And here we are with another disappointment of a con. Though to be fair, I am interested in Fire Convoy and Fans Hobby's Armada Prime/Jetfire/Overload. And the possibility of Victory Leo just secured my purchase of Planet X's Star Saber.

 

Its kind of looked like the Third Party scene has kind of been burning outself out the last year or two. Some good releases sure, but after the big rush of high dollar items like MP alikes right (after the rush of Combiners) probably financially hurt a lot of companies. There's only so much collector money to spread around so we can only afford to really strongly support of a few companies and after years of expansion and more and more companies begging for our dollar it looks like we're on the cusp of the industry contracting back down a bit.

With every boom is the inevitable bust. I doubt the scene will ever even approach anything even close to dying but I bet we start seeing less and less new product shown at these conventions over the next year.

 

Biggest disappointment for me by far is the lack of Blaster's cassettes from Ocular Max. Those are the only Season Two characters that have literally no MP options (except some crap KFC mini-sized ones that don't really count). I need me some Eject, Rewind, Steeljaw, and Ramhorn.   These should be in color render by now, at the very least. Hopefully this means they're just holding those back to have something for the next show and by the time Toronto comes around, they'll have physical prototypes of them to display.

 

Who knows they may be saving it for the next con. They did reveal their masterforce prime or whatever.

 

This was a good TFCon  

 

Mt and fp punted again

 

Probably just waiting until the next TFCon in July. At least I hope so...

 

Maketoys seems to be going for smaller production runs and higher prices along with some exclusives to maintain presence.

 

Proof? That seems subjective.

 

Actually, I was pretty happy with this con's reveals (I did keep my expectations low), but I really wanted to see some advancement with at least Ramhorn. That and no MP Defensor announcement were my biggest let downs.* (btw, Blaster was a second season character, but the autobot cassettes didn't actually appear till the third season. Probably doesn't matter for most since they'll probably pose them together. Excuse my nerdiness)

 

Thanks, yeah looks like they debuted in the Movie. I'd definitely put them on the shelf with Blaster and may even do a display with them opposite Soundwave and his cassettes  

Appearance reference: Ramhorn (G1) - Transformers Wiki

 

Gonna admit, I was a bit underwhelmed by the reveals, but this con I think took everyone by Surprise to a degree. I imagine TFCon Canada will have more reveals. If not, then uh, I'll be genuinely scratching my head because I have no idea what people are doing anymore because there was a lack of stuff revealed today that we didn't know about. FH brought their game with them, and so did PX. MMC, eh, sort of meh on the reveals IMO right now. I mean, don't get me wrong I love their Bruticus but you can only show it to me so many times before I'm just immune to seeing it in a panel.

Nonnef's stuff I liked too, and want to get. Zeta actually managed to impress me with their Predaking, and I'm hoping it's good in all modes as it is combined. The IF stuff looks cool, but again, we knew about it, and I'm not going down the rabbit hole of their legends beyond what I got when they were first coming out. And I feel like I'm completely along on JiangJings MP TM2 Megatron. I hate the dragon arm if it can't detach and reveal a normal arm and have that be used as a weapon. I hated it in the original toy and it felt like a gimped arm to a degree yet people are clamoring for it. I don't understand you people sometimes!

 

I'm a little frustrated with MMC because everything I want to buy from them keeps getting pushed back while they put out more new designs of characters I have no interest in. I was hoping for a Reformatted voyager reveal at the very least, really wanting to see an IDW Ratchet.

 

I'm honestly a little underwhelmed we didn't get any updates on Galaxy Manus or Lord Despotron from MakeToys. Otherwise we had some really sick looking reveals that I'll have to try to sink my teeth into, especially Pioneer from Zeta.

 

I feel the same way about Ocular Max!  

 

Between QC issues and never ending release push-backs, It's been a frustrating year to be a third party collector. Then again, there's a buttload of good stuff scheduled to come out in the summer, like the first Assaultus limb. I think the person who designed the cassettes designed that set, so I have a feeling that it's gonna be a good summer.

 

I'm pretty sure AK has done the transformation designs for all of (or nearly all) OX PS and Remix, so that's not really a distinguishing feature.

 

Disappointed that there was no sign of the tdw overlord kit, but really happy Planet X is doing victory Leo for kadmos

 

Biggest surprise was Zeta making a Raiden. Perfect for their style and not another Menasor or Defensor. Bravo.

Also: finally a MP Astrotrain... But it's FT so who the hell knows what year it will see the light of day. Wish someone would just KO Transportation Captain a big bigger and with better materials.

 

A bit underwhelmed at the Ocular Max offerings. Thomas looks OK.
Lots of non MP stuff this year (aka things I am not interested in) but that is good news for collectors who buy chugs, legends etc. I'm not going to rain on anyone else's parade.