R.I.P. Impossible Toys

It would seem that the preorders on the soon to be released TetraJets have been a bust for the company, and they're closing after this run of production.
The team that brought your TRNS-01 (Arcee) , and the Quintessons are going out of business, just before they were to have released their legends sized minibot products too :(

See tformers for more info

Expect these to start going for crazy prices. Oh and if anyone would like to sell me their Arcee, please PM. Mine is getting a little fragile, and I can see it getting worn out with play and transformation.

that is a little sad to hear. they produced a few items that I never would expect to see on retail shelves.

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Originally Posted by reillyd

going out of business, just before they were to have released their legends sized minibot products too :(

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That article says they're making those and then going out of business. Wasp as Bumper is a clever idea.

From a business POV they probably should have worked on the Minibots over the Tetrajets.

those minibots actually look pretty cool!

and probably released the tetra jets over time, rather than all together. they could have used profits from one wave to fund the next. Rather than bankrupting themselves manufacturing them all at once.

This is a real shame. I've picked up a few of their figures over time and always found them to be good value. Justhad a look at their website and they are unclear regatding whether they'll release the minibots, although I hope they do - that Bumper looks pretty cool.

Unfortunate. I thought the way they managed to get the G1 tetrajet look was pretty remarkable, but the details in the sculpt were too soft. Putting out so many repaints at once probably didn't help either.

I read the post on their website the other day and it didn't make me pity them at all. They are basically blaming the fandom for their demise.

Very poor form.

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Originally Posted by Trent

I read the post on their website the other day and it didn't make me pity them at all. They are basically blaming the fandom for their demise.

Very poor form.

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Yeah, I sympathize with them that 3rd parties are now a very competitive market but to be frank, their manufacture and built quality was less than good.

Unlike others, I liked the Valkyrie mold but it suffered from really bad manufacturing problems. Plastic is thin and kind of brittle, cheap paint, very expensive for what you get (even by 3rd party comparisons).

Although they did improve their material and built quality with following products, they were still below par. The other problem is that their sculpting style is also very kiddy and retro looking. Even the G1 seekers look less 'goofy' and modern in their sculpt style.

To be brutally frank, they did not measure up to the competition so they lost. I am sure if the Tetra Jet seekers had a more 'MMC' or 'FansProject' sculpt style while still retaining basically the same engineering, they would have sold like hot cakes.

I enjoyed their Quintesson figures, I have quite a few, to many perhaps! But a lot of their stuff looks cartoony. So maybe their sense of style just didn't click with a lot of people. I couldn't believe how many tetrajets they had for preorder, like 7 variants! far to many. They did some pretty unique products.

Photos of tretrajets?

I googled up images of the 'Impossible Toys Tetrajets' and thought they looked pretty good - for something that shouldn't really be able to convert between those two forms.
If Hasbro had produced that mould, I would have loved to have had a whole squadron of them.

They are releasing a whole squadron of 11 jets!!:eek:

Although Impossible Toys didn't make the most fantastic custom figures, they were certainly unique in many aspects.

Bit sad really, considering they were one of the first on the scene with their 3rd party releases.

I gotta agree, the main problems being they couldn't keep up with the competition and were releasing too many figures at the same time.

TFsource has preorders for their mini cars. At those prices, honestly, I'd rather pay a little extra for iGear's mini vehicles. :/

Tetrajets... poor choice. Should've gone with Predaking.

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Originally Posted by griffin

I googled up images of the 'Impossible Toys Tetrajets' and thought they looked pretty good - for something that shouldn't really be able to convert between those two forms.
If Hasbro had produced that mould, I would have loved to have had a whole squadron of them.

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To me they are too 'retro-goofy' sculpt styled to hold appeal.

http://wikialpha.org/wiki/images/b/b2/Banshee-robot.jpg

However as said and agree with you. The engineering is good in the way that it handles the 'shell' transformation into a Tetrajet. They also manage the 'Earth mode' Starscream look in robot mode like the cartoon.

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Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

Tetrajets... poor choice. Should've gone with Predaking.

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lol

There's something endearing about these - I'm not sure which one I like the best:

ImpossibleToys MC-01 Bumble Bug
MC-02 Hill Jumper
MC-03 Bump
MC-04 Hub
MC-05 Gold Bee
MC-06 Glypher
MC-07 Tapper
MC-08 Bee Bite
MC-09 Wasper

(Unless you've hit your head particularly hard recently, you should be able to work out what they're homaging from the names. :p)

It's possibly worrying that the guy transforming them never stands them up - I wonder if they tend to fall on their arses...

Bumblejumper is the one im interested in. Only because I can never find a real one for a decent price

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

There's something endearing about these - I'm not sure which one I like the best:

ImpossibleToys MC-01 Bumble Bug
MC-02 Hill Jumper
MC-03 Bump
MC-04 Hub
MC-05 Gold Bee
MC-06 Glypher
MC-07 Tapper
MC-08 Bee Bite
MC-09 Wasper

(Unless you've hit your head particularly hard recently, you should be able to work out what they're homaging from the names. :p)

It's possibly worrying that the guy transforming them never stands them up - I wonder if they tend to fall on their arses...

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I think Wasper is kind of cool, but it's getting to be a crowded market.

I don't have a single thing from impossible toys. oh well.

The Quintesson's they released were quite unique. Will always remember them for that

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Originally Posted by canofwhoopass_87

The Quintesson's they released were quite unique. Will always remember them for that

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Agreed, that's probably their biggest contribution.

Looking back through my collection I see I have Spike, Spark Plug, Exosuit Spike and Exosuit Daniel.

I'm thinking I need to track down Kranix (Spare me this mockery of justice.!) and the Quintesson Judge and Prosecutor. Just in case their prices explode.

They where one of the first "3rd party" groups in existence, way before it became common. I used to have a few of their Quintessons, pretty neat. But they really failed to advance once other groups came to prominence.

For a while there the aftermarket price of the first Quintesson release was getting pretty high, not sure what it's like now though.

A little bit of a last hurrah for Impossible toys items. BBTS have discounted the last items they will produce, apparently set to arrive in June:

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/list.aspx?list=15819

I've not been convinced about the tetra jets, but with the significant price drop on Bump (not Bumper) I had to pull the trigger - I doubt Hasbro will ever release a classics Bumper!

Tempted on the Allicon to go with my '86 Movie G1 figures, but am a little apprehensive of all the pin-misfiring stories I've heard - That said, $30 is pretty good compared to the original $79.95USD! ;)