Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company?

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Onslaught Six
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by Onslaught Six »

How long has Alvarez been a free agent, though? No compete clauses are only good for so long...and are pretty much unenforceable anyway.

Man, why you so down on this? It's not any worse than, say, Fansproject. And your idea is shit--who wants unpainted figures? I sure as hell don't. The stretch goals do have a share of nuts stuff, but unfortunately you can't copyright a colour scheme, and I doubt Hasbro will be going after them any more than they will the existing third party shit.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Almighty Unicron
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by Almighty Unicron »

Onslaught Six wrote:you can't copyright a colour scheme, and I doubt Hasbro will be going after them any more than they will the existing third party shit.
You can't? I thought like superman's costume was copyrighted down to the individual hues.
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

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Onslaught Six wrote:How long has Alvarez been a free agent, though? No compete clauses are only good for so long...and are pretty much unenforceable anyway.

Man, why you so down on this? It's not any worse than, say, Fansproject. And your idea is shit--who wants unpainted figures? I sure as hell don't. The stretch goals do have a share of nuts stuff, but unfortunately you can't copyright a colour scheme, and I doubt Hasbro will be going after them any more than they will the existing third party shit.
I dunno how long Alvarez has been a free agent, I know it hasn't been that long since Archer though, but it could be long enough for a clause. And no, they're not unenforceable, they're part of tort law for a reason.

It's very different, Fansproject is created by fans to fill a need that Hasbro wouldn't develop, and they don't Kickstart it as if they're a legitimate business, they know they're shady and stealing IP. The people here are the same ones who were paid to develop Transformers as a brand, they are basically taking it with them and acting as if that's fine - there's clear IP issues there and they know it because they used to be the ones developing and protecting it. Those Skywarp and Thundercracker figures aren't just color schemes, look at the sculpts and the alternate head sculpt.

As for the unpainted figures, Super7 sold their unpainted versions faster than any SDCC exclusive that year, they were incredibly popular, sold the entire allotment in hours on preview night. Lots of people like stuff that feels like test shots and some folks like to paint their figures, so go suck lemons.
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by Onslaught Six »

Eh. If Hasbro cared enough, there would be a cease and desist. I have a hard time believing that Alvarez doesn't have any friends who still work for Hasbro. Of course, I also call bullshit on the idea that Archer and co didn't have or keep tabs on third party stuff to begin with. You telling me he's not gonna look at the three Devastators and buy at least one? Sure, he might not say that. But he also isnt posting Instagram pics of his new purchases.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by Tigermegatron »

JediTricks wrote:
Onslaught Six wrote:How long has Alvarez been a free agent, though? No compete clauses are only good for so long...and are pretty much unenforceable anyway.

Man, why you so down on this? It's not any worse than, say, Fansproject. And your idea is shit--who wants unpainted figures? I sure as hell don't. The stretch goals do have a share of nuts stuff, but unfortunately you can't copyright a colour scheme, and I doubt Hasbro will be going after them any more than they will the existing third party shit.
I dunno how long Alvarez has been a free agent, I know it hasn't been that long since Archer though, but it could be long enough for a clause. And no, they're not unenforceable, they're part of tort law for a reason.

It's very different, Fansproject is created by fans to fill a need that Hasbro wouldn't develop, and they don't Kickstart it as if they're a legitimate business, they know they're shady and stealing IP. The people here are the same ones who were paid to develop Transformers as a brand, they are basically taking it with them and acting as if that's fine - there's clear IP issues there and they know it because they used to be the ones developing and protecting it. Those Skywarp and Thundercracker figures aren't just color schemes, look at the sculpts and the alternate head sculpt.

As for the unpainted figures, Super7 sold their unpainted versions faster than any SDCC exclusive that year, they were incredibly popular, sold the entire allotment in hours on preview night. Lots of people like stuff that feels like test shots and some folks like to paint their figures, so go suck lemons.
I agree with everything JediTricks is saying.

Let me further add stuff of my own.

Most 3rd parties making these Not-TF toys are doing it the smart way. For starters most of them live overseas where the copy right laws are different and less strict. As they live in the KO center of the world.

Second, Most of these 3rd party not-TF companies. Are smart enough to hide their IP addresses. Scramble their internet data. Have tons of middlemen, Faux Names and fake other things. So tracking these guys is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

Third, Most of these 3rd party not-TF companies. are not loud and obnoxious like PWTT. For the most part they are quiet as a mouse. They don't go around trying to stir up trouble with real companies like PWTT is doing.

Fourth, None of these 3rd party not-TF companies. Are former employees of real companies like from Hasbro, Mattel, Bandai, Tomy, etc.. These guys are fans making toys they want that other want also.

Fifth, I kinda got the strong impression from the start. That this PWTT company was up to no good. Seems like they want to step on as many toes as they can and ruin it for everyone.
Last edited by Tigermegatron on Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by Tigermegatron »

I'm glad PWTT's Kick starter failed.

As PWTT made so many promises before the kick starter started. They knew beforehand they could never keep.

PWTT told fans they'd be getting each toy at cost. Paying $55 for each PWTT figure is not cost, It's paying scalper prices right off the bat.
Paying cost for these simplified non-transforming MOTU styled PWTT toys should have been $15.

Think PWTT was aiming this Kickstarter towards those TFCC Scalpers and other scalpers fans. Problem is a toy can only get scalped if it's price low and is popular enough to be in secondary market demand. PWTT charging over $55 for each figure, is so high. Scalpers knew buyers wouldn't pay more than that.

PWTT made kick starter pledge buyers promises they knew they couldn't keep. Like if you pay $900, You get everything ever made over 21 figures. PWTT knew they'd never reach over $100,000. In order for $900 pledge buyers to get everything over 21 figures, the kick starter had to reach over $310,000.

These PWTT toys were not transforming toys. They were MOTU styled toys. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. A overly simple toy cost less to make. Think PWTT plan was to create low quality simple cheap toys and over charge fans a scalper fortune for them.

This PWTT Kick starter seemed like a kick in the fans nuts from the start. As fans had to pay to fund the project. But fans had no say on what got made, who got made and what style of toy got made. If fans had to pay to fund this, their should of been poll voting going on with different rounds taking place. Where fans got to decide everything that got made as they were paying for it.

These PWTT toys seemed like they were made for kitbashers or Customizers. Problem is these guys buy reduced 75% off plus clearance toys from retail stores. Not many of them pay a fortune or regular prices to customize expensive toys like these third party not-tf toys.

Think this PWTT company was doomed to fail and was hated from the start. As these guys while working for Hasbro were hating on 3rd parties. Then they get fired and joined 3rd parties. fans did not like this.
Last edited by Tigermegatron on Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by Onslaught Six »

There is so much about your misunderstanding of manufacturing costs, especially on a smaller level, that I don't know where to begin. These are comparable to the MOTUC line or Marvel Legends, which start at $20 and only go up.tack on more for the smaller production run and for shipping--both to them from China and to us from them!--and its not hard to see where $55 came in. I would've liked if they were closer to $35-45, but they weren't.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: Former Hasbro employees have created a 3rd party company

Post by JediTricks »

Actually, manufacturing on the PWTT Lost Protector figure would not be as complicated as an MOTU figure because the Lost Protector wouldn't have any injection-molded or riveted joints, all its joints were snap barbell joints, much less expensive to manufacture.
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