Big Lots recalling KO Transformers!

I saw about 40 of them on the shelves yesterday when I was at a Big Lots. That's got to be one heck of a loss for them.

wtf is that?

Way to go Hasbro!!!! K.O.'s hurt Hasbro's pocket so who's pocket do they have to hurt in return? OURS.They have to make up for lost profits somewhere and well we the consumer are gonna make it up.

Grimpoo wrote:wtf is that?

A Combiner team made up of Legends Class Cybertron Starscreams and Vector Primes.

wardamnpjm1 wrote:Way to go Hasbro!!!! K.O.'s hurt Hasbro's pocket so who's pocket do they have to hurt in return? OURS,They have to make up for lost profits somewhere and well we are gonna make it up the consumer.

Please explain to me just how it hurts your wallet that you won't be able to buy these any more? They are being recalled, meaning you get the money you spent on them back.

I don't care that these are going away. Their plastic quality usually isn't worth the purchase cost.

However, I do wish their insistence on targeting the high-quality G1 knockoffs would indicate a desire to RELEASE THE TOYS THEMSELVES! Many of which they seem to have no intention of doing.

And why is Hasbro in charge of this? Why not Tomy, since Tomy is the actual brand holder, and Hasbro is just the major licensor of the brand. Yes, sorry to remind everyone, but Hasbro doesn't actually own this brand, Tomy does.

diosoth wrote:I don't care that these are going away. Their plastic quality usually isn't worth the purchase cost.

However, I do wish their insistence on targeting the high-quality G1 knockoffs would indicate a desire to RELEASE THE TOYS THEMSELVES! Many of which they seem to have no intention of doing.

And why is Hasbro in charge of this? Why not Tomy, since Tomy is the actual brand holder, and Hasbro is just the major licensor of the brand. Yes, sorry to remind everyone, but Hasbro doesn't actually own this brand, Tomy does.

Takara created the transforming toy robots which Hasbro licensed for use from Takara. Hasbro is the brand owner. They created Transformers and license the brand name Transformers back to Takara. It's definitely a little confusing. I assure you tough, when it comes to Transformers ... Hasbro is king.

Happy to see this. Also kinda glad I've had the sense to pass; they don't look to be worth buying even if there wasn't a legal recall. What about the other ones though? The ones that look to be about deluxe-class? Those are pass-worthy anyway, KO or no KO, but are they gonna get recall-treatment as well?

think they'll ask hobbiests to remove their photos from their websites of knockoffs?

Hasbro is finally doing something after how many years???

Well that sucks ass. I liked the KOs, they were good for kitbashing and repaints. The quality is bad on most of them i agree but still good for kitbashes and spare parts..
How is hasbro loosing money if the figures they are selling as KOs are not even sold anymore?? And with the G1 Kos , why dont hasbro get a clue and see that people want these reissued. Instead they reissue and repaint that god aweful bruticus crapsimus. That thing looks like something i craped out after eating spicy food one night.

Hasbro is completly clueless as to what the people want. If they are so pissy about the fans making and selling there own stuff then they should start up a line of repro parts, boxes, inserts, foam trays, plastic trays ect.. Make a collectors store where things like that could be bought and help collectors complete there figures and not on that god aweful collectors club ripoff site.

ok im done ranting

Zeds wrote:Hasbro is finally doing something after how many years???

Better late...way late, than never.

My question is...why just this set?? If Hasbro was really serious about this they would go after the other 80-bazillion KOs on the shelf's next to this guy too.

PrimulArchangel wrote:Well that sucks ass. I liked the KOs, they were good for kitbashing and repaints. The quality is bad on most of them i agree but still good for kitbashes and spare parts..
How is hasbro loosing money if the figures they are selling as KOs are not even sold anymore?? And with the G1 Kos , why dont hasbro get a clue and see that people want these reissued. Instead they reissue and repaint that god aweful bruticus crapsimus. That thing looks like something i craped out after eating spicy food one night.

Not enough people want them reissued. I think Hasbro's got pretty sick of releasing reissues only to see them end up on clearance.

How are Hasbro losing money? Pretty simple, really. The average person has an amount of money that they're prepared to spend on transforming robots per week/month/year. If some of that money is being spent on knockoffs of Hasbro's products, it's not getting to Hasbro but to someone who's cashing in on their work.

Hasbro is completly clueless as to what the people want. If they are so pissy about the fans making and selling there own stuff then they should start up a line of repro parts, boxes, inserts, foam trays, plastic trays ect.. Make a collectors store where things like that could be bought and help collectors complete there figures and not on that god aweful collectors club ripoff site.

ok im done ranting

Ok, I've got no idea what this part was about. It's not "fans" making KOs, it's other companies.

I'll start my own company and call Brohas.

As stated in the email, the toys do not present a safety hazard

Then why the recall?

No idea. Only Hasbro, or someone who bothered to read the whole post, could possibly know.

Dead Metal wrote:As stated in the email, the toys do not present a safety hazard. This is in fact a legal (copyright) recall. All of these toys will be pulled from the selves of Big Lots and destroyed. Even if you were to find these toys still on the selves, they should ring up on the register as "not for sale" or some other recall notice.

Sledge wrote:

PrimulArchangel wrote:

Hasbro is completly clueless as to what the people want. If they are so pissy about the fans making and selling there own stuff then they should start up a line of repro parts, boxes, inserts, foam trays, plastic trays ect.. Make a collectors store where things like that could be bought and help collectors complete there figures and not on that god aweful collectors club ripoff site.

ok im done ranting

Ok, I've got no idea what this part was about. It's not "fans" making KOs, it's other companies.

think he's under the assumption that the makers of the KO operate under the same conditions as Fansproject.

Then he's very wrong, as a moment's thought about the difference between what FansProject and KO companies do should illustrate.

Son of a bitch

They made a combiner out of Cybertron Starscreams? Interesting...

I remember seeing a huge amount of KOs at Big Lots a few weeks ago too. Seems interesting that Hasbro is finally taking a crack against cheep copies (when I was a kid I did have a couple of flea market knock-offs)

Grimpoo wrote:wtf is that?

there's a couple of different combinations of that model with different parts

If they went after all the bootleggers the company making the 13 different takes on armarda prime and over sized land cross would be a good one

Total Recall!

Wheeljack35 wrote:

As stated in the email, the toys do not present a safety hazard

Then why the recall?

This is a legal recall, not a safety recall. The dif is that there's a legal reason other than safety concerns that this is happening. On this particular occasion, it's because the members of this gestalt team are KOs of legends-class Cybertron figures. Maybe enlarged a bit, but KOs none the less. Why the crackdown now and not on other occasions has kinda been a mystery throughout this thread, but that's what it is.

Destroyed?! If there is no safety issue, why waste these toys?

Rather than destroying the toys, they should be given to charities for children whose parents cannot afford knock-offs, much less Hasbro's ever-rising prices. The holiday season is coming up; perfect chance to do this.

*Sigh* Suddenly Hasbro reminds me of the seagulls from Finding Nemo......

Gandalf wrote:Destroyed?! If there is no safety issue, why waste these toys?

Rather than destroying the toys, they should be given to charities for children whose parents cannot afford knock-offs, much less Hasbro's ever-rising prices. The holiday season is coming up; perfect chance to do this.

*Sigh* Suddenly Hasbro reminds me of the seagulls from Finding Nemo......

What else could destroyed mean? Why waste money paying people to destroy the KO product when you can give it to toys for tots, write it off as a loss, and let the kids do the destruction for you. KO's last what 1 week out of the box? Unlees they're good KO's then they be destroyed shortly after Christmas.

Now if we can get Hasbro to go after the guys making the accurate G1 KO's then we'll be all set.

robofreak wrote:

Gandalf wrote:Destroyed?! If there is no safety issue, why waste these toys?

Rather than destroying the toys, they should be given to charities for children whose parents cannot afford knock-offs, much less Hasbro's ever-rising prices. The holiday season is coming up; perfect chance to do this.

*Sigh* Suddenly Hasbro reminds me of the seagulls from Finding Nemo......

What else could destroyed mean? Why waste money paying people to destroy the KO product when you can give it to toys for tots, write it off as a loss, and let the kids do the destruction for you. KO's last what 1 week out of the box? Unlees they're good KO's then they be destroyed shortly after Christmas.

Now if we can get Hasbro to go after the guys making the accurate G1 KO's then we'll be all set.

Destroying the counterfit items is probably the legal action set up in that state or policy of the company and may not be Hasbro's policy.

I wonder if other stores are also encountering the same problem. It is a heavy blow for any store to have to destroy merchandise and it will probably teach Big Lot not to sell KO toys.

Some people have mentioned a safety recall. It's possible, especially since the majority of the KO's are being made illegally in China, so I don't expect the manufacturing standards to be in place. "Shall we use lead paint? Sure, why not, we're not following the rules anyway."

NO!!! There are still several KOs that I need to get. They're the only way I can get some older TFs that aren't available anymore. Now how can I get them?

And I'm sure glad that I got my TM2 Megatron and Cryotek KOs when they were still available. My real TM2 Megs was broken, so I got the KO to fix it. And, since I never got Cryotek when he was available, I got that one two. I just wish I knew what those little dino figures that came with them are. One site said that were Digimon, but they definitely are not (I would know).

Sabrblade wrote:NO!!! There are still several KOs that I need to get. They're the only way I can get some older TFs that aren't available anymore. Now how can I get them?

Well if you wanted your collection to have credibility you'd hunt down originals.

May take some time, may take some money, but at least you can say with pride that your collection is GENUINE.

I'm not sure I understand the mentality of giving cheap, easily-broken crap to charity. And, of course, it would still have the effect of undermining the Transformers brand. Child is given cheap KO by a charity. KO breaks. Child/parents/whoever decide to never spend money on TFs because they're junk. Not a good result.

I think the main reason these particular KOs have been targeted is because they are based on Hasbro toys that are still being sold. At many of the Big Lots, including the one I work at, they were on the pegs directly next to the official LOC figures.

Why now? Because Hasbro has to start sometime. It was only a few months ago that the company actively starting going after bootleg companies and stores/websites that carry their product. They did not do so in the past because lawsuits are very expensive and very time-consuming. The brand is doing better than it has in a very long time and they can afford such actions now.

As for the toys being destroyed, yes, that is policy for any item being recalled at Big Lots. The toys may be donated to a charity at the manager's discretion, but I believe even that is against policy.

The destruction process is actually quite fun though. I remember we had a lighted children's globe at Big Lots many years back that was missing a country. They were recalled for that reason, and I got to smash a pallet's worth of plastic globes. Getting paid while doing so was icing on the cake.

I already have that KO and it's pure junk. You all are not missing much.

Good. Those things suck.

Now if we can get Hasbro to go after the guys making the accurate G1 KO's then we'll be all set.[/quote]

WTF! No! I got a perfectly good Mirage KO. If Hasbro won't reissue the demanded toys, then they should be knocked off.

As for these Big Lots KO I'm sad to see them go. They made for good fillers in my War Within collection. I'm glad I got mind before this happened.

I think Hasbro makes enough money without taking way opportunities for fans to get TFs they won't make!

Yeah, to hell with Hasbro making a legitimate profit, so long as a couple of guys get what they want! Am I right?

No.

SentinelA wrote:WTF! No! I got a perfectly good Mirage KO. If Hasbro won't reissue the demanded toys, then they should be knocked off.

As for these Big Lots KO I'm sad to see them go. They made for good fillers in my War Within collection. I'm glad I got mind before this happened.

I think Hasbro makes enough money without taking way opportunities for fans to get TFs they won't make!

I don't understand why some people are so proud of filling their collection with KO's and feeling like they have accomplished something.

That's like buying a fake baseball card of Babe Ruth because the creators refuse to reissue the card and you refuse to pay extra money to purchase the original. And then once you have it, feeling satisfied that your collection is complete.

Burn wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:NO!!! There are still several KOs that I need to get. They're the only way I can get some older TFs that aren't available anymore. Now how can I get them?

Well if you wanted your collection to have credibility you'd hunt down originals.

May take some time, may take some money, but at least you can say with pride that your collection is GENUINE.

muahahaha!!!

Credibility... are you shitting me? My reasons for getting transformers have very little to do with pride or credibility.

I get Transformers because they fascinate me and I want to tinker with them. It matters not to me if an item in my collection isn't strictly 'genuine'. If the quality is comparable, I can get just as much fun out of a KO as an official lump of mass produced plastic with a Hasbro stamp on it. There are G1 Optimus KOs out there that are superior in quality to the official Mexican made Hasbro Optimus I had as a child. Maybe they can't be considered authentic, but they can be considered accurate replicas.

Not that I actually get many KOs. Price and availability must also be taken into consideration, and overall, the quality just isn't worthwhile . Most of the time it's just not a good enough deal from my perspective.

Hasbro has every right to protect their intellectual property. They put that investment into developing new products. I can respect that. If these KO makers came up with their own stuff, Hasbro wouldn't be able to touch them. Hasbro never owned the concept of transforming toys. With all the millions of people in China, and the low cost of labour, you'd think they could do a little better than ripping off old legends figures. Maybe if intellectual property was better protected, they'd make more of an effort and come up with something original.