Biggest new toys for 2012?

[primenova]

What is going to be the biggest & best UK stre released Hasbro new Transformers toy for 2012?

We don't seem to have much new stuff planned.

Transformers Prime the full set released this month.
Any DOTM toys ? but doesn't look like anything new.
Nothing new on Generations & PCC have gone?

Have Hasbro got Kero unreleased to be revealed?

[Philip Ayres]

I wouldn't be surprised if Kreo is an ex toyline

Generations, PCC & DOTM are gone, though I suspect they'll return to classicverse at some point.

[Bogatan]

Kreos an odd one, Hasbro seemed to go to a fair bit of expense marketing it, but didn't seem to leave themselves anywhere to go. They even seemed to rule out repaints by including Bluestreak and Skywarp Kreons with Prime.

Personally I hope it's not dead.

[Deleted]

UK Toy Fair coming end of the month so I guess we'll get a good idea then as too what else we will see.

Just happy with early Prime to be honest

[The Doctor]

I would be surprised if Kreo is gone after it got such a big marketing push.

-Ralph

[legios]

I don't think they are done with Kreo either. I'd suspect that they will give it time to try and carve out a market niche. They are basically competing for the second slot anyway (Lego is a 1000lb Gorilla that you aren't going to try to compete with straight out of the gate. Their real targets are things like Megabloks)

Karl

[The Doctor]

What I like about LEGO is that they put product out and let it sell for several months (sometimes years) before pulling them and replacing with shiny new things. There is rarely any rush to get things as they come out or risk missing them.

Hopefully, Hasbro have the same model in mind for KREO. Construction block kits are a very different market from action figures.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

I wonder if it will be continued under the Prime header, once Prime has had a chance to establish itself. Maybe in time for next Christmas.

[legios]

Jan 16, 2012 19:50:17 GMT The Doctor said:

What I like about LEGO is that they put product out and let it sell for several months (sometimes years) before pulling them and replacing with shiny new things. There is rarely any rush to get things as they come out or risk missing them.

-Ralph

Lego seem to apply the same logic as model kit makers do - witness their tendency to sometimes go back and redo old subjects with new and improved versions, as well as shelf-lives which are far more similar to kits or train-sets than action figures.

Karl

[Shockprowl]

I'm looking out for any new Classicsverse stuff, my main collectingness thing. I'm sure they're going to keep that family of lines going. But, yes, very little info at the mo.

[primenova]

We have Guzzle - could we have the others from that same group of 6 characters?

[Nigel]

Kre-O's not gone; expect to see the range expanded beyond Transformers: one of this month's trade magazines pictures a military boat. (There's also some sort of mutant-type villainous character in the picture; it doesn't look like a GI Joe product but I imagine it's a similar theme.)

[Philip Ayres]

When's toyfair Nigel?

[Nigel]

24th-26th, though I'm not going this year. New York's 12th-15th February.

[Shockprowl]

Jan 17, 2012 13:11:34 GMT primenova said:

We have Guzzle - could we have the others from that same group of 6 characters?

Do you mean...

FIRECONS?!?!!!


That would be fantastic!!!

[primenova]

We should have the Firecon trio [not just the Botcon toy but new toys] then Fizzle & Sizzle so we can hav e the whole he's red not blue.

But Hasbro can release them both in red & blue but new car modes.

[Nigel]

Jan 17, 2012 17:18:28 GMT Nigel said:

Kre-O's not gone; expect to see the range expanded beyond Transformers: one of this month's trade magazines pictures a military boat. (There's also some sort of mutant-type villainous character in the picture; it doesn't look like a GI Joe product but I imagine it's a similar theme.)

It turns out this is for the Battleship film.

[shadowynne]

i think the transformers i am really excited about are the fall of cybertron line... cybertronian combaticons chock full of combiner-ee goodness! i cant wait! now if only the would do the insecticons...

[Toph]

I think Kreo Transformers has a *ton* of places they can go. Minifigs are a dime a dozen, and I seriously doubt they'll say "Awe, we can't make a silverstreak set, because we already put his unimportant minifig in with Optimus!" ;P
Optimus alone, they have a minimum of seven other designs they can take from ("Prime" Prime is virtually identical to movie prime, so doing a set for him would be almost duplicating the existing one). G1, Powermaster, Laserrod, RiD, Armada, Energon, Cybertron all immidiately spring to mind. Many of those offer quite different building expereriences than the current one. Megatron has a few tanks and some jets, to pull from, Starscream has a few designs as well.
And they've barily scratched the surface of characters to make sets from.
Kreo is very different from normal transformers. I would not expect to see many, if any "repaints" in the traditional sense. There's no point at all in reissuing Optimus Prime in White or Black, as Magnus or Nemesis, when you can easily drastically change the number and conficurations of the bricks and make a completely different toy. Repaints exist to recoup costs on expensive molds. That's a different issue here, since the majority of all your sets are a number of uniformed blocks used across the board. You're making money off the same molds when it's used for Optimus, Megatron, or Bumblebee.

On subject, while I hope I'm wrong, I don't think this will be a very big year for TF. I'm honestly not expecting Hasbro's announcements from botcon to top the odd assortment Hasbro Asia is coming out with.
Again, really hope I'm wrong, because I'm not in the least impressed with anything Hasbro's announced so far. And more FoC announcements will only depress me further.

[shadowynne]

hey whats wrong with FoC?

[Toph]

Well, to put it respectfully, it's a design asthetic I do not like. At all.

I personally feel that it fails at everything it tries to do, and that the designers really do not understand much about how to design transformers.

I feel it fails at connecting to Prime, which is where it's set, as the characters look *nothing* even remotely like the Prime versions. Their personalities also do not match.
I feel it fails at being "Pre-earth G1" which is what the game designers are trying for (Fails in every way that War Within succeeded on a visual standpoint), as many of the characters are rotten representatives of their G1 namesakes.
They fail as vehicles, as the majority look like human vehicles designed 200 years from now, as opposed to alien vehicles that have minor design cues to who they'll become.
And with the dinobots, save for Snarl, the designers have absolutely no concept of anatomy. Grimlock is pathetic as a dinosaur. Sludge and Swoop are too.

And as robots, almost all of the above end up looking horrible. Tiny vehicles (or swoop's case, pterosaur) end up as behemoth robots with arms that make Juggernaut look realistic.

The game designers don't seem to understand engineering of how to get from one mode to another in their designs. They don't seem to understand anatomy (Seriously... Swoop.... Grimlock... just looking at those two makes me want to die in horror. Grimlock's a bigger joke of a T. Rex than his '50s styles G1 counterpart), and they don't seem to understand vehicle design (As evedent by Bumblebee being just a futuristic VW Beetle instead of something new and different, that calls out to his Prime form. Jazz being just as bad).

All in all, from a visual standpoint, to me WfC is worse than Prime and the Movies combined. And I really don't like them, either.

[The Doctor]

I remain unconvinced that these games actually have anything to do with the Prime show!

-Ralph

[Benn]

Well, fully expecting Bumblebee to lose his voice in this game, but apart from that I see nothing that ties the games (or the novels, for that matter) into Prime. It's just one of those random Hasbro decisions that we all have to live with from time to time.

[shadowynne]

youch! hey i asked and i got it!

just want to clarify a few things...
im JUST talking about the toys... i havnt played either game so cant comment on personalities or designs that have not been made into toys.

im totally cool with people not liking the aesthetic.

personally im a fan of cybertron modes, no not all of them all the time. i havnt seen much of the foc line so i cant comment.

my main excitement is for the combaticons, i like their overall looks in all three modes, plus its a combiner that seems to be pocket kibble free. i do feel some of the colour scheme is off and vortex being a space helicopter is odd granted.

as far as the rest of the foc line couldnt say either way, havnt seen enough all i have seen is an optimus vehicle mode that looked like a step backwards from wfc so not interested.

i really liked some of the wfc line. megatron was very good, and soundwave i feel is one of the best incarnations of the character we have had in years. the fact that the designers took the time to throw in several nods to his g1 toy really pleased me.
i also liked the optimus mold. im not wild about primes paint scheme but the dark prime/nemesis repaint is just jawdropping.

bumblebee... eh, im with you, more of a concept vw for next years auto show...

as for the movie aesthetic... eh for the most part i can take it or leave it. although some good toys have come from it...

transformers prime... im still on the fence on this one. i frikken cannot stand the prime optimus toys. megatron is kind of neat but doesnt say "megatron" to me, if i saw him on a shelf i wouldnt say hey look its megatron! same goes for soundwave, once again a great toy, i love my prime soundwave, but it isnt soundwave if you see my meaning...

overall i think this will be a slower year than the last few, but i fhink the quality is likely going to be better since the bayverse reign is over...

now if someone would just do a remake of abominus and the insecticons i could die happy... oh and the seacons would be neat...

[Toph]

@shadow

Yeah, I'm mostly talking about the design asthetics of the characters, and how they transfer to toys for the game.
I honestly have no opinion on the game itself, and probably would have bought it if it were a straight to dvd movie.
(I'm not fond of Video Games being used as valid forms of story telling. Especially ones that exist as a genre I don't like, like these do. I hate the shooters, like WfC and Call of Duty. but this is purely personal opinion, as I'm just not a gamer).

I was considering the FoC Bruticus a couple ways recently. I've come to the conclusion he's not going to be the monster a lot of fans are predicting, and think he'll only be a little taller than the Energon combiners were.
Second, I'd actually kill to see him repainted as the autobot headmasters.
Swindle= Chromedome
Brawl= Hardhead
Blastoff= Brainstorm
Vortex= Highbrow
onslaught= Cerebros
Bruticus= Maximus

[shadowynne]

you know i think you are right about bruticus' size.
i think that the foc line will be going the way of dotm with a much smaller deluxe size. so closer to a scout class therefore making brutes, not that much larger than a rotf voyager.

no matter what i will be repainting mine to g1 spec! i think i will be keeping mine as the combaticons though as i have always liked them.

i would love to see the autobot headmaster repaint though!

[Toph]

Yeah. That's what I'm thinking.
Also, with the Maketoys' Giant finally being revealed, I have the arms. Did some eying with them in arm mode, being a little longer than a typical Generations deluxe is tall, compairing that to the picture and the fact that all sixe are fairly average deluxes...
I estimated that Giant will be maybe a little taller than the e-combiners. Standing about even (Maybe a bit more than) the crossfire enhanced Bruticus.
And like you said, with the new deluxes being on the small side (Prime has small deluxes too, no reason to believe the new Generations won't), I really can't see FoC Bruticus being any bigger. Especially with his torso being so small and out pf proportion with his limbs.

It's an admirable attempt, though. But I feel flawed from the start. I wish they didn't bother trying to follow the character model, because I think had they ignored that, he could be made from five deluxes,a nd been proportional, tall, and spectacular.
Make Onslaught form the core, entirely, and not do anything for the limbs. So he himself is just one solid mass that forms the middle of the chest, head, and hips.
Swindle and Brawl not only form the lower legs, but also the knees and thighs.
Blastoff and Vortex, half their mass forms smaller, more proportional arms, while a smaller chunk of the leftover mass connects to Onslaught to form the shoulders.
I really think this could work well.
We'd lose the "Scramble City" aspect, but really... how important is that to everyone? The only time it ever got used in fiction is by Ruination, and everyone else I know tends to prefer the "iconic" look for the gestalt.

But, like I said, I applaud them for trying.

[shadowynne]

yeah man, i think your idea for onslaught is spot on! that would of greatly improved the combined form.

i would miss the scramble city aspect actually as i like mixing things around. but i would rather have a better combined form so would be willing to give up the scramble aspect...

back on topic though!

oh dear gods i have just seen picks for prime black arachnia and micron arms prime soundwave... i must own them both! blackarachnia looks great and the choice of a helicopter altmode is genius. and soundwaves micron (a little scorpanok that transforms into a spear!) is just too cool, so thats 2 more for my list.

on a seperate note, i have seen photos of foc prime. not good in my opinion, a real step back from wfc. neither of his modes grab me...

[primenova]

I wonder what reveals Hasbro are showing at Botcon? We only seem to be seeing the conventions toys so far.

[Toph]

Apr 27, 2012 12:24:06 GMT primenova said:

I wonder what reveals Hasbro are showing at Botcon? We only seem to be seeing the conventions toys so far.

They displayed some prime stuff we haven't seen very well, the Bruticus and other three FoC deluxes.
(Bruticus seems to be around the same height as Crossfire enhanced Bruticus.
Bulkier limbs, scrawnier torso.

But to answer your questions, be patient. Hasbro never puts anything big in their case until after the hasbro panel. Which is tomorrow afternoon.