To sell toys - Transformers Wiki

Personal tools

Log in / create account

Views

Page

Discussion

View source

History

To sell toys

From Transformers Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Hasbro wasn't quite sure whether to advertise this expensive toy until the fans forced their hand.

To understand Transformers fiction, it is important to understand that it exists to sell toys. Hasbro and TakaraTomy are toy companies, and they are primarily interested in continuing to sell toys to children and adults. The cartoons, comic books, etc., mostly exist to make this happen. To be sure, they normally make a profit in their own right, but this is regarded as mere gravy.

The "to sell toys" effect often distorts the fiction in interesting ways. Primarily, since you can't (usually) sell someone the same toy twice,[1] Hasbro and Takara constantly introduce new toys, and often require the creators of the fiction to introduce the new characters into ongoing storylines. Older characters (whose toys are no longer being sold) are shoved aside to make room.

Another effect of "to sell toys" is when the toys have gimmicks which must be explained in the fiction. Sometimes this is relatively easy, while other times it requires a lot of imagination on the part of the writers. Japanese-original shows such as The Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, and the various instalments of the Unicron Trilogy often structure their casts and storylines around a single specific play feature, which is highlighted in just about every episode.

The UK movie-based Transformers comic took this to more blatant heights. For its first year, it had a specific four-page feature every week called Top Gear, which existed solely to promote the newest Transformers merchandise. Any merchandise. This led to readers being told how great Optimash Prime was. For the 2010 Transformers: War for Cybertron game franchise, Ironhide himself opened letters pages by telling readers how awesome the game was and how you should buy it.

Truly, I'm speechless. Your species characterizes the infinite wonders of the churning, whorling, chaotic cosmos through the lens of... merchandising?<br>I can see why Swindle loves you idiots.

—Sideways on the concept, Ask Vector Prime.

Contents

1 Casting

1.1 Huge casts

1.2 Random casting

1.3 Limited casting

2 Plot

2.1 Forced explication

2.2 Gimmicks

2.3 Strange developments

2.4 Awkward continuity

2.5 Power levels

2.6 New bodies

2.7 Character pimping

2.8 Abrupt conclusions

3 Death

3.1 Killing off old product

3.2 Hi-and-die

3.3 Resurrection

3.4 Untouchables

4 Notable exceptions

4.1 Toys not released in the relevant market

4.2 Post-Marvel, pre-2013 G1 comics

4.3 New toys, same basic design

4.4 Killing off characters with new toys

4.5 New toys with minimal fictional appearances

5 References

Casting

Huge casts

Gotta catch 'em all!

Hasbro makes a lot of toys at once, and they generally want all of them to appear in their fiction. This can force writers to bring in vast numbers of characters all at once, sometimes with awkward results. Examples include:

The first issue of the Generation 1 comic, "The Transformers", in which twenty-eight different robots appeared and introduced themselves, even though only a handful are important to the plot.

"The Special Teams Have Arrived", a free mini-comic given away with issue #54 of the Marvel UK comic, notoriously introduces the reader to twenty-four new Transformers in just three pages. Granted, four of those are the combined forms of the other twenty, but that's still a lot of new names to remember.

The 1987 Headmasters Limited Series, which introduced over sixty characters in the course of four issues, including all the first waves of Headmasters and Targetmasters, all their Nebulan partners, the Technobots, Terrorcons, and Monsterbots.

The cartoon episode trilogy "The Rebirth" likewise abruptly introduced well over forty of the 1987 toyline characters, mostly the same ones seen in Headmasters. In both cases, this wasn't helped by the fact that the nature of Headmasters and Targetmasters meant every new toy had to effectively get two introductions.

In the first four episodes of the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon, eighteen characters are introduced in quick succession.

From #9 onwards, Titan's movie-based Transformers heavily bumped up the cast with new toys. In one example, #17 brought in nine new toys in eleven pages; only one of the five Decepticons got any real focus or dialogue.

Random casting

The Hasbro-induced need to show all the toys can also cause stories to suddenly focus on a new character, sometimes dropping ongoing plot threads about older ones. Examples include:

Season 2 of the cartoon introduced many new characters/buyable toys with no explanation; despite never having been seen before, the story treats them as though they have been there the whole time. One episode even hinges on this idea.

After seven issues, it's finally time for these six...