Australian Transformers Convention

**kup** · 30th January 2012, 03:46 PM

Nightfall vs Sofaman!

**liegeprime** · 30th January 2012, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by kup

Nightfall vs Sofaman!

He's more likely to rest on Sofaman counting his energon chippies til he falls on temporary shutdown heheheh

**GoktimusPrime** · 30th January 2012, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by kup

We could easily do something similar to what the 3rd parties do in regards to comics. Use original characters in a world that is familiar to the reader yet never addressed by name.

Remember that Hasbro owns Transformers but not the 'transforming robots fighting a civil war' license.

Actually... that's not a bad idea!

In Sabretron 2004 we had four exclusive unlicensed toys (given away free to attendees) -- all based in Australia with an Australian themed background story, but they've never seen any fictional appearance aside from the toys. If you like I can give you the characters' names and profiles and you can use them in your story. The toys themselves were repaints of G1 Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Brawn and Windcharger (called Spectre, Breaker, Muckraker and Minesweeper respectively; they were part of an Australian-based group of Autobots known as Chainmasters) -- but you could simply get an artist to draw up some models that happen to look similar to these character moulds, but not quite the same. Similar enough that fans would recognise them, but different enough that you're steering away from Hasbro's property.

The names and personas were stuff that we'd created, so Hasbro's never owned them.

Heck, we're seeing IDW doing something similar with the "Circuit Smasher" character (since the G1 Circuit Breaker character is still owned by Marvel).

Whether you'd like to run with the Chainmasters or just create your own original characters is up to you -- but I like the idea of making them "Not-Transformers."

You could even ask someone to design Not-Autobot and Not-Decepticon logos.

You could even have established characters appear, but just make them look obscure -- like have Optimus Prime or Megatron covered in darkness, and what you can see doesn't look exactly the same (just as what they do with third party comics)... then just have them referred to as "Commander" or "My Lord" or whatever, but never by name.

I like this idea.

This would allow you to have your exclusive comic and sell it without impeding on Hasbro's IP. Maybe you could also have posters, keychains, badges etc?

Here's an idea for an exclusive toy, but I don't know if it's any good. Go to your local Asian markets/stores and buy up a butt load of those cheap transforming robot toys -- you know those ones that look like they're not made by a licensed manufacturer but aren't really knock offs. Some of them may have a head or arm or something that's KOed from another toy, but the entire figure itself isn't a bootleg. Kinda like Roadbots, only cheaper (although Roadbots are pretty inexpensive - but I think they're licensed... those cheap Chinese ones look unlicensed to me). Go and repaint those toys and sell them as exclusives.

If you're worried about them being possibly licensed, here's another suggestion (and you might be able to do this with Roadbots or even Transformers if you choose a small/cheap enough mould and order a caseload wholesale (you might be able to order a caseload from Hasbro??)); repaint the toy(s) and include them as free gifts with the exclusive comic. You just may need to charge more for the comic book, if you get my meaning. <cough> But make it clear that you are only selling the comic book which doesn't contain any of Hasbro's IP - arguably an expensive comic book - and include the toy for "free."

...remember when I said that all the free exclusive toys and comics were only available to attendees at Sabretron 2004? i.e. People who had already paid to attend the convention? Yeah.

This has been done before with exclusive toys where for some legal reason the toy couldn't be technically sold... so technically they weren't. e.g. Rook and Tap-Out... both toys were initially given away as freebies to pre-registrants for BotCon Europe 2002 and BotCon USA 2002 respectively (and later on made available for sale on 3H's online store when the legal issue was cleared up).

So if you like, go grab some shelf/peg warming Legions/Legends Class toys, have some volunteers repaint them (that's what we did for the Sabretron figures - they were all hand painted by volunteers) and then get an artist to draw a "Not-Transformer" version of that toy that looks recognisable but is different, then include that character model in your exclusive "Not-Transformer" comic book. Sell the comic book and include the toy as a 'freebie.'

**Paulbot** · 30th January 2012, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by kup

I could be wrong but I think that as long as they are available for production, you can order them from Hasbro just as retail stores have exclusives. The molds may be old but they are current production molds which were fairly recently used.

Cosmos hasn't had a production run since 2005 but I guess it could still be available, but last year they reused the Pretender Bumblebee shell and that surely hasn't been reproduced in nearly 20 years?

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

The toys themselves were repaints of G1 Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Brawn and Windcharger (called Spectre, Breaker, Muckraker and Minesweeper respectively; they were part of an Australian-based group of Autobots known as Chainmasters) -- but you could simply get an artist to draw up some models that happen to look similar to these character moulds, but not quite the same.

That's what they did in 1984. Those mini-bots in the cartoon look similar to the toys (in vehicle mode), but in robot mode it's a bit of a stretch.