New designer for 2014 MP line

[GoktimusPrime]

Perhaps it was the constant condemnation of the shoulders that caused Hasui to step aside?

Haha, yeah, it totally broke him. Michael Bay on the other hand...

I dunno, like anything I'd just blame the GFC.

But consider the following:
+ The price of MPs released following the GFC didn't see an increase. The significant "less for more" increase started with MP10.
+ Hasbro AU's prices for their versions of the new MP moulds are much cheaper than TakTOM's.
+ Prices of other Transformers series (except Super GT) have remained relatively stable. e.g. the cost of a Deluxe and Voyager Class Transformers still cost more or less the same today as it did before the GFC. The cost of a Deluxe Transformer or G1 reissue in Japan hasn't changed much.

[DELTAprime]

Haha, yeah, it totally broke him. Michael Bay on the other hand...

But consider the following:
+ The price of MPs released following the GFC didn't see an increase. The significant "less for more" increase started with MP10.
+ Hasbro AU's prices for their versions of the new MP moulds are much cheaper than TakTOM's.
+ Prices of other Transformers series (except Super GT) have remained relatively stable. e.g. the cost of a Deluxe and Voyager Class Transformers still cost more or less the same today as it did before the GFC. The cost of a Deluxe Transformer or G1 reissue in Japan hasn't changed much.

Don't forget that Deluxe and Voyager molds have had their engineering changed over the last several years to keep the price down. Hasbro has said it can't use the old molds (pre 2011 I think) anymore cause of cost. I bet if they didn't dumb down the Deluxes and Voyagers they would have gone up in price. Excluding MP-05 and 09 the engineering on MP's still seems fairly similar to what it always has been.

And don't forget Hasbro doesn't have to pay for the development of the mold, but Takara does.

[Lord_Zed]

A little concerned, despite the cost MP's have been the ray of sunshine in the cloudy Hasbro sky for me. While it's nice that Hasbro are continuing the Generations line, most of the toys released this year have been subject to such cost cutting that they have felt much like KO's, or lesser toys. The MP's however have still retained some of the quality and ingenuity that really appeals to me as an adult collector.

If the MP's start following similar cost cutting to the basic lines then Hasbro may as well hand over the adult collector market to the third parties.

[MayzaPrime]

A little concerned, despite the cost MP's have been the ray of sunshine in the cloudy Hasbro sky for me. While it's nice that Hasbro are continuing the Generations line, most of the toys released this year have been subject to such cost cutting that they have felt much like KO's, or lesser toys. The MP's however have still retained some of the quality and ingenuity that really appeals to me as an adult collector.

If the MP's start following similar cost cutting to the basic lines then Hasbro may as well hand over the adult collector market to the third parties.

MP is produced by Takara so not subject to Hasbro's cost cutting

If anything Hasbro would want to keep re-branding MPs as Takara is doing all of the design Hasbro would have minimal overhead

[Trent]

An interesting tidbit thrown over at TFW says that Kobayashi is taking over so Hasui can move onto the TF4 movie toy designs.

Make of it what you will.

[Hursticon]

An interesting tidbit thrown over at TFW says that Kobayashi is taking over so Hasui can move onto the TF4 movie toy designs.

Make of it what you will.

Sounds rather plausible actually.

[kaiden]

An interesting tidbit thrown over at TFW says that Kobayashi is taking over so Hasui can move onto the TF4 movie toy designs.

Make of it what you will.

i remember the transformers facebook page showing a photo of that voyager optimus from TF4 and asking what people thought and the answer was pretty much that it looked like shit.

hoepfully that wasnt hasui's design

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

i remember the transformers facebook page showing a photo of that voyager optimus from TF4 and asking what people thought and the answer was pretty much that it looked like shit.

hoepfully that wasnt hasui's design

Maybe it was Kobayashi's

[liegeprime]

Maybe it was Kobayashi's

So does that mean that the MP line now will suffer and become "looks like shit" toys ? MP line has more promise now that they have at least a direction on which toys they are producing and not just a rehash over and over of Prime....I do hope for the line continued success. Otherwise we might end up having our fix relied more on 3rd party comps , what with them able to produce the likes of Quakewave....

[kup]

An interesting tidbit thrown over at TFW says that Kobayashi is taking over so Hasui can move onto the TF4 movie toy designs.

Make of it what you will.

What a waste of talent.

Totally

I doubt that with Kobayashi returning we'll see larger scale MP01 sized figures with die cast etc. Changing a winning formula by returning to square one doesn't make sense to me.

It now seems that the corporate suits want to once again emphasise on the immediate gains of focusing on the movie line. That sucks as we are repeating the cycle again on enduring popular toys being supplanted by shelf warming movie crap that only serve to pee off retailers in the medium to long run.

Rodimus was a shocker. If MP toys go back to that level of quality, that's it for me as I quit the line. They would have driven me exclusively to the 3rd parties for quality MP level toys.