Tamer Brad Wrote:Roan Wrote:I'm curious to see how this pans out. Just because Takara is reviving the series in Japan, does that mean Hasbro will pick it up again too? Would it even be worth it to bring the game back to North America? If I recall correctly, Hasbro lost a huge chunk of money on Beyblade there towards the end so are they willing to revive and re-market the series again?
I mean obviously there are ways to import in case they don't, but you have to admit, the series doesn't have much hope if it isn't picked up and licensed for markets outside of Japan.
There are a lot of questions left to be answered and despite the rather substantial evidence to back up the claim, I'm still not entirely sure I believe this is going to happen.
As for the series having no hope if it does not reach markets outside of Japan; completely untrue. Many of Takara-Tomy's products exist only inside Japan or Eastern Asia. There is a large enough market for these kinds of items there -- much larger than North America or Europe -- for these lines to be sustained without our contribution.
I'm sure it'll do just fine within Japan and Asia -- I don't doubt that at all. But I'm saying, if the product isn't released by a major manufacturer outside of Japan, Beyblade likely won't see the revival in popularity you're all hoping it will.
I don't think there are too many people left interested in importing. There were quite a few people in the community way back when the game was at its peak who weren't importing and relied solely on Hasbro's releases to get their products.
Of course no matter what happens outside of Japan the hardcore audience are getting what they want, and that's reason to be excited sure, but I really don't know if this is going to bring the franchise back in full force.
When did it become a crime to be skeptical? To hell with that, I'm not even being skeptical here, its more along the lines of cautious optimism. Its not that I don't want to see the game come back swinging, because I'd love for that to happen. Its just that I don't know if the series carries the same weight that it used to. I mean, this isn't a universally popular line like Transformers that we're talking about here. In the grand scheme of toys, Beyblade is pretty niche. :\