Also charged for the Hero is Born set. Happily preordered the DNA Metroplex upgrades.
So, the offical precursor to Hasbro doing their own Drillbit has been made.
DNA - Here's a Grimlock set, with Wheelie.
Hasbro - Studio Series Wheelie
DNA - Here's a Slug set with transforming Exosuit.
Hasbro - Studio Series Spike
DNA - Here's a Metroplex set, with Drillbit.
DNA - Here's a Grimlock set, with Wheelie.
Hasbro - Studio Series Wheelie
DNA - Here's a Slug set with transforming Exosuit.
Hasbro - Studio Series Spike
DNA - Here's a Metroplex set, with Drillbit.
Yeah, I'd be surprised if an official Core or Deluxe class Drillbit isn't coming down the pipe fairly soon.
Keep the order for Serpentor. If nothing else, I suspect his resale value in the next couple years will be better so you'd at least be able to make back the money and then some. Or you'd have it when you fancy having a fancy Serpentor and the secondary market is 2-3x the price
Nearest constuction site or you could comission him to build a new level to your house for storage purposes!
Yeah. I don't care for that particular look. I'd like him to be able to use his hands in both modes and have that as an extra for when I want to do that.
I like that this kit largely stays within Hasbro's design style. Hasbro has done the reversible thumbs idea plenty of times.
Upgrade kits are weird sometimes. Sometimes it's a little too obvious that it's a different company's design ideas slapped on to a Hasbro toy. Even if the result is an improvement, it's distracting. Like the toy equivalent of uncanny valley, or something. I know I'm looking at a Hasbro toy but something doesn't look right.
This is a good one.
Upgrade kits are weird sometimes. Sometimes it's a little too obvious that it's a different company's design ideas slapped on to a Hasbro toy. Even if the result is an improvement, it's distracting. Like the toy equivalent of uncanny valley, or something. I know I'm looking at a Hasbro toy but something doesn't look right.
This is a good one.
I wonder if Hasbro desginers are purposely desgining their figures so that they can get upgrades made by third party groups?
I doubt it. Hasbro doesn't have a lot of reason to endorse third party groups.
I can't imagine they would.
-ZacWilliam, they don't have a financial reason to care about that (the opposite in fact) and I can't think of a single realistic reason they'd want to even outside of that.
-ZacWilliam, they don't have a financial reason to care about that (the opposite in fact) and I can't think of a single realistic reason they'd want to even outside of that.
The concessions they make to fit in a budget are fairly obvious and 3Ps love low-hanging fruit.
This. HasTak would certainly love to do all of these things but we sure wouldn't love the prices.
More accurately, big retailers wouldn't. Like, people are paying more than half the cost of the base figures to add stickers or millimeter-width sheets of plastic to them.
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I think its a bit of both. SOME people are willing to buy stuff like that, others are fine without it. I think that even without retailers, if prices were to suddenly double, even if it mean higher quality of figures; there would still be blow-back from people.
Hasbro-the-company probably (hopefully) doesn't give a thought to third-party add-ons. They care about how much they spend to produce "units" and how much they can sell for.
The people who actually design the toys (many of whom, at this point, are fans and collectors themselves) might well be more aware (and supportive) of third-party groups.
The people who actually design the toys (many of whom, at this point, are fans and collectors themselves) might well be more aware (and supportive) of third-party groups.
Hasbro in the past have stated they are aware of 3rd parties, at least the full figures, so might also be aware of the Add-ons. Hasbro overall, actually does care about fan interactions. Hasbro, as long as they aren't given a reason (usually by having to act on copywrite laws and such) are willing to give fans as much room as possible to show their love for the brand; This isn't like Paramount shuttering anyone that even tries to make anything Star Trek related. The only big take downs of 3p product have both been from Chinese companies that were selling high quality KOs of current merch. And on the actual fan side of things, the only thing I can think of them CADing is a MLP fighting game that was both kinda against the core of the franchise but also starting to get publically recognized and make money beyond whats needed for dev costs. Which didn't kill it, and just allowed it to become its own IP so is honestly a net win for all parties imo.
Yes, Their a corporation and profit lines will come first, but that doesn't mean they don't care about anything but.
I have to assume that as long as the add-on kits are additions to their products and not replacements for, I don't see why they'd care. I'm sure in some cases, the ability to improve a base Hasbro figure might be the thing that pushes some people over the line into making a purchase that they wouldn't have otherwise (though I'm sure those cases are rare enough that they don't factor at all into Hasbro's decision making)
Ultimately, addons and unlicensed Transformers are probably such a small market in comparison that it doesn't make financial sense for Hasbro to shut them down. To put it another way, it's likely that the estimated increase on sales that may occur is probably a lot less then how much it would take to litigate those cases over years. I have no doubt if Hasbro's execs had a magic lamp, they'd wish that stuff away in a heartbeat, but as of now it's probably just impractical to try and do anything about it. (Aside from edge cases like that Unicron toy they were showing of during Hasbro's crowd funding.)
And that's not even considering thst addon kits can potentially increase sales from people who want the figure, but havec some questions about it the set can fix.
And that's not even considering thst addon kits can potentially increase sales from people who want the figure, but havec some questions about it the set can fix.