Why doesn't TakaraTomy employ more MP designers?

[kurdt_the_goat]

Specifically, designers from the 3rd party realm who've proven themselves.

The success of the recent MPs - it seems by far the most popular line at the moment - makes me wonder why they don't just crank out more. I don't know their workload nor what really goes into making them (sketches to production), and don't know the costs (other than the vague "molds are expensive"). I'm sure many designs are on the drawing board, but for whatever reason, the actual releases are really spread out for the most part.

It seems that they only have 1 Masterpiece designer working at a time (forgetting Star Saber since it's an anomaly). The collector market, however small it may be compared to the children's market, has basically said they will eat up any and all Masterpiece toys that come out. It must be a profitable venture, so you could only assume that making more would be even more profitable.

The third parties are cranking these things out at a rate of knots. Fans Toys in particular - half way through their Dinobots, Perceptor and Reflector incoming. I don't see how what is presumably just a tiny company can put out such high quality toys (often at comparatively cheaper than official prices, considering the size and materials used), so quickly! And while they're the most obvious choice for MP grade toys, several of the other 3rd parties have exhibited extremely capable design skills as well. TakaraTomy is a huge company, you'd think it should be no challenge whatsoever for them to compete with "the little guys" - and if you can't beat em - hire em! These days all it'd take is a Facebook message for them to get in contact with say xTransbots, work out a deal so their Apollyon became Megatron for real, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Masterpiece has already run for 11 years, so it stands as one of (if not the) longest running toy lines as it is, which is a feat in and of itself. But those 11 years have only amounted to 22 basic releases to date, even less when you subtract redecos. There's a huge number of popular characters remaining, and i'd argue they could straight up release any character from G1 and collector fans would buy them in droves. There's enough characters left that at the current snails pace, the line could go on for decades - but why not get some more talented people on deck and really go hard at the collector market and give the fans more!

I don't really believe there's any risk in "flooding" a collector market with fantastic toys. The example that springs to mind is Mattel who have released one or more MOTUC toys at a monthly pace since 2010! Obviously Transformers are more complex but the point is, fans are still buying, even as they release characters who only showed up for a single episode (or none at all!)

Is it a Japanese honour kind of thing or do they just not want my money?!

[DELTAprime]

Are the 3rd Party designers Japanese? Takara doesn't seem to employ many non-Japanese designers in general.

[CoRDS]

at this stage i think Takara/hasbro should just license fans toys to make their masterpiece line and MMC for combiners


in fact i would be more than happy if they did that

[Trent]

There is a whole team of designers. It's not just Hasui/Yuki/etc sitting in a room all by themselves. They are just the lead designer. And Takara have determined the release schedule based on what they think the market can handle long term.

[Deonasis]

I am completely happy with the speed at which Takara MPs are released.

[CBratron]

I am completely happy with the speed at which Takara MPs are released.

Because we'd be even more broke if MPs came out faster than they are now.

[GoktimusPrime]

kurdt_the_goat: have you considered just calling TakaraTOMY and asking them directly? Ignore the phone number on the bottom/back of your Japanese TF packaging, that only works for domestic calls. There's now a separate number for international callers (although you(r wife) will still need to communicate in Japanese), which is +81-3-5650-1031.

Speculation: Third Party Knock Off designers can produce toys faster because those designers are probably exclusively working on those products. TakaraTOMY's designers don't just exclusively work on Masterpieces, but also other Transformers lines as well, such as Age of Extinction, Robot Heroes, Generations, Combiner Wars etc etc. -- even if they're not the lead designers in other lines, they may very well be contributing in other capacities as part of the design teams. Also, for many of the other lines, they do need to collaborate with designers at Hasbro, and for the movie stuff, screen model designers at Dreamworks/Paramount. In the case of animated series like TF Prime and RiD02015, they also work with Hasbro Studios/Polygon and whoever's animating RiD'15. And bear in mind that they do work within the confines of limited time spans, and there's various other jobs that are done w/ KO producers may not necessarily go through, such as marketing, licensing etc. - and also the sheer number of toys that need to be manufactured for market.

If these 3rd party KO makers want to work for TakaraTOMY, then why don't they apply for jobs there? Or continue working for themselves but acquire a licence from TakaraTOMY or Hasbro (which some legitimate 3rd party companies do, like the makers of that gigantic Scorponok)? I imagine in order to get a job as a designer working for TakaraTOMY, aside from the valid qualifications, you would need to obtain a work permit to live/work in Japan, and of course, live there. You would probably also need to have a working proficiency in speaking Japanese, since most people in TakaraTOMY speak Japanese (just as you would need a working proficiency in English if you wanted to work for Hasbro). Otherwise you might end up wasting time (and thus money) correcting oversights or mistakes made through misunderstandings or things "lost in translation." They obviously have translators when dealing with Hasbro, but as far as in-house work in concerned, I'd imagine that it would be in Japanese.

Are the 3rd Party designers Japanese? Takara doesn't seem to employ many non-Japanese designers in general.

There are a few non-Japanese people who have worked or are working at Hasbro. A friend of mine used to work on Takara's Microman packaging design team, and one of his colleagues was a South Korean national. And as many of us know, Australian designer Alex Kubalsky worked on several Classicsverse, TF1 and Animated figures. But AFAIK anyone can apply for a job at TakaraTOMY, so long as you satisfy the valid criteria of qualifications, language proficiency, and visa/residency.

Because we'd be even more broke if MPs came out faster than they are now.

lol, tru dat!

[Ploughmans Lunch]

I think it might be a mixture of releasing only what they believe their market can tolerate, and probably not wanting to work with people who are (pretty much) guilty of outright IP theft (not that I care).

[nexusnixx]

I believe Takaratomy wants to keep the masterpieve line slow to release to create an "exclusive" feel and not cater to mass production mass market type of product.

After all good things come to those who wait.

[GoktimusPrime]

Also keep in mind that Masterpiece is a line that appeals to a special niche market; the majority demographic for Transformers is still the mainstream stuff for kids, which is where they're probably going to invest relatively more time/effort. And remember that TakaraTOMY do allow consumers to give direct feedback (including what characters they want to see released for future toys) in their online survey - which has regrettably recently become geoblocked to users outside Japan, although I have personally requested that they consider lifting this geoblock. IMHO if you want answers from TakaraTOMY, just ask them directly. They're very friendly and approachable; the only thing is you'll need to speak to them in Japanese or have someone do do an over-the-phone translation ).
http://www.takaratomy.co.jp/support/other.html