The Energon Pub

With more and more third party offerings I find myself liking Third party offerings Less and less. I find it strange saying that on a Third party forum where I spend most of my time, but I find it to be true... Not really interested in anything coming out.. all these third-party "Masterpiece" figures does not interest me one bit. They all seem pretty good, but all have their issues, besides Quakewave I will not buy another third party masterpiece figure. Everyone leaves me kind of Meh..

EDIT: still into Computron though =D

Gauntlet101010 wrote:With combiners I have a theory. And I mean on top of all the other facts.

I really think that hasbro is reluctant to release similar toys with the same colour scheme. This would affect Predacons, Dinobots, Insecticons, and the Constructicons. I've noticed that even the Animated Dinos don't all have exactly the same colours and it goes a long way to explain Fruticus.

I mean, think about it. In the old days we had a lot of teams with the same colour schemes, but now? The Animated Dinos are the closest I think we've gotten in a long time.

I definitely think you are onto something here. With the points we already mentioned, this may fall under the marketing arm. Hasbro is trying to sell toys to kids (or at least to the parents who buy them for the kids.) Products that are too similar, as in color, can hinder this approach. Great thought.

I will investigate this thread and the author when I get home as it is difficult to do so on my phone.

rpetras wrote:I don't consider myself a Hasbro Hater either, but I have noticed the majority of my purchases (and posts) have been 3P when it comes to Transformers.

I explain my same tendency for posting mainly in 3rd Party forums with this:

rpetras wrote:But, that said, I'd rather pay more for a figure I actually want than less for something I really don't. But because of the price differences I try to be more selective about the 3P stuff I buy. Before I drop 3P $$$ on a figure, I try to be damn sure it is a figure I really, really want.

I love what Hasbro is doing, but I find that discussing 3rd Party stuff really clarifies what I want and am looking for before making the final purchase decision. If I make a bad purchasing decision at retail, it's a $10-$20 blunder. If I buy a 3rd Party figure online, it's more like a $75-$100 blunder. Plus, it's nice to get to know the folks in our little corner of Seibertron.

mooncake623 wrote:With more and more third party offerings I find myself liking Third party offerings Less and less. I find it strange saying that on a Third party forum where I spend most of my time, but I find it to be true... Not really interested in anything coming out.. all these third-party "Masterpiece" figures does not interest me one bit. They all seem pretty good, but all have their issues, besides Quakewave I will not buy another third party masterpiece figure. Everyone leaves me kind of Meh..

Same - the more 3rd Party product there is, the less compelling it all is. Gives me the chance to be choosy, which is nice.

And I'm not a huge fan of non-official MP figures either. Takara is really on a roll, and I'd be remiss to not to fully support them by splintering my attention and cash to potentially inferior products that aren't 100% on the money. Quakewave is tempting... but I need to wait a while longer before my resistance wears down.

megatronus wrote:I love what Hasbro is doing, but I find that discussing 3rd Party stuff really clarifies what I want and am looking for before making the final purchase decision. If I make a bad purchasing decision at retail, it's a $10-$20 blunder. If I buy a 3rd Party figure online, it's more like a $75-$100 blunder. Plus, it's nice to get to know the folks in our little corner of Seibertron.

See, I think if it wasn't for the 3P action, I would have dropped out of TF collecting a while ago. It is because of the various discussions and activity on the 3P threads that I still find collecting TFs interesting.

Which Predaking is best? Is Maniaking worth it, even with those weird wrists? What 3P combiner scale do you like? 3P MPs, good idea or bad? Is there too much focus on combiners? All good discussions.

With the Hasbro side of the hobby, they put out a figure, you buy it or you don't. And I do. I picked up a lot of good figures from HasTak in the last year, but I left a lot of crap on the shelves too. With the 3P scene there seems to be a lot more to it. It can even make mediocre figures (Trailbreaker, Hoist and FoC Grimmy I'm looking at you!) into really good figures. I love, (love, Love, LOVE) FoC Grimlock now with all the add ons.

Plus, it really feels like you have some influence on the hobby! Your purchase, or lack thereof, makes a bigger impact to the 3P companies, so they are really trying to please. Are they perfect? No, they can't be. Your "perfect" combiners (or Dinobots or whatever) differ from mine. There is currently a questionnaire out there from the guys doing MP Snarl. Doesn't get more direct than that!

In the mean time, for every Springer they do, Hasbro has put out 8 more versions of Bee and Prime ... yay. For every Metroplex, 57 flavors of Derpy Bruticus. That's fine, apparently that's what sells, but it would not have been interesting enough for me to keep up with the hobby if that's all there was.

i love 3rd parties these days. but that will never mean ill stop supporting hastak by any means. theyre the foundation.

case and point: classics galvatron vs mania king. i own every version of him so far aside from the asia specialists. and im not torn in the slightest to get another version of this mold (even with the hate baggage he carries) because he looks better every time hes released, and it will probably be the best and last. does this mean im going to pass on mania king? he might look great but i put wayyyy more thought into getting mania king than asia galvatron. in the end ill probably end up with both.

one other example: boosticus vs microblaze. ive been told my opinion on this doesnt make a whole lot of sense, which i admitted was odd, but it is what it is. while mocroblaze looks astonishing, theres some part of me that doesnt want to outright discard onslaught to make way for MBC, in spite of the figures flaws. i prefer the idea of boosticus, as it utilizes all the original and official figures. is it strange that i recognize a superior figure and pass on it? absolutely. but its just... how i am

shajaki wrote:one other example: boosticus vs microblaze. ive been told my opinion on this doesnt make a whole lot of sense, which i admitted was odd, but it is what it is. while mocroblaze looks astonishing, theres some part of me that doesnt want to outright discard onslaught to make way for MBC, in spite of the figures flaws. i prefer the idea of boosticus, as it utilizes all the original and official figures. is it strange that i recognize a superior figure and pass on it? absolutely. but its just... how i am

Oh, you are not alone in this. I feel almost exactly the same. The FP Bruticus was a bit different as we were replacing Blast-off (really, Hasbro? A friggin tank?) and Swindle (and a chopper? Hasbro, you are sometimes like that girl that drove me crazy in high-school. And yes, I married her too...) with more reasonable figures. Microblaze is replacing the same character with another (which is awesome, I admit). But it just doesn't quite seem...right. I don't think I am explaining it any better, but my feelings are very much the same as shajaki here.

Perhaps that is why I consider myself somewhat in the Hasbro camp, though maybe not as severe as the site owner...

Agamemnon wrote:Oh, you are not alone in this. I feel almost exactly the same. The FP Bruticus was a bit different as we were replacing Blast-off (really, Hasbro? A friggin tank?) and Swindle (and a chopper?)

Well, when it comes to Fansproject's upgrades for Bruticus, while we were replacing two figures, we weren't discarding any distinct molds. All of the molds Hasbro produced for Bruticus are still being utilized, it is only the duplicates that were discarded in favor of two additional molds.

As much as I love a good third party figure, I am also in the camp of, "That doesn't mean I hate Hasbro." I like it better when third parties either augment official figures, or tackle characters that seem unlikely to get official figures. (Also, when producing whole figures, I like them to be original molds. For example, I was quite disappointed in Maketoys, as I feel they crossed a line with Hyper Novae.)

The only time I feel comfortable getting a third party figure when there is an official option also available is if the official offering is fairly universally recognized as an epic fail. I'm looking at you, Classics Devastator. But heck, I saw no need for Mania King, as while it isn't my favorite figure, I was content with Hasbro's Galvatron.

In any event, has this thread strayed a bit from the original purpose? (Mind you, in my original reply to this topic, I questioned what that purpose was, and if it was even a valid one...)

I guess it's strayed. There's not really many downsides to 3rd party TFs and, in the end, the solution is just not buying them.

Anyway, if we're talking about our personal preferences, I'm fine with replacing figures. I feel a bit worse about the replacement Onslaught is that you've wasted a buy. But that's a minimal thing for me. I mean, I "waste" a lot of buys even on official stuff. Take Galvatron, for instance. I started with Universe. Replaced that with Henkei. Replaced that with Superlink. And, finally, replaced that with Mani King. Galvy is an extreme example (I like Galvy and it doesn't take much to make me buy him), but I do that all the time. So, from my point of view, it doesn't matter so much who makes it.

I don't hate Hasbro at all, although I go Takara for my favorites. However, I also don't feel I owe them loyalty. They aren't my friends after all. They're just a company that makes stuff. And if I like the stuff they make I buy it. But our relationship ends there.

Saying that, however, I tend to avoid KOs. Even if the quality is almost the same, I'd just rather own the original. Hasbro or 3rd party. I do have a few KOs, so it's not a full stop for me, but I do avoid them.

rpetras wrote:

megatronus wrote:I love what Hasbro is doing, but I find that discussing 3rd Party stuff really clarifies what I want and am looking for before making the final purchase decision. If I make a bad purchasing decision at retail, it's a $10-$20 blunder. If I buy a 3rd Party figure online, it's more like a $75-$100 blunder. Plus, it's nice to get to know the folks in our little corner of Seibertron.

See, I think if it wasn't for the 3P action, I would have dropped out of TF collecting a while ago. It is because of the various discussions and activity on the 3P threads that I still find collecting TFs interesting.

Which Predaking is best? Is Maniaking worth it, even with those weird wrists? What 3P combiner scale do you like? 3P MPs, good idea or bad? Is there too much focus on combiners? All good discussions.

This is true for me as well! I enjoy all the 3P discussions on all the figures at times more than the figures themselves. Like Maniaking and KFC UM, I have long decided I don't like those figures and won't be getting them but I still love reading up on all the opinions and discussions.

well most of it... some stuff you just have to skip over....

I'm flipping your quotes out of order ... I'm crazy like that !

Yotsuyasan wrote:In any event, has this thread strayed a bit from the original purpose? (Mind you, in my original reply to this topic, I questioned what that purpose was, and if it was even a valid one...)

A little bit, maybe.
But I think talking about the pros and cons of the 3P scene is a lot more interesting that just focusing on the negatives of combiners. That specific topic DOES get discussed as part of that, but that whole conversation mostly boils down to, "They are expensive".

Yotsuyasan wrote:The only time I feel comfortable getting a third party figure when there is an official option also available is if the official offering is fairly universally recognized as an epic fail. I'm looking at you, Classics Devastator. But heck, I saw no need for Mania King, as while it isn't my favorite figure, I was content with Hasbro's Galvatron.

Take this point for example. It is interesting, it pertains to a more general 3P discussion, and is fun to talk about.

I see your point, I just don't share it.

For me, I'm after the best representation of the character. Sometimes that representation is from Hasbro, sometimes from a 3P source, sometimes both! Example: Even with the announcement of MP Bumblebee, (not to mention the gajillion versions of Bumblebee since 2007) I find myself still interested in ToyWorld's Bii. Why? Because I think they nailed the vehicle mode of the 'toon much better than the official MP. Will I get both? Probably. Where will I display them? Don't know yet. Bii might end up in classics, or he may just exist as "vehicle mode" MP Bumblebee.

For me, it is often just as interesting to see how and why different collectors build their collections, as it is to discuss the figures themselves.