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While Hasbro releases cartoon toy lines in many waves to help store shelves stay stocked, like in the first three years of the Cyberverse show/line or the Robots in Disguise show/line, they have front loaded movie lines in the past, both in terms of the amount of product in the first wave and the amount of different toys in the first wave. You can see an example of this below for the Age of Extinction movie line. The pandemic has definitely changed things with disrupting distribution of both movies and their toylines. Hasbro has been burnt in the past with Snake Eyes and it seems the disruption for the Rise of the Beasts Transformers movie has left a real bad taste in their mouth since they had to re-align their distribution approach and keep many toys stored in warehouses.
So, according to an interview with Hasbro’s VP of EMEA and Asia, Marianne James, those big movie lines or big marketing pushes will be distributed in multiple waves instead of a big push to have all classes and many toys available all at once. That will be easier to manage for them. Of course, we are just talking of big movie lines and big marketing pushes for kid targeted toys. This is unrelated to Legacy/Studio Series lines which already adhere to the slow trickle wave model.
Tried and tested models still have their place, especially when you’ve got a Consumer Products program that leans on core pillars like toys and games. What is interesting now is that we can test and learn. Instead of dropping products based on seasons, we’re now looking to where a rollout could be more relevant to a culture in one of our specific markets.
If the content is pushed back and we experience a delay at retail, or there are problems getting product on the water, it’s better to be flexible and have a softer, more phased-out launch instead of using a big, all-encompassing 360 strategy.
This is especially important for Hasbro’s “vault” brands such as Transformers, Peppa Pig, and My Little Pony, which exists in highly competitive toy categories, most notably preschool. To have a major rollout fall flat due to timing problems is not an option, so the company is expanding its arsenal of marketing and engagement tools.
This week has been full of random news, like our first look at a toy for the Rise of the Beasts film released in the Cyberverse line when that cartoon is being replaced by a new one. Well, this one might take the cake for randomness. An Australian phone ap for betting called TAB touch has released an ad where they have Gene Simmons in his full Demon garb singing Stan Bush's The Touch but with modified lyrics about betting on horses. If you are wondering how this would be related to Transformers, well, we have that iconic clip below for you as well.
2021 was a big year for Hasbro's mecha toylines. The ever growing Transformers toylines gave us a lot of product (Kingdom, Studio Series, Cyberverse, MP, MPM, Shaterred Glass, Netflix, Buzzworthy Bumblebee, Rescue Bots, Generations Selects, Crossover) and Hasbro finally released the first Power Rangers zords developed under John Warden, the man who got the Transformers brand where it is now. For those curious as to how Hasbro's other transforming/combining robot themed toyline went, we have an update.
For a quick recap of the Power Ranges toyline, when it first got to North American shores, the toys were based on the same toys previously sold in Japan and as time went on, there were more and more differences between the Japanese version of toys (done by Bandai) and the American version (done by Bandai of America). It wasn't like with Transformers where the Takara version would have a slightly different deco, it was far more extensive. For the past 10 years at least, the toys in Japan for the same mecha were bigger and had electronics. To sell at a lower price point, Bandai of America would literally make a new mold, usually smaller and with less parts. There was even one time in Power Rangers Samurai, where the Japanese version of the 5 animal combiner had 3 modes (limb mode, animal mode, and geometric shape mode) and the American version scrapped the shape mode for 4/5 animals, which made it look ridiculous (Japanese on the left, American on the right).
Now when Hasbro bought the brand, they would do the same, remake new molds for their Power Ranger toyline and hired John Warden as the head of the design team to make these new molds. The first toyline fully developed under John Warden was Dino Fury and fans finally got to experience the zords in the later half of 2021.
And it turns out that for the first time in the history of the brand, the American versions are on par with the Japanese version, or even preferred by fans. While still a toyline for kids, Hasbro went for a more collector oriented mindset in what they favoured. It did not have electronics, and the zords are slightly smaller, but they have more articulation than their Japanese counterparts and the main zord has better proportions, a more detailed sculpt and greater show accuracy. Yes, the American version of the toy is more show accurate. It is also more dynamic and works well as a mecha action figure rather than being a brick (which all Power Ranger/Super Sentai mecha were in the past). So congrats to John Warden and his team on that, it is no small feat (Hasbro on the left, Bandai on the right).
Of course, it does help that Hasbro's mecha came out well after the original series aired in Japan, so they could replicate any show detail the original Japanese toys didn't have. Also, Hasbro's combining system for the zords is not as kid friendly as the Japanese version since it requires more force to connect and disconnect. The original Japanese toys had ports similar to lego bricks with similar ease of building but that also means connections on the Hasbro versions are tighter and less likely to undo while posing the figure (something the Japanese toys never had to worry about). So far, 5 zords have been released with more on the way in 2022, and all can combine together in various ways. Below is an example of combining 4 of them together along with using an extra head that comes with the villain action figure.
What does have to do with both is Hasbro upcoming collector oriented Megazord line. This is the stuff of dreams. It's basically Hasbro creating a Masterpiece Megazord line (something similar to Soul of Chogokin) in the west. The price is along those MP level prices of course, being $165 USD for the original Dino Megazord.
This has a lot of fans excited, not just for this release but for what they will do next. Although the fan enthusiasm for the black repaint was not great, since that purchase was behind an NFT wall.
Pulse launched last week and one of the concerns was how this may be a threat to retailers who sell Hasbro items. It came up in the investors presentation with the following question from Eric Handler:
I am intrigued by go to market pulse initiative. How do you balance being a global consumer products company with thousands or retail doors and how do you balance that in terms of not threatening those retailers with the go to consumer initiative.
To which Hasbro replied the following:
We have a unique take about how to approach and connect with our fans.
As everyone knows we have hundreds of thousands of doors around the world, our offering is really broad. When you look at what we are doing with Pulse, it's really a content and product initiative targeted at the fan economy. Its increasing our direct relation with consumers but in a very focused way and it will give us an opportunity to test and learn many things we can then bring to our partners globally. It's really not meant to be taking something for ourselves. It is allowing us to be the tip of the spear to foster these relationships and what we learn from this interaction will be shared with our partners around the world.
The quote above includes some shortening and it can be full heard slightly past the 2 hour mark of their investor presentation which can be heard here.
This definitely answers a few questions fans had. The fact that this is more fan focused than Hasbro Toy Shop would explain why toys like Cyberverse have not moved over to Pulse.
From this we can gather that the US collector market (meaning anyone reading this article) is significant enough to warrant investing in an interface to serve fans but not big enough for Walmart or Target to fear any loss in sales from Hasbro selling directly.
We could have guessed that, but it was fun to have at least one question that's been asked openly on these boards before answered by Hasbro's top executives.
Also, for those looking for a mission statement for both Pulse and the new Studio Select line, John Letter wrote a letter that was sent along with the new Voyager Combat Hero Megatron. You can read it below:
Another of Seibertron.com's big interview videos from last weekend's San Diego Comic Con 2018 event features the Hasbro Transformers brand team, with the awesome/gruesome twosome of Ben Montano and John 'Hasbro' Warden answering questions as much as they're allowed to on the War for Cybertron: Siege toyline for the first half, our thoughts about the reveals and the future events in which more product will be shown (worldwide), then moving on to some Masterpiece line questions and US distribution of those figures (they're all coming over!), their hopes for the Bumblebee Movie and what's next in fiction.
The full video is posted below for your viewing pleasure, and we've provided an almost verbatim transcript beneath that for ease of parsing and understanding the points made in the interview. Check it all out, and let us know what you think in the Energon Pub discussion boards!
Ryan Yzquierdo (Seibertron) - Seibertron.com Alex Valente (Va'al) - Seibertron.com John Warden – Hasbro Design Manager Ben Montano – Hasbro Marketing Manager
Va'al: "We saw today the reveals for the War for Cybertron Siege stuff, and you've said it's a very one sided war with only the Autobots revealed for now – when are we to expect more stuff (Decepticons in particular, ndr)?"
Ben: "Later this fall, there are some really cool conventions coming up around the world and we have a global tour coming up on our plan and we'll have a lot more to share. I can't say right now exactly when but stay tuned. Best non-answer answer I can give you."
John: "But I can say that if there were enemies they would be very cool and defy all expectations."
Va'al: "We've seen the different size classes for the line (Battle Master, Micro Master, Deluxe, Voyager, Leader, Weaponizer). IS Weaponizer only for the deluxe class, or will we see it across the line?"
John: "The Weaponizer classs robot is a deluxe class character, there will be other in the line than Cog, it makes sense from [?] - take Cog, he transformed into a bunch of weapons and vehicle, so it makes sense for that size to work with other characters to hold. So right now, deluxe."
Ryan: "One of the comments on our YouTube videos asked if Cog can also turn into the invidual robots that made up the character originally, can he still do that?"
John (with Ben) – No, he's not a Duocon. We'll put the actual vehicle and robot mode in the case soon, we need to move things around. He has a dedicated vehicle mode that can split into two, and he does have a third mode in being able to be all the weapons – that's the Weaponizer."
Va'al: "Combiner Wars had Devastator, Titans Return had Trypticon, Power of the Primes Predaking. Are there any plans to have something that size or with that idea in the line, at any point in the trilogy?"
Ben (with John) – Yes, that's our intention. Somebody fitting of the battleground. Fans have responded really strongly to it, so we'd like to continue with it."
Va'al: "So you'd like to continue the Titan class."
John: "Definitely. I mean, this is really taking a page from the 1984 pilot episode, and it's what happens on Cybertron in the last hour, and there's definitely room for a big character for sure"
Ben: "There's a lot of good guesses out there, online right now."
John: "It's exciting to see what people are saying, because we get an idea of what they want."
Ryan: "A question about Micro Masters, for the Unicron Trilogy fans: was there any talk of giving the Minicon ports? Are they compatible with previous figures?"
John: "We did talk about that actually, early on. We didn't want them to become too cluttered with stuff, and in order to pay homage to the original late 80s Micromaster line we wanted to really keep the conversion from vehicle to robot, but also make sure fit in the new ecosystem which is weaponizing. So they do convert and form weapons and munitions thing, so they do have that screwport, but so did the original Micromasters anyway."
Va'al: "In terms of the where this is now going, Siege being the first chapter and two more after that. Do you already know what the next two will be, or are you waiting to see how this one goes before moving onto the next part?"
Ben: "We already know where it's going. The Trilogy is mapped out, we're waiting to see some of the response and reaction, and some elements can change but the story is pretty much outlined in our heads, which is great and why – I think John would agree – the product is sharp, because we are focused, we have a plan, and we're able to provide a real play experience in Siege."
John: "Part of it is putting a stake in the ground with our design philosophy early on, we've been working of Siege for almost two years now, and trying to understand the constants. Scale is going to be a constant. The level of articulation mostly, and trying to make the characters the best version of that character they can be. Ultra Magnus is kind of a testament to that. The front cab turns into the white Ultra Magnus, the trailer turns into his armor, that's part of what he is. The plan is to keep that philosophy, so that people can go for a ride for three years. If this year they didn't get this one guy, they might get it next year."
Ben: "Assuming that fans love all we're doing is not fair to anybody."
John: "But coming to events like this and talking to you guys, finding out what you want is really exciting. Hearing what you have to say really does influence what we're doing."
Ben: "We had some people say 'I didn't vote for Impactor or Mirage' and the votings were close, so the more we hear from you guys, from your fans, it feeds the roster, it gives us depth through the line. There are certain things that will be standards, but there's flexibility in what micro collections can be fulfilled. Someone asked about Powermasters – there's a lot of subsets within the continuity that we can bring into the storyline if we see there's enough interest in it."
Va'al: "You mentioned the Armada retro-compatibility with the Minicon ports (that are not there), you have RID elements in Ultra Magnus, are there any other references or ideas from previous iterations that are not G1 or not RID that are present in the line?"
John: "There is Chromia, who is sort of IDW but really is an homage to that episode where she appears, briefly for a second. But there is definitely room to put things in that make sense in War for Cybertron: Siege and the Trilogy in general. There's a misconception that this is a G1 brand, and in a certain sense it is: there's the original Ark crew, things like that, but we also have characters like Ultra Magnus, he's got the RID vehicle mode. As we think about this toyline, it's more about who makes sense, if people want an authentic G1 experience, they can buy a Masterpiece toy – this is Generations, so what is best in the context of this new story."
Va'al: "So the story first approach is still continuing for this line."
John: "It's definitely a toy story, if you think of the ecosystem at play. I don't know about you guys, but my most favourite toy experiences as a kid were coming up with my own stories, pulling down Encyclopedia off the shelf and building a Cybertronian base and using sugar cubes as Energon."
Ben: "You took off a week from not designing toys and made this diorama. John did this for a week, or a month. 'John aren't you supposed to be checking emails?' 'No, I'm busy making this diorama.'"
John: "I was just moonlighting, much to my wife's chagrin. I jut worked day and night, I worked twice as hard. But when you get an opportunity to build a diorama… Ben's right, you get a chance to channel those exciting things that made you fall in love with being a toy designer in the first place, and I think this new line is not just about collecting characters, it's about creating that universe of story on the shelf, that's why those fireblast effects are in there. That's why we're adding levels of customisation to the characters, and more articulation than we've done in years. It's about how does your Transformers universe come to life. What does it mean for you to be a collector."
Va'al: "To that point, what is your target point for this particular age bracket? Are you looking at both the old collector and the new collector?"
Ben: "We've found that a huge set of the audience is kids, 7-8-12 years old getting into the Generations line. A lot of it has to do with parents getting their kids into the line, whether this is the touch point or the animation. But a large percentage of the fanbase is not the 30+ collector. It's just appreciation for really cool toys. John and I talk a lot, and you've asked if we have a long view for this trilogy, and we definitely do. And there's definitely a misconception in the universe that we may prefer one era of Transformers over another, say G1 over Beast Wars, but we grew up in different eras, half of our writers on Cyberverse grew up in the 90s, early 2000s, our design team is the same, we have designers who are in their mid 20s, so we're introducing G1 to them too – so what you'll see in this is an extended universe continuity introduced within Siege. So to a lot of people saying 'you don't like Beast Wars' 'you don't like the Unicron trilogy' I am fairly confident that we will debunk that over the course of the next couple of years. We respect the entirety of this brand. This is our first step, a starting point which will be epic, and I'm confident that everyone will be excited to go on this journey with us."
John: "Ultimately, the reason I hope this line will be popular with kids – just like Power of the Primes is – is that Transformers is fun to play with. It's fun to change a vehicle into a robot, you take time out on a rainy day to do so. And I think it's time to break that perception that there's Beast Wars fans or G1 fans – we're Transformers fans, we're a big family, we may have big fights online about stuff but we still love robots that convert into cool stuff."
Va'al: "So what you're saying is we'll complain no matter what you do anyway. [Laughter]"
John: "I didn't say that."
Va'al: "No, that's what I said. It's what I heard."
Ben: "Transformers fans unite. That's the vision we have, the entire team has, there's no reason there should be animosity within the fandom. Everyone has their own preferences, got it, we respect that, we don't want people to lose that, their passion, their 'G1' - but everyone has their own G1. We hope that this trilogy will be the opportunity to bring all of those things together, same with the Bumblebee movie, I really feel like that movie is going to unite fandoms. That's really a vision we have."
Ryan: "I hear you talking about Siege, your plans for the next stuff, I see IDW is coming to an end with the Unicron storyline – can about the fiction behind this? It's ripe with stories, any plans on that front?"
Ben: "Nothing yet. Nothing yet. But the fact that your head is already going there is great, this says 'tell me about it'. So we'll have a lot more to share in the future."
Ryan: "I'm really excited about this, I think it has a lot potential. If we switch gears real quick, I wanted to ask about Bumblebee – it looks like a different style to what we've been used to, there's a lot of love going into it, you seem to be having a lot of fun, can you speak to that?"
Ben: "The toys or the movie?"
Ryan: "The toys, that's where you guys are at."
Ben: "Yeah, so we've shown two characters so far with the Studio Series, Dropkick in a really cool new mode, that no one had seen yet. But also to have a VW mode for Bumblebee is really fun, it tugged at a lot of strings that we had as we got into this brand a long time ago. But even a lot of the other stuff, DJ Bumblebee, Energon Igniters, there's a place for them. Here at SDCC, seeing the kids' surprise and excitement around Bumblebee, having 3-4 year old kids running into here screaming 'Bumblebee' that's a whole new universe, a whole new group of fans that want to have fun with this brand. They're not looking for war, they're looking for their favourite hero, the playfulness of it, converting their figure, and we're having a lot of fun creating toys that do that."
John: "And what's exciting is knowing that that kid, who might go see the Bumblebee movie, maybe his first toys is the Power Surge one, but guess what – this world [Siege] is here, if he or she feels like they need another level of complexity, Transformers is great like that. There's room to grow into something. Once that kid is done with doing War for Cybertron, maybe they start collecting Masterpiece. There's ways of graduating into it."
Ryan: "Speaking of Masterpiece, Takara Tomy is releasing Beast Wars Megatron – is that coming from you guys or not?"
Ben: "It's a partnership we have with Takara now, so Hasbro are now importing the Takara Masterpiece items stateside. You will see a box that will go around the Takara Tomy original packaging, like a slip sleeve sort of thing, that will bring our brands together. It will be the exact release you would've expected in Japan, at the same time you would've gotten it in Japan."
Ryan: "Is it a product you worked on together?"
Ben: "There's definitely more collaboration going on, not to the level of Movie Masterpiece, but in general you see the unification of our brands, product lines, the Masterpiece line that Takara is creating is our next step in working together."
Thanks to fellow Seibertronian Sabrblade's notification, we have confirmation of one of the cast members for the upcoming animated series Transformers: Cyberverse - produced by Hasbro and Boulder Media Studios - specifically, the leader of the Decepticon Seekers Slipstream!
The actress and singer Lianne Marie Dobbs announced on Instagram that she has been recording her episodes already, which also suggests the cast will not be doing ensemble direction but separate recording sessions then mixed in production and post-production. Check out the image and comment below, and let us know what you think in the Energon Pub!
Recorded episodes for Transformers: Cyberverse, as Slipstream, the female Decepticon in charge of the Seekers. Thank you @heigaav for an awesomely smooth recording session. Recorded live in Miami with the director 'plugged in' from NYC and the writer in LA!
The transcript for Hasbro's latest Quarterly Investors call is up on Seeking Alpha, as are the presentation slides. In it, we realize a major talking point was how Star Wars toys had under-performed while the Transformers brand was very strong. As a matter of fact, as Brian Goldner states, "TRANSFORMERS in the fourth quarter was in dollar terms, our biggest growing brand".
The slides that accompanied the numbers shown today, which were posted earlier, mention Transformers as a major component of growth in Franchise Brands in 2017 (more than 10% growth in net revenue) while they also particularly call out Star Wars as a loss when it came to partner brands (aka brands Hasbro do not own) that could not be offset by any gain for other partner brands. Please remember that performance is all about percentages and this does not mean that one sold more than the other. It simply means that Transformers sold better than anticipated (and compared to previous years) while Star Wars sold less than anticipated. But of course, since the inventory is linked to the anticipated sales, unsold inventory will translate to losses for the company regardless of how many units did sell.
Goldner spoke specifically about the contrast between the Star Wars and Transformers brand on an international scale.
Goldner about Star Wars
Look, I view it through the lens of the fact that we saw challenges in Europe and we saw challenges particularly in the U.K. that's a major market for properties like STAR WARS. So, I would say that clearly both the paid marketing and earned marketing, the fans in the U.S. really helped to deliver a strong box office here, it also delivered a very strong box office, globally.
But in terms of the retail takeaway and sell-in, was lower in particularly outsized impact in places like Europe and in our international market, just represent more of the line share, the decline in percentage terms. And that's what we've seen.
Followed directly by his comments on the Transformers brand.
So, right. It's a great global property. But by contrast, just to give you an example; TRANSFORMERS international business was incredibly strong; the U.S. business was strong; the brand overall was strong.
There was also a very interesting tidbit about how Hasbro now has a plan in place in case Toysrus no longer exists.
Our team has built a plan for the right sizing of the Toys "R" Us business.
We have continued to grow the number of doors and continued to grow our revenues outside of Toys "R" Us. We continue to be supportive of them but most importantly we continue to manage our risk and inventory as they streamline the amount of inventory they can take. And we are prepared for any eventuality.
Another Transformers related question came about when discussing how the 2018 Bumblebee movie, coming out December 22nd, will have some tough competition with Spider-man, Aquaman, and Star Wars all being out at the same time. The analyst asked if this would make things challenging for Bumblebee.
Brian Goldner was not worried in the least:
No. look, if you look at TRANSFORMERS, I think that we go from strength-to-strength. This year, TRANSFORMERS in the fourth quarter was in dollar terms, our biggest growing brand. And overall for the year grew very strong double-digits. It's because we are perpetually engaged with our audience by demographic and psychographic.
We have a preschool RESCUE BOTS show, we have our Cyberverse focused on our core kid six-to-nine year-old. We continue to run more adult oriented content on Machinima for that fan. Fan business is growing in a very significant manner. And then of course we have our movies. It was a movie year but our products were about the movie but also about all these other dimensions of TRANSFORMERS.
So, this is a brand that's working everywhere globally, it's a brand that's exceedingly strong and getting stronger in China. We'll talk more at Toy Fair about the major global initiatives and in gaming and how this brand comes to life. So, when we talk about our Bumblebee movie, it's really the focal point of an entire blueprint activation that will take place around that time of year.
And we will bring to bear all of the different strengths and power inside the blueprint to bring Bumblebee and TRANSFORMERS to life at that time. So, we know that there is an amazing array of entertainment with the beneficiaries of a lot of that that's in the world today and we think our brand like Bumblebee and TRANSFORMERS holds its own.
Hopefully this last bit about the Bumblebee movie being key to Hasbro's "blueprint" means we will see some reveals from this film at Toyfair, two Saturdays from now, though nothing is really confirmed as to which toys will be shown there.
We first reported on this artwork a year ago, in a Hasbro catalog for Beast Hunters. Back then we were overwhelmed by the amazing figures that were soon to grace our shelves, such as Shockwave, the Predacons and Abominus!
You can see the original article and catalog scans by clicking this link here.
The artwork was said to be Shockwave's notes on the Predacon project and it looked like your usual Hasbro fare, with Autobot symbols adoring the pages. However, it turned out to be some rather high quality art and the artist has finally been revealed.
John Forcucci has posted a page on his blog, showing off his original works plus the finished Hasbro product, and it's an impressive mini gallery of fine work.
Artist Ken Christiansen has updated his Bad Flip Productions Blog with his Transformers Prime Ironhide concept art. Click here to visit his blog and read his thoughts on the character design that has already yielded a Cyberverse Commander Class figure.
Because I wanted a toy of him. And really, that's a pretty significant motivating factor for me. And I'm so happy that the strength of the design was well thought of enough to actually create a product from it! I had seen the box art, and noticed that the artwork was very familiar, and on closer inspection, looked like cleaned up overlay versions of the concept art I had done.
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