ALL THINGS TRANSFORMERS!!!!

[bcm77]

TFC Structor ( Scrapper ) in leg mode,

 

[DPrime]

TFC Structor ( Scrapper ) in leg mode,

Nice gam!

 

[Deak Starkiller]

Me likey that leg.

 

[kairus]

legs looking good!

 

[DPrime]

Gonna scoop BCM77 on this!!!

https://www.hk-tf.com/discuz/upload/viewthread.php?tid=22623&extra=page=1

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-news-rumors/460319-anime-igear-thundercracker.html

 

[bcm77]

An image has surfaced of what appears to be iGear's Thundercracker,

If legit it looks like they'll be doing the original Seekers once they've released,

PP03-S "Storm" ( Sunstorm )
PP03-C "Current" ( no official name )
PP03-? ( should be a green one )

If the rumors are true about MP-11 being a new Seeker mold that turns into something else then I can see there being a good number of people who'll want to buy a matching set as Hasbro haven't shown any sign of releasing their own Thundercracker.

EDIT
DPrime,
Beat me to it!

 

[DPrime]

If the rumors are true about MP-11 being a new Seeker mold that turns into something else then I can see there being a good number of people who'll want to buy a matching set as Hasbro haven't shown any sign of releasing their own Thundercracker.

Or in-scale Prime, or Conehead Seekers, or G1 Ironhide and Ratchet... Exactly why we need iGear!

I do think that I'd rather have the grey be a bit more silverish, but regardless, I'm pretty happy. I just hope it looks "right" with the official Starscream and Skywarp I have. I don't want to have to buy iGear versions of those guys...

 

[bcm77]

Or in-scale Prime, or Conehead Seekers, or G1 Ironhide and Ratchet... Exactly why we need iGear!

I do think that I'd rather have the grey be a bit more silverish, but regardless, I'm pretty happy. I just hope it looks "right" with the official Starscream and Skywarp I have. I don't want to have to buy iGear versions of those guys...

Or Impactor, or cartoon accurate Minibots, or a new VW Bumblebee, or a Porsche 924 Cliffjumper.

OK there's legal issues with the last 2 but when you look how popular Bumblebee is as a character there's surely a case for going to VW ( who also own Porsche ) and offering them a percentage of the sales as well as the licensing fee.

A conscience over the company's origins is all very noble but I'm sure VW like money as much as any other big company

The sticking point with the Alternators that got rejected was that weapons were included which violated VW's "no war toys" policy so surely the answer was not to give them any weapons and give them bios that made them sound like benevolent characters

Not that I think Hasbro would make Bumblebee a Beetle any more even if they could as in their eyes he's now a Camaro ( Bayformers & Prime ), a Suzuki Swift ( Takara's Alternity line ) or a generic small car ( Classics ).

 

[DPrime]

Or Impactor, or cartoon accurate Minibots, or a new VW Bumblebee, or a Porsche 924 Cliffjumper.

I'll probably pass on Impactor, but I can't wait for the rest of those, especially Bumblebee.

I know the character's a bit of a dork, but I can't think of any other Autobot - other than Prime himself, of course - that's as much of a "must have" character as Bumblebee. It's gonna look great next to my Faith Leader.

OK there's legal issues with the last 2 but when you look how popular Bumblebee is as a character there's surely a case for going to VW ( who also own Porsche ) and offering them a percentage of the sales as well as the licensing fee.

Those Germans... so sensitive about anything to do with war these days. It's really too bad - the new Bug would have been a PERFECT update for BB at the time.

I like the Classics/Henkei mold and all, but it'll be great to have a proper '80s BB too. I know people hate the 3rd parties and especially iGear, but in the end, this is the only way we'd ever get one...

Speaking of Bumblebee - I preordered that "Growing Pains" upgrade set for the United version... that's not out already, is it? (Goes to check TFSource... ah, guess not!)

 

[Dubcustomz]

Yay...more fecking knock off's.

 

[DPrime]

Yay...more fecking knock off's.

Well, at least they're GOOD knock-offs!

 

[karamazov80]

Now this one actually is a knock-off. . .not only an existing Has/Tak mold, in apparently the same size, but of a (rough) color scheme they've already used

I'm happy because I skipped out on TC, and the official one is too dark for my tastes anyhow. BUT, I think this one is easier to criticize than some of the other 3rd party stuff.

 

[DPrime]

Now this one actually is a knock-off. . .not only an existing Has/Tak mold, in apparently the same size, but of a (rough) color scheme they've already used

I'm happy because I skipped out on TC, and the official one is too dark for my tastes anyhow. BUT, I think this one is easier to criticize than some of the other 3rd party stuff.

No hip kibble though.

 

[bcm77]

I'll probably pass on Impactor, but I can't wait for the rest of those, especially Bumblebee.

I like the Classics/Henkei mold and all, but it'll be great to have a proper '80s BB too. I know people hate the 3rd parties and especially iGear, but in the end, this is the only way we'd ever get one...

I remember Impactor from the Marvel comics and think that IDW's Last Stand of the Wreckers is the best modern TF comic story so he's a must have as he'll look great displayed with FP Springer.

I like the Classics/Henkei/United Bumblebee mold too but the nostalgia factor of the Beetle is strong and once iGear's is out my Henkei will be turned into Bumper courtesy of the headsculpt and weapon that Renderform are doing.

At this stage in the game the complaining about iGear that goes on within the TF community is getting a bit old....who honestly cares that much about the origins of Faith Leader or their Seekers & Coneheads?

The only people that have any genuine reason to care are Has/Tak who clearly don't because they're intelligent enough to know that the 3rd parties are no threat to their yearly profits and never will be.

3rd parties are here to stay and the world of Transformers collecting is so much better because of them.

 

[lerath666]

I'd like to see igear do a leg kit for the existing seekers, to allow them to be set up like their new ones.

 

[karamazov80]

At this stage in the game the complaining about iGear that goes on within the TF community is getting a bit old....who honestly cares that much about the origins of Faith Leader or their Seekers & Coneheads?

The only people that have any genuine reason to care are Has/Tak who clearly don't because they're intelligent enough to know that the 3rd parties are no threat to their yearly profits and never will be.

3rd parties are here to stay and the world of Transformers collecting is so much better because of them.

I think some people will justifiably feel they are owning "knock-offs" unless the 3rd partiers do enough to really make a product their own. The coneheads and the proposed Bumblebee mods seem like pretty substantial mods to me. But doing a Thundercracker like this. . .I dunno. I know there's the new legs, but that's about it. At least orange guy was a completely new paint job that Hasbro/Takara were never gonna give us, and at least the Faith Leader was one of their molds in a smaller scale that Has/Tak was very likely never gonna do. This is just a slightly modified version of an existing Takara figure that Hasbro could well try to produce as a U.S. exclusive at some point.

Of course, it's Hasbro/Takara's decision not to pursue them legally as they have done with 3rd partiers in the past. But that doesn't make it OK in itself IMO, and I think it's worth raising this argument when this company moves away from some of the innovation we've recently seen and into the domain of re-creating an existing figure because the existing official version is now so rare/expensive.

Apart from the issue of this being a pretty lazy and borderline copy of an existing figure, this could raise the ire of the monster official TF companies if they try to push things this way. Which could make things worse for all these 3rd party companies as time goes on. Seems to me that they are trying to push that boundary, and I hope for their sake (and the sake of those of us who like what 3rd party companies are doing in general) that it doesn't come back to bite them in the rear.

 

[DPrime]

I remember Impactor from the Marvel comics and think that IDW's Last Stand of the Wreckers is the best modern TF comic story so he's a must have as he'll look great displayed with FP Springer.

lol, yeah, I remember you saying that. I mean to read that in the near future but I'm worried it will make me want one more expensive third party TF!

I like the Classics/Henkei/United Bumblebee mold too but the nostalgia factor of the Beetle is strong and once iGear's is out my Henkei will be turned into Bumper courtesy of the headsculpt and weapon that Renderform are doing.

Ditto that. I stupidly sold my Classics BB long ago, but I do have the new United one, and plan on making him into Goldbug once my next order comes in.

At this stage in the game the complaining about iGear that goes on within the TF community is getting a bit old....who honestly cares that much about the origins of Faith Leader or their Seekers & Coneheads?

The only people that have any genuine reason to care are Has/Tak who clearly don't because they're intelligent enough to know that the 3rd parties are no threat to their yearly profits and never will be.

I agree. People need to step back, take a look at the REAL problems of this world and realize that this is an odd and inconsequential issue to take a moral stance on.

3rd parties are here to stay and the world of Transformers collecting is so much better because of them.

Definitely agree here!

I think some people will justifiably feel they are owning "knock-offs" unless the 3rd partiers do enough to really make a product their own. The coneheads and the proposed Bumblebee mods seem like pretty substantial mods to me. But doing a Thundercracker like this. . .I dunno. I know there's the new legs, but that's about it. At least orange guy was a completely new paint job that Hasbro/Takara were never gonna give us, and at least the Faith Leader was one of their molds in a smaller scale that Has/Tak was very likely never gonna do. This is just a slightly modified version of an existing Takara figure that Hasbro could well try to produce as a U.S. exclusive at some point.

I'm sure that's exactly what the people at iGear were thinking. Thing is, we haven't really seen ANY indication that Thundercracker will be produced as a US exclusive, and the Takara one can only be had on the secondary market at this point, at a substantial mark-up.

After all, Skywarp sold rather poorly in the US, apparently - and it now seems like Takara's moving on to a new Seeker mold. How long should we have to wait for an official version when all indications seem to point that it's not gonna happen?

In that case, it really isn't any different than Faith Leader or the orange Seeker.

Of course, it's Hasbro/Takara's decision not to pursue them legally as they have done with 3rd partiers in the past. But that doesn't make it OK in itself IMO, and I think it's worth raising this argument when this company moves away from some of the innovation we've recently seen and into the domain of re-creating an existing figure because the existing official version is now so rare/expensive.

Apart from the issue of this being a pretty lazy and borderline copy of an existing figure, this could raise the ire of the monster official TF companies if they try to push things this way. Which could make things worse for all these 3rd party companies as time goes on. Seems to me that they are trying to push that boundary, and I hope for their sake (and the sake of those of us who like what 3rd party companies are doing in general) that it doesn't come back to bite them in the rear.

Well, they're located in China, so I have little fear of that.

Besides, I think if they DIDN'T produce this, eventually they'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place. They plan on making all the '84 Transformers eventually, right? Obviously fans are going to want Thundercracker as well... what else can they do?

 

[bcm77]

I think some people will justifiably feel they are owning "knock-offs" unless the 3rd partiers do enough to really make a product their own. The coneheads and the proposed Bumblebee mods seem like pretty substantial mods to me. But doing a Thundercracker like this. . .I dunno. I know there's the new legs, but that's about it. At least orange guy was a completely new paint job that Hasbro/Takara were never gonna give us, and at least the Faith Leader was one of their molds in a smaller scale that Has/Tak was very likely never gonna do. This is just a slightly modified version of an existing Takara figure that Hasbro could well try to produce as a U.S. exclusive at some point.

Of course, it's Hasbro/Takara's decision not to pursue them legally as they have done with 3rd partiers in the past. But that doesn't make it OK in itself IMO, and I think it's worth raising this argument when this company moves away from some of the innovation we've recently seen and into the domain of re-creating an existing figure because the existing official version is now so rare/expensive.

Apart from the issue of this being a pretty lazy and borderline copy of an existing figure, this could raise the ire of the monster official TF companies if they try to push things this way. Which could make things worse for all these 3rd party companies as time goes on. Seems to me that they are trying to push that boundary, and I hope for their sake (and the sake of those of us who like what 3rd party companies are doing in general) that it doesn't come back to bite them in the rear.

Thundercracker has always been a repaint of Starscream so what else is it supposed to include?

iGear got the molds and are going to want to get the most from them just as Has/Tak would so a matching set of the original Seekers in seems a logical conclusion to their lineup once the Rainmakers are done,

PP03-S "Storm" ( Sunstorm )- the orange one
PP03-C "Current" ( no official name )- purple/blue & white
PP03-? Likely to be a green one

As I understand it Hasbro's Skywarp warmed pegs until it was put on clearance so the possibility of there being a Thundercracker is by no means guaranteed.

iGear Bumblebee is a completely new mold, not a mod.

The old proto that pics surfaced of a while back was a reshelled Classics BB with a New Beetle alt mode. The artwork on iGear's site when you click on PP04 is nothing like that proto.

Nobody has to like what iGear does but all this BS about their ethics isn't going to make them change their direction so why bother?

Worrying about what MAY happen is pointless. Just enjoy the ride while it lasts.

 

[bcm77]

PP03-L "Lightning" pre-order is up for a November release,

https://shop.igeartoys.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=119

 

[karamazov80]

Nobody has to like what iGear does but all this BS about their ethics isn't going to make them change their direction so why bother?

Worrying about what MAY happen is pointless. Just enjoy the ride while it lasts.

It isn't "BS" because it's potentially important and worth talking about. Seems that some have a knee-jerk, anti-3rd party stance no matter what. Others seem to have a knee-jerk, pro-3rd party stance no matter what. I'm not on either extreme of that spectrum, and I think this is an interesting phenomenon worthy of honest discussion by those of us who collect. Personally, I'm never gonna just take the stance that "ethics don't matter, I'm just gonna enjoy the ride no matter what." Bootlegging is an important and often troubling issue with collectibles, and I think we should talk and think about where the line between acceptability and unacceptability lies. Is the HT Wolverine acceptable? Most think not, though often for selfish reasons (i.e., their own figures' value goes down). What about re-cast statues as a whole? Re-cast accessories and head sculpts? Slightly modified head sculpts? How do those cases apply to Transformers? Does cutting into the originators' profits matter? Does impinging on one's intellectual property rights matter? And if so, again, where do we draw this line.

I don't have the answers to these questions, but I'm interested in asking them and trying to think through where I stand. Preferably with the help of some input from others who are asking those same questions. The issue goes beyond what may or may not happen with those companies, but that's a factor in the equation.