(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.