Hasbro seems to be signaling they are moving back to safer characters for the new line, with characters like sideswipe, mirage, and wheel jack. Does that open the the chug scaled third party scene to more obscure characters like flywheels, apeface, and rapido?

 

If I were 3P I go hard on legends, Hasbro is vacating the market

 

I doubt it. 3P stuff usually has pretty small runs, and it seems like the cost of producing a Deluxe-sized toy with the engineering people seem to expect from a 3P toy isn't a lot lower than Voyager-sized one (or an MP car-sized one). Plus, it seems more high-end collectors are more interested in MP. Or, put another way, I think fewer people buying $20 CHUGs are willing to shell out $80 for a 3P version, while people dropping $150 on Takaras don't really mind dropping $150 on 3P (heck, with every new official MP that Takara releases 3P is starting to look like a bargain). A lot of the CHUG-style 3P reveals we've seen this weekend are from MMC, FansProject, and Maketoys, and aside from some "FansProject's not dead?" surprise MMC's Reformatted and Maketoys' Cross Dimension lines have always been CHUG. (OK, ToyWorld's Combiner Wars-compatible Onslaught and Motormaster were big surprises, but since their design team left to form Zeta and ToyWorld can't keep milking Constructor forever I think they're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks in an attempt to stay relevant). So my guess is that if/when the G1 MP well starts to dry up you're going to see 3Ps branching their MPs into other Transformers fiction. In fact, we've already started to see that with Maketoys doing Galaxy Force designs, Fans Hobby doing G2 (and RiD), and several companies doing Bayverse figures.

The one big exception seems to be Legends-class stuff. They seem cheap enough to make and design that companies seem to be able to get through a lot of characters relatively quickly, make them with much better articulation than Hasbro without making them as complex as larger toys, and they can sell them at prices high enough to make money but low enough that someone who might hesistate to buy one $150 MP might still buy three Legends figures without thining twice.

 

They should....but I doubt it.

They'd rather flood the market with a dozen of the same shitty g1 mp figure all at the same time.

 

They are just clueless in 3P land.

TFC can't even figure this out...


Toyworld gave us duplicate Menasor and Onslaughts, but forgot LEOZACK.

 

I can forsee those 2 new posiedon sets going on clearance real quick. I mean wtf?

 

If they do , I’ll go broke . Right now I just skip everything MP scale

 

Why would they? MP styled toys are still super high in demand.

Tons of legends are already being made

If anything, all the sizes are being covered now. it's a great time to be a collector.

There's finally something for everyone.

And, in terms of characters more obscure? 3p companies are still fans at heart so they make whatever they want to make, they don't give two shits what Hasbro is doing or the characters they tackle with the exception of FansToys. (in regards to MP characters anyway)

 

there is so little CHUG size stuff though

 

I agree with pretty much everything @mikeszekely wrote. There really isn't much CHUG left to cover and 3P companies are better off doing stuff that HasTak is ignoring like legends-size figures, MPs, IDW-editions and "alternate-styles."

CHUG not covered by HasTak (so far). (Characters that can be repainted from existing CHUG releases are counted as "complete.")
1984 - Autobots: Complete!
- Decepticons: Reflector, that's not a convention exclusive. Shockwave, although the Cyber Battalion version is a "good enough" substitute.
1985 - Complete!
1886 - Autobots: Steeljaw, unless you want to do a CW Ravage repaint.
- Decepticons: Runabout and Runamok, unless you use the convention exclusive or do a repaint. Slugfest, definitely nothing available.
1987 - Autobots: Target Masters, Pointblank, Crosshairs, Sureshot (heavily rumored for next year). Throttlebots: Goldbug, Freeway, Rollbar, Searchlight, Wideload (or just do repaints of existing molds).
- Decepticons: Headmaster Triplechangers, Apeface & Snapdragon. Flywheels.
1988 - Autobots: Powermasters, Joyride, Slapdash & Doubledealer. Pretender: Waverider. Headmaster Jrs: Hosehead, Nightbeat, Siren. Raiden.
- Decepticons: Headmaster Jrs: Horri-bull, Squeezeplay, Fangry. Firecons: Sparkstalker, Flamefeather (or just repaint PotP Slash). Seacons (rumored).
1989 - ??? Star Saber, Victory Leo, Deathsaurus, proper Leokaiser...

Okay so there still a few gaps in CHUG but a lot has been covered. Stuff that I honestly think will eventually get released...

 

The organic aesthetics don't suit God Neptune (to me at least). A blockier-robotier build would make them more distinct from one another. The way God Neptune was depicted in BWII, could give 3p companies ideas as to how a modernized version of the toy ought to look

 

Lol

Please tell me that's tongue in cheek.....

 

in the third party scene ? There isn't. I see a Motormaster and a Onslaught only really. or am I missing something ? Maybe I should be clearer G1 cartoon accurate CHUG SCALE and when I say G1 I don't mean IDW I mean sunbow

I want to see the likes of

Devcon
Greenlight
Lancer
Blue Bacchus
Minerva

 

Thats because official channels are catering to fans. That being said do you really think the market that complains about a figure costing $20 would pay $50+ for these 5 you're missing?

Thats the ultimate issue. Mp buyers are already used to paying quite high prices so it's little change so the market isn't so much a risk.

 

Cartoon accurate isn't CHUG. CHUG, by its name, is updated. Some characters are now headmasters. Others turn into two robots. Such is CHUG.

 

I wish they would, but I doubt it. MP and Legends seems to be where it's at these days.

But hot damn, I'd like some more Combiner Wars torso-bots at least...

 

This is one of the biggest conceits in this fandom.
By its very name chug is articulated updates of first G1 characters and later from every generation.
That's it. That's all chug is.
There was never anything about chug that made it solely about new altmodes and designs.
There have always been cartoon accurate chug toys

 

It's starting to look like Hasbro only did CW and TR to kill the third party market and now they are just going to do the 84 characters over and over again like they always wanted to.
It would be nice if that spurred third parties to do more chug characters again.
Like Ramberk Magnus inadvertently admitted: there is still a whole lot of characters to be done in chug. And even more than he listed actually.

 

Seeing a great shift towards Legends sized figures with great sculpting in both modes, good transformations and decent pricing I do think CHUG is next.

I think future releases will be MP inspired Transformers in this size so combiners, cityformers and diorama playsets (The Ark and Nemesis anyone?) are a possibility in scale without the high price attached to it.

I think a lot of collectors would buy smaller sized figures, inscale with eachother they can use in dioramas while saving space and money.
You could probably buy 2 or 3 figures for the price of one bigger MP.

 

I really hope as I feel CHUG is more playable for my kids. Unlike MPs where I’m worried about them being damaged.

I’m at the stage where I want to share my experiences and kick out tf toy.