Hey everyone! Another year has come and gone, and as is annual tradition, we have a great thread to deem some winners and losers for the "official" 3rd party toys of 2019. (link here)

I'm not sure how popular another KO version would be, but I enjoyed reading the previous KO of the year threads for 2017 and 2018. I asked @Blacktimus if he was planning to make one for 2019, but instead it sounds like he's ok with me starting one instead, so here we are!

We'll restrict entries to stuff that's out in consumers hands this year, not announced toys, or toys that have only been out for advance reviews by critics.

Leave you top three (3) nominations. This WILL be a weighted list. I know this is a bit late, but if we have enough nominations, I'll ask that this thread be closed in a couple weeks so that the nominations can be locked in, and then open a new thread for voting. You can edit, and change your mind until then. In late January I'll put put out a poll based on the most mentioned nominees.

As Blacktimus said last year, I'm trusting you all to remember what came out this year because I have no idea.


Copy and paste the following and write in your answers.


Best KO Toy of 2019
1)
2)
3)

 

Hopefully this can be stickied  

Here are my personal votes:

Best KO Toy of 2019
1) Jinbao OS Gravity Builder (I think technically 2018 but it was not in people's hands in time for last year's thread so I think it's safe to be included here)
2) Weijiang Sky Soarer (KO of POTP Predaking)
3) Pocket Toys Ruiner B (KO of IF Bruticus)

 

I endorse this thread. Thanks for doing this bakerjin.

Best KO Toy of 2019
1) Mech Fans Toys MF48 City Commander Ultra Magnus Version 2.0 Improvisation
2) Aoyi Mech H6002-10A Optimus Prime Oversized War for Cybertron: Siege
3) APC Toys APC-001 Attack Prime TFP Optimus Prime

 

1) BMB LS05 Grimlock
2) Weijiang Blackout
3) BMB LS11 Scorn

Best KO company of the year: BMB

 

Best KO Toy of 2019

1) That one bright green car robot thing in the supermarket

2) The one behind it? Like its kinda a police car, I think, and it turns into a pterodactyl or something?

3) The kreo bootleg beside it, that actually looks kinda cool, the design might be original but idk?

 

I vote this not be stickied. KO talk should ideally be relegated to a subforum all its own, not promoted in the forum for the products they are ripping off.

Good luck with your contest just the same.

 

KO OS gravity builder
KO OS Weijiang grimlock
KO Studio series optimus prime with diecast

Make KO great again !

 

Well, until said forum exists, this should definitely be stickied. And probably best to just ignore the whole "KO is ripping off but 3P is not" fallacy.

For me:
APC Toys APC-001 Attack Prime TFP Optimus Prime

It's the only one I can think of that actually made an impact.
I picked up some KO's of Bayverse megatrons stuff... Honey Badger I think was one of them? It was cool but a pretty bleaurgh character design to begin with so...

 

"Definitely be stickied?" Nah. Not even close to "definitely", @Starganderfish . And there's nothing fallacious when one product is a copycat rip-off of another existing physical product. It's the most literal, undeniable, factual rendition of what a "knock-off" is. 3P products are a gray area, KO is black and white.

 

3p is actually pretty much black and white as well cause it ain't holding up in court and very much ain't legal. But hey, picking and choosing is much more fun, isn't it?

 

It isn't going into court because it does not use trademarked names or symbols. So yes, picking and choosing wisely is what enables 3P to exist.

 

man If only core star didn't use names or symbols.... oh wait.

 

They learned that lesson the hard way, didn't they? Almost messed things up for everyone by being stupid.

 

See, just excepting that they supposedly did something wrong even tho they didn’t according to your earlier comment. You know very well they called him Core star and didn’t use any symbols, yet Hasbro was freely able to go after em. At this point you are either hell bent on trying to think 3p is legal or are a straight up troll. I for one don’t give a shit if the TF is legal or not when I’m buying it but not being able to except it isn’t legal just because you choose to believe it isn’t is stupid.

 

For the most part, I agree, but there are some KO figures that revamp just about everything (ie Commander Thunder Leader), and some great original 3P designs that borrow some design aspects from the official ones (Many of the 3P G1 MP Primes, for instance)

IIRC, Hasbro wasn't on the warpath, they just flexed their muscles a lil with a cease and desist.

 

I took your word at face value that they did something wrong. As I recall didn't they use a Decepticon logo or the name of the original character in some advertisement? I could be mistaken but again, you stated something so I assumed you were telling the truth, gave you benefit of the doubt.

Regardless, my earlier comment was that 3P is a gray area, which it is provided they don't turn it black & white by using the trademarked names or symbols.
KO is black & white when they rip off an existing physical product, and only becomes gray when they add a significant amount of original content to something they are lifting engineering and design from. 3P and KO are in that sense the very opposite of one another.

Yeah, that's fair but that's the exception to the rule and an aberration of what KOs are by definition, and this thread is about KOs overall.

 

Nope, Zeta never used logo's or names. It was just very clearly Unicron.
You seem to be ignoring that Intellectual Property refers to more than just names and symbols. The characters, their likenesses and appearance is as much HasTak IP as the physical design of a toy or a logo or a Trademarked name. Magic Square is stealing Optimus Primes design and likeness just as much as THF stole MP-36's physical design.
Anything else is sophistry to justify one's personal desire to own 3P.

But we are seriously de-railing this thread with an argument that is at least as old and worn out as "Scale" or "FRUMBLE" or "Truk v Munkey".

 

I've got zero problems with KO's. Love my IT-01 and ADO-01 and Cloud9 Quakeblast, to a lesser extent OS Gravity Builder. KO's can serve many purposes and honestly were it not for KO's, I never would have started buying Official and Third Party TF. When I started collecting a year and a half+ ago, most of the official releases were long out of production, and I wasn't about to pay late fees, especially on my humble budget, in fact starting out, my cap per figure was $100, and reserved for larger figures like Megs and Prime, of course that changed, but I've not forgotten where I came from. KO's can be great place holders. For people who want to display both bot and alt mode, KO's can make that possible without spending a second fortune, not to mention saving a divorce. For people who like to play and tinker, KO's are great for experimenting with paint, and why not play with them, considering they're priced about the same as lame Hasbro releases in North America. Quite honestly I think KO's help this hobby thrive, for people on a tight budget or not wanting to "invest" a great deal, maybe only interested in a few characters, KO's can be perfect. Personally I wanted more, and KO's were a means of testing or sampling figures before laying down more serious cash for the "real deal", and fortunately for me, TT started their + line, so I ended up with the best of both worlds, toon and "real world" versions of several characters. On another note, I gave my son (six at the time) my Sideswipe and Red Alert KO's and he broke an arm off of Sideswipe within a week, more like a couple of days. Oh well, not like it set me back much, and I bought the + version and Badcube version which I like more than the official. So it's all good to me, poor people can collect MP TF and life is good, and the scalpers can kiss it where the sun don't shine.

Anyway, my write in's are...

1.) JinBao OS Gravity Builder
2.) Weijiang Sky Soarer

Honestly not buying many KO's these days, like none, but considering yesmodel ko of MT Ironwill, price difference and not big into collecting beyond season 2, but Ironwill would look great next to my MT Chromedome. I wish someone would knock off FT damn inscecticons bugs the crap out of me no company seems to see the interest in keeping these characters on the market. *sigh*