Talk:To sell toys
If RiD/CR's getting kicked in the nuts for introducing 18 characters in four episodes, shouldn't someone tot up the number introduced in both the cartoon's MTMTE mini-series, and the opening issue of the Marvel comic? Because the number's more than 18... The Earthforce cycle hyping the Euro Classics probably deserves covering too, as does the proliferation of "classic" characters in later Marvel US issues due to the Action Masters (Prowl, Wheeljack, Shockwave, Starscream, Megatron, etc.)
For the exceptions section, some Marvel bits deserve a mention, surely? I'm thinking specifically of Ratchet managing to hang in there so many years after he was cancelled despite not having an Action Master or anything, and the rest of the Dinobots coming back late on and the introduction of Galvatron at such a late stage.
Cliffjumper 18:24, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
- Personally, I don't think 18 characters in four episodes is particularly worth noting, so I'm with you on that one. I mean, the 2007 movie has 13 Transformers in it. Animated gave us ten Transformers (plus Sentinel and Magnus) in the first episode alone.
- With regards to "exceptions", the notable thing about Dreamwave and IDW is that they had entire multi-issue series where none (or precious few) of the characters had extant toys. Whereas, yah, toward the end of Marvel's run, while there were a lot of major characters who hadn't had toys in a few years, the series still never went more than a year without introducing some new product. Still, it might be worth mentioning that under Furman, classic characters tended to stick around . . . JW 18:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
- IMO this article's starting to get a bit long. Most of the individual paragraphs could stand to be pared down a little.
- As for noting the Marvel exceptions, well.... the whole point of the article is "The fiction is under this bizarre mandate from Hasbro, which makes it do very strange things." It really doesn't make much sense to turn around and say "But once or twice, it DIDN'T do strange things!" Maybe a short note that Hasbro's mandate seems to have lightened during the Furman era, with character intros largely reduced to new guys simply popping up in the background? -- Repowers 18:44, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
- Thing is, Furman didn't really use fewer current-toy guys than Budiansky. He used Grimlock a lot, but Grimlock had a Pretender toy and then an Actionmaster. Prowl and Wheeljack and Inferno showed up after the Unicron thing, but that's because they had new toys. --ItsWalky 18:50, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
2007 movie
Are IDW obliged to make movie comics? I was pretty sure it was mostly to make THEM money (In the Bookscan GN figures - linked in the "BOOK EM DANNO" item here - it's notable how the movie TPBs are around the #300 mark, whereas the IDWverse and Beast IDWars TPBs are nowhere to be seen. I mean, I saw movie & prequel TPBs in HMV beside the DVDs. Those are the only TPBs of any sort - Transformers or otherwise - I've ever seen in HMV).
And weren't Hasbro talking last year about becoming an IP-licensing company who made toys (in much the way Marvel Comics now makes most of its' money from areas other than comics) rather than a toy company that sometimes had licensed fiction made? - 82.10.138.152 18:46, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
