Alison is an old man, and when he saw Ling Shizhe staring at the car model on the table for a long time, he thought of a new project, and guessed that this project must be related to cars, so he went out for a while and came back not only with paper and pen, but also a lot of car models, including cars, trucks, sports cars, station wagons, military vehicles, engineering vehicles, and dozens of different car models. {

After a dozen staff members put out various car models, Ling Shizhe picked up a toy model of a truck, and unpacked the box and carefully examined it, this truck is the European Scania Truck Company and the American Picket Heavy Truck Company (the company was merged by General Motors in the mid-80s, and then General Motors announced that the trucks produced by the company in the future will no longer use the Pitchet logo, and will adopt the GM truck logo.) In 1971, the two companies jointly launched a new heavy-duty truck, the SC-105, a truck specially designed for the North American market.

The two companies have put a lot of effort into this truck, which has been developed over a nine-year period and cost $5.6 billion. You must know that the research and development cycle of the American F-111 fighter-bomber, which entered service in 1967, is only seven years, and the research and development funds are only 4.5 billion US dollars, and the research and development cycle and research and development cost of this truck are higher than those of the F-111, which shows how much importance the two companies attach to the SC-105.

The development cost of a truck is actually higher than the F-111 fighter, you can make up how much of a pioneer this heavy truck has, SC-105 heavy truck is indeed very advanced, its appearance has even set off a revolution in the design concept of modern trucks in the future, but unfortunately the SC-105 truck can not escape the fate of failure in how to be the first and excellent, its price is too expensive, up to 5.6 billion US dollars in research and development costs, As a result, the price of the sc-105 is unlikely to come down, no matter what.

The high price is coupled with the decent appearance, when people see it, it looks impossible to equate it with the word "first opportunity" in any case, the appearance is ordinary and expensive, and the sc-105 has been brutally kicked out of the market no matter how good it is, and Scania and Pitchet have suffered heavy losses.

The failure of the SC-105 truck triggered several consequences, and the Pitchet Company in North America collapsed until it was acquired by General Motors in the eighties.

In Europe, the failure of the SC-105 ended the good days when Scania cars monopolized the European heavy-duty truck market, and the rise of Volvo Trucks and Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Steyr Trucks formed a four-way battle situation, and the new trucks designed by these three new truck companies are structurally following the design concept of SC-105 trucks, including North America.

The SC-105 truck, which changed the design concept of the world's trucks, ended up in such an ending is really a sigh for him.

Speaking of sc-105 heavy trucks, many Chinese may not know each other, but when it comes to his other name, everyone must be very familiar, what is its other name? It's called Optimus Prime, and that's right, it's the prototype of the transformation car of Optimus Prime's big brother in the TV cartoon "Transformers". (It's a TV cartoon version of Optimus Prime, not a Hollywood movie version of Optimus Prime, don't get confused.) ）

The SC-105 truck failed, but the cartoonists resurrected him as a generation of famous cars in cartoons, and Optimus Prime became a world-famous star.

Ling Shizhe stroked the SC-105 truck, his mind had already flown to his previous life, "Transformers" Ling Shizhe's childhood memories, "The Autobots transform and set off." It is also a famous quote of Optimus Prime, and Ling Shizhe will burst into tears every time he thinks of it.

Put the sc-105 truck on his desk side by side with the Aston Martin sports car, Ling Shizhe picked up the pen and drew quickly on the paper, half an hour later Ling Shizhe called Alison over, handed him the drawing board and said: "Alison, this new project of mine is also a comic, it is a comic that a robot can turn into a car, the name of this comic is "Transformers". ”

Alison took the sketchpad and saw that an SC-105 truck appeared on the drawing paper, and next to it stood a tall and burly robot, who was the famous Optimus Prime brother in later generations, and next to it were a exploded view of how the SC-105 truck became a robot.

Allison's eyes lit up, looking at the transformation and decomposition layout, and after a long time, he raised his head and shouted excitedly: "The boss is amazing, the car becomes a robot, and the robot becomes a car, this is a wonderful idea, I believe that this kind of comic ......called "Transformers" will definitely be as popular as "Top Gun" all over the world, and this kind of robot toy that will become a car will definitely become a comic book star like the "Phoenix" Su-35 fighter, no, it will even be more popular than the Su-35, oh yes, Does this cyborg have a name? ”

"His name is OptimusPrime and he is the leader of the Autobots, representing the side of justice." Ling Shizhe replied.

"OptuPrime, the leader of the Autobots, has a great name, we can design different types of Autobot toys based on the transformation principle of Optimus Prime, I believe he will be a big seller, what is we called this...... Oh, by the way, it's called "King Kong in Disguise", we have the "Transformers" aircraft company and the aero engine department, and we don't have to worry about R&D funds for a long time in the future. boss,The real profit point of this comic,I don't think it's on the comics.,It's not on the animation.,It's on the sales of peripheral toys.,As long as the comics are successful.,The sales profit of the peripheral toys will be far greater than the profit of the anime.。 ”

Ling Shizhe nodded, although Alison doesn't understand the animation industry, but the sensitivity of a businessman is still there, the historical Hasbro company just sells Transformers' peripheral toys, and the net profit brought by it is more than 600 million US dollars per year, and the sales of comics and cartoons combined are less than 200 million US dollars per year, which is a typical toy-type anime.

How much does one Optimus Prime cost to produce? In the previous life, in the 90s, there were Chinese foundries for Hasbro, and the OEM cost was less than 10 yuan RMB, and what was the market price? I remember that Ling Shizhe saw in a toy store in history that the price of the Hasbro version of Optimus Prime was as high as 288 yuan RBM, only the international price was Ling Shizhe didn't know, because he was still a child at the time, and he didn't know the international price of Optimus Prime if he had never been abroad, but it wouldn't be lower than $35.

"By the way, boss, since Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots and represents the righteous side, who is the evil side? Is it also Autobots? ”

"No, it's not Autobots, the evil side is called the Decepticons, the leader is called Megatron, and most of the members of the Decepticons are composed of flying robots."

"The Decepticons, the cyborg who turned into the plane, the boss of the good idea, this is cleverly linked to the flying comic "Top Gun", which can design our "Gripen" fighter and Su-35 fighter as members of the Decepticons. Boss, is that the prototype of Megatron, is it the Su-35? ”

"No, Megatron, the leader, is not an airplane man, he is a ......" Ling Shizhe said that he didn't know how to say it anymore, the comic "Transformers", Optimus Prime's big brother designed it very successfully, and it was welcomed by everyone, his transformation toys were once sold out of stock in the world, on the contrary, Megatron, as the leader of the villain, was a typical failure in design.

We all know that "Transformers" is a typical toy-type comic, his anime and movies can only be regarded as advertisements, and the real profits are all in the sales of peripheral toys.

In a word, even if the character design of the toy is a success, the toy will fail if it can't sell, which means that the character is a failed design, and Megatron is a typical failed design.

On Taobao in later generations, we can see that Optimus Prime's toys are sold, Red Spider's toys are sold, Sonic toys are sold, and the toys of King Kong Hercules are also sold, but you can't see Megatron's toys, at most you can only see Megatron's cartoon puppets for sale, and they are not the kind that can be transformed, what does this mean? Shows that Megatron is actually a failed design.

What was Megatron's original design? At first, Megatron was a cyborg that could be turned into a pistol, but Hasbro discovered that Megatron's toys couldn't be sold at all, which caused a lot of scolding, and Hasbro had to let him die with Optimus Prime, and Mending Sky Stone became the new Autobot leader.

This terrible design was a watershed moment that made "Transformers" begin to decline from prosperity to decline, and it disappeared in the European and American markets within a few years, although Hasbro later made a lot of various derivative anime works of "Transformers", like "Boss Warrior", the new version of "Transformers", but it has never been the same, and letting Optimus Prime die is purely a brain rust.

In order to salvage the decline, Hasbro resurrected Megatron in another situation and renamed it Shockbreaker, transforming it into a particle cannon full of sci-fi sense, which was not a success, because Megatron's image had already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Anyone who knows something about anime knows that whether a comic is successful or not, in addition to the success of the protagonist, the shaping of the villain is also an important indicator, the success of the protagonist and the villain, is related to the long-term vitality of a comic, and the later "Resident Evil" game has been selling well for more than 20 years, and the successful shaping of the villain Wesker can be said to be indispensable.

Although "Transformers" is popular all over the world, because of the failure to shape Megatron's shape, this classic comic book in history only disappeared after less than ten years, and finally had to rely on movies to come back to life.

So who shaped a failed Megatron? The answer is that Megatron was not created by Hasbro, but by the Japanese company Takara.

"Transformers" was born in the 80s, and was not invented by Hasbro in the United States, but by the Japanese Takara Toy Company, which included Megatron's design, after Takara invented Transformers, he was worried that this product would not be welcomed by the market, so Takara found Hasbro in the United States, hoping to jointly develop it to reduce the risk.

After seeing the design of Takara company, Hasbro keenly felt that this new type of robot that will become a car will be sold in the United States, because the United States is a country on wheels, and Americans' feelings for cars are just like the feelings of Americans and dogs, and the United States is also an aerospace power, and the world's most advanced aircraft are all from the United States except for the Soviet Union.

Hasbro moved quickly, and when the Takara company was in urgent need of money in a business crisis, it only spent less than one million dollars to win the sales rights and film and television rights of "Transformers" in North America and Europe, and the patent Hasbro wanted to sell a piece to make itself monopolized, but Takara did not agree, and finally the two companies jointly owned the copyright of "Transformers".

The takara company that signed the contract soon regretted it, 80 years Hasbro in order to make money in the market as soon as possible, without careful scrutiny of various character settings, and hurriedly launched "Transformers" toys and comics and cartoons to the market, and soon set off a "Transformers" hurricane around the world, "Transformers" alone, brought more than a billion dollars in sales profits to Hasbro every year, and saw Hasbro's scenery Takara regretted dying.

Taking advantage of the global hot sales of Transformers, Takara followed closely in Japan and also launched the "Transformers" toy, although it was also successful, but compared with Hasbro, it was too far behind, and Takara was also infamy, many people think that "Transformers" is a product invented by Hasbro, Takara is a copycat, infringing on Hasbro's copyright, Takara has a bitter can't say, but in the face of the flood of accusations, Takara had to sign an agreement with Hasbro to show the public, but he didn't expect this to cause even more accusations, and the Japanese media accused and ridiculed Takara as a big fool and gave away a big gold mine.

Anyway, Takara finally resolved the crisis, and since then there have been two versions of "Transformers" toys on the market, one is the Hasbro version that we all saw when we were children, and the other is the Takara version, Takara is a fine version, different from Hasbro's toys, Takara version of the Transformers can move the joints of the Transformers, which is the closest to the animated version of the Transformers, and the "King Kong fans" of later generations want to buy and collect a disguised King Kong, and the Takara version is the first choice.

At the same time, Megatron's failure to shape the shape caused Hasbro to be scolded, and then a series of decision-making mistakes, which eventually led to the complete abandonment of "Transformers" by players in North America in less than ten years, which is not a profound lesson.

Looking at Allison looking at him expectantly, Ling Shizhe didn't know how to design Megatron's appearance for a while, and after thinking about it, he took out the shape of Megatron, although Megatron's appearance failed, but Megatron definitely belongs to Hasbro's sincerity, his particle cannon shape is very stylish, and the sales of toys are also very good, but unfortunately there is a failed but deeply rooted Megatron in front of him, and Megatron can't replace Megatron's position in people's hearts no matter how successful he is.

Ling Shizhe will not make the mistake of Hasbro again, and after thinking about it for a long time, he still decided to use the appearance of Megatron as the appearance of Megatron, anyway, the two of them belong to the same person in the comics, so that the image of Megatron in people's hearts is the Megatron of the later generations, and give them a preconceived idea to avoid the tragedy in history from happening again.