Here is part 1 of the 2014 TFcon 3rd Party Panel!
Is this post, check out the slides from the TFcon third party panel showing off:
- BMOG’s current and upcoming releases
- Atomic Robot’s Bludgeon, Yoketron and Banzaitron
- X-2 Toys Furrow and Rotor / Cloudraker and Fastlane plus their DKR-002 and a teased Impactor
- DX-9’s releases including unofficial Scourge, Wreck-Gar, CyKill and Crasher
- Echo-TF Generations Hoist and Trailcutter feet and their FansProject Menasor upgrade kit
- Bold Forms Gladius not-Megatron (out in Fall) and not-Menasor
- Keith’s Fantasy Club (KFC) including their Nemesis Citizen Stack and Tempest
- Giga Power’s Snarl and Slag
- Shapeshift Inc’s Legends Ironhide and Starscream
- MicroBlaze’s Military Titans Onslaught for Fall of Cybertron Bruticus
- TFC Toys’ Prometheus and Ares combiners (and a tease at 2015)
- Perfect Effect’s Leonidas, Deathstalker and SD versions of Fortress Maximus, Scorponok, Warden and Black Zarak
ZeroBG82
LOL. I would be ok with that, as well. Though I'd rather split it. Half the groups do LioKaiser, the other half Star Saber. And my quest for the holy grail can finally end!
Thundershot
I hope 2015 becomes year of the LIOKAISER! Let them all make them! Then we can choose the best!
ZeroBG82
I don't see that happening. Most of these groups are active competitors. While there are obvious advantages to communicating, as you say, it creates a prisoners dilemma type situation. Hell, do you remember the rumors back before the Predaking wars started? Supposedly one of the groups reached out to another to make sure they wouldn't be stepping on toes, and heard back that no figure was being worked on. Which was a flat out lie, by all accounts, creating unnecessary competition. True? I have no idea, but that's the kind of thing that becomes possible.
In addition, communication could easily lead to collusion, which is extremely bad for consumers. Think 3P is expensive now? Just wait to see what a 3P cartel would do to your wallet!
unicronic
I am not blaming the third parties for doing what they feel is right. I think, perhaps, some better communication between the various third parties would be of benefit.
It is a self destructive practice. Not only are we getting third party dinobots everywhere, we're getting MP Grimlock reissue, AOE Dinobots everywhere.
The big question is (and I don't have a definitive answer) can the third party consumer base sustain 5 or so different Dinobot projects?
That's a VERY good question. Something I hadn't considered. That could change the financial outlook for many of these third parties. Even though, saturation affects all markets.
I think the buying power of 'Western' third party collectors is actually quite powerful but it is small meaning the majority who are amiable towards Dinobots will support one project – two at a stretch. Therefore they have the power to give life or grant death to a project.
Transformers are indeed very popular in China btw, I've worked on official projects before and can vouch for that. Plus the results of AOE also validate this too.
The bigger question is how popular is G1 in China, that is a different question altogether.
Vagabond Elf
How small is their consumer base, though? Yes, the collector segment of the "western" consumer base is both highly represented here, and very small in terms of overall buying power – but how many units are they going to sell in China?
I honestly don't know. I'm not trying to ask a leading question, just put forward a possible scenario: my understanding is that Transformers is very popular in China. Perhaps that's a large enough pool to make all these ventures viable.
PredaconElder
Yes from the pov of the 3Ps, when they decided to invest the time and expense into designing a 3P version of the Dinobots. It was probably felt as the safest alternative over doing a non-G1 or obscure G1 property or character especially in light of the presence of the dinobots in the movie. If you looks at the results of the Dinbot poll (http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans…3751-dinobots-unite-dinobots-you-getting.html) it a reasonable projection that the inevitable sales are not going to be distributed equally. The ones who got there earlier or the more well placed companies are inevitably going to get the lion's share of the sales.
Wyvern
I've been semi retired from TF collecting for a while. Just focus on MPs now. But I think even at semi retired… I'm spending more due to 3rd parties. It's just that some of their products are too hard to ignore. Over the weekend I managed to buy the FP headmasters that are our. And now I'm targeting the rest… And that MT Scorponok. Don't even know how I will afford that shit but I'm going to have to find a way. If MT ever decides to make a Unicron I will be screwed!
Thank you 3rd parties for making awesome crap but… God dammit…!
ZeroBG82
While I don't disagree with your fundamental point, you have to consider a couple of things.
1) Every group out there is doing dinos because prior to these reveals, everyone was demanding dinos. When there were none, every group saw the demand. It might be nice if they hadn't all moved to fill the supply side at the same time, but you can't blame any of them for trying to give the market what it wants. It's only now that each group has made the rational choice to do dinos that everyone is freaking out. Lesson: be careful what you wish for.
2) An aspect of what led to my first point: Groups want to make money, thus they want to appeal to their market. While it's always dangerous to take an internet message board as in any way representative, if we look just at TFW, you can see how ridiculously narrow focused the market is. If it isn't a top flight character, it's development time and money being wasted. If it isn't suitably G1 (I'd use the word slavishly, personally, but I'm not a G1-er so I'm biased), most of the board balks and at least claims they aren't buying. The market is being flooded with the same characters, done in the same styles, because that's what the market is telling these groups to produce. Oversaturation of such a market is unavoidable.
LSyd
but who's going to fill in Impossible Toys' Quintesson void? they had a nice niche, then expanded into crap and then kaput.
–
unicronic
That's the problem though.
4-5 companies all targeting a VERY small consumer base with the same figures.
There's no way all companies doing this will survive.
Yes, you could say that some are doing Masterpiece scale and some are doing Generations scale but the bottom line is that they all cost money and quite a bit at that.
Let's just look at this from a economics stand point.
AOE Scorn. Regardless of whether you like it or hate it. How many units were produced? 500,000 maybe for global release. Produced by a company with global distribution capabilities and promoted by mainstream media (movie, retail stores, TV ads etc).
Now take FansToys Scoria. I'm not interested in the quality of the product but how many units would be produced for this. 10-20,000 at the high end?
Now you add another 4-5 companies offering the 'same' products at similar prices i.e. above $80 all targeting a very small but enthusiastic consumer base.
Now within this consumer base the % of who will buy more than 2 of these Dinobot lines probably diminishes significantly. The % who will buy 3-5 of these lines is likely not worth counting in absolute numbers.
The point here is that there is two much focus on a small market with the same products. Something has to give.
Scaleface
Easily more figures I want announced at TFcon than were announced at Botcon this year for me.
…and for those who complain that we have 4-5 different good Sludge and Slag figures coming out in the next year, it's more than HasTak is offering us!
unicronic
Yes, I think this recent set of reveals showed that we're close to a bubble reaching critical mass and bursting.
So many companies just doing the same figures, competing on the same projects.
I will be very surprised if, by end of 2015, we have a number of 3rd parties closing their doors or just limiting their releases.
You're absolutely right that this area is getting over saturated but couple that with the fact that this is a niche market (likely very niche) and you can see the problems.
The amount of companies working on Dinobots makes the Predaking saturation look minor.
This is very typical of companies entrenched in China (I've worked there so can say this with some confidence), little vision but fast in production.
Molini
Just went back and read the DJD portion of MTME Vol. 2 in anticipation of Vos and Kaon. I can't wait!
BScorpinok75
Might have to grab the DJD…they are looking to damn awesome already…and its good to see another company doing clones…might have my interest as I've no faith in Hasbro actually doing those…
Strohmanaut5000
3P is killing us with all this badassery. that MP scaled megs…thank primus.
divinecomedy
Thanks to people who built the slides, did the real time update, etc.
AutobotSoldier
Yeah I don't think they dropped Minerva. I think FP changed their approach and decided to do all the 1987 headmaster toys first. Nightbeat came out in 1988 and will probably be in FPs next wave of headmasters. Which we will get the eventual Minerva repaint. So it looks like X9 will be Snapdragron and x10-x16 will be the Masterforce Headmasters and whatever repaints(Nightbeat, Siren etc)
down_shift
I hope everyone had as much fun with the reveals as I had putting the slides together. If anyone had any questions about the slides or the presentation please let me know.
I should clarify something though. The FansProject Optimus is only an add on kit, not a completely new figure. Sorry for the miscommunication.
lucas maximus
Fp, mt, and mmc all killed it. That damn defensor and scorponok won it for me. My jaw about hit the floor.