Animated Voyager Skywarp + Shockwave MISB picture

[Incepticon]

Originally Posted by GMfan101

I'll take a Skywap if it means there will be a Thundercracker....I'm tired of choosing to repaint one of those 2 in every line....classics, titanium, movie, now animated....why can we get all 3!? We usually get more then 3 repaints of each SS mould.

Originally Posted by jourdo

I'd agree with this. I'll get Skywarp for sure, but why not just repaint it again into TC? Seems like easy money. Why do you hate having the 3 original Seekers the same saize Hasbro? Why?

Agreed on all acounts. I am VERY tired of only getting either SW -or- TC, but never both... or having to wait for whichever one didn't get a mass retail release to possibly show up as an exclusive ala Classics BotCon Thundercracker & Titanium SDCC WW Skywarp. I think the only line in recent years to release all 3 of the Seekers back to back at easy-to-get retail has been Robot Heroes. And seeing as though Thrust is now being released as well, it might be the only series since G1 where we even get all 6 of these guys.

I'll be buying TFA Skywarp, but probably won't open it until I get some sort of sign that we'll eventually get Thundercracker as well. And if things REALLY go well, the G1 colored clone of SS too.

Originally Posted by Nocturn

Same toy three times? Not very marketable. Really, the only time they've done this, for one line, was for Alternators, right? And activators Starscream.

They did it 4 times with Movie Starscream: Original, Thundercracker repaint, G1 color scheme repaint & Premium Edition repaint.

They did it 3 times with WW Titaniums: Thundercracker, Starscream & Sunstorm

They did it 3 times with Heroes of Cybertron - 6 if you count the purple clones.

And of course they did it 6 times with G1: Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Thrust, Dirge & Ramjet

I'm sure they've done it at least 3 times in others series as well, but I never collected RID, A/E/C, etc. so I don't know for sure.

They also seem to have plans to do it with Universe. We got Starscream, Skywarp & Ramjet with the original Classics (3), and now we have Acid Storm and will likely have at least 1-2 more repaints down the road according to Hasbro's comments @ BotCon.

When it comes to the Seekers, as Hasbro clearly know, it's a no brainer that most people expect AND want to get at least 3 repaints out of the mold... which I think is more than fair since no one really clammers for all 6 anymore. Everyone else from Takara, Palisades, Diamond Select and I'll even bet Revoltech all seem to get this as they've done (or about to do) all 3... sometimes even all 6. Besides that, Hasbro can clearly make anything marketable if they want to. If they depict SS, SW & TC as 3 unique characters on Animated, kids will want all 3 figures regardless if they're the same mold, and it would be infinitely more justified & acceptable than things like Nightwatch Movie Leader Prime, Deep Desert Movie Leader Brawl, TFA Goth Leader Megatron, TFA Camo Leader Ultra Magnus, TFA Campfire Deluxe Lockdown, or any of the other randomly out of left field repaints that have zero relevance to anything whatsoever.

IMO, if we have to accept that Cliffjumper will always be a repaint of Bumblebee, that Ultra Magnus has become a dumbed down white repaint of Prime, that Ratchet will always be a repaint of Ironhide (or vice versa) sans the Movie line, that Prowl, Bluestreak & Smokescreen will always be repaints of each other, and that all the other redundancies originally laid out in G1 being continued in these other series, then the SS/SW/TC repaints shouldn't be as much of a headache to obtain as they are.

I'm actually quite confident that Hasbro knows exactly what they're doing when it comes to the choices they make with the Seekers in particular, and like to make the 3rd one elusive for no other reason than to make collectors squirm. That's my suspicious paranoia and I'm standing by it

[Nocturn]

Originally Posted by Incepticon

They did it 4 times with Movie Starscream: Original, Thundercracker repaint, G1 color scheme repaint & Premium Edition repaint.

They did it 3 times with WW Titaniums: Thundercracker, Starscream & Sunstorm

They did it 3 times with Heroes of Cybertron - 6 if you count the purple clones.

And of course they did it 6 times with G1: Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Thrust, Dirge & Ramjet

I'm sure they've done it at least 3 times in others series as well, but I never collected RID, A/E/C, etc. so I don't know for sure.

They also seem to have plans to do it with Universe. We got Starscream, Skywarp & Ramjet with the original Classics (3), and now we have Acid Storm and will likely have at least 1-2 more repaints down the road according to Hasbro's comments @ BotCon.

Ah, yes, but one of those was an exclusive, another belonged to a sub-line, not to mention that there was a remold done in there.

You forgot SDCC Skywarp. That being said, the Titanium line was marketed at collectors who seem to like seeker repaints- not 7 year old boys whose parents have disposable income.

See above.

Again, remolding. Also, it was G1. If they got away with "erector" no harm could come form this, right? Joking, of course.

No, actually. If ever, exclusives.

Skywarp= Exclusive, Ramjet= Extensive Remold

Sorry for being so confrontational, that was not the intent. Just trying to say it was really uncommon in recent times without some form of large change or exclusivity.

[jourdo]

Originally Posted by Nocturn

Same toy three times? Not very marketable. Really, the only time they've done this, for one line, was for Alternators, right? And activators Starscream.

I see it as an acceptable marketing plan. Reuse the same mold... just recolour it. Therefore you get more bang for your buck and do not have to redesign the wheel (so to speak). More profit equals happy giant faceless corporation.

[PG13]

Ah Hasbro, making my wallet it's bitch since 1984

[GMfan]

I think the thing with many collectors when it comes to repaints in recent years its acceptable if they are different G1 characters. Example: The Classics line, most collectors that got Bumblebee also got Cliffjumper just because it was a different character, yet a repaint. However when we get a repaint of the same character, IE Deep Desert Brawl most people pass on it (if not for the price point) then because it is just another repaint (course the All spark blue is hideous but otherwise I think its a great repaint....but I won't pay another $50 for the same character/mould). But again with the BB and CJ rule I know I got Movie Cliffjumper as well as movie BB just for the different G1 character rule.

And for the record the last line that had all 3 original seekers available in retail was technically Cybertron (though Starscream was a different mould) prior to that would be Armada where all 3 had essentially the same mould with Skywarp having some retooling.