xyl360 wrote:I suspect the latter as I'm becoming convinced that BBTS will soon be getting out of the third party game. They don't seem to front page too much third party stuff these days and seem to be carrying less and less of it ever since the recent clearance sale they did on third party items.
I hope I'm wrong though, because BBTS is my main source for everything I collect.
I think they're just trying to thin down their selection of 3rd party items. Too many companies all popping up overnight with the next new thing that is never as good as the concept art they see when they order them, too many versions of the same thing (Nightbird, Powerglide, Seaspray, Devastator, etc.), too many parts made for other 3rd party items (if there are only say 3,000 people own Protector exactly how many Dr Wu faces are they going to really sell? Maybe 1 person in 20 tops?), and finally, iGear. BBTS doesn't charge for your preorder until they get the item in stock (which is awesome) but they have to pay for it up front when they order from the company. So they've been out the money on both PP-05s for well over a year now and it keeps getting pushed farther and farther back. Plus, iGear sells directly at a lower price with free shipping (but you have to pay upfront which sucks) so how can they compete with that? That's not even factoring in the dozens of projects they've announced that have fallen into development limbo.
Most 3rd party companies are on thin ice right now. Even the legendary Fansprojects, the company I feel is most directly responsible for the 3rd party boom, hasn't put anything out in like a year and their next product has some people put off because it's a more original concept than their comfortable with. Maketoys has had a very strong start but it would only take a few stumbles at this point to fall. TFC is going to run into a wall soon enough when they realize that not every conbiner part will sell for $120 and somebody will end up with a half finished Monstructor or something. BTS' Sonicron and those cassettes, need I say more? Between Headrobots and Junkion Blacksmith you can have every single G1 Headmaster have a head made in this century with several to spare. That Rolling Thunder Optimus monstrosity that you had to by two of together ("why buy one when you can have two at twice the price?") that eventually clearanced out. And that's not counting all of the Shapeways DIY people who just keep making updates to the same basic designs.
Hell, even
I'm getting into it with my Octopunch set that I'm currently working on so it's pretty safe to say the market's a little flooded at this point. Though I'm still not sure if I'm going to garage kit some from my home or make them available on publicly on Shapeways or both or if they may end up in iGears hands somehow and never see the light of day. (The tentacles and shoulder pieces have been fully rendered and have to be uploaded to Shapeways for testing, for anyone who might care.)
