by craggy » Sun May 12, 2013 6:18 pm
on the initial face of things, I personally don't see where "the only people who win are consumers" is a bad thing...because I'm a consumer.
of course, I was already worried about UT because I don't think people will buy their version and whilst I am more inclined to get MMC's, I'd like to see UT do more products in the future, as their offerings look okay, and most 3rd parties only improve with each project.
TFC's products haven't really appealed to me yet, so I'll be surprised if their take on Predaking does, but they're probably more able to take the hit, but also less likely to. I'd expect there are folks still paying for Uranos, who bought Herc and have adopted TFC as their 3rd party combiner company of choice (we've seen it in the FP Menasor threads where people have said they'll pass, and wait for TFC's version, which isn't even announced) so there's probably still a market there for them.
I'm torn on the whole competition thing.
On one hand, competition can force everyone to work that much harder at producing better products. It can also lead to price drops. Sometimes those price drops can lead to drops in quality, as companies might rush things out to make a quick buck by being first.
These companies have always all been competing with each other, as well as Hasbro. But it's a lot easier to buy a £15 Deluxe and be disappointed with it, and give Hasbro another go than it is spending £100 on a 3rd party toy and finding it not to your liking.
I do like having options on what to spend my money on, because sometimes I might not agree with design choices, or scale, or pricing, or whatever. When e (or 3) companies make the same character, it gives us as consumers options on what to buy to fit in with our collections or our own interpretations of the characters.
But as stated above, it splits the pot a bit between the companies. I'd be surprised if we see another run of Warbot Defender, because of Hasbro's Springer. These combiners are another matter. I'm one of a few who've hoped for another run of Maketoys green Giant, because we passed for whatever reason when it first came out. FP's Bruticus add-ons just got their 3rd(?) release. Combiners could be big money for the 3rd parties. They could be reissued again and again, and there's always recolours to think about as well.
If everyone made different characters, it'd be up to the consumers to decide which characters they want more. I'm not sure that everyone doing their own versions of the same characters isn't more fair, but it does run the risk of all these companies putting each other out of business.
Maybe Hasbro saw this sort of thing coming and it explains their lack of action in regards 3rd parties? Why try to fight them when they'll take each other out before becoming a threat?
edit: all that and I didn't once make mention of the phrase "beastiality combiners"
assembling a Neo-G1/TF:TM cast. Please PM if you have (or know of) the following at a reasonable price: Classics or Henkei Astrotrain, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, or 3rd Party iGear Ratchet and Ironhide.
Also looking for Universe Repugnus and Overbite, Frostbite and Longhorn and any Webdiver toys.
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