exactly what i was thinking they have been burnt before by takara with this character... also with a september release date they are rushing this one out of the gate much faster than the other figures that went up for sale recently

 

Oh, no! How can FT plausibly deny it now????

 

Bombusbee
【Pre-order】Robot Paradise RP-01 Acoustic FT-02 Soundwave

【Pre-order】Robot Paradise RP-01B Acoustic Wave FT-01B

 

Wasnt really sure where I stood on the deniability stuff but this does kinda screw that. Its not like all these sites got the solicitations from rp and they decided for themselves to mention this is a ft product.

 

Wow that looks so much better to me

 

Acoustic wave up at BBTS

Robot Paradise RP-01 Acoustic Wave

Robot Paradise RP-01B Cassette Figure Set

 

On Facebook

 

FML. Gone already!

 

BBBTS live for Soundwave. Go get em

 

I wonder why they felt the need to rebrand their Soundwave.
Hoodlum was much closer to the release of MP Hot Rodimus than Acoustic Wave is to MP Soundwave.
On top of that MMC released two characters (one with multiple runs) with a face mask shaped like the Decepticon logo and we had three companies that released their version of MP Optimus Prime without any repercussions.
So why should Soundwave be such a big deal that they need to handle it differently?

 

MP Soundwave 2.0 confirmed?

 

Is BBTS a good place to PO this guy? I have a TF source PO also and I need to choose

 

This is interesting. You and I had talked about them doing this as a publicity maneuver to corner the market, but this is saying that it might be the exact opposite... A way of limiting the appearance of direct competition between the two groups to keep things cordial.

I know that some people have theorized that Takara is more accepting of unlicensed products than a lot of people think, but this release is potentially shedding new light on that. The topic of deniability was raised several times, but when retailers are saying it's your product - and I've suspected that FansToys will offer after-sales parts service on this from all of their official channels - there really isn't deniability if Takara has the ability/desire to shut you down at any moment.

C&D letters aren't a court order anyway, but I just don't think that this is some shrewd, legal maneuver but rather a marketing exercise.

 

So is October the only month left without a scheduled FT release?

 

Not that I am saying that the Takara/Dalin thing is true, but this is is the third time I’ve heard this story from different sources.

 

The tapes are scheduled for October with Soundwave in September.

That's always the case. Everything we see here is circumstantial. A manufacturer responding to an action from Takara doesn't even mean that they did so because of Takara.

My neighbor calling the FBI to tell them that I'm a member of Al Qaeda doesn't worry me because I am, but it might worry me if I decided to do some cocaine with a pal that night. <--------- TOY DISCUSSIONS, PEOPLE.

 

That's pretty much it, just replace "offend" with "draw unwanted attention from Takara bosses". The hypothetical I posed was a way of approximating that.

edit: When he says "I don't think it's to avoid TT lawyers", that's nonsense. Their lawyers are a tool or a weapon. When you piss off the bosses, what do they do? They send the lawyers after you. You want to avoid pissing off the bosses but you also know people can be fickle, so you release the risky product under another brand name because it provides some legal distance from it to reduce the likelihood that if the worst happens it won't take down your entire enterprise. If you only cared about the overall risk in a pure sense and not the legal risk specifically, you simply wouldn't release that particular product.

 

I imagine Takara has to at least have some concept of the difference between a 3rd party releasing the same character as them and a 3rd party releasing different characters. Basically, it just requires a cursory understanding how their fanbase tends to operate when collecting MP. Characters are not interchangeable with eachother, and in fact hype for characters builds on itself as more characters get released. On the other hand, most collectors have a limit on how many times they will buy the same character within a certain time frame.

Assuming Takara has no plans to release, for instance, an MP Perceptor anytime in the next several years, then the existence of Tesla 2.0 actually benefits them. It encourages people to collect G1 MP and work towards building up that cast.

On the other hand, if Takara has a Soundwave 2.0 coming soon, Acoustic Wave could be a thorn in their side. A lot of people (myself included) will be very disinclined to spend so much on the same character again so soon.


So I could definitely see why Fanstoys would want to keep Acoustic Wave at arms length away from their main brand.

 

Ah...missed the release date on the tapes...i was too busy clicking it into checkout to notice. Whew...does that mean we're safe for the rest of 2021?? Wait, no official Trailbreaker or Hoist pre-orders have gone up yet.