves around selling comics outright so the pack-ins are probably not a major revenue stream. Ultimately, as you say, the comics are for cross promotion. They serve as an introduction for new readers to the IDW fiction, in which case does it matter if the stories are old? New readers (and perhaps children in particular - the prime market for the toys no matter what we may think ) won't know or care and there's more material available for them to purchase if they enjoy it.

I believe it was mainly the Dark Prelude and Dark Cybertron issues being packed in so they should stand fairly well on their own, even if you only get the comics through the toy pack-ins.