Hell, they didn't even know if the line would be a success at all! Truth to be told, it was just to give the movie an edge. If Hasbro wanted a character to be dropped in favor of a new one, the old character would've just gone POOF with no explanation. Just like Shockwave in "Five Face of Darkness".
Whole idea that they HAD TO kill characters off in order to promote new makes even less sense when you look at the 1986 wave. Gears doesn't get killed despite being discontinued. Not even in a deleted scene. Same with Grapple, Inferno, Hoist and Tracks Smokescreen was going to be killed off, but was
replaced with Wheeljack. Yet both were discontinued. Skids doesn't even get to appear, discontinued in 1986. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Cliffjumper make it out alive despite being discontinued. Jazz went on to make cameos despite being discontinued (and no, he's not Munka Spanka. After he won the race
there was supposed to be a crossfade to another event). Moving on - another one that makes it out alive is Bluestreak. Insecticons and Starscream get killed off, DESPITE NOT BEING DISCONTINUED. Laserbeak goes on to appear in season 3, despite being discontinued. REFLECTOR - no death scene despite
never even being fully part of the line. Unicron gets blown up despite a toy of him being in the works (as far as they knew it was going to get released). All this clearly shows the deaths were NOT driven by toy sales. So think twice the next time you hear the cynical BS. No matter who sez it.
There are few things that annoy me as much as the “Jazz is Munka Spanka” thing. It’s still clear that it’s referring to another event even if the edit isn’t the best. Someone’s fanon presented as fact by the wiki. It’ll get a toy one day, I’m sure 😒
And indeed several of those that they do kill were current product that was still shipping (Starscream, the Insecticons, the Coneheads) which wasn’t exactly ideal for selling toys. Good job they all “got better” or became ghosts for S3!