I read through their feed a bit. MSS believes DNA has copied both their Grimlock set B and now their Jazz kit. One time may have been a coincidence, but this makes it much more blatant. They are upset and ZX is deeply troubled that their designs are being stolen and DNA is getting the credit. They have only produced 30 Jazz kits this year so far since they have had so much demand for the Optimus Primal and Grimlock sets. Since DNA publishes a release date, MSS and ZX are going to fight back by coming to market first, taking advantage of the faster production pipeline for 3D printing.

Also, got confirmation that the two of them are behind this Cheetor kit:

 

Still no Netflix-colored versions? Damn.

 

Shadowpanther has weapons before he's even out I notice - so I guess they can work on other colours for when SP cmes out perhaps for the other designs. Someone on Etsy has a nice guts blaster too. Though the guts part is unpainted.

 

A companion piece for the Titan-class Ark from Shockwave's Lab.

 

That is awesome, definitely help with displaying

 

Yeah, saw that earlier too but was trying to make sense of the translation. I don't think the main vehicle is their own creation.

 

I kind of feel bad to see one 3P company ripping another one off, but like... they're all rip-offs on some level, you know?

 

Got the chest filler for primal, go better set for beast megatron and the gap fillers for rattrap, all of them are great! Though my only complaint is that the jetpack part for primal is difficult to get off

 

Wait, who ripped what off now?

 

I think DNA supposedly copied Matrix Workshop's Jazz kit

Also are you planning a Shadow Panther version of your Cheetor fillers? They'll probably work with the Pulsecon Covert Agent Ravage as well.

 

DNA ripped MSS/ZX off, twice. They copied their Grimlock set and their Jazz set.

 

What did they rip off exactly? I can't find any pictures of their Jazz set to compare, but looking at DNA's Grimlock set and ZX's, I don't see any copying. The feet fillers look the most similar, but they are different. They are obviously going to be very similar since they are both basing their design on the sculpted detail inside of the foot.

 

I'm hoping to get a set out for him. I'll have to see how everything fits and if I want to add anything once I get my hands on him.

 

At least this one will actually get made. Shame they left out the bloody shoulder launcher though!

 

ZX is still making theirs. In fact, DNA has prompted them to speed up production. They were going to wait until they had made more Grimlock and Primal kits made first, but now they want to beat DNA to market.

MSS/ZX Jazz:

DNA Jazz:

They copied the engineering and design of the Jazz speaker horns, right down to the folding handles function. They also copied the design of the waist-mounted horns that store behind the legs. The rest is probably copied too.

ZX Grimlock A and B:

DNA Grimlock:

For Grimlock, they copied kit B from ZX. It's the yellow neck and posable dino arms. The neck could be argued to be not copied since it's toy accurate, but the arms being so similar and the Jazz kit being stolen both point to DNA copying it.

And DNA products do have a better finish to them, being molded parts. As the consumers, we benefit from this. And ZX only put out 30 Jazz kits this year since they started making them in January. So at this rate, nobody would get one. With how scarce the Jazz kit and Grimlock kit A have been, I assume ZX is too small to keep up with demand for multiple kits. Without DNA copying these, we may never have seen them.

 

DNA's SS-devestator upgrades broke on me during installation. Admittedly that base figure needs a lot more stability but I was hardly impressed by the kit. Add to that how long it's taken them to get the shockwave arm out since original announcement, they've been knocked down a few notches in my book.

So far I've been impressed by the reliability and speed of release from GoBetter studio. Then @wheeljackfan16 's work is pretty darn good, too (keep up the good work!). ZX and matrix workshop are ... Okay for the most part, and Nonnef does his own thing (cool stuff but a lot of mold flashing I have to trim away on my own).

Besides the recent DNA set I haven't had any horrible experiences, just some kits are better designed/produced than others.

 

I just had that for the first time on my red Ratchet parts from Nonnef. The new crotch was the most egregious, but the whole kit had it. The fists were hard to trim, and I didn't even bother with the crosses since I don't like them compared to using stickers for that. I got the Nemesis trailer kit in the same order and it was fine. I have a package sitting downstairs that I'm planning on getting to tonight with the Trailbreaker set and some supplemental parts for the trailer kit, so we'll have to see if those flashed or not.

 

How do I find shockwave lab to place an order? I noticed the website in china but can't read any of it. I thought there was a normal US website where one can get their stuff but I don't know the website address? If you can share that information that would be great, even if the product isn't available yet on the site.

Also what is the height of the Ark with a shuttle carrier under it while in that vertical position? I am trying to figure out if it will fit in the one spot on my book case, if not then I can put it somewhere else but then I need to figure out if that other item will fit in that other spot. Look forward to the information in inches. Thanks.

 

You have to buy through a distributor that buys from them. Uncle Billy, TFSafari, or just eBay sellers from China are how I get their stuff.

 

I don't recall TFSource selling Shockwave Lab stuff or any US based store for that matter. Did you mean TFSafari?