I don't have anything snarky to say about the project.

It looked GORGEOUS and I loved the idea of it, but I just couldn't part with upwards of $700 for what will ultimately be a static display piece.

The price, goal, and stretch goals were just lofty for me to consider, even as a collector's piece. And without access to the gorgeous stretch goal exclusives, I would have felt like I had a giant "could have been" set. And that's not a good feeling for a consumer regarding luxury purchases.

I'm sympathetic to the backers who were excited for this and invested, hoping for production. It was just gorgeous and compelling.

 

You can go on Amazon right now and get some stellar looking chess sets for half of what they wanted for this.

This needed to be rethought from the outset. Smaller pieces and board to start. Maybe not even color them, give us the option to paint them ourselves. Like make the Decepticon pawns into seekers. There are enough color variations for that. But they may actually look better in a base color. Colored chess sets always look gaudy.

 

I think the only thing (aside from price) that hurt the set with me was that the pieces were all different. Even if they were marked, it'd be difficult to remember who had what role.

A similar idea but with *less* diversity would have worked better.

Example: Seekers as the Pawns, and since they're all the same mold it's easy to quickly visualize the board even if they're painted differently.

 

I do actually like the chess set, though. But to be honest, it's really the Transformers figures i like. Skip the board and the little 'box' each figure is standing on, and give me the figures, themselves.

 

Had absolutely 0 interest in an chess set let alone one that sold for the price of haslab Unicron and then some
sorry to the autobro\'s that did want this

 

I would of been more inclined to back it if it was like $100. I like chess, but not for $600. $100 more is the self transforming Optimus Prime by Robosen. Like what, what would you rather have?

They should have known this was gonna fail the moment they set that price..

 

Except the bases take up an entire square of the board, so if your pieces are grouped together you can't see them.

 

Wasn’t even close!

 

One cool thing they COULD'VE done but didn't was put notations on the Ranks(1-8) and Files(A-H) in Cybertronian. When I was learning chess it was cool to have the rank and files drawn on the margins of the board so you can remember what was what while you were learning. Get a head start on chess notation and what not.

 

I just imagined the game Jungle (Chinese animal chess) using Beast Wars animals.

 

Same the price point was just set too high by far. if they had aimed at $300 i think they would have made the lower goal required. I hope maybe this will provide a bit of a wake up call for 3rd figure makers to take a hard look at their pricing compared to actual costs and ensure they are not marking them up higher than can be justified.

 

"Apparently not destiny, apparently not destiny, Apparently there is no love, you can see there is no love, It can be seen above me, seen at me You laughed, you laughed"... (с) Natalie. The Song from 90`s - "Wind was blowing from sea".

 

goal too high, price of the set itself, too high, and then they made the alternate pieces replace existing pieces instead of being bundled together, and is just a chess set with transformers designs, it wasnt worth it

 

32+ six inch tall, hand painted figurines at 600 bucks is not outrageously overpriced. That's about 20 bucks per figurine. Put em each in a box on a shelf and they'd probably sell ok. My main reaction to this as a chess set is...

- I don't want a chess set with pieces that big
- I don't want to squint at the little symbols to remember which figures are which positions. This is the biggest misstep to me. I would have made Ironhide and Ratchet Rooks, Prowl and Smokescreen Bishops, etc. I would have used only minibots for the pawns. Something that makes it so glancing at the playfield makes it instantly apparent who is in what position.
- Cut the size and cost of the figurines in half. Whatever it takes to get the whole set down below 300. Maybe go with nicely detailed cast pieces instead of hand painting everything.
- Instead of stretch goals, just offer straight up add-on options for people with money to buy additional pieces. 2 Junkions, a set of Gnaw pawns, a whole setup with the Quintessons and their minions as 1 side of the board.

Basically, I feel think this was a case of being a bit too ambitious, but also offering a product that seems kind of poorly suited for the stated purpose of the item. If I buy a Transformers chess set, I'd want to have fun playing chess with it. Otherwise, I am just buying a set of 32 mini statues that are going to sit in the corner and collect dust while looking admittedly very pretty.

 

This reminds me of the Play With This Too offering on Kickstarter several years ago. Nice stuff, but too costly and too niche for the average Transformers fan.

They would have been better off putting this on their own site so it could be offered as a subscription item. Sell people two chess pieces per month and offer the board with the final shipment. After that, they could remain subscribed and receive additional pieces that could be subbed into the game in place of the standard pieces. Really dedicated people would keep the subscription until they had every piece, wile others might cancel after completing the basic set.

 

Damn I really wanted to see this get made. I kinda feel like it\'s partly my fault because I couldn\'t back it, due to financial reasons. 

 

Hasbro has nothing to do with this besides allowing Eaglemoss the license to create these.

 

Would have loved to have one but that price tag was far too steep. Still I do feel sad that it isn\'t going to be made.

 

Wouldn't buy any chess set at all.

 

Is this now the thread of everyone saying why they wouldn’t buy it hahah