Cyberverse - are the toys getting too simple or are people getting dumber?

[shockNwave]

The Generations line is pretty collector-orientated, and Hasbro said they had plans mapped out for the line until 2021. But I suppose if Cyberverse bombs commercially and Hasbro makes a big enough loss, there's a possibility that some of those plans may get scrapped.

Kind of makes me wonder though - Cyberverse is not off to a good start, and if things get that bad; what will Hasbro do? Will they try to salvage it by producing better Cyberverse toys for later waves, or will they cut their losses and shutdown Cyberverse completely? Hopefully it'll be the former where they start to produce some good Cyberverse toys... (though I'm reluctant to bet on it)

I hope you're right. The last time I recall Hasbro having to salvage a series was when they had to upgrade TF Prime to TF Prime Beast Hunters and an excellent move that was.
Yet when I look at Cyberverse it looks way too weak and as they say "First impressions count." Which is why Cyberverse has started as a dead horse and TF Prime started as a potential derby winner and became an actual derby winner.

[griffin]

The toy commercial in Singapore (that might end up on TV here) probably doesn't help impress people with this toyline, and some of the screenshots of the kid will be meme-fodder for years to come.


"Get more WHOA" with Transformers Cyberverse... as in, whoa, don't buy those.

[FatalityPitt]

The toy commercial in Singapore (that might end up on TV here) probably doesn't help impress people with this toyline, and some of the screenshots of the kid will be meme-fodder for years to come.


"Get more WHOA" with Transformers Cyberverse... as in, whoa, don't buy those.

Nevermind the toys, forget the CGI Bumblebee in the background; that kid's acting is oscar-worthy!

[BigTransformerTrev]

Nevermind the toys, forget the CGI Bumblebee in the background; that kid's acting is oscar-worthy!

That’s because he’s an experimental young teen who has just discovered his new toy has a long fiery tongue that forcefully thrusts out and upwards.

Trust me - it’ll be Grimlock wearing the look of shock on his face after that kids parents go out for the day

[FatalityPitt]

While cartoons help, there have been numerous instances of Transformers managing fine or succeeding quite well without a cartoon....

... * 1996 = Beast Wars. History repeated itself. The TV series didn't properly begin until September 16, meaning that for most of this year the BW toys had to sell on their own power. By 1997 Beast Wars had become the third best selling action figure line after Toy Story and Star Wars....

...Heck, we never had any Lego shows or movies in the 80s, and those toys were immensely popular. Yet so many other toylines with cartoons ended up failing.

Oh yeah, I totally get that. That reminds me - When I was living in Malaysia in 1996, interest in Transformers had practically died by then, and all that was left on toy store pegs we're the less desirable G2 toys like Road Pig and Staxx. Suddenly these "Beast Wars" toys appeared. We had no idea what they were, except they looked like Transformers that turned into realistic animals. Without knowing a thing about Beast Wars (because the cartoon didn't air until the following year - 1997), I bought my first Beast Wars figure (Terrorsaur) and I thought the toy was amaaazzzing! It had more articulation than a Spider-man figure (thanks to the ball joints), it had weapon storage, and it looked good in both modes. I was instantly hooked, but because I was 10 at the time and my weekly allowance was limited; I bought mostly small basic figures like Iguanus, Rattrap, Razorbeast, etc. I never had the bigger figures like Optimus Primal, Megatron, Rhinox, etc. Even after the show aired, I still didn't have a strong desire to own those characters in toy form. From memory, my favourites (or the ones I played with the most) we're Razorbeast and Clawjaw, and neither we're on the show. I just found those figures to be really fun and they looked great.

I think while the cartoon might help sell toys to certain people, I don't think it's that strong a factor. It might be interesting to see Hasbro try something different where they release a new line of Transformers, but not invest heavily in commissioning a show around those toys. Instead they could try allocating the funds to making the toys better; so good that they sell themselves.

Thinking about it now, there's no shows or movies around Nerf Guns and Magic The Gathering, and yet those brands are still quite strong.

That’s because he’s an experimental young teen who has just discovered his new toy has a long fiery tongue that forcefully thrusts out and upwards.

Trust me - it’ll be Grimlock wearing the look of shock on his face after that kids parents go out for the day

At least the Grimlock toy won't break his heart. Girls can be quite cruel.

[GoktimusPrime]

One point you bring up is that with Beast Wars, the majority of toys never appeared on the show. The downside with the higher cost of CG animation was that only a select number of toys could ever appear on the show. The BW cartoon was only ever a "sample showcase" of the toy line, unlike say G1 where almost every toy appeared in the cartoon until the show's cancellation. Obviously making characters appear in a cel animated cartoon is much cheaper and easier - you just draw the characters. No need to construct 3D models. And with Transformers they had to construct 2 models per character- 1 robot and 1 beast mode. Even Transformers Prime had a relatively limited cast with the Decepticon ranks fleshed out with identical Vehicon clones. Out of all the Predacons released during Beast Hunters only 3 of them ever appeared in the show.

I don't mind having a cartoon - it certainly does give the characters more exposure. But I would prefer if the cartoons served the toys rather than the toys serving the cartoons. Animators aren't engineers and expecting toy designers to work around animation models is a massive constraint. It's a constant challenge for Masterpiece figures, and one of the cool things with MPs is seeing how TakaraTOMY can work their engineering magic to try and make these toys as show-like as possible. But it literally comes at a cost; one that's out of reach for kids (and even some collectors). I would love to see the line just go back to being made as toys for toy's sake. Not toys as avatars of show models.

"That MP's really cheap!," said no-one about an MP's RRP ever.
(except for Hasbro's MP Soundwave)

I've been checking Ben Yee's reviews on Cyberverse which appraises these toys just within the confines of Cyberverse; so he disclaims that he's not measuring them up to the standard of other TF lines which is why some of the toys are given positive reviews. Yet I can see for about half of these toys he's still giving them negative reviews even when restricted to the confines of Cyberverse's standards! So unlike my reviews where I'm comparing them with other TF lines like CHUG, Prime and RID, Ben's avoiding that. He's focusing on just looking at them within the scope of Cyberverse, and even then some of these toys still fall short.

[shockNwave]

I don't mind having a cartoon - it certainly does give the characters more exposure. But I would prefer if the cartoons served the toys rather than the toys serving the cartoons. Animators aren't engineers and expecting toy designers to work around animation models is a massive constraint. It's a constant challenge for Masterpiece figures, and one of the cool things with MPs is seeing how TakaraTOMY can work their engineering magic to try and make these toys as show-like as possible. But it literally comes at a cost; one that's out of reach for kids (and even some collectors). I would love to see the line just go back to being made as toys for toy's sake. Not toys as avatars of show models.

A case in point of animators (in this case live CG) not being engineers is in TLK, where in the case of Infernocus, instead of having the decepticons transforming into the combiner they morph into it.
It's just lazy and disrespectful towards the TF brand.