Was the movie the biggest thing to happen to TFs since Beast Wars?

[Pulse]

It did generate a lot of hoopla but Hasbro mismanaged it completly.

The first few waves of movie figures and first release of each movie mold was pretty successful and that includes non movie molds such as Swindle.

What is taking a lot of shelf space is the stuff nobody wanted such as senseless repaints, Cybertron repaints and other junk that for some reason Hasbro thought it would sell as good just because of the movie name attached.

Now this is costing them dearly (at least when it comes to Sydney) as it seems that nobody wants to restock on their newer and more expensively to develop toys until the movie remnants that are filled with stupid repaints.

What they should have done is either quit on the movie line while they were ahead or produced new molds if they were wanting the movie line to last this long.

It got me thinking - Was the movie the biggest thing to happen to Transformers since Beast Wars? I'm talking about the attention it garnered from non-tf people & all the additional interest it generated.

You've gotta admit, From RiD through to Cyb, I really don't think TFs grew by leaps & bounds. Sure the same customers/fans stuck with them through those years but the much wider exposure of the movie may have taken Hasbro by suprise. Maybe they just weren't prepared for just how much increased interest the figures would of had. Maybe Hasbro's Transformers' Reps were blown away by the massive demand & were essentially overwhelmed - they just weren't ready for it.

I'm not defending Hasbro's Transformers' Arm for being under-prepared but I'm positive a fair bit more background research prior to the movie figures being released would have done a world of good.

[kup]

It got me thinking - Was the movie the biggest thing to happen to Transformers since Beast Wars? I'm talking about the attention it garnered from non-tf people & all the additional interest it generated.

You've gotta admit, From RiD through to Cyb, I really don't think TFs grew by leaps & bounds. Sure the same customers/fans stuck with them through those years but the much wider exposure of the movie may have taken Hasbro by suprise. Maybe they just weren't prepared for just how much increased interest the figures would of had. Maybe Hasbro's Transformers' Reps were blown away by the massive demand & were essentially overwhelmed - they just weren't ready for it.

I'm not defending Hasbro's Transformers' Arm for being under-prepared but I'm positive a fair bit more background research prior to the movie figures being released would have done a world of good.

The movie line was the biggest thing to happen to Transformers since Beast Wars. Just like Beast Wars it got a huge section of the public aware of the line and got people who otherwise would have never bought a toy into collecting. The movie was possibly bigger than Beast Wars in this regard as it made the average Joe fully aware of the Transformer line, not just us kids and geeks . There are many adults out there who thought the line had finished with G1 and once again became aware of it's existence through the movie.

However as mentioned, Hasbro mismanaged the success that the initial movie line brought so it didn't last no where near as long nor Hasbro exploited it's commercial success as much as they could have.

There has been a lot of stupid financial moves from Hasbro in the past year or two such as the Movie line and releasing Animated in full scale in the US a good six months after the cartoon premiered and the first season was over!

[GoktimusPrime]

One poignant difference though: Beast Wars came along at a time when Transformers was dying on its arse and breathed new life into the franchise. The movie happened because the franchise was becoming increasingly popular. Transformers was in danger of extinction at the end of G2 and may have been cancelled if it hadn't been for Beast Wars. The Transformers franchise was definitely not in such a dire position when the live action movie rolled along.

While I agree that the movie is comparable with Beast Wars in terms of drawing a lot of people into the fandom, I think that Beast Wars actually achieved more because it returned Transformers from the point of near obscurity to being popular and successful.

[Stompy]

I know a lot of you long-time collectors do not like previous line repaints on the current line (Energon & Cybertron repaints in the movie line) but for some of us new collectors who missed out on them the first time is a very welcome move. Althopugh I have to say some of the repaint choices are very questionable. Regardless, for me who sways more towards the engineering side, it's not so much a big deal to have an older mold that is readily (and cheaply) available.

I must admit that they need to just finish the movie line and move on. Even if they repaint a load of older molds in the Universe line as a consequence, much to woe of all your long-time collectors. Just know that it is great for us new to it.

[kup]

I know a lot of you long-time collectors do not like previous line repaints on the current line (Energon & Cybertron repaints in the movie line) but for some of us new collectors who missed out on them the first time is a very welcome move. Althopugh I have to say some of the repaint choices are very questionable. Regardless, for me who sways more towards the engineering side, it's not so much a big deal to have an older mold that is readily (and cheaply) available.

I must admit that they need to just finish the movie line and move on. Even if they repaint a load of older molds in the Universe line as a consequence, much to woe of all your long-time collectors. Just know that it is great for us new to it.

I am not against repaints if they are thoughtful and bring something to the new mold or are successful in representing another character (such as the seekers). I also like repaints that try something focused creatively that changes the feel and personality of a mold by a good color scheme (eg: Movie line packaged Crasher which is a repaint of Classics Mirage)

What I am against are repaints for the sake of repaints that bring nothing to the table and are usually composed of garish colors only there to stand out on a store shelf. A good example of these repaints are the latter Movie waves and much of the original Universe line.

[Sky Shadow]

It got me thinking - Was the movie the biggest thing to happen to Transformers since Beast Wars?

The movie was the biggest thing to happen to Transformers (full stop). Leagues bigger than Beast Wars - this is a movie that grossed 700 million dollars and sold thirteen million DVDs, not even counting the 'black' market. People of both genders and all ages watched it. The movie was bigger than 'G1'.

That doesn't mean it was better than Beast Wars (it wasn't) and a Transformers movie doesn't seem to have the sustained character development to sell toys the way the series do (e.g. Animated toys fly off the shelves while the movie's been keeping shelves warm all year.)

[loophole]

I would say the the movie was the biggest thing to happen since BW's the movie has drawn alot more people into Transfomers maybe not as full fledged collectors but just as a fan of Transformers in general. Most people who liked the movie probally wouldnt even know anything about BW or Armarda and Cybertron for that matter, what they do know is the G1 cartoon(probally not very well mind you) and Optimus Prime from 15+ years ago from when they were kids.

Since the movie how many more members have signed up here for that matter?? one thing i do know its know kinda cool to be a TF fan/collector nowadays, and you can actually buy TF t-shirts from your local department store and everything else is alot more accesible to get hold of because of it i think

[Pulse]

one thing i do know its know kinda cool to be a TF fan/collector nowadays, and you can actually buy TF t-shirts from your local department store and everything else is alot more accesible to get hold of because of it i think

Um, not where I live...

I still get funny looks on occasions from the checkout chicks but the family have kinda stopped complaining about new acquisitions
(But everytime my Bro walks into my room he exclaims "Not another one?!"

[GoktimusPrime]

I know a lot of you long-time collectors do not like previous line repaints on the current line (Energon & Cybertron repaints in the movie line) but for some of us new collectors who missed out on them the first time is a very welcome move. Althopugh I have to say some of the repaint choices are very questionable. Regardless, for me who sways more towards the engineering side, it's not so much a big deal to have an older mold that is readily (and cheaply) available. I must admit that they need to just finish the movie line and move on. Even if they repaint a load of older molds in the Universe line as a consequence, much to woe of all your long-time collectors. Just know that it is great for us new to it.

Isn't that purely a personal bias thing though? I mean, if you look at it objectively I think you might see that the Energon and Cybertron moulds do look kinda out of place compared to the movie designs. For me I've really started noticing it with The Reign of Starscream and Saga of the AllSpark. In The Reign of Starscream, they've drastically redesigned Energon/Cybertron repaint characters like Armourhide, Skyblast, Divebomb etc. to make them fit in with the movie-style... but of course, they look drastically different from their toys. In Saga of the AllSpark, Energon/Cybertron characters are drawn more toy-accurately and as a result he looks really badly out of place when next to movieverse characters.

Movie Divebomb toy Movie Divebomb (The Reign of Starscream)

In other words, do you honestly think that the reuse of Energon/Cybertron moulds in the movie line is an inherently or fundamentally good idea under its own merit (i.e.: regardless of your own personal motives/bias) or are you merely glad because you happen to personally benefit from it (i.e. "happy accident")?

But how would you feel if you were in our position? For example, say if when the Revenge of the Fallen toys come out and Hasbro decides to flesh them out with repaints of Transformers Classics and Animated toys... for people who get into TF collecting next year after the 2nd movie it might be good news for them, but how do you think recent collectors of Classics and current collectors of Animated would feel about it?

I would say the the movie was the biggest thing to happen since BW's the movie has drawn alot more people into Transfomers maybe not as full fledged collectors but just as a fan of Transformers in general.

That's an excellent point. One thing which the Transformers movie has done which no other TF medium has ever done before is make Transformers mainstream and no longer just something for children or nerds... which is good and bad in some ways. It's good that the franchise has grown exponentially since and we've seen the fandom swell. But it's kinda bad in other ways because... well... to be blunt (and I can't think of a better way of saying this without sounding like a snobby geek, sorry ) we have a lot of 'faux Transfans' - people who are into Transformers atm because it's currently cool and they want to be trendy.

Before the movie it was really rare to see someone else wearing Transformers clothing, and if you did, chances are they were a genuine TF fan. Nowadays a lot of people wear TF clothes and sport TF logos on their cars just as random ornaments - it doesn't necessarily mean that they're "real" Transformer fans.

But on the other hand, a lot of my non-Transfan friends have gained a deeper appreciation for my hobby. So yeah... there's good and bad with the current rising "fame" of the Transformers franchise.

[jacksplatt11]

in my opinion, the movie has been the biggest thing money wise for the transformers brand, ie $700+ million box office, dvds, toys, merchandise etc, also perhaps getting people interested enough to spend more on animated toys and the new universe toys, and even watch animated..

but overall i don't think it will have as large an impact as G1 did, and also when beast wars came out in the mid 90s.. after all it was a bay movie.. beast wars was huge in terms of reintroducing a stagnating brand in aus, usa etc where the last significant series was G1, i don't know how headmasters and the rest were going in japan so i cant comment on that..

i mean, all the shirts that are out nowadays have G1 prime and megatron etc, in 20 years time will we see movie prime and megatron on shirts? i doubt it..

in the end i guess my point is, overall beast wars was pretty huge.. whereas the movie, while re-invigorating a lot of interest in transformers, wont have the same lasting impact, in that i think most of the non-transfan movie fans will most likely move on to the next big movie/craze, depending of course unless they put out a sequel every 2 years or something crazy like that..