THIRD PARTY TOYS NEWS

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:34 pm

Anyone interested in this, BTW? Can't spot a UK pre-order, will probably just nab on eBay. Picked up an additional Evasion Prime (I think the one from the Autobots box set... better paint apps but not chromed) for it already, although as a straight Prime I still prefer the regular one from TRU without a faceplate that I've doodled over with various sharpies.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transform ... prime.html

http://i.imgur.com/S1fJyiX.jpg

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 1:47 pm

Gotta say, not feeling this so much in colour.

http://i.imgur.com/DptdUJC.jpg

edit: Better pics below.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:29 pm

Too...shiny.

TFCON first pics from set up booths are out.

What my eye caught

---Diaclone homage FP Slag [much like their Sludge this summer] in blue body/chrome head with a yellow "driver".
---More shots of MMC's Nova Prime [core bot only] with some refined joints. Still test shot stage
---Coloured prototype of MMC's Vos---looks purple-ish
---New Azalea* mode is Arcee in blue colours in green packaging. LOL WTF. I am a bit irked that there's now 2 exclusive show versions out BEFORE the original one ever got released.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:33 pm

Yeah, I'd go for a funky new PM Prime, but considering that Takara seem to be slowly but surely working their way through all the G1 Cybertron leaders I think some sort of official Ginrai, even if it's just MP10 with a new trailer made of add ons (they have to do something with the thinking that went into making it a potential Ultra Magnus after all) will happen at some point within the next few years and have the right sort of bullky funk to it.

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:46 pm

Vos looks decent, and I might consider later on... whilst I love MTMTE there's not really the character appeal.

http://i.imgur.com/jfarhZL.jpg

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:52 pm

Okay, better pics than the others that surfaced recently, but I think I'd need a grey feet version of the mould... which I think is the Takara "Advanced" release.

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... es-181388/

http://i.imgur.com/m6FnxKH.jpg

Post by **Clay** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:59 pm

Yeah, the blue legs on the Hasbro version already saturate the figure. With the chrome and wings and whatnot, it makes the contrast a bit too much. What the legs really need is some paint, but that's not the fault of the third party in this case.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 3:02 pm

Don't get why you'd want to Ginrai up your Movieverse AoE Prime in the first place so I guess I'm not the target audience...

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:48 pm

Loving it. They already got slots for 12 and 14 in the reformatted line [kind of cheap that 8 or so until 11 are all repaints and retools of arcee].

I'm guessing 13 is Impactor or Kaon.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:56 pm

Are they doing the whole DJD? I could go for Tarn and maybe Tesarus...

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:02 pm

Test shots of Kaon [the chair] and Vos have been shown to us, Tarn is a no brainer, and somebody mentioned having seen plans/CAD maybe for the other 2, but they are super hidden and secret for now.

I'm betting all 5, but given how Feral Rex turned out, I don't think we'll have the whole team out for like 2 years

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:28 pm

TFCon pre-panel images;

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... ls-181419/

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:03 pm

You know what the sad thing is? These pics and news have me in anticipation and excitement far more than anything done by hasbro or takara this year, with the exception of Magnus and Star Saber.

Just from the pre-panel news, I know I want the MMC figures, I'm excited about both Defensors [though one seems too fiddly and the other too plain], Toyworld's Astrotrain seems interesting, Toyworld's retro looking super articulated Maximus is a must, Dinobots all over...

Post by **Warcry** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 10:32 pm

Quickswitch? I thought only people who hung out at the Archive circa 2002 cared about him! A shame they didn't show the robot mode.

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:27 pm

Warcry wrote:Quickswitch? I thought only people who hung out at the Archive circa 2002 cared about him! A shame they didn't show the robot mode.

Yeah, that one was a surprise. He's been featured in virtually no fiction ever. I'm kinda of waiting for Roberts to do something fun with him.

I have to say the Brawn shown in one of those was pretty snazzy looking.

Post by **Clay** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 1:08 am

More than can be processed, really.

Masterpiece not-Megatron

A bunch of cool looking stuff from the dealer room

A bunch of cool looking stuff from the panel itself

Of particular note to me is this bit:

Play With This Too also announced two new members of the team - Aaron Archer joins as a designer, and Simon Furman joins as the writer of the fiction for the series.

The lines between official and unofficial are really starting to blur.

Transfannabeel · Post by **Transfannabeel** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:57 am

Having not really been in transformers fandom in a long time, can someone explain how all this stuff is happening now? Why does Hasbro allow all these incredible third party toys to be sold? These aren't just knock-offs anymore.

Post by **Clay** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:06 am

General thought is that they couldn't really stop them if they wanted to given that most third party companies are centered in China, which is a bit lax in terms of enforcing intellectual ownership laws. Another thought is that the third party stuff doesn't really overlap with much of what Hasbro does anyway (and in most cases, supplements it), and that the fans that buy this stuff pretty well buy all the official stuff anyway. So Hasbro doesn't really have all that much to gain from trying to stop it other than a giant legal headache with the same nation that makes their stuff too.

Transfannabeel · Post by **Transfannabeel** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:22 am

Clay wrote:General thought is that they couldn't really stop them if they wanted to given that most third party companies are centered in China, which is a bit lax in terms of enforcing intellectual ownership laws. Another thought is that the third party stuff doesn't really overlap with much of what Hasbro does anyway (and in most cases, supplements it), and that the fans that buy this stuff pretty well buy all the official stuff anyway. So Hasbro doesn't really have all that much to gain from trying to stop it other than a giant legal headache with the same nation that makes their stuff too.

Cool, thanks for the info.

Post by **Warcry** » Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:06 am

Clay wrote:Masterpiece not-Megatron

Better than the official MP Megatron by a mile, but still awful!

I don't think it's actually possible to build a good toy of G1 Cartoon Megatron with a gun mode.

Clay wrote:Of particular note to me is this bit:
Play With This Too also announced two new members of the team - Aaron Archer joins as a designer, and Simon Furman joins as the writer of the fiction for the series.
The lines between official and unofficial are really starting to blur.

It gets better! The company was founded by several people who left Hasbro looking to start their own company where they would have control over the product and the ability to be creative without being constrained by corporate oversight.

So naturally their first products are based on Hasbro-owned characters, and one of them is named "Skullfucker". Nicely proving in one fell stroke both their lack of creativity and just why they needed people looking over their ideas and filtering out the stupidity in the first place.

The idea of Hasbro designers leaving Hasbro but continuing to make toys of Hasbro characters is sort of hilarious, though. Archer in particular is stunningly hypocritical for taking part in this, since he denounced third-party designers as lazy thieves less than a month ago. But I guess they made him an offer he couldn't refuse?

Clay wrote:So Hasbro doesn't really have all that much to gain from trying to stop it other than a giant legal headache with the same nation that makes their stuff too.

More or less this. Sure, they could bring the hammer down on third-party stuff, if not shutting them down entirely then at least making it much more difficult for them to manufacture and sell their product (possibly to the point where it would be unprofitable). But why in the world would they want to? It would cost millions of dollars and piss off a good chunk of their fanbase, vendors and manufacturers. And for all that trouble, Hasbro wouldn't actually gain anything but a moral victory.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if their own ex-employees doing it would warrant a somewhat less lackadaisical response...