The Energon Pub

[Rated X]

Ill be all over these. As usual I endorse CHMS for their quality work and grabbing the bull by the horns.

Too bad I already bought an original Counterpunch but now I can display him as both identites. I would like to find out more about the rumor of KO toys being forced to shut down. Suprisingly, he just updated his website today with new pre-orders. I hope him being forced to shut down is just a rumor being spread by haters.

[Gauntlet101010]

ANOTHER "KO VS original" thread? Gimme a break.

WE ARE ALL COLLECTING TOYS HERE. Consider what most of society would say about that before pointing a finger and saying "these toys are too much money". Whether you're spending $300 on Botcon exclucives or $300 on several "high quality" KOs, that's still $300 spent on toys. If you get some joy out of it that's great, but either way you swing you can't criticize anyone for how they spend their money when you're doing the same thing.

It's as unreasonable to be angry that some people hate KOs as it is for people to be angry that people love KOs. This site is GEARED to people who LOVE the official stuff. Naturally most of them hate KOs. KOs don't help official collectors. They just don't. If you don't like it ... go to a different forum. There must be another out there that love KOs.

[dinogeist]

im sorry your right, 300 IS fair for 6 sodding toys which realistically a child would play with but a grown adult is willing to shell out 300 for. Yes your right is it fair to pay 300 for 6 toys that if released at normal retail would cost no more than 10 each, yes thank you hasbro for making us pay 300 for a collection of 6 to robots made for childen which would only have cost you 10 for each figure and would have made you a ton more money had you released it at retail, also i love the fact your completely ignoring the fact you will need to book flights (more money) hotels (more money) other travel costs to the venue (again more money) obviously money for things such as food and clearly more money for 'just in case' situations. so yeah.....loads of money for a toy that realistically a child should be playing with

sorry but paying 300 for toys is essentially like being raped and then being spat on for good messure only your to dumb to realise you just got screwed outa 300 bucks for £10 each toys when you could have used the 300 for something sensable like - rent/food/your children/your mortgage/pet insurance ect ect

truth is generalstratton is saying it far better than anyone else ive ever seen before but the sad thing is its all these hardcore botcon ect owners who moan and complain like children because a toy they paid 200-300 for has lost slight value because a high quality ko has shown up on the market. If your gona bitch and moan about a toy and the price then dont buy 2nd hand dvds/games or anything else for that matter because the companies dont receive ANY of that money and if your gona then moan about that then it simply makes you a hypocrite

Also kotoys forum isnt that great! ive tried to register there afew times and several times the stupid things acused me of being a sodding bot which ive selected NO to the question - are you a bot.
Ive tried to register there afew times but it just wont let me try anymore and i just get error messages. Its odd because i had no problem registering on the kotoys store section but the forum is just a pain in the ass to deal with.

The TFCC club allows existing or newer members who don't want to go to the botcon convention. to pay around $300+ for a non-attendee gift set. you get the 5 or 6 club toys but don't have to attend the convention. TFCC ships out the toys weeks after botcon's convention has ended. their is even a pre-order for these items.

TFCC comes up with the recolors,character names & mold choices to use for these botcon or club toys. so saying hasbro should have released them in retail stores makes no sense. without TFCC crew members ideas these things would have never existed to begin with.

their just repaints of molds we already have. their not worth getting overly upset about or losing sleep over. granted I could see if these were 100% new molds not released to retail & just sold at botcon/club but their not.

no one is entitled to everything in life. this rules applies to our TF hobby as well. their are under 5,000 of each botcon toy made. if everyone in the world was entitled to them. then the botcon volume units per toy would be over 5 billion.

Regarding your last paragrapgh,The kotoy.com forums "MIGHT" have iphones/itouch androids & similar mobile devices blocked from registering. have you tried registering on these kotoys.com forums using a regular personal computer or lap top. since you tried to reister so many times & got denied access for whatever un-known reason. It's a possibility that the kotoys.com forums have blocked your IP numbers from the site. try registering for the kotoys.com forums at a friend or family members house or at a public place like school,library or at a internet cafe.

I suspect KOtoys.com forums might be a bit paranoid that hasbro is trying to spy on them. thus kotoys forums might have blocked some IP areas or whatever.

[Court Jester]

What a conundrum...

Both perspectives hold validity. I propose the concept of respecting the collector hobbyists to choose for themselves what they put into their collections. Some people act like it's so easy to get scammed with so many websites dedicated to the hobby that all report the same news. You don't want to buy a KO off ebay accidentally, then do your homework. Ask the right questions to the seller; specific questions. Take precautions by buying with PayPal (with which you are given a reasonable time period to open a dispute, and claim a refund). Know your ****, and drank ur ak ryt. Otherwise, every topic in the Knock offs & 3rd Party Toys section of the forum will turn into this infinite loop of whining and verbal jousting.

When it comes down to it, even though we share an admiration for the artistry at work in every facet of this hobby, on our own we can only control our own purchases. Everything else is truly subjective in the realm of toys - especially monetary investment value.

On juvenile topic: these knock offs are the goddamn ****, bitches!

[Dead Metal]

Ill be all over these. As usual I endorse CHMS for their quality work and grabbing the bull by the horns.

Too bad I already bought an original Counterpunch but now I can display him as both identites. I would like to find out more about the rumor of KO toys being forced to shut down. Suprisingly, he just updated his website today with new pre-orders. I hope him being forced to shut down is just a rumor being spread by haters.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 161.0.html

[Rated X]

Ill be all over these. As usual I endorse CHMS for their quality work and grabbing the bull by the horns.

Too bad I already bought an original Counterpunch but now I can display him as both identites. I would like to find out more about the rumor of KO toys being forced to shut down. Suprisingly, he just updated his website today with new pre-orders. I hope him being forced to shut down is just a rumor being spread by haters.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 161.0.html

Seems kind of odd that that Hasbro can touch KO Toys but not the CHMS factory. They both operate legally in China. Even though KO Toys might currently be the face of CHMS, there are other outlets to purchase these KO’s. As someone said before, KO Toys might just start business under a new name with a new site. They have e-mail alerts which could be used to contact loyal customers like myself. He might also just go straight to e-bay where there are many Chinese dealers selling the same KO’s he is selling.

I’m not going to waste my time trying to wake up those people who don’t like getting more bang for their buck. I’m not going to entertain those collectors who pledge allegiance to Hasbro’s corporate echelon of copyright holders in suits and ties.

I collect everything and don’t really care who makes it. If I could start popping Botcon figures out my a** that look like the originals, I would set up shop in China and sell them too. It’s all about the characters, and the fans that love them. It’s not about corporate investors that clench tightly to little pieces of paper they bought from Japanese stakeholders. Last time I checked all Hasbro’s factories were set up in China so they can pay workers Chinese wages and milk every ounce of profit they can make. So technically, a Hasbro product is no different than a high quality KO. That is, unless you care who owns the bucket of melted plastic it came from.

[gothsaurus]

Thinking about the factories in China, that's a good point. Those people are working for meager wages... so when they can sell a recolor, it's likely a real boost to their making ends meet with their family, food, home, etc. Anyway, there are a LOT of complicated legal and social issues involved, and I doubt we'll be solving them in this thread.

I'd also note that Hasbro isn't at the helm of Botcon or the exclusives. Those toys are expensive because they're a short run and have their own toolings (heads) and packaging. The factory pressing a handful of toys is pricey. (When those costs are spread across tens of thousands of figures, price goes down.) For the collector, it's "acceptable" to get exclusives at a higher price for the rarity — and to get characters specifically geared for the fandom instead of children. Seriously, Botcon doesn't hate you — it's more expensive to make a short run of toys.... oh yeah, and to defer the cost of renting a convention center for the weekend.

Bottom line, convention toys are a compromise, but if they can be kept "kinda" affordable, we all win. Really. It's nice looking in that box of con exclusives to see a lot of dark, muted color "grown-up" looking designs (G2 set excepted, LOL)... and fan-nod characters like Alpha Trion, Nightbeat, Punch/Counterpunch... and don't forget where we got most of our femme-bots!

I guess bottom line, I like supporting the teams that put these sets together for us, and Hasbro... but I also will pick up some KO items that I don't expect Hasbro or Botcon to ever release... like that nice classics G1 Breakdown. If they choose not to release the toy, I don't feel bad picking it up.

As I've mentioned before, I wish they'd find avenues to release the repaints/retools we want — various toy conventions and store exclusives, etc. (like the seekers in a consistent size class... in a collectors box!? Wouldn't that be nice. )

[Dead Metal]

Ill be all over these. As usual I endorse CHMS for their quality work and grabbing the bull by the horns.

Too bad I already bought an original Counterpunch but now I can display him as both identites. I would like to find out more about the rumor of KO toys being forced to shut down. Suprisingly, he just updated his website today with new pre-orders. I hope him being forced to shut down is just a rumor being spread by haters.

https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php/ ... 161.0.html

Seems kind of odd that that Hasbro can touch KO Toys but not the CHMS factory. They both operate legally in China. Even though KO Toys might currently be the face of CHMS, there are other outlets to purchase these KO’s. As someone said before, KO Toys might just start business under a new name with a new site. They have e-mail alerts which could be used to contact loyal customers like myself. He might also just go straight to e-bay where there are many Chinese dealers selling the same KO’s he is selling.

I’m not going to waste my time trying to wake up those people who don’t like getting more bang for their buck. I’m not going to entertain those collectors who pledge allegiance to Hasbro’s corporate echelon of copyright holders in suits and ties.

I collect everything and don’t really care who makes it. If I could start popping Botcon figures out my a** that look like the originals, I would set up shop in China and sell them too. It’s all about the characters, and the fans that love them. It’s not about corporate investors that clench tightly to little pieces of paper they bought from Japanese stakeholders. Last time I checked all Hasbro’s factories were set up in China so they can pay workers Chinese wages and milk every ounce of profit they can make. So technically, a Hasbro product is no different than a high quality KO. That is, unless you care who owns the bucket of melted plastic it came from.

Hasbro was able to do this due to KOToys being stupid enough to host their site on a US based server and host, which legally makes them a US company and therefore they have to apply to US copyright law.

[gothsaurus]

Ahhh! I hope they can reopen with their site on Chinese soil. Ha.

[Dead Metal]

Ahhh! I hope they can reopen with their site on Chinese soil. Ha.

Once their hosting runs out, sure.

[Scaleface]

Hasbro was able to do this due to KOToys being stupid enough to host their site on a US based server and host, which legally makes them a US company and therefore they have to apply to US copyright law.

All that is really just fan hearsay. We have not heard or seen anything from Hasbro. All we know is that the KOtoys web site said they are being shut down by a higher power and started a clearance sale around black friday.

If Hasbro had found their web server here in Michigan, do you really think they would say "okay, sell all your toys at half price now and be out of business by next year!". No! The site would have gone black overnight after a shutdown notice was issued to the web server.

I hate to say this, but most likely this is just a gimmick by KOtoys to clear out some stock and reorganize. They have CONTINUED to sell and ship product throughout the shut down, and even are adding new items to their inventory! Since their shutdown announcement their orders have reportedly boomed by people worried the KO toys would not be available any more.

[cylor]

I think you're right, they even added a Crazy Devy KO Pre-order when the set is still at prototype stage...

[Blurrz]

If you wish to complain or ponder about the current state of affairs of KOtoys, please do so here; https://www.kotoys.com/forum/index.php? ... 538c12;www

We're two weeks past the point of this nonsense and the discussion does not belong here anymore.

Please get this topic back on track as future posts will be judged accordingly.

[Hectotane]

Any word on WHEN CHMS will release the "Sideswipe Family" to the public? Because I really Really REALLY want that G1 Breakdown.

(I recently purchased one of CHMS's "high-quality knock-off," one yellow Seeker I repurposed as "Sunstorm." And whilst it has its issues, it's not so bad that I would immediately throw it in the garbage.)

[gothsaurus]

Alas, the KO forums are down now. We'll have to make a thread to ponder the future of KO toys somewhere else.

Yeah, I'm really interested in these... and a G2 Sideswipe. Crossing my fingers for of those... while the mold is hot on the press.

The other thing I'd mention... while I have almost all of the variants for the classics toys, I have still bought some KO duplicates to put inside the 3rd party add on armor (Rodimus in red and black) plus to display in both modes... and to kitbash. I think KOs have their place for the fans.

In this case, I'll display Punch in a couple modes... maybe as both characters. Ha.