good point. all this talk about IP and how 3rd parties aren't doing something wrong. if they did it to someone arguing against your point who is new to the business and who created their own IP which starts doing so well, I' m sure they would be singing a different tune and they'd be taking legal action....especially if it's impacting their new business.

 

Question... Wasn't the Barge all but made and ready by then, box and all? I did not know about this project but people tell me it was in 2018, AND it also got released later the same year, no? Unlike Unicron who only exists as 3 prototypes so far and will only be arriving 1.5/2 years later. So I feel they could share more about a project that was already much further ahead. With Unicron, what can they share? They already shared the early sketches, the mockup, the wireframe model pics. Likely they cannot share more as there isn't any more to share.

 

DAY ONE:

“Yeah! This is so cool! Let’s talk about this awesome toy. Oh, I bet it has some fantastic features. I’m so excited to share this journey with my fellow fans!”

DAY SIXTY:

“NO YOU FUCKING IDIOTS! ACTUALLY, THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976 WAS TO PROTECT CORPORATE IP HOLDERS, DESPITE WHAT SOME LEGAL SCHOLARS SUGGEST ABOUT THE CODIFICATION OF THE FAIR USE DOCTRINE!! NOW, IVE BEEN READING SOME RELEVANT CHINESE CASE LAW AS BACKGROUND AND IF YOU TURN TO PAGE 1254 IN THE TEXTBOOK IM ATTACHING....”

 

Probably both. I’ve suspected for many many years that the older fans aren’t the backbone of this franchise, despite all our claims we are. Given how much we all spend on third party combiners and masterpiece figures, and titans, etc I’m really surprised this wasn’t a slam dunk. I honestly am.

Maybe Zeta screwed things up. Maybe they didn’t. But maybe there’s just 6000 or so truly fans willing to spend high end prices. Maybe the marketing was bad.

I will say this: fans, marketing, or Zeta, I know which one is likely to take the blame for this if it fails. Zeta is such an easy target for Hasbro to shift blame on I’ll be surprised if we don’t see real consequences for the IP come from that.

 

Stopped reading right there.

Never insult your audience when you’re trying to inform them; it guarantees you’re only going to be listened to by your own supporters.

 

I actually wonder if Unicron got released, he's in Siege line right? Does that mean he has those tab for effect damage?

It'll look funny, the effect damage in proportion of his size.

Then again, it might convey how useless your standard attack on him...

 

What happened to all the transformer fans, this thread is now full of wannabe patent attorneys... gheesh

 

This is true. But also missed the point. If I create something I’m likely to have a problem enforcing my trademarks and IP protections.

If a mega corporation decides you violated IP protections you’re in real trouble. They don’t have to “win” to “win.” They can simply grind you to dust with lawsuits, counter suits, cease and desist orders, court venue changes, subpoenas, court motions, threatening lawsuits to your suppliers and retailers, etc. You may win damages, but then there will be an appeal process that regrinds you into even finer dust. By the time you “win” you’re financially ruined, your product has been off the market for years or decades, and you’re likely to get sued again for pure nuisance sake.

Again, if Hasbro decides to blame Zeta and declares war on Third Parties, then life is about to get very very difficult for them. It’s likely the retailers easily within legal reach will get pressured to drop the products. Any designers or employees within easy legal reach will get cease and desist orders, etc. Then they can go after them where things are more difficult.

Will it be completely stomped out? Probably not. But you’ll see a market that is a fraction of what it once was. And what exists will be harder to get than it was before.

 

No, the Barge was released about a year later. At the time of the campaign’s launch, HasLab said they only had a single resin model in existence. We were revealed part of the progression as the campaign went on. They showed the size of the plain cardboard box that was required to mail the Barge out. It was 4 feet long! Just wrap your imagination around what a gigantic box that is. It’s the wow factor.

To answer your question of what Hasbro can do or show us:
If I was in charge, I’d have them show us non final mockups of what the box could look like, throw in a repaint Legends size figure with a new head (maybe Kranix head on a Rung body?). Show us a different color shade since some fans wonder if it’s too light in tone. Show a animation cell side by side to justify the color choices. I would have the Hasbro photo team take Unicron outside and take pictures of it in real life to show it’s size (anyone seen the Metroplex thread at TFW where people post pics of him sitting on a toilet, at the dinner table, etc. ). It’s all to get the fans talking and laughing. Just get us on your side.

 

Total agreement, however I do find this thread to be entertaining. Especially since it grows in pages faster than the number of backers do per day for the actual Unicron project.

 

One thing I gotta ask is why should you guys help unicron succeed after the recent outburst hasbro made a couple weeks ago about raising their toy prices and doing more lazy cost-cutting. If they're using him to try and prove they can do that then they don't deserve this kind of financial support since they think so little of us.

 

no offense, but this post is highly ignorant and lacking in context of why they will be raising prices. it wasnt any sort of outburst, its a fact of the company having to pay more money so cost trickles down to the consumer, thats how all of this works

 

I mean I'm trying to help Unicron succeed because I want the toy, but I guess that's just me.

 

Still doesn't justify cost-cutting scheme, I don't want my SIEGE (and MPMs) to be infected by this and neither should any of you.

 

and you are making assumptions. we already know of one cost cutting method hasbro is going to institute, removing plastic from packaging. the sky isnt falling yet so there is no need to make baseless assumptions. a majority of wfc part 2 is already designed, engineered and tooled, so there honestly isnt much to worry about. and consumer goods, especially luxury items, will always increase in price while not necessarily increasing in perceived value. the msrp of transformers figures was kept artifically low for over a decade, we got spoiled, now prices are catching up to other toylines and transformers is still more value per dollar over other toylines because you are getting multiple toys in one. nobody wants cost cutting, but price increases and cost cutting is a fact of the industry, its how they implement it that will determine whether it was a good move or not

 

Because personally I still am interested and consider some of these figures worth it. If you don't, find the nearest door. Nobody's stopping you.

Have you guys ever stopped and considered maybe you don't like Transformers anymore and are only still around out of some weird sense of loyalty that neither Hasbro nor Takara really deserves?

Like, it'd be okay if you just stopped caring and went and did something else. Especially if you're not having fun with it anymore.

"Blame."

Zeta announced a competing figure along the same schedule as the official product. I don't want 3Ps to go away, but I also am not going to fault Hasbro and Takara for enforcing their rights in the face of direct competition from those same companies.

As has been discussed already, numerous 3Ps exist in harmony with Hasbro by avoiding conflict with existing products. Not Zeta. Even if they didn't have a thing to do with Unicron's failure to get made...they still came out at the exact same time.

"Oh, but they can't delay a product because Hasbro did something unexpected!"

Except that's the risk you take being a 3P company. Zeta moving forward with their 3P Unicron even after Hasbro's already announced theirs was stupid on their part. And it's made even stupider if it does in fact put the entire 3P community at risk.

If I'm TFC, or Iron Factory, or Perfect Effect...I'm not mad at Hasbro or Takara. I'm looking at Zeta like "What the hell were you thinking?!"

If Zeta wanted to really capitalize off the situation, the best way to go would have been to wait until after the campaign had succeeded or failed and announced afterwards as an alternative for anyone who passed (or missed out on) the HasLab version.

If they had $600, they'd have $200.

 

The sooner it comes, the better. I'm so tired with having to dismantle each piece of mass-retail packaging before it goes to the separate recycle bins...

 

Removal of plastic is not (just) a cost-cutting measure, there is a HUGE pressure from environment conservation groups and lobbyists on the toy industry to cut down on plastic. LEGO solved this by making some pieces out of plant-based plastic (rather than oil-based), Hasbro is taking a different approach by reducing plastic on packaging.

 

Again, nope.

Let me just confirm what we both said. You said nobody was saying that Zeta were going out of their way to sabotage HasLab or otherwise acted underhanded. I said that based on some of the shit that been spewed on this thread in the past few days you wouldn't know that nobody thought that.

It's an observation that even if you are right that nobody thinks this (which I doubt) it at least appears that some people do.

Why's that burning the strawman? It's an observation that some people have clearly written posts that imply (which is subjective to the reader, so I'm right even if I'm not) that this is exactly what Zeta did and that they deserve all they get and more.

I don't think they did act in that way, irrespective of whether I'm right or not in what I observe in the posts I mentioned. I just think they made an error of judgement, nothing more.