We’ve got a new sighting for you today. The Transformers Age of Extinction Mega One Step Changer Bumblebee – who as advertised transforms with one simple, smooth movement – has been spotted at US retail at a Toys R Us in Lancaster PA. This Bumblebee is one big bot – and accordingly, he retails for $29.99. A big thanks to Soundblaster1 for the heads-up.
dalekslayer96
BUMBLEBEE FANBOY!!! SCRAM!!!
JK, although I still think it's a waste of plastic, metal, time, money, and brainpower.
And I thought no collector likes Bumblebee. How could you guys like the yellow bastard?
Hollywood Hoist
You and I have a lot in common, we buy Bumblebee and have a son who plays with our toys. Clearly we don't have a brain as these toys are specifically for adults only which is why they're in the toy aisle and have commercials that air during cartoons. When will we learn?
megatroptimus
Me, for my Bumblebee collection, and my son, who plays a lot with my toys.
Jack Darby
There must be a varation of this one because Peaugh tweeted a pic of one he found and it looks more gold then yellow/orange. Here is the pic from his pic.twitter.com/1yvRMYVxDF. Just thought I would point this out.
Nevermore
Remind me again since when "collectors" are the primary target audience for this?
donaldhuman
As far as I can see all of the generations voyagers end up shelf warming at some point, and honestly I think the biggest issue is the price. 23-24 and now 25-26 is just to big of a pill to swallow. 20 dollars, even though the price difference isn't that big, is going to net you a lot higher sales.
donaldhuman
Okay, I think I'm going to throw my hat into the ring here. First of all I'm not entirely against simplified toys and I fully realize that Hasbro cannot cater solely to the collector's market is the brand is going to survive. Also I wasn't around for any of the first three movies so I'm not going to compare what's happening now to what happened in the past(other than relative complexity) because it's mostly irrelevant anyway.
Having said that I think Hasbro completely screwed up this time around. There are numerous issues that I can see that many other people have pointed out.
1+2. Simplified toys and number of lines: I think simplified toys are a great idea. They give kids the ability to quickly transform while they are playing and keep them from becoming frustrated and becoming bored when they are unable to transform their toy. Plus they allow us collectors to get more complex toys without having to worry about children not being interested, and the children that do like complex toys can buy them as well. However Hasbro failed here as far as I am concerned. The main problem is too many lines. I think the best thing would have been one gimmick line( a small line with a few characters), one one-step line(could have included a few one-steps and a few flip changers) and the main line plus throw in the few extras like chomp and stomp Grimlock. Now I've seen the argument that if we don't like the plethora of of other line we just shouldn't buy them as they're not meant for us, and this is all fine and good but the reality is that they do effect the other lines. Hasbro can only put out so much product, that is a fact, and the more product they put out means that less time and money goes into creating each individual product. Whether you like them or not(I'm still undecided myself) it's hard to argue that the AOE generations toys haven't been simplified to a large extent. Now I don't mean the figures should have to be a complex as during some past lines but with a few exceptions they just feel uninspired overall, the cars in particular.
And as far as people comparing the newer simplified toys to G1 toys, this is slightly unrelated but I really don't think G1 would sell to kids as well today. Now don't get me wrong G1 was pretty cool for it's time, and their are plenty of G1 toys which are still awesome today, but if you took the whole line and stuck it into today's toy aisle I just don't think kids would go for it. The main problem is that the toys are just to plain looking compared to what is available otherwise. Even the simplified AOE toys(which mostly suck in my opinion, due to being spread to thin as I have said) still have way more detail and look more appealing to a kid.
3. Number of Characters. There needs to be way more characters. For one this would reduce the confusion aspect, and also it might make the aisle look a little more exciting. Cons definitely need more characters and just more of everybody. the biggest problem I see here is that having only 10 or 12 characters limits the number of toys any one person is likely to buy. Sure most kid's parents aren't going to buys them every single toy regardless. But there are some who would and many collectors do. Not to mention birthdays, holidays and grandparents, if a child was really into transformers above everything else it's not hard to imagine them collecting one of each character Then what? sure maybe they would want a different Bee or another Optimus but more than likely they're going to go for something else, kids are fickle enough anyway.
4. Release schedule. This is another huge problem I see. Since hasbro has such a wide variety of lines the individual waves of each are spread out much more. As far as I can see this is causing a ton of wave one shelf clogging. Which in turn will cause stores to order waves two and three even slower. This problem ties back into the too few characters problem. Since we have so few decepticons most of them haven't even hit widespread retail yet. What happens when some kid decides he wants to get a bad guy to fight his autobot, well he doesn't have very many choices. What, there's the flip in change Lockdown and I think the one step is fairly available. I haven't seen any Galvatron yet and the deluxe Lockdown hasn't even hit stores in the US. These guys should have been widely available the weekend the movie hit, but here we are weeks later. Hell even just second waves in general are taking forever to spread around. I've seen one deluxe strafe a midst a huge shelf full of deluxes at walmart so they probably put out one case. I really don't think I'm ever going to see the exclusives at my Walmart just because the shelves are already so clogged.
This problem goes beyond the movie toys and effects the regular generations toys as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy that hasbro decided to continue the line along side the movie lines and not postpone it. I can't wait until I finally see Rattrap and Tankor and then The Windblade wave. But right now there is just a ton of the Scoop wave clogging the shelf at my Walmart. They have probably two and a half cases that have just been sitting there since they put them out with the movie toys. Obviously Walmart figured okay movie time and just ordered everything Hasbro was selling. They really should have forseen that. Now the Scoop wave has been on shelves for what? Five months? They sold really well at first but started slowing down around May and now they're being packaged in with Ratrap and Tankor so they're going to be out until September now and I can see them causing this wave to be really underordered. If they had to push the wave back(they didn't) they should have packaged them with the Skids wave re-release or just a mix of the older wave figures. As is I can see them being kind of hard to find and worst case scenario being detrimental to the next two waves.(Not that I think this will happen, but it is a real possibility)
Anyway there was probably more I wanted to say but that should be enough for now. Short version is I think Hasbro had a lot of good ideas this time around but the execution just falls short.
Hollywood Hoist
I believe it's diverse, but that doesn't mean it isn't confusing for those not in the know, especially when it comes to deluxes and Power Battlers (same size, price point, and packages look very similar). With any kids toy line the main characters get an obscene amount of toys while the supporting characters are lucky to have more than one or two.
My wife who is more in the know about Transformers than your average parent has trouble finding stuff for me. Toy aisles are practical for a kid to pick out their toy or for a parent/grandparent to get just a toy of a specific main character.
The character distribution that Hasbro employees is the exact same as majority of toy lines.
Cars – Lighting McQueen and Mater
Planes – dusty
Jake neverland pirates – Jake and captain hook
Octonauts – Barnacles and Kwazi
TMNT – any of the 4 turtles
Sophia the 1st – Sophia
Dinosaur Train – Buddy and Tiny
Any superhero line will focus on the main superhero.
So the fact we get so many variety of BB and Optimus is nothing new to the toy world. Which doesn't make it any less frustrating as a parent when their kid has 4 of the same character because every playset, vehicle or multipack has the main character.
Your view of what is or is not selling could be isolated in your area or it could be a wider epidemic. Though I'm a supporter of the simpler product, it also doesn't look like it's flying off the shelves here either, Generations are having the same problem the first few weeks AOE Generations were frequently picked clean in my area, now it's easy to find any of the characters.
Your example of Rhinox, Whirl and the triple changers shows that the demand for Generations may not be what us adults would like to believe it is and now that Hasbro is getting to more obscure characters like Whirl even some fans aren't buying them.
Maybe this all comes down to Transformers can't support a huge toy launch like it did before, the demand for toys has changed. I don't know I'm not in marketing and my experience is limited to my geographic area.
P.S. PlanckEpoch what is the name of the pony as your avatar, my son wants to know and though I like and I'm familiar with the MLP show I don't know all the characters… yet.
Hollywood Hoist
Well put, the number of figures devoted to a specific character hasn't really changed. Not to mention we have always had simplified toys, it's just now it seems to be Hasbro's focus rather than just another subline.
Starscream Gaga
I wasn't talking about listening in anymore, I was talking about the fact that there being a huge variety of the popular characters is not a new thing at all and that there really isn't a significant amount of more lines in AOE then the previous movies. It's only natural that those who haven't been specifically told and shown a certain toy would be confused which is not something restricted to Transformers. "Get me Bumblebee" is just a big a question as "Get me Donatello" or "Get me Ben 10" or the popular character from any other children's franchise which is why I really don't see why it is fascinating that this event occurred or why it's notable that your prediction held true.
PlanckEpoch
You didn't really read my post.
It's fascinating to me because when we first heard of the AoE line and what would be in it I made mention that I believed that the sheer amount of product would be detrimental. I should've been more clear. There is a lot of product released at once, with a lot of product looking similar to each other. Again, I was only privy to what the grandmother was saying, and there was a clear level of confusion. I wasn't standing over her or anything, so any other detail I can't touch upon.
Again, my fascination comes from the fact that it's more or less an example of what I said would happen before. Take that as you will. If you want to think I'm a weirdo that's cool too, I don't mind.
Starscream Gaga
I'm confused as to why a grandma being confused about buying something she literally knows nothing about is fascinating. The only difference here compared to other lines is that all the toys have similar packaging, which doesn't appear to be the problem in what you're saying. Right now on shelves at max we have:
-One-Step Changer Bumblebee
-Power Battlers Bumblebee
-Dino Sparkers Bumblebee
-High Octane Bumblebee
-Mega One-Step Bumblebee
-Dinobot Rider Bumblebee
-Titan Bumblebee
So that's seven. Eight if you have the Legends Bumblebee too, but I don't think that's hit US yet (although its still seven here because we didn't get Dinobot sparkers).
Compare that to Dark of the Moon's initial set of toys which at max would've been:
-Go-Bots Bumblebee
-Cyberverse Bumblebee
-Deluxe Bumblebee
-Deluxe Nitro Bumblebee
-Leader Bumblebee
-Activators Bumblebee
-Bash-Bots Bumblebee
… Which is also seven. If we go back further, Revenge of the Fallen had even more Bumblebee's on shelves at the same time, so I don't really see why now this is suddenly the most fascinating thing ever.v There's always been a gigantic variety of Bumlebees and Optimus Primes on shelves at the same time. I'm sure a grandma asked to buy Ninja Turtles would face the same hurdle.
PlanckEpoch
I don't do it on purpose. It's simply a matter that she was on the phone and I was around to hear it. Normally I don't stick around, but in this case I was genuinely fascinated because she and the person on the other end of the line were genuinely confused and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of product to select from.
I had said early on that while I feel having kids toys is a good thing, the amount of toys available would be a bit of a stumbling block, and here's someone who faced what I said would happen.
But on the eavesdropping thing…I always say that if you don't want people hearing your conversations then don't answer your phone or make a call in public.
Starscream Gaga
Is it common for Transformer fans to go to stores and listen in on everyone else's conversations? There always seems to be someone in every single one of these threads that has been eavesdropping on someone else's conversation, wether it be a child to a parent or a parent to a friend or a grandparent or a private phone conversation, and is using it as evidence to support their claim. It seems kinda weird. I'd hate for my private conversations in stores to be 100% picked up by some random and then discussed on the internet.
PlanckEpoch
Hollywood Hoist, you make the point that there is a diverse line of product right now, and there is…but I think there might be some issues with this. I was at Target just recently and a grandmother was buying Transformers for her grandson. She was on the phone getting some information on what kind of toys to buy, apparently for a birthday.
The most enlightening thing about having such a diverse line on the same shelf, is that for non fans it introduces confusion. Normally, I don't listen in to conversations, but this one had me a little captivated. Basically, because of how many different lines there were, the grandmother had no idea what she was actually looking for.
Because the core characters have a Power Battlers, Deluxe or voyager, One Steps, and in the case of 'Bee, a Flip Changer and now a Mega One Step, She had no idea which version of the toy she was supposed to get. The conversation became that of confusion as apparently the person on the other end of the phone became confused too. Ultimately she "settled" on a deluxe bumblebee, hoping that it was one that was requested.
It was pretty fascinating, in all honesty. We as fans of course know the difference. We can tell our Bumblebees from our Optimus Primes. We could probably spot a Power Battler from a Deluxe a mile away. But in this case, non fans trying to buy toys? It was a very overwhelming and confusing experience.
It just makes me wonder if this is something that is being repeated all over. We have it easy as we know what we want and what we looking for. Transformers fans mom and dads buying for kids? No sweat. Walk in the park…but what about those who aren't fans?
Finally, I can say pretty certainly that within my stores, the Power Battlers and One Steps aren't selling. They sold for the first week, but after that, they just stopped moving and clogging the pegs. I know the deluxes are moving, however, stores are also starting to get clogged by Crosshairs and Bumblebees that aren't selling either. People just seem to want the Dinobots and Drift.
Speaking of not selling…I know certainly what isn't selling around here…Whirl and Rhinox. They're clogging the shelves EVERYWHERE I go. Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, Fred Meyer…you name it, they have it in abundance. Hell, one of my TRUs still has a ton of Sandstorm AND Springers too along the Whirls and Rhinox.
Hollywood Hoist
I didn't pick up the one-step Grimlock until the price dropped at Walmart to $7, $10+ was too much for what it was. Placement of the titan figures probably falls on that it's Hasbro and not Playskool.
I agree that there seems to be a lot of simplified TF's competing with each other. Though I almost consider the one steps being the "deluxe simplified" and the flip change being the "voyager simplified". The giant One step Bumblebee is a little redundant with the flip change I think one or the other, but both seems a little much. The Power Battlers is the equivalent to FAB of the previous movie lines, just with a different gimmick.
I do think that if they never made those particular lines it wouldn't increase the number of complex TFs but merely make the TF section smaller overall.
As for the TRU exclusives well they ordered X amount of exclusives, they'll make room for them, I don't think making less of the other stuff would have increased the numbers of those particular exclusives. Since those exclusives will have their own shelf space, it's not a case of shelf warming keeping them from being released but more of the limited number they ordered. The evolution BB packs release will be hindered not by the release of Titans or Flip change, but how quickly the Strafe and Slug sell.
The reality is, if the flip change figures fail miserably, all Hasbro does is create a new gimmick as they probably only have 2-3 waves planned anyway, where as the failure of say Generations deluxe a year round product, will cause a store to hesitate to by future waves of those.
Most of the AOE is one or two wave gimmick figures that will disappear by the end of summer, I don't imagine we'll see the sparkers for the next year. The Mega BB one step seems more of a holiday item like the chomp/stomp Grimlock
The problem with testing the sales potential, is if the figures sell well and stores want more, if Hasbro hasn't designed those toys yet, then the wave that sold well would be sitting on the shelf for a long time while Hasbro goes through the design and production. Remember back in 07 when the movie toys sold so well stores were asking for additional waves, and all hasbro had were putting out Premium editions.
All this is pure speculation and what I find logical as is anyone elses interpretation of Hasbros sales. I want Hasbro to succeed, even with the figures I don't care for, because the more success means the more shelf space overall stores will allocate to TF's, the more kids who get into it at an early age the more likely they'll buy future product that is more like the stuff we buy.
Hasbro is a business, and they won't put product out there that they don't think will sell. The TF brand has had it's ups and downs and those ups and downs are different places depending on who you ask, but it's a major brand for Hasbro and they're not going to risk it on a whim, so I trust they know what they're doing even though I don't personally like the outcome of each figure.
Shin-Gouki
With all the Gimmicky stuff Hasbro has shoveled out the door that is not moving at all from what I have seen Hasbro is shooting the brand in the foot. It's going to be G.I. Joe ROC all over again.
Hollywood Hoist
(raises hand) though I'm a BB collector, if it had been Drift I probably wouldn't have bought it.
KnightHawkke
Don't confuse my periodic zesty exuberance for being an unreasonable man. If one of the simplified pieces tickles my fancy I would pick it up to be fair. I have hemmed and hawed over the little 1 step Grimlock more than once, even the little Optimus from time to time. Those I consider quality for about 6 bucks.. the lousy looking Switchblade Drift and BB on the other hand I consider a serious fail. The Shampoo Titans I fully consider them a waste of plastic, but like I said, get them to the pre-school/toddler row and out of the main TF section and I won't care, that's where they belong, that or in the low rent Easter Baskets with the rest of the knock-offs.
I don't at all disagree with the fact that there needed to be simpler figures for 5-10ish age, but the giant one step changers they already had for BB with the spin change gimmick was fine enough! There is tooooo many of the kiddy products! they should have debuted about half the molds they did for tests and expanded on what sold the best, not filled a whole 4 or 8ft section with them (Depending on the place.) Most of the hurting they do is taking up space where they don't belong. Partly the store's faults I am sure.
Come to think about it.. ESPECIALLY in Toys R Us where all those exclusives packs and evolution packs so on are supposed to come out, with all those hunks of plastic taking up shelf space that should be in the toddler section most of us are probably never even going to get a crack at getting those AOE exclusives without paying TFSource, HTS, or BBTS markups and shipping IF they are ever even in stock. or the worst getting bent over on E-Bay.
So you ask where it hurts adult collectors? sometimes right In Our Wallets.
dalekslayer96
Remind me again which collector with a brain that works would buy this?