Is 3rd Party in Trouble?

[General Tekno]

Yeah, it's not in trouble. It's just ebbs and flows. Sometimes there's a ton coming out, sometimes there's not much. Plus companies come and go, too, for various reasons.

Like stuff can happen that has nothing to do with if there's a market - these are all small groups of people, and sometimes interpersonal conflicts will cause rifts (see the whole thing with Toyworld's designers splitting off for instance from a few years back)

And with guys like MMC they've probably got a couple years of releases slated but factory space only frees up so quickly, as they also have to pepper in reissues and con exclusives.

[Pascal]

Originally Posted by Dangard Ace

From what I hear Toyworld is laying low after brazenly showing off their Bumblebee movie Optimus at the same toy fair as 3A BB Optimus. 3A apparently told Hasbro and Hasbro told Toyworld to knock it off.

Toyworld has just released their WW2 Bee...

[Dangard Ace]

Originally Posted by Pascal

Toyworld has just released their WW2 Bee...

Cool. And Freedom Leader?

[ssjgoku22]

Originally Posted by Dangard Ace

Cool. And Freedom Leader?

No, they haven't released Freedom Leader yet. No updates on it for a while now. Apparently they got flagged by Hasbro.

[Pascal]

Originally Posted by Dangard Ace

Cool. And Freedom Leader?

One at a time... He's likely next.

[Msol]

I just want my MakeToys Headmasters. It’s been like 3 years.

[Pascal]

That chopper never got released, right? Highbrow?

[ssjgoku22]

Originally Posted by Pascal

That chopper never got released, right? Highbrow?

Maketoys have pretty much disappeared after they released their Cross-Dimensions line. It wasn't received as well as they hoped and that haven't done much since. They make great Transformers, so I hope they continue.

[CyberDragon10K]

I'm pretty sure all these 3P companies are basically the same guys constantly re-branding themselves when one day becomes a dumpster fire. Doesn't Keith from KFC have a bunch of these groups in his pocket or some such?

[Sun Swipe Prime]

Third party is in trouble like KO makers are in trouble. They can try and stop them, but they’ll never succeed. They’re like weeds. Pluck one and another pops up. Might be the same one with fake moustache and funny hat on.

The slow down in releases is probably due to the market. It’s been pretty saturated for a while. There was a time when every release was an event. Remember Hercules? Now, it’s not such a big deal, because well it’s like the 5th Devastator out there. Whereas before when classic G1 representations of characters were few and far between, we now have multiple versions official and unofficial to choose from. There’s no longer a sense that if you miss out on this latest release of a character that you’ll never have another shot at it. There’s always a new version coming out. Just look at the Siege line and the new Earthrise line coming out. There were voyager Primes and Starscreams in Siege. There are the same for the new line but with earth modes instead of Cybertronian modes.