Quote Originally Posted by Ode to a Grasshopper View Post
Waitaminute...we've just seen pretty much the most 'fan'-oriented release of official figures I can remember pretty much ever, and you're worried Hasbro won't release 'for the fans'?
Look at the recent products we've been getting/are soon to get: Sergeant Kup, Blurr, Scourge, Thunderwing, Straxus Darkmount, Grapple, Jazz, Tracks, Wheeljack, Skullgrin, Mindset, Thundercracker, G2 Prime etc. etc. - until DotM comes out and floods the market for a year or so we the fans are being well taken care of by Hasbro even with the rise of 3rd parties. Add to that the fact that the 3rd party products mostly arose because they were doing stuff Hasbro wasn't (i.e. City Commander, Cliffjumper upgrades), and by their very nature (small-time, expensive, not available through ordinary retail channels and targeted at a limited market) will never pose serious competition to the Big Boy. IIRC we ('collectors') are only 10% of the market for TFs, so while we're not Hasbro's main target here (i.e. kids, or rather their parents) we are worth accommodating to an extent.
All of this ignores, of course, that quite a few of the official TF designers these days ARE fans themselves.

I too hope to have few unofficial TFs (too poor for now ), but ultimately the major bulk of my collection is still gonna be official stuff, and most of the unofficial pieces will be add-ons.

In short, we of the whiny 10% (though thankfully we Ozformers seem to be noticeably less hysterical than a lot of other communities) are probably OK as long as fan-based stuff (especially remolds/redecos) continues selling.
So relax, guy...take a load off!
I think 3rd parties should stick with things that Hasbro would never do such as upgrades for legit toys (new heads, weapons, etc) and engineering that Hasbro are unable to get right for modern logistic reasons like combiners and triple-changers. Naturally there are odd exceptions to other figures like characters which Hasbro has gotten 'wrong' and will most likely not see an updated toy for some time if ever like Powerglide.

What I am getting sick of is the flooding of 'Let's pretend we are fans but we are actually just here to profit on the craze' products.

In regards to people having more unofficial stuff than official, I don't see that happening any time soon. I have been pretty supportive of 3rd party stuff in the last couple of years and yet they would only make up less than 1% of my collection, specially when much of it are upgrades to legit figures so they serve more as 'accessories' than a full toy.