When it's HasbrOVER, who will make the robots?

[GoBackaTron]

Maybe I've been watching too much YouTuber doom and gloom, but I am
really starting to wonder if Hasbro as we know it is going to cease to
exist very soon. There's so much speculation right now about everything
from where they will be moving to what licenses they will be dropping
and what they'll do with the ones they keep.

Here's a short list of YouTube videos relevant to Hasbro's situation:


-------
"Hasbro, the Toy Company, is OVER"

First up is a rather sensationalist Youtuber who thrives on spreading
rumors, harping on bad news, and making misinformed conclusions. They've
come to the conclusion that Hasbro is going to become a video game
company licensing out their IP and moving to Boston.

----------
"If Hasbro stops making toys, what will happen to their brands
Transformers, Monopoly, GI Joe, Nerf?"

Scott Neitlich addressing rumors that Hasbro is going to transition
out of making toys and becoming a licensor. Scott does a good job of
analyzing how Hasbro would divest their IP and why it seems inevitable.

----------
Did You Know These Licenses Are Expiring!?
Bobby Vala on

And finally Bobby Vala who knows a thing or two about licensing talks
about whether or not Hasbro is going to re-up Star Wars and if they even
can given how much it costs to keep the license and how bad a deal that
has been for them lately.

------------

What no YouTuber is addressing is how the relationship between Hasbro
and Takara is so integral to the TF brand. I just can't imagine any
other company coming in and working with TakaraTomy the same way Hasbro
has been doing for the past 40 years. It just seems to me that if Hasbro
stops making toys then Transformers dies completely.

Transformers are already being licensed out a lot currently but these
other companies are doing mostly non transforming stuff. Mattel of all
toy companies made that GoBot scale transforming Optimus Prime but
that's not really the mainline retail sort of transforming robot product
I'm thinking about. Who outside of Bandai USA could continue the line?

[Zobovor]

Post by GoBackaTron
What no YouTuber is addressing is how the relationship between Hasbro
and Takara is so integral to the TF brand. I just can't imagine any
other company coming in and working with TakaraTomy the same way Hasbro
has been doing for the past 40 years. It just seems to me that if
Hasbro stops making toys then Transformers dies completely.

I would not put any stock in anything the YouTube influencers say. They
thrive on sensationalism.

Hasbro was trying to diversify and become a full-fledged multimedia
company but that didn't work out too well for them. They bought eOne
(Peppa Pig and such) in 2019 for $4 billion but they sold it off in 2023
for $500 million. They took a huge loss.

Just because toy sales are flagging doesn't mean Hasbro is going to pack
it in. They're probably just going to double down and focus on their
tried-and-true core brands, the stuff they know have been moneymakers,
historically. And despite toy sales being down overall, Transformers
sales have actually been hugely successful. So they wouldn't give up on
one of the blessed few brands that actually managed to turn a profit.

Post by GoBackaTron
Who outside of Bandai USA could continue the line?

If Hasbro were taken completely out of the picture, I think Takara would
continue to market Transformers directly to the USA. We already get
Takara toys like Masterpiece and Missing Link sold through online
portals like Hasbro Pulse, so if Hasbro didn't function as a middleman,
then Takara would probably just continue to sell to Big Bad Toy Store
and Entertainment Earth and such. Maybe they would market stuff
directly to Walmart and Target, too. We'd lose something without
Hasbro's creativity in the character designs, but at least we'd still
retain Takara's engineering genius.


Zob (and, you know, in the 1980's, Hasbro had nothing to do with the
design aspect for the first two years of Transformers, and those are
honestly some of the best G1 toys)

[GoBackaTron]

Post by Zobovor
I would not put any stock in anything the YouTube influencers say. They
thrive on sensationalism.

I fear I have fallen too far down the fake toy news well. I really
believe Hasbro will stop making toys within the next three years and the
mass retail TF collector lines as we know them will cease to exist.
They'll move to Boston and become a gaming company and license out all
of their toy brands to other companies. Believing this makes every trip
down the toy aisles of every store nowadays feel surreal, like I'm time
traveling to the end times of toy collecting.

I feel like I've been brainwashed by anti-Hasbro toy influencers but
I don't know why they do it. It's not like Joe average toy collector has
any say in which companies get major toy licenses. We don't vote on what
toy company gets a given license every 7 years. I don't know why these
anti-Hasbro YouTube propaganda campaigns go so hard.

Post by Zobovor
Hasbro was trying to diversify and become a full-fledged multimedia
company but that didn't work out too well for them.

If they do ever try transforming into an IP holding company then I
wonder if they'd be solely responsible for generating the media that
people consume which in turn drives the toy sales. I don't know where
the money comes from so I don't know if the movies are expected to pay
for themselves or if the toys help pay for the movies or what. It seems
like regardless of how the movies do there's always enough revenue to
put one out every three years or so. The YouTubers infecting my brain
with lies have me believing Hasbro is going to give it all up to become
a video game company. I wish them all the success in the world and I
think TFs could survive as a video game driven franchise. They may have
no other choice.

Post by Zobovor
If Hasbro were taken completely out of the picture, I think Takara would
continue to market Transformers directly to the USA.

I could be selfish here and say that I personally would not mind if
MissingLink was the only line that existed post 2025. That's the kind of
stuff I would expect TakaraTomy to push to collectors if Hasbro bowed
out of direct involvement in the line. I would be sad for everyone else
who enjoyed the modern golden age of neo-G1 we've been living in. But
we've pretty much gotten a taste of everything we ever wanted. Probably
too good a taste! SS86 G1 Optimus might be the best Prime ever. It's
going to be really tough for any company-Hasbro included-to top a lot of
the toys that have come out recently. We could always just be happy with
what we've gotten and move on but I don't think any toy collector
consumptoid has ever thought that way.

Post by Zobovor
We'd lose something without
Hasbro's creativity in the character designs, but at least we'd still
retain Takara's engineering genius.

I don't know how Transformers are made but I feel like Hasbro at
least has the guiding hand in the majority of character selection.
Takara are great engineers but I wonder if they'd really be able to
bring anything new to the lore like Hasbro is always trying to do.

If we lose Hasbro I guess the transition would be like what would
happen if the Star Wars action figure license goes to Mattel or
McFarlane next year. There's a lot of YouTube talk right now about those
types of scenarios centered on the Marvel and Star Wars licenses
changing hands. It would be a big reset and a lot of people would feel
like they'd have to start collecting all over again with the new
company's version of characters.

To an extent that's what's happening with Transformers with Super7
already-a new company is making choices about what TF characters are the
most iconic and would sell best. So it's already happening (unless
Hasbro is dictating which characters t make behind the scenes). I
seriously doubt any company would dive as deep into TF history as Hasbro
themselves but you never know. I am impressed with Super7's character
choices. I never thought the Unicron prototype would ever be released in
any form.

Post by Zobovor
Zob (and, you know, in the 1980's, Hasbro had nothing to do with the
design aspect for the first two years of Transformers, and those are
honestly some of the best G1 toys)

The modern era Diaclone stuff is kinda neat. I don't know what would
happen if Takara were to try to update the Transformers for a modern
world all on their own.

[GoBackaTron]

Post by GoBackaTron
I don't know where
the money comes from so I don't know if the movies are expected to pay
for themselves or if the toys help pay for the movies or what.

There's a Bloomberg article making the rounds that sheds a little light
on this. Here's a link to a free version:

www.livemint.com/companies/news/hasbros-gamer-ceo-focuses-on-play-after-film-business-sale/amp-11732137296224.html

The relevant part:
"While studios such as Sony Group Corp. and Lions Gate Entertainment
Corp. will continue to make movies based on the company’s products,
Hasbro itself won’t co-finance the films. It’s part of a larger strategy
to invest more in video and other games, which are popular with kids and
adults, and have been taking a greater share of consumers’ leisure
time..."


So it looks like the sales of the toys were at least in part paying
for the movies. With Cocks deciding to cut that support off I guess a
TF:One sequel really is never going to happen. Unless they do it as a
video game.

[Travoltron]

I've always thought Hasbro's idea for a Hasbro Cinematic Universe was
absolutely insane and idiotic. Transformers is a fantastic anomaly in
their IPs. Hasbro should have learned their lesson back when the made
that Battleship movie that sank. Even those GI Joe movies did poorly.

I guess I'm allowed to say this now, but I hated all the live action
movies. Well, full disclosure: I only saw the first two and that was
enough. Those movies were made by money-grubbing soulless Boomers with
no love for the franchise. They were all bait-and-switch scams that
teased that the characters we loved would appear. Instead we got these
ersatz scrapheaps only bearing the names of our characters.

"But, but the next one will be better! It's got Dinobots!" I would hear
stuff like this every time a new Bayformers came out. Then it always led
to the same disappointment. You can only fool the audience so many times
before they turn on you. Even the Chinese audience got tired of
one-trick pony Michael Bay.

Of course nobody's coming to see the last few Transformers movies. We
tried to warn Hasbro and nobody listened.

They should have invested in good TV/streaming shows instead. Something
that's safe to show for kids. They also need to remaster the G1 cartoon
in 4K while they still can.

If I were them, I'd drop the expensive Star Wars license. They should
also sell the rights to the Power Rangers to Bandai where they belong.

[Zobovor]

I don't know why these anti-Hasbro YouTube propaganda campaigns go so
hard.

It drives engagement. If they say a bunch of things that you more or
less agree with, then you'll politely nod to yourself and move on to the
next video. But if they say a bunch of crazy, off-the-wall stuff that
gets you mad, you'll respond with an angrily-written correction in the
comment section. It helps the algorithm, gets their video seen by more
people, and ultimately makes them more money. So it's to their benefit
to be as provocative as possible, and even deliberately say things they
know are wrong, just to get people upset.

We could always just be happy with what we've gotten and move on but I
don't think any toy collector consumptoid has ever thought that way.

I'm kind of starting to get to that point now. I've already begun
ignoring a lot of what Hasbro sells that's not G1 because it's outside
the scope of my collection. So, I didn't buy any of the Rock Lords or
Rescue Bots characters or any of the other weird stuff they produced
this year.

But, I'm also focusing now mostly on G1 characters who haven't gotten a
modern update yet, or at least haven't gotten a good one yet. So,
releases like Gears or Ruckus or Windsweeper made me really happy.
They've done so many good updates now that there are character I really
don't need to buy any longer. I can't imagine they'll ever
significantly improve on most of the characters from Transformers: the
Movie, for example.

I feel like we've been steadily on a journey to get versions of
characters that have been slightly better than the last, until now
finally we have gotten the ultimate versions. If they released inferior
toys today, like Generations Warpath or Power of the Primes Starscream,
I wouldn't buy them. They wouldn't be good enough to replace and
dethrone Kingdom Warpath or Earthrise Starscream so there would be no
point to it.

I don't know how Transformers are made but I feel like Hasbro at
least has the guiding hand in the majority of character selection.
Takara are great engineers but I wonder if they'd really be able to
bring anything new to the lore like Hasbro is always trying to do.

The guys at Takara seem like they're just as invested in the lore, but
they produce predominantly for the Japanese market so they would have a
different take on things. They probably wouldn't have gone after the
Marvel Comics fans the way Hasbro did, for example, which means we
likely never would have gotten Straxus or comic book Grimlock or
Shockwave.

If we lose Hasbro I guess the transition would be like what would
happen if the Star Wars action figure license goes to Mattel or
McFarlane next year.

Back in the 1990's or early 2000's, I would have said it was utterly
unthinkable to rip the Star Wars license out of Hasbro's hands. But now
I'm honestly ready to see what happens. Star Wars went from being one
of my favorite toy lines to something I pretty much ignore now. There's
absolutely nothing of interest being produced. Hasbro got so excited
that there would be all these new characters from the Disney films, but
what happens when nobody's buying those toys because nobody cares about
the characters?

I am impressed with Super7's character choices. I never thought the
Unicron prototype would ever be released in any form.

Deep cuts are one of the things Super7 does best. With that said, I am
one hundred percent confident that we're going to eventually get a
G1-styled Missing Link Unicron from Takara. I see it as inevitable. I
was unsure of this before, but the fact that they're working on Missing
Link Arcee pretty much cinches it for me.


Zob (mark my words!)