Terrible news. This project was such a phenomenal commitment by fans that everyone should hope they get an official release.

 

I'm holding out hope that we'll get the same books just with no "un" in the title.

 

If it comes to it, i really hope it's IDW and they publish it pretty much as OE wanted. IDW has produced some really nice books in the past (think Artist Edition comics they do) and you would hope that OE's vision and quality of work + IDW resources and marketing = An official guide, available worldwide via Diamond at a decent price.

There's clearly a demand (probably at least what IDW's premium books see) and nearly all the hard has been done by the OE crew already. They just need to take our money!

 

Well that's just booo! Booo to whoever stopped these books from being published.
Hopefully they will get something "official" out as they stated in their statement.

 

Thanks for the support guys. Really appreciate it

 

Really sucks. So now Hasbro's lawyers get involved, and all the fun has to stop. If there is a deal in the future to put these books out under Hasbro or IDW's banner, I just hope the Ocular Echo folks get due credit and compensation for their passion and toil.

 

Very disappointed to hear this . This passion project of yours as presented is incredible,it's a real shame that it's come this close and run into this roadblock. I hope the avenue for this to release does present itself.
This project lends itself perfectly for not only us old timers  ..but the newer generations of fans as well. There are so many of the import bots that aren't known to the community as a whole that I for one was really looking forward to. I hope all the hard work that you guys have done does find it's way into our hands,thanks again.

 

Hasbro has given permission for some "garage kits" in the past. Perhaps they'll do the same. If Hasbro is looking to publish the books, I would prefer if the publisher was Million Publishing company that has done the Masterpiece books for Takara. Better paper.

 

Well crap! I really want these. Hopefully they can strike a deal with Hasbro to get these published. It would be foolish not to. These would sell like Hot Cakes!

 

I concur with JoeHavok. Hasbro would be foolish to turn down these tomes. If they manage to work out a deal, who knows? Perhaps they could also include Tech specs, maybe even Box-artwork. If they're able to work something out, and they're able to give this an official release, and everyone would be able to buy them, that would make this setback more than worth it.

I wish you the best of luck, and I hope things turn out well.

 

What Bryce said. Thank you for all the support guys and thank you for all the love shown towards the project so far. Really appreciated.

 

Pledged. (Yeah, I know it'll expire in a few hours. But I figure the more pledges there are, the more apparent it will be to TPTB that there is a demand for this.)

ETA: And yes, despite my OCD over the two bits I didn't like, I was planning to pledge tomorrow afternoon.

 

Sad to hear the news, dudes. I was really looking ok’ing forward to this.

 

Hmm...if Jim Sorensen and Bill Forster could do it with official backing, why can't these guys do it?

Still sad that this didn't work out as I was hoping something of an English equivalent to the Japanese G1 Generations DX photo book.  

 

So the ******s at Hasbro sucked their soulless vampire lawyers at the creators of these two book volumes with a 'Cease and Desist' order. Pretty low of Hasbro. Sure, they can do this, however, I fail to see how in any way that these two volumes would cause any financial detriment to Hasbro's earnings. Is is merely a pictorial resource guide of Transformers produced in the early 80's to perhaps early '90's. How is this any difference than someone like me who posts video review of these same G1 toys on YouTube? Is Hasbro going to sick their goons on me and others who do the same, too? You hit a new low, Hasbro. If I were CEO, I'd be flattered that fans took this much time and effort to create such a product. So much so that I would have BACKED IT UP and therefore making it an OFFICIAL guide. Hasbro could have taken the high road and supported this. Deals can be made. Instead, Hasbro took the thug route.

 

Honestly, I don't want anything else, I just want what I pledged toward: A super high quality photo gallery archive of the G1 toys (and the second volume to support the cause for those who want that). If Hasbro or whomever does anything more than simply place an official seal on this, the end result is more than likely going to be less good in some way than what this was intended to be by its creators. This is so very disappointing.

 

Hastak needs to understand that 3P companies and other non official TF related companies have driven its success of Transformers. I'm sure if that all wasn't there, there were a lot less collectors. We cannot create a wonderful collection off of 1-2 figures a year.

 

Do we know for sure it’s a cease and desist, or have Ocular Echo simply pulled the Kickstarter because they found a willing publisher and decided to go down that route instead?

Whatever the reasons, I’m not sure we should be giving Hasbro a kicking here without knowing all the facts.

 

They are a witch! Burn them!