Oct 03 2008
Empty Promises And Dashed Hopes Concerning Transformers Universe Cyclonus
Hasbro announced a brand new mold for a classic “Generation 1″ character, “Cyclonus“. This is part of their plans to release new figures for many of the original characters for the 25th Anniversary of the franchise. Better still, this new Cyclonus figure would have a “Targetmaster” partner, making him an homage to the very rare Targetmaster Cyclonus (1987). This was pretty exciting news by itself, but then the Hasbro representatives showed the audience at Botcon what it would look like.
Jaws dropped and cheers erupted. The new Cyclonus had the great vehicle mode that the old Cyclonus sported, but the robot mode was better in every way. He had full articulation and an excellent paint scheme, yet the figure stayed very true to the original. Unfortunately, fans failed to understand that they were looking at a hand-painted prototype that had yet to pass through plausibility testing.
When the Hasbro designers create a new figure, they go through several test versions. The new design starts off as clay or a simple mockup, then goes on to prototype modeling, and then that mold (or a copy of it) is hand-painted for approvals. The test model is then checked for plausibility to see how much it would cost to build versus how much it would be sold for. A single paint application can cost two cents per toy, which adds up considerably when hundreds of thousands are produced.
Apparently, the paint applications for Cyclonus shown at Botcon were too expensive for mass production. Changes would be required to get this figure out to stores. The shiny purple paint was replaced with matte purple paint, and the silver paint was eschewed for grey plastic. Dark blue paint applications on the wrists and weapon were pulled completely. Finally, the red and fuscia highlights were replaced with a reddish brown color. This is what a cost-effective figure looks like.
Were we cheated? No, the Cyclonus figure is still a great mold. It’s not as pretty as we were hoping (and were led to believe) that it would be, but we should have know better. Plenty of leaked images of upcoming figures are not final models and are subject to change before release. I’d still like to pick up a Universe Cyclonus when they’re released, and I’m sure there will be people who repaint their figure by hand to its former glory.
Meta-Tags:
Botcon, Cyclonus, Hasbro, Targetmaster, Transformers, Universe
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Actually, it isn’t so much cost-cutting you’re seeing as Hasbro’s overly creative use of photoshop and camera tricks in its packaging art. Since at least Cybertron and Revenge of the Sith, the company has used overly sharded imagery for its packaging art– these are the first photos shown to the world, simply because they are the first completed.
The second photo you have is from Hasbro’s photo DB which is shared with vendors and the press, and is an actual product shot in real-world conditions without the digital massaging and swabbing.
If you compare the two photos– with the exception of Nightstick– it seems the toy is actually the same. We were just duped through the magic of digital photography… and *maybe* some silver was dropped. It might just be shading– look at any Revenge of the Sith action figure package, or (I think) the first round of Classics if memory serves. This is par for the course, it’s like that “good lighting/bad lighting” episode of Seinfeld. But far, far worse.
I’m not sure if I should wait for Henkei or not. The big selling point for me was Nightstick and that seems to have suffered the most.
But wait, it gets better (because everything is better in Japan)! Takara has announced that the Henkei, or Japanese Classics, version have anime accurate paint as well as chrome accents. It looks pretty awesome, definitely on par with Hasbro’s original version.
Takara has a habit of releasing Hasbro molds with far superior paint schemes. Then they turn around and release the Hasbro version as a limited “USA Edition” run. They get their cake and eat it too… Too bad Hasbro can’t do the same.