I'm the third party black repaint of Sixo. I'm unlicensed but lots of fun.  

I do see your point here, and it's an interesting point. They have definitely left it to go on too long if they do plan to try and curb it now.

Honestly, at this point, if I was HasTak, I'd be finding out how to hire some of the 3P designers and make them work for me. Probably the best way to take the wind out of third party is to produce better figures than them, after all.

On another point, I will say one thing that I definitely agree with from that article about Botcon - 'third party' is a very strange term.

 

Oh, man, after a long lull, this thread sure has gotten fun again this last week  

I have to say, though, even with Optimus Primal's reveal, it still looks like the line is sticking to the formula of "real car series" and A-list leader characters. It's looking like we'll see Armada Optimus before we see Insecticons or Kup.

 

Just this year I fell into the 3rd party trap and boy did I fall hard!! Between FansToys, Xtransbots, and KFC my collecting habits more than tripled. 3rd party is a dangerous path but I am LOVING it! Official MP is still my first love and I would prefer all my G1 MPs to be official Takara MPs but some 3rd party figs are amazing!

 

Man, thinking about Ironhide's price kinda bummed me out. I can usually land the carbots on eBay for $60-$70 shipped, and I guess I forgot Ironhide was gonna be a little bigger so he'll cost just that much more. He's still worth every penny, but I guess I'll have to step into that brave new world of paying more than $70 max for any one Masterpiece.

It does go without saying that I don't own many MPs.  

 

Oh, don't get me wrong - I don't either. I do think they're more likely than MP Dinobots, though. Regardless, I am thinking 5+ years down the line.  

I gotta say, though... Seeing them in the Generations line makes me think they're a BIT more likely than they were...

Well, based on that statue/concept thing they showed, he seems to be VERY early in the works... I'm kind of surprised they showed that, now that I think of it. We really have no idea how it's going to turn out, based on that...

But regardless, the info probably just didn't trickle down to the informants yet, that's all.

lol, I'm with you. I find it helpful to be picky - I still haven't bought anything from XTransbots and KFC, no matter how good Appolyon and Transistor looked. I seem to buy everything from FansToys though... Their Hound is the only preorder I've hesitated on, since it seems such a likely choice for Takara. I'll probably end up biting, though. BadCube's another good one.

I am interested to hear Enterlaw's opinion on why Hasbro hasn't sent C&D letters... that was a good point.

 

I would totally be down with an Armada Optimus. As long as Takara fleshes it out with more MP Armada figures. It could totally be a tiny line with just 5-10 releases.

Having said that, I'm tired with Japan/Takara's obsession with Convoy. Yes, he's the leader and main hero but I can't stand a collection that only has him and maybe a few others. These franchises are fun because they are filled with a ton of characters that will never have the spotlight and are never the main hero/villain. /End Rant.

 

Ugh, Armada anything would be a big pass from me.

I watched Beast Wars as a teenager so there's some nostalgia there, I guess. Not to the same level as G1 but it's there, plus it helps that the storyline fit right into G1 and had terrific writing.

But Armada? Apologies to anyone who grew up with it, but I thought that show was just terrible. Even Bay's movies were better.  

 

The only reason I discovered MP figures was I saw Hercules on eBay when I was looking for G1 devastator. I saw the G1 toy and was like "this is not what I remember as a kid". Then I saw Herc and thought "this is more like it". I started doing research and found/bought Giant. Then MP Sun Storm from my local TRU. 1 year later I have almost 4 full detolfs mixed with MP and 3P MP stand-ins. I would have been completely oblivious to the whole line, if not for Herc. And I don't buy CHUG toys. I'm 35; I dont do toys. My kids do. HasTak would have no money from me, if not for that fateful day.

Edit... Come on MP shockwave  

 

Honestly? I have no idea. Unless, maybe the U.S. based online retailers make more money for them then they'd want to risk losing. But even that's a total guess. I have no idea. I mean, we send C&D letters to retailers selling knock offs or infringing on our IP all the time.

 

You can check TakaraTomy's annual report. There you can see where it actually stands, and Transformers are definitely not the biggest player for TakaraTomy.

 

Had to do lots of catching up in here to figure out where the shockwave news came from . Really excited to hear ! If these rumors come true , the MP line will have one of the best years in its entire run so far . I'm so thankful for this line !

 

Love your attitude, Cyclonus  

 

Gotcha. Well, if we're thinking five years ahead then yeah, anything's possible.    

Same here, personally. I guess this is how others feel about Beast Wars, but I have no attachment to Armada. Just never did it for me in any sense. Great for those who like it though.

Great story! I'm sure you won't be the only one, as well.  

 

Agreed, the promising thind about the Shockwave rumour (if true) is that virtually no figure is out the running for TT, this rumor certainly has me having second thoughts about buying any further 3rd party Masterpieces.

 

As stated in the first post, please use the Third Party forum for 3rd party "Masterpiece speculation" discussion: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...ll-all-3p-masterpiece-speculation-thread.html

 

Start buying from Japan and you'll save loads. I'd imagine Ironhide will be around what you normally pay for a car bot, maybe a bit less with the 30% preorder discount.

 

Yep! At this point, NONE of us should be paying $80 for an Autobot car when you have so many overseas options.