damnnn....   

 

fun fact, takara tomy makes bootleg toys too, before started their official toys

 

Dude. No need to post the links to the articles. This is two years too late. Still, I am still mad at what happened to one of my biggest influences in product design. If I had never seen Black Apple's figures, I would never have had the courage to take apart my figures and attempt to mod them until they could pass off as original molds.

 

I'm not posting any link

 

Just notice. Sorry. I was intending to tell the dude behind you.

 

Chill

 

and by all means, keep bumping the thread

 

definitely, we the people need two reissues.. sky soarer and ultima guard. can BMB, RP, MH or whatever alphabet KO these please.

 

That's a big fat hell yeah on Sky Soarer; include that damn sword and the upgraded hands, too. (And I don't even like how the design & engineering of PotP Predaking were handled, but even I know Wei Jiang's version needs a reissue!!)

 

Or u could buy cang toys version

 

【东方110】 由爱而生之罪 上海警方取缔盗版变形金刚厂商全过程_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

This was a video made in March 2022 on Bilibli. It even shows Black Apple in a prison uniform in one scene, plus his real face. Though I can't understand anything because of how influent I am with Chinese, it still makes my blood boil to see the images of the factory and the toys holding stick notes that say "counterfeit" or "knockoff" in Chinese while in a police station. I saw that someone who knew Black Apple claimed that he designed them not for money, but rather for the fun, and only wanted to show the whole world his creativity and let them enjoy it, so he let Weijiang take his designs (or at least how I translated it, which wasn't so good). I think Black Apple is actually an art teacher as his main career, thanks to a vlog I saw of him, which I won't share yet because the link is hard to find. His social medias are also full of detailed drawings that would take days of non stop work to do for me. Despite his early release in 2021, he obviously is forced to be on extreme caution on the internet, thus doesn't even want to mass produce his Chilibi figures. In fact, even though/if the KOs he made could pass of as original molds, Weijiang would still be in trouble, since BA Ironhide still looks like the movie's render of Ironhide (which Weijiang did not license), meaning that 3rd party companies that make original figures such as Unique Toys, Alien Attack, and more are just in as much danger as ones that make 1:1 KOs. In fact, I heard that shortly before recently, Toyworld was shut down, though I still don't really know if they faced the same fate as Weijiang or they just shut themselves down because of financial reasons and an attempt to escape their paths. Even worse, Weijiang obviously did not credit Takara or Hasbro's engineers or designers, but it would have only gotten them caught faster, since big companies would normally see this is an attempt to admit to fault rather than an attempt to praise their efforts in helping creative people get ideas.

Writing the previous part already is bringing me to angry tears. Not even a million middle fingers can express my hatred to copyright laws, or at least how harsh they are.

However, enough said about the negative/painful stuff. But let's get onto the good parts about my research.

On the bright side, I have been taking good looks for over a year on the unreleased Black Apple Ironhide. Many unsuccessful attempts are currently happening, but I have found hypothetical ways of Black Apple Ironhide's transformation. As for my handmade figure, the bottom is mostly unchanged, and the sides becoming his shoulder pads and positioning of his shoulders and arms have been figured out, but the way the front tires position is so complicated that I still haven't found a solution yet, plus many predictions I have done have failed (or not failed; I just discovered several things to avoid when making Transformers toys). I'm actually coming close, however, but it will take time since I am near finals now. If I plan to make a 3d model, I am still practicing with FreeCad (which has been mostly unsuccessful, but I'll get there some day). However, the final result will currently be handmade, and probably in the following years, a 3d prototype could pop up, and I might be able to post one on my thread showing my countless attempts to recreate one of Black Apple's most wanted unreleased works. Sadly, Fire Scorpion/Dream Factory, which is the 3rd party company rumored to be safe keeping the unreleased prototypes, has been inactive for many years. Still wonder how Black Apple managed to find communication with Weijiang so he could give them designs, since I might want to continue his legacy with 3rd party companies who are keeping under the dark good enough.

Here is the thread of me uncovering the secrets of BA Ironhide's prototype- Heavy/Scratch: - Custom Redesigned MPM-06 Ironhide

 

I'm sorry for the bump and despite the undirect connection to Weijiang, i want to find a reliable source on the claim that ToyWorld's owner ran off from the company with their money during the freedom leader's production (not the first time he did something like that).
Was it ever true?

 

Perhaps, you should start a new thread. Something like "ToyWorld drama thread" and ask there. I don't think, this thread is a correct place to find answers about TW problems.

 

I mean, do you think a smoking gun actually exists here?

 

man i was fuckin HOPING someone would bump a dead thread with a 100% unrelated question


GONNA GO BY SOME LOTTERY TICKETS NOW

 

It's true, TW owner ran off with the money, holding hands with Black Apple whom just skipped the bail, singing "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".

Now, nobody can say TW drama is unrelated with WJ drama, we just need 1 thread after all.

 

Sorry for the off topic post but i remember seeing such discussion much earlier in this thread a while ago, that's why i asked  .

Good riddance WJ and TW

 

Still pains me we will probably never be able to own “him”.

 

There are rumours about Dream Factory return Ing with the CADs along with other remianing assets from the WJ leftovers, we can hope but it's unlikely

 

Indeed, but yet still no movement on them 2-3 years later.

Only hope is the rumor and recent photos of supposed reissue lineup of Dream Factory Bonecrusher is true and we get Ironhide a little after that. But that a “if” and unfortunately unlikely.