The Energon Pub

amcgrath929 wrote:

JRFitzpatrick7 wrote:Out of curiosity, do you guys who take jabs at iGear own any iGear products?
From the PP 01 series I've got:
Optimus Prime
Ultra Magnus
SG Optimus Prime
Nemesis Prime
Clear Optimus Prime
Gold Optimus Prime
Silver Optimus Prime

Are they scaled down MP Optimus Primes? Absolutely.
Does that bother me? Not one bit.

The quality control is amazing. Seriously. My favorite part you ask? The chest panels line up perfectly. Every one of my MP Optimus Primes have misaligned chest panels. They aren't weighed down with diecast, I can pose them however I want. They don't feel cheap, they feel like quality, tested and perfected transformers. This company, like KOToys, is producing figures for collectors who feel that Has Tak isnt giving them what they need.

The market doesn't want coneheads, it wants Bumblebees. Transformers fans who have been with the franchise since before the movies hit theaters are the customers iGear is selling to. No kid that jumped on in 2007 knows who Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet were. These figures are for guys like me. They fill a void in my collection, they do so perfectly.

I own the Kup replacement head and the IG-001Wreckers Leader upgrade for City Commander. Like you said, great quality and excellent pieces. But, that isn't really the debate that has been going on. It's not that iGear doesn't put out quality items, it's not that they fill "voids" left in people's collections, it is how they go about doing it. Had iGear created their own mold and used some originality for the MP seekers, most of the people that don't care for them wouldn't have a problem. Now there are some who don't want anything to do with 3rd party companies in general. Like Seibs himself said, in theory they are all "stealing" from HasTak and he is correct. Personally, I'll buy 3rd party items that are original and of good quality regardless of the manufactuer. IGear has proven they can make decent sets without having to con ideas. That is what they need to focus on.

Here's the thing though, i don't want a new seeker mold, I positively love the Takara mold, it really fantastic. I've enjoyes seeing it used in comics recently and i enjoy taking them down from my shelf to transform them. I want the MP-03 mold repainted as many times as are toon, comic, and everything else accurate. the problem is that Has Tak will never produce all of them. I will probably never see an official masterpiece Acidstorm, I won't see a Sunstorm either. I have supported Has Tak by purchasing every release of their masterpiece molds, some even twice (for display vs. MISB purposes). I have don my bit to give them the money, to buy the paint, to paint my new seeker. Instead, they produce Last chance Optimus. They produce King Grimlock. And how much more was King Grimlock than his original release? I gear has done something new with the seeker mold that eliminates the "scabards" from the figures, never really minded them myself, but this alteration to the mold allows poses for the seekers that would otherwise not be possible as well as a more cartoon accurate silhouette.

If anyone was wondering, i have MP-10 preordered...x2.
If and when Has Tak gets around to making my Sunstorm, Rainmakers, and Generics, I'll be there, front and center to buy them.

amcgrath929 wrote:

It Is Him wrote:

amcgrath929 wrote:I could go for some new MP Dinobots but I don't see it happening…ever.

iGear doesn't have the talent to pull something like that off.

Unless someone did it first

Well there are some MP style Dinobot kitbashes.

The thing with i-Gear is that they lack originality or real creativity, their first set was an upgrade for a different company's upgrade. The rest of their announcements where basically KOs. That's why I bought the Kup head, since it shows that they actually can make something original and cheap.
I wanted one of heir MP Prime KOs, until I saw the price tag, I'm sorry but I won't spend double the price of the original on a KO, especially not when that KO is scaled down.

JRFitzpatrick7 wrote:Out of curiosity, do you guys who take jabs at iGear own any iGear products?

I have the 2nd Faith Leader figure and it has decent quality that can be expected from a 3rd party other than Fansproject but it is far from amazing quality. It does feel slightly cheap. I am not rough in the least with my transformers but in the 3rd time transforming him the panel on the arm where you pull the hand out almost broke so I left him in bot mode so i didn't break him anymore. There are youtube videos where the Faith Leaders literally crumbled in the reviewers hands. Is that the case with all of them? I am sure it's not. Even Hastak has horrible QC at times. I guess it's just luck of the draw.

I just preordered Storm and the Coneheads through TFSource today. They were actually cheaper than going through IGear direct.

What iGear is doing is definitely infringement in my opinion, but as others have pointed out they are making characters that Takara most likely wouldnt do. They are making a ton more money rehashing Optimus and Bumblebee than they would ever make on producing the Coneheads.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:No, this is a repaint of their MP Seeker KO. TFSource is just using an image of the KOToys.com Henkei Sunstorm here

Neither of the KOToys Sunstorms look like this.

I believe it's one of the test images KOToys used to advertise that they where working on one.

Dead Metal wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:No, this is a repaint of their MP Seeker KO. TFSource is just using an image of the KOToys.com Henkei Sunstorm here

Neither of the KOToys Sunstorms look like this.

I believe it's one of the test images KOToys used to advertise that they where working on one.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 257.0.html

There's the thread with the images you're talking about. Nothing like what's shown here. KO Toy's Sunstorm V.2 was always pretty slavish to the G1 "reissue" version over the more popular PVC / comic version. I recall being disappointed by the first showing.

If it's just a placeholder image it's of somebody's custom Sunstorm.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:No, this is a repaint of their MP Seeker KO. TFSource is just using an image of the KOToys.com Henkei Sunstorm here

Neither of the KOToys Sunstorms look like this.

I believe it's one of the test images KOToys used to advertise that they where working on one.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 257.0.html

There's the thread with the images you're talking about. Nothing like what's shown here. KO Toy's Sunstorm V.2 was always pretty slavish to the G1 "reissue" version over the more popular PVC / comic version. I recall being disappointed by the first showing.

If it's just a placeholder image it's of somebody's custom Sunstorm.

Nope, that's not what I was talking about. That thread shows off the final toy shots of the Second KO Sunstorm based off the CHMS KO mold.

The image I'm talking about was a sort of WIP teaser that was floating around the net before actual photos of the first KO Sunstorm where shown. I just can't seem to find it anymore, the only trace I found now was a thread with a deleted photobucket image.

Dead Metal wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:No, this is a repaint of their MP Seeker KO. TFSource is just using an image of the KOToys.com Henkei Sunstorm here

Neither of the KOToys Sunstorms look like this.

I believe it's one of the test images KOToys used to advertise that they where working on one.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 257.0.html

There's the thread with the images you're talking about. Nothing like what's shown here. KO Toy's Sunstorm V.2 was always pretty slavish to the G1 "reissue" version over the more popular PVC / comic version. I recall being disappointed by the first showing.

If it's just a placeholder image it's of somebody's custom Sunstorm.

Nope, that's not what I was talking about. That thread shows off the final toy shots of the Second KO Sunstorm based off the CHMS KO mold.

The image I'm talking about was a sort of WIP teaser that was floating around the net before actual photos of the first KO Sunstorm where shown. I just can't seem to find it anymore, the only trace I found now was a thread with a deleted photobucket image.

Not to doubt you, but I think you're wrong on that being a KOToys image. I visit their forum all the time. Let's just leave it at that.

Anyways, it's pretty weird for a placeholder image whether it's supplied by iGear or TFSource.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:No, this is a repaint of their MP Seeker KO. TFSource is just using an image of the KOToys.com Henkei Sunstorm here

Neither of the KOToys Sunstorms look like this.

I believe it's one of the test images KOToys used to advertise that they where working on one.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 257.0.html

There's the thread with the images you're talking about. Nothing like what's shown here. KO Toy's Sunstorm V.2 was always pretty slavish to the G1 "reissue" version over the more popular PVC / comic version. I recall being disappointed by the first showing.

If it's just a placeholder image it's of somebody's custom Sunstorm.

Nope, that's not what I was talking about. That thread shows off the final toy shots of the Second KO Sunstorm based off the CHMS KO mold.

The image I'm talking about was a sort of WIP teaser that was floating around the net before actual photos of the first KO Sunstorm where shown. I just can't seem to find it anymore, the only trace I found now was a thread with a deleted photobucket image.

Not to doubt you, but I think you're wrong on that being a KOToys image. I visit their forum all the time. Let's just leave it at that.

Anyways, it's pretty weird for a placeholder image whether it's supplied by iGear or TFSource.

I seriously have no idea if it truly is from KOtoys, but I'm just so sure about having seen it or a similar one before. It might be just a digibash but yea it's freaking weird.