We are about to interview Chris Sterett of Dr. Wu fame! Hit us up on Skype at [email protected] if you have any questions you'd like us to ask Chris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZZI5HrA8ik&feature=youtu.be

 

Dr. Wu?

Sure.

More ARTICULATED mini human figures please. The last one, whilst kinda nice, felt like a huge step backwards from their "partners" figures.

 

Well, for one, can they speak about what happened to the Mixer project?

Two: Any plans for more "G1" Masterpiece-"scale" (~1:30) human figures?

 

Definitely worth watching. A lot of interesting 3rd party info and affiliations talked about.

 

Yeah, good stuff, even the first 20 minutes is filled with info. Thanks for the heads up!

There's always been some rumors running around about how many companies are inter-related, but always interesting to hear more inside info.

So it sounds like it's more than just different companies sharing designers, it's more like multiple companies owned by certain umbrella corps, all rolled up to a handful of owners, so it makes sense that they might share designers and such.

Interesting also about Fansproject being secretive about which other companies it owns, especially considering their Function-X line has arguably fallen off in design and materials quality recently.

As for the middleman markup issue, not surprising, especially considering import/export distribution is a major vulnerability for producers. But this does explain why we sometimes see such better deals from individual no-name sellers on eBay in China, compared to the prices from North American distributors.

It was funny to hear that Hasbro uses some of the same factories as 3P.

update: made it through the first hour before calling it a night. looking forward to the second hour. would love to hear more about the people behind 3P products and their relationships with designers. The 3P moguls seem like a combination of fans and business people who just happen to be in the right place with the right connections and have a passion for higher quality TFs than HasTak produces or specific comicbook figures that HasTak has not bothered to turn into physical product.

 

This was an excellent interview. It got a bit annoying at the end because Pedro was SO LOUD, and talked over the guest Chris.

 

Haven't had a chance to listen to watch this yet but Chris is a terrific guy. Rolls the red carpet out for my kids whenever we visit. Anytime my son gets a new figure he wants to take it to Chris' house and show it off to him. Also has the best Citybot display I've ever seen.

 

Really interesting podcast!

 

Very interesting, I love me some upgrade kits, hopefully Dr. Wu makes a comeback...

 

Some extremely interesting MP tidbits there. MP Bruticus would be most welcome.

 

Interesting interview, when he was allowed to speak for more than 10 seconds at a time. If another is ever done, can Pedro please not be so loud or interrupt so much?

Would love Dr Wu to continue making more human characters. I know there's no market for them, so it would never happen, but the kids from TF Prime or RID/Car Robots would be great.

Also interesting was the information about a certain yellow figure being purposely sabotaged.

 

Who was the yellow figure?

 

Omnigonix Spinout, which KFC/Xtb stated they had no involvement with despite being produced at their facility. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

Here are the juicy bits (thanks for the corrections):

-HasTak response to 3P is releasing Mps every other month to compete
-Keith probably owns everything (XTB, KFC, SXS, Gulity, DX9 and UT are confirmed).
-There used to be only four people who owned all of 3rd party, but this may have changed.
-Talk of a "middleman" who distributes to Asia who bullies all third parties. All American companies get their stock from him.
-There is a LOT of drama behind the scenes.
-Spinout was a POS on purpose. There's another Sunstreaker coming out soon and Spinout's manufacturing was sabotaged to appear inferior.
-Quality issues are usually caused by bad assembly team (designs are too complicated for them to understand) or rushed mold process.
-Dr. Wu goes to the factory himself to supervise assembly of his products.
-Dr. Wu (the person) doesn't get along with Keith. He is also a real doctor.
-HasTak use the same factories as 3P. They also like to talk with the 3P designers and share ideas.
-HasTak had a MP Bruticus in the works for the Year of the Decepticon, one Combaticon every other month. This was canned.
-Galvatron was planned for 2015, but was messed up because of Takara changing designers
-Designs for some 3P figures are purposefully sabotaged so that upgrades can be made later to make more money.
-3P has inside info on new Takara releases, usually because of Takara employees blabbing.

 

That's a pretty solid recap.

 

A lot of that goes against things I know first hand, working in the 3P scene since before Fansproject came out public with City Commander.

 

Is the middleman Robotkingdom, or am I getting that wrong?


I was curious what his full answer was about getting around the legality of 3rd party? I know he said only 3 companies ever got shutdown. I was curious if he knew of something more concrete from a legal standpoint about IP?

 

Solid, but not without errors:

Not directly, but the dramatic increase in MP releases is thanks to the market 3P products have demonstrated exists.

This was apparently the case a few years ago, but probably doesn't hold true today.

No, the production and release schedule was messed up because TakaraTomy changed designers.

This apparently applies to businesses run by certain unscrupulous Chinese businessmen, but not to all third parties.

This was said of Hasbro employees, not TakaraTomy.

No, a significant number of third-party companies don't even do business with Robot Kingdom. They don't distribute any MakeToys, Mastermind Creations, or FansProject product, for example.

Plus, the owner of Robot Kingdom was one of several individuals identified by name; this mysterious middleman was not.

 

Wow. Damn interesting!!


So they canned the idea of a MP combiner eh.. And their first choice wasn't even Devatator. Strange.

Wonder if we'll ever see any kind of MP combiners from them then.

Also, oh wow. Purposely sabotaged Spin-Out. And so the rumors WERE true then? It was a KFC-thing after all. So I guess that means there actually is a few more 3P sunny's coming.

And I'm assuming that same shady Chinese businessman, is Keith.

Again. All super interesting stuff.

 

Ur city commander video is the greatest 3rd party video ever, i can still watch it a grip of times in a row. i have listened to the show a few times now and i realize i did make some mistakes. for ex. i came across like MMC FP and MT are all the same which they are not, they are all separate companies. if i am invited back on i have some apologies to make, some info corrected and i need to make clear what is opinion and what i hear as fact. i was so nervous, had no idea it was live much less video. i was ill prepared to say the least. if i am back on like i said i will try and fix what mistakes i made and make clear what was my opinion not fact. Hope all is well with you and yours