don't worry, if "iGear" shut down, the people behind iGear will just have a new company name and go at it again.

Ever seen shops in Chinatowns that don't meet health regulations? They get shut down, and then they reopen with a different name, like from "good chinese food restaurant" to "good chinese food restaurant 2".

 

I am not worried. 3rd parties are here to stay.

 

3rd party companies are not stopping me from buying the HASBRO and TAKARA products I want... I always will.. What is stopping me from buying stuff from Hasbro is the lack of products that I want to spend money on..haha..

 

True enough!

Me too... Hopefully Hasbro takes a proactive and positive approach here, and makes a better effort to give collectors what they want.

Heck, if we're willing to spend so much money on third party products, no doubt Hasbro could offer more high end, collector focused G1 Transformers. Mattel's demonstrated that this approach can be a success. No doubt they'd be more expensive than TFs at retail, but Hasbro could probably STILL do it cheaper than most third party companies...

 

Only the seekers would put them in trouble according to CHL since Faith Leader is downscaled just like the supposedly safe JIT WST toys.

 

I lol'd.

How about this HasTak.....release the fucking figures we want and there would be no discussion.

Simples.

 

That's true. Likely not the downscaling by itself, but the reduced size plus lack of diecast parts, lack of electronics (no light-up matrix in the chest) no emblem on the shoulders and the extra head/set of hands (with the first release, anyway) probably amounts to a 51% difference.

 

I heard after they're done going after Third Parties, they're going to find the real killer.

 

I don't think Hasbro plans to litigate this in the courts only. THey can exert pressure on the BBTSs' and TFSources of the world and get a good hit with that.

File in Fed court and then work to suppress shipping through the US and European customs.

 

I don't think Hasbro could get igear forceably shut down. Ever. Not with them being in China.

But they could and are going to try to cripple their business model enough to get them to say Uncle and give up directly ripping off TF IPs.

My money is on never seeing the entire 84 cast from igear. Let alone the rest of the planned minibots.

 

Highly doubt that in IMHO. Too many wild cards, we will see them one way or another. Hasbro doesn't even know who these people at Igear are. If I had to guess, there's probably investors in the shadows, who can just change Igears name, and release them under some other banner.

 

Not simple. Just because they don't make your precious background nobody #352 doesn't give people the right to rip off their IP.

 

I would love to know how exactly Hasbro will enforce this in China. I work for one of the largest companies in the world and we cannot enforce this in China. And we work with their govt in some damn cases to do research. I would love to see how Hasbro is going to hurt any 3rd party company.

Now resellers of these goods. We shall see. Realistically the best they could do is work with Customs to stop shipments and go after resellers.

 

Customs have better things to do then play cat and mouse for toys...

 

This thread makes me want to write a long and illustrated document to Hasbro, suggesting an online exclusive collectors line focusing on combiners and highly sought after characters.
I'm pretty sure that's the best way they can fight 3rd party companies.
hell even a petition would be cool, even though they never work unless they're on facebook.

 

Exactly. But realistically it is one of the only the options they have.

 

Is that even something that has been done before at that kind of scale?

 

I dont see TFC to get involve if this happened, they never use any Hasbro molds unlike iGear, Hercules is one of their own design/mold. The name is different and everything.

I will pray to God about iGear.  

 

I think any that use re-mixes of old molds or use protected imagery such as logos will be the first hit. Legally, I would imagine repro labels are on dodgier territory than Fans Project who just make transforming robots.

 

If it has, it wasn't for TOYS.