Transformers News and Hasbro Financial Outlook

Hey, this is David Kaye, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. This is Megatron,

leader of the Predacons, and you're listening

to all things Transformers. Predacons, terrorize!

and welcome to all things transformers i'm your

host steve megatron joined by tfg1 mike hello

hello we are here and we are really waiting at

this point well for 2025 yeah but oh no man this

company it's like they ain't wanna actually make

stuff Nothing for us fans. They're like, screw

you guys, I'm going home. But it's not even that.

I don't want us to repeat what we had in the

last episode. Oh, I know. It's a thing of a repeating

dead horse because there's nothing. I've found

two cool things that I think are cool for news.

Everything else, and I know it's the end of the

year. It's almost December. It is this. It is

that. It's Thanksgiving time. Happy Thanksgiving,

everybody, because most likely this episode will

either be out before or on Thanksgiving this

year. So each year, transforming turkeys wisely.

Make sure you don't swallow any nuts or bolts

or sparks or whatever. That's what she said.

That's right. Well, I was going to say, there

is one other cool thing that I noticed, product

-wise, but it has to do with a removable helmet.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't sure if you were going to

think that was cool or not, because half the

time that they do the Transformers cosplay stuff,

we look at it and we just scoff at it. Well,

it's G1. Like, I would love Beast Wars 2, but

G1? Like, the movie -verse stuff, I don't care.

But the G1 stuff, I mean, and this one especially,

this one is mighty cool. Yeah. Why don't you

tell us about it? So, Killer Body, which is a

Chinese company, has made several Transformers

helmets in the past. This one is a G1 wearable,

removable armor helmet of Optimus Prime. And,

yeah, he matches the, I mean, as close as they

can to the 84 animated version, plus, you know,

some aesthetics that kind of look like they hail

from some IDW influences. But, yeah, this, it

has 15 magnetic assembly plates to achieve a

helmet in double armor. And it's an iron gray

mechanical internal structure with detail. And

he's got this pretty cool, like. it looks like

Optimus Prime's helmet, his eyes, and then he's

got a nose and a face, you know, an actual mouth.

Yeah. And it looks kind of cool. And it looks

kind of barren and like very metallic and kind

of reminiscent of like what a movie verse almost

would look like if you didn't have a lot of paint

decor. Right. And. I took one look at this and

I'm like, you know, that would make a perfect

Ultimis Prime face. Yeah, it would. Because his

helmet is essentially that without all of the,

I mean, it matches the colors and the design

almost perfectly if I didn't put the armor on

it. And then it's kind of cool because you can

attach all the different armors and different

pieces in the mouthplate. So technically I could

even still do it without the blue part and have

them still be, you know, Ultimis Prime in a different

way. I don't know. I just I thought this was

kind of neat, like how it's very modular and

it kind of goes together. Yeah. And seems very

like kit bashy. Yeah. And but in a good way.

Plus, I like all the little gears and all the

mechanisms that it looks like and it lights up.

So, yeah, I think this is this is quite cool.

I don't know how much it goes for, but it's pretty.

That's the thing. As of according to this story

that was released November 22nd, 2024 on TFW

2005 dot com. Whatever. They do not have concrete

information on price or release date as of this

moment. Looking at this, I would assume with

all of its mechanisms and the fact that all of

these modular parts, like you're saying, they're

all magnetic. I'm thinking somewhere between

80 and 150. I'm thinking it's closer to like

2. Okay. Because of the electronics and everything

else. Yeah, okay. Yep, yep. Okay, I agree with

that then. Yeah, it's probably going to be $200

most likely because of the electronics. Yeah,

yeah, you're right. I mean, don't get me wrong.

It's super cool. And if this was like a budget

thing, I would totally do this. Or if I get it

sent for review, I would totally do this. This

would be one of those things I purposely got

like a head mount to put on my desk to have Prime's

head sitting next to me. If I wasn't tempted

to wear it while I was like streaming or something.

The only problem is you don't have a Peter Cullen

in your repertoire. Well, I kind of do. Autobots,

roll out. Just not as well as like Frank Welker

or David Kaye. Yeah, exactly. I would love nothing

more than to have a transmittal, the transmittal

Megatron helmet. Like, I've got the files for

a regular Beast Megatron helmet. Yeah. I don't,

unless I upgrade to a bigger printer, I don't

ever see me getting it. Yeah. What printer do

you have now? So I have an Ender V3. Okay. Or

it's an Ender 3 V2, I mean. And the print bed

isn't very big. Okay. And I should preface this

with it's not big enough to print a helmet. It

is big enough to print like some other stuff,

but I mean, I could probably cut it and print

it modular, but it would kind of look like crap.

Um, plus I got to troubleshoot it again because

I haven't turned it on in months. And I, I actually

was, I turned it on the other day so I could

try and start troubleshooting it and re -level

the bed so that I can start printing things again.

But yeah, it, it, I, I looked at the surface

of this file to try and print it for my noggin,

because I don't know what size the file needs

to be to fit, and it was all one piece. I'm like,

why would you design a helmet that's literally

one piece? It's like, why can't you make it so

that I can pop magnets in it or, I don't know,

something? But, yeah, anyways, this is super

cool, and I would love to get my hands on that.

Yeah, that would be amazing. All right, so the

only other thing before we get into the main

topic of Hasbro. Whoa, Hasbro. We got two more

things there. I'm not a Godzilla fan. I don't

dislike it, but it's not in my wheelhouse. Like,

yes. He's a kaiju or dinosaur or whatever you

want to call it. What I'm looking at is basically

a Grimlock turned into, you know, looking like

Godzilla, but the robot mode is Megatron. So

it's Transformers Takara Tomy, Megatron -type

Godzilla. The Western orders are alive. Bring

the ultimate Transformers experience to your

collection with the Takara Tomy Synergenics Series

Megatron Type Godzilla Collectible Figure. Convert

from Megatron Robot Mode to Godzilla Dinosaur

Mode. Highly articulated figure is perfect for

display in action stances. I was trying to see

which Grimlock this was made out of, because

I know it's made out of one of... Relay Studio

Series. Probably, most likely. It doesn't really

say. But I just like the Megatron robot mode.

I mean, it looks cool as hell. So it's featuring

the Leader Grimlock Generations mold. Ah, gotcha.

Okay. Yeah. It still looks cool as hell, though.

I mean, it's neat, for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

I don't think I'd ever buy it. No. I'm not a

huge Grimlock fan anyway, so this doesn't resonate

with me, and I don't really care about Godzilla.

However, I mean, I think I would like it better

if it was just straight Grimlock. Yeah, that

would be cool, but I think the reason why I gravitated

towards this is because essentially you have

a black Megatron without his fusion cannon. It's

basically a Megatron head on a Grimlock body,

but... I don't know, these colors just kind of

popped for me because we're always used to seeing

G1 Megatron in his silver slash gray. And that's

fine, I like that design, but I don't know, man,

this just kind of popped for me. So we have that.

And then, coming in 2025, now this is under the

rumors section, folks. So this is a huge rumor,

take with huge grain of salt here. We have the

LEGO Soundwave. Via Reddit, we have a rumor about

a possible LEGO Soundwave incoming in 2025. The

information comes via Reddit user Clay Bricks,

who has leaked several possible sets for 2025.

We still have no additional details, but take

this with a grain of salt until we get official

confirmation. Interested in a new LEGO Soundwave

set? Let us know. So if this does happen, I think

this would be really cool. Now, the image that

they have here is that it's Brick Tap Lego. Oh,

no, that's the that must be the name. But whatever.

Just I don't know. I think with Lego Optimus

Prime, how he still transformed. Can you imagine

a Lego Soundwave in cassette mode? That would

be. Oh, I totally could. And I saw the Prime

in the store. Couldn't afford him. but I definitely

loved it and thought it was spectacular. I think

they have a Bumblebee out. I do not know off

the top of my head. I want to say they got him,

like a Bumblebee Lego. Probably. They probably

do. But I would like this. Okay, cool. He's $89

and Prime was like $200. I mean, it's Optimus

Prime. Of course he's going to come. And Bumblebee's

smaller. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's like

comparing Masterpiece MP04 or MP44 Optimus to

any of the Bumblebee Masterpiece figures. But

it does transform, so I mean... Yeah, and that's

the other thing. Yeah, absolutely. All right,

folks. That's it for the news that I have. For

the good news, you mean? Yeah, for the good news.

Everybody and their uncle is talking about the

bad news, which is fine. We got to talk about

the good and the bad. Didn't somebody on this

podcast call this like a while ago? Uh -huh.

Somebody has been talking about this for quite

some time, you know, about product not moving.

I mean, I wonder who it could be. Oh, wait, it

was me. Not subtle at all. No. Hell no. Why would

we want to... Us? Subtle? Are you kidding me?

Screw that shit. No, I mean... So... Yeah...

So I first... So I was not... So the plan was,

folks... So this is episode 439 of All Things

Transformers. Having this little mini news episode

here was not the plan. The plan was, and the

plan still is, because we're going to do this

for the next episode, the last episode of the

year for All Things Transformers was going to

be our commentary on Transformers 1, which will

be the next episode in episode 440. However,

as soon as I saw Rodimus Primal and Proto Man

doing videos about this subject on their YouTube

channels, I was like, okay, let's look into this,

and that's why I wanted to preface it. with some

of the cool stuff that we might be looking forward

to or might be interested in, or at least stuff

that we could talk about that was on the positive,

because as of November 22nd, when this story

was first published on TFW2005 .com, Hasbro stops

financing movie projects. Speaking to Bloomberg,

Hasbro CEO Chris Cox And I thought his name was

spelled C -O -X. I didn't realize it was spelled

all the way out C -O -C -K -S. Holy crap. States

that the toy giant will stop co -financing movie

projects. Mr. Cox is leading the company through

a challenging transition, focusing on video games

and digital entertainment to offset declining

toy sales and underperforming movie ventures.

A gamer at heart. Mr. Cox joined Hasbro in 2016,

overseeing the rapid growth of the Wizards of

the Coast division, which produces Magic the

Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. The company

highlights that Transformers 1 underperformed

financially. No shit! They didn't put any marketing

behind that movie, which is why it failed. Plus...

All the marketing for that movie, and I'm not

saying this to be negative against what I'm going

to say here, this is... I'm just saying, Hasbro

themselves, and we can attest to this, all of

that marketing was UK marketed between it and

Rise of the Beasts. All of that marketing was

sent to the UK. They did no marketing here in

the US. We got contacted by the UK marketing

team, and we told them we are based in the US.

We would love to cover it. So they gave us to

Paramount here in the U .S. who promptly did

not contact us. Well, they contacted us, and

then they were like, we'll reach out to you if

we would like to continue. Apparently they didn't

like to continue. Look, folks, yes, Steve and

I can be negative. I'm more negative than he

is most of the time because I'm just so enraged

half the time with some of the stuff this company

is doing. But we generally tend to put out a

fairly good, fairly positive podcast for the

most part. We try to find the news stories and

the things that we want to talk about that we're

excited about. And unfortunately, something like

this has to come along where, unfortunately,

it's negative. And it does suck. I mean, I think

I'm just as disappointed as most of us. I mean,

I think Transformers 1... was definitely the

direction we needed to be going and less of the

live action stuff. Oh, absolutely. And I feel

like because of past failures and the fact that

we're still sitting with Earthspark and Rise

of the Beast crap on the shelves, it's made it

difficult for, I mean, and there's a lot of legacy

stuff still, legacy evolution stuff still on

the shelf that nobody wants. They kind of blew

their load on all of it. And sadly, I feel like

the well has dried up and people don't really

want what they're peddling anymore. And honestly,

it's sad. I mean, I genuinely enjoy Transformers

1. And I feel like it had legs. I feel like they

could have gone all kinds of directions with

that. For a dude who's diehard Beast Wars, and

this was anything but, I really did enjoy it.

I liked the parallels and the various series

that came across it. Yeah, did I care about the

celebrity voicing? Not really, but that's neither

here nor there. I genuinely enjoyed the film

for what it was. I wish it would have got the

time to shine, but I feel like they purposely

sabotaged their own endeavors to pivot away from

film. Yeah. And I think too with, I mean, look,

they bought Power Rangers in 2018 and they promptly

have sold everything to do with it. Like they've,

they've pawned off the toys to playmates. They've

sold all of the, uh, studio gear like everything

like they've completely dumped it and i i feel

like they're they're hemorrhaging and they're

hurting to the point that i mean that's why they're

doing layoffs that's why they're moving to a

different location although if you're moving

from rhode island to boston it doesn't seem like

it's going to save you that much money It's not.

We talked about that last episode. It is not.

I am from Massachusetts. I am from New England.

It is all expense up there. And so I think, too,

with that, I feel like they also just didn't.

I think between covid and, you know, overordering

and then trying to pawn it off like they didn't.

And then and then the fact that they're just

peddling a bunch of stuff nobody wants. or mass

-producing a lot of the stuff nobody wants, and

then under -producing the stuff everybody does

want. I mean, you can't go into anywhere and

find an Optimus Prime that's of G1 or Beast origin,

but you can find anything for the new series

because, again, it's not that there's anything

wrong with it, it's just nobody's really collecting

it. And I'm saying that... as vaguely as possible.

I mean, to, you know, not to lump everybody together

and say nobody is, but there's a lot of this

product has been sitting on the shelf for two

years. Yeah. And a lot of it's not moving once

it hits the shelf and it's new, which tells me,

and this is not just transformers related. It's

pretty much a Hasbro problem. Oh yeah. And because

For instance, the Bandai Namco stuff, it's hit

or miss if you're going to find it. The other

problem is when the stores sell out of it because

they have such a low inventory, they don't really

restock. And then the Hasbro stuff, they do restock,

but again, it's a lot of crap that's been there

forever. And so I've been to multiple Walmarts

and Targets, and either they're out of everything

and just don't reorder. like Target, or they're

like Walmart and are stacking it on the very

tops of the shelves and have nowhere to put it.

And then they're lumping it into their clearance

aisle because, again, there's nowhere else to

put it. So I think we're in this weird situation

where we're going to end up with, I think we're

going to see Hasbro go through some really serious

hurt over the next year, unfortunately. Well,

I mean, this guy came from Microsoft. This guy

came from video games. And that's fine. I mean,

not everyone's going to be a Brian Goldner. May

Brian rest in peace. And that's all well and

good. The thing is, unfortunately, I don't think

Chris Cox is wrong when he says that they are

pivoting towards video game and online entertainment.

Because other than us, and we said this last

episode when I asked you. Are your kids, are

your two, how old are your two boys? Nine and

twelve. Okay, yeah, they're perfect age, like,

I remember 1989 was the first time I was able

to get Rodimus Prime. I remember being in Key

Biscayne, Florida in 1989 when I was nine years

old playing with Rodimus Prime out by the pool.

In 2024, a nine -year -old does not care about...

We are in this electronic age now. We are so

deep in the electronic age that it's games this,

games that. It's I this, I device that, or Android,

or whatever. And as an overall, even though I'm

not a parent, I can see the writing on the wall.

They're going to go towards virtual entertainment

more than physical plastic. Because they need

to make money somehow. And what's a... Better

way to make money than to have a free game with

a bunch of microtransactions that your parents

have to approve. So this is the other issue I

see. Why would like me as a parent buy a digital

item that they're just going to take away from

me? Yeah, exactly. So that's my issue with games

now is or just digital entertainment. A lot of

these platforms have already shown that they're

going to yank it from us the minute. They change

platforms, they get bought out, they deem it

not viable to keep active anymore. They will

take away whatever digital purchase you have.

Not to mention, when you buy a game and then

you play it online or you stream it or whatever,

when you hit a certain point, they eventually

shut the server down and your game goes with

it. Or they yank access to the game, and then

your game goes with it, even though you paid

real money for it. You don't have a physical

product, and you're technically leasing it from

them, which is how they want it. They don't want

you to own it. They want you to lease it, even

though you've paid your hard -earned money for

it and supported them through it. And I see it

being a double -edged sword, for sure. I see

it backfiring in a lot of ways. because I don't

feel like their gaming stuff is all that solid.

I mean, they had War for Cybertron years ago,

and then they screwed the pooch and didn't do

any more of it. Yeah, they had War for Cybertron

and Fall of Cybertron. I think there was supposed

to be a third one, but I don't remember off the

top of my head. There was, and then Hasbro decided

not to do it. But a lot of the issues with Hasbro

is Hasbro itself. Yeah, oh yeah. It's studio

intervention, just like Warner Brothers. And

when they gave James Gunn Warner Brothers to

run their studio, they're actually coming up

with a solid idea. Imagine that. You have a guy

that's in charge of storytelling? It's mind -boggling.

Maybe they should do that with Transformers instead

of hiring weird panels of groups to run it. And,

you know, all of these different franchises.

They haven't had direction in years, and they're

only making it worse. And they're making it easier

for the third party to really shine. Yeah, so

just, and again, folks, we're not going to go

through this next episode because we're going

to do the commentary on Transformers 1. But speaking

of writing and storytelling and everything else.

The guy that did the screenplay for Transformers

1, Eric Pearson, worked on Ragnarok. He worked

on Black Widow. He worked on Thunderbolts coming

up in 2025. He's working on the Fantastic Four

movie in 2025 and the to -be -announced Blade

film with Wesley Snipes, most likely. But the

writer, the story that's done by, like, Andrew...

Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. I've never heard

of them whatsoever. Like, their names aren't

even clickable on Wikipedia. And, you know, I

don't know. It's just crazy to me that this company

just seems to... I don't know. I'm all for them

potentially doing the digital stuff for kids

as long as, you know, as long as the parents

and whatever else and all this and everything

else. Because I think today's kid doesn't, today's

kid is not who we were. Today's kid is different.

Today's kid wants the online thing, whether it

stays or not. Like, you want that hit of dopamine

immediately or whatever. kind of thing. So, I

don't know. Because every time I've seen a Hasbro

livestream in the last, I'll say it, the last

two years, every time Evan and Mark and Ben from

Marketing, every time the Hasbro team has been

on their livestreams, most of the products I

see them giving high value time to on these live

streams is stuff like a new version of soundwave

or uh tarn i would if i had children tarn would

not be a character that i would buy for my kids

and it's not because i don't want to buy the

character for like but it would not be something

i would market towards kids and i'm not saying

they marketed it towards kids they marketed it

towards us Those of us who read the comics and

know who the characters are, whatever, whatever,

whatever. My point is that it seems like every

livestream I've seen them do, I'll say specifically

this year, it's all been legacy characters for

the adult collectors. Because they think their

kid audience is all of us adults. And they are

not marketing towards kids anymore. No, they're

not. I don't know, folks. So, you want to say

anything else? Yeah, I mean, I just I think ultimately

we're at this pinnacle of watching what's going

to happen with these industries now between the

movie and television industry, the gaming industry,

the toy industry. They're all coalescing. And

at this point where some of them are going to

go bye bye, they're going to all there's going

to be some kind of a massive collapse between

all of these different platforms. And sadly,

Hasbro, I feel like they need to get rid of Chris

Cox. And I felt like that since he got hired.

But because all he's done is butcher this thing.

Yeah. But I mean, yeah, he's not a Brian Goldner,

but nobody ever really will be. Right. But I

don't see him being very good long term. I'm.

I'm fearful for what happens to the franchise

going forward. Yeah, I guess only time will tell,

right? Unfortunately. Yep. So like I said, folks,

coming up next for the last episode of the year,

we are going to do a commentary on Transformers

1. So we will be watching the film and commenting

as we go kind of thing. That's going to be fun

as always. That will be the final episode of

2024. We will be brainstorming ideas during the

holiday season. for new episodes in 2025, other

than just news episodes. I do want to bring back

the All Things Transformers, Transformers Origins

episodes. It's 30 questions about your Transformers

fandom. If anyone wants to be on the show, send

an email to feedback at geekcastradio .com. But

there's going to be a part of 2025 where Steve

and I might be a little bit more lax in posting

episodes for this show because we've got Star

Trek stuff to do. Yo. And that's going to be

taking up our time because Altered Trek is the

new Star Trek. Well, technically it's the old

Star Trek, but the new Star Trek podcast, the

return, the reimagining, the reformatting of

Future Imperfect into Altered Trek. And we're

going to be going through all of the TNG seasons

and the TNG movies and the Kelvin universe and

other things for that. So that's going to be

taking up our time in the future. But please

come back next time when we do the Transformers

1 commentary. And I'm sure we will most likely

have a news episode once a month, if that. Because

some of this news, even the news when San Diego

Comic -Con was happening, when we were doing

those news episodes, I'm like... I don't care.

It's like, throw that out, throw that out, throw

that out, get rid of that. Yoink, yoink, yoink.

Nope, nope, nope. Oh, and the other thing I'll

mention, because this is our last news episode

of the year. Hey, Hasbro. Hey, Funko. Hey, Drop

.io. Okay, so Funko and Drop .io. Drop .io are

the people that do the NFTs for Funko. And they

do NFTs, I assume, for other companies too, but

I know they do it for Funko. They've released

many other NFT sets so far this year, but yet

the Transformers set has been indefinitely delayed.

There's been no news. There's been no nothing.

So between Hasbro, Drop .io, and Funko, what

the Funko is going on with this NFT Wave 2 for

Transformers Funko Pops? You know, folks, if

you just did this as regular Funko Pop releases,

in actual stores that we could actually buy.

Luckily, I've got a guy who I'm paying to eventually

have the set, because he did all the card stuff

already. But the point is, is that there's been

no news on this whatsoever. There's been no news

on it, but yet we had the Optimus and Megatron,

the Astrotrain, the Blaster, we had that wave

come out for Funko Pops. But these NFTs, I believe

the NFT wave is... Blitzwing, Beast Wars Cheetor,

Generation 1 RC, Ultra Magnus, Freddy Funko as

Grimlock, which is fucking stupid because Freddy

Funko dressed up. It's stupid. Oh, and then the

big royalty royalties thing, which I did not

get yet, but it's King Starscream, so it's Starscream

with his crown. But, yeah, every other NFT release

has either sold out or not sold out, but they've

had so many other NFT releases this year, and

they delayed the Transformers ones indefinitely

for some stupid freaking reason. Oh, God. Take

us out, Megatron. So, thank you, as always, for

listening to All Things Transformers. I've been

your host, Steve Megatron, with TFG1 Mike. You

can find our contact information on the website

on geekcastradio .com on this episode post with

our link tree locations. So until next time,

transform and transcend, and we'll see you here

on all things Transformers to discuss Transformers

1. You're just a bunch of fucking repaints. Your

podcast, good. An evil new menace from the world

of the Transformers. Yes. I wish to speak to

my lawyer.