Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[BigTransformerTrev]

I'm sure it's listed here somewhere on the site, but does anyone know if we will be getting AoE Deluxe Lockdown & Snarl and Voyager Slog on our shores?

[Paulbot]

I'm sure it's listed here somewhere on the site, but does anyone know if we will be getting AoE Deluxe Lockdown & Snarl and Voyager Slog on our shores?

Slog was just spotted in South Australia

The deluxe waves/revisions with Lockdown and Snarl should come here - no official word either way though.

[Tober]

Does anyone know how unlicensed third-party product is seen by the Japanese Transformers community?

Is it widely accepted or taboo over there? I ask because I don't see any Japanese stores stocking it. Not even just the accessories, but maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

It might have something to do with the limited wholesale range of third party stuff as they wouldn't have the same output and contacts that TT would have. I am going off the assumption that where you are looking is HLJ and the usual Japanese shops.

Just a thought.

My question:
Are Star Saber and the other Brainmasters still the same dudes when they aren't in their transtector bodies? I see that TF wiki states that the BM little robots are referred to as Brain of courage etc, but surely they'd still be SS and pals? Or is it considered that the brain robots are personality-less until they combine with their Transtector bodies?

[kurdt_the_goat]

Does anyone know how unlicensed third-party product is seen by the Japanese Transformers community?

Is it widely accepted or taboo over there? I ask because I don't see any Japanese stores stocking it. Not even just the accessories, but maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

I've seen City Commander, Hegemon and some 3P Constructicon bots in a few shops in DenDenTown... and i'm pretty sure Mandarake have also listed a few at some point.

[DELTAprime]

Does anyone know how unlicensed third-party product is seen by the Japanese Transformers community?

Is it widely accepted or taboo over there? I ask because I don't see any Japanese stores stocking it. Not even just the accessories, but maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

I've been told by a couple of people that the Japanese don't like KO's and 3rd party. It's a cultural thing apparently.

[Tober]

It might have something to do with the limited wholesale range of third party stuff as they wouldn't have the same output and contacts that TT would have. I am going off the assumption that where you are looking is HLJ and the usual Japanese shops.

Just a thought.

I've seen City Commander, Hegemon and some 3P Constructicon bots in a few shops in DenDenTown... and i'm pretty sure Mandarake have also listed a few at some point.

Cool, thanks.

I've been told by a couple of people that the Japanese don't like KO's and 3rd party. It's a cultural thing apparently.

I'm not suprised about the KOs. The unlicensed stuff, I get the feeling they shun it, but maybe not so much the accessories as the bots.

[GoktimusPrime]

Does anyone know how unlicensed third-party product is seen by the Japanese Transformers community?

Is it widely accepted or taboo over there? I ask because I don't see any Japanese stores stocking it. Not even just the accessories, but maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

They're synonymous with KOs. Japanese fans that I've spoken to refer to both KOs and third party stuff as 海賊版 ('bootlegs'). What we call Third Parties is often referred to as 中国の海賊版 ('Chinese bootlegs')... which I know is weird, because the counterfeits are made in China too. Unlicensed products are extremely rare in Japan because they are pretty tight with enforcing intellectual property laws. And it's also a cultural thing too; e.g. if you compare the average Japanese fan site with a Western one, Japanese fan sites tend not to have content that wasn't created by the site's creator (be it photography, artwork etc.). Screen grabs are rare, and if used, are done sparingly. Even leaked images of toy prototypes marked "Do not distribute" are rarely if ever initially leaked by a Japanese site. AFAIK they're usually leaked by a non-Japanese source first, then maybe a Japanese site like Autobase Aichi will report on it, but they're not the actual initial source of that leak.

Having said that, there does appear to be a market for unlicensed toys in Japan as collectible stores do stock them, and I have come across some Japanese collectors who actually go out of their way to collect counterfeits, simply because they're so rare in Japan! Even the cheap obviously bad & poor quality KOs that you'd find in a dollar store are actually super-rare in Japan, and as such, some people like collecting them just because of the rarity (for them)! But I do appreciate how a lot of collectible stores in Japan will explicitly label the high end counterfeits with stickers telling the customer that they are fakes; so people are fully informed when making the purchase. So if you're ever shopping for TFs in a Japanese collectible store and you see a sticker with "海賊版" written on it, it means that it's a fake.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Does anyone know how unlicensed third-party product is seen by the Japanese Transformers community?

Is it widely accepted or taboo over there? I ask because I don't see any Japanese stores stocking it. Not even just the accessories, but maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

There's a fair amount of it around in the Osaka hobby shops (Hero Gangu, Mandarake, Jungle), so it's not so frowned upon that stocking it would be unprofitable. It's more of a niche thing than official TF stuff, but it's there and it's not hidden or anything.
That said, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a certain amount of truth to the 'it's frowned upon' thing, just maybe not to the extent most people think.

[griffin]

I remember seeing quite a few at the Mandarake store in Akihabara.



The Osaka Mandarake store didn't have as many though, but like the Akihabara store, they were kept behind glass as if they were more valuable than regular Transformers that were on the (open) shelves opposite.


I didn't see much in other Osaka stores though, but I wasn't really looking for anything that wasn't a Transformers toy though. This was at Hero Gang store, with them kept to one side away from the bulk of legit Transformers toys.