fairplaythings.com

So Takara/Tomy has updated their website and so we finally can take a look at the Japanese version of Classics Dinobot.

Funny. He looks like Dinobot. Huh.

ActionFig.com recently uploaded its March Q&A and one of their questions was on the subject of the Hasbro North American Dinobot (and Cheetor). Specifically, “when the figures hit the market, it seemed like neither design lived up to its potential with multiple issues in both bot and beast modes.”

To put it mildly.

I don’t know about the other problems, since I could not bring myself to buy the rare copy that has yet to make its way across the border. Because the paint job was… well… gross! It makes me really question Hasbro’s response: “While we do an excellent job of listening to our fan base and incorporating characters and features that fans look for, we always have to keep in mind that our toys are meant to be played with - the overall intention of Universe was to improve on the overall designs of the original toy versions and still deliver an enjoyable Transformers experience for fans and children.”

How does giving Dinobot an appealing colour hurt his playability? Or his marketability, given that kids might, just might, get their hands on an old copy of the Beast Wars cartoon and recognize the piece on the shelves is the same one from the show? It shouldn’t. Explaining that that the Takara repaint is more expensive and Hasbro didn’t want to front the cost would be an answer. Or that there are too many other similar looking Dinobots out there and we wanted to make this one unique. That would be an answer. Neither of them very good but as least they could be understood.

But somehow expecting us to believe that they are “listening to our fan base” and allowing this traversy of a dungbot to happen at the same time just isn’t on. In any case, it is one more example of how Takara is getting Universe right. While about half of the figures could go either way, it seems when Hasbro falls, it really falls down hard.