The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Jeremy007]

Toyworld calling their ko prime "studio ox inspired" is a huge stretch. Nothing about that figure says studio ox. At all. Studio Ox prime was very dynamic...long, angled antenna, slim but heroic proportions, very stylized upper body...this toy looks like an oversized ko of robot masters convoy.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Jeremy007

[JB0]

Not so much a poorly designed character, per se (I think Sue Blu did a great job giving her a voice and personality), but indeed a very poorly designed Transformer. There was far too much emphasis on making her anthropomorphically proportionate to a slender human female rather than adding on those bits and pieces requisite to actually becoming a car. Animation magic was employed liberally with her character, and I can certainly understand and sympathize with anyone attempting to make a figure that's faithful to both of her G1 modes.

No lie there. Doing her close to screen-accurate without some partswapping is a serious pain in the exhaust pipe.

I think Derrick Wyatt's Arcee design for Animated was a nice re-imagining of the G1 character design, and the toy, while not perfect (wish those shins had been filled out better to match the animation), it translated far better from ink to plastic than the original.

I also like TF:Prime's Arcee design, although I was a bit bummed that they changed her alt mode to a motorcycle. Still, I have both figures from the line, and both are pretty well done toys that do a good job matching her animated appearance, mostly. Neither is perfect, and don't even mention scale; however, just comparing her toys to the animation, IMHO, Has/Tak did a good job.

Animated Arcee was fun as heck.

Mine is currently threatening to knife Animated Waspinator in the face. Largely because a transformation joint gave him an "ab crunch" and after I accidentally got him in a "pelvic thrust" pose, I thought it was too hilarious to change. Really, he deserves to get shanked.

Really, most of the Animated toys were fun as heck. Which is a LOT different from what I expected when the first promo pics came out.

I also liked the Arcee toy from the first Bayformers line. Again, motorcycle and very little to do with the original aside from being female, but it was a fun mold. Very frustrated when they put her in the second movie and her robot mode kinda crapped the bed. 'S like "we spent the effort to design a good Arcee in this aesthetic already, so let's throw it away and start over!"

[M'Kyuun]

No lie there. Doing her close to screen-accurate without some partswapping is a serious pain in the exhaust pipe.

Animated Arcee was fun as heck.

Mine is currently threatening to knife Animated Waspinator in the face. Largely because a transformation joint gave him an "ab crunch" and after I accidentally got him in a "pelvic thrust" pose, I thought it was too hilarious to change. Really, he deserves to get shanked.

Really, most of the Animated toys were fun as heck. Which is a LOT different from what I expected when the first promo pics came out.

I also liked the Arcee toy from the first Bayformers line. Again, motorcycle and very little to do with the original aside from being female, but it was a fun mold. Very frustrated when they put her in the second movie and her robot mode kinda crapped the bed. 'S like "we spent the effort to design a good Arcee in this aesthetic already, so let's throw it away and start over!"

The whole Animated line was great- both the cartoon and the subsequent toyline. I also had serious reservations when the preliminary pics were shown, but it turned out to be one of my all time favorite toylines, and most of my collection is on permanent display.

I can't hang with you on the Bayformer Arcee design- it was abysmal at best, IMHO. But, the world would be a dreadfully dull place if everyone felt as I do, and I'm glad you get some value from the design.

Coming back to 3P, I was hoping Toy World's Arcee announcement would have opened the floodgates to at least one or two more MP styled figures by now (b/c it seems like these guys all decide to tackle the same character simultaneously, or they have the designs worked out well ahead of time and just wait for one party to throw down-then character deluge!).

[JB0]

I have to ask: You're thinking of the one from the first toyline with the beret and the wheels that hang over her shoulders, right? Just making sure we're on the same page, since they did give her a much higher profile redesign(if we can call the TF2 version a design)

I admit, the beret amused me more than it should. It is just such an ODD anthropomorphic touch to see a Transformer with a hat. And I seem to be a sucker for robots with crossbows.

[anime52k8]

I have to ask: You're thinking of the one from the first toyline with the beret and the wheels that hang over her shoulders, right? Just making sure we're on the same page, since they did give her a much higher profile redesign(if we can call the TF2 version a design)

I admit, the beret amused me more than it should. It is just such an ODD anthropomorphic touch to see a Transformer with a hat. And I seem to be a sucker for robots with crossbows.

was it supposed to be a baret? I always thought it supposed to be robot bangs.

Edited December 15, 2016 by anime52k8

[JB0]

If it wasn't meant to be a beret, it is close enough for my headcanon.

If I'm wrong, I don't want to be right.

Edited December 15, 2016 by JB0

[slaginpit]

Not exactly 3rd party .....but

[slaginpit]

[slaginpit]

[mikeszekely]

Since the board's going to be down from this weekend until after Christmas, I'll just give you a preview of what I'll be writing about when the board comes back up.

To be honest, I hadn't planned on picking them up yet, since replacing Quantron with the Warbotron Computron and finishing Poseidon and TFM's Menasor are my top collection priorities, but long story short I won an ebay auction and wound up paying about $150 shipped for the whole set. Even better, I'd just assumed with a price that low that it was a used set and was just hoping that it wasn't missing any pieces or turn out to be the OS KO version, but when they arrived I saw that they're brand new in sealed boxes.

[M'Kyuun]

I have to ask: You're thinking of the one from the first toyline with the beret and the wheels that hang over her shoulders, right? Just making sure we're on the same page, since they did give her a much higher profile redesign(if we can call the TF2 version a design)

I admit, the beret amused me more than it should. It is just such an ODD anthropomorphic touch to see a Transformer with a hat. And I seem to be a sucker for robots with crossbows.

I never thought of it as a beret, so much as weird simulated robo-hair. Anyway, that's not the figure I was thinking of when I made my criticism; I'd forgotten about her, to be honest, even though I used to have her standing guard on my desk. The figure I was thinking of was this: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers-toys/gallery/revenge-of-the-fallen/arcee/1834/1/

That thing was pure atrocity.

[JB0]

I never thought of it as a beret, so much as weird simulated robo-hair. Anyway, that's not the figure I was thinking of when I made my criticism; I'd forgotten about her, to be honest, even though I used to have her standing guard on my desk. The figure I was thinking of was this: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers-toys/gallery/revenge-of-the-fallen/arcee/1834/1/

That thing was pure atrocity.

Yeah, atrocity is a good way to describe the Revenge of the Fallen Arcee.

I think that was really the low point for Bayformers design. So many that turned from vehicles to... assemblages of parts that don't really look like much of anything.

[anime52k8]

Here's my take on it: CONCEPTUALLY, I like the idea of non-anthropomorphic robot modes. They're robot aliens, why must they conform to a conventionally recognizable human silhouette. It's interesting and ads visual diversity to your lineup having semi-crab robots and golems walking around on giant arms.

The problem with the movie designs is a compete failure to go from concept to execution succesfully. There are some really cool unconventional bot mode designs that were done for RoTF... that never made it to screen. and what does make it to screen is like 3 seconds of a robot cartwheeling across the screen at 90 miles an hour. Of course the movie aesthetic doesn't help any; it actually can make for some cool looking robots when they're in a static pose where you can see what they're supposed to be. As soon as you add any movement though it just turns into a compete mess.

As for the toys... well, what are you gonna do when you have to turn something inherently flawed into a ten dollar toy with a part count of less than 20 pieces.

Edited December 16, 2016 by anime52k8

[Tking22]

More woes and dread for MMC Ocular Max Terraegis/Trailbreaker. More people are getting the final product in hand and reviews are mixed to say the least, with a number of people reporting awful quality plastic and multiple breaks already.

Paper thin plastic for the side mirrors, the replacement mirrors are the same thing so no help there, no rubber set of mirrors or anything else.

Swivel panel in the legs is thin and feels cheap, stress marks after one transformation. And unfortunately, many are reporting very noticeable two tones of black throughout their figures.

I was tempted to grab one yesterday since BBTS got their stock in, I've already got Speedbump and he is sexy as all hell, but this guy looked good too! Now though, absolutely no way, this is pretty piss poor quality for the price point. The odd paint was a turn off enough, but now this is sounding like a delicate mess. Very unfortunate, I absolutely LOVE my Sphinx, easily one of the nicest third party figures I've ever handled, I've always considered it what third party is truly capable of, and a spot where third party outshines TT, I really don't think they could make an MP Mirage that would rival Sphinx in any way. I know a lot of people were turned off by Backdraft, I love mine and I think he's fine, but after this MMC/Ocular Max really needs to step it up, they're turning fans off left and right. I'm still wanting to see more in hand reviews of the final product, but this is a pretty bad sign, early reviews like this are make it or break it for a lot of people, especially when there's multiple options available.

[Mechapilot77]

More woes and dread for MMC Ocular Max Terraegis/Trailbreaker. More people are getting the final product in hand and reviews are mixed to say the least, with a number of people reporting awful quality plastic and multiple breaks already.

Paper thin plastic for the side mirrors, the replacement mirrors are the same thing so no help there, no rubber set of mirrors or anything else.

Swivel panel in the legs is thin and feels cheap, stress marks after one transformation. And unfortunately, many are reporting very noticeable two tones of black throughout their figures.

I was tempted to grab one yesterday since BBTS got their stock in, I've already got Speedbump and he is sexy as all hell, but this guy looked good too! Now though, absolutely no way, this is pretty piss poor quality for the price point. The odd paint was a turn off enough, but now this is sounding like a delicate mess. Very unfortunate, I absolutely LOVE my Sphinx, easily one of the nicest third party figures I've ever handled, I've always considered it what third party is truly capable of, and a spot where third party outshines TT, I really don't think they could make an MP Mirage that would rival Sphinx in any way. I know a lot of people were turned off by Backdraft, I love mine and I think he's fine, but after this MMC/Ocular Max really needs to step it up, they're turning fans off left and right. I'm still wanting to see more in hand reviews of the final product, but this is a pretty bad sign, early reviews like this are make it or break it for a lot of people, especially when there's multiple options available.

wow glad i waited now, i did have that on preorder. guess i'll sit back and see how bad these issue are, becuase of the oens shown (including FT's early render) its by far my favorite of the 3 designs (badcube, IM, and FT).

[M'Kyuun]

Here's my take on it: CONCEPTUALLY, I like the idea of non-anthropomorphic robot modes. They're robot aliens, why must they conform to a conventionally recognizable human silhouette. It's interesting and ads visual diversity to your lineup having semi-crab robots and golems walking around on giant arms.

The problem with the movie designs is a compete failure to go from concept to execution succesfully. There are some really cool unconventional bot mode designs that were done for RoTF... that never made it to screen. and what does make it to screen is like 3 seconds of a robot cartwheeling across the screen at 90 miles an hour. Of course the movie aesthetic doesn't help any; it actually can make for some cool looking robots when they're in a static pose where you can see what they're supposed to be. As soon as you add any movement though it just turns into a compete mess.

As for the toys... well, what are you gonna do when you have to turn something inherently flawed into a ten dollar toy with a part count of less than 20 pieces.

Well, Bayformers are inherently flawed by design, as there's no realistic mechanical logic behind the rearrangement of the various bits of vehicle upon the bot framework except what looks good to the digital artist. As a former aircraft mechanic, I'm unable to reconcile the various apologetic arguments as to the Bayformers realism- they look to me as exactly what they are, pure digital fantasy creatures. And that's also at the root of difficulty for anyone, Takara or third parties, who wish to make figures based on those designs. I still wish they'd approached the transformations closer to Binaltech, which were far more mechanically feasible transforming figures that turned into real world vehicles. I'm not against non-anthropomorphic designs, but in the case of the motorcycle sisters in ROTF, the old adage about polishing a turd comes to mind. I commend Takara for actually turning out some descent Bayverse figures over the years, most notably RotF Leader class Optimus Prime, which has engineering on par or exceeding most of the MP figures. I have a sizable collection of Bayverse figures, actually, despite generally abhoring the movies, and not being a fan of the overall look. The engineering in some of those figures is really impressive, though, and that's what appeals to me. Moreover, I don't think the Animated designs would have been as well done had TT not greatly expanded their engineering repertoire on the Bayverse figures previously.

As for 3P news, I'm surprised that no other Arcee figs have been announced; I'd love to have a MP quality figure of her, and thus far, Toy World's just ain't scratching that itch.

Edit: Posts about Terraegis popped up while I was typing my reply above. Anyway, I still have my copy PO'd, as I find it the most appealing of the offerings. But, news like this is bit off-putting. I'll agree with the sentiments about Sphinx- the bar is set high with this figure, and from all the Backdraft, and now Terraegis, reviews, it seems like there's been a steady decline in MMC's quality. It's a shame, but I'm going to try to stay positive and hope that I get a copy without serious flaws. Color differences, if not extreme, I can live with, but cracks and broken parts just aren't acceptable for the asking prices.

Edited December 16, 2016 by M'Kyuun

[anime52k8]

The problem with Binaltech is that those figures all had terrible bot modes.

Edited December 16, 2016 by anime52k8

[Silverstreak]

The Bluestreak mould had a great bot mode. But it all went down hill from there.

[sh9000]

[derex3592]

ohhh????....A new Skyfire????

[sh9000]

That's all Fans Toys.

[derex3592]

Is Fan Toys the Skyfire that has been out that is not really all that good?, Or is this a new mold?

 

 

[Tking22]

2 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Is Fan Toys the Skyfire that has been out that is not really all that good?, Or is this a new mold?

 

 

FansToys Skyfire/Jetfire isn't out yet, he's been on pre-order for months though. The crappy one currently out is by Mechaform, it is called Sky Guardian, it is not just bad, but apparently hot garbage that isn't worth anywhere near it's asking price.

edit: Also wanted to add, after even more flip flopping, I got an Ocular Max/MMC Terraegis delivered two day right before Christmas Eve and he's pretty damn amazing. I got the Badcube version a while back and I was stoked with him at first, I even kept updating this thread with all the bad news about Terraegis, but I've gotta say, I think I like Terraegis far more then Speedbump. Speedbump looks excellent in both modes, but getting him there sucks more than gay Dracula. Also, his cannons are stupid, his leg paint was a bit scratched out of the box, and he has really, really dumb hands. Terraegis may not have the completely accurate alt mode or silver paint, but I think overall he's easier to handle, he has the better proportioned and accurate bot mode, and he does Trailbreaker's accessories right. I honestly can't recommend him enough, he's beautiful, and if you are into the G1 toy thing he's a better choice then Speedbump, he comes with that super ugly G1 toy head, but once again, if that's your thing there you go. I also got the Liger/G1 toy head for Spinhx/Mirage as well, no use in that, might see if someone wants it for their Sphinx. I'm on the fence about Hoist, I REALLY don't want to deal with another awful Badcube transformation, I never handled their Warpath but I think Speedbump is far worse and more fiddly then Sunsurge. Artifex by MMC looks good, and I now love this mold. I'll probably go with Artifex, he looks good, he's shorter then Trailbreaker like he should be, less under-car kibble then the Badcube version, and that neat little collapsing hood mechanic should give him a more beefy appearance then my Terraegis.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Tking22

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, Tking22 said:

The crappy one currently out is by Mechaform, it is called Sky Guardian, it is not just bad, but apparently hot garbage that isn't worth anywhere near it's asking price.

There was also Daca Toys Kronos, which was also bad.  Not Sky Guardian bad, but still pretty bad.

[anime52k8]

There will never be a good Skyfire toy because it's literally the worst design ever.

[Dangard Ace]

Apparently there'll be a KO of the Daca version with a fixes done to it.  I find FT is a bit too heroic looking for a scientist so if the KO fixes all the issues, looks good and is a good price it might be a contender.  

[sh9000]

[Scyla]

Downbeat looks good. Not sure about the swirly plastic on his feet and shins. I think I would prefer a Jazz toy with a Martini deco like what Takara did with Masterpiece Wheeljack. 

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Downbeat looks real good, and its release date has been bumped up to January!

Word on the street is that Toyworld's Constructor will be getting new parts, namely green thighs and more G1 styled Devy head.  I think I will finally be buying a Constructor set.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, Scyla said:

Downbeat looks good. Not sure about the swirly plastic on his feet and shins. I think I would prefer a Jazz toy with a Martini deco like what Takara did with Masterpiece Wheeljack. 

I think a lot of people do, but the idea seems to be that it's easier for someone who wants the Martini deco to put labels on it than it is for people who want the uber-cartoon style of the more recent official MPs to remove it.

In any case, I'm passing on Downbeat because, aside from already being satisfied with GT's J4ZZ, the white on Downbeat is just too matte for my tastes.

38 minutes ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Downbeat looks real good, and its release date has been bumped up to January!

Word on the street is that Toyworld's Constructor will be getting new parts, namely green thighs and more G1 styled Devy head.  I think I will finally be buying a Constructor set.

Preorders are going up for a gift set that will already have the new head, purple mixing drum, green thighs, improved plastics, heel parts for Burden (Long Haul), and ab fillers for the combined mode, and under $500 at that.

So happy to have been a beta tester for you guys... 

[nhyone]

From TFW 2005. The upgrade parts should be available separately.

Now my only gripe is the forearms are too long, else it looks very G1.

Edited January 1, 2017 by nhyone
Changed "hands" to "forearms"

[mikeszekely]

Well, I'm glad that ToyWorld is making the parts available, and I've got them all on preorder now even though I've moved on to Gravity Builder for my main collection.  Still sucks that I essentially paid a $200 premium to be a guinea pig while they worked out their QC issues, but it is what it is.

[Dangard Ace]

Toyworld Constructor v1 wasn't even on my list of buy cause of the Studio OX head and silver thighs but now that they've gone G1'ish on the boxset I'm considering it.

MT Jazz - Dropping in January and looks like to beat CNY.  Too soon!  Didn't budget it in for January.

Gigapower saying they're going to release Swoop and Sludge this year with a possibility of Grimlock as well?  Hell ya.  

[M'Kyuun]

I wish I'd known that Toyworld  were going to release the whole set as a boxset with fixes, as I've already bought three of the figures. At this point , Burden and his fixes are really at the top of my concern/want list, as he seemed to have the lion's share of issues. I have Unearth, Bulldozer, and Allocator thus far, and I  think they're great, even if my Bulldozer came with a poorly pinned right heel and a small crack on his right ankle joint right out of the box. I was not impressed with their service, or rather lack thereof, since having never received a response from them upon notifying them of the issues back in September.  Nevertheless, of all the third party offerings, this set with its very G1 inspired figures appeals to me greatly, and despite the issues with Bulldozer, I love handling these chunky guys. Having never owned a complete G1 Devastator, I 'm really looking forward to completing the set and assembling them into Constructor. 

MikeSzekely, do you know if the individual Constructor figs are going to be sold with fixes, either installed already or in the box?