HasLab 2025: Liokaiser

[LordGigaIce]

In this case I think it's pretty simple and straightforward- FunPub was a small third party licence holder whose in with the production end of things came through Hasbro.

Given their smaller size, of course it would cost them more to pay for production compared to what Hasbro and TakaraTomy can manage.
Factoring in FP's smaller scale operation and the costs of doing limited run figures, I think the price of their Subscription Service repaints and slight remoulds make a lot of sense.

Hasbro being able to provide all original tooling across more or less the same amount of figures for comparable prices lines up. They're the billion dollar company and it's their factories they're using directly, after all.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

My understanding is that Hasbro (and Takara) contract for factory usage, rather than owning the factories outright, but otherwise, yes to everything you said. I was just hoping to stay out of that off-topic conversation, and simply point out that FunPub was routinely more expensive than what we see with HasLab, and that this shouldn't surprise anyone (regardless of their opinions on FunPub).

 

[Platypus Prime]

I am sorry I potentially brought up a subject I hadn't realized was that controversial. I was just thinking of what I paid for exclusive combiners before.

But re: G1, believe it or not I've gotten my nephew a few of the Walmart reissues, because they are somewhat easier to transform than many modern figures, and when you're a kid who is learning how to do a lot of these fresh, it's helped a lot. Though he's also taken a liking to Combiner Wars styled bots, I think because they ARE super durable and have similar transformations in the limbs. The Protectobots, POTP Dinobots, Sky Lynx, etc are all in his 'best' list. I've stashed a G1 reissue Hot Rod for him for Easter and saved the POTP Junkions I made from a few clearance bin Wreck-Gars and Toyhax stickers from the emergency purge so he could have a set of them.

On that note, he found out on his own that 'modern' cassettes will fit inside G1 Soundwave. Not well, too small, but they go in and close, and for him that's the whole point.

I do have a small set of shelves for 'no borrow', and so far, that's Deathsaurus and Victory Leo, my Thundercrackers, and later will have Omega Prime and Liokaiser. I want to have a FEW left to ME (we live next door to each other and he will pop in when he needs something for a setting he's messing with). But it's actually fine with me because it means someone else in the family will enjoy what I have left after my time's up. Plus, when he was born, people were saying I'd have to be so careful to keep him away from my collection, and I told them that if they thought a Transformers collection and a little boy were NOT going to collide at an intersection, they were delusional.

 

[Powered Convoy]

TakaraTomy finally promoted Liokaiser on Twitter.

https://t.co/EVYQr6bicM

 

[Undead Scottsman]

I'm not talking about durability. I'm referring more to stuff like size, hollowness, amount of paint apps, and other places where it's appears the budget held back the figure.

Also there was a hot minute where QC was really terrible, but I feel like I haven't had an issue with that in a few years.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Wasn't that around the time foil stickers made a comeback? I did a LOT of sanding/coating/hair-dryering etc for that entire stretch just to make things transform correctly as tabs wouldn't fit or the like. And Trypticon made me learn all about plastic safe lubricants.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

My big spate of QC issues started around Kingdom with several figures that either broke or had difficulties. I thankfully haven't had any yellowing issues I noticed. (Well, my Netflix Soundwave is a little green in the grey)

 

[Sabrblade]

I had a total of three strikes of QC issues throughout the run of Legacy.

My first Legacy Evolution Twincast had a misaligned pin in one of his hips, which completely prevented the figure from transforming into boombox mode (had to get a second one as a replacement).

My Legacy United Tigerhawk had a misaligned pin inside one of his main torso halves, which completely prevented the figure from transforming into beast mode (I have not yet gotten a replacement for this one).

And since I was wanting to build a Star Raider version of Junkasaurus, one of my two Legacy United Lockdowns had a knee joint that was misassembled backwards and could not be fixed due to the assembly of the lower leg preventing anyone from opening it up without breaking it completely. While the figure could still transform into vehicle mode, the result meant that the front of the car was lopsided and incapable of locking into place correctly (this one I did get a replacement figure for).

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I don't buy enough to really have a good sample, but I don't know that I've ever had a genuine QC issue.

 

[Echowarrior]

I've had a few QC instances, but they were few and far between.

 

[lastmaximal]

I think buildwise the only really severe one was a Crosscut with a totally misaligned shoulder panel pin that I managed to fix with much soldering work and minimal visible destruction in both modes. Might get a fresh one later on if I see one cheap, and use this one as fodder.

But I've gotten hit with many of the yellowing suspects. A lot are in Schrodinger's condition right now (I'm afraid to see how cheesy my Origins Bee has gotten), but I know Selects Sandstorm, Cyberverse Prowl and Arcee, SG Starscream and probably Megatron have been hit, and got rid of Soundwave and Blaster before theirs got worse.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I would like the yellowing on Origins Bee if it were uniform. It's not G1 accurate but I've always liked more orange Bees.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Agreed. I said what I said because I was afraid that I might be doing so (FunPub is historically a contentious topic), and I wanted to avoid that....

I wasn't aware it was contentious. I'm not really a fan of the recent comics, but then again I didn't really buy many books these days (as they're quite expensive for me in Japan) and I feel that the comics are just the 'same' story, again and again in TFs.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Only real case of bad QC I got hit with pre-COVID was CW Ultra Magnus. My version of that toy's pegs just didn't want to peg together.

COVID brought the great yellowing plague, but that's not necessarily on Hasbro? Like there was a pandemic that made travelling almost impossible. Inspecting the plastic quality wasn't doable. Just one of those things.
Also I was fairly lucky? I have Origins Bumblebee and KI Cyclonus and while Cyclonus has yellowed a bit it's not that bad. My Bumblebee hasn't yellowed at all outside of... well... being yellow

The only one that yellowed really bad was Netflix Soundwave. Which sucked, but at least they reissued it after they fixed the problem (same with Origins Bumblebee actually).

 

[Powered Convoy]

TakaraTomy finally promoted Liokaiser on Twitter.

https://t.co/EVYQr6bicM

And now an email from TakaraTomy Mall.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Just so you know, all this talk of misdriven pins, combined with the sheer number of pins that have to be driven in a combiner that's full of mirror-imaged parts, is giving me, to quote Frankie Mouse from the Hitchhiker's Guide, the "screaming heebie-jeebies".

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

I like how Takara doesn't give a fig and has used the original names.

 

[Superomegaprime]

Its likely Takara has already trademarked the name for Japan and McFarlane doesn't have the trademark for Japan as DC not making much of a dent over there as the direct market in the US is in a lot of trouble comic wise, but that's unrelated to slumber, hibernation, Hellbat!!

 

[Sabrblade]

Japan never had any issues with the names in the first place. They originated from Japan.

 

[NovaSaber]

As far as I know this is the first time Hellbat's name has ever been spelled "Helbat", so it probably has more to do with Takara just not being very consistent than it does with intentionally using a name that they know Hasbro isn't.
(It's not the first time Breastforce has been spelled "Brestforce".)

Actually that entire bio has problems and is probably machine translated. "Helbat is more of a Brestforce leader than Leozak" is not remotely true and is contradicted by the rest of the same sentence; it should say something like "thinks he would be a better leader" or "wants to be the leader instead".