As the title states, third party companies are everywhere right now, but where will they be in another 5-10 years? What I mean by that is, when all the Transformers characters worth making have already been made many times over by several companies then what will be left to make?

Will it just be endless revisions, clear variants, weathered versions, and glow in the dark cell-shaded chrome limited editions? Seems like a quick trip down the road of diminishing returns.

How will all of these great companies continue to stay in business? The only real long term plan I can think of, which might not even be viable, would be to design and create new and original Transformers characters themselves.

Would the fan base even buy that though? Without the fond memories and nostalgia associated with their childhood cartoons and toys, would enough people be into new Transformers to keep these companies going?

Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?

 

Didn’t we have this thread 5 years ago?

 

3p companies are basically short term. Once all of S1 through S3 (headmasters and target masters included). The party is basically over with, I am not sure if Beast Wars is that popular or have a high enough demand, as far as I know no, 3p company has made a Beast Wars character to date.

 

They'll move on to later continuities. Those won't sell quite as well as G1 but there are plenty of fans for most of them. Personally I can't wait until we start getting a bunch of MP style TFP figures.

 

I'll get right on reading the previous 5-years worth of posts. Thanks!

 

Personally, I wish they would then migrate over to Go-bots and/or M.A.S.K. Those 2 series could use some love. (Yeah, I know, that’s not going to happen)

 

Yeah you're wrong about all that. The companies won't die just because they've made a toy for every character, they still have many other continuities and companies often make multiple versions of characters and multiple toys of characters.

Multiple companies have created Beast Wars figures. Such as Perfect Effect, GCreation, and many more.

 

Once G1 has been fully fleshed out they will probably move on to other continuities; Beast Era, Unicron Trilogy, etc. It’s already started actually.

 

I think 3P will be around for a while longer. The G1, season 1-3 group will get their fix in the next few years. But there's a young generation that grew up watching beast wars, energon, etc. For me, the cool thing about 3P is not only do they release figures that officials haven't touched yet, 3Ps add their own flare to what they feel the character is and could be.

 

I wanted to be done by 2019 but 3Ps want to keep us around so they aren't releasing the figures most needed to complete the G1 MP collection.

 

I imagine they'll keep going they way they have, expanding franchises, storylines and renditions. I hope some neat Beast wars come out, like those weird conceptual robotic beasts..AGH! I can't think of the name! The one with Cranebirb Arcee and Wolf Wheeljack!


I kind of hope some move on to awesome unique transforming figures that hasbro kind of doesn't want to do, like a schoolbus or platypus. I'd kill for a platypus transformer.

 

I don't think you will ever see the death of 3P stuff. They can ALWAYS make upgrades and weapons for official stuff and on top of that there's always this one-upmanship for the ultimate, full "from scratch" engineered take on a figure like, how many 3P Devastators did there have to be? They still keep making new Masterpiece combiners all over the place. Hell I seem to recall during Titans Return that by the time they were done with that line people were asking where they could POSSIBLY go and that Transformers would be all over by the time Power of the Primes was over...yeah that didn't happen. There's always something new so no, I don't think you'll be seeing 3P companies quitting any time too soon, lol.

 

there's what 35yrs worth of lore in the Transformers mythos, heck i haven't even gotten all the 13 yet, no Dead Nova, so much left to do, so much more experimentation available......

 

I like this idea. I have one of the DX9 GoBots and wished they'd make more of them. Some third Party MASK toys would be nice too.

 

They'll probably be a limp-wristed effort to do more Unicron Trilogy stuff but most of those designs are utter shit to begin with.

 

They'll be around as long as buyers are around. The next economic crisis though will wipe out most people. No, it's not the end of the world (sorry to disappoint you), but most people will just not have any discretionary income.

 

I'm hoping the current trend of "animation errors and toon-accuracy uber alles" will be replaced with a "nostalgia for the early MP style, with its max-realism alt-modes while blending the best elements of the toy and toon for the colors and details of bot mode".

 

In 5 years we might have a full team of FT stunticons. Can't wait .

But er, G1 not even close to being done. Even doing the target masters could take 5 years.

 

Still going strong, with short break if major economic crisis, world war 3 or zombie apocalypse happens.

Hopefully, they’ll get weirder, and more of them will make up their own continuities like Cross Dimension or their own bots like Toywolf.

 

Who cares, I don’t even know what will happen tomorrow