Rank 10 - Admin
Probably not anymore, as Hasbro seemed to have given up on releasing them now (or just one here or there).Originally Posted by doublespy
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).
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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.
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.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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).
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.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
I don't recall MP1 being a collaboration? It was purely a one off thing done by Takara and they marketed it with Binaltech
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?
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
RE: What griffin said↓ (I didn't know this until griffin mentioned it, so it's new to me too)
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!
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Sorry, I thought Aaron Archer meant Hasbro's 20th Anniversary Prime got Masterpiece started from a one-off thing to a full on series.RE: What griffin said↓ (I didn't know this until griffin mentioned it, so it's new to me too
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
Last edited by doublespy; 9th June 2016 at 07:16 PM.
Rank 10 - Admin
His wording at the BotCon panel has him claiming to be responsible for the Masterpiece line, by creating the Anniversary Optimus, which would be sold in Japan as "MP-01"... not necessarily numbered because Japan had plans to do an ongoing line, but because they number everything, even one-off items "just in case".
Not sure how much of a part he played in the project though as many new concepts are done as a committee of various people, like brainstorming sessions.His proudest achievements or what he wants to be known for...
- Instigating the 20th anniversary Optimus toy that led to the Masterpiece toyline.
- Bringing us licensed cars in a meaningful way with Alternators.
- Worked on the Minicon gimmick and gave them the name "MiniCons" and did the logo.
- Overseeing the Animated toyline with Eric Seibenaler.
- Bringing out a Unicron toy in 2004, and as late as 2002 they didn't think they'd ever have one.
- His work on the Movies (being in a senior role at the time they were started)
- Creating the story of the first 13.
Hasbro Asia in Hong Kong are quite the unique entity... a bit like Hong Kong is to China - they are part of Hasbro but have a lot of autonomy (at this time). They seem to have a really close relationship with TakaraTomy, to get their own production runs on the various Japanese Transformers, including the TakaraTomyMall exclusives.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.
Even though TakaraTomy would take into account the foreign demand of their products, I think they probably just don't want to risk Megatron just yet... and could just be waiting for demand to build to a point that it outweighs any prohibition or restrictions in various Western countries that would end up with the most of them (America, here, UK).
I think it might be soon though as this new size scale of MPs needs a new Megatron, and after the Coneheads are done, it might be a good time for one.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Yes, but the toy is already well and truly beyond the conceptual design phase by the time that Hasbro AP gets around to striking a deal with TakaraTOMY to get excess stock for the Asia-Pacific market. It's so late in the deal that by the time Hasbro AP contacts me to translate the instructions/bios for the toy, I've already pre-ordered it from Amazon JP or HLJ, because at the time that the pre-order became available even I had no clue if Hasbro was going to be releasing it or not. Time frames can vary, but Hasbro AP's decision to import the toy can come as late as just 2~3 months before the toy's release date. As we all know, Transformers toys are conceived and designed about a year before their release, so by the time Hasbro AP seals the deal to do a special import of these toys, it's far too late for them to have any input in the design process.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.
Basically what happens is that TakaraTOMY develops these toys for their market - the news is announced and Hasbro may decide to release the toy as an 'after thought.' But it's not a decision that's made from the very beginning as it would be with toys that Hasbro and Takara(TOMY) collaboratively work on. If it were, then I would hope that Hasbro would've given me much more advance notice and time to work on adapting the instructions and bios to English, but with only 2~3 months out from the release date, we're running on a really tight schedule and I often only have days to complete the work (which isn't even my day job, so I have to squeeze time in to do it... there were lots of late nights (-_-)).
Okay, but as an unofficial fan poll it is exactly that. Unofficial. TakaraTOMY's poll results are fed directly back to TakaraTOMY's marketing team. It's an anonymous poll, so you don't see what anyone else nominated or voted on, but I can tell you that a lot of toys that my friends and I have voted or nominated on before in the past for reissues, BTs, MPs etc. have come to fruition.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Both. In 2003 I asked Hasbro AU if they would be willing to get a small batch of Transformer toys for the Sabretron 2004 convention. Hasbro told me that it was a minimum order of 1000 units, which was of course too many and too expensive. I then called Takara to see if I could just skip the middle man and see if Takara would be able to make these toys for us. I was told that because the convention would be in Australia, a Hasbro market, Takara could not make any toys for us without express approval/permission from Hasbro. Takara told me that Takara and Hasbro have a contract between the two companies which forbids them from developing products for each other's markets without express permission from each other. This was why they couldn't manufacture any exclusive toys for an Australian convention without Hasbro's permission.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't be beneficial for TakaraTOMY to take foreign markets into consideration, but I can only tell you the facts as per what Takara explicitly told me in that telephone conversation. I was disappointed when I found out too! I wanted official exclusive toys for an Australian TF convention! And I did try to find loopholes around it, like telling him that these toys would only be sold directly to collectors at a convention, and that they would never be available for retail sale in stores, and thus it wouldn't be contaminating the mainstream Australian market. But I couldn't convince Takara to see otherwise, they were adamant that they had to stick to their legal contractual obligations with Hasbro.
I think at best, TakaraTOMY may guesstimate how overseas markets may respond to their toys. I think if they were explicitly thinking about overseas markets with Exhaust, then they might've thought about approximating the Marlboro logo; similar to what they did with the Red Cross logo on MP Ratchet. The fact that they've geoblocked all users from outside Japan from accessing the online survey also makes no sense if they want to gather information from overseas fans. It was a really easy way for us to give feedback to TakaraTOMY while appearing to only be targeting Japanese fans, since the survey was only in Japanese. But maybe they started noticing an increasing number of participants logging onto the survey with non-Japanese IPs and felt that they needed to put a geoblock in place in order to honour their contractual obligations. This is culturally a very Japanese thing to do -- they will honour what they consider to be the 'correct' or 'proper' thing to do, even if it's logically impractical. Geoblocking the survey only serves to further isolate non-Japanese fans from giving them valuable feedback. And I did make several requests to TakaraTOMY to lift the geoblock, but again, no deal.
I suspect that if TakaraTOMY were more mindful of the overseas market, then they may have considered making MP Road Rage a limited exclusive instead of a mass release retail figure like Exhaust. Because that toy is still shelfwarming at places like HLJ for about half the original pre-order price! Road Rage makes me think that TakTOM are kinda "shooting blind" when it comes to factoring in the foreign markets. The domestic market clearly hasn't been enough to absorb it, but they've obviously overestimated demand from overseas markets too, so now the combination of both markets are insufficient to move stock. Consequently we've seen TakaraTOMY learn from this experience and the upcoming MP Loud Pedal will be a limited exclusive. Even toys like MP11T Thundercracker and MP11NR Ramjet were limited exclusives, which indicates that TakaraTOMY may be playing things more conservatively after being burned with Road Rage.
Imagine how easily this could be avoided if:
* TakaraTOMY didn't geoblock their online survey.
* If the online survey was also available in other languages like English, Chinese etc.
* If the survey didn't make you enter your name in Japanese and only allows you to enter a Japanese residential address via drop down menus and manual typing in Japanese. Of course, people could easily get around this by copying and pasting names and addresses off a Google search, but it feels like yet another hurdle to make the survey less accessible to non-Japanese residents.
And of course, the packaging, instructions etc. would already be multilingual if TakaraTOMY were factoring in overseas markets -- just as a lot of Hasbro's packaging is multilingual.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
