ATTENTION: third party toys banned from BotCon 2012 / FAN ART NOW ALLOWED AGAIN

Discussion in 'Transformers Conventions and Get Togethers' started by Sidecutter, Feb 8, 2012.

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  1. GENOZAUR

    GENOZAUR Banned

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    hasbitch needs to suckit up quite thier spoiled brat temper tantrum and knock it off wiht the pissy little shit bitch fit

    instead of lashing out at the 3rd party comanies run for fans by fans that cater to the fanbase

    hasbro should be buying some of the thrid party stuff themself take it apart figure out how it worksand use what they leaerned to improve on their onw transformers product

    but no hasbro wants to be a bitch and rob we the fans of ever having any kind of meaningful chocie in the matter jsut becase a thrid party toy company provides we the fans with the figures we want which hasblow refuses to make period

    sounds to me liek hasbitch is pissed off becasue the ygot to put up with competition from we fans now


    i will no longer buy any official hasbro figures from now on

    from now on i am going third party all the way


    hasbro jsut urned its brigdes o nthe matter as i see it
     
  2. ae_productions

    ae_productions G1 Fan

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    Where's the like button?
     
  3. General Tekno

    General Tekno Lugnut Supremor & Arkivist

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    I don't know what's worse - this, or all the people in here who are convinced Hasbro's banning third party items out of fears of competition.
     
  4. ZacWilliam

    ZacWilliam Well-Known Member

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    That is exactly bs.

    Companies are stealing their ip.

    When you are a buisness this is very bad.

    You try to stop it.

    There is no conspiracy, or sour grapes, or scheming. There is a company trying to stop theft from them right in front of their face.


    ZacWilliam, there's really no need to make up fantasy jellousy and the like...
     
  5. JasonTheX

    JasonTheX Well-Known Member

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    I'm still going to Botcon. Hasbro's Q&A panel is going to be awesome! "Y U no give FE?" "Y U h8 3rd party?" "U mad bro?"
     
  6. motorhead9999

    motorhead9999 Well-Known Member

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    For those saying that Hasbro can't confiscate items they deem bootleg, think again. By law, they are within their legal rights. If a store/flea market stand/person gets caught selling bootleg Coach handbags or Versace clothing? Its all confiscated from them. I know someone who ran one of those stores, and they had something like $40K worth of merchandise confiscated from them, so its an extremely real possibility.

    As for the person who asked why doesn't HasTak just take the 3rd party companies to court, and then answered that by saying they'd lose, think again. The reason they don't sue is because most of the 3rd party companies either design or manufacture out of China, where IP laws are never enforced, let alone prosecuted. HasTak could drop lawsuit after lawsuit against KOToys, FansProject, iGear, make toys, etc etc, but they would never actually get their day in court. Were those companies to be US based, they'd be out of business by now. Keep in mind, HasTak just doesn't own the right to the design of a toy and a specific transformation, they own the copyright on the IMAGE of the character. I can't just make a figure that looks just like Optimus but with a different transformation and say I'm not breaking their copyright. We're up to what, at least 5 major 3rd party companies? 5 booths is a lot to devote at a convention to a non-licensed product. I don't think HasTak could stand that.

    Hasbro is dead right to stop people from selling knockoffs at the convention, and I salute them for that. As for the 3rd party stuff being banned, its unfortunate. I think when FansProject was the only game in town and they had 1 booth at the convention (and even then, their 3rd party stuff was only a portion of their booth), they were far more willing to turn a blind eye, because they were really and truly only making upgrade add on kits, and I think FP did a good job of being mindful of copyright, by not even including images of the official HasTak products in their instruction booklets. FP was doing a good job of being respectful of HasTak, and keeping the peace.

    I really think that iGear screwed the pooch for everyone. Its one thing to do 3rd party stuff. Its another thing to do 3rd party stuff based on an already trademarked image. Its a complete other set of balls to in essence, to manufacture your own knockoff of MP figures under different colors and call them 3rd party. I think HasTak could bear with City Commander, and even Warbot (although even I'd say that FP started walking by eggshells) by making their own figures for Swindle and Vortex), but iGear was just blatantly copying and stealing. People can say what they want about "Oh, its ok to make a MP thrust or dirge from the original figure because HasTak's never going to make it", but that doesn't fly in the corporate law world. Once iGear crossed that line, HasTak started taking a harder line to everyone.

    I'm not trying to rip on 3rd party people (well, maybe except iGear). I love their products and own many of them. Regardless of how we look at Botcon as OUR convention, its really HasTak's that they put on for us. Keep in mind, that HasTak could pull a LOT worse stuff on us legally if they really wanted to be dicks. Imagine signing any actor or voice actor, director, animator, designer etc who works on Transformers to a contract that states they will not do non-Hasbro licensed conventions. They could very easily do that.
     
  7. Coaxial

    Coaxial Hop on the beam

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    Annnnnd the hammer finally falls. I'm honestly surprised it took this long.

    No doubt that 3rd party stuff has been straight-up owning the majority of home turf offerings as of late, but it sounds like Hasbro is finally getting antsy about the IP and feeling a little like H.I. McDunnough now...

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Matty

    Matty @StayingInTheBox Veteran

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    :lol  I think it's on level grounds.

    I could care less about Hasbro "banning" 3rd party products. It's an official convention run by a licensee of Hasbro; they have every right to ban 3rd party products. That's still not going to stop the products from being sold. In fact, this only helps their popularity IMO. This move is a feeble attempt at trying to send a message and it's only hurting the folks who set up in the dealer's room.

    Like I said, bring on the parts parties. I will attend every single one of them.
     
  9. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    If a store is selling bootleg purses the POLICE can confiscate them, but not the purse maker!

    Can Lego confiscate Kreo toys?

    Btw -Hasbro has claimed the Optimus Prime laptop violates their IP. Can they confiscate your laptop?
     
  10. ANDROID PRIME

    ANDROID PRIME Well-Known Member

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    Here is my two cents on the Issue.

    Mass Produced 3rd party products based on Hasbro's IP are Illegal. Unless the 3rd parties have consent and pay royalties to Hasbro, Hasbro has every right to retaliate against these companies.

    On the other side I think Hasbro is going about this the wrong way. It shouldn't be up to the fans to have to police who can sell what and where. We are fans we love all things Transformers. If there is something cool related to transformers we will want it.

    Hasbro shouldn't be playing big brother at the conventions they should be taking their fight right to the third party companies with legal actions. Leave the fans out of it.
     
  11. Girl Pants

    Girl Pants Well-Known Member

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    Hey now, that sounded like level-headed talk, we don't like that 'round these parts...
     
  12. General Tekno

    General Tekno Lugnut Supremor & Arkivist

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    I'd normally agree to the latter part, except that Botcon IS an officially licensed convention. Hasbro has a say over what goes on at Botcon.

    I don't like it, but I can't complain much about it.
     
  13. Flyby33

    Flyby33 Well-Known Member

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    is this the begining of the end....i can see it now 3rd party items sky rocket in price...
     
  14. Lycanthropic Tendencies

    Lycanthropic Tendencies Well-Known Member

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    Whilst I totally understand Hasbro's stance, I do think it's tough for some fans, especially when they increasingly feel there's so little official product out there that caters to them.

    I hope Hasbro is ready to step up and win these consumers back with stuff on a par with 3rd party products rather than just waving the banhammer and hoping we will settle due to not having any other choice, because whilst Pete is right and there is a lot of great official stuff from the past 28 years that will be there, the reality is that a lot of the 3rd party stuff has raised the bar and done better with Hasbro's IP than Hasbro have, and as a result, a fair bit of what was amazing 5 or 10 years ago just doesn't cut it anymore.
     
  15. Chaos Prime

    Chaos Prime Combaticon

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    It could be Hasbro feels threatened by the rising popularity of the 3rd party TF accessories.
    Personally I think common jealousy is a bit beneath Hasbro.

    Beside if they feel so threatened, then maybe they should start producing some of these goods.
     
  16. TedimusPrime

    TedimusPrime Full Time Toy Designer

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    Happy I'm going to TFcon instead!
     
  17. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    So it a toy has Reprolabels Hasbro will take it?
     
  18. Sideswipe1954

    Sideswipe1954 Well-Known Member

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    I have been reading through all the updates since yesterday and some thoughts came to mind:

    1)Wasn't the Botcon exclusive from 2004 (the G2 Breakdown Action Master) technically a bootleg or 3rd party item (whichever way you say it), since OTFCC was the same year and that was the year of Sentinel Maximus, and a couple of others.

    2)While you must have so much product designated Transformers themed, etc, by booth rules, what if you have Lego products along with/instead of Kre-O. Will Hasbro take those because they are competition?

    3)Isn't Takara-Tomy technically Hasbro's competition in this case, as they produce the G1 Encore line and we have not had a Hasbro G1 release in a couple of years, plus Takara does things with their figures Hasbro won't/can't, like Mini-cons/Targetmasters with the Prime figures, or different paint schemes. Will Hasbro object if a booth is more Takara than Hasbro?
     
  19. JasonTheX

    JasonTheX Well-Known Member

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    I actually do wonder how this affects Reprolabels?
     
  20. puppylove

    puppylove mini ops caretaker

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    What's awful about this, is that they are capable of better. Prime FE for example. Far better than the current stuff out there on pegs... And why? Cause a bean counter said the cheaper-looking designs are just that... cheaper to make? *so disappointing*
     
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