Has it gotten to the point where this will be a common reply? The Hasbro/Takara offerings primarily. If it's a popular MP it'll get KO'd soon enough. Not only that but now the recent Generations offerings are not only getting KOd but upsized as well. With the current Siege stuff getting the treatment by Aoyi Mech/Black Mamba is it worth not getting the official release and hope the figure gets KOd or risk waiting for something that won't get KOd and have to pay aftermarket price for the official figure down the line.
I used to have the "Hasbro is shit" mentality but lately they have been proving themselves, in the SS line anyways, for that reason I try my best to support them even if I plan on getting the KO/KO OS. However, a shit figure is still a shit figure regardless of the company making it. If I watch a video of an MP that is trash quality you can bet your ass I'll wait for a KO.
yes, wait for KO, but waiting on the improved KO version, not straight same crap quality as the original...
With the soaring prices and wanning quality of official MP figures I'm forced to wait for the KO or go 3P. I do still buy a lot from the mainline though. I haven't bought official MP since their MP-11. I dont mind them retooling an aged mold, but leaving the shit QC while charging premium prices no thanks. When it comes to Takara I'll wait for the KO.
I have supported Hasbro this past year with Siege, but the major complaint was getting "cheated" on the leader class figures. I have the Siege Ultra Magnus, great figure, but if Aoyi Mech release the OS KO it should be around the same size as the CW UM. And I'm also pondering Astrotrain. I haven't found him in Targets or Walmarts in my area, and if I were to find him I'm not so sure I'd buy him if the possibility exists that eventually it'll get KOd...but if not???
I do the same now, ever since after MP Sunstreaker though. Even him, i got him for 85 USD shipped from Amazon Japan., which was worth it, and good quality. MP Inferno i was able to get for 100$ shipped, a year or two after original release, because the original version is fantastic. Those two are my favorites from Takara. Other than that, i feel the Datsun mold is pretty worth it, but the KO of it is good too. The Bee v1 either would work. For MP Wheeljack, original is better. For Megatron, IT or THF improved KO are the way to go. For Soundwave and Ultramagnus, the THF improved KOs are again the way to go. For MP-11 mold, definitely better to go KO, as original quality sux bad, and price is ridiculous. Waiting on improved KO of Optimus v3 and Bee v2
Its a sad state of affairs when multiple other companies can make your own designs better than you can - but that's where we are. When you don't get hung up on BS like "brand loyalty", an entire universe of new and better options is made available. "I'll wait for the KO" is no one's fault but HasTak.
I've been buying the official Siege and Studio Series figures. Both of those lines are supposedly maintaining an internal scale, so I've little interested in upsized KOs. As for the MPs, well, based on their price tags lately I'd wait for the KOs... if I didn't already prefer 3P versions. I don't think I've bothered with any Takara design since Hot Rod (whom I don't really like, but I don't like Hoodlum enough to replace him). I've got Voodoo's Ratchet, MMC's Inferno, Cloud9's Shockwave, Maketoys' Megatron, Hound, and Grapple, Badcube's Sunstreaker, and both Magic Square and TE's Optimus.
i don't like the mentality of "wait for the KO" because i believe in supporting the original company that makes a toy reality. However, I also no longer trust takara tomy with making a high quality issue free product. When was the last time they did that in the MP line? I wait and see. If its worth buying, i'll buy it if I like it. If its not worth buying, well then I hope that a KO comes out because it might be worth the KO price. For instance....hound. i wait, and saw....saw that there were issues. I didn't like the design enough to take a chance, plus i had FT's willis already. Now if someone KO's hound and it won't break apart, and looks good enough, AND is WORTH what is being charged for it, i will consider it. Same can be said about MP-44...no way i' perordering and trusting takara with $325 for a toy that isn't worth more than $200 to me (and i love prime btw!)...the design has too many shortcomings but is not without charm. i wait and saw...quality was iffy and content wasn't REALLY worth it IMO even if the quality was good. In the mean time i have every other MP prime mold, and if a KO comes out and looks, good, doesn't break, and is of reasonable price...i'll consider it. now if i LOVED the mp-44 design i might have paid the aftermarket $390 price....but beign lukewarm on teh design and of questionable quality...i sat it out. am i waiting for the KO? not really. if one comes out i'll think about it though granted it meets my criteria.
when it comes to generations figures not everything gets ko'd and even if it does its not always in a consistent manner. take the aoyi mech red alert for example. they went lazy and just repainted the sideswipe ko, red alert does not come with the right accessories or head.
The last quality product was the repaint of MP Sunstreaker i believe, from the G1 toys anyways. They already jumped pricing alot of MP Sunstreaker, but they showed much increased engineering / articulation, and paint was good. But then they increased the pricing on a repaint, then keep super increasing pricing on each release. And on top, paint quality lowered with their increased pricing... and qc issues increased too... like wtf, they randomly jack up the price to no ends, and you under-deliver on qc and paint where they use to exel at...
It was the common refrain a year or two ago when KOs were getting out of hand and even some 3P products were getting KO'd. Anymore I think the only time it comes up often is with Takara's over-priced, under-quality releases.
This has been my rally cry as far as Hastak since about 2012. Anything after MP12, the recent scandalous pricing further vindicates. 34 MPs skipped and counting!
I've softened on this. Ethically and on the long term, buying KOs rather than official is still well... wrong/short sighted. It's a snake eating it's own head, if you don't pay the people designing and producing the thing for the work they've done they'll stop making it, and then the KO'er will have nowt to copy. Also if your reason for buying KOs is the price of official... well buying KOs may push that up as well (debatable). However the advent of KOs that improve on and/or provided alternative options (be it deco, scale, features, materials, 'fixing' issues with the original in some way etc etc...) AND the more frequent need for these changes to be done due to HasTak 'letting us down' by cutting corners or poor QC that make the asking price seem unreasonable.. I feel a little less agreeable or compassionate to the righteous indignation we see from the anti-KO camp. Personally I do not (yet) subscribe to the 'wait for the KO' school of though. If I really want it, I'll get official... but if I find the official lacking or maybe I want a second copy to repaint/display in alt-mode, I have no qualms buying a KO.
I only collect MP style figures, and typically I'll always purchase an official figure. The price increase, while annoying, isn't really an issue for me, but the decline in quality definitely is. If a KO company can KO the recent MP Hound and make him out of plastic that doesn't literally crumble I'll buy it no questions asked. I love the design, but the QC on that thing is horrendous.
1 - Buy the original at release 2 - Wait for the KO to be released 3 - Purchase the better/cheaper version of the KO 4 - Sell the original to the unsuspecting sole that wants originals at the inflated, must have it, no longer available prices 5 - Pocket some cash for the next one Works for me
but you know, in 4 years OCD completionists will need this crappy hound and pay for it. I finally got over my desire to have originals as I can not say I do anything more than accumulate versus seriosuly thinking these are investments as other collectors strive for.
1st, do you, to each their own, respect and all that. But I have questions. 2nd. When you say price isn’t an issue for you, depending on what you mean, I think you could say you’re in good company here in the third party forum: we’ll pay big bucks for the right figures, and the average figure is more expensive than a hastak equivalent. Now, the questions- as far as purchasing the legit MP, do you honestly feel like you purchased $445 worth of transformer in MP44? ...In the face of the two 3rd party cartoon optimuses? Given, MP44 has a trailer and unecessary voice sounds, maybe that makes up the literal $350 price delta. Or is it more like a Luis Vitton bag, where it’s super lux and having a knock-off defeats the purpose? not knocking it, my gf works like this. I personally feel like hastak MP pricing is just plain insulting. i live in 3rdpartyland but every time I visit hasbroburg they only have one version of every character, and they want 2-3x as much as what I pay at home.
