Grave Considerations: Third Party Brand Loyalty?

The first week of a new semester allows my thoughts to drift to the really important things in life: toys.

As the Coffin delves deeper and deeper into the 3^rd party transforming robot scene, it seemed like a good time to take a look at how that journey is progressing. To this point, the Coffin’s 3P focus has been on combiner teams, and then, ones that are no represented by official product. This is not out of some fealty to Hasbro, or anything like that: this has been the result of there not being official figures for these characters, or in the case of the Hercules team, no official product that appears worthwhile.

It is the end of August, 2017, and over the past almost year I have acquired 21 third party figures, two short of four complete Decepticon combiners. Hercules arrived all at once, and the Hades crew saw their two missing comrades arrive early last week. This past weekend brought the full complement of Ares, only briefly experienced but high on this weekend’s to-do list. Missing are the last two figures to complete Ryu-Oh, and those are up next on my hunt list. Of these 21 figures, only four of them are not from TFC Toys, and, as I start to scribble my shopping list for the next set of figures I’m after, I find myself pausing to ask what may be a fairly prescient question: why TFC Toys? Am I becoming a TFC brand loyalist? Should I be spreading out to other companies? Does this make me the same as the Hasbro loyalists that I routinely cast sideways glances at?

It’s a more complex question that it on the surface appears. My next two 3P interests are TFC’s Poseidon, their version of the Seacons, and an Abominus. TFC Poseidon is the only currently available 3P Pirhanacon, so there isn’t any completion there. But Abominus was released as a 3P combiner a few years ago, by a company called UniqueToys, under the combined form name of Ordin. At TFCon Toronto this summer, TFC Toys teased a silhouette of their version of Abominus, which at that time at least was tagged as “Satan”. 

So here’s the first question: if a 3P Abominus is what I’m after, do I start to track down the Ordin members, or wait to see what TFC Toys’ version looks like? I have been a great fan of the TFC Toys figures that I own, going so far as to call Minos from the Hades set the best transforming figure I’ve experienced in a long time. My TFC collection is as large as it is because I’ve gotten some excellent deals on the figures; but once in hand, I’ve had fantastic experiences with them, and so I’ve never felt bad about investing in their product further.

UniqueToys Ordin looks fantastic, another one of those display pieces at TFCon 2016 Chicago that I stared at longingly. As I’ve begun looking in to it, watching videos and such, I’ve not come across anything that might make me cautious about investing in the set, nor anything that would lead me to believe that it is anything less than excellent. Aesthetically, Ordin seems closer to Hades than the other, earlier TFC Toys combiners. But given my experiences with TFC Toys, I feel that whenever images of their “Satan” team start to surface, I’ going to like what I see. The price of completing a 3P combiner is steep, so committing to one is a real commitment. I’ve already begun pricing Ordin parts, so it would seem that my mind has already been made up on this issue.

I think one thing that concerns me though is availability. I feel that the Ordin members are not really easy to find, despite seeing them listed on various online retailers, and so if I commit to the set, I commit to the hunting. With a new TFC version coming, I’d have the chance to jump on board right from the beginning, and there never seems to be a lack of TFC Toys figures online. But really, my hesitancy to just go for Ordin makes me wonder if I’ve become a TFC Toys loyalist.

There’s my second question. Am I a TFC Toys loyalist to the point that they have become my primary third party company? I don’t think so, as there are lots of other 3P figures that I really would love to own. MakeToys Contact Shot is pretty high on that list, as is their potentially cancelled/lol maybe not cancelled Galaxy Meteor. I LOVE KFC’s Kingzilla and Kingorilla, but have heard some not great things about KFC’s QC. Moreover, I love –LOVE!—the FansHobby Monsterbots and would really like to get the three of them. So it isn’t the case that I turn my nose up at anything not-TFC, which apparently is the opposite of some other fans’ attitudes towards TFC Toys.

But if I were some brand loyalist, but with an unofficial company, would that make me the same as all those Hasbro loyalists out there?

Before I started this blog, I used to spend a lot of time posting on a Transformers fan site. Something that always bothered me was the sense that a number of fans are Hasbro fans, and it just so happens that Hasbro makes Transformers. People prefer what they prefer, and there’s no issue I can ever have with that. If you prefer official figures, or you prefer 3P figures, you are correct, regardless of what your preference is. But those Hasbro fans seem to have a real animosity towards 3P anything, and while the opposite arrangement of values certainly exists, I don’t think that people who prefer 3P toys have quite the wild and total rejection of Hasbro products the way Hasbro loyalists do. I am a big fan of the official Platinum Edition Liokaiser set, and have retweeted numerous sales announcements about the figure, and will continue to do so, honestly. But, if we’re being honest, Platinum Liokaiser doesn’t even hold a candle to TFC’s Hades set, and I haven’t even combined those figures yet. There is simply no comparison. Yet, on some fan sites, people will absolutely rage at you for purchasing Hades when an official interpretation of Liokaiser exists. Those fans aren’t even trying to claim that the official Liokaiser is better, or of greater quality, or anything; they don’t even try to argue that it is a better value, with official Liokaiser being five Combiner Wars repaints costing basically $100, while TFC Toy’s Hades is six Voyager sized figures costing basically $100 apiece. The argument that seemingly try to make is that the Platinum Liokasier is official product, and therefore automatically superior. It is great, because it is Hasbro. TFC’s Hypnos blows Platinum Liokaiser away, and I like Platinum Liokaiser a lot, and Hypnos is a fairly basic figure.

As a long time denizen of a fan site, I remember when City Commander was first released, the dawn of the 3P Age. It was a trailer that split into armor parts for the then-“Classics” Ultra Magnus, a white repaint of the same line’s Optimus Prime.  The “White Prime” era of Transformers had reached its apotheosis, and many fans and collectors were irked by “Classics” Magnus. FansProject released the add on set that made that Magnus look more like an actual Ultra Magnus. It was enthusiastically received by many, and rejected by an equal number. People decried it as being a knock off, or at the lowest points I recall, as some type of abomination against Transformers.  What those voices were railing against, since there is no requirement at all to like or buy third party merchandise, was that someone had gone against Hasbro: Hasbro had decided that Ultra Magnus was going to simply be a white version of Optimus Prime, contrary to years of fiction and an original toy that made clearly visible that Magnus was not “just” white Optimus, and so Hasbro was always right. If Hasbro decided that Magnus was not a repaint of Soundwave, Hasbro would be right. No matter what. If you’ve followed the Transformers brand at all post-1990, you know that names are reused a lot and often with little or no accounting for the past applications of the name. So there are a few different looking figures who have been called Prowl, but they are not all really Prowls. They call this a nameslap. Back to the point, this rejection of anything not Hasbro never went away, and persists and has grown to the degree that people will argue – seriously and passionately – that Platinum Liokaiser may have its flaws, but it is automatically better than TFC Toys Hades simply because it is official Hasbro product. Again, for clarity, as a huge fan of Platinum Liokaiser, the previous statement is nothing if not absolutely ludicrous.

But I don’t think those fans are Transformer fans. I think they love the company that makes Transformers. Back in the City Commander days, and again in 2011/12 when Hercules and Giant were first popping up, people spoke of the impending cease and desist letters Hasbro Legal would be sending out to TFC Toys and MakeToys. Years later, these letters apparently were never delivered. Mighty Hasbro was supposed to lash out ad smite these pretender outfits who were making better figures than Hasbro was, but that never happened. And it probably never will, since Hasbro has figured out that there is a section of consumers who will buy the Hasbro name without question. And, once more, that’s fine. This hobby, like any hobby is about being happy, and whatever makes you happy about it is terrific. But, as someone once said but I unfortunately can’t remember who or where, Hasbro may own the copyright on the Transformers name and the names and likenesses of Transformers, but Hasbro does not own the patent on transforming robots. The teeth gnashing over Intellectual Property is at times a viable argument, but it’s probably very hard to claim 100% ownership over a red and blue truck that turns into a robot. 

Oddly absent from the Hasbro fanatics’ bitch list are customized figures. While the Hades team may be blasphemous to brand sycophants, if you were to repaint Hasbro figures into or modify Hasbro figures into the Breastmaster characters, that would be acceptable. I’m not sure why. Are you not altering a Hasbro figure, or using it for a purpose other than what Hasbro told you it was supposed to be used for? Or is it all ok, since, after all, you bought a Hasbro figure, again giving evidence for the theory that some people love the company, and not actually the characters or even merchandise? Customizers attract their own fanbases, and I usually don’t see reactions to their work trending towards the type of abhorrence some fans have for 3P toys.

Of course, if it really needs to be stated, the sides of this equation are not mutually exclusive. You can buy third party and Hasbro merchandise and be totally fine. I still buy official figures, and I like a whole lot of them. I don’t not buy a 3P figure because an official one exists, but rather I buy what I like best. I’ve told this story before, but in January of this year I got the full Hercules set for $200. Combiner Wars Devastator was still like $160 at that time, and I’d seen it in store once. Rumor had it that at C2E2 in 2016 a seller had Devastator for $100, and if I’d found that, I’d have bought it. But I got Hercules for slightly more money, but never had the urge to get the official version, because Hercules meets all my G1-ish Devastator needs. Now pretend you didn’t read that, as I’m not done writing up the Hercules figures yet, but *spoiler* I’m happy with the whole set. I bought what I thought was the better toy, and I’ve never found reason to question that decision. Having “Hasbro” stamped on the plastic somewhere is not an incentive to me to wind up with a lesser figure. Plenty of us have a mixture of official and third party figures on our shelves to prove that such a marriage is entirely possible.

Long story short, I am not a TFC Toys brand loyalist. They just happen to be making the things I am looking for right now. Most companies make some kind of Masterpiece style or scale figures, but I’m not that much of a Masterpiece collector. I have ones I like, and there are some others that I would like to own, but so far, my 3P interests have been focused on combiner teams. And even if I, or anyone else, were a brand loyalist to some third party company, would there really be a problem there? Possibly, if one were a loyalist to the extent that the Hasbro fanatics are, where everything is garbage unless it was released by their chosen company, because rather than be fans of the toys or the characters they represent, someone because a fan of the brand. And I don’t mean to say that liking a particular company for their designs or engineering is a bad thing, either. All companies have a personality, and while that personality may influence our enjoyment of their product, shouldn’t the enjoyment of the product come first? For me at least, it always does.