Does Hasbro Even Care About Beyblade Anymore?

last year beyblade celebrated 20 years of their wildly popular animated series what started as a concept by japanese toy manufacturer takara tomy has sprouted into a worldwide phenomenon however the last 20 years haven't been smooth sailing questionable decisions made by the american manufacturer of beyblade hasbro have left many fans with much to be desired these issues go as far back as the original series from the early 2000s but have come back with a vengeance during beyblade burst the most recent series in the franchise but to really understand these issues we have to talk a little bit about both beyblade manufacturers for hardcore fans and collectors such as myself takara tomy beyblades are king these tops are designed and released alongside new episodes of the beyblade anime and are incredibly faithful to the beyblades in the show a beyblade like save your valkyrie for example has a spring-loaded lair and the ability to jump mid-battle both of which the toy is capable of too for kids that's a huge selling feature not only can they watch their favorite beyblade in action on tv but the beyblade they can buy in the store has the exact same capabilities as the one in the show and i'll admit this idea is one that's been incredibly important to me since i got into beyblade back in 2009. let's switch gears now to talk about hasbro's handling of beyblade products and what better place to start than back at the beginning during the original series hasbro was mostly fine they used molds that were either very similar or exactly the same as the takara tomy ones and created beyblades that were nearly identical to the originals hasbro cut corners in a few places on base such as tripio removing the slant from its wings but these changes were mostly insignificant and didn't do too much to affect the overall performance of the beyblades next came the metal generation beyblade metal fusion and metal masters went off without a hitch but it all came crashing down during metal fury the tops and beyblade metal fury have two main gimmicks drives replaced performance tips and spin tracks instead opting for one piece that performed a specialized function it also introduced a variation of fusion wheels where the wheel would have two parts instead of one initially hasrow did not implement either of these concepts instead using previous release spin tracks and performance tips as well as modified single piece fusion wheels fans were not impressed it would take a full seven months before we saw these bays and their correct stock combos under the hyperblade series and another year and a half before they were released in their original color schemes over two years after their initial us release after this hasbro went back to using the original japanese designs and they quietly closed out the metal series with the release of shogun steel the first two seasons of beyblade burst looked promising the hasbro releases for burst and evolution retain the same parts and gimmicks just a slightly different approach to the burst mechanism itself takara bays have teeth that'll click into the driver and hold the parts in place will hasbro bays use slopes that slide into the driver and generally speaking teeth are the better option but some early hasbro burst bays actually have better burst resistance than the takara ones then along came beyblade burst turbo the japanese equivalent of these bays the chozi layer system implemented metal on the layers of all beyblades something that was previously exclusive to a select few as part of the slingshock toy line hasbro's version of this system they released over 60 different beyblades with only two actually having metal built into the layer not only did hasbro make these pieces entirely plastic but they scrapped several individual beyblade abilities too bays like z achilles were simplified and released without their signature gimmicks the show itself was even altered so that it wouldn't show characters adjusting parts that hasbro didn't make actually this becomes a recurring theme from here on out as so far all future seasons of beyblade have been edited in the exact same way overall turbo was a letdown but it was just the beginning beyblade burst rise followed the japanese gotenko layer system was incredibly unique and introduced us to some really neat gimmicks the infinite lock system electronic drivers there was so much packed into this one season gt gave takara tomy the opportunity to experiment and try out some funky new ideas but hasbro took these ideas and threw them straight into the garbage their hyper sphere toy line was even more of a joke than slingshot had been not incorporating any major gimmicks from this season at all they hollowed out layer bases painted on layer weights instead of actually making metal weights didn't use rubber made no attempt at an infinite lock system oversimplified disks but the most egregious change has got to be the drivers the performance tips as hasbro calls them are chunky cheap plastic pieces that literally all look the same there are over 30 different performance tips and they are basically all the exact same shape they look nothing like the takara tomy drivers and retain none of the original driver gimmicks either this was one of my favorite seasons of beyblade and i was incredibly disappointed in this release the beyblade community was also vocal about their dislike of this release and believe it or not hasbro actually listened but we'll touch on this later the next season beyblade burst surge was similarly lackluster the japanese super king layer system was all about making bays heavier and really focused on honing their unique characteristics they also had special launchers that came in a few different colors that would literally spark when you pulled the string as per usual hasbro had other plans for the speed storm toy line while they attempted to retain the gimmicks of some beyblades they were definitely a lighter lesser version if they were even there at all the big changes include making performance tips taller hollowing out layers not incorporating rubber or in the case of fafnir using such a hard rubber that it made the gimmick completely useless using discs instead of chassis which in itself caused some gimmicks to be skipped and not utilizing the limit break system a familiar frustration echoed through the beyblade community as it was yet another underwhelming release for the serious fans and collectors and finally that brings us up to present day and the release of beyblade burst quad drive this season is still airing in both japanese and in english so we haven't seen the full release of either just yet but we've seen enough that we can start talking about it the japanese dynamite battle system focused heavily on performance and innovation with new upgraded bays parts and launchers becoming an integral part of the storyline unlike previous seasons hasbro bays this go round actually have more parts than the takara ones they retain the same three pieces in the layer though substitute plastic instead of metal for the armor have a disc but have a two-piece performance tip instead of a one-piece driver this is a gimmick only showed on one bay in the show magma e4it but it's present on every quad drive bay for some reason quad drive is really strange to me because hasbro really tried in some areas and completely gave up in some others they cared enough to make the lair three parts but didn't put the moving wings on rock devor despite having done so last season they made a string launcher which to be honest is just a re-skin of a launcher from like five years ago but didn't give fafnir bellfire or valtryek any rubber from the leaks that we've seen so far of the next wave valtryek will also be missing the shot driver hasbro has been bad about removing gimmicks before but having seen their first wave and knowing where the show goes i've given up on this season i highly doubt they'll give us bellfire's gears the upgraded launcher metal on luminor or ragnar's mode change gimmick i'm just saying i wouldn't get your hopes up that quadra's releases are gonna get better from here with the last couple seasons of beyblade burst we can see a very clear pattern emerging from slingshot now to quad drive hasbro noticeably puts more effort into their stadiums than their base really when you think about it it's all about money stadiums are incredibly easy to produce they're thin simple molded pieces of plastic generally made of only one or two parts and there's usually less than five different designs released every season a lot of them can be made for very cheap but when you look at a bay there are at least three separate molded pieces of varying complexities some use multiple types of plastic some have to be painted and don't forget about the burst mechanism that has to go into every driver with a minimum of 30 to 40 unique bays released every season that takes an awful lot more time to design manufacture and assemble then a stadium takara tomy's main focus is and always has been on creating new systems of beyblade while hasbro's focus has shifted to replicating the new stadiums introduced every season as frustrating and disappointing as hasbro's releases have been the last couple years along with the first wave of hasbro speed storm tops came an interesting development pro series pro series sought to right the wrongs of hasbro's previous releases by giving us parts made with original takara tomy designs just released by hasbro the first waves were still a bit underwhelming most bays weren't in their original stock combos and used a plastic that was weaker than takara's making the teeth wear out pretty quickly but it was a start the most recent releases in this line have actually addressed and fixed both of these problems which is incredibly promising hasbro has always been capable of making quality bays it just took a lot of pushback from the community to finally make it happen this line continues to be updated over a year later which shows that hazard taking our concerns seriously and that they're selling well enough that it's worth it for them to keep making now with all this being said i think the future of hazrat beyblades is very uncertain they've proven that they have the capability to make something great but have also shown time and time again that they'd rather take the cheap way out for their maid line of products i'd love to see pro series become hasbro's main line but i don't realistically see that happening let's be honest for every one of us serious collectors who truly cares about the franchise there are 10 clueless parents who will just grab the brightest colored box on the shelf for little to me to play with it's inevitable for any product aimed at kids but i can dream thank you so much for watching this is the first longer beyblade video that i've done so let me know what you think and if i should make more in the comments below

Channel: TheyBlade

Views: 48,592

Keywords: beyblade, beyblade burst, beyblade burst turbo, hasbro, takara tomy, takara tomy beyblade, takara tomy vs hasbro, bayblade, bleyblade, beyblade burst quad drive, beyblade burst rise, beyblade burst surge, beyblade burst evolution, beyblade v force, beyblade g revolution, beyblade metal fusion, beyblade metal masters, beyblade metal fury, beyblade shogun steel

Id: buu85hLZZEY

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 12 2022