Hasbro on Fansproject

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by fabexmax, Feb 28, 2011.

  1. fabexmax

    fabexmax Well-Known Member

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    So I was thinking tonight, from a design aspect the City Commander and Protector armors are very impressive engineering feats and I'm sure the Hasbro/Takara guys were like HOLY SHIT! Has Hasbro or Takara offically said anything about the kick ass work 3rd party companies are doing, or have they reached out to offer jobs designing TF toys to any of the FP guys? I place Fansproject at the top of 3rd party pile. With Perfect Effect and TF Club following. What do you guys think?
     
  2. AMG

    AMG Old School

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    I think HasTak just turn a blind eye to the whole thing. Third parties cater to a small minority and don't infringe on profits in any significant way.
     
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  3. process

    process Hanlon's razor Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    The only time, to my knowledge, that Hasbro has said anything (and this is off-the-cuff, mind you) was during the Q&A session at Botcon 2009. This is the source of the "3rd party figures above $100 are a no-no" paraphrase that gets repeated around here.

    From the TFW2005 newsfeed:

    The hammer is taking its time.
     
  4. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    Eric Siebenaler owns a City Commander. You can see it on his desk in the second Allspark Almanac.

    Thats about the most recognition Hasbro will ever give Fansproject, for a whole big mess of reasons. Frankly, I'm surprised Eric even let that thing be photographed on his desk and published. Maybe he just thought no one would find it.

    I'm pretty sure the hammer mostly applies to iGear. FP plays it pretty damn safe.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2011
  5. process

    process Hanlon's razor Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    I'm surprised he keeps it on his desk at all. At least it's only about 2mm tall in the photo!
     
  6. Mach

    Mach Grand Master

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    But now FP is also doing Insecticons... Add on is ok, but step into full figure zone is a bit sensitive....
     
  7. process

    process Hanlon's razor Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    Meh, they already crossed that threshold with Defender.
     
  8. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    They've done full figures before. Warbot Defender, Munitioner, and Explorer.
     
  9. process

    process Hanlon's razor Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    Besides, nothing can really prevent these figures from being released, although they be made more difficult to obtain.
     
  10. fabexmax

    fabexmax Well-Known Member

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    But what about if you can't beat em, join em? I personally feel that the 3rd party stuff has caused Hasbro to take a good look at its property and attempt to give us better engineered figures, with better transformations and articulation.
     
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  11. jerminator

    jerminator Well-Known Member

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    Maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me...but even though it's 99% unlikely, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if FP were secretly funded and even enginered by HasTak. Kinda as a "Sector 7" if you will, of the toymaker. Kind of a way to skirt across child safety laws when it comes to making what we, as fans, want. As I said, I'm pretty sure it's nothing at all like that, but just imagine...
     
  12. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    I don't believe that at all. Hasbro and Takara's design teams are way more talented than any of the fan companies, and they started pushing engineering, transformations, and posability long before they arrived on the scene.
     
  13. Nachtsider

    Nachtsider Banned

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    I can buy the idea of FP being secretly funded by one or more HasTak engineers as a personal, private venture - a creative outlet for ideas that their company would not sanction. But HasTak proper? Doubt it.
     
  14. Lbsammills51

    Lbsammills51 Well-Known Member

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    I highly doubt that figures like Classics Jazz or RotF Leader Prime (any version) or Leader Starscream or Battle Blade Bumblebee owe any of their awesomeness to Hasbro having to "raise their game" to FansProject's level...Hasbro/Takara make damn fine stuff all the time, and will do so with or without the presence of unlicensed companies making upgrade sets, accessories, or even full-fledged figures of their own.
     
  15. Automorpher

    Automorpher Autobot Slut!

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    All I can say is:

    You sure have good imagination. :lol 
     
  16. 9.8m/s^2

    9.8m/s^2 What's in a name?

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    Actually, the full figures are probably safer, from a copyright perspective; they're just generic transforming robots. We, the fans, associate them with characters we're very familiar with, but the average person can't tell the difference between Gobots, Transformers, and Gundam, much less two green robots that turn into some kind of spaceship with rotor blades.

    FP uses no copyrighted symbols or names in its products, and the transformation schemes are quite different from anything we might associate those characters with.

    One could, however, probably make a fair argument that toys like Protector and City Commander are infringements, since they're effectively useless without Hasbro toys, but even that's kind of a long shot, since FP isn't modifying, altering, or visibly profiting from the Hasbro toys (they profit from the stuff they make themselves, but they aren't in the business of selling Hasbro toys at all).

    iGear now....oy...that's a different story.
     
  17. fabexmax

    fabexmax Well-Known Member

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    All figures made in this 3rd party era... Pull out some engineering marvels or advances from the R.I.D, Armarda, or Energon lines? Alternators in my opinion was the pinnacle of Has/Tak's skills until recently.
     
  18. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    It's just a natural evolution of their skills as engineers. the "third parties" have nothing to do with it. You want engineering marvels and advancements from RID? How about the pretty much entire line? Optimus and Magnus, and their combination. the three car brothers. Megatron/galvatron, who had TEN modes. How about Rail Racer? Landfill? Awesome stuff there. Armada? Okay, there isn't much there. Energon? Okay, Slugslinger and Mirage say "sup". So do the combiners. How about cybertron? We can cite, oh... probably half of the entire line. They may not seem like much now, but at the time, Cybertron was wowing us.

    I'd rank every unique mold from RID, and a lot of Cybertron above anything Fansproject has done as far as engineering complexity. I still look at RID toys with awe, and I doubt I'm alone.
     
  19. [Wing_Saber-X]

    [Wing_Saber-X] Takara Fanboy Collector

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    ^;)  And as long as FP makes really good stuff, people will keep on buying.
     
  20. Lbsammills51

    Lbsammills51 Well-Known Member

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    Ummm...right.

    See above. RiD is loaded with figures that are hardly "bricks with arms." The Beast era has a lot of figures that stand up today. Armada wasn't groundbreaking in the engineering department, but did give us Unicron. Energon's Decepticons and much of the Cybertron line were pretty slick. Thrown in Animated, the Movie lines (especially RotF, when Hasbro had some extra time to improve characters the second or third time around), Alternity, the MP releases, the previous Alternators line, the two Hybrid Style molds...that's a helluva lot of awesomesness right there. Much of that came before unlicensed/third party stuff began appearing. Trying to make an association between those recent unlicensed releases and newer stuff is just silly.