I have only two words to say... about time.

 

Well I didn't have an issue with the KO's until they started being difficult to distinguish from the real thing (and therefore easy to con people with). The first question I get asked in any auction where the item has been KO is "Is this a Knock-off?" and I'm pleased that Hasbro has taken a stand on this finally and put an end the the practise.

 

please...there is no law saying they cannot issue a toy gun...except it has to have a orange plug...Hasbro's lawyers ran around screaming "F#CK, you want to sell what???....the reason we got a nerf megatron for classics was hasbro does not want to endure the hell of legal potental lawsuits that would happen from from redneck sally and redneck dan segment of america after their trailer trash kid mungo got shot for running around with a reallistical looking megatron rifle pointing and saying "give me your money, this is a robbery!"  

that is the reason for nerf megs nothing more or less.....

 

Me too and I've also enjoyed the mini and oversized KO's. HAS/TAK/TOM doesn't make this anyway, so I don't see how they could be losing income, and as long as the package doesn't say "Transformers" this should be a collector's preference. Sorry to see these types of KOs taken off ebay.  

 

Well, I didn't say it was illegal. But it's still a matter of current U.S. gun laws, that makes it restrictive. Not only would the figure have to be modified with the orange plug, they would still be opened to potential lawsuits in todays sue-happy legal climate in America. Too much hassle for a toy company, considering how much more realistic Megatron is compared to Clone Trooper blasters.

Plus, I know I sure wouldn't have paid $75-100 for a Megatron with the stupid orange plug. I just imported mine, as it was simple enough to do.

 

   

This is good news. Good job Hasbro.

 

Something had to be done!

A few yearsago i got into collecting, and I really enjoyed browsing ebay. Now almost all the listings are knock-offs or products of some company trying to sell some toy or accessory with the Hasbro/Takara intellectual property on it.

I spend far less time than I used to looking at transformers or bidding, for that reason alone. Knock offs took over.I for one have some knockoff combiners and WST knockoffs, because I found them them to be interesting or far less expensive than the originals. But the knockoff situation certainly got out of hand on ebay.

 

Well as a transformers fan I am going to put my 2 cents in for what it is worth. For the past 4 years I have been asking hasbro when they where going to be releasing some of the more classic transformers line I Too wanted to fill in the gapes I have in my collection. Hasbro has given me the same responce. We don't have the molds they where destroyed. You know how fustrating it is as a collector to see this knock offs on the market. Some one eather took the time and the money to retool the molds or someone has been lieing to me. I am looking at this as a double edge sword on the one side the knock off companies are filling in the void where Hasbro and Takara have fallen flat on their face. The down side the Knock offs are not made with the same care a quallity that woud stand up to hasbroes and Tarakara's standards. The right thing to do is of hasbro and Tarkara to come up to the plate get their hands on this molds or bound out some time of agreement with this companies to bring this products up to standard are relaunch the Classic lines and sell them as the origanl line even if they bring out 5 to 6 pieces per year the market is here in the US for them.. I hope that some on from hasbro is reading this and listens to a voice of a Greatful fans around the world.         

From the little icons you can see I am a little more then torqued about this.  

 

the multi colour, dollar store knock offs are the fun ones. I think for next year's Botcon, the exclusive set should be tranformers set in a dollar store universe.

 

You assume many things:

1. That you matter
2. That your 'collectors' niche matters
3. That there is a statistically significant number of people like you to make up a valid market that has/tak can get a return on investment for re-engineering those molds opposed to making new molds like classics and animated.
4. That you are entitled to own collectors items and that if Hastak doesn't make them available, possibly even at a loss and waste of resources, then they should allow others to make money off their trademarks.

Has/tak cannot keep the full g1 line available at retail for reissue forever. Which is what people the fandom is demanding. This was proved by the people who were supporting and demanding KO insecticons simply because they 'missed' the reissue and claimed they had the right to KO insecticons due to has/tak's failure... Failure? They reissued the dang things less than 2 years ago and because some people missed it, they expect HASTAK to 'reissue' them again... and again, and be forever available. And how horribly did the US reissues sell?

Even if they did reverse engineer the dead molds, do you think that they will release wheeljack, mirage and all the dinobots in the same week and produce them for 5 years? If they only did 1 of them and waited 8 months to do the next, the fans would cry "you screwing us hastak! KOs ok! I WANT IT AND I SHOULD GET THINGS I WANT!"

 

So does that mean my MISB KO's might actually be worth something now???


Just kidding  

 

Only if you AFA them

 

I think my last posting was misunderstood. I do not have and refused to have knockoffs in my collection. The point I am making is that Hasbro and Taraka have missed a very profitable adventure and some one has stepped in to meet that demand. If there was not a market for them this knockoffs would not be made. So what I wanted to do was point this out as a wake up call for hasbro that the fans are wanting the G1 transformers, and there is a market for them.   

 

Was kinda hoping I could get some other Micromaster Scale KO Combiners. Now the chances of finding more seems null  

 

No, Just because Ko companies make money off Kos doesn't mean there is a market or that Hastak can make equal money off KOs.

They went through all this at BOTCON. Wait long enough and if the market REALLY exists then we will see a reissue eventually. Don't assume it is good business decision to sell a specific re-issue just because KO makers have been selling Devastator non-stop for 9 years now.

Technically snapple could make 'profit' by setting up lemonade stands on street corners because 5-year olds do it and make profit. But it is a waste of time and resources because they could make more profit selling their stuff in stores. Why waste time re-engineering Mirage, when they could sell classics 2.0 figs with the same effort with more market exposure? Why waste time re-engineering Mirage when they can keep collectors happy with existing 'live' molds like OS?

Bad business in the name of keeping unpleasable fans happy.

 

"No, Just because Ko companies make money off Kos doesn't mean there is a market or that Hastak can make equal money off KOs."

nkelsch, does it seem that there would be a market for the Original G1 characters. logically if there was not a high demand for the Orignail g1 characters then these knock off companies would not have gone though the expence of retooling these transformers. I use to work for a Model train company and the expence alone to come up with the retooling of a particalt type of item can go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I think it would be a very wise move for hasbro/taraka to get their hands on the this modules and re-issue the G1 characters for the fan base. Heck make them exclusives for the hasbro toy store. iw ould be more than happy to pay 200-300 dollars for a large G1 Dinobot set.    

 

This is in accordance with what I'd heard elsewhere.

 

I would like a Dinobots, Constructicons, and Sunstreaker reissues please, Takara.

 

My two problems
When Hasbro did release the G1 stuff it cost wayyy too much. This would allow a KO comany to see the demand and undercut them.
Second - Soundwave I saw him ONCE in the stores ONCE. I travel ALOT. Which is true for most the reissues its hard to find the one you want without traveling to several Toys R Us stores.