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

[Tfiguy]

Does anyone know Takara Tomy's and Hasbro's stance on 3rd party transformers? I know legally they (Tak/Tom, Hasbro unless they made a direct mould copy or name or insignia) probably wouldn't have a leg to stand on but I noticed that they get displayed at Botcon and Tfcon so I was thinking they may have given them an ok for now as they have been out for ages without any legal cases... Anyone have any knowledge?

[Oberon Sexton]

3rd party companies do not exist. There is no such thing as other companies producing unlicensed transformers products. Hasbro understands that fans like to display custom works of art at botcons, and to not have friction with fans they allow the display of fan art work. Distribution of art work is allowed as many fans appreciate fan art which also generates interest in official IP products.

[griffin]

3rd party companies do not exist. There is no such thing as other companies producing unlicensed transformers products.

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)
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.

[Oberon Sexton]

It was a joke. Admittedly, not a good one.

[Sky Shadow]

They have acted a couple of times - a cease and desist against Comic Ink selling iGear's Not-G2 Not-Ramjet, and banning all third party items at BotCon 2012. But generally it seems not worth their effort, or they don't care, or they think it's exposure, or they turn a blind eye.

[kurdt_the_goat]

The term Third Party in the video game world applies to licensed developers - which doesn't really match up with the definition in the Transformer toys world.

I wonder if Hasbro could implement that business model, if they wanted to? They'd have to come to terms with relinquishing some control over the brand, but it could become much larger, with multiple manufacturers making officially licensed Transformer toys - with Hasbro getting a cut, and the third parties as we know them now, getting the benefit of not being seen as unauthorized anymore.

[Oberon Sexton]

The term Third Party in the video game world applies to licensed developers - which doesn't really match up with the definition in the Transformer toys world.

I wonder if Hasbro could implement that business model, if they wanted to? They'd have to come to terms with relinquishing some control over the brand, but it could become much larger, with multiple manufacturers making officially licensed Transformer toys - with Hasbro getting a cut, and the third parties as we know them now, getting the benefit of not being seen as unauthorized anymore.

It'd be like how Figuarts, Hot Toys, Revoltech, etc already do their collectibles. It's not a new concept, and not new to HasTak either. If it means getting good quality masaterpeice level toys, I'd be all for paying the extra cost of official licensing.

[llamatron]

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

Jealousy.

[griffin]

I think it was mentioned somewhere recently that while 3rd party items aren't impacting on their sales, they keep an eye on them to see what fans are more interested in, as it might be seen with some Hasbro character toys or concepts (masters and combiners) show up soon after.

It was a joke. Admittedly, not a good one.

Okay, fair enough. Maybe next time consider using a smilie, to help make the sarcasm more obvious.
(I hate using text for humour... it gets me into so much trouble. )

[griffin]

The term Third Party in the video game world applies to licensed developers - which doesn't really match up with the definition in the Transformer toys world.

I wonder if Hasbro could implement that business model, if they wanted to? They'd have to come to terms with relinquishing some control over the brand, but it could become much larger, with multiple manufacturers making officially licensed Transformer toys - with Hasbro getting a cut, and the third parties as we know them now, getting the benefit of not being seen as unauthorized anymore.

I think the term 3rd party came from the early years when it was just parts production, as it was a third party enhancing 1st party (official) toys.
Now though, it is probably more of a misnomer, but just stuck through the evolution of parts to full toys.

Your second point is probably what we are now seeing in Japan, with Sentinel, Bearbrick, Nanoblocks and Art Storm (so far non-transforming toys, but probably not long until they do converting toys)... maybe because TakaraTomy seems to struggle more often with the Brand than Hasbro. Maybe they are starting to out-source more of the fringe, fan-focused items that aren't going to earn much anyway, leaving them to take on more of a Hasbro model and focus on the massive-unit, general release, kiddy items.