Universe 2.0 Cyclonus Pics

[kup]

whoa I dont think Id want to work in Takara anymore, they tie people up for a mistake ... harsh!. Erm kup what problem on the henkei Thundercracker are you saying? Can you enlighten me on the issue as I dont have one.

Oh and on the Cyclonus final product...meh knew theyd scrimp on it as usual. not surprising for me. It all about the packaging this days not the toy itself.

Several people who have opened their figure have encountered the issue in which Thundercracker's arm holes are too large for the launcher pegs. So the launchers barely stay on his arms or not at all.

[FFN]

All of the joints on mine are much looser, with a loose as a goose arm. The smaller fins attached to the tail fins don't fold up as far as my Classics, but on the plus side, they fold up much more easily.

I am peed off at TakTom for such blunder (it seems the whole range of Henkei Thundercrackers released) and it does suck and its very disappointing. It also goes back to show that despite them not willing to implement severe production cost cutting measures like Hasbro, they are gradually slacking off when it comes to Quality Control making purchases from them a 'risk' of sorts.

Does TakTom doing the above suddenly excuse Hasbro for presenting us with a vastly superior promo pic and then a severely inferior final product with blatant and clear cost cutting measures for profit maximizing?

Hell NO!

My point was that in my observation of various boards, people who do have Henkei Thundercracker and have the problems seem to be going "eh" about it for the most part, while people are EXPLODING over Cyclonus, which, while painted poorly, isn't broken to the best of our knowledge. I never said it excused Hasbro for their paint deco.

And profit maximization leads Hasbro to not suffer the fate of Takara, buddy You need to think long-term brand health!

[Soundwarp]

I'm going to weight in and say that i am a big fan of the finished product!

[MV75]

And profit maximization leads Hasbro to not suffer the fate of Takara, buddy You need to think long-term brand health!

It's not all just immediate profit that keeps a company afloat. Good thing you don't run a business.

You can only ream people for so long before they discover that they can just sit on the broom handle themselves.

[GoktimusPrime]

People will get miffed over a crappy Transformer, regardless of whether it's from Hasbro or Takara. Just look at the general fan reaction over Takara MP Starscream vs Hasbro MP Starscream. Takara copped a lot of flak while Hasbro got kudos. To Takara's credit they realised that they dropped the ball and that Hasbro improved on their effort and followed Hasbro's cue with their USA Edition MP Starscream. People want quality Transformers and will praise/criticise whoever gives them a good or bad toy.

A lot of people don't - and I agree with FFN's sentiment; there are a lot of people out there who refuse to be critical of the toys they buy to avoid buyer's remorse. You see this in the majority of TF toy reviews (especially on YouTube) where they lavish every Transformer with tonnes of praise but without even justifying why. Most so-called reviews are nothing of the sort - reviews are supposed to critical and analytical - but most reviews I see are really just about boasting their acquisitions. They're mostly about "zOMG I have this toy and it's teh rOxXOrZ!!1!" rather than actually explaining why they hold certain opinions of a toy.

[jaydisc]

Jay's point is that this option is non pratical to those who don't speak Japanese so its pointless to suggest it.

Well, if Japanese language and address is truly required (as I now realize it is), there is little point to suggest it, but my goal was simply ascertaining if it was a requirement.

Obviously it involves the use of the Japanese language. If you were to contact Hasbro you would be required to use the English language.

jaydisc, of course the methods Goktimus suggests aren't quite ideal - remember, we're leaving feedback from outside their intended market. The feedback mechanisms he suggests might not be _convenient_, but it's about as good as we'll get.

(emphasis mine)

I don't think this is obvious at all. I've successfully pursued customer service from Lego in Denmark and TomTom in Netherlands for products outside their market without knowing their native language. So, again I'll repeat it: I didn't want to upset or embarrass anyone. I just wanted clarity, and now that I (and others) have it, I'm happy to consider that matter closed.

As far as local, more attainable options, I have contacted Hasbro Australia personally with regards to the quality control of Deep Space Starscream. They told me to go return it, and if for whatever reason I did not obtain satisfaction, to contact them again. They additionally offered me the ability to write down my thoughts for submittal to the product designer!!! So, until I hear the contrary, I believe that Hasbro Australia has and can step up to the plate with regards to customer issues.

On top of that, you also have retail protection. Target, Kmart and everyone else, will be more than happy to accept your returned product and forward it back to Hasbro without charge. This is not really an option for [the majority of] us here with Takara products. Even if it was, the cost to ship back and forth would make it instantly cost prohibitive.

However Hasbro seems to have the systematic agenda of promoting vastly superior toy pictures in their catalogs and advertising and then provide a considerably inferior final product to the consumer in order to save on production costs but not the consumer price.

THAT rubs me the wrong way more than bad QC.

This is no different than the tactics employed by companies ranging from McDonald's to Playboy magazine and virtually the marketing department of every product-based company in between. The marketing department's job is to make the product look attractive. Realizing that, Hasbro seems to focus on the retail experience. This is evident by their behavior and of course the effort they make on packaging. If you walk into a store and see Cyclonus and buy it, you really can't blame the back of the package. Although, since robot mode is obscured in the clear package, I think you would have the legal right to return the product on the grounds that it is "not as described".... yet another benefit of using the intended retail channel.

[kurdt_the_goat]

Aren't Hasbro covered from false advertising with photos, because of the line on the box "Photos and colours may vary"? Not that i agree that that should be enough!

Perhaps not as many ppl are whinging about Henkei TC, because they've already got say 5 or 6 of the same damn toy?

[kup]

Aren't Hasbro covered from false advertising with photos, because of the line on the box "Photos and colours may vary"? Not that i agree that that should be enough!

Perhaps not as many ppl are whinging about Henkei TC, because they've already got say 5 or 6 of the same damn toy?

There is a different between varying colors and a lesser than advertised paint job.

However legally they are covered but to me, its offensive from an end consumer's point of view.

[GoktimusPrime]

It's legally covered, but of course it also means that whenever we see a Hasbro promotional photo we know that we cannot necessarily fully trust what we're seeing and that it needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt.

Well, if Japanese language and address is truly required (as I now realize it is), there is little point to suggest it, but my goal was simply ascertaining if it was a requirement.

*sigh* That's why I went and translated the online survey into English and asked the mods to sticky the thread... (-_-) All you need to do is point and click.

Otherwise does anyone have a better suggestion?

[dirge]

If you walk into a store and see Cyclonus and buy it, you really can't blame the back of the package. Although, since robot mode is obscured in the clear package, I think you would have the legal right to return the product on the grounds that it is "not as described".... yet another benefit of using the intended retail channel.

This ties in to Hasbro's perception of the _stores_ as their customer, not the actual end customer. They care not if the end customer enjoys the product, as long as the retailer buys the assortment in the first place.

Even if you do return the products to the store, the store loses out - not Hasbro - since it's the store which loses out. They have to try and resell an opened toy. It's not cost effective for them to return it to Hasbro, and that would require a lot of negotiation anyway.

I've already given up on Hasbro's products, for the most part. I'm not boycotting them, but I'm quite happy to simply pass over something rather than spend my money on a poor effort. I'm knowledgable enough about their packaging tricks (and photoshopping is a big part of that) to know that emphasis is on making the packaged toy look good - not on delivering the best product. Which is why I'm willing to wait for an imported option from TT if that provides a better option. Granted, that means the local retailers misses their cut, but if I'm spending my hard earned, I'll do it because I believe it's worth the money, not because the packaging convinces me. I learnt the hard way from some of the poor toys I've bought down the years, only to end up regretting it.