Core Class Transformers Cancelled. What Went Wrong? 

RIP Core class, you were always there for us who wanted transformers but only had $3

Kinda glad Core class is cancelled before we all get price gouged on individually packed Core class minicons for $11.99 each.

Ultimateely core class couldn't decide if it wanted to be Legends or Scout Class.

I really wanted some more core pretenders. Bomb Burst was one of my favorite toys of that year.

The thing that always put me off to Core class was the price point. For $10 I felt like I would get so little value out of them. Which is the main reason I would collect a Core figure-budget addition to the collection. But now I just would much rather save up for something I know I’ll enjoy much more and feels like a more worthwhile purchase.

I don't think Hasbro knows what they themselves want, nor understands what their customers want.

They should bring Basic Class back.

Damn this actually sucks. I really loved a lot of the offerings we got. Im not strapped financially and don't have a lot of space, so these little dudes have been scratching my Transformers itch for the past 4 years.

They were probably still too pricey, and didn’t live up to the greats that were the revenge of the fallen Scout class I still think they should’ve at least made one playset for your core class scale figures…

You forgot to mention how Core Class figures are the easiest ones to steal. My target had literally one Frenzy and that one was the only one that was stolen and it's been sitting on the post for weeks at this point.

The problem with “size” class is that it doesn’t always account for engineering. Maybe they could bring back difficulty levels and factor that into the price.

Even when Core class was still being produced, the distribution was just as awful as the regular figures. I can’t find Core Mohawk anywhere🤦‍♂️

They sold poorly in New Zealand because they were $20. We only ever saw the first Studio Series wave because Ravage just would not move until he was like $5, and even then he didn't want to move. Releasing the Dinobots individually across different waves was bad since as literally anyone could have predicted very few areas got every Dinobot wave, so that just made it hard for collectors and impossible for kids to complete Volcanicus. New Zealand only saw Sludge and Slug, the two worst ones, and then that's literally it, no limbs for them.

I think this wasn't profitable for Hasbro and retailers is because a lot of them got stolen. Them are small enough to put in your pocket and walk out without paying for it. A lot of those retailers probably still have it in their systems even though there are none on the pegs. A stolen item screws up a retailer's inventory.

Damn that’s too bad. I would have loved a core-class Lifeline.

I think Core Class should've been this: Characters like Rattrap who have to be small, and just G1 characters. The line should've been smaller, affordable versions of classic characters to get new kids interested. You could sell them in multi-packs, too. It could also work for collectors who just want cheaper versions of the classic characters that are still cartoon-accurate.

One big problem with the cores is that they were really hard to find depending on where you lived. In my region, most stores didn't stock up on them, and the ones that did had a baren selection. Also, having to pay inflated prices from online sellers really killed any desire to actively hunt these toys down.

Core class should've been for something specific or specific characters such as the tapes etc...

Two things: charging $12 for cassettes that should be $5 at minimum and an unwillingness to do actual small characters. I’d’ve taken Red Rumble and Blue Frenzy as a two-pack minus their pile-drivers and a Sari Sumdac over Rock Lords that look like fecal matter and Gatorade green-not Fossilizers.

Wheelie and Brains already have Studio Series "figures." They're little pack-in accessories with DOTM Shockwave

The Core Class Wheelie was way too small.

I bet core class will be replaced with mini-cons in two packs like the micromasters were

Hasbro got greedy? Yeah, inflation IS most indubitably a factor, but some recent reports about a few grocery store chains inflating their prices in order to get more money out of their customers have me thinking that Hasbro’s higher-ups might’ve taken a page out of their playbook.

Farewell core class. Welcome Alpha Class and Omega Class.

I want to add the fact that over in Indonesia, Core class is 17 USD, which is absurd.

Yikes. 😢 It's time to find Tasmania Kid before he disappears.

For me, Core and the prior Legends scale were a fun way to accessorize the city-bots, when they weren't the mini-bots or cassettes.

But pricing out customers and eliminating affordable products is the American way! Core Class Transformers have become Hasbro’s “Starter Home”: they’re done. Pretty soon Hasbro will charge an arm and a leg to rent Transformers ($24.99/mo. + restocking fee). Elderly collectors will gather the grandkids ‘round and reminisce about purchasing their first Transformer back in the 20th century.

I'd agree that what killed Core Class is the lack of a cohesive direction for the size class. Like, with Deluxes we have the car bots, with Voyagers we have tall characters like Silverbolt, Soundwave, and with Leaders we start to get into the big boys, but it wasn't the case with Cores. On one hand: we had small characters like Mohawk, Arcee, Ravage, Wheelie, Rattrap, Tazmania Kid, and Laserbeak as pink Bumblebee. On another hand: we had pocket sized offerings of big characters like Optimus, Megatron, Soundwave, the Dinobots, Ironhide, Ratchet, Hot Rod. And on the other we had the cassettes and minions, which were way too small to ask for $10 dollars each.

I know we have rewritten beast machines and machine wars. But what about beast wars, tfa, or prime?

16:58 This product shot is so hilariously unflattering. Someone enabled backface culling on Grimlock's legs. As for the core price point... I feel like a key factor in this is that the Core Class was not said to be selling poorly. It "wasn't selling the way hasbro would like it." Which is often code for "They overhyped themselves on something and kept hypercorrecting and repurposing as a knee-jerk reaction rather than just letting it be." Heck, we saw that with how the "Energon Monsters" got repurposed into the Core Pretenders and Infernac denizens. It's an all-too common pattern in bigger corporations nowadays. They expect more money the less they put into something until it just stops being sustainable, then they blame it on everything but the people who underfunded and overestimated the project then rushed it out the door. Core Class was fine in its isolated iterations. It's their attitude towards it that screwed it over.

Honestly... Mini-Bots, Cassettes, Basic Class, Spy Changers, Mini-con pack, The Omni-Bots and Terrorcons from Energon, Scout class, Legends Class, Legion Class, Core Class, they're all basically the same thing. Hasbro changes the name every few years but there's always been some kind of small cheap line of figures under the Deluxe price point. They're not really going to stop making them they're just not going to be called Core Class anymore. That's what I really think it is.

If Core class is on its way out, I’d imagine a new size class of small Transformers toys will take its place, like how Core replaced Legends. I still think small Transformers have their place, for multiple reasons.

Up here in Canada, the core class sold for $18 at many stores. No wonder they don’t sell.

It's definitely important to provide some kind of "affordable" version of big name/big league characters, so that's a good aspect of the size class. But I also like the usage of the size class for "smaller" characters, like Rattrap (though he might have worked better as a smaller deluxe like Bumblebee/Cliffjumper). I think it was also used as a low-cost way to test the waters for some of the less popular franchise elements -- Energon Galvatron and BMach Cheetor -- as you point out just before I type this. All of which suggest a strong lack of focus.

They weren't even released in the UK. But I think they were too expensive for how small they looked. They did not look value for money. I imagine most people would rather put that money towards a bigger, better looking deluxe.

I'm glad I'm not a 'Collector'. I only have about two-hundre.... Aw, Crap!

Hasbro doesn't want to be a toy company anymore. No surprise there.

Ahhh finally got to see your show. I have been to your store. Nice to see you on here. Regarding core class. While I enjoyed it, I'm excited to see whats next. Personally I would like to see a proper minicon and target master line. Fully articulated minicons and target masters would be sweet. Aspecially because we have alot of Armada characters starting to be produced with no minicons included. -Big Bot Bodega

Dang, core is one of my favorite size classes. There was fun collecting an army of these tiny representations of TF characters, despite how compromised some were. Admittedly though, the line did seem somewhat misguided at times. Rattrap definitely should've been a small deluxe (like deluxe minibots). The G1 lineup was nice, but then here comes Bumblebee movie Shockwave randomly who doesn't fit thematically with any previous release and also doesn't scale with anything from the movie he's from.

All of the Walmart stores in my area, have nothing but Iguanus, and Studio Series Ravage. Otherwise, it's all Gen 2 repaint shelf warmers. I have to drive more than a hundred miles, to Portland, Oregon for any current Walmart exclusives.

The problem with core class was distribution. Because of the way they were released some figures “seemed” to sit on shelves because they were the end of wave one and beginning of the next wave. So these stores had a surplus. While the middle of the waves were impossible to find on shelves.

I live in Las Cruces New Mexico and I was told that Walmart and target won't be carrying core class transformers anymore, some employees said that they heard that they are getting discontinued for it doesn't apply on their systems, the tags have been removed in some locations. The Dinobots were the last ones added to shelves but they were there for like 2 weeks, they just now added legacy united silverbolt and animated Optimus Prime. And the G2 repaints

These are sad news, Core class and third party legends singlehandedly brought me back into collecting Transformers

I would say skywarp tunefork accessory was a bolty idea. Not only not giving us skywarp's weapons that's not exclusive but making a double dip or high price upgrade kit. It was a AWFUL IDEA! Hasbro sure loves killing our bank account, murdering our wallets.

Every target I’ve been to has studio series ROTB arcee on clearance, and its always full of

Thats too bad, core class scale really well with the titan class figs. I was hoping for more G1 characters to come out for me to display with Metroplex and Trypticon.

Skipped the core class Dinobots. I'm collecting the SS leader Dinobots, and I figured I'd be getting the molds as Dinoking anyway.

The lack of variety in the assortments really hurt Cores. Only 2 new toys per wave. In a shipping case of 8. Deluxes meanwhile, get 4 new characters. 2 copies of each per case of 8. So when a new case is opened at the store, people can come in, grab 1 of each figure and clear out the case. Do that with cores. This same 2 people grab 1 each of the new guys. And leave 6 behind to rot on the pegs. So Cores either need to ship in smaller cases with faster turnaround, or pump more variety into each wave. We had the exact same problem with Micromasters and Battlemasters beforehand. And whatever comes after Core will likely face the same issue.

My problems - too expesnive for what you get - most core figures had terrible qa - most of their designs are heavily flawed, nearly every time one mode is guaranteed to look horrible/off

Kinda hate that these died Was hoping for core class last knight characters to scale better with the leader Dinobots

I absolutely hate that core class is ending. It was my way of getting the whole cast of characters without having to sell organs... and it's ending before the full case exists?! $10 was a good price, for what they are, and I gladly bought every single release I've seen!

The biggest thing that hurt it was that certain Deluxes were literally the size of Legends class now. So they needed a new low end simplistic type...hence Cores.

20:22 I have literally been playing with Energon Universe Megatron this whole video lol!

I love legend scale transformers. But I'm a girl who just like the small ones so getting small versions of characters I like ie Soundwave, bee, prime like old school cyberverse were great since I miss when we got whole waves of core class instead of 2 to 1 per wave

Price was probably the main factor. Sure, they are inexpensive compared to deluxe and voyager, but they still seem overpriced for the size. AJ picked up on the scale issue. It feels very random when some characters in that class were minions that scaled properly with deluxe and voyager, yet the same wave included characters that would normally be deluxe or voyager, not to mention leader class on their own. But also, look at the engineering. Yes they're small, but that doesn't excuse the level of simplicity. Look at the comparably sized figures (I think they were referred to as scout class) around the time of the 2007 movie and Revenge of the Fallen. Going forward, I think minion characters and mini-cons, or anything along those lines will have to be either accessories or boxed sets. If they really want to do a core class, it needs to be its own distinct line.

I really think they should take some notes from the old Cyberverse lines for DOTM and Prime. Make a subline for smaller more affordable versions of your main characters. Make them simple but satisfying to transform. Give them their own packaging so they stand out on shelves. Put a paper insert that shows kids what other toys are available. Make playsets like the Ark that kids will want to save their money for and ask their Grandparents for their birthday. I don't know if it would save the core class but I do know I bought very little of the DOTM mainline but I did buy most of it's Cyberverse line.

A majority of them shelf warm. Rise of the Beast cores have clogged aisles all year.

9:18 I've always loved Air Razor is just holding on to Primal's leg in this shot. It's so random and stupid.

I want a Deluxe price point set of 1 Micromaster 1 Battle Master 1 Core

They cost too much for the small size. 12 for a small small figure? Nope 👎 👎 👎

Honestly it’s kind of retailers fault for not cutting their losses on Legacy wave 1 cores like Iguanus and Skywarp. 0/5 Walmarts in my area had Evolution cores, but you bet your sweet bippy I can still go buy an Iguanus and Skywarp at full price!

I am not really a collector, but a few weeks ago, I bought a Core class Soundwave, and I ordered a Starscream, so he has a friend. I find them perfect for what they are, and scratch a childhood itch. Sad to see them go.

Since we are no longer getting Core Class in Transformers, Hasbro should bring back Robot Heroes.

Well, I ONLY collected Core Class figures, so I guess my collection is complete 😆 And here I thought that Core Class should have been fissioned off into its own line so they could catch up on different generations of Transformers.

I thought the first few core classes they did were good, but man they started going downhill. Toys got gappier and gappier, less paint, and worse of all, more quality control issues. Core G1 Shockwave is a really cool toy from a design perspective and it does a lot right, but I've owned two of him and both had such loose joints that he can't even stand. A $2 price increase isn't the worst thing in the world, but when the toy gets more expensive at the exact same time the quality nosedives, that's something that makes people stop wanting them. I gave up collecting Cores for a while, decided to give them another shot with Bouldercrash, then quit again when I got it in-hand. Feels like something that was only halfway finished in terms of actual design, the transformation is so unpleasant, he has a huge rod sticking out of his butt, and his vehicle mode doesn't even look like anything someone could ride. It's just a vague slab with wheels that you have to really use your imagination to see as a motorcycle.

I feel like a $15 price point would be far superior, like you said. It could be a good price point for all those smaller figures, but I also think it’s a good way to get minicons out by releasing them in 2 packs without having so much extra budget like they did in core class

As a fan of 4"-ish figures and also being able to quickly transform a robot into a car without referencing a sheet of instructions, I liked this line. Sad to see it go but at least I got Hot Rod

Does anyone know where to find a studio series core class concept series Rumble?

Core class is/was mainly the reason I got back into collecting, and I'm really sad to see it go. I know it had a couple poop figures along the way, but it brought back the feeling of buying g2 mini bots at K.B. toys in the 90s

Very sad, hope they release similar 3.5 inch figures that will line up well with core class

Rest in Pieces, Core Class. You were always an inconsistent pain in the rear.

Well, maybe if they started putting out minicons, the line wouldn't be dead

IMHO the best era of smaller than Deluxe Class Transformers was the Cyberverse lines for Transformers Prime and Dark of the Moon. Having the 2 sizes & transforming playsets was such a great gimmick. I just wished they didn't use the gummy clear plastic on them. Pretty sure my collection of them in a storage box somewhere are unplayable now.

it's a shame. They could've done a lot of combiners or army builders like mini Insecticons.

Sad to see the class ending. However, the Core Dionbot that was supposed to be released alongside Cheetor is rumored to come out in United wave 5 next year. At least we can still get a few here and there with larger figures or maybe a multi pack.

Rattrap was too small especially as they made Blackarachnia deluxe size. Looking at the sizr charts the mini vehicles deluxe are actually decent scale.

Personally preferred the old "Legends" class figures, they had some clever repaints, came in creative multi packs and created a nice option for larger characters at smaller price points.

Rip Core class And all the Other core class characters who could have been made

Its a shame because other than Legacy United. The Core class selection has been on point so far, small characters e.g. cassettes and Rattrap as you said for the collectors of the other sizes. And cheaper versions of the well known characters for younger/ less disposable income collecters or as stocking stuffers and presents for little nephews/nieces. Their attempt at dipping into the other shows (BM Cheetor and Ener Megs) were a bad choice i think. Imagine if they continued with more g1 cast or SS doing more core of their characters. A major issue (in the UK anyway) is our major toy retailer for transformers Smyths, doesn't stock core class. We can only get it from independent stores

My local Walmarts STILL HAVE LEGACY WAVE 1 of cores! It's nuts! Ton of figures I never got to see at retail: Nemesis Prime, I saw G2 Megatron once and it vanished, Rumble (Blue), Noah, Thundrcracker, never tried to go for Volcanicus because I didn't trust the stores to have the whole set! When I saw United Wave 1 I bought all 3!

Bummer, I was really happy to collect the coreclass G1 Decepticons, it was the only way for me to afford the 3 seekers, Megatron, Soundwave and Shockwave. I wish they had done a few more G1 autobots to go alongside core class Optimus.

Core class is the only thing that I enjoy buying. I guess it's only 3P legends scale for me from now on.

I’d absolutely love if the minibots were in a 15 dollar price point. Theyd have better engineering and size than core, but struggle less to justify their price than a deluxe minibot. I’d hope if they do minicons. It’s a 2 pack and they have unique engineering instead of the repetition from siege micromasters

13:44 That would never happen because the Minicons we have are literally HALF the size of Core Class. As for the size discrepancy, Scout Class used to exist, but at that point Hasbro would have made another price point at about $15 for something like Earthrise Cliffjumper. One other thing that came to mind was how complicated some of the transformations became. The Pretenders, Seekers, the Soundwaves, and Vertibreak are examples of simple transformations that work as an entry point. Meanwhile you have examples like G1 Megatron, Bumblebee, movie Ravage, and Hotrod who were too complicated for something that's an entry level. As for the scale being "unified," I have to disagree that they weren't. A vast majority of the scaled down characters were G1, which (aside from the Dinobots) were unified and didn't stick out that much. As for characters at that scale, Rattrap was a proof of concept that the Core Class could pull double duty with having characters who were smaller find an existing price point.

Not surprised to be honest, like the micromasters before them, they shelf warmed alot ( hell there where still some wave 2 legacy cores still at my local toy store and last year). Hasbro most likely are looking at this and thinking the small size figures are not wanted. Generally suprised people also thought that they where going to do minicons. The only way I would have seen them do that is a 2 pack like the micromasters

My first transformers was core sound wave(beside the random pack in wheelie i found)

My fave Core class: 1. Optimus Prime 2. Megatron 3. Soundwave 4. StarScream 5. TF Bumblebee Ravage 6. TF Bumblebee Shockwave 7. G1 Ratchet and Ironhide Everything else was "meh". What makes these figures appealing was the articulation for such a small little figure. It has articulation of older delux class figures and makes for good little pocket-sized desk toys. Why they may fail? It's about competition. The other Transformers in the other bigger classes are so good that you end up not having much change left to spend. So if you had a choice between a larger figure and these, you will prefer to eat the cost of the bigger ones over having lots of smaller core class toys. That's my theory. But for those who are poor and on a tight budget these are probably the best little toys you will ever get. I don't care as much about scale like you guys. I just see these toys as minitures not figures you are supposed to display next to other figures in a group display. I think majority of people do not think about scale when buying this stuff. They want good bang for their buck and want toys as big as can be for the money they spend. ..or if they are smaller, they care about them packing as much sculpted detail and accesories as they can possible cram at that size. I think HasbroTak could make a whole set of transformer drone soldiers in this core class that act as cannon fodder enemies. Eg have one drone be a flying vehicle, the next a ground based vehicle, and sea vehicle. The idea would be these figures are mass production robots that are background badguys. (like clone troopers in the star wars franchise)

If they'd taken the same approach with the core class that they did with the ROTF Legends Class, I think that would have been perfect.

Core class sizes were all over the place. You'd have the large Iguanus and then the very tiny Frenzy/Rumble and upcoming Steeljaw whose sizes are compensated with accessories. The inconsistency is too much. There should be a split back between Scout class (unique robots of the appropriate small size) and Legends class (large robots put into a tinier size category).

Bring back Cyberverse! (The small scale line) I didn't love how Core was a catch all for small scale figures and in-scale figures of small characters. So we ended up with pretty arbitrary small scale teams and characters made too small or forced into the pricepoint by being bundled with unnecessary accessories. We've seen how good small deluxes can be, (Gears and Beachcomber) and as long as the engineering and accessories make it worth it, I'm okay with smaller characters be at the deluxe pricepoint. But some people want small representations of figures so they take up less space or more affordable to collect. Its a great entrypoint for kids in that way. I know so many people that go into Transformers because they got a legends class toy during the movie lines or something. I don't know how successful Cyberverse scale was, but i sure enjoyed it and thought it had a lot of promise.

A couple problems I think plagued Core Class: -Scale. The other Generations size classes display well together. You can put Deluxe Needlenose next to Voyager Bludgeon and it looks great. If you try to put Core Grimlock next to Deluxe Bee, it looks weird. There were some exceptions like the cassettes or Tasmania Kid, but the core versions of larger characters only look good next to some of the Titans. - Competition. I feel like they only cater to a niche audience because other figures of the same characters exist. The mainline toys based on current shows compete for kids’ attention, and adult collectors would prefer the larger versions of characters like Optimus or Ironhide if they have the money for it. I only ever bought as many as I did to put them on my desk at work. All in all, I agree that I don’t know what they wanted the size class to be since it always felt like the odd one out. It may be dead, but JT’s mention of multipacks for small figures gives me hope for the return of Mini-Con teams. The two we’ve gotten so far are too small to be cores, so they would be perfect for multipacks (like better versions of the Micromasters)

I always felt there should have been two core classes that were $5 and $10 for the small and larger sized ones, seeing as they got rid of the $5 ones when core class came out. They should have come out with a smaller class where all the transformers that come out are sized to go with titan class figures. It would be around a Dr Wu scale. That would have been a cool way to go with core class. Shrinking the larger transformers to fit them with mainline titan class figures.

Just going off my own buying history, I wasn't buying any core class I had in larger sizes. Barely bought any Legacy Evolution core class.

At the end of the day, I feel like this is just going to be a temporary hiatus of the size class. Core class is gunna come back, but under a new branding, as it has with Scout class, Legends class, even Legion class arguably. As for WHY it failed, it always felt like it was just trickling out either G1 characters when the focus was on other series (See: right now with sales tanking because of focus on Animated and Unicron Trilogy) to still get money from the "main" consumerbase (which didn't work because those nostalgia collectors want more complete toys than that), OR it was random stuff to bandaid satisfy the whims of the "secondary" consumerbase whenever the primary focus was on early-era series (G1/BM)

they've noticed that they can bundle one with a deluxe and call it leader class

I feel like Studio Series considers Brains and Wheelie done since they got figurines with Shockwave.

It’s one of two things, either Hasbro doesn’t know it’s customer base or they do and just don’t care and are incompetent. It’s a rudderless ship

The cassette tapes used to actually come with cool little plastic cassette cases like a real cassette (pre-Transformers brand name).

RIP both Core Class and actually affordable Transformers. This brand is so screwed.