The Energon Pub

Will wonders never cease. Nothing is sacred in the world of Transformers and this remains true with the latest revelation of news coming from our friends at Fans Project.

It seems that the Shadow Commander upgrade set for the 2008 San Diego Comic Conventions Nemesis Prime has been remade into an aftermarket knock off! A host of pictures were posted over at Fans Project's website showing the differences between the original upgrade kit and the cheap bootleg.









To see all the images detailing the differences, click here.

Thanks for posting.

You just have to wonder...

Why knock-off Shadow Commander? You can still buy it from online stores.

What's the point anyway? I mean FansProject doesn't even make money. Besides it's still in stock

Slayershoop wrote:What's the point anyway? I mean FansProject doesn't even make money. Besides it's still in stock

To screw BBTS over with a cheaper product available outside their store.

Counterpunch wrote:

Slayershoop wrote:What's the point anyway? I mean FansProject doesn't even make money. Besides it's still in stock

To screw BBTS over with a cheaper product available outside their store.

true true

Slayershoop wrote:Thanks for posting.

No no no, thank YOU for telling us my good friend. The guys over at Fans Project work too damn hard and put out a fine product. Its one thing for HASBRO to get the KO affect, heck to a degree I think they want it to happen, but for a group of TF fans like ourselves who just want to make our Transformers even more awesome to have to deal with this crap is just plain stupid.

I own the City Commander set and the Powered Commander with plans to get Shadow Commander when I can afford him and now I gotta look out to make sure I don't buy this KO piece of crap.

BBTS is over 100 with shipping. How much is the KO? Where can I get one? What about the seller from Japan on ebay selling ones with damaged boxes? Are they the real ones?

Transtopias Rodimus Prime wrote:BBTS is over 100 with shipping. How much is the KO? Where can I get one? What about the seller from Japan on ebay selling ones with damaged boxes? Are they the real ones?

What's the matter with you? I mean seriously FansProject works their asses off to make a quality product and they don't make any money and you WANT TO BUY THE KNOCK-OFF TO SAVE MONEY? GOOD GOD! Seriously, give FansProject the money they deserve.

Slayershoop wrote:

Transtopias Rodimus Prime wrote:BBTS is over 100 with shipping. How much is the KO? Where can I get one? What about the seller from Japan on ebay selling ones with damaged boxes? Are they the real ones?

What's the matter with you? I mean seriously FansProject works their asses off to make a quality product and they don't make any money and you WANT TO BUY THE KNOCK-OFF TO SAVE MONEY? GOOD GOD! Seriously, give FansProject the money they deserve.

Agreed. FansProject doesn't deserve to be screwed over like this and I've got a problem with anyone who would encourage and/or support the people who are pulling this stunt. Yeah, I've been over on the KO threads today and I have not exactly been discouraging the practice against Hasbro but this is on a totally different level in my book.
1) Hasbro can take the hit
2) Hasbro has it coming
3) Most of them worth getting are releases of past, no longer in production items.

What these guys have done to FP is so unconscionable that even seeing the folks responsible get sued would not be satisfying enough for me. I believe that in some countries still, the punishment for stealing involves the loss of a hand. I think that would be a good start...

Is there any idea what kind of quality this monstrocity is? It looks nice enough, but you can tell that it doesn't fold together very well. How's the plastic?

i bought one thinking it was a good product on ebay. the sellers name is toy models.... man im so disappointed, but what can i do now except dispute it with the seller. you really have to be careful out there.

arneld048 wrote:i bought one thinking it was a good product on ebay. the sellers name is toy models.... man im so disappointed, but what can i do now except dispute it with the seller. you really have to be careful out there.

Hey there, welcome to the site! Wish it was under better circumstances.

Best of luck with your dispute. Please let us know if we can help in anyway.

I was bidding on one of these from that very same seller Wow....That sucks.... Anyone have a link where I could try and get a legit one?

T-Macksimus wrote:

Slayershoop wrote:

Transtopias Rodimus Prime wrote:BBTS is over 100 with shipping. How much is the KO? Where can I get one? What about the seller from Japan on ebay selling ones with damaged boxes? Are they the real ones?

What's the matter with you? I mean seriously FansProject works their asses off to make a quality product and they don't make any money and you WANT TO BUY THE KNOCK-OFF TO SAVE MONEY? GOOD GOD! Seriously, give FansProject the money they deserve.

Agreed. FansProject doesn't deserve to be screwed over like this and I've got a problem with anyone who would encourage and/or support the people who are pulling this stunt. Yeah, I've been over on the KO threads today and I have not exactly been discouraging the practice against Hasbro but this is on a totally different level in my book.
1) Hasbro can take the hit
2) Hasbro has it coming
3) Most of them worth getting are releases of past, no longer in production items.

What these guys have done to FP is so unconscionable that even seeing the folks responsible get sued would not be satisfying enough for me. I believe that in some countries still, the punishment for stealing involves the loss of a hand. I think that would be a good start...

As an artist, I can say that I'm pissed that anyone would actually post asking where they could get a bootleg. Fans Project spent a LONG time developing the Commander series and offered it at a price that is impossible to argue. If they were out to make money they could have easily sold it for $250 and would have still sold out, but they didn't. They chose to break even and they said that anything that actually was profit was dumped into the next project. The profit wasn't lining wallets, it was allowing them to continue their work and in turn benefit us. When you think about it, buying from Fans Project is an investment. Not in the profit sense, but in the idea of we'll see our money go to new products.

I've purchased both the City and Shadow sets and I'd love to get the Powered set. Why did I buy them? Mostly for asthetics, but also to support the talented artists who created them.

When you buy the KO, the original artists are not receiving any kind of compensation. There are a few special case scenarios, but I'm not going to delve into them.

T-Macksimus: I'm dissapointed in you. You say that Hasbro can deal with getting bootleged, but the fact of the matter is that they can't.
1. The G1 market has taken an incredible hit over the past few years
2. Many collectors are avoiding G1 in fear of getting a fake
3. The low quality items passed off as originals could damage the products reputation in the eyes of an untrained consumer.
4. Hasbro has been trying to get certain figures reissued. Hasn't that been discussed in Botcons past? If more KOs are made, Hasbro would be less likely to rerelease a figure due to a flooded market.

Neither Hasbro or Fans Project deserve this. I know Fans Project said it doesn't bother them that they get KOed, but it should bother the consumers to no end.

Well, for starters, you're giving a lot more credit to the collectors overall impact on Hasbro than Hasbro EVER will.
Secondly, the info on KO's has been out there for so long that anyone who is actually into it seriously and HASN'T done all of their homework deserves to get burned. I've had my kids question why I pass up stuff at Swap Meets and I've gone and shown them what gave a toy away as being a knock-off so now even they look out for stuff or have me inspect before purchasing.
Going back to the impact on Hasbro, points 1 thru 3 are tied together and should in no way effect Hasbro. Those all have to deal with collector markets. The re-issues through Toys R Us were slow and impacted Hasbro (slightly) but that was through a product of their own making. As for future re-releases...that's the first I've heard of it. Unless they plan on re-releasing the same damn G1 Prime mold AGAIN.
You said you were dissapointed in me. You should be dissapointed in Hasbro or haven't you noticed the trend in their products that's been slowly creeping in over the last year and half. Hasbro is still mass producing crap for their target demographic and it's still being gobbled up like always, that's why I said they could afford to take the hit and their treatment of the fans (who aren't their target demo but are supposedly still important) is why I said they have it coming. Either way, what is more important than my opinion is the fact of what these a**holes are doing to FP and what, if anything, can be done to stop them. FP is giving us stuff Hasbro never will and now someone is out to screw that all up.

This is just nasty.

A KO of a figure long out of production by a big company that has many other lines to support it is one thing but doing this to a new company that relies on sales of just a few products to keep going is a disgrace.

I urge everyone reading not to touch these things. Lets send a message to these people.

maybe we all should come together and hire a P.I. and find out were these people live
so we can take care of the problem

Cant FP sue these guys or some thing? And whats the point of this any way? If it included a KO of prime with it then id get it but its just the extra parts. And these are still easy to find. Its not like a figure from the 80s that you cant get any more. This is just wrong. Screw the evil corporation hasbro (they do it to us all the time so why not) not the little guy.

at least they covered the damn screw holes
something which ruins alot of figures

if this was cheap enough it would be alright for spare parts as i've heard many people have broken the offical version(s)

This is the kind of KOs I despise because they're of current products. And being for products from a small company for fans is even worse .

Weird, I posted this as news yesterday but it disappeared. I presume it was probably that PM server glitch that wiped it out.

Anywho, all one has to do is look at the paint application on the the KO to see the difference. The lines are horribly-so much paint bleed. Anyone who would knowingly seek one of these out over the original is crazy IMO.

I wonder how people would've reacted if the KO was in Powered Commander colors

Wow, a thread warning us of a KO that turns into Hasbro bashing. Gee, I wouldn't have seen that coming...

"Hasbro has it coming." That's total BS. Did you get "screwed over" by Hasbro? Did they come to your house and steal your toys? You think they don't care about the fans? Have you watched an episode of TF: Animated? Have you see the G1 references they throw in there? How about Universe? that wasn't for the fans/collectors? Oh wait, I know what it is.. you're pissed about The Seekers, aren't you?

okeee, how did this get to a hasbro bashing thread...anywho, personally, I don't know why anyone would even want to buy a knock off unless they plan to repaint the whole thing into another character. I mean, what's wrong with you? Transtopia Rodimus, you actually want something that is obviously inferior to the original. It reaks of fail, but if you like that, why don't you just go buy some knock off Gobots. Cause that piece of crap is worth just about that much.