Transformers x Funko NFT Collection Series 1 Announced

[Handsprime]

Yes, Transformers x Funko Pop NFT's (https://news.tfw2005.com/2022/03/07/transformers-x-funko-nft-collection-series-1-announced-451207) are now a thing.

[DELTAprime]

No F***ing Thanks.

[griffin]

I hate Pop Vinyls as toys... and I hate the concept of NFTs even more.
And this is a concept being marketed like Trading cards, to keep buying more until you get the ones you want, or to complete the set, especially if you wanted access to a limited edition physical figure.You end up with trading cards that you never properly own, or have physically in your Transformers collection, because even if you had exclusive ownership of the digital image files, your new Transformers collection is sitting on your hard-drive or phone (imagine if NFTs were the future of traditional hobbies like ours and we started having new fans comparing their Transformers collections based on the number of image files sitting on their computers, instead of how extensive or themed their toy collection is).
But I think fans of Pop Vinyls will be most unimpressed, being teased with images of Pop Vinyl figures that are not being released for sale, and that they can only obtain the limited edition physical figures if they invest a lot of money on random digital images to collect the entire set of digital files, a set that you can't really do anything practical with (they are being marketed like Trading Cards, but you don't have actual Trading cards to hold or play with, or easily trade).


(commentary ahead)
It is only natural that companies are jumping on the bandwagon of NFTs while people are still thinking that they are a money making investment... so I think we will see a lot more of these things before the entire concept loses demand (after millions of regular people have spent billions to a small number of rich people who own the businesses selling NFTs).
I see NFTs being jumped on by people hoping it will be the next "bitcoin" type get-rich-quick scheme, as they are not for the benefit of fans, because everything being sold as NFTs, don't actually exist as a physical thing. You own a digital "token" or license that may or may not include ownership of the image/video/sound file that you bought a token for.
And the real kicker that shows that NFTs are a for the mega-rich to get richer, is that if you re-sell the token (regardless of you making money or losing money), a portion of money from every time that NFT is sold from one person to another (forever), goes to the original creator of the NFT (token, not necessarily the creator of the original digital file).
This is why people and shady businesses are taking images off the internet, and selling them as NFTs to people who think that they have some sort of ownership of the image file, but when they find out that they don't, the NFT (token) may be dissolved/deleted, leaving the current "owner" with nothing (like buying a watch from a pawn shop and having it seized by police because it was actually stolen, and you are left with nothing). Or... if the current "owner" finds out the image file was actually stolen, sells off the NFT before it is dissolved, which earns the original shady business more money from the perpetual commission from every re-sale.

They may end up being a big thing like digital currencies, but only if the mega rich and criminals invest heavily into them, as they only do it to make money, not care about what it relates to.
The sudden popularity is just greed, as the fans who might want these sorts of images, could be produced and sold to fans as digital files (or even as physical trading cards), but by turning those digital images into NFTs, the fans buying these are being short-changed into partially owning the images... and by marketing these as "Trading Cards", if fans buy-and-sell among each other to collect the set (to qualify for the limited edition toys on offer) or to get certain characters, Funko keeps making money with each of those sales. NFTs are like a money tree, that keeps giving money to the one who created the NFT, forever.
And that's the attraction for people to create them, even with digital files that they don't own.

[1AZRAEL1]

This will kill collecting for me. I'd only want Rumble (and possibly Dev) and I'm not gonna buy multiples to try get them. Even the blind boxed stuff was I bought the entire box just to get Soundwaves. Won't be doing that for this

[Tha_Phantom]

I'm glad I have zero interest in NFTs or Pop Vinyls.

[Sinnertwin]

Lol

[High_Q]

Why couldn't Hasbro have just released physical TFxPop trading cards? Collectors can then trade-in or exchange the rare cards for the exclusive TF Pops like people mailed in Robot Points in the past.

[Handsprime]

Why couldn't Hasbro have just released physical TFxPop trading cards? Collectors can then trade-in or exchange the rare cards for the exclusive TF Pops like people mailed in Robot Points in the past.

If they did this I wouldn't mind, but apparently digital items are the future.

It doesn't help if the cards are connected to a server, the moment the server shut down your cards are meaningless now.

[KELPIE]

I had the website open for a week and was thinking of buying a couple of medium packs when they came online.

Then work got in the way and I forgot all about it.

Anyway, long story short - they're all sold out.

No interest in the NFTs, however I was hoping to get some "Physical tickets". Oh well, hopefully they re-release these characters in non-nft packaging for us plebs, or Dev as a 10" or something?

Edit: looks like the physicals are starting to hit eBay... $500 for Golden Prime, $175 for the others. Though it's eBay, so your MMV.

[Seraphim Prime]

You're kidding!

I did some number crunching and (excluding any costs associated with minting the token) basically the income per figure produced is about $75 compared to a RRP of $20 for the standard size Pop.

Nice way to quadruple your money for little effort.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I saw an image online of the NFT costs, with a 5 pack costing 9.99 and a 15 pack costing 29.99. Why does the 15 pack cost 2 more cents than three 5 packs?
(because its a scaaaaam)

[Bidoofdude]

Quite disappointing from Hasbro on the collaboration too, as they have been harping on for a while now about:

1) Providing outlets for fans to get a hold of new sought after products easily (in the US at least)
2) Cutting down their environmental footprint

This whole thing is a slap in the face to both of those things, and I honestly hope Hasbro distances themselves from Funko after this has all blown over. Funko's quality and design philosophy has taken a steep nosedive in recent years too, so it would be no huge loss to see the license go, even though they're probably shelling out enough cash that it won't happen. I'd much rather see those kinds of figurines from a brand like Nenderoid, who already seem to have a few Transformers products already.

It is satisfying though to see a pretty much unanimous rejection of all this NFT crap by the fan community, across all backgrounds and age groups. I don't think I've seen a single positive comment on any fan sites or social media comment sections, and there's no way both companies haven't noticed the backlash.

[griffin]

The problem now, is that the scalpers who would have done the math and worked out that they could make money from this scheme to get the physical toys (to resell), will encourage more of these NFT schemes (because those issuing companies think there is demand for it)... annoying the target audience (the fans) because they aren't able to get the (physical) items that they want at a respectable price (the normal retail price of their other figures). It's worse than SDCC exclusives (back when they weren't also available through some online sources and Asia), which were mostly bought up by people who only wanted to resell them, rather than buy them for themselves as fans.