What's Takara Tomy's and Hasbro's stance on 3rd party bots?

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Officially, word is that they acknowledge it's a thing and - as a company - don't particularly like it, even if individual designers like some of the works.
Of course, that was coming from Aaron Archer, who is now involved with a pseudo-3P group making Pretender homages. So, you know...it's sort of an official/legal position.

However, it's not worth the time and resources it would take for HTT to shut down the 3P 'industry' (or the fan nerd-rage that would follow, which I'm sure they get enough of as is), so they turn a blind eye as long as it's not shoved too hard in their faces. I think the rule is ~10% different = legally safe enough to avoid trouble.

At the same time, HTT don't feel it's worth the lower profit margins to make high-end stuff themselves on a wide scale - with a few well-received exceptions a la MasterPiece. So, they can't really be bothered stamping it out by filling the market niche themselves - it's more profitable to sell more regular release toys to a greater number of consumers.
And of course, HasTakTom don't really want to get too far into the copyright/trademark design issue themselves, 'cos then the issue of licensed vehicle alt-modes comes up, and HTT aren't much better on the similar-but-legally-distinct front than the 3rd Party groups on that count.

The latter 2 factors are why I personally have no problem with 3P stuff (albeit I do prefer upgrade kits over full figures) - aside from the cost, I have a budget after all - but the official stance is: We Don't Like It, But It's Too Much Hassle To Do Anything About, So (Unofficially) Unless It Becomes A Major Problem We'll Look The Other Way.


Coincidentally, there's already a discussion thread on this topic here.