Quote Originally Posted by Doubledealer View Post
I'm so tired of all this 3rd party nonsense. Why can't these companies differentiate themselves like the Transformers & Gobots did back in the day? Make your own show and/or comic, create your own damn characters and stop stealing others intellectual property! /rant
If Hasbro/Tomy don't care to intervene about mass-copying of character-likenesses that are currently being licensed by other companies (like IDW & ShoutFactory), I've found that there's no point us fans complaining about it.

For them though, it's just easier to copy existing franchise characters, and sell them direct to those fans, than go through the legal and safety processes that toy companies do.
If they took on the role of a regular toy company, they'd have to safety-test their products, register/patent them, pitch them to retailers, provide support services, promote their products to consumers... to make them legal.
And those 3rd party producers wouldn't have much success with items if they didn't copy existing character properties - it's the only reason fans of Transformers buy their "Transformers" items. Their profitability requires character models that are currently in use (by Hasbro, IDW and ShoutFactory) to sell their items.

But like I said, this is Hasbro/Tomy's issue... endless debate by fans over it wont change their stand on the matter.