May sound like a noob-ish question but considering the popularity behind G1 why doesn't Hasbro re-release it back into the general market and advertise it as 'Vintage' or something spiffy like so? I also know that Takara Tomy is doing encores and all, but they're so expensive because they're marketed as collector's toys! Given the technological advances in the last couple of decades I'm sure that producing G1 toys (even if it means having to recreate a template for production) wouldn't be so hard given the simplistic transformations.

've heard that most of the old templates used for some of the G1 original toys can't be used anymore (either lost or destroyed or something), is that right?

I also know that some of their g1 figures have been reproduced for the mainstream market (like G1 prime for the 25th Anniversary) but why are they so expensive?