a thought on these 3rd party products.

[primatives]

I was thinking with all these 3rd party companies releasing so many products, and creating products that Hasbro won't/taking their time to create for fans. I was thinking eventually you'll have Transformers collections that really aren't Official Transformers. If that makes any sense. I do believe FP may have a combiner that will be characters of their own creation, with their toys being so cool I know I'd probably pick them up.

Knowing that there will be demand for figures that Hasbro won't release these 3rd party accomodates fans needs, but like I was saying if they keep doing so we'll have quite a few non official TF toys.

I'm not having a go at 3rd party companies or saying that only official toys should be bought just raising a topic for discussion. I love all this 3rd party stuff, just realised if things keep going the way they are going I'm going to end up with quite a few non-official TF's.

What do u guys think??

[Hursticon]

In the case of FansProject, I whole heartedly hope that they are in the beginnings of becoming they're own fully fledged company.

Think about it, how many new toy companies can you think of that have sprung up in the last 5 years and have been successful?
Now, think about the last 25 years and how many toy companies have attempted Form Shifting Robot Toys and have achieved decent levels of success?
Now, obviously FansProject have a while to go yet but they certainly have been laying the footings for quite a lot of future prosperity.

I personally think that if it gets to the point where there are enough companies/groups producing brand new IPs and said IPs are actually of a decent quality, then why shouldn't there be collectors of purely non-HasTakTom 'Transformers'?

I mean, it is almost certain that there are people who collect Bandai products exclusively - Be it Gobots, Rocklords, Power Ranger Zords and what have you, these collectors probably refuse to collect TF stuff as it would 'contaminate' their collections.
I actually wouldn't mind seeing some 3rd Party products that are based on the Old Gobots designs/characters - with some modern engineering and some sort of faction identification it could prove to be a catalyst of a revival of sorts?


We've all got to admit though, we're are living/collecting in some interesting times at the moment.

[autobreadticon]

i don't know the exact details but Takara has in the past officially licienced garage kits (Superlink Misha) from events such as Wonderfest, . But i kinda like the idea that 3rd party customs are like rebels/pirates against the machine and by buying their custom products we are enraging the Hasbro beast. Its always good to have more toys

[Sky Shadow]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing some 3rd Party products that are based on the Old Gobots designs/characters - with some modern engineering and some sort of faction identification it could prove to be a catalyst of a revival of sorts?

I would love that. Hasbro hasn't done anywhere near enough GoBots/Robo Machine/Machine Robo/Machine Men homages - they need to do a Cy-Kill. Still, at this point, no third party company has released anything I thought was a necessary purchase or something worthwhile that Hasbro wasn't supplying. That new Reflector toy was going to be the closest thing, but I assume I'll just buy the Perceptor recolour instead.

[Hursticon]

I would love that. Hasbro hasn't done anywhere near enough GoBots/Robo Machine/Machine Robo/Machine Men homages - they need to do a Cy-Kill.

Oh man, could you imagine a FansProject Cy-Kill?

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

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!

[Skullcruncher]

would collectors (of curent releases not talking g1 here) even be 10% of the market?

[kaiden]

would collectors (of curent releases not talking g1 here) even be 10% of the market?

maybe there should be a survey of our forum members to see which 3rd party products we've purchased and see what percentage that is overall.

[kup]

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.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

@Skullcruncher: I can't find the link but IIRC someone asked a question at either last year's BotCon or one of the Hasbro Q&A submissions about Hasbro's catering to 'the fans', and the rep gave the 10% figure of overall TF sales. If I can find the link I'll post it.

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.

+1 on pretty much everything said here.