The Decision Thread

[Kazza]

Should I get giant from tfsource or is there a cheaper option, I handled him once last year and now I am certain he will be my next purchase

Thought you were saving up for a car bud.

[Jaxius._]

Thought you were saving up for a car bud.

And 6 green construction vehicles

[prjkt]

My Green Giant is currently packed up.... No place for him atm....

[Smint]

Haven't bought any of the recent upgrades only as I've skipped out on CW as I dislike the idea of the primary toy looking very incomplete without the upgrade.



Maketoys has been around for a while and has historically held great quality standards. I've bought quite a few 3P and this is how I would rank them:
1. Fansproject
2. Maketoys
3. Mastermind Creations
4. Perfect Effect

All 4 have very high standards of plastic quality - all better than the latest grades that Hasbro uses. The rankings for 2/3/4 are very close and a bit harder to differentiate - however I take into account proportions and designs which affect a toy's overall balance. For MMC, Feral Rex and Hexatron were very G1-like and slightly clunky (not a problem if that's what you like), as well as some very tough joints to move around; whilst for PE, I'm referring to the transformation for Warden, which was a bit finicky for me.

The only issue with Quantron I've read about is from fellow Ozformer, liegeprime, who had a factory construction issue (not related to quality/mould quality). I think he was given two left parts for a part of Sonic Drill's leg joint.

Edit: Here we go: http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showth...t=19423&page=2

Thanks im going to be adding Quantron to my to buy list. I'm more worried about the structural design. In my research i see a lot of pictures of small tabs breaking on the toy where connecting pieces go, essentially ruining it.

I think these 3rd parties cater for adult collectors while Hasbro/TT probably design their toys with a younger audience in mind hence durability is more of a concern for them.

Good to know they use good quality plastics though.

I read Quantron was $250 USD during black friday sales. That seems like a bargain now. I may wait until another big sale.

[philby]

I think I saw chimungmung has quantron for $329 us for those who want it.

[Smint]

I saw that too. BBTS has it for for around $300+50 postage so BBTS actually works out cheaper. Chimungmung over charges for postage IMO.

He seems to be on sale at a number of other places too, i wonder why.

[SuspectimusPrime]

For most people, probably price. Maketoys may have noticed this and chosen to have gone with separate parts for Guardia. It also gives them time to hammer out slight mould imperfections on the team members with trickier parts/transformations. The production process would also be less rushed.

Come to think of it, most other third party combiners are released separately.

[philby]

Ah ok, I assumed chimungmung postage would be cheaper as it's closer isn't it? Whenever I've randomly added things to a cart on BBTS the postage seemed really expensive compared to my chimungmung orders.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Perhaps Smint's got quite a few items in his loot? BBTS is usually only cheaper for me after 5-7 items (I don't usually ship until its roughly $12 shipping per item).

[Smint]

BBTS shipping calculator quoted me $54 with tracking. So that's $354 shipped.

Chimungmung is at least $35 for shipping. So that will be about $365 shipped.

$35 shipping is not bad for Quantron but for other smaller items he charges a similar amount. 1 Fanstoys dinobot is $38.

Tony will do combined shipping but it's still ridiculously expensive. 3x Perfect Effect CW upgrade kits came to $38USD postage after $8 combined shipping discount.