I currently have one KO in my collection, that would be the RatBat tape for the same reason many have that KO. Takara did not give us an option for acquiring that outside of purchasing it as just an accessory for Soundblaster, a $25ish value accessory for the premium price of $150ish was out of the question and I was happier being without... And then the KO showed up.

Other then that I will not buy a KO when the original one is available at the original retail prices, however I will likely be adding two KO's to my collection because Takara has already sold out of them and made their money and as Exclusives there will be no reissues.

The only people I would be supporting buying out of production overpriced genuine Masterpiece toys that will never be reissued are scalpers, Takara already made their money from the figure. -shrug-

 

Funny thing about Ratbat though is that those of us who opted for the official product discovered one thing...

Soundblaster. Is. AWESOME.



All joking aside, if I had to choose between this guy and Soundwave, I'd be hard pressed to choose. Soundwave is the icon, Soundblaster is the better figure...

That is all.  

 

 

The only ko I have is mp 10U. I buy official products to support the line and the amazing figures and keep them coming at this incredible pace. Plus Soundblaster is an amazing figure who looks great on my shelf.

 

100% agree. MP-10U is my only KO too (as I say, purely 'cos TT haven't done the white Prime thing), and I don't plan on picking up any more.

 

it's great to support the line when you can. i buy official at PO because why not. but, in a shocking twist, not everyone can afford $100 aftermarket MP's. if you can then great, but some of us can't go tossing money like it grows on trees. i've never even bought a KO of an official toy. i bought a ko of warbotron swindle and that's it. but calling people scumbags is way over the line. you don't know people's struggles and you don't know what they can and can't afford. it's easy to throw stones but i bet yall lookin down don't see what comes after. out of curiosity, besides supporting your favorite company, what do you do that makes you so morally high...? i mean, i admire you for not bragging about your many great deeds, but obviously there's got to be something!!

 

He does look very nice... BUT Soundwave does come with Laserbeak... which was more required then RatBat  

 

1) i said it was "scummy".....i didnt call anyone a scumbag. Reading comprehension helps.
2) if money is tight, you shouldnt be buying ANY. Priorities folks....

 

Having moral values towards fellow beings is great.
Corporations have no values other than making profit so when it comes to dealing with them, it's whoever offers the best value for the product to me. Since to them the only value is money, it seems fair.
I sought out a KO Tigertrack for several reasons. I don't like the mold enough to support it, the ko has better paint, and it's cheaper and it's a character I don't care about, I just wanted a transforming yellow Lambo.
Anything I really like and want, I'd probably go official unless the KO proves to be better and cheaper.
I do think the sellers have to be clear about what they are selling though and it's good that the KO companies get this and are trying to help by changing the names slightly on the boxes.

I'd like to think that I'm not considered a scumbag for thinking this way but whatever...

 

Exactly Sixo that's why I bought white prime too. I also don't plan on picking up any KO's either. I want a Tigertrack too but can't find one for a decent price.

 

There was one up on Anime Export a while back, if memory serves... I will keep my eyes peeled.  

 

I dont know, Ratbat was a decepticon leader

 

I think there are good points to be made on both sides of this fracas.

Takara has to pay for design, testing, QC and licensing...those of us outside of Japan also pay a middle-man mark up.

Taking out those aspects probably explains almost all of the price delta between the official products and the KOs. It's an interesting insight into the business.

I have three KOs. Ratbat (because I couldn't afford SoundBlaster), Smokescreen (because I didn't want to put the amazing Reprolabels set on my official Masterpiece Smokescreen) and Alert (because I couldn't justify another $70 on a repaint of a mold that I just bought in red.

Alert is 90% perfect, Ratbat is gorgeous, Smokescreen has QC issues including floppy joints and flaking paint...he's totally stickered up in car mode, riding on Ultra Magnus so it's fine anyway.

Still, they're all pretty great for the money that I spent, IMO. No regrets.

I have bought almost all of the MP figures to date including doubles of a couple. I feel like I've done more than my share to support the line.

 

I just came into this. Just wanted to clarify, I'm almost certain I'm the one who sold the KO Exhaust. I had bought the KOs to put the Ocean Decals on; I got some extra to save on shipping. I also had legit MP Exhausts for sale.

Now that I'm all in, I have official MPs for everything I want, but I would still 100% buy a KO to do any customs (which is what I consider adding the ocean decals as). The vast majority of customs on Radicons using the MP-12 and MP-17 molds seem to be using KOs. I think I saw ONE MP-21 custom before the KO was released.

For someone who only buys KOs, the way I look at it, Takara was never getting their money anyway. People also shouldn't be saying "well if you don't have the money, you shouldn't be buying a KO." If I had only $10 and then I bought some booze to forget I only had $3 left, that's my problem, not yours.

 

I have 1 KO: Sideswipe.
He got me started on the MP line- all legit.
If I come across a legit Red Alert at a reasonable price, you bet I'll get him and sell off the KO Sideswipe.
I'm also gonna be on the lookout for a white MP BB KO to make into Herbie.

Now I do get- respect- and, to a certain degree- agree with the ideal of only getting legit merchandise and not ko's. I really do.

Here's the thing: Saying that you support the MP line buy buying legit is 1 thing; you're making a purchase. However buying a KO is not hurting the MP line. At all. Buy the time the ko's are made, Takara has already made their sales.

As for dis-associating from people who buy KO-s:
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
The levels of self righteousness is incredible. What a lousy thing to do. Seriously.
It's a form of prejudice, and last time I checked prejudice is bad.
Are you going to tell me that you drive the speed limit perfectly every time?
No?
Then you're a criminal that I should dis-associate myself from.
Puh-leez.
Oh- that person gets drunk. Kinda immoral. Better exclude him.
Oh- that person smokes weed. Better disassociate myself from him.
Oh- that person has a potty mouth. Better avoid him.
Oh- that person didn't report all of her tips to the IRS.

Where's the line to take that "moral stand" against the man with unlicensed toys?

UL3P? Should a guy who has Citizen Stack be avoided and discriminated against? After all: UL3P does hijack HAS / TAK's IP.
But if UL3P is bad, then so too is HASBRO. They do the same thing with actual vehicles. That tweak real world vehicle designs just enough to be legal.
Pretty soon, the only moral people you can bless with your presence are Movie line, Alternators and MP collectors.

So, what do you do? Go to their house, check out their collections, and verify their receipts before saying "Yes, I can be seen with you".?

That kind of garbage brings the fandom down a helluva lot more than any "HAZBLO sucks and looks like sh*t" comments.

Sometimes, I don't think a lot of 'moral stands' that people like to take are all that moral.
And maybe it shows others that you might be the kind of person they don't want to be around.

Peace.

 

Just curious, but how is Soundblaster the better figure in your opinion?
I only have Soundblaster so I love that guy  

 

 

Pretty much what I've been wanting to type out but deleting over and over again because I just keep figuring "why bother?". Glad you took the time and effort to put it in writing though.

 

I started off with KO MP cars. I figured that I would get official versions of the core characters and save money on the ancillary characters. (Boy, has that mentality changed...) I had Sideswipe and he was alright--I had to use and X-acto to fix his head and the tabs on his torso and chest. A lot of applications of future floor polish to tighten the joints. I was pretty satisfied and he was a good display piece. The next car I got was Prowl--albeit I got the Hasbro one from TRU at a good price. A buddy of mine got the KO Prowl and it was and is a floppy mess. It took a lot of TLC to fix his. I then got Streak and Smokescreen and they were just about perfect! Only a tiny bit of future floor needed to fix a few loose joints and a touch of screw tightening. Last I got Alert and boy....what a mess he was. It took tons of patience and TLC to get him displayable.

When a KO is good, it's good and when it's bad, it's bad. I've since replaced all of these KOs with the real deal--I think I'm officially addicted to Masterpiece as I'm now buying non-show characters to have a shelf of "Cybertronians". With Takara and Hasbro, these things are typically great out of the box--with the KOs, be prepared to put a little time in to them and be willing to fix issues.

 

1. Semantics, man. You may have said "scummy," but it's not hard to imagine someone deriving "scumbag" out of that.

2. That's crap, I'm sorry. I'm not saying I fully endorse KO's, and I buy official when possible, but just because someone doesn't have the money to drop on an official product doesn't mean they should be banned from enjoying it at all. What? They should be punished to not enjoy collecting because they don't have the money? From what I've seen a number of the KO's are of the same quality (or even better from time to time) of the official release, often for a fraction of the cost. Someone who is not well off financially but still enjoys the hobby would be stupid not to buy one. In some cases, that drives them to afford the actual product sometime in the future.

 

You mean like this:

 

1) if i tell my daughter she's being a brat, it doesnt mean she's a brat all the time. So no, its not semantics.

2) As has been pointed out in this thread, its is possible to get the official MP for a fraction more than a KO if you shop the right place (like HLJ). So, if an extra $10 is gonna break your budget, youre absolutely not in a position to be buying anything. That person is making poor life decisions and clearly doesnt have their priorities in good order.