The Energon Pub

Collectors will accept and purchase 3rd Party Transformers products for different reasons, maybe to fill gaps in high profile lines like Masterpiece, or just for the ingenuity of unique figures they appreciate. Other enthusiasts will not touch unofficial products that are guilty of intellectual property theft that they believe are harmful to the continued success official product. This week we’ve asked a number of collectors whether they think Hasbro and Takara have an active strategy in place to go after 3rd Party companies, or at least making progress in winning over some of their customers. This is a question that has been discussed more with the recent Hasbro and Takara Tomy Transformers reveals, reveals that seem to have struck at the heart of what direction most 3P companies had been going in.

Are Hasbro & Takara Going After 3P Companies? | Source Blog <- CLICK TO READ



All the best
Maz

That would be a real tough fight to win in court. My thought is that if they had a case, they already would have sued. I promise you that the 3rd pRty companies are dotting the i's and crossing the t's to make sure they are on the legal up and up. All 3rd party figures I have are full of subtle differences. Enough to be their own thing at the least.

Ironhidensh wrote:That would be a real tough fight to win in court. My thought is that if they had a case, they already would have sued. I promise you that the 3rd pRty companies are dotting the i's and crossing the t's to make sure they are on the legal up and up. All 3rd party figures I have are full of subtle differences. Enough to be their own thing at the least.

I doubt that greatly. Copyrights can very vague sometimes. Remember that DC sued Fawcett years ago because Captain Marvel/Shazam was deemed in infringement of Superman...

I only have a FEW 3PP things... Igears Hench, Medical Specialist, Gcreations Thunderous and Whoever's Appolyon.... and there wouldn't be a judge anywhere that couldn't be convinced they are direct representations of Brawn, Ratchet, Sludge and Megatron.

They may lack an insignia or have a new transformation... but they are undoubtedly infringing on a likeness. It's like Universal Studio's copyrights on their monsters. Frankenstein and Dracula are public domain... but the distinctive appearances of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff are entirely Universal's... Other people can make toys/movies/etc based on the characters... but they can't LOOK like theirs...


Best thing for everyone to do... continue on like nothing's going on.... Acknowledge that if they WANTED to crush the lil' companies.. they totally could, but don't think the bad PR is worth whatever they would gain.

Random thoughts...

The longer Hasbro takes on any potential legal action actually would hurt their case. Trademark, unlike copyright, requires actually defending your trademark, so by letting it go this long, they may have set a precedent that they don't care and thus can't turn around and now start taking action. I'm assuming it would have to be trademark action, based on the look of the toys, and not copyright, which would be more appropriate for the bootleg/knockoff type stuff directly molded from Hastak's actual toys.

I also think Hasbro believes it's not in their best interests to go after the 3rd party stuff, as it would erode their good will amongst their biggest fans. It's not like 3p does much to eat into their sales, most of the people buying 3p are certainly buying a lot of HasTak product as well. Go after 3p and those customers might be mad enough to stop buying official product out of some sort of principle.

The main thing they seem to be doing, which probably is their best move, is putting out official figures of characters that the 3p's have recently done (or have announced). Maybe sometimes they're better, maybe often they're not, but they're certainly cheaper, and it's probably the most effective way to not lose sales to 3p, as the much lower price (even as inflated as Hasbro prices have gotten lately) is probably the biggest enticement to not buy a 3p figure and instead buy official. And yes, some people will still buy 3p or even both, but I think for the most part people would rather have cheap and official over expensive and not.

There can be a symbiotic relationship if Hasbro makes something (i.e. Titans Returns) [Boy do I really hate that name] Fortress Maximus - a fair few Perfect Effect Wardens are going to be on the secondary market soon after or before.

Likewise looking for a cheap 3rd party Skullcruncher Hasbro's offering a new take on that character is likely to make a few of those show up too.

Yet sometimes Hasbro does the 3rd parties a huge favour by making trucks with no trailers or making heads with no bodies - you just know 3rd parties are thinking pretty seriously already about making a Nightbeat and other bodies for those heads.


They way I look at it is this when Hasbro (or people getting turned off the brand by virtue of increasingly terrible movies) eventually screws up the brand beyond all redemption and finally kills it there might be some people who still care enough to want to carry it on unofficially even after that happens. (if it happens).

But then they might get bored too - I hope Transformers is one of those things that will refuse to die like Lego or Disney Princess stuff - but you never can be certain about these things - after all just look at all those other brands that have either vanished for a while or for good.

The prime example of a Brand injuring itself so badly that it nearly killed itself off for good is MOTU - that it still exists at all seems more like dumb luck than a wilful intention.

Perhaps in a few years Transformers will only exist as a niche collectors brand sold mostly online too if it carries on the way it has been I think it's more likely to kill the brand than build it.