The Energon Pub

News Credits: 119 · Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:14 pm

Is this true?

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z ... 5545489285

News Credits: 668 · Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:11 pm

This product is a pre-gold paste special, non-spot.

Note: This product is a KO version of MT Hercules, mold making factory turned, we would like to make clear the re-scheduled.

The release date is expected in 2012 October-November (the agent delivery time shall prevail in case of extension), the price of 1000 yuan.

50 yuan deposit required to confirm Daozhang (confirm payment and to evaluate otherwise scheduled invalid), the deposit refundable (before). Will be notified after the arrival of the intended buyers make up the balance and shipping, then shipping.

Tel: 13661103093

I can only guarantee that the toys are genuine brand new unopened, the other can not guarantee the buyers receipt, please check in front of the courier, the packaging extrusion can be refused returned, the seller find the express claims. Once the buyer signed or open toy packaging, then the rebate does not change the consequences.
View the members of the baby's view

KOs already...

News Credits: 1 · Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:40 pm

First Battle Tanker and now Giant. Poor Maketoys. Someone at their factory hates them.

You know, anonymous KO company, you could at least wait until the product is off the shelves before doing your thing. In general Kos aren't cool, but KOing the little guy while he's still trying to get his foot in the door ... REALLY not cool.

Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:07 pm

Wow, that pisses me off. I only hope that this KO was made by taking Yellow Giant and recolouring it, so that it doesn't have any of the improvements added to the official version of the Green one. That could be the one minor thing that could stop this being a complete disaster for MakeToys.

But yeah, KO companies, if you have to exist (and I for one wouldn't be sad if you didn't) at least give the original companies a chance to sell their thing before you go raining on their parade.

News Credits: 5 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:34 am

160 USD eh?

I don't feel sorry for 3rd parties that get KO'd.

Dog eat dog. It's all the same.

News Credits: 8 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:57 am

I saw one of these on ebay last night...I think it is true..

News Credits: 2 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:08 am

RodimalToyota wrote:160 USD eh?

I don't feel sorry for 3rd parties that get KO'd.

Dog eat dog. It's all the same.

Gah, how can you even say that. The differences are enormous.

News Credits: 668 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 4:47 am

Banjo-Tron wrote:
RodimalToyota wrote:160 USD eh?

I don't feel sorry for 3rd parties that get KO'd.

Dog eat dog. It's all the same.

Gah, how can you even say that. The differences are enormous.

Agreed. Bootleggers, knock off artists make either exact, or almost exact duplications of an item. Sometimes the quality is on par, sometimes it's worse (usually), and once in a blue moon, it can even be better than the original item (one of the Henkei seekers...) Point is, they are directly replicating someone else's work.

3rd party has their own designs.
Steelcore? Completely original design. Doesn't deserve to have it knocked off.
Battle Tanker? Homaged G2 Laser Optimus/RID Scourge, but it was an original design. It didn't replicate what Hasbro had created.
Giant? The individual robots look somewhat like the Constructicons, but there are substantial differences to prove they are NOT one and the same. The vehicle modes? They're so revamped, so different, Hasbro has nothing in their catalog, past or present that even comes close to these. (These are highly detailed, not to mention, they're different types of crane trucks, dump trucks, etc. (Do they homage G1? Sure. But they're not even the same vehicles. Not even close.)
The combined mode? I'll give you that. It's plain as day that it's just a straight rip off homage of Devastator. However, there are still changes to it that make it different enough that Hasbro has nothing to compare.

There's a lot of work that goes into being 3rd party. Some of them don't homage, some of them just make accessories, not even full bots.

3rd party? They're not bootleggers or knock off artists. They're creating original designs that either enhance an existing figure, or homage one. Bootleggers and knock off artists are just plain thieves from the word go.

3rd party and KO shouldn't even be in the same sentence, let alone the same forum. If I were Maketoys, TFC, or FansProject, I'd be offended. I'd let my voice be heard, too.

News Credits: 4 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:28 am

View the members of the baby's view

Words to live by, my friends. :BOWDOWN:

News Credits: 14 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:19 am

I love a good knock off and if the quality is on a par with the recent Battle Tanker KO then I will be all over this!!!

I agree with a previous post that someone must have a niggle with MakeToys?

Bring it on!! :grin:

News Credits: 1 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:48 am

You guys who like this are joking, right? I mean, it's not really hard to get. No money = no products from Maketoy. And we all lose out in that scenario. Even the most self-centered of fans realize that's a bad thing, right? You guys do want more cool toys like Giant ... right?

I mean you guys get that undercutting a project like this, before it's even released, means that it's even harder for MT to make more new things ... right??

Sure this way you get a cheap Giant. But you won't get any of the cool things MT could have made had these guys not KOed Giant at this time. You won't even get KOs of those things because they won't exist.

News Credits: 4 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:59 am

it would be great to get 3rd party products at half the price.

but...I bought the proper Maketoys Battle Tanker and the Seaspray and Powerglide guys they made, and would love more of their work. The quality on the original stuff is up there with Fansproject. The pricing on both those products was worth it for the quality, so the original Giant is the way I'll go if I do get one.

Problem with KOs like this, is people passing them off as originals online.

Tue Aug 07, 2012 10:18 am

As another poster said...this is such a complicated toy, who knows what they simplified, and it would probably just fall apart in your hands. I don't mind paying for the quality.

When I first starting getting some figures, I bit on the KO City Commander plus KO white Prime just because the originals were unobtainable. Man both of them together SUCKS! I had to modify it just so the arms stay on and stay up.

Only KO's I bought that I thought were good for me were the Classic Seekers...

News Credits: 5 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 11:19 am

let me re-literate..

Giant is a complete rip-off of Hasbro's IP for the Constructicons.
The equipment is even in the same locations, in the same colors, with the same looking head.

because you paint the Mona Lisa in black and white, doesn't make it and original idea.

No matter what kind of excuse you try and make for it, it's a blatant rip-off of someone else's idea.

Knowing that, I do not feel sorry that Make Toys hard work, get's ripped off by another company who just wants to make a toy.

sound familiar?

People being mad that a ripped off idea, got ripped off again?

:HEADHURTS:

News Credits: 119 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:37 pm

Just trying to clarify, this KO version would be released (according to the auction description) in October/November, therefore the Maketoys Type 61 has already been released before that time frame. The auction itself is for a pre-order for the said item.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:54 pm

daimchoc wrote:Just trying to clarify, this KO version would be released (according to the auction description) in October/November, therefore the Maketoys Type 61 has already been released before that time frame. The auction itself is for a pre-order for the said item.

But it wouldn't exactly be off the shelves anywhere and it would hamper any efforts on MT's part to reissue the thing.

Plus, I'm willing to bet there's more than a few who've just decided to buy this guy with a part of their Giant savings rather than spend money on the real deal. No matter how I see it, this just hurts Maketoy.

I like what I'm seeing from MT. I don't want them driven out of business. I hope they plug their leak.

Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:55 pm

I'm keeping my preorder for the original Maketoys version. Yes, the price to support 3rd Parties is steep, but I enjoy the product. Very suspicious that this is the 2nd MT product to get a knock-off in such a short amount of time.

News Credits: 5 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 1:57 pm

necr0blivion wrote:I'm keeping my preorder for the original Maketoys version. Yes, the price to support 3rd Parties is steep, but I enjoy the product. Very suspicious that this is the 2nd MT product to get a knock-off in such a short amount of time.

Indeed, I'd rather spend 400 on a guaranteed high quality product.
Then spend 200, only to find it has the same quality as those Walgreens KO combiners.

News Credits: 4 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 2:20 pm

RodimalToyota wrote:let me re-literate..

Giant is a complete rip-off of Hasbro's IP for the Constructicons.
The equipment is even in the same locations, in the same colors, with the same looking head.

because you paint the Mona Lisa in black and white, doesn't make it and original idea.

No matter what kind of excuse you try and make for it, it's a blatant rip-off of someone else's idea.

Knowing that, I do not feel sorry that Make Toys hard work, get's ripped off by another company who just wants to make a toy.

sound familiar?

People being mad that a ripped off idea, got ripped off again?

Van Gogh and Picasso both painted portraits. The idea is the same: a persons face. The end results can be quite different.

Oh, and when was the last time that Hasbro released a brand new toy featuring the same types of 6 green construction vehicles that transformed into robots and looked the same as this?

also, like warzon3 I'm the owner of a KO City Commander and KO white Optimus Prime to wear it, and my experience is the same.

Tue Aug 07, 2012 2:38 pm

craggy wrote:Van Gogh and Picasso both painted portraits. The idea is the same: a persons face. The end results can be quite different.

EXACTLY... a lot of artists create things based on the same subject... or draw portraits of the same person, it does NOT mean it's a "rip-off". I would consider Giant to be a "tribute" or a "homage"... which is a big difference.

Personally, I would NEVER touch this KO... you get what you pay for & $160 is still a lot for what could be a piece of crap. I'll gladly pay double for what I know is an original & quality product. I bought a KO of Powered Commander & that might as well go in the trash... sure I got it 50% off the original... but am I happy with it? Fook no. Lesson learned.

News Credits: 5 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:15 pm

Mekatron wrote:
craggy wrote:Van Gogh and Picasso both painted portraits. The idea is the same: a persons face. The end results can be quite different.

What? Van Gogh and Picasso didn't own the IPR of the people they were painting.

Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:21 pm

Is Giant a rip-off of the Hasbro-owned character? No-one will dare argue that... but then again, no one is claiming Giant is some "new original character".

Is Giant a rip-off of the Hasbro-owned toy? Not even close... this thing is a 100% original toy-representation of the character.

News Credits: 5 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 4:14 pm

Mekatron wrote:Is Giant a rip-off of the Hasbro-owned character? No-one will dare argue that... but then again, no one is claiming Giant is some "new original character".

Is Giant a rip-off of the Hasbro-owned toy? Not even close... this thing is a 100% original toy-representation of the character.

That's owned by Hasbro... :BANG_HEAD:

Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:55 pm

Fair enough. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable creating art of Devastator, mass producing it & selling it. Not only because of the possible legal ramifications, but because it would be "ripping off" Hasbro.

I wonder what copyrights (if any) 3rd Party companies like Maketoys and Fansproject actually have to their products.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:12 pm

Mekatron wrote:I wonder what copyrights (if any) 3rd Party companies like Maketoys and Fansproject actually have to their products.

I wonder about that too. I think the transformation and those mechanics are copywritten. Although actually finding and suing the guys responsible is a whole other matter.