wow this idea sounds fab! I have no problem with it not being TF as I love robots in general. Don is my favorite TF artist right next to Alex so I'll support him in whatever new stuff he's making. I'm excited  

 

Exactly. If Hasbro made a triple changing Springer, do you think FP would have made one? Nope. Do you think anyone would bother copying seekers if Hasbro made more than 2? Nope. I find it interesting anyone could even complain about the armor as this is just an add-on to a Hasbro toy that makes the figure look like it should have.

I would love it if this guy made "mecha" that fit in right beside the Universe figures and even had a more than slight homage to a G1 figure.

Or another way of looking at it: if FP and Igear and the like hadn't been successful, do you think we would be getting this new toy line? I doubt it. They saw a market for 3rd party toys, fans willing to pay premium prices for deluxe figures, and decided to give it a try. Without MP Seekers and Protector armors, this toy line may never have happened.

 

I have a feeling that this line is maybe going to appeal to mecha fans, but not the wider base of Transformers fans... unless the mere mention of Don's name will do that.  

I mean, from the little bit we're seeing, they just look sort of like Armored Core mechs. Which is cool I guess, but I'm not sure if I'm going to jump on board.

zmog

 

oh..my..god!! this looks sick! i love o'l Donny, but i am curious as to if these are going to be mech suits controlled by humans or sentient robots like TFormers?

 

and yes i totaly agree whith you on that.

 

Don just posted the fallowing on his DA page:

"Mecha Workshop's premier Mech is actually the first of a toyline we have planned. while it will be the smallest of the bunch (atleast on the heroes' side) this 'Infantry type' will be somewhere around 10 inches tall. fully articulated (including the fingers!), loads of weaponry and removable armor pieces.

We're working on making it as afordable as possible without skimping on the quality, comparable to other mech lines out there. beyond this first release, we're also planning larger, "Variably Configurable" mechs with secondary modes as well as combining abilities.

Besides the toy, there will be a tie-in, mini-series online comic (first issue is a whopping 28 pages) for FREE! written by yours trully, Valent Wang and Dan Taylor, colored by Enrico Galli.

stay tuned as we'll update you as much as possible."

 

So if I'm reading this right, that one doesn't transform?

Still, 10 inches is an impressive first venture.

 

This sounds awesome. And here's to hoping the gamble on having the comic be free pays off in massive toy sales.

 

You and I both.  

 

Well, it sounds to me like the comic is much like the G1 Marvel comic was - an instrument designed to sell toys.

The whole webcomic business model in general is "free product used to sell merchandise/services", for the more successful comics, anyway.

 

That's what she said.

 

Competing with Transformers or any other series never came across our minds. Don's Transformers roots go way back. Be it good or bad, it has been a major part of his life.

I understand how draining it is to collect toys.. Paint jobs, mint boxes, repaints, re-runs, affordability...etc.
(Yeah.. I'm one of those who takes lots of time picking out paint jobs and mint boxes.)  

We really just want a toy that is affordable but still high in quality, comparable to other well established toy companies. And we hope we can reach a point where one feels that he/she's getting more than what they're paying for.

I remember my childhood/old skool days... Large scaled toys at pretty decent prices. The toy won't be small but we'll definitely make it as affordable as we possibly can. I miss those days y'know.

Cartoons, Comics, Toys...etc. We all grew up with these and they inspired and shaped us in someway or another.
We spent just as much effort on the comic even though it'd be free-to-view online. Some might call it marketing, but in a way we don't wish to force feed anyone.

We're even throwing in the physical comic along with the toy just for collectors. For those like me, who hates wrinkling their comics can view it online. However, the physical comic will contain some differences as compared to the online version(visually-wise), hoping collectors will find it collectible.

This Mech might be the smallest in the group but it's basically a jack-of-all-trades unit, not by itself though.  
You never know, the simplest things might end up being the most complicated.   Gotta show some love for the little guy  

 

As I said it sounds really good to me, but unless the figures are really, really impressive and reasonably priced, 10 inches is much too large for me to start purchasing.

I'm a big fan of robot damashii sized figures or the size of deluxe class transformers and would gladly start collecting modular, figueroa robots in a smaller scale, but at 10 inches a reasonable display is much more difficult.

 

Bring on the big bots. I don't have a lot of room for display, but I'll make room if these are as impressive as I'm hoping they will be.

 

Powered armor is a favorite of mine, and the prospect of swappable parts and customizable armor sounds pretty rad (as does the amount of personal interest the creators are obviously taking in this line). It's got 100% of my attention and support, to be sure.

I'm glad, also, that they're eschewing transformation gimmicks for a more "real armor" vibe and to allow a greater amount of detail (Opening cockpits? Movable fingers? Yes please!). As Mr. Wang has pointed out, there's already a series of mass retail transforming robots to sate my desire for things that change from one thing to another.   What I don't have enough of are fun, poseable, and highly detailed mech suits.

I look forward to additional prototype photos.

 

Hopefully the same attention to detail will be paid to packaging as to the product itself. I think that's important when dealing with these very collectible type of items. When I did work for Palisades they always tried to design the best packaging possible considering the price point and product type (obviously there was only so much they could do with resin statue packaging). One really cool aspect I liked (as a designer) was the credits. It probably means more to the people that work on it then the people that buy it but I think it's cool to know who the people involved with bringing something to reality were.

Anyway, congrats to Valent, DON, and Dan. This looks to be an exciting venture and I hope it flourishes!!

 

Interesting. Can't wait to see full designs - both on art form, and toy protos - to make up my mind, but so far it looks cool.

I'm saying this as someone who's bought almost every "toy" produced by Fansprojects, and some by iGear, BTS, Xovergen, etc.: the problem I have against the pro-3rd party argument expressed above, is that it comes from the train of thought that somehow Hasbro/TakaraTOMY are required to do what WE want, and not what makes sense for them as a company.

The funny thing about saying "we're Transformers collectors, not mecha collectors" is that if we're strict on our definitions, 3rd party products aren't really Transformers (tm); and that's the exact reason why we can still buy such 3rd party products.  

(And what's in a label in the end? .... when I was a kid I slapped an autobot symbol on my Popy DX Sankan-Oh from Ippatsuman, and played with it as a Transformer)

-airfox

 

I absolutely can not wait to see these fully detailed and ready for retail.

 

Packaging is the last of my concerns when buying a figure. I'd much prefer every cent go into the figure than into expensive packaging. They could send it out in bubble wrap and a brown packing box for all I care as long as the toy is amazing and at a good price point.

 

I kind of agree with this. I actually LOVE nicely designed packaging... it has an undeniable appeal, especially when you compare stuff like most Japanese mass market toys to mass market US releases. It's pretty dramatic.

HOWEVER... the flip side is that then I feel obliged to SAVE the packaging. Dammit! I swear I have almost an entire closet full of nothing but attractive boxes for fancy Japanese robots. It really kind of defeats the purpose! This hobby takes up enough space as it is!

zmog