-thanks Heroic Decepticon for the coffee shoutout in his awesome 2 part SKIDS review (I linked part two, with the leg fix for Generations Skids. You can find part 1.).
-And now I can't wait for Skids. He looks AWESOME in those pics (double good jorb, Heroic D!). So many TF fans have posted about how awesome Skids is in More Than Meets The Eye and Hasbro responded (or already had plans, who knows, who cares) and it looks like they hit a home run. (My expectations are high.)
-Eric of Til All Are Mine is all "when are we gonna podcast? when are we gonna podcast?" So we'll record Robots In Cahoots #8 probably this weekend.
-Make sure you're hitting the list of blogs on the right sidebar (scroll down a bit, you'll see it). Lots of good stuff lately.
-Now, I saw Optimal Omega's post about 3rd party stuff and I was going to argue with him, but I actually pretty much agree. He included a pic of iGear Brawn and I LOVED iGear Brawn. I disagree that iGear Brawn is Legends size. He's Classics Bumblebee size. THE JUMP:
But I DO agree that 3rd party is getting to be too much. I mean, WAY too much. Why is there a GIANT and a HERCULES? One of those is enough. We're getting Generations Skids and soon a Tailgate and Swerve and a Voyager Whirl (the former, legends size, I'm thrilled about; the latter not so much)...Hasbro is giving us figures on characters who are tons of fun in the very enjoyable More Than Meets The Eye comic, maybe Perfect Effect could ease off and let Hasbro give us a Leader size Fort Max and screw it up before jumping in with their own.
"But 3rd party figures fill in the gaps Hasbro hasn't, and 3rd party listens to the fans and gives them what we want!" Yeah, maybe they do. And I've bought a few and I've gushed over them. But now that I look at my shrinking collection, I noticed that those were the first to go. Yup, I sold iGear Brawn. And I LIKED the figure, a LOT. Buuuuut iGear flooded their OWN market with four more figures and at 10 bucks each more per figure. And the pics of that Swerve? "The fans" only "want" Swerve because of MTMTE, and iGear dropped the ball by not matching Swerve's head with the design in that comic. That's just my opinion. But throwing FOUR figures at us right after iGear Brawn, with the only one that I wanted at $54 when it was introduced (that might not have been up to them, but still...), well, it was too much. This is a fun HOBBY but I have other interests and my goal to get a CHUG set of figures based on the G1 1984/1985 characters is now being fulfilled by Hasbro.
Don't get me wrong, because most of these are interesting, some of these are GREAT, and the accessories like HeadRobots are clever and do add to giving CHUG figures a G1 look. I wouldn't look down on ReproLabels and definitely have been scouring 3d printer services for fan designed weapons and parts. And I have turned regular Hasbro figures into customs of figures that haven't been/won't be released, some in the same spirit as 3rd party efforts. But that's because when *I* customize (well, ruin) a figure, that's ME, and it's not costing me much. (And it's fun.)
THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN however has to be the SXS Gears and now Swerve. These are prototypes, right? Because these look like crap. Like total crap. Even if they didn't look flimsy, which they DO, the head sculpts are either creepy or lame. The TFW article cites Swerve's popularity in MTMTE, but he's popular because he's funny and adorable. HERE HE IS NEITHER! The Legends sized Hasbro Swerve, and we're talking Legends which is by TF fandom definition "cheap," looks miles and miles better than this. This looks like a KO. Like a crappy gooey-gross-melty-plastic-feeling probably smells bad KO. Eww.
You get the idea. And the idea for me is that 3rd party is, technically, knockoff. They are imitating Transformers. It might be someone else's design and in most cases they've put a LOT of work into it, a lot of thought, and their product is actually stellar and solid, but they're not Transformers.
So, no more 3rd party figures for me. I mean I'll look, I'll point my finger and laugh, but I'm just not going to spend the money and show a little restraint now that Hasbro is giving the CHUG line some good stuff.
Okay, here's a silly page. Not that silly, I think. It's super late as I type this and they're not all winners. Though: am I creating fanfic where Arcee & Sideswipe are a couple? Or is it just the two of them rubbing Chromia's disinterest into Bumblebee's face? (It's the latter.)
(Yes, I rail against 3rd party in this post. I'm aware of the irony of my "customizing" this comics page. I'm a goofball, what do you want?)
Legend, classic, cyber verse, I get them all confused. I'm only kinda sure on voyager. I still want to call those Deluxes. I have never felt that Reprolabels are wrong, as long as you're not selling the figure and passing it off as all original. Thanks for the plug, btw!
ReplyDeleteThere's peoples out there who think that Reprolabels is 'cheating' in the sense that you didn't keep that G1 in perfect mint condition and are hiding the wear and tear.
ReplyDeleteI mean to say "DELUXE" for Classics Bumblebee; he's a Deluxe sized figure, but is slightly shorter than the Deluxes of those waves, and I think iGear was trying to match his size considering his minibot status. That sorta thing.
Reprolabels aren't cheating. As long as you're honest about them.
Deletehmmm... I thought I replied to this post already. Something must have gone awry.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the plug Paul, appreciated. What would make me happier is if you do go out there and pick up Skids, which is a very nice toy.
With 3P stuff, its a little hit and miss. I've said quite a bit at Optimal's post here (http://kremziek.blogspot.hk/2013/11/all-by-myself.html), so I won't go and repeat myself.
However, I do think that there are some gems with 3P products. If you have ever tried combining the City Commander armour with Hasbro Ultra Magnus, or held MakeToys Green Giant in your hands, I think you would admit that these are not something TT or Hasbro can ever top, if they are to sell at the price range / market segment target that they typically aim for. It follows that other 3P companies are unlikely able to better these creations - so in that sense, 'the choice is clear'.
However, there are many that I find to be 'meh' and 'misses' and would result in a person continually trying to find a better version. Products from iGear, TFC, KFC and ToyWorld typically fall into this category for me.
It's a glitch in the Matrix!!!!
DeleteI've held both Giant AND Hercules...AT THE SAME TIME! Mind blowing. Amazing. The combined cost of two of my car payments.
I just wish these companies would give Hasbro a shot...to ruin their own toyline, I guess, before getting in there and making their own version.