>>8729328>>8729355competitive third party has been a thing since 2013, the reasons that have really hurt the brand in the last 4 years have been
>ageing marketEven in Japan the youngest people that could have enjoy G1 are in their late 30s and the youngest for Beast Wars are getting in their 30s. This is not a strong consumer market, most have much more define taste and by majority won't buy everything they see
>no new blood filling the marketThe last two Transformers films did ok it box office sales but did trash in toy sales, the average age to go watch Bumblebee in theaters was 35. To give better context the average for most MCU is 21. The New TF shows are also not picking up strong followings and while one can blame their mediocre budget/quality it doesn't change that this brand just isn't getting new blood
>no more cheap labor Gone are the days strapping down Slave labor in lands to work for less than the cost of the goods, this makes profits smaller and smaller and it's safe to say the reason for the over engineering, slathered paint, and unnecessary electronics is in some how you are not savvy enough to register all of that doesn't equal out that 200%+ mark up.
>weird self competition The last 2/3 years mainline Transformers have been engineered in such a way many fans are calling them things like mini masterpiece or masterpiece light for how well design they are to go from "realistic" vehicle to near show accurate robot, this has has a serious blow on MPs market share which is weird that HasTak would do this to themselves