TW-T01: 3rd Party G1 Throttlebot - Rollbar.

[kup]

Looks a lot flashier than what I originally thought for a throttlebot! Perhaps they'll giftset them after they've all been released at a much more reasonable price. Having said that though, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys popped up as $20-$25 official deluxes in stores in the near future

Given that they are considered '2nd or 3rd rate' characters, even if they do release them officially, they would most likely be half assed re-tools or straight repaints.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Grind Rod is certainly above anything Hasbro is currently making. It is such a sleek and well designed toy while still being fairly simple and easy to transform.

Strangely enough, Grind Rod's design does seem streamlined enough to be something that Hasbro would be capable of making even under budget. Sadly they seem to no longer have the skill or willingness to do so.

He's conformation with Hasbro design aesthetics is the best feature! He feels like the sort of toy I'd carry around without getting worried of breaking it, if I was still young (or if I was Shattered Glass Goktimus, who may or may not be uniquely into the third party stuff ). A very different third party toy from the similarly scaled FP Insecticons. hmm.. added emphasis on toy rather than an adult collectible

If this was the Henkei release, Hasbro could take out nice shiny green paint & detailing on its wheels, and make it the US Classics release. However, compared with what seems to be their current strategy of cost cutting + retaining same price, I guess that's still an increased effort/unit cost resulting in lower profit margin, or to compensate, marked up unit price which would decrease number of sales volume.

Looks a lot flashier than what I originally thought for a throttlebot! Perhaps they'll giftset them after they've all been released at a much more reasonable price.

That was my earlier dilemma -- whether to gamble on a subsequent giftset that's probably priced slightly cheaper than buying separate and savings from a single cost of shipping, at the risk of potentially losing out on the release (most third parties have done some sort of second reissue, but Toyworld has still yet to reissue Hegemon). I would also imagine a damn fine box for that potential giftset, with the likes of Green Giant's.

[Lord_Zed]

I'm not sure I would put much faith in the gift set idea when it comes to third party releases. I can't think of any example of toys that were already available being repackaged as a gift set without some sort of repaint.

Most third parties have shown themselves to be pretty good at making enough product to fulfill demand, and re-releasing product as necessary, therefore I find it difficult to believe they would go to the trouble of re-releasing an existing product as a set. I think it more likely they would do a package deal if they have excess stock.