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ScottyP wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:I thought it was because Hasbro has affiliations with this site and they were not happy that "competing" 3rd party products were being featured on the website..

Nope.

He wishes. Some stores like BBTS did get into trouble for listing them under "Transformers" along with Hasbro product, (unintentionally) insinuating they were endorsed by them. That's one of the reasons the site took a stricter stand towards unofficial product.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:I thought it was because Hasbro has affiliations with this site and they were not happy that "competing" 3rd party products were being featured on the website..

Nope.

He wishes. Some stores like BBTS did get into trouble for listing them under "Transformers" along with Hasbro product, (unintentionally) insinuating they were endorsed by them. That's one of the reasons the site took a stricter stand towards unofficial product.

Nope.

There's also the notion that many in this fandom have forgotten what the original meaning of "third party" is.

If Seibertron.com truly hated third parties, then there would be no news from IDW, Paramount, Shout! Factory, Hub Network, Hasbro Studios, Fun Publications, or any party that isn't 100% Hasbro or TakaraTomy.

After all, Hasbro and TakaraTomy are the first party, we the consumers are the second party, and everyone else who isn't either one is the third party. The difference between the above-mentioned third parties who get news items and the specific ones that don't are that the former third parties have the official IP license from first party, while the latter third parties do not, which gets into the can of worms that is "IP theft".

Wait... how are we "second party?" I thought those were companies partially funded by Hasbro?

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.

Sabrblade wrote:

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.

I always considered the retailers to be the second party, since those are the groups Hasbro actually does business with. Sure, Hasbro makes products for people like us, but they're ultimately a B2B operation.

Sometimes second party and end consumer can be the same thing, but I don't think that's the case here. But we're kind of getting into the weeds, and really, at the end of the day these definitions don't really matter.

Whatever 3rd Party might technically mean in terms of licensees, the phrase already has its own sticky connotations in the world of Transformers, and that's not going away anytime soon.

ScottyP wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:I thought it was because Hasbro has affiliations with this site and they were not happy that "competing" 3rd party products were being featured on the website..

Nope.

Hence I said "thought" as in not entirely sure. This was the line I was fed a few years ago when it was implemented, however I now know the reason and well it is just really sad.

I'm remenber listening to the podcast that Ryan said the whole third party had gone out of hand.It wasnt like there was only 2 or 3 third party companies getting covered in the news,it was like all of them.He was kinda bothred by fact there whole page of news covered only third party news,making difficult to find actual brand news.A whole bunch of those were black silhouettes and not much else,some third partys came gone way too fast,so it was hard to keep track of who is who.For example there that third party who promised an upgrade kit for the Animated stunticons and I believe that never happened.

Please,correct me if I am wrong.