I enjoyed the podcast. The older I get, the more I find I'm interested in the business side of things and the back workings. Nothing said really surprised me. Some people are always going to be nice(r), and some will not. But yeah agreed nothing said really evil... but maybe less than good practices?

 

Ever thought about an 'ask Chris ' thread? Not as cool as a chat over beers, but could be quite interesting... Thanks again, though, it was a good listen. Same with the hosts, even if the discussion could have been steered a little better, it was well worth listening to.

 

im not worthy my friend   but thank you, i will always do my best to answer any ones questions of course, i mean, i love people and Tfers so easy   plus im old news, been outa the game since 2014 i still have friends of course but nothing like the inside info i use to have, to be honest i didnt even make money, i just loved to be a part plus i would get test shots and prototypes as gifts and other gifts that was always very very nice   but i did it for the love of it and the honor of being a part and helping friends. anyways no need to waste a thread just for me, we can talk here and they told me they would have me back on this Saturday just a little while ago, so i will straighten some things out and be way more organized i hope   Blessing to you and yours

 

You should do an AMA here on TFW. "I AM A Third Party Transformers Legend. Ask me anything."  

 

LOL the legends are the designers, im just a fan, but thank you   May God bless u and urs  

 

Cool, look forward to checking it out.

Do you know who iGear became...or what umbrella they fall under?

Also curious if FansToys falls under a group or if they're their own entity?

 

I just wonder why no third party Dirge, Ramjet or Thrust ever has the option for toy accurate non-cone heads. Seem like the heads are already molded for Starscream and crew.

 

I done understand how a factory could sabotage Spinout. You have a company who commissions the designs, and the they commission a factory to produce the figure. The company gives the schematics to the factory. Would the factory change the schematics? They check the progress at various stages. The factory doesn't move to the next step, including the ultimate step of producing the final figures, until they get the all clear from the company. At lease that's how factory production works in the industrial production I'm familiar with. So if the factory's preproduction models weren't up to snuff, it was on Omnigonix the company to catch that and insist on improvements. If the final product was inferior, that was on Omnigonix to catch that before shipping. Sue the factory for breach of contract. If they let inferior product ship to retail, they sabotaged themselves, didn't they?

 

Some of the posted info has already been rebutted by a reliable person, and even Chris clarified thst a lot of it was opinion or hearsay.

IMO, this info doesn't seem any more concrete than any of the other rumors that get posted.

 

Not only that the info was from 2014. Look at how much 3P has grown since then. This is no longer relevant data. Still a good listen though (minus Pedro)

 

Fanstoys is its own company, yes the team was built up of people from other companies but they are very proud of their sovereignty and practice FPs tight lipped super secretive approach. hope ur having a great day bro

Man i so agree with you, i really think with out my bro and i gone this one guy can only release so much at one time because of money and he cant be everywhere at once, where as we always had lots of help and helped others and they helped us. i really think thats why its so slow and only 2 releases at a time for most upgrades. Hope all is well  

Venksta is a legend, and i think we understand one another now   i respect your opinion 100 and wish you and yours the very best  

Ur very kind, and yes so much has changed, im just happy to have been a part of the Genesis   Blessing to you and yours

 

@ Chris

Do you know if Cloud 9 and Gigapower are the same people? And do you know why there is such a rift between FT and GP?

Thanks  

 

What I like is that a lot of the stuff you're talking about is from when I was first getting into 3P (2012ish). I really hope you guys do part 2 on Saturday because I want to listen to it on my long drive home from TFcon on Sunday

 

Hey everyone,

This is Bill from The Plastic Empire Podcast.

First, I wanna thank Chris for joining us, we do plan to have Chris back on soon, Saturday we have our annual local collector group BBQ so unfortunately it will have to be either Sunday or the following weekend. We will update everyone here when it will be. You can also like us on Facebook or Subscribe to our Youtube channel as we post updates when upcoming shows will be.

I want to say while Pedro had his moments of sporadicness, he is a fan first and he was like a kid in a candy store. If you listen to our shows you will know Pedro's love for toys and comics is extremely deep, he truly is passionate. His enthusiasm is what makes him unique and I would say listen with that in mind and you will have a better understanding of it and probably appreciate it a little more. We are fans who just wanna talk about what we love with our friends and share it with others so we do a podcast.

We will make sure the next sit down with Chris stays a little more on track next time. We don't like to call guest appearances interviews because we want to interact not just ask questions, we want to just talk toys like we do with each other and keep it loose, however, I understand the point of the first appearance being a little to loose and next shot will be a little tighter and more inline while still keeping it loose and more of a friendly environment vs a 20/20 segment.

I for one will say that it is very difficult using google hangouts and having seamless banter as someone posted earlier, that is the one drawback, the audio portion of the podcast cleans some of the drop offs the hangouts creates and that is available on our website (link in signature) and through itunes, stitcher and any other podcast app available.

Again thank you for the support and we are extremely happy to have you guys in such a great discussion over the contents Chris brought to our show.

Please add us on Skype [email protected] and if you have any questions during the follow-up show you can ask them live during the broadcast or even email them to us asap at the above email and we will be sure to ask them on the show.

Thank you for all the support and feedback, good, bad or indifferent. Thank you to all who have subscribed to our Youtube Channel, watched the video, listened to the podcast and like our Facebook page.

Thank you, Bill
The Plastic Empire

 

Long-post alert...

I just got done listening to the podcast myself. There's interesting info mixed in, but as others have touched on already, a lot of it felt lost amidst the format of the discussion. My own reflections (for the hosts and Mr. Autobot78):

- The lead host, Pedro, didn't bother me as much as he has some others. He did try and get the guy to step back a bit and provide some context to what he was talking about at times, which was appreciated for a listener like myself that felt like Chris/Autobot78 was jumping into a tangent while expecting everyone who'd be listening to know what he was referring to even generally. I wasn't as thrilled with the other hosts, who I kept wishing would reign in Pedro's own random tangents (I did NOT need that extended PE Reflector discussion).
- I see from the above post that there was a desire to keep this interview less of an interview and more of an informal chat - I get that for the hosts, but this is a recorded podcast. It's not bad, but it wasn't easy to listen to either. I don't feel it needed a restrictive structure or scripting or something like that, but some kind of structure would've been very helpful. For example, I wish the whole discussion led with introducing Chris/Autobot78 and his third party bonafides; 20-30 minutes into the discussion, I was sitting there wondering "Well this is interesting info if true, but why the hell should I care what this guy is saying when I have no idea how he knows this or how valid it is? I could B.S. my way through an interview like this saying similar things and be an instant 'insider' of sorts just by being a convincing bullshitter." Hearing the background later helped, but even that felt disjointed as well. Was a pre-interview of any kind touching on what you wanted to discuss even done?
- Along those lines, ironing out who's who in third party would've been nice. "Keith" vs "Keith X" was confusing.
- Establishing early that Chris/Autobot78 no longer has an active role with third parties, and his information ends at '14, would've been a HUGE clarifier that should've been stated early and repeated throughout. It's not to undermine him, but provide further context about the information he was offering. Without that info coming later, I would've assumed all his info is alleged to be current up to right now. That's an incredibly important part of the discussion that felt glazed over.
- Chris/Autobot78 mentioned multiple times that he "hoped Hasbro/Takara wouldn't get mad at (him)" over certain tidbits he was sharing - well, could he share that info comfortably or not? That comes off to me as either an inside joke, him being overly cautious/paranoid about what he knows, or he's being reckless and opening up certain people to unwitting reprisals by even speaking vaguely. For him, he should know damn well what he can and can't share and articulate things in a way that doesn't implicate anyone. Hearing him repeat that he hoped Hasbro/Takara wouldn't get mad and that they're "always listening" was irritating in how flip it came off. Seriously, if this is a big deal, why the hell is he willing to go on-camera and presumably use his real name?
- Similarly, is there any reason why the nefarious third party distributor/attempted monopolizer wasn't specifically named? Does naming that individual/entity risk reprisal for Chris/Autobot78's former third party connections? If not, why wasn't that distributor named? Hearing follow-up about why third parties can't get around this individual would've been nice; I have no business background, so it seems simplistic to me to just not deal with this person/entity. Explaining why they're so omnipresent within the third party scene would've helped.
- Hearing that info about KO Toys and the photo site was interesting, but I really wish there'd been more follow-up about iGear. They've been the subject of plenty of rumors (the talk they paid someone to get the actual MP-3 mold so they could knock it off for their Seekers has been out there for a long time), so I was more interested in that then KO Toys, especially if there was anything new that could be added to their downfall.
- MP-21's "delay" was brought up; Bumblebee was released November '14, not February (hell, the G2 redeco came mid-summer, so it wasn't that either). MP-13 was delayed to late January in '13, but that obviously came before Bumblebee.
- Random, but I found it funny Chris/Autobot78 said he was really into MMA, but didn't remember Brock Lesnar's name at first.

These peaks behind the curtain are relevant for fans to get a better understanding of the third party market, and Transformer market in general. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal, but within the toy collector world, it's notable, so I wish the information & delivery was handled with a bit more care. I kind of wish this was done, at least initially, as a written interview that'd allow for follow-up questions to clarify things before posting, with the recorded podcast done as further follow-up. If you have a source of info who's willing to talk, use it wisely. If he can't name every name while speaking on camera, maybe consider doing the interview using a pseudonym and don't put him on camera.

tl;dr - Interesting info, but method of delivery on all parts could've used some fine tuning.

 

I'd also love to know more about iGear.

And Keith/KFC.

 

It's good to see you on here interacting with people and spreading your knowledge.

 

Wow bro, your very well spoken and intelliegnt, i will try my best to answer the best i can. i respect your long time membership here at TFW as well.

- Yes i was all over the place and Pedro was reeling me back in the best he could. i was trying to talk like i do with all my friends. I did not know this was going to be live, i did not know it was going to be video, the only prep i did was about the lighting and throwing away boxes to help your display and space. we had no prior meeting to organize because we didnt feel the need to. this was not suppose to be like a Dan Rather interview it was just suppose to be new friends chatting and putting it on a live video broadcast i guess for the few others that might enjoy listening or watching. i made mistakes, i have apologies to make but nothing was done to hurt anyone, i love everyone and want everyone to do well, thats why i didnt want the middle man to sound like a bad person just a great business man for all i know, i know nothing about business so im a fish outa water and have no right to judge you know?

- ok 2nd thing, you are sooo right, we should'nt have tried to wing it, because i thought it wasnt live and just a verbal podcast i thought we could edit out names, or correct certain things, skip boring things, oh but i liked the PE reflector thing, i mean its nerds talking about nerd stuff and that is a classic 3rd party that was great fig and imo kinda deserved a shout out considering the context but i of course respect your opinion. Anyways i would have done it differently if i knew better and the prep was my fault, we had a few days we could have preped but my ignorance didnt see the need. ( hindsight's a bitch   ) i totally see the importance of giving my background in the begging of the show like you said so my credentials so to speak would have been established from the get go, an obvious mistake that i made, you are right.

- yes you are very right again, Assigned alias' with exact link to their ties plainly laid out would have been the best way to go.

- Again you are right, i should have in the beginning explained the years i was involved. the reason i didnt think of these things like the credentials is naively believed the podcast was like for the members of the FB group where i met the Plastic Empire guys and would have already seen the pics of the sharkclones and that i was only good for info from 09-14. So i was really coming from the continuing on from the FB page post and discussion. Again didnt have any idea   Im generally not good at most things imagine something i have never tried before   if it wasnt for Pedro it would have been a disaster because of me, i admit it  

- Sorry you found me irritating about apologizing to Hasbro, between my panic disorder (which was very difficult to control even before i knew it would be live and video) and the few to many before and during the show to try and help calm my nerves proved to be a very bad idea. As i was very paranoid about pissing off hasbro by saying something the wrong way, or being misunderstood. If they went after my buddies fb page they will go after any one who they believe might have done them wrong, so i wanted to make it clear that i respected their ways of combating the 3rd parties, and i believe in the end it will be successful. Plus for all we know these 'supposed" hasbro employees could have been anyone, a factory worker, a family member of a employee, a con artist, theres no 100% proof that they even worked for hasbro, so i should have made that clear, i mean i wasnt even the one meeting them, it was my bro, so yeh i have a natural tendency to be anxious because of my panic disorder and has taught me to try to be as nice and respectful as possible to everyone to not cause any negativity  

- I dont think the middle man should be named because that would cause for people to make a judgement call on him, i not only dont believe in judging others but i dont dare want to set up a scenario where i put others in the situation to have to make a judgement about someone, although by even mentioning him that defeated most of my reasoning except at least his identity is still kept secret. its also very easy to poke around and find out who he is, just saying

- The ko stuff is so scary to talk about because where does one draw the line, i have great sources saying one thing but others saying another, its a legal issue with hasbro and way outa my league, so only speculative conversation will happen about Kos purely opinions, im sure hasbro has had the KO problem solved every since they destroyed Mike's Ko toy store

- i dont know exact MP release dates, if i had prepared i would have had all the exact dates and things would have had made much more sense, again my mistake   ( i make more mistakes than i get things right generally in life   )

- oh no no no, IM HUGE into MMA that was a combination of a brain fart, one too many, and nervousness making me go blank. i have got to hang out with a lot of awesome fighters because the coach i talked about skateboards and collects MMA figures like i do, we have been friends since 04. He owns OTM if your familiar with MMA

- Everything you said about synonym and order, and better preparedness is absolutely correct and will be corrected for next show.

thanks for your advice and best wishes to you and yours

p.s. one great thing has come of this, other than my renewal of faith in people by how nice everyone has been, i have had a few people message me who make things on shapeways and want me to teach them how to design for mass production, so i get to help out again behind the scenes yay!!!!  

 

TT stuff : I heard we're not going to do Inferno till 2018.

3Ps: Let's cash Inferno in 2016

 

Chris, thanks for taking the time to go over things and explain, I truly respect that