>>149883209
Prime failed on two fronts in Japan, with it's toyline and the show. Interestingly the toyline came before the show did and I think it's failure is what led to the show's failure.

Takara tried to market the toyline to a teenager audience (unlike previous shows where the toys were aimed at younger audiences), and they did this by trying to make the toys be more like model kits (think like gundams). Now for the actual toys they did this by removing paint applications and replacing them with stickers the consumer would put on. Then they got rid of the weapons and replaced them with 'Arms Microns' which were minicons that you made from model kit style sprues. And let me just say, Takara really tried hard to make Arms Microns be a thing, even releasing special promotional ones (way more than Armada ever got, the show that created the Microns).

Anyway this didn't work and older kids didn't like the toys. Hell, Takara probably made more money from americans importing the toys than any they sold domestically.

Primes dub on the other hand was made more child friendly because the toyline failed to capture an older crowd. However Takara's dub started 2 years after Prime debuted on the HUB, so Japanese TF fans had already seen the show (most didn't like it, they found it kind of boring and had less stakes than One Piece or even older tf shows like Masterforce), and when they saw Takara's kid dub they really didn't like it. Whereas the younger audience didn't like the show either and by proxy didn't like the toys either. So just under a year after it started airing in Japan, Takara killed the show and edited the season 2 finale to be a series finale. Going on to make their own show out of pocket to try and save the brand on their own terms.

Prime did however get some cool DVD covers in Japan though.