That’s good to know... However, I was mainly addressing the ‘why?’ of your comment- as in- why did you feel the need to point that out when the current topic of conversation didn’t seem to prompt it in any way?

It went from ‘This thing is pricey- just like Hot Toys- man those things suck’ to ‘Guess what guys; The now ironically named Freedom Leader has potentially just killed all KO and 3P companies. I guess we’ll all just have to collect Hasbro’s trash for eternity’ and that somehow signalled you to mention the B word.

Sorry to drag that out but I’m super cranky about this whole KO debacle especially if it effects 3Ps as well. KO companies getting targeted- ok, understandable but leave the other guys who alone. They make what TT are too preoccupied or just plain slow to tackle and what Hasbro couldn’t dream of producing.

 

hmmm you lost me there. I don't remember Transformers ever having a major studio big budget live action motion picture before Bay. The whole series of movies would have been a way bigger success had they been based off G1 look and feel. IMO. You can't compare little cartoon series to the only major motion picture series

 

Guys and gals. We are overstating the issue at hand. Do you think a few speculators on TFW2005 can accurately predict Hasbro's actions? Or even decisions? If hasbro made any official announcement about cracking down on KO in recent times, then let me know and prove me wrong. But as far as i can tell, KOs are still being released regularly and in fact, KO MP dinobot just arrived at my seller's.
This drama is pointless, and honestly the very notion that the shut down of one production will stop all 3Ps- is ludicrous. Sure i dont know what goes on behind the scenes, but Bandai's crackdown sure didnt stop the 3P Gundams

 

Crazy designs do not equal good designs.
That's like comparing a store bought costume to an atleast decent cosplay.

 

KOs and Third Party dies.
Everyone units into one company, with many sublines, with no official designs, like Maketoys' Cross dimension line. For those who care for Transformers, but won't spend $250 on a Trailbreaker.

 

I think that the official MP pricing is trying to cater to the more high income fans. Fans who have been fans for a long time and have been saving up money for a while. This is also, a type of product differentiation that sets your products aside from the competitors'. In a sense, takara is trying to be more "premium" and the way i look at it, options are a good thing. U got the cheaper 3p option, and the more premium official MP. In the end its all a risky investment. And hopefully we get what we paid for.

 

Well I mean crazy in a good say, and all of this is just opinion; yours and mine.

Budget doesn't have anything to do with it. Any show or comic could have introduced a character that wasn't humanoid in shape. It's about the creative direction, not the budget.

Because of the tens of posts criticizing Bays, while putting Knight on a pedestal.

 

There's nothing wrong with "alien" looking alien robots, the problem is some of them are so visually incoherent because of Bay's filming technique, that is akin to the "Obari Spectacle" of Bots, Boobs, and BOOMS!!! Budget wise, the money went to licensing sports cars, and gunpowder. Writing a story falls on someone else's lap but Bay has no patience or liking for the franchise so we got what we did.. GI JOE! Meets Dawson's Creek... guest starring product placement robots.

You couldn't really appreciate many of the designs because there's so many moving parts, panels and pieces out of focus because your eyes are being redirected to a human character, or the explosions going on. like trying to watch the final battle of the first movie.. you want to see Megatron and Optimus trading roundhouse punches and kicks, but you're stuck staring at Epps and Lennox's back pockets and the troop formation coming up behind them. Then it's just Bayspolsions hogging the screen until the girl comes in from a low camera angle.

Knight on the other hand, nuff said. you got more visually coherent yet equally detailed robot designs, such as this figure, from a film set in a more grounded spectacle with less explosions. The slower paced action sequences and GenerationOne inspired fight scenes especially in the opening minutes presents more of the narrative and exposition in less than two hours than we got in five films combined. Then there's the decency that Hailee wasn't objectified as say ...every woman in Bay's films.
but let's not keep deviating off topic with movie rants.

The question remains how this figure is ever going to see the light of day.

 

I’ve always said that people would like the designs a lot more if they had been shot properly and included in decent stories. The reign of starscream IDW comic made me love that design for starscream a lot. Optimus actually being heroic in the 07 movie made me love that design. Ironhide getting some good scenes in rotf and dotm made me love that design. And of course awesome figures of the designs make me love them more. Thinking that they’re actually possible in real life and in toy form and getting to appreciate the detail without explosions and unnecessary constantly moving camera and motion blur and humans.

 

All the more reason why bumblebee was a successful movie. you could appreciate the robot characters because they were treated like characters and not set pieces. Especially seeing the subtleties such as Shatter shifting her eyebrows and smile. The reason why Knight was able to do it is he has a better appreciation for visual storytelling, and working with a mute protagonist like Bumblebee makes you slow down to visualize what's being conveyed on his face.

 

G1 sells. It has been for decades. Even the movies have sold toys with colorschemes going G1.

The fact that your opinion is that you like the designs (i agree on some, less on most) does appearantly not coinside with the masses. And its the masses is what sells tickets.

I think Bumblebee hit the right note. A bit of both worlds. Except for the 2 decepticon main villains, they definitely were far into production before the movie went reboot.

In name only.

 

Is this right? FFS

 

Eh. There's been a more recent development claiming that the original story was bogus, and possibly made up by a competitor. Not sure what to believe at this point. Cause if that's the case, then we still have no idea why the hell Toyworld suddenly dropped off the grid.

 

There's a growing crackdown on knock offs and even some Third Party makers are feeling the pressure. So expect someone with such an accurately designed and developed figure based on someone else's property to be more cautious.

 

People who hate KO's can say anything they want.

 

This does not compute with me.

I have a hard time believing that HasTak and all its licensees are clueless about the existence of 3P / KO until they show up at an exhibit.

 

The rumor implied 3A may very well have been, and they were the people who got the ball rolling on the crackdown. The idea was that, yes, Hasbro has had an intentionally hands-off approach to third party Transformers products, which was about to be shaken up thanks to 3A complaining about Toyworld eating into their potential profits. But yeah, it is a bit suspect that they supposedly didn't know about Freedom Leader until Toyworld had the balls to bring it to the same convention that 3A was at. So it makes sense that the whole story may have been bullshit.

 

please.
I'm not one of those people, just speculation because I have been watching it happen in Gunpla modeling. Daban Model, Dragon Momoko, both shut down and criminal charges were filed against them. Meanwhile, third party makers like BTF and Super Nova have been quiet even so much as not seeing much of their products on Ebay lately. As if they've stopped production, and all that's left to their inventory is drying up.
FansToys got in enough trouble with Grinder's "TV Head," so don't you think they aren't posting more updates because they don't want any negative attention. Or maybe it's all misdirected paranoia on the fans' part, no news is good news, or they just don't feel obligated to people's demands for an update until they have the next phase of production in order.

 

I'm not understanding the whole "Dropped off the grid" mentality that's going around, not targeting you of course; just an observation.

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This is Toyworlds weibo (albeit a new one) and their last post was only a week ago. I wouldn't exactly call that laying low.

 

wasn't saying you were, just saying that the people spreading the news of what already has been proved a partial lie are most likely KO haters.

And the quote I posted in the pic works all to well with the "KO crackdown" situation