Yes there are. They are any of those companies in the Unauthorised Transformers section that don't have a license to make money off someone else's concepts and expensive trademarks. (if you were trying to raise a technical point of its definition)Originally Posted by Oberon Sexton
Any company that didn't pay a license to sell products based on Transformers characters or trademarks, is a third party.
IDW pays money to sell comics based on Hasbro's Transformers.
Art Storm pays money to produce and sell toys based on Hasbro/TakaraTomy's Transformers.
Bearbrick paid money to sell toys based on TakaraTomy's Transformers.
Nanoblock paid money to sell toys based on TakaraTomy's Transformers.
Sentinel paid money to sell transforming pens based on TakaraTomy's Transformers.
(etc, etc, for anything else you've seen in stores or online that was licensed, to pay for the privilege of making money off someone else's ideas instead of creating their own and try to make people want to buy it)
Third Party companies don't pay any money, but are making money on toys based on a Brand that Hasbro & TakaraTomy have invested many dollars on.
If you created a story or toyline and spent lots of money developing it, registering it and marketing it, would you be okay if someone else came along and just copied it without as much expense to them?
Hasbro and TakaraTomy have spent lots of money registering patents and Trademarks on thousands of Transformers names, designs and concepts in order for them to make money, so have a right to make other companies pay a fee to make money off their hard work.
At the moment though, for some reason they aren't interested in stopping the unauthorised profiting off of their expensive trademarks (according to the senior Hasbro person at this year's BotCon).
As you can see on this site, I've allowed for a section for you guys to talk about them, because it's THEIR responsibility to enforce their registered trademarks (anything produced that an ordinary person would perceive as being based on a character they own), if and when they choose to... so fans shouldn't get upset if they suddenly decide to put a stop to it, because them ignoring it doesn't equate to them accepting it.
They might not have been seen as a threat to Hasbro yet, but if their products keep growing each year, there will be a point when Hasbro will eventually act.
And it may not be done to protect their own sales (which are still only negligible, but who's to say the next step isn't mass-production on a grander scale)... but maybe they might just do it to protect their professional corporate image, as other companies may choose not to do business with a toy company that doesn't have control over their Trademarks or care if other companies make money off their products.
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