Optimus reissue info

[swipe]

Its not really Hasbro's fault, there are laws that have to followed when it comes to kids toys. If you want to blame someone blame the US gov. and their uptight toy standards. I'm just as pissed about it as the next guy, but there's nothin really anyone can do about it.

[BigMaki]

Originally posted by Scourge
How did I miss that link? Sorry. But I guess they're liars. You can see all the differences between original and reissue Op and Mags at BWTF.com *sigh* Does anyone have them yet? Do you think you can cut the missiles to the right length and still have them work?

On Ultra Magnus (and the missiles for Prime's trailer, apparently) I don't see how you could cut the missiles down to make them work. They have a notch on the end that allows them to clip into the launcher. You'd likely have to glue them together where they were cut and hope that it holds (not likely). You could also try to cut the notch pattern further up the shaft of the missile in the smooth part, but that would be some fairly precisioned work. Apparently, you can't buy the original missiles and stick them in the launcher, they don't stay. So you're stuck buying launchers and missiles, as well as new smokestacks if you want one like the original. Bummer...

From what I've read, it's a new government regulation that all children's toys with missiles must have them at least 2 inches in length. Prime's trailer looks just as stupid with them like that.

Hmmmm... I'm starting to wonder if this will drop or raise the price of the Takara Ultra Magnuses...

[Alpha Trion]

Originally posted by swipe
Its not really Hasbro's fault, there are laws that have to followed when it comes to kids toys. If you want to blame someone blame the US gov. and their uptight toy standards. I'm just as pissed about it as the next guy, but there's nothin really anyone can do about it.

They wouldn't have to alter the toys if they marked them "for adult collectors" like Mattel did with the MOTU reissues. So it kind of is their fault because they're trying to sell them to little kids when they know only the fans will pay that much when the cheaper, more colorful Armada toys are sitting right next to them.
Edit - is there any way I could remove the missle launchers from OP and UM and replace them with original launchers?

[Scourge]

If you're going to go to that much trouble (and pay that much) why don't you just get the Japanese re-issue? That way everything is new and you don't have to mess with buying the parts and then finding ways to transplant them. Ebay man. I'm thinking about it.

[Scarrita]

Originally posted by swipe
Its not really Hasbro's fault, there are laws that have to followed when it comes to kids toys. If you want to blame someone blame the US gov. and their uptight toy standards. I'm just as pissed about it as the next guy, but there's nothin really anyone can do about it.

Granted Hasbro has to follow "safety standards" in this country, but do you honestly think that the reissues are being marketed to eight-year-olds? NO!
They are being marketed to those of us in our twenties and thirties, (or more or less in some instances), who want what we had a children. Are we actually going to see commercials on television advertising the reissues? I doubt it. The only ones that are going to know about the reissues, and care, are the adult collectors who want them, and those are whom they are targeted to.
Another possible reason why they have been altered is because they are being sold in Toys R Us, who Hasbro feels that that company is the only one truly worthy of giving the reissues shelf space. I don't think so. No matter where they would have been put they would have sold well. So it wasn't really nescessary to alter them, after all they are "Collector's Items" not toys. It says it right on the box, go look your self. And last time I checked kids didn't collect, they played.

[swipe]

Like I said I'm just as pissed as the next guy.......Hasbro is a business and is out to make a buck like everyone else..hence the modifications, w/ these changes they are allowed to reach a larger audience and of coures make more money. If these toys don't sell to the younger kids them maybe they'll have learned their lesson and reissue them correctly.

[Denyer]

They're hoping to reach the casual collectors market, too... people who really couldn't care if everything is millimetre perfect with their childhood memories, or even just think, "Hey, that would look cool on my desk!"

[Cliffjumper]

Originally posted by swipe
Like I said I'm just as pissed as the next guy.......Hasbro is a business and is out to make a buck like everyone else..hence the modifications, w/ these changes they are allowed to reach a larger audience and of coures make more money. If these toys don't sell to the younger kids them maybe they'll have learned their lesson and reissue them correctly.

Or maybe they should have realised what ungrateful twats most of you are and not ****ing bothered... You lot really disgust me. Is Optimus Prime really such a weak toy that shortening the smoke stacks means he's a waste of shelf space? And if these toys don't sell to younger kids it'll be because they're like bloody Tonka Gobots compared to the majority of the recent RiD line...

If nothing else the Hasbro reissues will mean the Takara ones on ebay etc. will go down in price...

But for once in your lives, stop ****ing whining. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: it would serve a significant portion of you right if Hasbro said "Transformers, **** it. We can't win. let's not bother". But thankfully Hasbro have realised the last ****ing people they should ask are the bloody 'fans'.

[swipe]

Feel better now?:rolleyes:

Might I suggest jogging or maybe some weight-training to help release some of that pent-up anger.......

[Cliffjumper]

Wow, what a superb argument, child. You really countered the points I put forward fantastically well, and made my argument look flimsier than Britney Spears' wardrobe.







Idiot.

[BigMaki]

Originally posted by Quicksilver
Or maybe they should have realised what ungrateful twats most of you are and not ****ing bothered... You lot really disgust me. Is Optimus Prime really such a weak toy that shortening the smoke stacks means he's a waste of shelf space? And if these toys don't sell to younger kids it'll be because they're like bloody Tonka Gobots compared to the majority of the recent RiD line...

If nothing else the Hasbro reissues will mean the Takara ones on ebay etc. will go down in price...

But for once in your lives, stop ****ing whining. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: it would serve a significant portion of you right if Hasbro said "Transformers, **** it. We can't win. let's not bother". But thankfully Hasbro have realised the last ****ing people they should ask are the bloody 'fans'.

OK, dude. Here's the problem I have with Hasbro, and I'll state it again. They're charging $40 for Optimus Prime or Ultra Magnus, and they've done a piss-poor job with them. The missiles on them both look ****ING RETARDED. If they were smart, they would have made them come through the back of the launcher, so they at least looked okay from the front. But they took the cheapest, easiest way out that they could, and that's what pisses me off.

And did I mention that they're charging $40 for them? What parent is going to pay $40 for an Ultra Magnus for their kid when there's a $25 Armada Megatron sitting next to him on the shelf? If they're going to overcharge, they should have worked with the age limit thing and found a way to release them unaltered, since they're pricing them for collectors anyway. Some of us care a lot more than you do about accessories and that sort of stuff. But because of this, you're acting as if we're supposed to be bowing down to Hasbro, thanking them for rereleasing them and charging us so much while doing it. I'll thank them for Hot Rod, which is unaltered (though still way overpriced). They won't be getting my money for Optimus, and I'll likely sell off my Ultra Magnus to order a Takara reissue. And don't even get me started about the fact that the packaging shows the figures unaltered...

Bottom line? We get pissed at Hasbro because they've always taken the cheap way out. They've cut corners and they've overcharged for it. They've told us that all they care about is our money, and we're supposed to thank them for it? **** that...

[Cliffjumper]

Yeh, I appreciate that, the price especially [they may be cheaper than a Takara reissue probably goes for now, but that's not the point], but I'm just wondering if people aren't going a bit to far for generally minor changes... the Magnus missiles thing does sound pretty bad, but to be honest it's not much of a problem compared to the fact he has no legs and his gun in full robot mode looks very silly... I'm just a little riled that fans have finally got what they wanted, and are still complaining... It's probably right that I'm not as fussed about accessories as others, and my opinions are further influenced by the fact that if/when Ultra Magnus comes out over here, I won't be buying him under any circumstances, and he'd be an automatic trade list item if I was given him... Also, thanks for actually putting forward an argument

[BigMaki]

Originally posted by Quicksilver
Yeh, I appreciate that, the price especially [they may be cheaper than a Takara reissue probably goes for now, but that's not the point], but I'm just wondering if people aren't going a bit to far for generally minor changes... the Magnus missiles thing does sound pretty bad, but to be honest it's not much of a problem compared to the fact he has no legs and his gun in full robot mode looks very silly... I'm just a little riled that fans have finally got what they wanted, and are still complaining... It's probably right that I'm not as fussed about accessories as others, and my opinions are further influenced by the fact that if/when Ultra Magnus comes out over here, I won't be buying him under any circumstances, and he'd be an automatic trade list item if I was given him... Also, thanks for actually putting forward an argument

Well, I think that if most of us had no knowledge of how Takara has been doing it for a couple of years now, we'd complain a little bit, but say, "Hey, cool! We can buy Optimus again!" As it stands, it was tough for me to get an Ultra Magnus finally and have him look like that, and see how half-assed the effort was in packaging him. This was made even worse by getting my Jazz & Prowl reissues a few days before.

And yes, Ultra Magnus, is, ultimately, a big old brick.

[Cliffjumper]

Aye... but Takara aren't bound by the same laws as Hasbro, to be fair... also I don't think it would be unfair to say that Transformers has been more consistantly a success for Takara [about the only thing which wasn't as much as a success as in America if not more so was G2], so in a way they were taking less of a gamble... the thing you mention about Hasbro taking advantage of the age rating thing isn't really possible, mind, when as someone pointed out they're only guidelines, and Hasbro still have to cover their ass... that said, lying on thier site is a bit off... unless it's only a first batch thing maybe, and a lot were made before Hasbro realised what as issue ot was?

[BigMaki]

Originally posted by Quicksilver
Aye... but Takara aren't bound by the same laws as Hasbro, to be fair...

Alas, this is why I will stick to Takara reissues and end up paying more for them. I was hoping for Skywarp and Thundercracker, but I fear that their missiles are going to look as retarded as Ultra Magnus's do. And forget about the little bomb missiles they used to have...

also I don't think it would be unfair to say that Transformers has been more consistantly a success for Takara [about the only thing which wasn't as much as a success as in America if not more so was G2], so in a way they were taking less of a gamble...

With the popularity of TF's right now in the US, I'd say it was less of a gamble and more of a sure thing.

the thing you mention about Hasbro taking advantage of the age rating thing isn't really possible, mind, when as someone pointed out they're only guidelines, and Hasbro still have to cover their ass... that said, lying on thier site is a bit off... unless it's only a first batch thing maybe, and a lot were made before Hasbro realised what as issue ot was?

Maybe there was no way around it? I don't know. For Hasbro's sake, I hope so. Regardless, making them exclusive to Toys R Us is what guaranteed that they'd a) cost more and b) have to be altered.

As far as the lying on the site and in the packaging goes, like I said earlier, it's likely they just pulled the box art and diagrams from their archives and slapped them on a new box, then wrote "Collectors' Series I" on it. I really wish they'd take their cue from Takara on this one and go with the book-style packaging...

[Scarrita]

Well BigMaki put up a very good argument so i don't/won't have to. That saves me from having to think too much, thanx. :rolleyes:
All I can add is something I have already said. The main market for the reissues are the adults who want to collect the old ones. Did Hasbro really have to put the reissues into a "toy store" if they are meant to be collectibles? There are plenty of stores out there that could offer the shelf space, hell even online would work.
Besides regular "toy" trucks in the States don't come with sliced smoke stacks. What's the difference there?
As far as the missles are concerned I was just going to cut them down anyway.
If all the alterations were as fixable as that I wouldn't have complained in the first place.
Besides, I don't like sounding like a whiny bitch anyway. Although I do a pretty good job at it.

[Cliffjumper]

Any of you mortified by the somestacks and with the ability to use silver paint and a screwdriver should check out http://www.agt.net/public/szemethy/trans.htm - the guy also does that Jetfire gunclip you're after, BigMaki...

[BigMaki]

Originally posted by Quicksilver
Any of you mortified by the somestacks and with the ability to use silver paint and a screwdriver should check out http://www.agt.net/public/szemethy/trans.htm - the guy also does that Jetfire gunclip you're after, BigMaki...

Funny, I've been thinking of repainting the stacks from my old Optimus and using them on my reissue Ultra Magnus... Any suggestions on what type of paint to use?

Thanks for the link for the clip. I may go for that one, as well as the small missiles for the seeker jets, just in case.

[Cliffjumper]

Enamel paints tend to work best on TFs, although some are too glossy... if you can't find a decent one, Games Workshop paints seem to work better than Humbrol/Revell model kit ones

Just to say I've ordered parts from KCC on several occasions, and they're frankly brilliant

EDIT: It's also worth noting the guy does parts there's a fair demand for, so maybe sending him an e-mail about Magnus missiles will mean he might be able to make something

[Setz27]

I would agree that the some of the new RID characters do make the old Transformers look a little dated. After buying a couple of them I couldn't help but think, "man these loose a little of the fun factor of the old-school guys." I remember the best part of playing with them was the quick-change going from Robot to Car and back. Transformers roll-out to the living room, transform and battle, transform back and go back to the bedroom. They may have been blocky but they were fun.

I've found the transformations of the RID figures a lot more difficult to transform, and if you don't have it just right doors pop open or parts don't quite lock together correctly. Especially if you start putting the gestalts together. You gotta admit though, they look damn good posed on the bookshelf.

Setz27