JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Wait... how are we "second party?" I thought those were companies partially funded by Hasbro?
In every transaction, there are two parties involved: The giver and the taker. Hasbro and TakaraTomy are the first party, being the givers, and we the consumers are second party, the takers. Whatever other party there is who enters into the transaction from outside of the primary two parties is the third party.
As things like DVDs and comic books don't come directly from the first party, they are considered products of the third party, like Shout! Factory or IDW for example. What makes them special is that they hold official licenses from the first party to produce non-first party goods for the first party's brand.
Consider also the Transformers items made by Art Storm and/or Sentinel. The Gokin Roadbusters, the Convoy pens, the Unicron Head, Ultimetal Optimus Prime, the 2 foot tall MegaZarak and BlackZarak, etc. are all considered officially licensed Transformers figures, yet do not come from the first party. So those are also counted as third party products, albeit official ones.
And since it is us who are receiving all these things, we are the second party receiving the goods from the first and third parties. But in this particular scenario, it's hard to imagine what a "fourth party" would be.