I assume that he meant the depth of where they're going with the electronic tops. Last time they just kind of dipped their feet in the water with it, as they only released four of the RCs. And that, (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) was a domestic version of a Takara product that used Radio Frequency to transmit signals. This appears to use Infrared, and is developed by Hasbro.
It's not exactly the biggest re-invention of the brand, but with spinning tops there are only so many things you can do.
(Feb. 15, 2011 6:20 PM)Kai-V Wrote: In my opinion they are just losing money in the end by releasing those tops that people cannot even use in tournaments ... I suppose though, that if they never do tournaments, or not in months, then it does not really matter, but it is seriously an odd choice.
I know that I saw that apparently electronics were among the best-selling/most popular in toys, but they could have still done something else ... According to John from Toywiz, Beyblade is their only and best-selling toyline, apparently Transformers is not even doing well and it is TAKARA-TOMY's other most popular toyline with Beyblade.
I mentioned this a long time ago. Making these electronic tops, and non-essential Beyblade gear has a very big advantage, it limits the toy space given to other brands from other companies. Beyblade, for better or worse, competes more so with Bakugan than the other brands in Hasbro's catalog. Hasbro may not necessairly think that Dark Wolf Electronic Beyblades are going to fly off the shelves, but if the rest of the brand does well it prevents that shelf space from being occupied by someone else. It also allows for Hasbro to aim the products at different age brackets. The lights and sounds Beyblades seem to be for the younger demographic (see the "Go Bots" line in the Transformers: Dark of the Moon toyline), a demographic that would've been ignored entirely by the main toyline.
Transformers has generated more than $2 billion in income in the past 2 years for Hasbro... It is by far Hasbro's largest franchise. Takara Tomy does a lot of things to the franchise that limits its appeal to children, to the point where they created products not appropiate for the franchise's main audience. A major thing to remember is that toys are generally bought at retailers, and by that I mean physical retailers. Online toy purchases are generally the domain of collectors (I said generally) looking for specific items. Transformers fans have the luxury of having tonnes of sites who put up product for sale within a short period of time. As a member of this fandom, I can say that Toywiz is one of the less used stores (the go to is generally Big Bad Toy Store).