So yea... Fansproject... remember them?

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by Kuma Style, Nov 25, 2011.

  1. Raiju

    Raiju Navel Shocker Veteran

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    FP and MT products do share similar aesthetics and design cues but that could just be because a former FP designer went over to work for MT, as Venksta said in a previous thread, I believe. And the two companies sharing a table at a Con to promote both companies' wares probably shouldn't be read too deeply or counted as proof that they're one and the same. They might have ties with one another but I personally believe they're two different entities, as Venksta maintains. At the end of the day, they're both third parties; I don't see what difference it makes even if they are the same company, at least to us fans/consumers. Might make a difference to HasTak lawyers though, heh.
     
  2. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    And even then, the aesthetic cues people like to cite are pure coincidence, as the guy who designed Giant isn't the FansProject guy.
     
  3. Transbot90210

    Transbot90210 Banned

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    See, these words are very carefully chosen.

    At most I will conceed that they are not THE SAME company. But they are very closely related/affiliated. As has just been confirmed. My guess? FP is a part time schtick and perhaps some member saw the money and figure they can do this full time. Whatever. They look the same, I hope they feel the same and the costs are about the same. You all make it sound like I'm calling a crap company and a great company the same thing. They are both great (potentially great) companies anyway so no one gets tarnished with my beliefs.

    As for what proof other than the insiders?

    Ok first that insider thing. They dropped the ball when they said that they didn't even know one another. What is it? Are they the same? Are the affiliated? are they complete strangers? When there are too many stories on the same subject from the same source then there are a lies a brewing.

    Botcon- Maketoys has a setup at I believe the TFS booth. Funny enough the highlight is an FP employee there with his smartphone showing off pics of Menasor. So an FP guy just so happens to be at the table which is hosting a company that he knows nothing of. Makes no sense to me.

    Cherry Bomb- Big 3rd party event and everyone has a placecard. A big announcement that Maketoys will be there as well as the a list of the rest of the groups. Noted was that FP WOULD NOT BE IN ATTENDANCE. Pics of the place holders are posted and even though MT was pretty much the biggest guest there and FP was know 100% to not be there guess who got a placeholder and guess who didn't? I'll make it easy, the guest of honour did not get a placeholder and the non attending group did.

    Now lets go by other signs.
    MT goes in to full swing and FP falls off the face of the earth barely completing half of their 2011 list of items. FP completes the Insecticons and for the first since they have started there is zero news on anything.

    The fact that MT used FP's Bruticus as a first pic. I dunno how many groups have used other groups products to promote their own but I'm pretty sure it is none.

    The general aesthetics are pretty much the same. If you had a pile of every 3rd party figure out there you would have an easy time picking apart the different companies but it is more than likely that FP and MT toys would end up in the same pile.

    Once FP and MT stop showing up together at the same place, especially when one group isn't supposed to be there, then I will believe the two groups are complete strangers to one another....too late for that though.
     
  4. OptionZero

    OptionZero Well-Known Member

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    If they were the same and didn't want that fact to be known, isn't this discussion doing FP and/or MT a disservice?

    If they aren't the same, then the theory is false and not worth discussing

    And if they aren't the same, then there's another (more obvious) reason for FP's absence: they're busy with real life shit, like jobs and families
     
  5. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    TFSource also had iGear stuff at their booth. Are you going to say that MakeToys and Fansproject are connected to iGear now, too? There's just as much evidence for that claim as there is the maketoys/FP connection based soley on the stuff and people at that booth. TFSource shows various third party stuff at their booth. big deal.

    Actually, Fansproject has gone silent before. It's actually pretty common between releases.

    Because they wanted to show that it's the same scale as one of the most popular third party items ever. like "You know that awesome combiner that's already in your collection? Well this will fit right in!"

    Because they're both making classics-styled toys of existing characters, and they're both good at it. That said, not really any actual aesthetics shared between stuff like City Commander, Protector, and the non-insecticons with the MakeToys stuff we've seen so far, other than "robot". Really, look at the faces, the silhouettes, they share no unique style that could be used to make a connection.
     
  6. Transbot90210

    Transbot90210 Banned

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    To stop the tit for tat the best I can offer is that I will stop calling them the same company. I will start refering to them as affiliated companies. I refuse to believe any less, considering even Venskta was quoted as saying they are affiliated.

    I just hate hearing the BS going around that they are complete strangers and that not even one single member of one group knows another. Affiliated to whatever degree? That I can accept.


     
  7. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    Cool.
     
  8. Kuma Style

    Kuma Style I'm boney. I'm boney; Leave me aloney! TFW2005 Supporter

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    I agree with Transbot 100%, especially with the fact that FP just plain fell off the face of tthe earth and now Maketoys is heavily promoted. They don't just "do that". That is NOT NORMAL for them.

    Also, in terms of aesthetic, look at the prototype pics of the individual bots, and then look at the prototype pics of heartmaster. The Maketoys Scavenger, and that look like different versions of the same damned character.

    And, let's look at Giant: Even the crotchplates on that toy share the same aesthetic as FP's Bruticus. They're the same aesthetic to a tee.

    So, I'm absolutely with Transbot, and it's kinda' bogus that people are trying to gang up and talk him out of his opinion when the things he's stating are facts.

    If MakeToy and FP have "nothing to do with each other" in reality, then that still doesn't take away from so many signs pointing to them being entangled.
     
  9. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    You've just been carefully ignoring the five+ times the situation's been clarified, I see. The first time being from Venksta (who has a trustworthy reputation. I'm more inclined to believe anything he says versus wild suppositions).

    There's no arguing that FP and MT were in communication with each other. And that's where the whole shebang started in the first place. MT piggy-backed on FP's display, since they had connections with Cygnie, another known FP proponent (and store owner who sells this stuff). Not being properly briefed on the situation, Cygnie just assumed that all of the prototypes he was handed to display were FP's, and advertised that fact.

    Venksta had to come on the boards to clarify the situation soon afterwards.

    Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is more likely correct.

    Somebody just screwed up. FP's the big celebrity in the 3rd Party scene, MT's the new upstart. Someone just assumed FP would be in attendance, through reputation.

    I'm not particularly familiar with the situation you're describing, though. I don't recall FP ever having been mentioned as an attendee. The big posterboy of the show was actually Mastermind, with Hexatron.


    The moment FP put up their full 2011 release list, I don't think anybody ever expected that they'd live up to that. Especially after the Insecticons schedule slipped by a few months compared to their original release statement.

    Perfect Effect almost exclusively piggy-backed on City Commander/Shadow Commander for all of their releases, up until Kingbat and Scouting Force X.

    That goes beyond simply "advertising with". They were specifically creating accessories for another group's product.

    And to the uninitiated, FP's Causality figures are entirely indistinguishable from Hasbro/Takara product. OMG! Hasbro's secretly producing special runs of figures targetted at collectors! (Not that we haven't gone down that road before...)
     
  10. Transbot90210

    Transbot90210 Banned

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    Duckett it is the double edge sword of looking at the world after you've seen the man behind the curtain. You think my fellow fans would have caught on by now. I bitch about a few points and I have been right about them all so far.

    Thanks for the support brother and THANK YOU for seeing past the bullshit and actually allowing the facts to carry weight.
     
  11. Billzilla

    Billzilla Skepticon

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    I think they just aren't ready to show what they have, man. I agree their silence has been troubling, especially since they redesigned their site with social features which they seem to have then immediately abandoned, but it's hardly unprecedented. They HAVE shown things they haven't released yet, we just haven't heard progress since like August.

    Could be an economic move. Every time there's a new reveal someone says "These third parties need to slow down, I can't afford all this stuff" within the first couple of replies. At some point that will be a very real problem for these companies. Flooding the market with high-cost items means less money for everyone. We're a relatively small consumer base and we only have so many dollars for this. With many more players in the field, it makes sense for them to release more strategically. There is definitely a sense of weird stress in my life with a bunch of big-ticket releases looming. Too much of that causes people to quit the hobby.

    If they're really as tight with Maketoys as people say, they could be holding back just to avoid shitting on Battle Tanker and Giant. Not necessarily because they would directly profit from it, but just to play defense for their friends in hopes that Maketoys will stay out of the way when FP has something big to release (Like, say, Crossfire-3).

    Another thing: They could be waiting to see Hasbro's 2012 line. Usng Dinobots as an example: No sense in blowing money releasing Dinobots for $50 if Has/Tak releases awesome FOC ones for $12. If, however, Has/Tak creates a demand for Dinobots with FOC and doesn't fill it with figures, well- it makes sense for them to shift focus to where demand exists.

    I mean, they do have three products on the shelves right now. It's not like they vanished. You can say "I know there's the insecticons, but.." but nothing. That's a pretty good reason.

    It's smart business to say "don't worry about what's coming, buy what we just released."
     
  12. Auto Morph

    Auto Morph Gimmick Bot

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    I feel the same way. I only own Exgraver and Hercules is already killing me!
     
  13. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    I really don't think people see things the same way you do man...

    Especially with your whole incredibly vocal Chicken Little act over Hercules, constantly saying how TFC's dropping the ball and all that junk, only to do a complete 180 and become a full-on supporter the moment the rest of the prototypes were revealed.
     
  14. Transbot90210

    Transbot90210 Banned

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    thanx
    Tansbot90210
     
  15. Billzilla

    Billzilla Skepticon

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    Honestly, Transbot and Duckett, I love you guys but your theories are wild. Things you call facts are actually suppositions you've made from facts. Some of them have merit, others seem to be based on some strange version of reality that is a lot more complicated than I find reality to usually be. At least I realize when I hypothesize that they are among several possibilities, Transbot goes "I HAVE A THEORY THAT MAKES SOME SENSE, IT'S DEFINITELY TRUE."

    No offense guys, but cool it on the caffeine.
     
  16. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    This is how I feel about it too.


    I really doubt it. Especially since most FP stuff is physically attached to Hasbro stuff. You show the various add-ons connected to their intended toys? Hell no. No casual observer will even imagine that they'd be unofficial stuff added on. Show city commander or protector alone, yes. absolutely. the same as if you stuck a lone armada overload trailer, minus the minicon in the same pile.
    God, please, everyone, do this.
     
  17. Kuma Style

    Kuma Style I'm boney. I'm boney; Leave me aloney! TFW2005 Supporter

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    Wow... way to dig and pull irrelevant shit up that in no way discredits what the man says.

    Why do you go through leaps and bounds to do this, and have the same non-results everytime the man posts?

    Good points. And, yea, once again, it's not normal for FP to literally disappear with not even any PROTOTYPE UPDATES for things like Heartmaster, and it directly coincides with Maketoys promotion for Giant, Battle Tanker, etc. etc..

    The correlation is at the point where it's common sense rather than even a hmmm anymore.


    Why do you say condescending BS and try to sugar coat it? Can you even name one thing Transbot's posted in this thread that seems "far fetched"? Because, even re-reading, I can't.

    Transbot never stated his opinion as fact. Why you made that up, I dunno. But, when you'd like to actually converse, rather than state your opinion and cut that of others down, then I'm all for it. Until then though, understand why I disregard posting towards me that uses that overtone from here on out.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2011
  18. Billzilla

    Billzilla Skepticon

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    Didn't say far fetched. Said complicated. Transbot has a tendency to say "I know this is true and you guys are just in denial" when in fact there is no possible way he could know whether it's true, he's just made some suppositions from the facts we all have at our disposal. He also has a tendency to treat people who are every bit as informed as him as though they are not informed. You do, too.

    You are obviously way too hyped up about this. I wasn't trying to be condescending, I was trying to point out that we're all friends here and that you have a tendency to take things that aren't serious very seriously.You've ignored every sane point in the thread and focus only on why you and people who support you are correct. Anyone who disagrees is insulting you.

    Fine, you're right. Fansproject not posting stuff is fucking strange. happy?
     
  19. Transbot90210

    Transbot90210 Banned

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    If Shakespears taught me anything is all comes from one line "The lady doth protest too much."

    These FP /MT insiders are WAY too protective about keeping these two companies seperate. They obviously know something we don't and I'm sure what they do know is that FP and MT have made it known to their people that they need to ACT like two seperate entities.

    I have known insiders from almost every company affiliated with Transformers and I will say that this group protecting the FP/MT secret is way to defensive and doth protest too much.
     
  20. Billzilla

    Billzilla Skepticon

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    Okay man. You alone are the keeper of secrets and truth and we are sheep. Your insider's eye of Agamatto gives you sight beyond the rest of us. And you've read and understood at least one famous line from a famous play. I get it.

    EDIT: Duckett ^^ this is what I sound like when I'm being condescending.