Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[doublespy]

Do Hasbro have any say in Takara's MP character selection?

Although Masterpiece is supposed to be a domestic focused line for TakTom, does the overseas market play into the character decision?

Was talking to a couple of friends about why we haven't seen a new mold MP Megatron.

[griffin]

Do Hasbro have any say in Takara's MP character selection?

Although Masterpiece is supposed to be a domestic focused line for TakTom, does the overseas market play into the character decision?

Was talking to a couple of friends about why we haven't seen a new mold MP Megatron.

Probably not anymore, as Hasbro seemed to have given up on releasing them now (or just one here or there).
Aaron Archer said at BotCon that it was him and Hasbro that got the series started with the Anniversary Optimus, but as time went on it seems that Hasbro have been getting less and less involved, to the point of Takara not relying on a Hasbro release to help fund the production (with higher production numbers to pay for the moulds).

[doublespy]

Thanks guys.

But is it possible that TakTom still take into aacount of the international market, especially when Masterpiece has become such a success and been multiple releases a year? For example if they did a Walther P38 Megatron, there will be limitations to overseas sales.

Probably not anymore, as Hasbro seemed to have given up on releasing them now (or just one here or there).
Aaron Archer said at BotCon that it was him and Hasbro that got the series started with the Anniversary Optimus, but as time went on it seems that Hasbro have been getting less and less involved, to the point of Takara not relying on a Hasbro release to help fund the production (with higher production numbers to pay for the moulds).

Looks like I've been wrong the whole time. I was under the impression that Takara always budgeted MP releases without taking possible later Hasbro adaptations into account.

[GoktimusPrime]

Unless Hasbro and TakaraTOMY have agreed to collaborate on something, both companies disregard each other's markets when developing products for their respective markets.

AFAIK MP1 is possibly the only time that Hasbro and Takara collaborated on an MP. I suspect that the rest of them were purely developed by Takara(TOMY) without consultation with Hasbro (and thus without regard to their markets).

For example if they did a Walther P38 Megatron, there will be limitations to overseas sales.

Exactly, and Takara(TOMY) does release Walther P38 Megatrons, which clearly demonstrates that they are disregarding any sales potential in Hasbro's markets. This includes:
* G1 Megatron reissue ("Perfect Edition")
* G1 Megatron reissue (TFC book box)
* G1 Megatron reissue (DotM TF Chronicles)
* eHobby Megaplex
* G1 Megatron reissue (black ver.)
* MP5 Megatron
* MP Megatron (gold ver.)
If Takara(TOMY) were concerned about what Hasbro could release, then I doubt that they would've released all those toys. My understanding is that when it comes to a lot of the collector-centric toys, Takara(TOMY) makes them and Hasbro opportunistically decides whether or not they want to bring them across to their market. Toys like MP1 would be the exception rather than the rule for Takara's collector-centric toys.

[doublespy]

AFAIK MP1 is possibly the only time that Hasbro and Takara collaborated on an MP. I suspect that the rest of them were purely developed by Takara(TOMY) without consultation with Hasbro (and thus without regard to their markets).

I don't recall MP1 being a collaboration? It was purely a one off thing done by Takara and they marketed it with Binaltech

Exactly, and Takara(TOMY) does release Walther P38 Megatrons, which clearly demonstrates that they are disregarding any sales potential in Hasbro's markets

I was trying to say, maybe the reason that we haven't seen a new gun Megatron is because TakTom did start to take the markets abroad into consideration. Doesn't make much sense that we still haven't heard anything about Megs?

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't recall MP1 being a collaboration? It was purely a one off thing done by Takara and they marketed it with Binaltech

RE: What griffin said↓ (I didn't know this until griffin mentioned it, so it's new to me too )

Aaron Archer said at BotCon that it was him and Hasbro that got the series started with the Anniversary Optimus,

I was trying to say, maybe the reason that we haven't seen a new gun Megatron is because TakTom did start to take the markets abroad into consideration. Doesn't make much sense that we still haven't heard anything about Megs?

Hasbro and TakaraTOMY are contractually forbidden from taking each other's markets into consideration unless both parties have agreed to do so.

There could be the fact that Megatron has already been done as an MP and is thus a lower priority to redo as an MP compared to characters who've never been done yet (I would prefer TakaraTOMY to do this). There has only ever been one completely new MP mould of an existent MP character, and that's Convoy (MP1/MP10). MP11 is a retool of MP3, so they didn't have to build a whole new mould from scratch, and MP9 is really Rodimus Convoy (with the bonus function of being able to become Hot Rodimus), while MP28 is purely Hot Rodimus. No other MP aside from Convoy has really been completely remade from scratch - and we all know that it's because Convoy is the "flagship hero character" of Transformers.

Also, simply talking about it achieves nothing. If people really wanted to see a new MP Megatron, then they should have voted/nominated for him on TakaraTOMY's online survey before they geoblocked it in 2014. MP5 came out in 2007, so people have literally had seven years to pump feedback to TakaraTOMY. So if they haven't done it yet, I can only imagine that there's a lack of demand for it. Unlike Hasbro, TakaraTOMY allows fans to give them direct feedback, although they've now restricted it to only people in Japan (which lends further credence that they are enforcing their legal obligation to disregard Hasbro's markets). I have thrice asked TakaraTOMY to please consider lifting the geoblock (twice over the phone and once on their FB page), but they've decided not to do so (which is their prerogative).

Not voting/nominating on the survey and then whinging about TakaraTOMY not releasing toys that you want is kinda like not voting then complaining about the government. If you care then vote!

[doublespy]

RE: What griffin said↓ (I didn't know this until griffin mentioned it, so it's new to me too )

Sorry, I thought Aaron Archer meant Hasbro's 20th Anniversary Prime got Masterpiece started from a one-off thing to a full on series.

Hasbro and TakaraTOMY are contractually forbidden from taking each other's markets into consideration unless both parties have agreed to do so

AFIK, Hasbro Asia is distributing Japanese MPs in several Asian countries/regions, (similar to what we have here in Australia), so TakTom may think Hasbro as a distributor for markets abroad. Just my guess though.

As far a new mold Megatron, I'm not complaining/whining, just wondering why it hasn't been done now as to me it is a pretty logical choice. TFW2005 is having a poll now for "what do you wanna see as the next MP). Megs is at 2nd place trailing Jazz. And it's not a small poll, so yeah

[griffin]

Hasbro and TakaraTOMY are contractually forbidden from taking each other's markets into consideration unless both parties have agreed to do so.

Did they actually use the words "taking each other's markets into consideration", or was it more likely that they are just not permitted to sell in each other's markets?

As I had noted on the MP Exhaust topic (TT altering the cigarette logos so that it could be imported by Westerners), TakaraTomy may well only sell to Japanese businesses, but many of those businesses sell a large chunk of the stock to non-Japanese... and if those businesses can't sell to foreigners, then they won't order enough stock from TakaraTomy to make it worth producing in the first place.
In other words, if TakaraTomy only produced enough units for the Japanese market because they close their eyes to the bleeding of units to other countries, they would produce a lot less units, making them really rare to everyone (in and out of Japan), and the toys would be lots more expensive to pay for the limited number (like the TTM exclusives).
It would be stupid for them to not include estimates of non-domestic customers in their production budget, because even though they might not be doing the exporting to a Hasbro country, their "middle-men" (the stores that do export, or sell to Japanese fans who on-sell to foreigners), sell a significant number on their behalf.

[GoktimusPrime]

Do Hasbro have any say in Takara's MP character selection?

Nope.

The best way for fans to convince TakaraTOMY to make a new MP Megatron would be to either suggest it on the online poll, which unfortunately is now geoblocked. I'm really hoping that our members here who are in Japan are regularly using the online survey, because most of us here are blocked off from it. I was regularly giving feedback to Takara from 1997~2014.

Hhhmmm... I just thought that I should start saving them and bringing them with me later this year to Japan and spend one evening in a hotel submitting votes and nominations for all the Japanese figures that I've been buying... but then I realise that most of my Japanese toys recently have come from Premium Collectables, who seem to source them from a non-Japanese Asian source. The upside for some people is that they come with coins (makes no difference to me though, as I don't really care about them), but the downside is that none of them come with that little slip of paper with the toy's code for accessing the online survey! Anyone care to share the codes? It should be the same code for the toy; e.g. all the codes for MP Shockwave should be identical, so it shouldn't invalidate your opportunity to vote and nominate. Or you might like to try it first before sharing your code. Aah... I should remember to write down the toys' ISBNs (known as JAN codes in Japan) too. Still, without those codes the ISBNs will be pretty useless.

I trust that you and your friends nominated Megatron before the geoblocking came into effect. I never did because it's not a toy that I personally care about being done as an MP again (I skipped MP11 and MP28). Although I voted/nominated Galvatron several times and there's no sign of that happening. It obviously depends on what other people are voting and nominated on too.