Fansproject Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by Kuma Style, Jun 23, 2020.

  1. TFao

    TFao Well-Known Member

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    That’s the best damn news I’ve heard in a good long while. Mahalo for that TJ!


    As for favorite era, I missed the groundbreaking releases of 2010 and prior but ‘11 and ‘12 changed everything for me as far as transformers and collecting goes. Got my hands on Colosus and spent the next few years buying new FP releases and tracking down past ones. Most recently found a deal on Combes Robin.

    Now onto the figs. Explorer will always hold a special place for me because it was my first FP love affair. My favorite fit size has always been scouts and FP’s scouts are wonderful. Some include the Stunticons in that category and I don’t mind that at all.

    But my absolute favorite FP fig is SteelCore. Love the design and especially appreciate the originality of it. Really is too bad that the the whole FPC thing didn’t work out because I think the potential for more original ideas was ripening on the vine
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2021
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  2. ma70er

    ma70er HasTak/3P TF Collector, Gamer

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    Only took years to complete, but I still prefer these as my CHUG Dinobots over mainline offerings.

    100_1887.JPG
    100_3910.JPG
     
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  3. OptionZero

    OptionZero Well-Known Member

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    doing the Lord’s work

    BLESS YOU

    I would murder for FP and MT to return from the dead and give us the rest of the F(X), warbot, citybot, and combiners that I know they have plans for stored away


    Hell I still want their Collector and whatever they had planned for sandstorm
     
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  4. Strife

    Strife Well-Known Member

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    It's not an exaggeration to say that City Commander is one of the most important TF products ever made. It, along with Fansproject Wrbot Defender, TFC Herclues and Quakewave form what amounts to the Holy Trinity of 3P TF products, which has been integral to all Transformers fandom for the past decade.

    City Commander opened the door to fulfilling the dream of a "new G1" collection to proper molds. Limited for years great molds but numerically meager offerings in Classics and Universe 2.0, to be a G1 fan wanting to recreate G1 with modern figures often meant repurposing. So we had Armada Unicron, Energon Arcee and Energon Shockblast and Energon Ultra Magnus. Raidcons was filled with people (in the pre-3D printing era) that would take original G1 molds and cut them up to add new articulation. That's how desperate we were.

    City Commander, along with it's near cousin Warbot Defender, created the market for proper molds that other 3P, and eventually Hasbro, finally started to fill in in the 2010s. Here is one of the oldest pictures I can find from August 2014. At the time, this was a triumph.

    IMG_3120.JPG

    There's FP City Commander (along with Protector). We were so happy to be here at the time! We thought we were done. We got a proper Blaster! And a proper Springer! And even a Grimlock. All of these came long after City Commander made the idea of recreating G1 without repurposed figures real.

    Now let's contrast that to where we are today:

    IMG_4812 (1).JPG


    We've come so far. We've gone from "rhymes with G1" to "is actually a perfect recreation of the G1 design".

    As time went on, that pushed City Commander, and later Protector out. This is probably the last picture I got of City Commander (bottom shelf, left) from March 2015, on the eve of Combiner Wars, whose Ultra Magnus would eventually "replace" him

    March 2015.JPG
    (thumbnail)

    By July 2016, City Commander was gone, but Protector persisted.
    July 2016.JPG

    And yet, you can't help but look at that picture above and remark how little has lasted into the post-Prime Wars trilogy, post-WFC trilogy era. Not just City Commander, but all of them except the Combiners are gone out of any "high fidelity" G1 display. Why would anyone use CW Wheeljack or Mania King or Universe Cyclonus anymore. Even the 2011 25th Anniversary Unicron is gone.

    But in the decade-long quest to build that high fidelity "perfect" G1 that we've arrived at with the release of WreckGar Blaster and Perceptor mostly wrapping up the 1986 squad, we've lost something. We've traded artistry and inspiration for consistency and accuracy. Kingdom Ultra Magnus looks GREAT and the entire squad looks amazing together as a set with a consistent design scheme. But gone are the design tangents that made molds like City Commander so unique. He certainly was Ultra Magnus... but with his double shoulder rockets, his stumpy white sholder pyloms, his gigantic boots and mega gun and strange face mold, he was also very different. He looked like nothing else in the collection. 10 years ago, it was a necessary thing. By 2015, it was a thing to be surpassed. But now in almost 2022 with 4 years of a very consistent "house style" that has made high fidelity G1 recreations possible, it's a desirable thing.

    That's the irony. City Commander was first in building out "perfect" cast recreations, but now with that long project essentially complete, he very well be a preview to the future whereby we stop buying Transformers because we're being completionist recreators of a cast, and more because the artistry of the mold says something to us that is different and not in competition from those "perfect" G1 recreations.

    My City Commander is not on display at the moment unfortunately, as I'm in the middle of reorganizing. But TFX Protector is. Here he is with Galaxy Force Starscream (one of my 3 favorite molds ever) and 3 select animated figures who are there simply bcause of the uniqueness of their molds and style in conttrast to my completionist WFC Trilogy + Prime Wars Trilogy + SS86 "neo g1 display". They don't contribute to that at all. But what they say is that awesome transformers come in all forms.

    IMG_4985.JPG
     
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  5. OptionZero

    OptionZero Well-Known Member

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    Its odd to think there might be a generation of CHUG collectors with mainline Wfc stufff that might never have experienced FP’s take on things

    fansproject always has its own distinctive aesthetic, and especially the color palette
     
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  6. yvk2000

    yvk2000 Well-Known Member

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    I am curious if they intend to still stick to the IDW theme with Roller (what with IDW 1.0 fully gone and MMC supposedly moving away from their Reformatted line).

    Or are they gonna pay tribute to fellow oldschool 3P TFC? :p 
     
  7. SWAGE66

    SWAGE66 I'm way more fun on Instagram

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    That figure was soooo terrible....but that blaster was the truth!!
     
  8. Nemesis251

    Nemesis251 Wakanda Forever!!!

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    I hope not. That TFC Battle Roller sucked. I'm still pissed I didn't get the Classics Prime rifle either when I bought it too.
     
  9. CodeXCDM

    CodeXCDM Well-Known Member

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    Ebay:
    Explorer: "What does Blast-off look like!?"
    Not-Blast-Off: "What!?"
    Explorer: "Does he look like a tank!?"
    Not-Blast-Off: "What!?"
    Explorer: "Say 'what' again! I dare you, I double dare you!"

    Explorer and Not Blast Off.jpg
     
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  10. TFao

    TFao Well-Known Member

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    Sheer awesomeness! Made my damn day, right there. Thanks for that!
     
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  11. siniquezu

    siniquezu Well-Known Member

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  12. CodeXCDM

    CodeXCDM Well-Known Member

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    So looks like Saurus Ryu-Oh is on preorder now... I'm surprised this thread didn't get all over it yet. Lost Exo-Realm Saurus Ryu-oh Dinoking Combiner Boxset

    Onto something more old school... I decked the FP superion with all the Energon Weapons... tad silly, but IDK, thought it was fun.

    absurdly weaponized superion maximus 1.jpg
     
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  13. siniquezu

    siniquezu Well-Known Member

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    This still puts combiner wars to shame.
     
  14. TFao

    TFao Well-Known Member

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  15. Artereis

    Artereis Well-Known Member

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    None of the FunctionX line are bad figures, but the SixKnight mold shouldn't have been in it, imo.
     
  16. Sammael

    Sammael MightyMegatron from ATT

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    If I didn't have to pay customs for ordering from BBTS, I'd get on that Trianix Alpha.

    Still pissed that I missed out on Monstructor when he was on sale from Tony :( 
     
  17. yvk2000

    yvk2000 Well-Known Member

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    I wasn’t a big fan of X-6 Knight. Never got around to getting Crox but he shouldn’t be too hard to get for around $45.

    I have one that I only got a few months back. It’s as good as new really.
     
  18. CodeXCDM

    CodeXCDM Well-Known Member

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    Ugh. I just pre ordered Ryu-oh, don't tempt me to get more..
     
  19. captainnedloh

    captainnedloh Nugget

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  20. captainnedloh

    captainnedloh Nugget

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    Excuse me????