The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[mikeszekely]

While Fans Toys is one of if not the most popular 3Ps, it's no secret that I have more of a love/hate relationship with them.  When I think they do a figure well, like Spoiler or Phoenix, it's easily one of the best figures in my collection.  However, I think a lot of their stuff suffers from needlessly complicated engineering, pain-in-the-rear transformations, minor QC issues like paint chipping and scratching, and limited articulation that has me looking for alternatives, even if they're less accurate, like Saltus (or even Big Spring) over Apache for Springer or Azalea over Rouge for Arcee.

I had my eye on Sheridan, as I'm not sure there's been a great option for Warpath yet and crossing him off my list will (I think) complete my MP minibots.  Couldn't quite bring myself to pull the trigger, though, after hearing about some QC issues with the knees.  Guess I was on the fence for too long, now, as it looks like he's pretty much sold out now.

[Kuma Style]

6 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I wish Maketoys would return to making CHUG scaled figs; aside from Hasbro/Takara, no one else is making toys at that scale anymore.

I'm a big fan of Chug as well with FP/MT having been my favorites of the 3Ps in that scale but realistically the MMC Reformatted and PerfectEffect stuff still falls under that scale so there are options but they're just becoming more and more slim. Unforutnate.

[mikeszekely]

Maketoys also has their Cross Dimension stuff.  Definitely a more unique aesthetic, but arguably still CHUG.  I haven't bought everything in the line, but Striker Manus (Optimus) and Rioter Despotron (Megatron) are both very good.  Thunder Manus (Powermaster Optimus) is less stylized and the basic cab robot is Legends-sized, but the combined mode is around the same size as the Titans Returns Prime but with a more Japanese super-robot style and proportions that I really dig.  One of these days I'll have to pick up their Godbomber to go with him.

Never got around to Jetfire, either, and I don't know how many other figures in the line I'd be in on.  But they said they're still working on their Galvatron, and I dig where they're going with it.

[Kuma Style]

28 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Maketoys also has their Cross Dimension stuff. 

I'm not attempting to speak for him but I'd read it as CD and whatnot definitely being considered within MT's products but not counted because they aren't currently being produced. I can tell you from the horse's mouth that a lot of their projects have been paused indefinitely.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

I'm a big fan of Chug as well with FP/MT having been my favorites of the 3Ps in that scale but realistically the MMC Reformatted and PerfectEffect stuff still falls under that scale so there are options but they're just becoming more and more slim. Unforutnate.

I'm surprised that you're a CHUG fan, Kuma, as your tastes , based upon your photographic subjects, tend more towards high end super robots and Transformer figures. Not a dig at all; to the contrary, I apologize for having made the assumption, and I'm glad I'm in good company.  The Hasbro mainline has been the mainstay of my collection since '84, and while I like some of what HasTak are doing with the current WFC lines, they're still hit and miss.  What I want from third parties now is a really good G1 Megatron that turns into a Walther P-38, Astrotrain, and a good set of Seekers at the CHUG scale, as Earthrise didn't give us good versions of any of these. I'm sure I could think of more, but I'm willing to wait and see what else they roll out over time. I'm hoping for a Walkman Soundwave at the very least (with corresponding cassettes).

That third parties seem to have abandoned CHUG scale, for the most part, is indeed unfortunate. I see what they're doing with legends, and it's incredible. Upscale some of those figures to appropriate CHUG sizes, and a number of holes in my collection would be filled. I ordered a set of New Age's Seekers and their Megatron today, as it's been a pretty slow year for purchases thus far, and having seen so many positive reviews, decided I'd go ahead and snag 'em before they become unavailable. I'm not a legends collector, per se, but I have their Prowl and their Cosmos, which I like, so why not.  

[Kuma Style]

LoL... the majority of my reviews were literally Fansproject and MakeToys products until they just plain stopped and I started veering more towards mecha and I still have complete collections of their products to this day.

 

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, Kuma Style said:

I can tell you from the horse's mouth that a lot of their projects have been paused indefinitely.

Sure, I've heard as much myself.  I also heard they were hit particularly hard by the pandemic, and there's rumors that they were having financial difficulties even before that.

However, they made a statement fairly recently that they're committed to both the Re:Master and Cross Dimension line, and that they're going to release all the products they've revealed over the last year.  I'm not sure when they were first revealed (and I'm not sure they revealed anything actually new in the last year), but in the last year they've had their Coneheads, Highbrow, and Cross Dimension Galvatron at shows, and that's what seems the farthest along.  I fully expect them (and Brainstorm) to be their next non-repaint releases, but I likewise expect that stuff like their Crosshairs and Apeface might stay on the shelf.

[Kuma Style]

I'm just stating what I was told directly by the company working for them. I'm not going to argue about it and respect you believing what you choose to.

At this point I'm just telling you and everyone else that there are going to be things shown that won't be happening and the stuff that is happening is going to happen at a much slower pace than before.

[M'Kyuun]

Understandable, under the circumstances, but disheartening, nonetheless. I've got one of their coneheads PO'd, and I hope it makes it to production, but it seems like a dicey prospect at this point. For a company already struggling, this pandemic couldn't have come at a worse time. 'Preciate the insights, Kuma.

 

[Scyla]

I still have hope that they are going to release Galaxy Skycrow and CD Galvatron. 

[Sildani]

Any word on the Ocular Max Protoform Azalea? If was supposed to be sold for TFCon, it should have been available beforehand. Right?

[mikeszekely]

4 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Any word on the Ocular Max Protoform Azalea? If was supposed to be sold for TFCon, it should have been available beforehand. Right?

It's just showing as "add to wishlist" at PSX.  Some US-based stores seem like they're sold out, but it looks like you can still preorder for $105 at TFSource and The Chosen Prime.  TCP has an estimated release date of May 20th.

[Sildani]

There we go. I’d PO’d at TFSource. 

[slaginpit]

 

[Kuma Style]

On 4/22/2020 at 1:23 AM, M'Kyuun said:

Understandable, under the circumstances, but disheartening, nonetheless. I've got one of their coneheads PO'd, and I hope it makes it to production, but it seems like a dicey prospect at this point. For a company already struggling, this pandemic couldn't have come at a worse time. 'Preciate the insights, Kuma.

 

Yea I don't like bearing bad news but just being honest. A lot of people don't understand that with these companies quite a few of them are using them to segue into licensed stuff and once they do a lot of this becomes a side project if existing at all. 

---------------

[M'Kyuun]

That's interesting, but it makes sense. These companies manifest an impressive level of artistry and engineering in their products, so while I understand it's largely a passion project for them. for many involved it was never intended to be a full time gig. Moreover, it helps the individual folks build a portfolio towards seizing legitimate jobs utilizing these skills. If I was a company like Takara or Bandai, and I saw these independent projects being made at the level of competency that we've seen from any number of third party companies over the years, I'd be looking for these folks when it came to hiring. Transforming toys are still a pretty niche market, so the number of people capable of doing it, and doing it well, is likely small, relative to the average body of artisans skilled in modeling and engineering. It's unfortunate for us, the fans, when these third parties dissolve or call it quits, but one has to remember that these are people who need steady paychecks to live, and if their endeavors in the Transformer realm stop being profitable, then the decision to quit in lieu of a stable living is the necessary choice.

[Kuma Style]

You nailed it and even from an ego/libido perspective a lot of these people just plain have talent that deserves more recognition than only ever being known for making illegal products under fake names/personas.

[big F]

 Over the years I have met and or worked with several architectural modlers. All of which crack out excellent  paper, card and plastic models of housing estates or new tower blocks for the exhibitions, or planning meetings, each and every one of them has a side line modelling passion or thing that they really excel at, ad all that I have asked would rather be doing that full time than making architectural stuff. 

 

I wonder how much that could be applied to your average toy designer.

Edited April 25, 2020 by big F

[Kuma Style]

[Negotiator]

Wish someone would make an mpm scaled BB movie Optimus.  All the offerings are too big too fit in with other mpm.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, Negotiator said:

Wish someone would make an mpm scaled BB movie Optimus.  All the offerings are too big too fit in with other mpm.

Transcraft announced that they're doing a BB movie Prime.  Not much more than a teaser so far, but it's supposedly going to be MP-10-sized, and I heard their Mohawk was pretty good.  Another company we haven't heard from before, Toy Lab, is doing one called "Dark Knight" that looks pretty good from what they've shown, and it'll be the next shortest (excluding Lemon Tree's, which is supposed to be closer to Studio Series).

While I'm cool with MPM-4 being the same size as MP-10, apparently it's been suggested that Bayverse Prime was supposed to be taller and MPM-4 doesn't actually scale right with MPM-3 or MPM-5 (the only other two Bayverse MPMs I own).  I don't know if Prime's supposed to be bigger after he gets his knight body, but I also have Unique Toys' Challenger and it's bigger than MPM-4, so I decided to order the Weijiang Optimus that started with MPM-4 but was heavily modified by Black Apple.  Looks like it's about head taller than MPM-4, and significantly more screen-accurate.

[Negotiator]

nice, thanks alot.  transcraft's BB looks great.  wonder if they'll ever get off the ground tho.  ordered TE's BB to scale better with mpm3.  would definately pickup transcraft if it's not too expensive just for bot mode alone.  i get what you're saying with mpm4 being a little small compared to the cars.  is that op above this one?  https://showzstore.com/pre-order-weijiang-mpm04-black-apple-optimus-prime-oversized_p1224.html

oh and toylab's op looks good too.

if anyone was curious about toyworlds op.

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Negotiator

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, Negotiator said:

is that op above this one?  https://showzstore.com/pre-order-weijiang-mpm04-black-apple-optimus-prime-oversized_p1224.html

Yes.

[David Hingtgen]

I'd love an 07 Prime that's actually painted right in truck mode, but at this point I fear it'll never happen.  They all clearly just copy previous toys, and don't seem to have ever actually looked at the real thing. 

"It ain't yellow!" (and even if it was, the front of the fenders are BLUE) (plus the area ahead of the steps/below the air cleaner/behind the fenders is never right, no matter how many variations they try)  

Seriously, people need to stop painting the fenders bright yellow up front.  They're BLUE.  And the truck's lightest paint never gets beyond "sunset orange"---definitely not the "lemon yellow" we see most of the time.  

[Kuma Style]

 

[David Hingtgen]

I already have Perfect Effect's, but I am so tempted by that one.  The dragon mode blows away all the others, by simple fact that it can actually get down on all fours well.   (I have PE's in Cryotek blue, so I might buy this one in red) 

[Kuma Style]

[M'Kyuun]

For its size, that's an impressive dragon mode.  Beast modes are often wont to, ironically, suffer from a lack of articulation, so the range on display here is excellent. It looks quite proper on all fours. 'Preciate the show & tell, Kuma.

[Kuma Style]

[David Hingtgen]

It's ancient as 3P goes, and IIRC is quite a partsformer(?), but I still think that's a very cool take on Blackarachnia.  

[Kuma Style]

I'm not too fused on the parts forming aspect because honestly a lot of what you parts form are weapons and the like (which is pretty creative in that they have fully integrated weapon storage in both modes with custom configurations.) Between the look and articulation even, these are still pretty feasible pieces for me. I wish PerfectEffect would've stayed THIS PerfectEffect.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Kuma Style said:

I'm not too fused on the parts forming aspect because honestly a lot of what you parts form are weapons and the like (which is pretty creative in that they have fully integrated weapon storage in both modes with custom configurations.) Between the look and articulation even, these are still pretty feasible pieces for me. I wish PerfectEffect would've stayed THIS PerfectEffect.

Yeah, I don't know about all the add-ons they did.  Jinrai was pretty cool, though.  I mean, at least as a way to complete Powermaster Op/Super Ginrai, the repaints/retools were a little excessive.

The only older PE figure I have is Leonidas, and while it's a gorgeous piece it feels a tad fragile.  Were the bikes like that?

[Kuma Style]

24 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, I don't know about all the add-ons they did.  Jinrai was pretty cool, though.  I mean, at least as a way to complete Powermaster Op/Super Ginrai, the repaints/retools were a little excessive.

The only older PE figure I have is Leonidas, and while it's a gorgeous piece it feels a tad fragile.  Were the bikes like that?

No. The bikes are pretty good but they're just plain "thin" by design so while they don't have q.c. issues and whatnot you can't handle them like you could something big and chunky like say... MakeToys Giant? by default. I thoroughly enjoy them to the point where I'm tracking down extras just to have both modes on display.

---------------------------

[David Hingtgen]

I want a 3P God Fire Convoy/Magnus/Omega Prime set so badly.  They were the most-fun figures in many, many years.   And still the best Magnus alt-mode ever.  (the current Siege homage to it is vastly inferior) 

[mikeszekely]

56 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

I want a 3P God Fire Convoy/Magnus/Omega Prime set so badly. 

I've been saying that pretty much non-stop since Fans Hobby did RiD Scourge.