The Montreal/Quebec Local Fans Banter Thread

[SMOG]

It's way worse than that even. It seems like the 3rd party market can't go in any direction without stepping on each other's toes.

Remember when, in the same year, we got THREE 3rd party Predakings? Now there are no fewer than SEVEN 3rd party G1-esque Dinobot projects going. And a couple of MP Mirages. And we just got two Brainstorms before Hasbro dropped theirs. And so on...

It's getting sort of crazy, but I guess for consumers, it's nice to have the variety.

zmog

[Undrave]

Seven?! Good grief... There is still a tin of untapped potential to explore! After the first three the other guys should have put their Dinobots on ice and wait until the previous releases become hard to find. Or something.

[Kristal]

Originally Posted by Undrave

Seven?! Good grief... There is still a tin of untapped potential to explore! After the first three the other guys should have put their Dinobots on ice and wait until the previous releases become hard to find. Or something.

3rd party people could easially get tons of cash if they did obscure or newer (and posible) versions of very old characters. Like an IDW version of Overlord. (lips included) and people would buy it ASAP since it's bloody Overlord, it's his IDW look and you can actually pose the thing.

[Undrave]

Originally Posted by Kristal

3rd party people could easially get tons of cash if they did obscure or newer (and posible) versions of very old characters. Like an IDW version of Overlord. (lips included) and people would buy it ASAP since it's bloody Overlord, it's his IDW look and you can actually pose the thing.

Yeah, Overlord is like one of the most expensive Japanese exclusive out there and no one ever bothered to make one?! Same with Minerva when you think about it...

[SMOG]

I think that to cover the largest audience, a lot of 3rd party companies are still aiming for those G1 essentials from the first 3-4 years, though arguably the market is specialized enough to support rarer characters. Surely that can't be any worse than fighting over a small piece of the pie. Doing MP versions of high-profile characters mean that you're competing with not only a few other companies, but possibly with Hasbro/Takara too.

At least one company did tease an Overlord project, though that was some time ago, so it might be abandoned by now. One company recently delivered a great Fortress Maximus figure that was basically just a 9-inch replica of G1, but with more articulation. I think that formula could certainly be applied to more characters (like Overlord).

zmog

[Protoman]

BTS toys had plans for an Overlord, even sent TFcon prototypes of the head design and Godmasters (Powermaster engines) but in the end the whole company went south.

The problem is a majority of 3rd party toys are designed and engineered in China and the Chinese have a major hard-on for G1 1984-1987 and NOTHING ELSE. Some dig the J-TF G1 stuff but a majority don't.

I talk and deal with them all the time for the 3rd Party panels and exclusives designs and they always fall back on something from G1 Season 2-3 over a Masterforce or Zone character.

We would sooner get 3rd party HAULER and Devcon before Road Ceasar or Liokaiser. Unless of course it's an easy repaint from a more G1 USA design (See the coming Dinoking and any Six Mode Transformer repainted/retooled into Sixknight, ect)

[JLvatron]

Matrix, I would LOVE a 3rd party Defcon!!!

[Undrave]

Originally Posted by Protoman

BTS toys had plans for an Overlord, even sent TFcon prototypes of the head design and Godmasters (Powermaster engines) but in the end the whole company went south.

The problem is a majority of 3rd party toys are designed and engineered in China and the Chinese have a major hard-on for G1 1984-1987 and NOTHING ELSE. Some dig the J-TF G1 stuff but a majority don't.

I talk and deal with them all the time for the 3rd Party panels and exclusives designs and they always fall back on something from G1 Season 2-3 over a Masterforce or Zone character.

We would sooner get 3rd party HAULER and Devcon before Road Ceasar or Liokaiser. Unless of course it's an easy repaint from a more G1 USA design (See the coming Dinoking and any Six Mode Transformer repainted/retooled into Sixknight, ect)

Mastermind Creations gave us Heart of Steel designs and a IDW fembot body, I'm hoping THEY will cover Nautica at some point. Also the Function X line is covering a ton of headmasters, so I hope they move on to the Headmasters Jr. Especially since the official Nightbeat is pretty lacking. It would be easy to retool Nightbeat into Minerva.

Sometimes I wish I knew how to design toys...

[SMOG]

Originally Posted by Protoman

The problem is a majority of 3rd party toys are designed and engineered in China and the Chinese have a major hard-on for G1 1984-1987 and NOTHING ELSE. Some dig the J-TF G1 stuff but a majority don't.

So in other words, you're saying that Chinese TF fans are like 99% of all Transformers fans everywhere.

Let's face it, outside of Japan (and heck, even IN Japan), most of those J-TF series just don't have anywhere near the following that classic G1 has. It's not surprising at all that 3rd Party companies don't want to take a risk on expensive, obscure characters that fewer fans will have a nostalgic drive to own.

I mean, even Overlord's a special case. His appearances in IDW have certainly bolstered his market share.

I'm sure we'll eventually see some of those rare late-G1 characters get the third party treatment. It'll be cool... but I can't imagine they'll be big moneymakers.

zmog

[Undrave]

Originally Posted by SMOG

So in other words, you're saying that Chinese TF fans are like 99% of all Transformers fans everywhere.

Let's face it, outside of Japan (and heck, even IN Japan), most of those J-TF series just don't have anywhere near the following that classic G1 has. It's not surprising at all that 3rd Party companies don't want to take a risk on expensive, obscure characters that fewer fans will have a nostalgic drive to own.

I mean, even Overlord's a special case. His appearances in IDW have certainly bolstered his market share.

I'm sure we'll eventually see some of those rare late-G1 characters get the third party treatment. It'll be cool... but I can't imagine they'll be big moneymakers.

zmog

There's still a lot of those late G1 dudes who got releases in various market outside of Japan, just with different names.

I'm sure someone's got nostalgia for Powermasters/Godmasters or even Pretenders, regardless of wether you call him Ginrai or Optimus, Hawk or Metalhawk.

If people can rack up nostalgia for the friggin' Technobots and Huffer...