Without trying to spark a debate on KO's and 3rd party items, I agree with this move completely. It's their con therefore they have every right to dictate what is sold / displayed there. If people don't like it, don't go.
New Acquisitions:
TR Astrotrain, Skullsmasher, & Hardhead
Scouting For:
G1 Boxes & Cardbacks
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[COLLECTION] [CREATIVE] [MK COLLECTION]
I'm all for 3rd Party and 100% against KOs. Ar$3holes trying to get bucks from thieving other peoples intellectual properties $h!7 me to no end.
It's good to hear they're getting cracked down on, i only hope they do a thorough and proper job of it!
It's kindof a shame that 3rd party stuffs might have to cop some on the chin through all of this. I think these conventions should celebrate all things transformers related. A handful of these 3/P-companies actually make great contributions to our capitalist hobby and shouldn't be ignored. I do however accept that 3/P dealer booths may not be allowed that's plenty fair enough but having said that, i'd prefer to see them stay.
The question now is would 3rd party sellers set up shop like 5m outside Botcon?
They'll sell their stuff across the road at Robot Convention.
Another thing is... it is a federal offence* in the U.S.A. to sell goods that infringe on someone's intellectual property, such as counterfeits. So if Hasbro and/or FunPub decide to enforce a policy that cracks down on it - hey, they're actually helping to enforce the law. And ultimately if people don't follow the rules, then Hasbro's fully within their right to take legal action against them.
Ultimately law-abiding sellers & collectors who don't buy unlicensed toys have nothing to fear. So I'm all good.
I agree that the 3rd party TFs are a "lesser evil" over KOs because they're not attempting to deceive people into believing that they're the real product, but even scratch-built Not-Transformer toys are still ripping off Hasbro's intellectual property because they're using the character image/likeness which they own. Some may be different looking enough to technically get away with it... but others, like Not-Arcee, are so dead-on accurate with the character likeness that if Hasbro were to take those producers to court... well I hope those producers have a good lawyer.
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*Trademark Counterfeiting Act 1984
nope.
EDIT: i think i know what you're alluding to and if so, i get it.
imo, most 3rd party stuff is just junk. Some of it REEEALLY f#@king sucks, and some of it crosses my makeshift moral margins regarding the whole subject. anyhow, there's a big difference between producing KOs and "infringing" upon HasTaks' intellectual property ie; scratch-building a transformable toy in the likeness of Transformers brand character. shi7 tonne of grey area
This doesn't affect me whatsoever. So much butthurt on those forums, sad and hilarious at the same time.
I'd be happy just having a convention, be it official or unofficial (big or small wouldn't matter).