Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands"

Monday, December 25th, 2017 10:43PM CST

Categories: Toy News, Company News
Posted by: william-james88 Views: 38,471

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There has been a lot of talk about how odd it is that more and more Takara toys are the exact same as the Hasbro released. We saw it with Trypticon but even more with the Transformers: The Last Knight toylines where even the box was the same. And now with the Power of the Primes toys looking identical for both companies (an example is given below) and both company logos appearing on the upcoming Studio Series toys, this similarity for multiple lines is getting fans both concerned and confused. Is there any hope that those images from Takara were still just placeholders? And what exactly is going on?

Well, the upcoming Figure King magazine (number 239) sheds some light on that and clarifies that indeed what we are seeing is true and intended to be the very same toys. There will be three pages dedicated to Takara's Transformers and the Snakas blog reports that we will not only see the same Power of the Primes toys we have already seen (and which many of us already own) but it will also discuss the new path Takara is taking with figures being identical to Hasbro. The Snakas blog quotes the magazine to say that the companies are "unifying the world brands on an unprecedented scale".

This does confirm the fears many fans had, where Takara is choosing not to do their own take on Generations toys, unlike what has been the case with the Legends line so far. While the movie toys have already been very similar between brands in the past, having other lines be identical at the same time is indeed unprecedented.

This definitely confirms that both companies are looking at their own markets first and foremost and that issuing the same toys for both markets must be more beneficial than the added money of imports. Or at least, this is what would seem to be the case with such an unprecedented decision.

While it does mean that the same deco from Hasbro's Power of the Primes will also be seen in the Takara releases under the same toyline name (which so far excludes complete combiner teams), it does bring about the idea that maybe Takara is satisfied with the deco for their own market. Jazz for instance is a deluxe combiner which uses clear plastic and thus demands a lot more paint and the only combining deluxe to also need that was Groove which was a Takara design. So instead of seeing this as Takara lowering their standards for deco, it could be that this unified deco instead takes the Hasbro deco to higher standards than before. What do you think? Let us know!

Takara

Transformers News: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands"

Hasbro

Credit(s): snakas blog

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Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928129)
Posted by Hydrargyrus on December 25th, 2017 @ 10:50pm CST

Please nobody freak out. :lol:

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928131)
Posted by ToaLeePrime on December 25th, 2017 @ 10:58pm CST

MagicDeath wrote:Please nobody freak out.

*entire site proceeds to freak out*

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928133)
Posted by william-james88 on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:01pm CST

ToaLeePrime wrote:
MagicDeath wrote:Please nobody freak out.

*entire site proceeds to freak out*

Haha, but seriously I have seen little to no complaining on this specific site

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928135)
Posted by ScottyP on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:08pm CST

william-james88 wrote:While the movie toys have already been very similar between brands in the past, having other lines be identical at the same time is indeed unprecedented.

'85 and '86 G1 would like a word

While this news sucks and reeks of non-ironic Total Brand Awareness, I don't think surprise is the right emotion >:oP

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928136)
Posted by fenrir72 on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:08pm CST

Does not matter so long as it is "available". Most often than not,scalpers tend to buy everything on the shelf at TRU (well so long as it exists) hence the need (on my part to import). Same thing happened when the original Skrapnel/Reflector was released.......scalpers got to him or in the case of TFA Arcee, HB sh1tty distribution or both.

Availability first then the added bling (which is the bonus). Though the "unification" for both sides of the Pacific might also mean that some cost cutting is indeed coming the way ( here's hoping its not an ominous sign for the future :PRAY:

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928137)
Posted by Seibertron on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:15pm CST

I am beyond thrilled about this change. Amen.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928139)
Posted by lbock on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:18pm CST

I don't think uniting the brands is necessarily a bad thing. It seems like the Hasbro figures have included a lot more paint in the last year and most of the Takara figures haven't been enough of an upgrade to justify the import price. If Takara can either have more input on the figures or focus more on the MP line, then I will be happy.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928140)
Posted by RodimusRex on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:23pm CST

I think having completely separate decos was probably a bit silly for every toy.

Hasbro making every deco based on the G1 toys was also silly. Compromise decos would be ideal, honestly.

And for certain figures, a "DX" premium version from Takara would be nice. And it would also be nice if Tribute/Platinum used those decos rather than employ the somewhat weird decos Platinum would sometimes choose to do. (Tribute's been pretty sensible. It was Platinum that sometimes did real headscratchers.)

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928145)
Posted by william-james88 on December 25th, 2017 @ 11:46pm CST

ScottyP wrote:
william-james88 wrote:While the movie toys have already been very similar between brands in the past, having other lines be identical at the same time is indeed unprecedented.
'85 and '86 G1 would like a word

I think they meant since the changes between toys became a norm

And since there have been more than just one line as well.

Seibertron wrote:I am beyond thrilled about this change. Amen.

I have always been intrigued and interested in this view point since you know so much more about the markets (and their history) than I do. Plus you have the points of view of both the consumer and seller. So, when you have a moment, please share your thoughts as to why this is such a sensible path to take, I would like to know more

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928147)
Posted by Rated X on December 26th, 2017 @ 12:47am CST

Im cool with it if they eliminate stickers forever and no more toy accurate decos that homage gang molding (orange hot rod hands, purple blitzwing face, red ultra magnus thighs, etc.) Just go with toon accuracy 100%

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928148)
Posted by Agent 53 on December 26th, 2017 @ 12:48am CST

This is the opposite of bad news. If Takara and Hasbro are making identical toys then we don't need to spend a ton to import the classically superior Takara figures because we could get the same ones from our own shops.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928152)
Posted by Skritz on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:05am CST

Does it make me a bad toy collector that I don't find PotP 'screamer as horrific as everyone else says? He's really not the figure I regretted the most buying at retail price when he came out.

I mean can't be as bad as the Toys R Us TLK version of Stealth Bomber Megatron. That thing I ended up regretting deeply simply because how small and flimsy it felt. But at least Starscream has bulk, fills a hole in my collection and can be a combiner torso! Or am I making excuses for what seemingly the entire fanbase has declared a crummy figure? Because he's still not the hottest mess in my collection, even counting all the Beast Wars stuff. ESPECIALLY when counting the Beast Wars stuff.

Looking at you Injector and Retrax. >:oP

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928154)
Posted by Aimless Misfire on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:30am CST

I like this because I'm sick of spending more on the Takara figures. Now I only have to worry about Hasbro & save a ton of money.

But it makes me wonder about Blurr. Which version would we have gotten? The awesome Takara or that Hasbro abomination?

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928155)
Posted by Cyberpath on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:32am CST

Disappointing. Takara's decos had been consistently better than Hasbro's, imo. And recently Hasbro has even gone with stickers over tampos for some releases. But I wasn't really going to get into the whole "Power of the Primes" thing anyway.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928156)
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:40am CST

Aimless Misfire wrote:I like this because I'm sick of spending more on the Takara figures. Now I only have to worry about Hasbro & save a ton of money.

But it makes me wonder about Blurr. Which version would we have gotten? The awesome Takara or that Hasbro abomination?

Going by the TLK line I would assume it would primarily be Hasbro's vision of the toy...since those toys are mostly the same in both Hasbro and Takara versions and show lack of screen-accurate paint apps particularly on Wave 1 Bee and Voyager Prime's robot mode. Though in some cases at least the Takara versions come with more accessories like W3 Bee's hammer and Hound's shield/truck-backthingy. Past movie lines have generally had the Takara version looking improved in some way regarding paint apps and such. We know Takara loves cartoon-accuracy though but then that's complicated in itself cos some of us fans like more detail the original toys had and some prefer total toon-look and at least with the majority of the toys we had a choice even if the toon-fans had to generally pay a bit more to import. I'm usually one for the detail but even I bought Legends Blurr over Hasbro's just cos that Takara colour scheme was frickin' gorgeous and Hasbro's was super-drab.

I can get behind the unifying but only if it results in truly the best product. But even so I just don't see much in quality in the PotP line to begin with. I would prefer that Takara WOULD try improve on those toys considerably.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928158)
Posted by Nemesis Destron on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:46am CST

Takara if this was all one huge prank to screw with us fans my hats off to you...well played! :APPLAUSE:

BUT if there is no humor involved in this disturbing outcome then I think we deserve some form of understanding to all this....please???

I will now accept this bizzaro-like reality and still hope that all this maybe some kind of research project to see how this might affect :TAKARATOMY:

sales...'nuff said. :-P

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928159)
Posted by hushed on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:56am CST

Bronzewolf wrote:It's unknown how these errors are occuring, but there have been no reports of Micronus or Vector Primes shipping without any Prime Masters at all.
Several Seibertron board members have expressed interest in documenting this strange anomaly, so if you run into any Power of the Primes figure that includes two Prime Masters please leave a comment in the Energon Pub Forums below. There might be some information on your figure that could help us track down exactly what production lot run these errors are coming from!

Possibly we can find the errors are on specific production dates?

For those who aren't familiar with how Hasbro dates products:

My MAGA Jazz is numbered 72341. The 7 represents 2017, and 234 represents the 234rd day of the year. The 1 is a fairly standard on nearly all of their products. I don't think anyone has ever been able to track down what the 1 signifies. There are rare examples of GI Joe figures from the 80s ending with a 2 or a 3.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928161)
Posted by RAR on December 26th, 2017 @ 3:00am CST

Skritz wrote:Does it make me a bad toy collector that I don't find PotP 'screamer as horrific as everyone else says? He's really not the figure I regretted the most buying at retail price when he came out.

I mean can't be as bad as the Toys R Us TLK version of Stealth Bomber Megatron. That thing I ended up regretting deeply simply because how small and flimsy it felt. But at least Starscream has bulk, fills a hole in my collection and can be a combiner torso! Or am I making excuses for what seemingly the entire fanbase has declared a crummy figure? Because he's still not the hottest mess in my collection, even counting all the Beast Wars stuff. ESPECIALLY when counting the Beast Wars stuff.

Looking at you Injector and Retrax.

Retrax is a bit iffy as he can't stand up well - but his action feature is at least creative. Injector I've always really liked and lamented that he wasn't offered in other colours - perhaps that is in part due to Beast Wars Neo's use of the mould - But I just like Fuzors in general.

I don't hate Starscream for his mould I have 2 objections

1) Elita-One has a way better body so why didn't they give him more of her's after all Starscream is supposed to be lithe.

2) The Stickers are poorly placed, cheesy in their details and of low quality. - If they'd been smaller and inset or on a optional sticker sheet I'd not even mention it - but now I have to ponder if I want to rip them all off & repaint the entire figure and possibly kit bash parts from an Elita One or not - which isn't really ideal.

Grimlock isn't much better he's just as horribly disproportionate as Starscream is ; But at least the stickers are more tastefully placed ; he's likely going to need a 3rd party tail extension to look anywhere near correct though in dino mode.

I really like the Legends - they are all pretty much terrific the Primemasters are adorable (though I wish they'd kept the belly screws for customising reasons)

The Deluxes are 'OK' in a sort of Combiner Wars like way ; as I said I actually like Elita-One's body design more than Starscream's though I would have preferred and entire team of females to combine with her rather than a mix of genders.

It's not the best line ever an perhaps the gimmick isn't ideal - Rodimus Prime needs killing with fire - but otherwise they are not hateful or anything like that - the Legends in particular are actually "Good".

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928163)
Posted by RAR on December 26th, 2017 @ 3:33am CST

So long as they still do additional unique items I don't mind them sharing the Hasbro products - I would however like the sticker issue addressed sooner rather than later.

I don't object to stickers so much as I object to BAD STICKERS. the ones they had as bonus sheets worked just fine for example. Typticon's stickers though were not great and he really needed some additional paint (like on the decks and ramps & his companion character).

Perhaps they could look into the idea of using coloured plastic inserts instead of the paint it might have some durability benefits too especially when it comes time to make things like Scorponok.

Oh there is one slight problem I see though for Takara and that might mean they have to carry on making the giftsets (namely Hydra & Buster) so perhaps the biggest issue (the Voyagers bad decos) might not be an issue at all if they carry on making Unite Warriors giftsets anyway.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928164)
Posted by RAR on December 26th, 2017 @ 3:34am CST

Sorry about that there was a "Double post"

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928172)
Posted by xMXUx on December 26th, 2017 @ 4:41am CST

Carnivius_Prime wrote:I can get behind the unifying but only if it results in truly the best product. But even so I just don't see much in quality in the PotP line to begin with. I would prefer that Takara WOULD try improve on those toys considerably.

I agree with this 100%. They way PotP is looking right now, I'm really not interested. And I feel like some deco changes like Takara usually does would've gone a long way to improve these toys and make me interested in them

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928179)
Posted by King Kuuga on December 26th, 2017 @ 6:00am CST

If the lines are going to be identical we may as well move all conversation into the Hasbro POTP thread.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928180)
Posted by Va'al on December 26th, 2017 @ 6:56am CST

King Kuuga wrote:If the lines are going to be identical we may as well move all conversation into the Hasbro POTP thread.

Eventually! Give me time to sort out stuff.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928185)
Posted by Wolfman Jake on December 26th, 2017 @ 8:23am CST

This move by Takara does seem to resonate with rumors from earlier in the year that they weren't doing so well financially. Hasbro may not be trying to acquire them, but Tomy is losing the Pokémon brand nest year and domestic (Japanese) sales are slowing. It makes sense that they may want to simply give us Hasbro's deco designs for two reasons. 1) Less paint is less money spent (fewer materials use and less labor in "man-hours" employed). 2) Less additional R&D to "fix" Hasbro's decos, which includes sometimes more than just fixing paint apps, but changing plastic colors, remolding parts, or reconfiguring the molds for different "gang molding" pairings.

My hope is that Takara doesn't just get steamrolled by Hasbro in this new "unified brand" venture. I would like Takara to be able to step in during the design process and say, "Hasbro, I know you want to do this as cheaply as possible, but if you cut your margins just slightly and do the figure THIS way instead, it'll be THAT much better of a product and a better consumer value."

So far, though, I'm not too worried with what we have already seen from Takara's initial PotP line-up. It consists of what is probably the best decoed of Hasbro's Wave 1 of the series. There really isn't anything to do to change Windcharger to make him more animation accurate. Beachcomber could maybe have the Autobot emblem on his robot mode chest and lose the emblem on his hood in vehicle mode, but that's really it. Slash is a new character, so her colors can't be compared to a G1 toy or cartoon model anyway. Jazz looks fine as is (minus "MAGA" eventually, I would hope). There's nothing really to "fix" with the Prime Masters. Optimus Prime looks nearly perfect except for gray hands. Same goes with Rodimus Prime, except again for a few tiny details (at least as colors go).

What we haven't seen so far from Takara for PotP is more telling, honestly. I want to know what they're planning to do with the PotP combiner teams. I've got a feeling we'll be pleasantly surprised.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928186)
Posted by BeePrime on December 26th, 2017 @ 9:14am CST

Well, hey if that's the way they're gonna roll, I don't see a lot of point in importing the Takara figures with the exceptions of the exclusive ones they seem to get that we don't, or stuff like the upcoming clone sets.

I'll miss the extra touches Takara seemed to put into their figures though, as I'm sure we all know Hasbro is not about to go that route.

Such a shame.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928188)
Posted by Asepticon on December 26th, 2017 @ 9:46am CST

Well if it means Hasbro will up their quality of paint and deco, then it's good news, but if Takara plans to downscale their deco and paint, then this does not bode well.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928191)
Posted by stevo on December 26th, 2017 @ 9:55am CST

Leader class is available at the toys r us location in whitby.20% off sale with them all in baskets at the front doors.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928192)
Posted by Sabrblade on December 26th, 2017 @ 9:56am CST

Asepticon wrote:Well if it means Hasbro will up their quality of paint and deco, then it's good news, but if Takara plans to downscale their deco and paint, then this does not bode well.

I suspect it's the latter since Takara's POTP toys look exactly like Hasbro's, cartoon-inaccurate decos and foil stickers and all.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928202)
Posted by o.supreme on December 26th, 2017 @ 10:30am CST

william-james88 wrote:Jazz for instance is a deluxe combiner which uses clear plastic and thus demands a lot more paint and the only combining deluxe to also need that was Groove which was a Takara design. So instead of seeing this as Takara lowering their standards for deco, it could be that this unified deco instead takes the Hasbro deco to higher stanards than before. What do you think? Let us know!

This is what I was thinking. sort of a middle meeting between :TAKARATOMY:

higher quality, and :HASBRO:

cost based approach. So toys will be of slightly higher quality than in the past, but be a little more expensive, which we are seeing with PotP. So there is some good. But there is also some bad in that we probably wont see any unique toys to come from :TAKARATOMY:

. In the past it was always fun to speculate on how :TAKARATOMY:

would modify certain characters, or release completely new ones that :HASBRO:

chose not too.

Still...while the toys remain *exactly the same*, I imagine the packaging will still need to be region specific, and may offer some alternatives.

Back in the original series, while toys were the same, Takara still released gift sets for Bruticus, Predaking, Abominus...etc. that North America never got. I'm still hoping we may get Unite Warrior styled gift sets for PotP Volcanicus, Abominus, perhaps some of the other voyagers as well. Even if the toys are exactly the same, I'd go for the :TAKARATOMY:

packaging in this case, which should be less expensive overall I would think, with this announcement, maybe $120-$130 range to import?

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928204)
Posted by Agamemnon on December 26th, 2017 @ 10:42am CST

hushed wrote:
Bronzewolf wrote:It's unknown how these errors are occuring, but there have been no reports of Micronus or Vector Primes shipping without any Prime Masters at all.
Several Seibertron board members have expressed interest in documenting this strange anomaly, so if you run into any Power of the Primes figure that includes two Prime Masters please leave a comment in the Energon Pub Forums below. There might be some information on your figure that could help us track down exactly what production lot run these errors are coming from!

Possibly we can find the errors are on specific production dates?

For those who aren't familiar with how Hasbro dates products:

My MAGA Jazz is numbered 72341. The 7 represents 2017, and 234 represents the 234rd day of the year. The 1 is a fairly standard on nearly all of their products. I don't think anyone has ever been able to track down what the 1 signifies. There are rare examples of GI Joe figures from the 80s ending with a 2 or a 3.

If anyone wants to track them, my Vector Prime has a datecode of 72691.

(Back when I was a quality supervisor for a company that used date codes like this, we had much the same numbering system. If I remember correctly, that last number was the shift, or perhaps the run number. I would venture a guess that would be the case here too with a possible shift number. Or perhaps a running change to the mold would flip that number? Just thinking out loud with educated guesses...)

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928207)
Posted by leokearon on December 26th, 2017 @ 10:53am CST

https://www.smythstoys.com/ie/en-ie/toy ... /164583004

Swoop has appeared on SMYTHS Irish site, not in stock and so far the only POTP Deluxe but at least we know they will be €20, which as will the Voyagers is cheaper that Titans Return

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928211)
Posted by Agamemnon on December 26th, 2017 @ 11:06am CST

My wallet like this, as does my shelf space. But, I will echo others here and wish for Takara's positive influence on Hasbro to help up the mold detailing/design and potentially increase the quality of the decors (more/effective paint!)

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928223)
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 26th, 2017 @ 11:46am CST

I am planning to get both Rodimi, I will pass on Optimus for now.

Still no figures here, but I'm still trying to wait another week before I actively try to find them

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928224)
Posted by o.supreme on December 26th, 2017 @ 11:58am CST

So...has anyone gone to any stores to see the aftermath yet? I mean I remember years past, the day after the holiday, the toy aisles were completely wiped out. s I kid it wasn't so fun, but now as an adult it gives me hope, to see new product. The last couple of years though...haven't been the case. I guess it is true kids are buying fewer toys than ever before. I haven't been to any stores yet, but what Black Friday didn't take, I'm hoping the last minute shoppers did. My son laughingly told me last Wednesday that most of the TR Broadsides that had been sitting around a particular store in our area were almost all gone...so there's that at least.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928239)
Posted by william-james88 on December 26th, 2017 @ 12:59pm CST

o.supreme wrote:Still...while the toys remain *exactly the same*, I imagine the packaging will still need to be region specific, and may offer some alternatives.

Back in the original series, while toys were the same, Takara still released gift sets for Bruticus, Predaking, Abominus...etc. that North America never got. I'm still hoping we may get Unite Warrior styled gift sets for PotP Volcanicus, Abominus, perhaps some of the other voyagers as well. Even if the toys are exactly the same, I'd go for the packaging in this case, which should be less expensive overall I would think, with this announcement, maybe $120-$130 range to import?

For the toys under their POTP line, I would expect the packaging to be identical, just like what they did with TLK. But yeah their combined teams could offer different packaging since it would be sold a s box set. Nice G1 callback

And your range is dead on, thats how much Takara's Superion was at BBTS whe he came out.

Agamemnon wrote:My wallet like this, as does my shelf space. But, I will echo others here and wish for Takara's positive influence on Hasbro to help up the mold detailing/design and potentially increase the quality of the decors (more/effective paint!)

Sabrblade wrote:
Asepticon wrote:Well if it means Hasbro will up their quality of paint and deco, then it's good news, but if Takara plans to downscale their deco and paint, then this does not bode well.
I suspect it's the latter since Takara's POTP toys look exactly like Hasbro's, cartoon-inaccurate decos and foil stickers and all.

About all this, I find that POTP is the best example we have an thus I am curious to know what you all think of it. Comparing to previous years, is the deco better than usual? As I said, Jazz was surprising since Hasbro rarely used clear plastic for their combiner limbs. And Swoop had that cartoon/diaclone accurate chest. So do you guys feel this is Hasbro stepping up their game? How do you find them compared to Titans Return Arcee or Grotusque which were supposed to be more premium in deco than the other Titans Return toys?

I ask because even if I own them all, I cant really tell. To me, CW Trailbreaker was as premium as any other Hasbro products I own but none of these compare to the deco on, say, Unite Warriors Roller.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928242)
Posted by william-james88 on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:06pm CST

Skritz wrote:Does it make me a bad toy collector that I don't find PotP 'screamer as horrific as everyone else says? He's really not the figure I regretted the most buying at retail price when he came out.

You are free to like anything you want. As long as you have a collection, you are a collector

What makes us all good or bad is how we treat eachother, not the contents of our collection.

And yeah, I know what you mean about TLK deluxe megs, but believe it or not, thats probably the best version of that mold so far. It came from a really rough time in Transformers toys where plastic felt super cheap. And he was one of the better ones.

RAR wrote:the Legends in particular are actually "Good".

Yeah, they are the best toys of the line to me. While every other class has a gimmick to conform to, the Legends class simply advance the transformation technology. Its nice to simply have generations toys again. They all feel as good as the ROTF scouts of old.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928243)
Posted by Sabrblade on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:06pm CST

william-james88 wrote:And Swoop had that cartoon/diaclone accurate chest.

And that's the only thing cartoon-specific about Swoop's deco. The rest of it is toy-specific, making the blue chest stand out against all the deco's non-cartoon aspects, like the black robot helmet.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928246)
Posted by shajaki on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:09pm CST

I'm extremely upset by this. I'm not screaming at the top of a mountain, but I woudln't be surprised if I was the most upset person here.

I like having options. And I hate stickers. Even Reprolabels high quality ones. They're a pain in the ass and there's no comparison to actual paint apps and tampos.

I'm not optimistic about Takara "elevating" the Hasbro products, as thus far I've seen no examples of such. Just straight up copy cat'ing.

Takara, please make me eat my words.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928249)
Posted by o.supreme on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:11pm CST

I own very few PotP so far, because of well..holding out for :TAKARATOMY:

, which this news may or may not change depending on the packaging discussion we had above.

But from what I do have...I think Dreadwind is a great toy. Definitely not a lazy retool, it offers more versatility than I thought possible form a mold previously used so often in CW.

I also have the first 3 Prime Masters. while they are fun on a small scale, is it just me, or do the Prime Masters themselves look and feel a bit to be made of a "lower grade" plastic, even a bit lighter than the average Titan Master head? Also you have less detail in a symbol vs. a molded face. Also as many have pointed out, they are held together with a pin rather than a screw...

I just noticed the arms popping off my Micronus very easily, which did not occur with most Titan Masters.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928250)
Posted by kurthy on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:17pm CST

shajaki wrote:I'm extremely upset by this. I'm not screaming at the top of a mountain, but I woudln't be surprised if I was the most upset person here.

I like having options. And I hate stickers. Even Reprolabels high quality ones. They're a pain in the ass and there's no comparison to actual paint apps and tampos.

I'm not optimistic about Takara "elevating" the Hasbro products, as thus far I've seen no examples of such. Just straight up copy cat'ing.

Takara, please make me eat my words.

Thanks for putting my scattered thoughts well. This is the same way I feel. I'm not a fan of stickers, they're always the worst option for deco. And the idea of a company increasing quality without need is laughable. Companies increase quality or decrease their overhead only when sales dictate it.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928253)
Posted by Black Bumblebee on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:38pm CST

I would be all for this if it meant that everyone was going to get the best deco possible. Alas, I worry that this means that everyone will now get the worse deco possible. If reprolabels was traded on the stock market, I'd be investing in them right about now lol

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928259)
Posted by shajaki on December 26th, 2017 @ 1:53pm CST

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928265)
Posted by Agamemnon on December 26th, 2017 @ 2:14pm CST

william-james88 wrote:<snip>
About all this, I find that POTP is the best example we have an thus I am curious to know what you all think of it. Comparing to previous years, is the deco better than usual? <snip>

This is an excellent question, and as such, I've taken a second long look at the PotP Deluxes. If Dreadwind is an example of what we might see in Takara's influence on Hasbro, then I am optimistic. He appears to have a higher part count than the CW Aerialbots. There appears to be substantially more paint apps. It appears that the Decepticon insignia are all tampos. I think I need to get my CW bots out of storage and try to do a direct comparison to Air Raid and stopp all this "it appears" stuff... :-?

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928278)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on December 26th, 2017 @ 3:31pm CST

He really can't handle that right now :lol:

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928284)
Posted by bodrock on December 26th, 2017 @ 4:25pm CST

shajaki wrote:

LMAO

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928285)
Posted by DMSL on December 26th, 2017 @ 4:39pm CST

Very disappointing news, as long as this means the designs are still G1 cartoon inspired and don't include stickers and some nice paint i don't mind it.

If this means a difference between light and day when it comes to the finished products as we have seen with the Titans Return/Legends line i am not too happy about this. In this case i would only welcome this unification if it means Hasbro and Takara are releasing the superior versions. So cartoon accurate paint, no stickers and apropriate accessories. I like How Takara is giving us some extra paint and accessories and hate the lack of when it comes to Hasbro. Just look at the Dinobots, where the heck are all the weapons?

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928290)
Posted by Flashwave on December 26th, 2017 @ 5:25pm CST

This seems odd to me. On the one hand, Takara is probably saving money by sharing production run costs with Hasbro vs setting up the decos or themselves. But in the other, theyvare losing an unknown part of their market in the collectors who boought their stuff because it was different than Hasbro's. Obviously, they must hink the tradeoff is worth it, but that seems like funny numbers to me.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928293)
Posted by kurthy on December 26th, 2017 @ 5:36pm CST

Flashwave wrote:This seems odd to me. On the one hand, Takara is probably saving money by sharing production run costs with Hasbro vs setting up the decos or themselves. But in the other, theyvare losing an unknown part of their market in the collectors who boought their stuff because it was different than Hasbro's. Obviously, they must hink the tradeoff is worth it, but that seems like funny numbers to me.

I'm guessing Takara ran the numbers and found the U.S. collectors market isn't big enough to account for the savings in running the exact same toy as Hasbro.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928294)
Posted by Epsilon Delta on December 26th, 2017 @ 5:45pm CST

I have absolutely no problem with this as long as they take the higher quality and make that the norm.

Re: Takara's Power of the Primes Toys Confirmed as Identical to Hasbro's to "Unifying the World Brands" (1928296)
Posted by Sodan-1 on December 26th, 2017 @ 5:55pm CST

Booooo!! Goodbye painted rims. Goodbye rich and vibrant colours. Goodbye brilliant whites which will yellow over time. Hello whites that are produced yellow in the factory.

Still holding onto the hope that the combiner teams will feature that signature Takara flair (although if it does, there goes the theory that Takara is simply happier with the initial efforts.)

I just hope that a few prominent characters don't get a Takara overhaul as part of some limited edition special series in a couple of years.

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