Un"Encore"able

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by Agent-GHQ

I'm surprised that we didn't get Devastator. The G2 was out in the mid 90's so I'm sure they still have the molds.

I think the mold is lost or after they did G2 the copy they had broke. Can't remember.

Either way, the guys in China may have the original (Stolen) mold or reversed engineered it. They have made an almost identical giftset version.

I think Hasbra\Takara would be hard pressed to sell a set now that thats been out a while.

Also, with the Superion (Aerialbots) KO giftset coming out, we may not see that either.

I think Hasbro\Takara has to either take these guys out, or all encore releases may be KO in the future. Especially since the quality is now on par with them.

You can go and buy the originals if you want. But you got to be kidding yourself, if you think we can find any MISB G1 figures near the price these KO's are selling for. Let alone the hard to attain G1 figures they have been releasing. Take for example a G1 Shockwave. One of those loose could set you back $100 easy and we are not even talking about in minty condition. Let alone MISB like the KO ones.

[Mighty_Galvatron]

Great thread!!!

Also good to know that my purchase of G1 Devastator won't be reissued.

[dees]

So what exactly happens in the case of KO's coming out before Encores. Like Metroplex? Does this mean 2 molds exist? Or did Takara obtain it from the KO guys?

[Bruticus82]

I doubt Takara obtained it from the KO guys. It's likely two molds existed.

I'm wondering, and currently confused, about how many molds exist. There would probably be a Master somewhere, but wouldn't they make many other molds for the actual casting? Casting from just one mold would take forever otherwise.

In that case where Hasbro says the mold was destroyed or lost/stolen, they'd be referring to the Master, meaning there might be other production molds out there that factories have hung on to (as seems to be the case with the new KO shockwave, where the company claims they used to manufacture him back in the 80s for Has/Tak, and they kept the mold.).

Reverse engineering parts is another way to make a mold, but I'm told it's expensive and quality isn't as great, if Hasbro won't do it I doubt the KO companies do.

[QuadESL63]

So, what is the story of the mold for Rumble and Frenzy? Is it also lost/broken?

Originally Posted by Uberman

Wowzers. Well, if that's the case, I'll be happy with the Grimlock I found in my basement last weekend [that I didn't know I had] all the more, even if he is missing his gear and has a broken dino-arm.

You can get all the weapons back from ePay. For the broken arm may be you can look for a broken donor Grimlock with a good arm?

[Bruticus82]

That's a good question about the rumble/frenzy mold. I've never read anything about it. Presumably they would still have it. The last time they used it was in 1987 though, so anything is possible.

Perhaps the fact it has been so widely KOed is the reason why they don't bother releasing them again?

[Nethervue]

Originally Posted by Bruticus82

In that case where Hasbro says the mold was destroyed or lost/stolen, they'd be referring to the Master, meaning there might be other production molds out there that factories have hung on to (as seems to be the case with the new KO shockwave, where the company claims they used to manufacture him back in the 80s for Has/Tak, and they kept the mold.).

Reverse engineering parts is another way to make a mold, but I'm told it's expensive and quality isn't as great, if Hasbro won't do it I doubt the KO companies do.

This may be a really dumb question...but, can't Hasbro (or whomever the owner is) just make a new mold? I mean we put people in space, we can clone sheeps, can't they make a new mold?

[dees]

yeah, i was thinking the same thing too.

is it that complicated to remake a mold? i'm sure a lot of tf fans won't mind if every dimension of the toy is not bang on.

and i would think that there would be a sizeable market that it would be worth it for has/tak to reproduce these guys.

[Bruticus82]

Originally Posted by Bruticus82

Reverse engineering parts is another way to make a mold, but I'm told it's expensive and quality isn't as great, if Hasbro won't do it I doubt the KO companies do.

As you see above, you can reverse engineer molds. But I'm told it's very expensive to do it properly. If you do it cheaply, you end up with molds that don't have as much detail as the original, especially in panel lines and things like that.

When we say mold we're not talking about the little silicon molds people make for resin, these are metal molds, heavy duty for manufacturing machines. They cost tens of thousands of dollars (or so I'm told).

It's just not worth them to spend the money to remake a mold just for a small group of adult collectors who want a reissue. There are not enough of us to justify the costs, or so we're told.

Despite what we think about all the tf fans we have, the truth is they need to sell new lines, even classics universe 2.0, to little kids and other people or they don't make enough money. Without little kids buying toys, there would be no market for us at all. Even then they usually end up releasing repaints to try and make back the costs associated with making the mold, prototype, design, etc. Reissues wouldn't have some of these costs, but the substantial molding costs have to be spread over the number of units they sell, and they just can't sell enough.

Need proof? Look at the habsro g1 reissues. What price did they go down to on clearance?

[QuadESL63]

Originally Posted by Bruticus82

Perhaps the fact it has been so widely KOed is the reason why they don't bother releasing them again?

But then they have re-issued/are re-issuing Lazerbeak/Buzzsaw and Ratbat, all of these have seen KO treatments. I hope we will see these 2 guys in Encore cassettes vol. 3...