I'd just go 100% KO collecting.

 

THERES A NEW EDIT ON THE FIRST POST IN RED PLEASE READ IT

 

HasTak MP has gotten ridiculously overpriced and underdeveloped in comparison to 3P MP.

SS feels cheap and looks ugly to the inevitably superior 4P KO.

And the standard lines look and feel little better than a Happy Meal toy.

 

Reading the edit, it reads like, "DO WHAT I TELL YOU OR ELSE I'M GONNA DEMAND THE THREAD BE LOCKED." Good luck with that. You can't force that degree of control over a conversation like some sort of dictator, it's just not going to happen. Even if you're right, it just comes across like a control freak move. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

It looks like price is not really a factory MP-44 sold well (but Prime and Megs will sell well, no matter the cost). The seekers V2 will probably be out next year costing $250 - $300 each (my opinion and guess, not fact or inside information). 3p has done a great service and actually exposes Hasbro as frauds, as Hasbro cannot produce Transformers (be it the brand, or transfoming/converting robots) as well as many small upstart companies. Takara still as always produce what is expected of Transformers (be it the Transfromers brand, or converting/transforming robots), but I have read many are having issues with MP-44, (I generally do not have these qc issues, but I do not play/transform my stuff more than once, and at $350 - $450 price range there should be no qc issues (never a problem with Bandai, Hot Toys, Sideshow, etc)

 

yeah reading it back it does seem like that   not how it is supposed to come across so have removed that part  

 

For me I’d almost have to stop. The main purpose for me is a COMPLETE G1 collection that meets my desire for look and feel. Official stuff is sitting about 50/50 for me (good/bad). Only about half the G1 releases actually appeal. 3P is essential to fill the collection.
It’s abundantly clear that HasTak are never going to produce every G1 character in MP scale. They’re going to keep releasing stuff from the Japanese continuity because their primary audience is Japan. As much as some folks may love the idea of an MP Ginrai or Black Zarack(?) that holds zero appeal to me.
If 3P dies and HasTak is all that’s left, I’m never going to finish the collection. So I’ll stop collecting. I’ll start selling off the majority, keep a few highlights, and move onto something else.
As much as I like my Huffer or Blitzwing or Red Alert or Streak - they’re really only worth having on my shelf if they’re part of a complete whole. Otherwise it’s a bunch of random characters, some high profile and popular, some virtual nobodies.

 

I can barely afford this hobby by buying used on here mostly and from overseas. If I was left to only buy HasTak MPs then I’d be out. The official releases prices lately?

Megs was $235?
Optimus 3 $440
Bumblebee 2 $150?
Hound?
Unicron $575?

Yeah, no way I could justify it.

 

My collection is about 70% third party, because I'm not fussed about whether a toy is "official" or not, I just buy toys I think look good / interesting / neat, and 3P hits that mark far more often than HasTak IMO. HasTak are definitely kings of CHUG, but I mostly only collect MP stuff, and in that area, HasTak's output has been....mixed. (Granted, 3P's MP output has been very mixed too, but there's enough of it that even if it only has a 20% hit rate, you could still get a sizeable collection.) I really like some of the official MPs - the Beast Wars ones have been great, Ironhide and Sunstreaker are both very strong, and Megatron is one of the jewels of my collection - but on the whole I find 3P MPs feel more "premium" (yes, I'm talking about diecast), have more interesting transformations, and make more effort to hide kibble.

But more than that, HasTak only release 4 or 5 MPs a year, vs the dozens put out by the combined 3P market - now obviously is totally understandable, as we're talking one company (well, two) vs many, and also HasTak's focus is mostly CHUG, but for someone who pretty much solely collects MPs, even if I got all of the official ones, it wouldn't be much of a collection, and it would have a lot of what I consider to be key characters missing. They still haven't released an official MP Galvatron, FFS! How can you do Lio Convoy before you do Galvatron????

Most importantly though, the fact that 3P enables me to have a decent collection means that I, in turn, end up buying official toys that I wouldn't have otherwise. Sunstreaker was never a particularly important character to me, so if I just had a small collection, I wouldn't have bought him - but because I've now got a fairly decent collection, he became a worthwhile purchase to stand alongside his season 1 and 2 pals. Basically, HasTak alone does not put out enough stuff that I'm interested in for me to stay interested in collecting, but HasTak and 3P combined does. So in my case, at least, HasTak is getting money from me that they wouldn't have done if 3P didn't exist. (And this even extends into my rare foray outside of MP - I've got a fair few Siege toys because I'm "in the fandom" now, but I never would have even started on the line otherwise.)

So if 3P stops now, will I stop collecting? Maybe not entirely, but I'll certainly scale back a lot.

 

My collection is almost entirely legends class, and as a result, is mostly Iron Factory because I love the IDW designs. I’ve never seen a Hasbro legends scale figure that met my standard of quality, and especially not in keeping with the IDW style.

If Hasbro were to ‘absorb’ IF and let them continue making their stuff while also gaining profit themselves, that would be awesome. But if they just crushed them underfoot... I guess my collecting would just stop. I’d be disappointed, but my other hobby is Gundam model kits, and here’s no shortage of them ever  

 

I highly doubt Hasbro will end all 3rd party companies (they're really not legit companies, more of a shell company if even that). As long as they don't make the same mistake that ToyWorld & Zeta made that is.

No, I will not stop buying TF's, whatever the case may be.  

 

Just looked.
It was the other guy who used ‘entitled’. My apologies.

Except I didn’t.

Also, not cool to tell people what they do and do not know based on the very little bit they say, or even on the volumes they don’t.

 

Damn, based on their current pricing I bet you’re right. Prime is $450 and Hound is $160, minibot Bumblebee at $120. Seems Starscream will be no less than $200. $1200 for the 6 seekers at a minimum, probably $1200-$1800. Haha goddamn I hope those Make toys Coneheads get out soon.

 

Why isn't there an option for "I will move to China and keep collecting"?

 

Rather optimistic on the seeker pricing there . I was thinking 250-300 minimum tbh. Given how they are currently msrp . Provided they don’t go ttm exclusive and all .

 

Honestly the Hasbro figures are getting close and even beyond third party prices these days. That and every figure seems to get new and better updates every couple of years so I end up with 5 versions of the same characters. I dropped my collecting to Legends for space, with city bots in the background.

 

I think Takara is higher priced than ALL 3rd party options. Obviously the primes, but Bumblebee at $120 vs other larger minibots from FT at $90. Hound at $160 to much larger FT stunticons or Blurr at $105. X-Transbots and maketoys and others are generally cheaper than FT

 

I'm already very selective with my 3rd party purchases, and my official purchases as well, so no more 3rd party wouldn't affect me. I voted slowing to a snail's pace because I'm really already there.

 

Hastak could never completely stop 3P. They could crack down on retailers selling them in certain countries including the US. They could even attempt to sue them but that would be very costly and difficult. They could possibly squash a few companies but those could always come back under a new name. There are things that they could do to limit our access to them, but that’s really the extent of it. For arguments sake in this thread I voted “no” because even though HasTak puts out a lot of overpriced crap (MP44) they also produce a lot of gems (MP36, Siege Jetfire). Also I love transformers.

 

It would slow my collecting down considerably. I doubt I would stop as there is so much stuff already released that I want but don't have. Much of Hastak's stuff just doesn't interest me. I'm outta the CHUG game and most of the official MP's aren't for me. I don't want Beast Wars and I'm not gonna pay 4-500 for something like MP-44.