Just got done watching the Transformers panel (after sitting through the Power Rangers and Ghostbusters segments for two hours). Some good reveals, and I'm honestly surprised they didn't get leaked prior to PulseCon.

We already saw Skids and Bulkhead a couple of days ago, so nothing new to report there. Bulkhead has been confirmed by the designer to be intended as a G1 version of the character.

There was also a reveal for Deluxe-class Kickback and Drag Strip. Kickback seriously looks like he stepped out of the cartoon. Transformation is very authentic to G1. His wings look like they're made of frosted translucent plastic. He looks like he's got the translucent opening cockpit in his chest, too. Can't wait for the rest of the Insecticons.

Drag Strip looks amazing. So much better than the Combiner Wars toy. His head sculpt is dead perfect. He's got six wheels in vehicle mode! He's made out of two different tones of yellow, just like he appears in the Sunbow animation! He comes with two handheld guns, which is great, because I like symmetry. His packaging shows him as Stunticon 1 of 5, so the others are coming for sure at some point. I couldn't see any Combiner Wars connector ports on him, so I'm not sure if he combines and connects the same way, or in an entirely new and different way. I kind of hope they didn't try to reinvent the wheel.

They're doing a Geewunnified version of Arcee, the blue motorcycle, from Transformers: Prime. I'm not sure what it is about her, specifically, that makes them keep coming back to the character. She's been fed through a Geewunnification filter like Bulkhead was. Shrug. Not interested personally, but at least they're doing some fan service for other iterations of Transformers finally.

They also unveiled the new version of Leader-class Laser Optimus Prime. The robot mode styling is very authentic to the G2 toy design and colors. His trailer opens up into a battle station, as per G2. Probably no electronic features, this time, but it still looks like a fantastic tribute.

PulseCon exclusives include the Agent Ravage and "Decepticons Forever" Ravage 2-pack, with a reissue of the G1 cassette toy along with a rejiggering of Kingdom Cheetor. The other one is the reformatting version of Galvatron, complete with Unicron-compatible mini-vehicles for the Quintesson spiral cruiser, the Junkion ship, and a bunch of tiny unpainted slug figures (they didn't close in on them with the camera, but panelists identified them as Dirge, Cyclonus, Scourge, and four of the Dinobots in dinosaur mode). I don't really care about Galvatron, but I really want the tiny ships and figurines. I may have to paint the figures.

This stuff all goes up for pre-sale today, a bit early for Premium members and then a bit later for the rest of the buying public.

Zob (excited)

On Friday, October 22, 2021 at 6:51:22 PM UTC+1, Zobovor wrote:
> Just got done watching the Transformers panel (after sitting through the Power Rangers and Ghostbusters segments for two hours). Some good reveals, and I'm honestly surprised they didn't get leaked prior to PulseCon.
>
> We already saw Skids and Bulkhead a couple of days ago, so nothing new to report there. Bulkhead has been confirmed by the designer to be intended as a G1 version of the character.
>
> There was also a reveal for Deluxe-class Kickback and Drag Strip. Kickback seriously looks like he stepped out of the cartoon. Transformation is very authentic to G1. His wings look like they're made of frosted translucent plastic. He looks like he's got the translucent opening cockpit in his chest, too. Can't wait for the rest of the Insecticons.
>
> Drag Strip looks amazing. So much better than the Combiner Wars toy. His head sculpt is dead perfect. He's got six wheels in vehicle mode! He's made out of two different tones of yellow, just like he appears in the Sunbow animation! He comes with two handheld guns, which is great, because I like symmetry. His packaging shows him as Stunticon 1 of 5, so the others are coming for sure at some point. I couldn't see any Combiner Wars connector ports on him, so I'm not sure if he combines and connects the same way, or in an entirely new and different way. I kind of hope they didn't try to reinvent the wheel.
>
> They're doing a Geewunnified version of Arcee, the blue motorcycle, from Transformers: Prime. I'm not sure what it is about her, specifically, that makes them keep coming back to the character. She's been fed through a Geewunnification filter like Bulkhead was. Shrug. Not interested personally, but at least they're doing some fan service for other iterations of Transformers finally.
>
> They also unveiled the new version of Leader-class Laser Optimus Prime. The robot mode styling is very authentic to the G2 toy design and colors. His trailer opens up into a battle station, as per G2. Probably no electronic features, this time, but it still looks like a fantastic tribute.
>
> PulseCon exclusives include the Agent Ravage and "Decepticons Forever" Ravage 2-pack, with a reissue of the G1 cassette toy along with a rejiggering of Kingdom Cheetor. The other one is the reformatting version of Galvatron, complete with Unicron-compatible mini-vehicles for the Quintesson spiral cruiser, the Junkion ship, and a bunch of tiny unpainted slug figures (they didn't close in on them with the camera, but panelists identified them as Dirge, Cyclonus, Scourge, and four of the Dinobots in dinosaur mode). I don't really care about Galvatron, but I really want the tiny ships and figurines. I may have to paint the figures.
>
> This stuff all goes up for pre-sale today, a bit early for Premium members and then a bit later for the rest of the buying public.
>
>
> Zob (excited)

I'm personally looking forward to the Leader Laser Optimus Prime - I wasn't collecting when Titans Return Optimus and Diac came out, and this looks superior in every way. Glad too that they're acknowledging and incorporating other continuities into the never ending G1 love fest - a little something for everyone.

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> Just got done watching the Transformers panel (after sitting through the
> Power Rangers and Ghostbusters segments for two hours). Some good
> reveals, and I'm honestly surprised they didn't get leaked prior to PulseCon.
>
> We already saw Skids and Bulkhead a couple of days ago, so nothing new to
> report there. Bulkhead has been confirmed by the designer to be intended
> as a G1 version of the character.
>
> There was also a reveal for Deluxe-class Kickback and Drag Strip.
> Kickback seriously looks like he stepped out of the cartoon.
> Transformation is very authentic to G1. His wings look like they're made
> of frosted translucent plastic. He looks like he's got the translucent
> opening cockpit in his chest, too. Can't wait for the rest of the Insecticons.
>
> Drag Strip looks amazing. So much better than the Combiner Wars toy.
> His head sculpt is dead perfect. He's got six wheels in vehicle mode!
> He's made out of two different tones of yellow, just like he appears in
> the Sunbow animation! He comes with two handheld guns, which is great,
> because I like symmetry. His packaging shows him as Stunticon 1 of 5, so
> the others are coming for sure at some point. I couldn't see any
> Combiner Wars connector ports on him, so I'm not sure if he combines and
> connects the same way, or in an entirely new and different way. I kind
> of hope they didn't try to reinvent the wheel.

Part of what made Combiner Wars so much fun was the mix-and-match play
pattern. I’m not sure I will pick these up if they don’t add to that. Sure,
he looks a little better, but I want my preposterous combiner with
mismatched limbs. Plus we can just slowly upgrade a Menasaur — that would
be fun.

> They're doing a Geewunnified version of Arcee, the blue motorcycle, from
> Transformers: Prime. I'm not sure what it is about her, specifically,
> that makes them keep coming back to the character. She's been fed
> through a Geewunnification filter like Bulkhead was. Shrug. Not
> interested personally, but at least they're doing some fan service for
> other iterations of Transformers finally.

She’s a fantastic character. One of the most fleshed-out characters in the
series, in a series with generally very strong characterization.

Plus, they like the fembots these days.

She’s a bit bulkier than her character model, and previous toys, but still
quite good. But she now has a nose.

> They also unveiled the new version of Leader-class Laser Optimus Prime.
> The robot mode styling is very authentic to the G2 toy design and colors.
> His trailer opens up into a battle station, as per G2. Probably no
> electronic features, this time, but it still looks like a fantastic tribute.

When they start doing tributes to excellent toys, that don’t seem to do
more than the original toy, I wonder why they don’t just reissue the
original. The molds still existed in 2000, and that’s about when they
started caring about the molds, so it’s a good bet they are still around.

Laser Optimus and G2 Dreadwing are two molds that should just pop up every
5 years.

This just seems like a lesser version.

> PulseCon exclusives include the Agent Ravage and "Decepticons Forever"
> Ravage 2-pack, with a reissue of the G1 cassette toy along with a
> rejiggering of Kingdom Cheetor. The other one is the reformatting
> version of Galvatron, complete with Unicron-compatible mini-vehicles for
> the Quintesson spiral cruiser, the Junkion ship, and a bunch of tiny
> unpainted slug figures (they didn't close in on them with the camera, but
> panelists identified them as Dirge, Cyclonus, Scourge, and four of the
> Dinobots in dinosaur mode). I don't really care about Galvatron, but I
> really want the tiny ships and figurines. I may have to paint the figures.
>
> This stuff all goes up for pre-sale today, a bit early for Premium
> members and then a bit later for the rest of the buying public.
>
>
> Zob (excited)
>

Gustavo Wombat <gustavowombat@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
>> Just got done watching the Transformers panel (after sitting through the
>> Power Rangers and Ghostbusters segments for two hours). Some good
>> reveals, and I'm honestly surprised they didn't get leaked prior to PulseCon.
>>
>> We already saw Skids and Bulkhead a couple of days ago, so nothing new to
>> report there. Bulkhead has been confirmed by the designer to be intended
>> as a G1 version of the character.
>>
>> There was also a reveal for Deluxe-class Kickback and Drag Strip.
>> Kickback seriously looks like he stepped out of the cartoon.
>> Transformation is very authentic to G1. His wings look like they're made
>> of frosted translucent plastic. He looks like he's got the translucent
>> opening cockpit in his chest, too. Can't wait for the rest of the Insecticons.
>>
>> Drag Strip looks amazing. So much better than the Combiner Wars toy.
>> His head sculpt is dead perfect. He's got six wheels in vehicle mode!
>> He's made out of two different tones of yellow, just like he appears in
>> the Sunbow animation! He comes with two handheld guns, which is great,
>> because I like symmetry. His packaging shows him as Stunticon 1 of 5, so
>> the others are coming for sure at some point. I couldn't see any
>> Combiner Wars connector ports on him, so I'm not sure if he combines and
>> connects the same way, or in an entirely new and different way. I kind
>> of hope they didn't try to reinvent the wheel.
>
> Part of what made Combiner Wars so much fun was the mix-and-match play
> pattern. I’m not sure I will pick these up if they don’t add to that. Sure,
> he looks a little better, but I want my preposterous combiner with
> mismatched limbs. Plus we can just slowly upgrade a Menasaur — that would
> be fun.
>
>> They're doing a Geewunnified version of Arcee, the blue motorcycle, from
>> Transformers: Prime. I'm not sure what it is about her, specifically,
>> that makes them keep coming back to the character. She's been fed
>> through a Geewunnification filter like Bulkhead was. Shrug. Not
>> interested personally, but at least they're doing some fan service for
>> other iterations of Transformers finally.
>
> She’s a fantastic character. One of the most fleshed-out characters in the
> series, in a series with generally very strong characterization.
>
> Plus, they like the fembots these days.
>
> She’s a bit bulkier than her character model, and previous toys, but still
> quite good. But she now has a nose.
>
>> They also unveiled the new version of Leader-class Laser Optimus Prime.
>> The robot mode styling is very authentic to the G2 toy design and colors.
>> His trailer opens up into a battle station, as per G2. Probably no
>> electronic features, this time, but it still looks like a fantastic tribute.
>
> When they start doing tributes to excellent toys, that don’t seem to do
> more than the original toy, I wonder why they don’t just reissue the
> original. The molds still existed in 2000, and that’s about when they
> started caring about the molds, so it’s a good bet they are still around.
>
> Laser Optimus and G2 Dreadwing are two molds that should just pop up every
> 5 years.
>
> This just seems like a lesser version.
>

Also, Laser Prime doesn’t even have a mural on the side of his trailer
depicting him burning down a forest.

On Friday, October 22, 2021 at 3:02:42 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Part of what made Combiner Wars so much fun was the mix-and-match play
> pattern. I’m not sure I will pick these up if they don’t add to that.

They didn't showcase any of Drag Strip's combiner functionality. They alluded to the fact that he's got a third mode (Menasor's arm), but that was it.. So, as of now we have no information to work with.

When they released Headmaster characters after Titans Return was over (Snapdragon, Fangry) they retained the same connector port design. When they released combiner characters after Combiner Wars was over (Seacons), they used the same connector pegs. It makes more sense to use the same innovations they've already pioneered and less sense to experiment with something all-new. But, I guess we'll see.

I'm more concerned about what a Commander-class Motormaster is going to be like. There's a third-party version where Motormaster transforms into the Menasor body and then the other cars just clip to the existing arms and legs, like Menasor in the G1 cartoon. I'm not sure if I would love this or hate this. It really could go either way.
> Plus, they like the fembots these days.

I guess. To me, at least, it's highly telling that all the G1 characters up for pre-order are already sold out, but Arcee and Bulkhead are still in stock.

> When they start doing tributes to excellent toys, that don’t seem to do
> more than the original toy, I wonder why they don’t just reissue the
> original.

At least it's more of a fully complete tribute to Laser Optimus than the Reveal the Shield era toy we got. Bad sculpt, tiny toy, no trailer. This new Leader-class tribute seems like the right size and includes more of what made the 1995 toy so amazing.

> Laser Optimus and G2 Dreadwing are two molds that should just pop up every
> 5 years.

I missed out on the Robots in Disguise Dreadwing/Smokejumper set when it originally came out, and I only recently (within the last few years or so) remembered that I didn't own it and ended up tracking it down on eBay. It's still awesome. The tank mode is kind of sad and half-assed, but it's not meant to be a fully separate and complete transformation. (It's like the flight mode for Tracks: utility over aesthetics.)

I was at a point a couple of years ago when I was seriously considering picking up the elusive ATB Megatron (there's a saying about a fool and his money that's applicable here, I think) but spending upwards of $2000 seemed unjustifiable, especially when I could just get the BW2 version, essentially the same toy in the same colors, for far less cash.

Zob (gets unjustifiably angry about very small things)

On Friday, October 22, 2021 at 3:04:10 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Also, Laser Prime doesn’t even have a mural on the side of his trailer
> depicting him burning down a forest.

That's because he already burnt down the entire Sahara Forest. It doesn't exist anymore.

Zob ("Don't you mean the Sahara Desert?" "Well, sure, that's what it's called NOW...")

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Friday, October 22, 2021 at 3:02:42 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> Plus, they like the fembots these days.
>
> I guess. To me, at least, it's highly telling that all the G1 characters
> up for pre-order are already sold out, but Arcee and Bulkhead are still in stock.

I want to make two seemingly contradictory arguments — but I would claim
they are independent of each other:

1. Do we know that Hasbro Pulse pre-orders have any relation to retail
sales? It’s just two very different audiences, so I don’t know we can
compare them.

(And if these two audiences do have the same buying patterns, with 8 months
lead time, maybe they should rejigger case assortments based on that —
these are June releases, right? Use Hasbro Pulse sales data to help the
rest of the line)

2. Neither Bulkhead nor Prime Arcee really captures the character.

Bulkhead looks all wrong, whichever version was the inspiration — Animated
was a weird puffy rounded APC vehicle, Prime was an SUV, and both had a
rounded chest rather than a big box. This is your classic “we stuck a
remolded head on it and gave it a similar-ish deco why are you bothered
that Optimus is now a pickup truck” homage. Bulkhead is supposed to look
like a hefty/strong man.

If they want to make a G1 style Bulkhead, start with the TF: Prime SUV
design.

(That said, remolding the back canopy/shield thing to make him a garbage
truck would be great, and I would likely happily accept a TF: Animated
Wreck-Gar out of this even if so many other details are wrong. He just
looks like a garbage truck. I don’t know why we need a Generations-styled
TF:Animated Wreck-Gar, but if we did, then I think this would work)

Arcee is better — I like her — but she barely looks female, at least
compared to her character model.

Slap a nose on the TF: Prime Second Edition (RID, not to be confused with
either of the other toy lines named RID), change out her weapons to accept
blast effects, and I would have accepted that a little more. Too
big/expensive for a deluxe? Great, add a Jack figure and make her a
Voyager, and then I wouldn’t feel like I’m buying the same toy.

Unless it is the same Jack they released years ago.

Anyway, it’s all about Jack. He’s great.

>> When they start doing tributes to excellent toys, that don’t seem to do
>> more than the original toy, I wonder why they don’t just reissue the
>> original.
>
> At least it's more of a fully complete tribute to Laser Optimus than the
> Reveal the Shield era toy we got. Bad sculpt, tiny toy, no trailer.
> This new Leader-class tribute seems like the right size and includes more
> of what made the 1995 toy so amazing.

I liked the Titans Return toy that homages Laser Optimus, but incorporates
the trailer into the robot mode, gives him a third mode, and makes him a
headmaster. It wasn’t just failing to live up to the original, it did
something new.

If the original toy sucked (at least by modern standards), but was
mysteriously beloved (G2 Tank Megatron leaps to mind), then it makes more
sense to just go for a do-over.

But the odds that lightning is going to strike twice in the same way is
low, so add something new that can be awesome on its own.

How many “Season 1” Optimus toys are great? The original, MP-10, Earthrise…
maybe the Classics Voyager (the question is whether he tries to match
Season 1). How many attempts have we had?

>> Laser Optimus and G2 Dreadwing are two molds that should just pop up every
>> 5 years.
>
> I missed out on the Robots in Disguise Dreadwing/Smokejumper set when it
> originally came out, and I only recently (within the last few years or
> so) remembered that I didn't own it and ended up tracking it down on
> eBay. It's still awesome. The tank mode is kind of sad and half-assed,
> but it's not meant to be a fully separate and complete transformation.
> (It's like the flight mode for Tracks: utility over aesthetics.)

I love this toy. And I love his half-assed tank mode so much. Sure, it
breaks the disguise, but you just had a stealth bomber fly up to you and
not drop the bomb but instead transform into a tank as a fighter took off…
I think you’re not going to be more reassured if it was a realistic tank.

I propose that the next release be Blitzwing, in bright Decepticon-pink and
cream, with yellow missiles. Since Blitzwing is so phonetically close to
Blitzen, I propose the jet’s name be phonetically close to another of
Santa’s reindeer. How would you feel about Danger and Blitzwing?

And, no, we cannot darken the pink to red and make the missiles green. That
would be silly. Blitzwing is pink and cream with a yellow head (and thus
yellow missiles, since they’re basically the trim color)

> I was at a point a couple of years ago when I was seriously considering
> picking up the elusive ATB Megatron (there's a saying about a fool and
> his money that's applicable here, I think) but spending upwards of $2000
> seemed unjustifiable, especially when I could just get the BW2 version,
> essentially the same toy in the same colors, for far less cash.

Starscrem and BB are great.

On Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 10:11:20 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> 1. Do we know that Hasbro Pulse pre-orders have any relation to retail
> sales? It’s just two very different audiences, so I don’t know we can
> compare them.

If it weren't for online sales, the same people would be buying these toys at brick-and-mortar stores. So, I assume the Hasbro Pulse orders are just a subset of the total number of people purchasing overall. Granted, the online orders are probably skewed more heavily towards collectors and resellers than, say, the ones that would sell out of Walmart or Target. There are probably not-very-discerning grandmothers who are just as likely to buy the blue motorcycle robot as they would the yellow race car robot, and there are also probably kids who have no attachment to any of the legacy characters and would derive equal enjoyment from the toys regardless of whether the characters were G1 or Animated or Prime.

> (And if these two audiences do have the same buying patterns, with 8 months
> lead time, maybe they should rejigger case assortments based on that —
> these are June releases, right? Use Hasbro Pulse sales data to help the
> rest of the line)

I think they might do that at least some of the time. It used to be more common than it is now, but case assortments used to be variable, with certain characters being shortpacked to make extra room for more popular characters. I also wonder if consumers who have trouble findings toys, and write to Hasbro and complain, might have some influence over which characters get a package refresh (Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain, Earthrise/Kingdom Optimus Prime).

What we're seeing a lot of now at retail is not case assortments at all, but individual characters who are shiped separately. It's more common in Japan, but I've been saying for years that we need to do it in the USA as well.. Currently, the vintage Ninja Turtles reissues don't come in a case assortment—you get a box that's all Leonardo or all Michaelangelo or what have you. If there's one turtle who sells better than the rest (like, say, Raphael), then you can reorder just that character without getting stuck with even more of the turtle nobody wants (Donatello, probably). They're doing it with He-Man Origins (full cases of just He-Man or just Skeletor), they're doing it with Disney Princess dolls, they're doing it with R/C cars, etc.

And now it seems like Hasbro is selling full cases of individual characters to the online retailers, like Entertainment Earth or Big Bad Toy Store, so they can reorder based on demand. I've got a Studio Series Scourge shipping box now as well as a Studio Series Gnaw shipping box, both of which I got from Entertainment Earth when I placed orders for those characters in bulk. It makes sense. The next step would be for Walmart to create spots in their toy department for individual characters, not toy assortments, so they could reorder in the same way.
> 2. Neither Bulkhead nor Prime Arcee really captures the character.

I don't understand why Hasbro thought that people who have complained about the constant "G1 snorefest" were clamoring for their favorite Animated and Prime characters to be Geewunnified. It's like an Optimus Primal paw wish, only it's been designed to look like an Apeface paw. I wonder if they were taking their cue from Star Wars, where they'll take a cartoon character like Ahsoka Tano, or a comic book character like Jaxxon the green bunny rabbit and do a realistic action figure version of them that would make sense in a collection of live-action film characters. Only, somehow, G1 has become the default so all these characters from the Michael Bay universe (Barricade) or the hyper-stylized Animated cartoon are being fed into the Floro Dery machine.

I mean, I guess in some ways it was the natural evolution of things, because we saw a lot of vintage G1 characters (I can't really talk about "legacy characters" any longer) being reimagined in the Michael Bay format or the Animated format, so maybe this was inevitable.
> Arcee is better — I like her — but she barely looks female, at least
> compared to her character model.

A lot of people have remarked that she looks masculine, and might be a pre-deco who ends up being sold again as a different male character. Not sure who, though. G2 Road Rocket, maybe?
> But the odds that lightning is going to strike twice in the same way is
> low, so add something new that can be awesome on its own.

The new Laser Prime has clear chest windows, and a Matrix in his chest. The shoulder towers pop open to reveal missile pods. It honestly looks like a very faithful and lovingly-designed tribute to the G2 toy. And you know they'll sell it again as RiD Scourge. ("DECEPTICONS, CLEAN THE FOREST!!")
> How many “Season 1” Optimus toys are great? The original, MP-10, Earthrise…
> maybe the Classics Voyager (the question is whether he tries to match
> Season 1). How many attempts have we had?

G1, MP-10, and Earthrise have been the best among them. And, as you say, there have been many attempts. It's rare that they manage to come up with a truly great Prime toy. (Some day, perhaps in the next year or three, I suspect they'll give us a Commander-class Optimus Prime, and it's going to essentially be the G1 toy with ball joints. And we'll all rejoyce and laud it as the best Prime toy ever.)
> I propose that the next release be Blitzwing, in bright Decepticon-pink and
> cream, with yellow missiles. Since Blitzwing is so phonetically close to
> Blitzen, I propose the jet’s name be phonetically close to another of
> Santa’s reindeer. How would you feel about Danger and Blitzwing?

That's a redeco that would have made a lot of sense during the G2 days. I think we might have missed the boat on this idea. Nowadays, I could never accept that Big Chungus as Blitzwing.

> Starscrem and BB are great.

Well, if I end up getting them, I'm going to put them on my G2 shelf and pretend that they're Starscream and Megatron.

Zob (also, Megatron was once a tiny silver Porsche, and we must never forget that)

On Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 4:52:18 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 10:11:20 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > 1. Do we know that Hasbro Pulse pre-orders have any relation to retail
> > sales? It’s just two very different audiences, so I don’t know we can
> > compare them.
> If it weren't for online sales, the same people would be buying these toys at brick-and-mortar stores. So, I assume the Hasbro Pulse orders are just a subset of the total number of people purchasing overall. Granted, the online orders are probably skewed more heavily towards collectors and resellers than, say, the ones that would sell out of Walmart or Target. There are probably not-very-discerning grandmothers who are just as likely to buy the blue motorcycle robot as they would the yellow race car robot, and there are also probably kids who have no attachment to any of the legacy characters and would derive equal enjoyment from the toys regardless of whether the characters were G1 or Animated or Prime.
> > (And if these two audiences do have the same buying patterns, with 8 months
> > lead time, maybe they should rejigger case assortments based on that —
> > these are June releases, right? Use Hasbro Pulse sales data to help the
> > rest of the line)
> I think they might do that at least some of the time. It used to be more common than it is now, but case assortments used to be variable, with certain characters being shortpacked to make extra room for more popular characters. I also wonder if consumers who have trouble findings toys, and write to Hasbro and complain, might have some influence over which characters get a package refresh (Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain, Earthrise/Kingdom Optimus Prime).
>
> What we're seeing a lot of now at retail is not case assortments at all, but individual characters who are shiped separately. It's more common in Japan, but I've been saying for years that we need to do it in the USA as well. Currently, the vintage Ninja Turtles reissues don't come in a case assortment—you get a box that's all Leonardo or all Michaelangelo or what have you. If there's one turtle who sells better than the rest (like, say, Raphael), then you can reorder just that character without getting stuck with even more of the turtle nobody wants (Donatello, probably). They're doing it with He-Man Origins (full cases of just He-Man or just Skeletor), they're doing it with Disney Princess dolls, they're doing it with R/C cars, etc.
>

The 2 foot turtles do that, and by that I mean they're 1 turtle per case.
But the Turtles in Time toys just came in a case assortment, wave 1 was Super Shredder, Leatherhead, Michelangelo, and Raphael, while wave 2 was Donatello, Leonardo, Foot Soldier, and Slash, but there was 2 of each per case, with no shortpack. On the other hand Vintage Collection Star Wars just had a case with 4 Maul, 4 Ahsoka, 3 Jawas, and 1 Echo, so every retailer bought cases to get multiple Echoes. Then they had a case of nothing but IG-11

> And now it seems like Hasbro is selling full cases of individual characters to the online retailers, like Entertainment Earth or Big Bad Toy Store, so they can reorder based on demand. I've got a Studio Series Scourge shipping box now as well as a Studio Series Gnaw shipping box, both of which I got from Entertainment Earth when I placed orders for those characters in bulk. It makes sense. The next step would be for Walmart to create spots in their toy department for individual characters, not toy assortments, so they could reorder in the same way.

We just got like 5 cases of Studo Series and sent most of them back because we can't sell that much Jolt and Bumblebee. If we could have gotten 2 cases of JUST Gnaw we would have, but so far the only thing we were able to get a solid case of was Refraktor in Siege, which sucked when they came out with the toy colors.

> > 2. Neither Bulkhead nor Prime Arcee really captures the character.
> I don't understand why Hasbro thought that people who have complained about the constant "G1 snorefest" were clamoring for their favorite Animated and Prime characters to be Geewunnified. It's like an Optimus Primal paw wish, only it's been designed to look like an Apeface paw. I wonder if they were taking their cue from Star Wars, where they'll take a cartoon character like Ahsoka Tano, or a comic book character like Jaxxon the green bunny rabbit and do a realistic action figure version of them that would make sense in a collection of live-action film characters. Only, somehow, G1 has become the default so all these characters from the Michael Bay universe (Barricade) or the hyper-stylized Animated cartoon are being fed into the Floro Dery machine.
>
> I mean, I guess in some ways it was the natural evolution of things, because we saw a lot of vintage G1 characters (I can't really talk about "legacy characters" any longer) being reimagined in the Michael Bay format or the Animated format, so maybe this was inevitable.

Maybe if this were G1 Bulkhead, people would be happier, but some engineer at Hasbro probably said "Let's take AOE Hound and make a G1 version"
and a second engineer said "We already have a Hound in G1!"
to which the first engineer replied "Well slap Bulkhead's head on it then"

> > Arcee is better — I like her — but she barely looks female, at least
> > compared to her character model.
> A lot of people have remarked that she looks masculine, and might be a pre-deco who ends up being sold again as a different male character. Not sure who, though. G2 Road Rocket, maybe?
> > But the odds that lightning is going to strike twice in the same way is
> > low, so add something new that can be awesome on its own.

If anything people want Road Rage

> The new Laser Prime has clear chest windows, and a Matrix in his chest. The shoulder towers pop open to reveal missile pods. It honestly looks like a very faithful and lovingly-designed tribute to the G2 toy. And you know they'll sell it again as RiD Scourge. ("DECEPTICONS, CLEAN THE FOREST!!")
> > How many “Season 1” Optimus toys are great? The original, MP-10, Earthrise…
> > maybe the Classics Voyager (the question is whether he tries to match
> > Season 1). How many attempts have we had?
> G1, MP-10, and Earthrise have been the best among them. And, as you say, there have been many attempts. It's rare that they manage to come up with a truly great Prime toy. (Some day, perhaps in the next year or three, I suspect they'll give us a Commander-class Optimus Prime, and it's going to essentially be the G1 toy with ball joints. And we'll all rejoyce and laud it as the best Prime toy ever.)
> > I propose that the next release be Blitzwing, in bright Decepticon-pink and
> > cream, with yellow missiles. Since Blitzwing is so phonetically close to
> > Blitzen, I propose the jet’s name be phonetically close to another of
> > Santa’s reindeer. How would you feel about Danger and Blitzwing?
> That's a redeco that would have made a lot of sense during the G2 days. I think we might have missed the boat on this idea. Nowadays, I could never accept that Big Chungus as Blitzwing.
> > Starscrem and BB are great.
> Well, if I end up getting them, I'm going to put them on my G2 shelf and pretend that they're Starscream and Megatron.
>
>
> Zob (also, Megatron was once a tiny silver Porsche, and we must never forget that)

Soundwave was a tablet, and he pulled it off magnificently, but we never got Rumble as a MicroSD card, instead we got "spy tablets" that were somehow a cluster

Sahara means desert, so the desert desert.

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 10:11:20 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of
> the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> 1. Do we know that Hasbro Pulse pre-orders have any relation to retail
>> sales? It’s just two very different audiences, so I don’t know we can
>> compare them.
>
> If it weren't for online sales, the same people would be buying these
> toys at brick-and-mortar stores. So, I assume the Hasbro Pulse orders
> are just a subset of the total number of people purchasing overall.
> Granted, the online orders are probably skewed more heavily towards
> collectors and resellers than, say, the ones that would sell out of
> Walmart or Target. There are probably not-very-discerning grandmothers
> who are just as likely to buy the blue motorcycle robot as they would the
> yellow race car robot, and there are also probably kids who have no
> attachment to any of the legacy characters and would derive equal
> enjoyment from the toys regardless of whether the characters were G1 or
> Animated or Prime.

I think there are a lot of stages between collectors and randomly grabbing
grandmothers…

>> (And if these two audiences do have the same buying patterns, with 8 months
>> lead time, maybe they should rejigger case assortments based on that —
>> these are June releases, right? Use Hasbro Pulse sales data to help the
>> rest of the line)
>
> And now it seems like Hasbro is selling full cases of individual
> characters to the online retailers, like Entertainment Earth or Big Bad
> Toy Store, so they can reorder based on demand. I've got a Studio Series
> Scourge shipping box now as well as a Studio Series Gnaw shipping box,
> both of which I got from Entertainment Earth when I placed orders for
> those characters in bulk. It makes sense. The next step would be for
> Walmart to create spots in their toy department for individual
> characters, not toy assortments, so they could reorder in the same way.

Are they selling cases of individual characters, or if a large online
retailer orders 100 cases are they sending them pre-sorted? Rather than
having a Hasbro warehouse worker put four different toys in 100 different
boxes, and then an Amazon worker split them out again, just save the work…

>> 2. Neither Bulkhead nor Prime Arcee really captures the character.
>
> I don't understand why Hasbro thought that people who have complained
> about the constant "G1 snorefest" were clamoring for their favorite
> Animated and Prime characters to be Geewunnified. It's like an Optimus
> Primal paw wish, only it's been designed to look like an Apeface paw. I
> wonder if they were taking their cue from Star Wars, where they'll take a
> cartoon character like Ahsoka Tano, or a comic book character like Jaxxon
> the green bunny rabbit and do a realistic action figure version of them
> that would make sense in a collection of live-action film characters.
> Only, somehow, G1 has become the default so all these characters from the
> Michael Bay universe (Barricade) or the hyper-stylized Animated cartoon
> are being fed into the Floro Dery machine.

It could work, and for G1 Animated Lugnut it worked really well, but it
requires love.

> I mean, I guess in some ways it was the natural evolution of things,
> because we saw a lot of vintage G1 characters (I can't really talk about
> "legacy characters" any longer) being reimagined in the Michael Bay
> format or the Animated format, so maybe this was inevitable.

I’m still disappointed that the G1 Movie Barricade has Prowl features,
rather than having the robot parts remolded with spikes and stuff. Gentle
spikes. Floró Dery spikes.

>> Arcee is better — I like her — but she barely looks female, at least
>> compared to her character model.
>
> A lot of people have remarked that she looks masculine, and might be a
> pre-deco who ends up being sold again as a different male character. Not
> sure who, though. G2 Road Rocket, maybe?

A chest remold would be nice. Even if they can’t slim it down, they can add
lines suggesting a slimmed down, more feminine look.

>> But the odds that lightning is going to strike twice in the same way is
>> low, so add something new that can be awesome on its own.
>
> The new Laser Prime has clear chest windows, and a Matrix in his chest.
> The shoulder towers pop open to reveal missile pods. It honestly looks
> like a very faithful and lovingly-designed tribute to the G2 toy. And
> you know they'll sell it again as RiD Scourge. ("DECEPTICONS, CLEAN THE FOREST!!")
>
>> How many “Season 1” Optimus toys are great? The original, MP-10, Earthrise…
>> maybe the Classics Voyager (the question is whether he tries to match
>> Season 1). How many attempts have we had?
>
> G1, MP-10, and Earthrise have been the best among them. And, as you say,
> there have been many attempts. It's rare that they manage to come up
> with a truly great Prime toy. (Some day, perhaps in the next year or
> three, I suspect they'll give us a Commander-class Optimus Prime, and
> it's going to essentially be the G1 toy with ball joints. And we'll all
> rejoyce and laud it as the best Prime toy ever.)

There have been some great Optimus Prime toys other than that, but that’s
about it for G1.

>> I propose that the next release be Blitzwing, in bright Decepticon-pink and
>> cream, with yellow missiles. Since Blitzwing is so phonetically close to
>> Blitzen, I propose the jet’s name be phonetically close to another of
>> Santa’s reindeer. How would you feel about Danger and Blitzwing?
>
> That's a redeco that would have made a lot of sense during the G2 days.
> I think we might have missed the boat on this idea. Nowadays, I could
> never accept that Big Chungus as Blitzwing.

But you already have G2 Dreadwing and will soon have Starscrem and BB. Not
sure it’s for you. But the mold should keep coming back so the next
generation of fans can enjoy it.

Plus, I can see Blitzwing getting upgraded if he took over the Decepticons
again and grabbed a salesman instead of a football coach.

>> Starscrem and BB are great.
>
> Well, if I end up getting them, I'm going to put them on my G2 shelf and
> pretend that they're Starscream and Megatron.
>
>
> Zob (also, Megatron was once a tiny silver Porsche, and we must never forget that)
>

Irrellius Spamticon <Ob1kenoby@att.net> wrote:
>
>
> Maybe if this were G1 Bulkhead, people would be happier, but some
> engineer at Hasbro probably said "Let's take AOE Hound and make a G1 version"
> and a second engineer said "We already have a Hound in G1!"
> to which the first engineer replied "Well slap Bulkhead's head on it then"
>

Allegedly, AOE Hound was designed as Bulkhead and then changed to Hound.

But it doesn’t even manage to resemble that character.

I ordered Ravage. Twice, I guess.
It was really stressful and difficult to order. I got CAPTCHAed a bunch
of times and I have difficulty with those due to visual disabilities.
Then in all the rush, I fucked up my name in the credit card info.

So I don't know if that order is going to go through. I went through a
second time and paid with PayPal, which is what I'm going to do from now on.

So I guess I really am getting two Ravages due to my mistake. It says "1
per customer" on the site, so I didn't think it was possible.

On Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 4:46:50 PM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:

> So I guess I really am getting two Ravages due to my mistake. It says "1
> per customer" on the site, so I didn't think it was possible.

They had a limit of two Studio Series Scourge toys, but I managed to place a second order for a third toy and it went through. They obviously weren't policing this thing closely.

But, just now, I went to reload Lift-Ticket's page to show my son what Diaclone red Hoist looked like, and I got this error message:

It looks like you previously purchased the maximum number of units for:
Transformers Generations Selects Deluxe Lift-Ticket
You will be unable to proceed with this purchase. Please return to the cart and remove the item before continuing.

So it looks like you got in right under the wire, before they started enforcing the purchase limits. So, you get to keep one in the package and open the other, or resell the second one and (in all probability) turn a hefty profit.

Zob (has a whole pile of toys I need to start selling, m'self)

On Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 10:38:59 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I think there are a lot of stages between collectors and randomly grabbing
> grandmothers…

Well, sure. But I think the more familiar you are with Transformers, and the more of a hardcore fan you are, the more discerning you become. There does, I would assume, come a point when you stop being largely undiscerning and go, "Wait a minute, this doesn't look like the character I know and love." It's probably about mid-point between grabbing granny and uberfan.

I would think that the closer on the sliding scale you get to uberfan, the less likely you're going to buy a toy that fails to capture the character. Or, maybe my definition of uberfan is messed up, and those are the guys who buy any and all toys, regardless of their aesthetics, so they can have a complete collection. I guess maybe being discerning could only exist around mid-point and then tapers off.

> Are they selling cases of individual characters, or if a large online
> retailer orders 100 cases are they sending them pre-sorted? Rather than
> having a Hasbro warehouse worker put four different toys in 100 different
> boxes, and then an Amazon worker split them out again, just save the work…

I think Hasbro sells mixed cases for brick-and-mortar retail, and then they sell cases of specific characters to online retailers, who can then fulfil orders for specific characters in uneven amounts. If I'm understanding your question right, I don't think a place like Amazon orders mixed cases and then has to divvy up the characters in the case assortment.

> I’m still disappointed that the G1 Movie Barricade has Prowl features,
> rather than having the robot parts remolded with spikes and stuff. Gentle
> spikes. Floró Dery spikes.

Floro Dery's approach was the opposite of spikes. He would have pretty much eliminated spikes. I think the movie aesthetic was a deliberate response to the simplicity of G1. Realistically, there's no way an automobile or a jet plane would unfold into a bunch of cube-shaped body parts. It would be a sharp angle here, another sharp angle there, and that's how we ended up with Shardformers.

Feeding a Shardformer through the Deryfication machine would be an exercise in extremes. It would be like an unstoppable force hitting an immovable object. The entire Universe would turn to marshmallows.

> But you already have G2 Dreadwing and will soon have Starscrem and BB. Not
> sure it’s for you. But the mold should keep coming back so the next
> generation of fans can enjoy it.

Yes, that's a great idea. But not in horrible colors, please.

> Plus, I can see Blitzwing getting upgraded if he took over the Decepticons
> again and grabbed a salesman instead of a football coach.

Oh, man, don't make me write that fanfic.

Zob (assuming you're not already working on it, that is)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 10:38:59 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> I think there are a lot of stages between collectors and randomly grabbing
>> grandmothers…
>
> Well, sure. But I think the more familiar you are with Transformers, and
> the more of a hardcore fan you are, the more discerning you become.
> There does, I would assume, come a point when you stop being largely
> undiscerning and go, "Wait a minute, this doesn't look like the character
> I know and love." It's probably about mid-point between grabbing granny and uberfan.
>
> I would think that the closer on the sliding scale you get to uberfan,
> the less likely you're going to buy a toy that fails to capture the
> character. Or, maybe my definition of uberfan is messed up, and those
> are the guys who buy any and all toys, regardless of their aesthetics, so
> they can have a complete collection. I guess maybe being discerning
> could only exist around mid-point and then tapers off.
>
>> Are they selling cases of individual characters, or if a large online
>> retailer orders 100 cases are they sending them pre-sorted? Rather than
>> having a Hasbro warehouse worker put four different toys in 100 different
>> boxes, and then an Amazon worker split them out again, just save the work…
>
> I think Hasbro sells mixed cases for brick-and-mortar retail, and then
> they sell cases of specific characters to online retailers, who can then
> fulfil orders for specific characters in uneven amounts. If I'm
> understanding your question right, I don't think a place like Amazon
> orders mixed cases and then has to divvy up the characters in the case assortment.

My theory is that Amazon orders 500 cases of kingdom Voyager Wave 1, and
gets 250 presorted cases of Optimus Primal and 250 presorted cases of
Cyclonus. But that they are sold in sets so the ratio is the same as if
they ordered mixed cases. These presorted cases might not be on the same
container ship.

Evidence:
- my Optimus Primal and Cyclonus shipped a week apart.
- Amazon still has shortages of popular characters and shelfwarmers
(warehouse warmers?)

>> I’m still disappointed that the G1 Movie Barricade has Prowl features,
>> rather than having the robot parts remolded with spikes and stuff. Gentle
>> spikes. Floró Dery spikes.
>
> Floro Dery's approach was the opposite of spikes. He would have pretty
> much eliminated spikes. I think the movie aesthetic was a deliberate
> response to the simplicity of G1. Realistically, there's no way an
> automobile or a jet plane would unfold into a bunch of cube-shaped body
> parts. It would be a sharp angle here, another sharp angle there, and
> that's how we ended up with Shardformers.
>
> Feeding a Shardformer through the Deryfication machine would be an
> exercise in extremes. It would be like an unstoppable force hitting an
> immovable object. The entire Universe would turn to marshmallows.

Allicons and Shrkticons have spikes. It’s doable in a dery style. It
wouldn’t be the same as a Movieverse style, but doable.

>> But you already have G2 Dreadwing and will soon have Starscrem and BB. Not
>> sure it’s for you. But the mold should keep coming back so the next
>> generation of fans can enjoy it.
>
> Yes, that's a great idea. But not in horrible colors, please.

Not sure Blitzwing colors are horrible.

The Transformers Hall Of Fame thing should be for toys, not characters, and
there should be a regular reissue schedule for them. Not an over
saturation, but maybe 3 reissues a year, and 3 redecos.

Toxitron could make his appearance.

>
>> Plus, I can see Blitzwing getting upgraded if he took over the Decepticons
>> again and grabbed a salesman instead of a football coach.
>
> Oh, man, don't make me write that fanfic.
>
>
> Zob (assuming you're not already working on it, that is)

No. I have three dozen half started fanfics, but that’s not one of them.

On Friday, October 29, 2021 at 4:16:49 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> My theory is that Amazon orders 500 cases of kingdom Voyager Wave 1, and
> gets 250 presorted cases of Optimus Primal and 250 presorted cases of
> Cyclonus. But that they are sold in sets so the ratio is the same as if
> they ordered mixed cases. These presorted cases might not be on the same
> container ship.
That's a possibility, but then what would be the purpose of shipping solid cases full of a single character to begin with? Why go to the trouble if the end result is exactly the same?

I think it's certainly possible that places like Amazon might *initially* place equal quantities of all the toys in a given wave, but as some characters sell out quickly and others don't, they reorder based on those sales. I used to worry what would happen to all those unwanted, unloved Earthrise Megatrons (a toy that had already been sold multiple times in slightly different form, and which had a horrible face sculpt to boot) when people ordered the Quintesson Judge (a character we'd never gotten as a toy before, and whose nature lent well to armybuilding). Now I realize that the fact that the two toys shipped together in a case assortment is pretty much irrelevant.

> - my Optimus Primal and Cyclonus shipped a week apart.

That does seem like evidence that Amazon got a Primal shipment and then got a separate Cyclonus shipment.

> Allicons and Sharkticons have spikes. It’s doable in a Dery style.. It
> wouldn’t be the same as a Movieverse style, but doable.

I guess it depends on whether you take a season one approach or a season two approach or a Transformers: the Movie approach. For season one, every single character was realized in the "superheroes wearing boxes" house style, regardless of how the toys were designed. Season two designs were much more literal interpretations of the toys, and they seemed to go out of their way to make most characters short and dumpy to serve as a visual counterbalance to the tall, heroic season one characters. The movie dumped the boxy look almost entirely and introduced robots with curvature and human-like musculature.

I think the neo-G1 Barricade toys we've been getting lately are from the season one approach. Convert everything to boxes.

> Not sure Blitzwing colors are horrible.

Maybe I misunderstood. You were saying you wanted pink, and Blitzwing doesn't read as pink to my eyes. Arcee is pink. Blitzwing is purple.

(It's almost certain that if Transformers had come out in 1981, Blitzwing would have retained his original Diaclone color scheme in green and grey. I suspect the only reason they changed it up was because G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero debuted in 1982 and had already established military greens as a "good guy" color.)
> Toxitron could make his appearance.

I think it's highly probable we'll get a Toxitron toy out of the new Laser Prime. It's a logical redeco, and it's one of those deep cuts that the boys at Hasbro tend to favor these days.

Zob (I mean, the more times they can press a mold into production, the more money goes back into the brand, ultimately...)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Friday, October 29, 2021 at 4:16:49 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> My theory is that Amazon orders 500 cases of kingdom Voyager Wave 1, and
>> gets 250 presorted cases of Optimus Primal and 250 presorted cases of
>> Cyclonus. But that they are sold in sets so the ratio is the same as if
>> they ordered mixed cases. These presorted cases might not be on the same
>> container ship.
>
> That's a possibility, but then what would be the purpose of shipping
> solid cases full of a single character to begin with? Why go to the
> trouble if the end result is exactly the same?

Easier inventory management on Amazon’s end (not paying someone to separate
the Primal’s and Cyclonuses), easier shipment on the Hasbro side (can ship
out toys as soon as they are packaged, not having to have someone shuffle
the two toys into boxes.

Save a bit of money.

> I think it's certainly possible that places like Amazon might *initially*
> place equal quantities of all the toys in a given wave, but as some
> characters sell out quickly and others don't, they reorder based on those
> sales. I used to worry what would happen to all those unwanted, unloved
> Earthrise Megatrons (a toy that had already been sold multiple times in
> slightly different form, and which had a horrible face sculpt to boot)
> when people ordered the Quintesson Judge (a character we'd never gotten
> as a toy before, and whose nature lent well to armybuilding). Now I
> realize that the fact that the two toys shipped together in a case
> assortment is pretty much irrelevant.

Except we continue to see the popular characters sell out and never get
restocked.

>> - my Optimus Primal and Cyclonus shipped a week apart.
>
> That does seem like evidence that Amazon got a Primal shipment and then
> got a separate Cyclonus shipment.
>
>> Allicons and Sharkticons have spikes. It’s doable in a Dery style. It
>> wouldn’t be the same as a Movieverse style, but doable.
>
> I guess it depends on whether you take a season one approach or a season
> two approach or a Transformers: the Movie approach. For season one,
> every single character was realized in the "superheroes wearing boxes"
> house style, regardless of how the toys were designed. Season two
> designs were much more literal interpretations of the toys, and they
> seemed to go out of their way to make most characters short and dumpy to
> serve as a visual counterbalance to the tall, heroic season one
> characters. The movie dumped the boxy look almost entirely and
> introduced robots with curvature and human-like musculature.
>
> I think the neo-G1 Barricade toys we've been getting lately are from the
> season one approach. Convert everything to boxes.
>
>> Not sure Blitzwing colors are horrible.
>
> Maybe I misunderstood. You were saying you wanted pink, and Blitzwing
> doesn't read as pink to my eyes. Arcee is pink. Blitzwing is purple.

He’s a pinky purple. More pink than Galvatron, less pink than Misfire.

> (It's almost certain that if Transformers had come out in 1981, Blitzwing
> would have retained his original Diaclone color scheme in green and grey.
> I suspect the only reason they changed it up was because G.I. Joe: A
> Real American Hero debuted in 1982 and had already established military
> greens as a "good guy" color.)
>
>> Toxitron could make his appearance.
>
> I think it's highly probable we'll get a Toxitron toy out of the new
> Laser Prime. It's a logical redeco, and it's one of those deep cuts that
> the boys at Hasbro tend to favor these days.
>
>
> Zob (I mean, the more times they can press a mold into production, the
> more money goes back into the brand, ultimately...)
>