General Hasbro BEYBLADE:Metal Fury/Shogun Steel/Beyblades Legends -FALL 2014 [HOBBY]

Idk, but if you ask me, I think Hasbro could keep this running some more. I mean, we never even got a dubbed Sol Blaze movie, nor the Bey itself. Also, why not try to bring the Top Plate thing to the U.S.(presumably under a new name and such), because that seemed like a really interesting thing that could've been a lot of fun.

Idk, it seems like Hasbro made a lot of promises but relied far too much on their side brands, which were actually not all that bad, but wasn't nearly as good as the Beyblade game. They even said that there would be another world championship back when the first one ended.

But hey, 3 years isn't too bad. I also collect LEGO and Transformers, so I can wait.
(Mar. 12, 2015  1:07 PM)infinitycross Wrote: Would anyone know which stores in the usa would

would anyone know which stores in the usa wouldstill have beyblades for sale as of march 2015

Places like CVS still have some Beyblades.
(Mar. 12, 2015  7:51 PM)UltimateOrion Wrote:
(Mar. 12, 2015  1:07 PM)infinitycross Wrote: Would anyone know which stores in the usa would

would anyone know which stores in the usa wouldstill have beyblades for sale as of march 2015

Places like CVS still have some Beyblades.

good ones or outclassed?
(Mar. 12, 2015  8:16 PM)infinitycross Wrote:
(Mar. 12, 2015  7:51 PM)UltimateOrion Wrote:
(Mar. 12, 2015  1:07 PM)infinitycross Wrote: Would anyone know which stores in the usa would

would anyone know which stores in the usa wouldstill have beyblades for sale as of march 2015

Places like CVS still have some Beyblades.

good ones or outclassed?
I don't know but they could have Metal Masters sometimes if your lucky but mostly Shogun Steel and Metal Fury. They don't have a lot though.
Found Shogun Steel at TJ Maxx today. Single packs were selling for $4.99 and Cyclone Battle Sets for $9.99; first time I've seen Beyblades in a store in over 6 months.
My Target has a thin sliver left.
Even the Metal Fusion sign is gone after 5 years on duty.
(Mar. 13, 2015  10:51 PM)Neo Wrote: My Target has a thin sliver left.
Even the Metal Fusion sign is gone after 5 years on duty.

Your Target was using a Metal Fusion sign ever since? lol

Now that I think about it, I haven't really paid attention to the Beyblade signs in my stores' isles.
(Mar. 13, 2015  11:05 PM)DaSacredKnee Wrote:
(Mar. 13, 2015  10:51 PM)Neo Wrote: My Target has a thin sliver left.
Even the Metal Fusion sign is gone after 5 years on duty.

Your Target was using a Metal Fusion sign ever since? lol

Now that I think about it, I haven't really paid attention to the Beyblade signs in my stores' isles.

Yeah. Kids don't notice; and Fusion is the most iconic nowadays with kids.
(Mar. 13, 2015  9:32 PM)The Supreme One Wrote: Found Shogun Steel at TJ Maxx today. Single packs were selling for $4.99 and Cyclone Battle Sets for $9.99; first time I've seen Beyblades in a store in over 6 months.

Hoping you snatched up those battle sets at that price.
(Mar. 14, 2015  3:39 AM)Time Wrote:
(Mar. 13, 2015  9:32 PM)The Supreme One Wrote: Found Shogun Steel at TJ Maxx today. Single packs were selling for $4.99 and Cyclone Battle Sets for $9.99; first time I've seen Beyblades in a store in over 6 months.

Hoping you snatched up those battle sets at that price.
Nah. I have more than enough Ifraids and Saramandas, in addition to two Takara Zero-G stadiums, so I didn't really have any need. I did buy a Girago singles pack though.
(Mar. 09, 2015  8:41 PM)Kei Wrote: Agreed, although I do think that in general each series of Beyblade could have been extended quite a while had there been more interest. HMS and Zero-G are both prime examples; new iterations of a series that introduce radical new concepts and then get cut short. There is indeed only so many new and differentiated parts that you can introduce specifically if we're talking about tips (although TT did get pretty innovative with MFB when they introduced things like "star"-shaped R2F as an upgrade to RF. Who would have thought of that?), but in other aspects like Attack Rings/Metal Wheels, I'd say the possibilities are endless in any given series.

With HMS, I think they may have really ran out of ideas after stretching the possibilities with the Gimmick specialty series. They released the staple concepts (Grip Flat Core variants, 2 Bearing cores, metal tip variants) already and introduced some novel ideas, but there may have been nowhere to go from there. It wasn't like plastics, where they had new subsystems (SG, Magnecore, support parts, EG) where they could release the same/similar idea just for the next subsystem (there were 4 plastic-tipped plastic bearing bases, and like 7 grip flat bases in plastics lol). With Zero-G on the other hand, we knew there were a couple more releases from the anime. Unfortunately, with both HMS and Zero-G there may not have been enough sales or interest to continue releases. I looked at Takara's and Hasbro's financial statements and Takara had a decrease in Beyblade sales for their 2012 year (CTRL + F for 'beyblade', 1st result) and Hasbro had a decline in sales in their 2013 year (6th result for 'beyblade') even though Beyblade had 'significant sales' in 2011 and 2012. We could blame this on Hasbro's poor/mediocre marketing of the MFB power creep, but maybe Beyblade can't maintain kids' interests for so many continuous years. Unfortunately, even in our community many active bladers have left the hobby. This might be another reason Beyblade has to be a 'cyclical' product.

Yeah there are less design and creative restrictions on wheels/ARs. Particularly in plastics, a new AR on SG flat, semi-flat, or sharp was good enough for TT to constitute a new release. But I actually think many metal wheels actually had their own unique design/gimmick to them: Basalt had the spiral staircase of death, Hell could combine with BD145's boost mode, Earth had a 10 degree slope of it's perimeter wall, Screw had upper attack slopes, Killer had different protrusions on it's top and underside, Thermal was supposed to do something with airflow, and all those various 4D/clear wheel mode-changes.

With the side series, I agree, they put out way too many different lines at once. People here were actually interesting in Beywheels and wanted to try to do something competitive with them, but Hasbro never committed to Beywheels, so interest faded. Hasbro may have thought that having a TV series was enough to sell the toys, but they put out too many different lines that kids lost interest in all of it.

Thank you for the info zankye! I can't believe that both Takara and Hasbro have basically planned when Beyblade will return so many years in advance! The news that Beyblade would return with MFB was first posted in 2008 (the year of the return) and the news that Hasbro would bring MFB to the west in 2010 was posted in 2009. Maybe Hasbro and TT will collaborate more closely for the new series?

(Mar. 12, 2015  5:52 PM)UGottaCetus Wrote: Idk, but if you ask me, I think Hasbro could keep this running some more. I mean, we never even got a dubbed Sol Blaze movie, nor the Bey itself. Also, why not try to bring the Top Plate thing to the U.S.(presumably under a new name and such), because that seemed like a really interesting thing that could've been a lot of fun.

I can't believe that they never released Sol Blaze and the movie either. Maybe the 1st Beyblade movie didn't sell very well in the west so they didn't want to risk doing the MFB movie? Though they would've released Sol Blaze, since it seemed that Hasbro was so keen on releasing Beyblades that they made the Metal Fusion Legend series as well as releasing the Beyblades from minor anime characters like Burn Wolf and Flame Serpant. But who knows, they unfortunately didn't release all of the Hyperblades and some Zero-G beyblades as well.

Also, Hasbro doesn't have the rights to Top Plate. That is made by Sonokong not TT and Hasbro only has the licensing deal with TT.
It's a shame Sol Blaze wasn't released, although neither did the dark series, but Sol Blaze looks amazing and I would take any recolour, most preferably the original though. The movie was decent and could have been good to watch for American viewers who watch the dub. The V-Force movie was absolute garbage but the Sol Blaze one could have been good to sell with a Sol Blaze top in a DVD set or something.
(Mar. 14, 2015  4:42 AM)-Vulcan- Wrote: Unfortunately, with both HMS and Zero-G there may not have been enough sales or interest to continue releases. I looked at Takara's and Hasbro's financial statements and Takara had a decrease in Beyblade sales for their 2012 year (CTRL + F for 'beyblade', 1st result) and Hasbro had a decline in sales in their 2013 year (6th result for 'beyblade') even though Beyblade had 'significant sales' in 2011 and 2012. We could blame this on Hasbro's poor/mediocre marketing of the MFB power creep, but maybe Beyblade can't maintain kids' interests for so many continuous years. Unfortunately, even in our community many active bladers have left the hobby. This might be another reason Beyblade has to be a 'cyclical' product.

Evidently. Looking back, I think Hasbro may have been smart to release the neutered versions of 4D Metal Wheels in the Metal Fury series–as they have become an interesting asset to the WBO's Limited Format–but the way they handled releases in general was confusing in comparison to TAKARA-TOMY. It was never totally clear what they would be releasing and what they wouldn't be; but maybe that was only a problem for people who were aware of what TAKARA-TOMY had already released.

In the end, maybe it isn't fair to compare hardcore players like us who find the game consistently interesting to the general public who invests themselves in it–whether it be casually or more seriously–it for a couple years at a time. I keep wondering in my mind though why hobbies like card games are able to captivate enough people for long periods of time (Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, etc.) for them to continue indefinitely, yet Beyblade cannot. The idea that concepts can be used every time Beyblade is reintroduced to a new generation of kids is a good one, and clearly that's what they did with each new series on some level (while also introducing new concepts), but I think there's enough depth in the game for it to continue for longer periods of time than it has during these first two cycles.

(Mar. 14, 2015  4:42 AM)-Vulcan- Wrote: Yeah there are less design and creative restrictions on wheels/ARs. Particularly in plastics, a new AR on SG flat, semi-flat, or sharp was good enough for TT to constitute a new release. But I actually think many metal wheels actually had their own unique design/gimmick to them: Basalt had the spiral staircase of death, Hell could combine with BD145's boost mode, Earth had a 10 degree slope of it's perimeter wall, Screw had upper attack slopes, Killer had different protrusions on it's top and underside, Thermal was supposed to do something with airflow, and all those various 4D/clear wheel mode-changes.

This illustrates why I think the possibilities with any given Beyblade system are endless. Maybe it's harder to create products that are undeniably "better" than the previous ones without obvious power creeps like increased part weights, and such–which makes it easy to see why you should buy it–but there's enough possibility to create a wide variety of interesting, competitive designs without having to do that sort of thing so frequently.

(Mar. 14, 2015  4:42 AM)-Vulcan- Wrote: With the side series, I agree, they put out way too many different lines at once. People here were actually interesting in Beywheels and wanted to try to do something competitive with them, but Hasbro never committed to Beywheels, so interest faded. Hasbro may have thought that having a TV series was enough to sell the toys, but they put out too many different lines that kids lost interest in all of it.

Yeah, it's hard to become invested in something when the company creating it is so scatter-brained with where they point their focus. If they're not committed to it long term, consumers probably won't commit to it either.
I've never been involved with it personally, but I'm fairly certain Yugioh and Pokemon have seriously extensive competitive scenes backed by their production companies, no? Outside of Japan, beyblade has never really gotten this. Additionally, the divide between hasbro and Takara prevents any sort of commonplace global meta from forming outside of our website.
(Mar. 14, 2015  8:14 PM)Kei Wrote: Evidently. Looking back, I think Hasbro may have been smart to release the neutered versions of 4D Metal Wheels in the Metal Fury series–as they have become an interesting asset to the WBO's Limited Format–but the way they handled releases in general was confusing in comparison to TAKARA-TOMY. It was never totally clear what they would be releasing and what they wouldn't be; but maybe that was only a problem for people who were aware of what TAKARA-TOMY had already released.

In the end, maybe it isn't fair to compare hardcore players like us who find the game consistently interesting to the general public who invests themselves in it–whether it be casually or more seriously–it for a couple years at a time. I keep wondering in my mind though why hobbies like card games are able to captivate enough people for long periods of time (Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, etc.) for them to continue indefinitely, yet Beyblade cannot. The idea that concepts can be used every time Beyblade is reintroduced to a new generation of kids is a good one, and clearly that's what they did with each new series on some level (while also introducing new concepts), but I think there's enough depth in the game for it to continue for longer periods of time than it has during these first two cycles.

Yeah, I wish that limited format was a thing when those Metal Fury releases came out so me and others could’ve gotten more Metal Fury Beyblades when they were out in stores. Serious

I wish we could have been able to talk to some people at Hasbro. That way someone who worked on Beyblade could have let the fans know that Hyperblades would have been coming out in the near future, and a lot less people on this site would have been upset over the inital Metal Fury release of the 4D beyblades. Hasbro and other toy companies have more dialogues and communications with their hardcore adult fans. Lego has an ambassador program where adult fans get to represent the adult fan community and talk to the people who work at Lego about their products. In Hasbro’s other lines like Transformers, people at Hasbro have talked to hardcore fans and have acknowledged the fanbases’ existence. Yes, we are a niche, hardcore group, but if other niche hardcore fanbases get acknowledged I think we can be acknowledged as well. We probably have the most buying power (buying multiple Beyblades for parts like rubber tips and getting multiple Beyblaunchers) and will stick with Beyblade the longest, so I think it would be good for Hasbro financially to want to talk to this community. They really should have a blog or news section on their site to at least talk about and describe new releases (on the old Beyblade site they at least posted pictures of the Engine Gear beyblades as a ‘preview’). Also, in Hasbro’s defense, they can’t release one or two Beyblade products at a time every month with release dates like TT, because all western toys are just released in big batches or waves, probably because Hasbro and others companies distribute their toys to many more countries than TT does.

While Magic, Yugioh, and other TCGs are able to last much longer than Beyblade it seems that most of them since passed their peak popularity when they were first released and lost mass appeal. They still have hardcore players that the companies want to keep playing, but casual players probably lost interest in those games and quit. When Hasbro released Beyblade for the first time it was a big success, but it was overshadowed by the popularity of Yugioh and Pokemon (Yugioh especially, it had also come out recently in the west), but Yugioh is not as popular now as it once was, but keeps its hardcore fans. When Metal Fusion came out, it was like a completely new product for people who were too young for Beyblade so Beyblade was able grow a lot in popularity again (and probably was more popular than the original series). This makes me think that Beyblade is unable to exist continuously for it be financially successful/viable for Hasbro and Takara. This sucks for the fans (us) who wait through the hiatuses, but this may be the only way Beyblade can survive in the long run.


(Mar. 15, 2015  2:14 AM)Time Wrote: I've never been involved with it personally, but I'm fairly certain Yugioh and Pokemon have seriously extensive competitive scenes backed by their production companies, no? Outside of Japan, beyblade has never really gotten this. Additionally, the divide between hasbro and Takara prevents any sort of commonplace global meta from forming outside of our website.

Yeah, these other games have tournaments that the companies organize/support. Lack of tournaments can be used to explain why Beyblade for Hasbro ended, but why did it end for Takara, since they had a lot more tournament support?
We recently got some news that ->
From our WBO Indian page Wrote:LATEST UPDATE FOR INDIAN BLADERS
‪#‎Bakuten‬ ‪#‎Shoot‬ ‪#‎Beyblade‬ / Beyblade Season 1 (2001) will be airing in ‪#‎India‬, on 13th April (2015) at 1:30pm on ‪#‎Hungama‬ TV
https://www.facebook.com/WBOtournamentsindia?ref=hl
via Hungama TV's Advertisement (witnessed by a few friends of mine from a few different cities IIRC)

Hopefully its true .
That'd be pretty cool, but weird. Especially since it's not a more recent series, but nevertheless, if it's true, that'll be pretty awesome.
Today I went to Buffalo, New York to look around and possibly see if there are any Beyblades. Well, I found some!

First up is K-mart. I went to a Big-K near the border and found 5-6 racks full of Beyblades. But all were 9.99 and I had only $21 to spend so I passed. The stock included was Genbulls, Ifrits, Salamanders, Behemoths, Griffins, Zirago and a lonely Kraken.

After, I went to Walgreen's. I went since Zankye recently went to them and found Ifrits for 2.69 and I need one (not for 9.99). What I found was 6-7 Ifrits and 1 lonely Salamander.

Checked out a CVS Pharmacy since people usually find some older beyblades there and they didn't have any and I didn't try searching behind other toys since all the toys were new ones (2014-now). Other ones will probably have some.

Target had none which I didn't expect and I didn't bother going to WalMart since I doubt they would have any.

To add on before I end this long post is that K-mart had 2 Hyperblade Legends for 12.something and had 2 Befall keychains for 4.99. Will post pictures later Smile
Went to two Toys R Us stores within the past week. The one near my Father's, like most other times, simply had some sort of BeyRaiderz sets, while the one local to me where I checked today also had nothing but them -- which is depressing seeing as this one is generally always up-to-date with new releases.

Beyblade Legends are basically done in being in Dollaramas, in my opinion. Toys R Us stores probably got pretty angry with Dollarama selling the. I've checked 5 withing the past while, whereas they had nothing but BeyWarriorz and Raiderz, which is not, however, that surprising seeing as they're probably not as successful as actual Beyblades.
Just an FYI, it looks like Nelvana shut down the official Beyblade store within the last few weeks.
I just checked Toysrus yesterday and they had the BeyRaiderz Chamber Challenge Stunt Set, BeyRaiderz Firegate Battle Set,and the Shogun Steel Octagon Showdown Battle Set on clearance for 5 dollars each.
(Mar. 22, 2015  11:20 AM)To Wrote: Just an FYI, it looks like Nelvana shut down the official Beyblade store within the last few weeks.

See, I still don't get the point of that. It was so promising, seemingly continuing Hasbro's "evergreen" franchise, but Nelvana of all people should/would have known the series was ending/going on another hiatus. I sincerely don't understand the point of putting the effort in making T-shirts and getting Legends and other tops to sell if they knew it was done. Maybe for the point of getting rid of Hasbro's stock or something, but that really doesn't make sense since the prices were moderate to high.
(Mar. 16, 2015  10:30 PM)Leone19 Wrote: That'd be pretty cool, but weird. Especially since it's not a more recent series, but nevertheless, if it's true, that'll be pretty awesome.

Yes, the news is now confirmed Smile
I think the anime may trigger a desire within the 'old group' (as well as newbies) fans to purchase the beys, thus increasing its value and cost as they are already vintage and rare
(Mar. 22, 2015  11:20 AM)To Wrote: Just an FYI, it looks like Nelvana shut down the official Beyblade store within the last few weeks.
Bummer. I never got around to purchasing a shirt while it was up.
(Mar. 22, 2015  7:35 PM)The Supreme One Wrote:
(Mar. 22, 2015  11:20 AM)To Wrote: Just an FYI, it looks like Nelvana shut down the official Beyblade store within the last few weeks.
Bummer. I never got around to purchasing a shirt while it was up.

Me neither. Unhappy

Also I was reading the posts about the original season of beyblade airing. Is that only in India or will North America get it again soon? Like on that Cartoon Network channel that plays the older shows