Scaleface wrote:Yes they may be called "knockoffs" by some, but that seems to imply shoddy workmanship, cheap quality, and stolen molds.
These are much more in the "fan projects" list, since they are making toys that are original molds (they didn't shrink the molds for the real toy, they made new ones), and homages to things in the toy line or ficton. They are as unofficial and fun as things like City Commander.
It's all a manner of semantics. Other than quality, I usually think of a "knock off" as more or less duplicating an original mold with little original workmanship added.
This guys work firmly falls outside of that category. Even his WST Thundercracker and Skywarp differ significantly from Takara's WST Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp mold, with Heerotoysmaker's sculpt being signficantly superior to Takara's IMHO with more G1-ish two-piece tail fins, transparent cockpit domes, and sharper panel lines. I wish he'd make a plain-colors version of Starscream, as my Takara WST Screamer looks kind of cheap next to my Heerotoysmaker seekers, especially the tailfins.
In any case, Takara really dropped the ball by ending WST after only two and a half assortments. I'm grateful that third parties like Justitoys and Heerotoysmaker have gone the distance to bring us more awesome tiny transformers for Trypticon and Metroplex to crush. ;D
Speaking of Justitoys, I wonder what's up with WST Blaster, Shockwave and Wheeljack?