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Post by Andy Turnbull on Nov 14, 2011 19:47:31 GMT
Transformers are for children. -Ralph Indeed. QFT as the internet kids say. Andy |
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Post by legios on Nov 14, 2011 20:50:57 GMT
Why would the tagline "30th anniversary" be considered as targeting children though? The tag-line doesn't target anything - it is simply a statement. After all - the original tag-line was "Robots in Disguise" and that isn't targeting any particular group. You stick "30th Anniversary" on something to make it seem a bit special but it doesn't have to define or drive your strategy. For a thirtieth anniversay I would say the best thing to do is to target the current or next generation of customers - not the previous ones - why look like a museum piece when you can look like this years hot property? Karl |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2011 10:09:58 GMT
Umm ... By its nature "30th anniversary" is for people who were children thirty years ago. It's not even a business case that trying to sell an over-expensive piece to me costs them in forgone sales to 2011's children. Nothing stops them selling their contemporary lines at the same time.
Here's a side example: Megadeth released a live DVD and CD set to commemmorate the 20th anniversary of their album Rust In Peace. I bought it, in spite of the fact that I haven't purchased any of their stuff in a decade and, more to the point, haven't even bothered to torrent their new stuff to try it out.
I don't think that targetting the current or next generation with that particular branding would be effective anyway, since it almost reinforces that the whole series pre-dates their lives. I wouldn't have wanted to collect a magazine or whatever in homage to footballers from the 1950s when I was a child, for example; I was perfectly happy in my little world thinking that football was a modern thing and what came before was a rubbish pre-cursor. I didn't know any better and was wrong, but I doubt that I was the only one who felt like that, then and now.
(I ought to be clear that I've nothing against adding "30th anniversary" across the whole range of Transformers output for that year, just that I think that *the* commemorative stuff that's actually marketed as such should be big and something that will draw people like *me* in to paying the big bucks.)
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 15, 2011 18:45:53 GMT
Hmmmm, well when I was a kid big anniversary things were ludicrously exciting. I was really into the 25th anniversary of Star Trek in 1991 and the books, movie and merchandise that accompanied it. I was 13/14 that year.
Same with may other things such as certain comics, tv shows,, movies etc that predated my time on the planet. I recall being quite excited by getting an anniversary paperback of The Hobbit and being thrilled the back had been around so long - even from before I was born!
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Nov 15, 2011 20:46:29 GMT
I'd be inclined, from my own perspective, to observe that when I was a kid the idea that something had been around before I knew about it was quite an attractive idea. Doctor Who caught my imagination partly because I knew that there were stories from before I was born. Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers were not new things - like the Lone Ranger they were artefacts from the past that captured my imagination just as much as Transformers did. My interest in things wasn't defined by whether it was new or old, just by whether it resonated with me for some indefinable reason.
And that's been a fairly standard reaction of mine all along. As an eleven year old I first got into the Battletech novels, then board game through reading "Wolf Pack" - a book that is full of references to earlier novels that weren't even published over here for a good many years afterwards. Wondering what the full story of the Battle of Misery, or the betrayal by Anton Marik, was became part of the fun of it.
I guess what I am saying is that I think that kids are likely to be less put off by thinking that something predates them than you do. That is a personal viewpoint and I may be atypical to most children (it wouldn't entirely surprise me to be honest).
But I'm on a slight tangent here. To try and bring myself back into the general flow of traffic - I'm not sure I would be too worried about them aiming a 30th Anniversay item at oldsters like myself at all. I think I'd be more pleased and impressed that the franchise was still alive and still able to engage with a new audience than I would be by anything they might dream up to target at nostalgic adults. But that is a very personal viewpoint after all, and other folks mileage may vary.
(To answer the actual question about what do I do if I was given the job of deciding on a 30th Anniversary collectors piece my reaction would be two things - Politely suggest that I am too invested in the franchise to be a good choice and ask if there was a job going on the Gi Joe brand and drop the names of the three big name ex-Diaclone designers whose work I really respect and suggest that it might be worth approaching one of them to do a design proposal on whatever my successor decides to develop.)
Karl
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2012 20:13:12 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 15, 2012 22:55:11 GMT
I must own this!
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 16, 2012 8:10:41 GMT
Bah!
-Ralph
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2012 10:52:13 GMT
Transformers are for children. -Ralph Masterpiece. Kiss Players. Alternity. Robot Masters. All lines primarily targeted at collectors and more mature folk I would say. Admitedly not mainline and quite low numbers and availability, but still not "really" for children  |
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kayevcee
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The Weather Wizard
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Post by kayevcee on Jan 16, 2012 13:11:54 GMT
I'd say all of the above (apart from maybe Alternity and MP Megatron and Rodimus) are still okay for children- er... Japanese children in the case of KISS. I guess they're more philosophical about pantie shots over there.
Star Wars did its 30th Anniversary line in 2007 (naturally), and it was mostly releases from the first film or 'battle packs' of famous scenes from the original trilogy- most of the fighters came out again and they redid the Millennium Falcon, and Toys'r'us had two packs with AT-STs, figures and bits and bobs from Hoth and Endor's moon. They started the "Vintage" figure line then as well, I think, and that was so popular it's still going now. Bizarrely, since they're doing the Phantom Menace push this year they're releasing "vintage" versions of figures that never came out in the old-style cards before.
If Hasbro was going to go similarly all-out with TF's 30th (which they probably shouldn't because our adult fanbase is much smaller) I'd expect a couple of reissues- probably Optimus Prime and Soundwave, maybe "the new leaders" Ultra Magnus and Galvatron since we know the mould is okay, and a whole bunch of new Classics/Universe figures based on anyone from 84-86 that we haven't had yet under the anniversay banner.
It's conceivable they could do a larger set like Omega Supreme, a new trio of Insecticons, autobot triple-changers or a combiner team. After the lukewarm reception of MP Grimlock and Rodimus though, they might not bother unless it's definitely a set kids would want.
EDIT: Or they could do something completely different. I think the last time I was right about predicting TF releases was the Insecticon 3-pack reissue and the eHobby Diaclone colour set. That was... 2004? I'm not exactly Paul the Psychic Octopus.
-Nick
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primenova
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Post by primenova on Jan 16, 2012 15:26:25 GMT
I expect Hasbro might try to do their own Mt. play set now. £100 for a brick [rotf Devie]. But expect Hasbro are placing
"30th Ann 1984 - 2014"
on labels for all the toys for that year.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 16, 2012 19:18:35 GMT
Transformers are for children. -Ralph Masterpiece. Kiss Players. Alternity. Robot Masters. All lines primarily targeted at collectors and more mature folk I would say. Admitedly not mainline and quite low numbers and availability, but still not "really" for children Masterpiece toys sold in TRU (children's toy shop), Alternity, Robot Masters and Kiss Players sold in toy shops in Japan. Where children go. Hello! -Ralph |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2012 19:22:37 GMT
As long as I get a classics Shockers out of it I don't care what it is or how expensive lol. Just give me a Cyberverse, Deluxe, Voyager and Leader and I'll die happy |
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