Before I start, a summary on what a third party company is. I know I am going to get a lot of hate from some people for saying this, but third party toys like these are for the most part borderline illegal. A third party unlicensed Transformer is generally a high-end collectible aimed at an older audience that uses the likeness of a character but has enough changes to be considered its own thing legally. The engineering is very different and more complicated (for better or for worse), and the characters have original names. If you're wondering why I'll be referring to toys with names like "Not Optimus Prime", that's why. They are at least different from a knock-off mostly by way of overall quality and that original engineering. Most knock-off toys are almost exactly the same as the original toy, just with a lower quality standard. That definition is just my definition, most people don't agree with that in some form. With that being said, let's look at the TF con slideshow panels and the show floor prototypes. For links to the sources I used for these, you can find them here: http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/07/14/tfcon-toronto-2018-3rd-party-panel-slides-in-full-367510#more-367510 (this isn't all of it, as a lot of third party news comes out pretty often, to say nothing about other high-end collectibles like the Masterpiece line. I am only one person, I can not do this all the time).
Starting with the panel slides, from Shanghai Animation Film Studio is "Project Monkey King" and... I find it very hard to believe that the car they have there turns into that monkey. Considering as it is apparently an animation studio, I think its more for a film they are working on rather than being something that will actually function. Unfortunately, I don't have transcripts at the time of writing, I'm working off images.
Up next is DX9 with their Not Masterpiece Motormaster, Not Masterpiece Wildrider and an original piece in the form of a Beast Wars inspired Rodimus. If you're looking for a Generation 1 inspired team of Stunticons, it looks like DX9 has another option for you. While the prototypes do look good, their Motormaster looks like it's following the same trend as many other Not Motormasters have done, and have a transformation where most of the robot is in the truck, and most of the trailer is left for Menasor parts. Motormaster doesn't seem to get much bigger then Megatron does in the images they've provided, while Menasor looks gigantic. It also appears that they are going for the cartoon look where the other Stunticons just kind of stick to the arms and shins of Menasor. Though at least it means you technically can get two for the price of one, especially if all the Menasor gear is with Motormaster. Wildrider looks nice, my big problem with it is that I honestly don't care about the G1 Stunticon designs too much, its why I'm trying to complete the Transformission one as that uses the IDW designs. Most of it comes down to the limb-bots car designs, I'm not too big into them. I do however love the look of the Beast Wars inspired Rodimus though, that thing looks awesome. This is the kind of thing I'd like to see more third-party companies do because of the variety that would open up. Imagine if they'd continue doing Beast Wars like designs for other characters who never appeared in Beast Wars. A Starscream that turns into a snake, Tidal wave with a giant whale design like he did in Sins of the Wreckers. Fuzor Springer that's... I don't know, part kangaroo, part eagle? Is it clear I'm pulling that one out of nowhere?
New Age looks to be sticking to a Legends class scale for its toys, giving us a Not Bumblebee, Not Goldbug and Not Bugbite. Yes, they are all the same mould, and two of them are basically the same character. I can't verify if its the same for Bugbite, all I know is that he's a Go-Bot Decepticon. Probably multiverse stuff. Still, it looks fine for a Legends class Bumblebee toy at least. I'll stick to the Titans Return one though because even the third party Legends toys can fetch an arm and a leg.
From X2 Toys, we have Not Optimus Prime, Not Nemesis Prime (because it's an obvious repaint), some original products in the form of Reserved Soldier and Reinforced Armor (really original names there...) and an upgrade kit for their Not Jetfire? I think its there's at least... For Optimus and Nemesis... it's time for another unpopular opinion. With the amount of Optimus Primes being made that use the G1 look, is it just me, or is it becoming very boring now? I get it "it's the original design, it's very iconic", but after a while, it just gets boring, right? I'd like to see some more original designs for Prime toys, or at least toys based on other Prime designs. For this Prime though, it honestly looks like a very weak design, thanks to things like the wheel and lights on the arms. It also looks like it has a lot more kibble compared to something like the MP-10 mould, and the designs on their shoulders feel unneeded. Is this based on a specific design from a comic? Reserved Soldier looks like a nicely detailed little solder with a lot of possibilities thanks to all the ball joints. Based on the picture, it looks to be somewhat customizable with little armour plates and replaceable limbs? I could just be reading too much into it though. Reinforced Armor looks like a decent transforming mech unit, though I'll personally wait to see proper colour designs before making a solid opinion as it looks really flat with the mostly gunmetal grey colours. As for the Jetfire upgrade, I don't know what the point of it is as it comes off as really redundant. All it does is add shoulder kibble to this Jetfire. What's the point? Is there a flaw that they're trying to fix?
Jiang Xing: This. This excites me because it's not something any third party company has done yet. This is a Not Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Megatron, and it looks amazing! What helps is that unlike X2 Toys, there's a lot of slides showing off things that the toy can do, further exciting me because I don't particularly care about teases, and showing a slide going "Look, we're working on an Optimus!" is not exciting for me (again, no transcripts from the presentation). I can't wait to see more of this and I hope it sells well because it adds more variety into the third party scene.
More Legends scale figures from Magic Square with a Not Inferno, Not Grapple, Not Sideswipe and Not Red Alert (also known as "we only have two moulds to show, but we did the obvious repaints!")
Inferno and Grapple do look fine at least, though the designs don't really interest me because a lot of Inferno and Grapple toys use a very similar engineering style, and these two look to be doing the same. Unfold ladder armature, fold limbs back behind torso, hide head, done. There's going to be a bit more to it thanks to those sliders in the shins, but I'm willing to place money on the fact that there isn't going to be a huge change to separate it from that summary. Sideswipe and Red Alert look to be more interesting and for those looking to get a Legends Class team of Autobots, these look to be a great fit. I can't help but feel though that they might be too complex for their own good though, as the smaller scale isn't ideal for complex transformations, especially if the plastic isn't up to snuff.
Iron Factory look to be continuing their Legends class line with a Not Nova Prime, Not (ok this sounds really fan fic like for the record) Shattered Glass inspired War Within Optimus Prime that can also become God Ginrai (Powermaster Optimus Prime and Godbomber), Not Ruination, Not Slipstream, Not Hotlink, Not Jazz, Not Red Alert, and the Not Decepticon Justice Division. Honestly out of all the Legends class figures, Iron Factory's do interest me the most, although I've heard some of their releases have QC issues. One problem I do have is things like the fan fiction War Within Shattered Glass Prime, because that's basically a repaint of Nova Prime with a new trailer. Granted the Nova Prime does look amazing (why hasn't Hasbro or Takara made an official one yet?). Ruination's an obvious repaint of their Bruticus, though I do appreciate the fact that they went for Ruination and not a G2 Bruticus. Slipstream I honestly thought was released already, but she and Hotlink are good Legends sized Seekers, based on these pictures. The thing about a Seeker mould, get one good one, you're set for repaints for decades. Jazz is an interesting piece. There's a lot of good detail, but I'm not 100% sure on if its an original design, or a comic inspiration like their DJD. I do like the speakers that are hidden in the car headlights that you can swivel around though, that's a nice touch. Out of the two Red Alerts so far, this is the one that I find more interesting thanks to all the extra details, it just looks far more visually appealing whereas the Magic Square one just looks flat and boring, even though it's going for a more G1 accurate look. As for the DJD, I don't know why they combine into a bigger Tarn, but all of them look like mini versions of their comic book selves. These are the ones that get me the closest to going in on the Iron Factory line, but I know that if I do, it's a bad rabbit hole to fall in.
MakeToys: We have a Not Jetfire that is going for a Cybertronian jet mode, a Not Galvatron (Galactron? Really?) Not Hot Rod, and a Not Masterpiece Brainstorm. The Cybertronian Jet Jetfire kinda reminds me of a Quinjet from Avengers Assemble mostly due to the shape, but it still looks like a great design for a Jetfire. I do hope that the black colours don't stick though, as I'd rather something closer to the G1 colour palette (or preferably an Armada inspired colour palette). Jetfire, Galvatron and Hot Rod all have very original in style designs to them, which are refreshing to see. The designs all do look really nice, with Galvatron currently being the standout of the three. Seriously, that arm cannon looks amazingly dangerous. Hot Rod looks fine, but that one seems to be the newest, and still very much work in progress design of the three (we don't even see the car mode). I'm going to hold out judgement on Hot Rod until I can see the car. As for the Masterpiece Brainstorm, it looks like it'll be a fine Brainstorm. Brainstorm's one of those characters I don't get excited about having something like a Masterpiece version of. I have the Generations Brainstorm, and the Titans Return one, and both of them are perfectly fine for me. The renders also seem off, I'd need to see how the toys work because of things like how the cockpit window somehow gets smaller in Robot mode.
FansProject (a company many thoughts was dead until recently) only had one thing to show this year, a Not Apeface. I do hope that this is aiming for a Voyager Class size because it would be a great substitute for the Apeface we never got in Titans Return. It does look very good, and while we see a lot of the concept sketches here, that's all we see. No renders, no grey scale test models, just the sketches. Hopefully, this doesn't take as long as their Not Snarl did as I am genuinely interested in this one, especially if, like I said, it's aiming for that Generations Voyager Class scale.
Nonef is coming out with an upgrade kit for the Power of the Primes Dinobots for reasonably cheap (if you live in the US or Canada). You get some more guns for all the Dinobots (even Slash) and a set of small wing extensions for Swoop. For what it is, its fine, nothing spectacular, and if you're looking for little touches to add to your Dinobots, this would probably help a lot. But it does feel like an extra set you'd get to compliment a larger upgrade kit, seeing as these are aimed at the Dinobots themselves, and not Volcanicus.
Fans Hobby showed off their Not Powermaster Optimus Prime (I thought that was already out...) along with their Not Powermaster Nemesis Prime (again, because of it being a cheap repaint). I'm not a fan of their Powermaster Prime, it just seems way too bulky, and he comes off as a bit fat. One thing I am excited for is their Not Overlord though, I'm always excited to see a new Overlord. It's a shame that it has a base mode closer resembling the Titans Return base mode, rather then a more accurate to the G1 toy Base mode which a lot of people would probably prefer, though at least this one has Mega and Giga, unlike the Titans Return version Hasbro release (Takara added them, but I only have the Hasbro one so I missed out). They somehow made it even bigger than the Powermaster Prime, who is in itself gigantic (based on what I've seen from reviews). Are Fans Hobby slowly building their way to an MP Unicron? Because all of their releases seem to be getting bigger and bigger. They've also got some trailers for their not RID Scourge and Not G2 Optimus Prime, which are fine, though I'm pretty sure a lot of people would have rathered they came with their trailers originally.
I'm going to skip Fext Hobby, as I don't have much to say about their armour sets for Macross robots, because I've never really looked into Macross robots). Going to Bad Cube, we have a Not Masterpiece Sideswipe, Not Masterpiece Red Alert, and Captain Huffy, a new take on Huffer that they revealed recently. I will admit that the official MP Sideswipe and Red Alert have been in need of an update for a while now, and these two do look to fill that gap. I'm not a fan of the car windows hanging off their arms, and Red Alert's back looks a bit too messy, but overall the two do look to fill that role of the MP Lambo mould updates. Out of everything that they've shown off or done though, it's their new Huffer that has people curious. The reason is that this isn't a Huffer design that has existed before. This is entirely original, so much so that some consider that it doesn't need to be connected to Huffer. There's an image where their not Masterpiece Huffer is next to it, and the differences are night and day. I'm personally not a fan of the backpack Huffy has, though it is something Huffer is known for. I just personally feel that if they were going to such extremes to change him, they could have compressed that down a lot so that it doesn't look like he's wearing a truck cab on his back.
TFC Toys: Alongside two repaints of their Not Seacons (a purple and black "Poseidon Noir" and an all-black set), they also teased the fact that they're working on a Not Abominus with renders of a Not Sinnertwin and Not Rippersnapper. For the record, TFC is mostly known for combiners. The render of Sinnertwin looks solid, though the excessive detail could potentially be an issue, I'll just need to see how the colours work on it. All we've seen of Rippersnapper are some sketches, so there's not much to say other than "it looks like Rippersnapper". One surprise though was their S.T. Commander, an Optimus based on a G.I Joe vehicle. It's definitely a lot more interesting compared to the G1 truck, and it looks like it could scale well with other G.I. Joe toys. I don't personally have much to say as I don't collect G.I. Joe, but if you're a fan of both IPs then this might be something you're interested in.
Maas Toys is a company that looks to do a lot of crowdsourcing for their toys. I believe they did it with their Cybertronian Bumblebee, and they did it with their seeker collection. So you know what that means. We get a Not Starscream, Not Thundercracker, Not Skywarp, Not Ramjet, Not Thrust, Not Dirge, and when they're low on money they'll probably do all the others too. What makes these seekers any different though is that they're a mix of the original G1 toy, and the cyber jets seen in the original episode of the G1 cartoon. I actually dig these designs, they're a nice update of the flying triangles and actually look like they could fly in a planet's atmosphere. Alongside the seekers, we're getting a throne meant for Masterpiece Megatron which looks like a nice little display piece, and a tease concerning Cybertron the planet. Not much to say about that one other then it's a black and white drawing of Cybertron. I highly doubt its going to be a Cybertron Primus figure.
Mayhem Mekanics showed off more of their Unrustables, an original Transforming toy lines. the bike mould is interesting, and they even worked in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While the style of the line doesn't appeal to me personally, I can see why it gets people interested. They look interesting, they're just not for me. It is always good to see more original stuff though.
Planet X, a company known for their designs based on the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games come with even more designs from those games. A Not Ratchet, a Not Ironhide and... IDW Deathsaurus? They're branching out?! The renders for Ratchet and Ironhide look nice, I can't wait to see colour samples, though to be fair they do get the game aesthetics down pat. Deathsaurus though is getting a lot of attention, and rightfully so as it is a character no one's tried yet. This thing looks amazing, and looks further into development then Ratchet and Ironhide do as the images are using grey scale prototypes. I can't wait to see what this guy looks like when he's done, however, I can wait to see the price tag because that looks like its going to cost a small fortune.
Zeta Toys, one of the more recent (to my knowledge) companies here, as they are a split off from Toyworld. They come with more of their Not Arielbots with Not Skydive, Not Silverbolt and Not Slingshot. If you're into the Zeta Toys combiners, you're going to like what you see from these three. Considering the G1 aesthetic, they do look solid. However, it's clear that they were struggling a bit with robot under a jet syndrome, especially on the usual culprit, Silverbolt. I've personally not been a fan of the G1 designs for the Aerialbots, so these don't appeal to me personally. I'd honestly like someone to try and update the team with newer plane designs, maybe a more bulky cargo plane for Silverbolt to better hide the combiner mass he needs to lug around.
Now for the current darling of the industry, even if they have a bad habit of promising things that aren't far enough into development to show more other then a "Yep we're working on it", like their Not Hot Rod which I think they teased a few years ago at least. On the plus side, it looks like its almost ready to be released now and it does go well with their other 86 movie Masterpiece inspired bots. I can't help but think he's a bit too big though, it could be that I assumed Optimus is taller. It would have been cool if he came with more accessories, but it does look like he's coming with a Target Master. They also showed off their recently announced Not Stunticons with a Not Wildrider and Not Breakdown. Alongside the size which many have brought up, we know they're working on a Superion and considering the nature of combiners, I'd have personally rathered they'd kept their mouth shut about these until they release their Superion. Combiners, especially at this scale, aren't cheap, and if people get one, they expect the rest to live up to the quality because they could be waiting years to finish off the set. If Superion, for whatever reason, doesn't live up to the expectation, then people are going to be extremely cautious of this Menasor, even more so now because releasing the images of Breakdown and Wildrider now gives off the impression that the two teams are in development at the same time, and will, therefore, suffer the same problems if something goes wrong. I can't help but feel that this could be a huge problem for them if something fails, its why most companies don't bring up the fact that they're working on more then one team at a time, it gives off the impression that each one is learning from the mistakes of the previous. Along with those, we saw images of their Not Warpath and teases for their Not Beachcomber and Not Brawn. Warpath does look good and would be a nice change of pace from the Badcube one which suffers from an awkward transformation. A small nitpick of mine is that I think the tank barrel is too short, but I don't know if that's for the sake of accuracy, or due to the transformation. Either way, I do wish it was longer.
SND came with plenty of upgrade kits for many figures. The first one was a kit for Combiner Wars Optimus Prime that gives him more of an IDW look while preserving the ability to combine (along with a white and black one for a CW Ultra Magnus (I think they called it battle ops Optimus because there was a Leader Ultra Magnus) and CW Nemesis Prime (Takara exclusive). The kit looks alright, but I do wish the images were split across multiple slides, not just one slide for one kit. Another kit for the white Prime gives you a Combiner Wars Nova Prime, which does look extremely impressive, and one in black because of the easy repaint. To get away from Combiner Wars trucks, they're doing a lot for Titans Return Fortress Maximus, giving you a handful of weapons, including the Master Sword, and even a Not Gasket and Not Gromit.
X-Transbots had a lot to show this year, a Not Cliffjumper, a Not Cliffjumper in yellow, a Not Seaspray, Not Springer, Not Kup, Not Breakdown, Not Wildrider, Not Dead End, Not Dragstrip and Not Skids. Cliffjumper in red and Cliffjumper in yellow look fine and do come with a nice amount of accessories. Now we need a Cliffjumper in Blue and one in Green to get the original generation represented in Cliffjumper form! I don't care if it's not G1 accurate, I just want to see repaints that aren't obvious and could be amusing! Seaspray looks nice, unfortunately for them, like with Brainstorm, I'm perfectly fine with the official Legends Class one. Springer looks ok, not a huge fan of the car mode because the back end just looks awkward. Kup looks great in Robot mode and the car mode looks good, I just think that the flatbed looks a bit too long, at least based on some of these angles. A lot of what I could say about their Stunticons I've said when talking about the Fans Toys ones, though one thing that they have an advantage in is the scale, there are a lot smaller than the Fans Toys ones, and blend in better with the Autobot cars. We do see all four though, however, Dead End and Dragstrip, the two that are often connected to being the arms, aren't shown side by side with any other figure. Dead End's chest loos extremely blocky, and the backpack doesn't look clean due to the things it has on the back, some of which I can't see in vehicle mode so it comes off as back kibble for the sake of having back kibble. Dragstrip looks ok, though the two angles we see it doesn't give a lot of information concerning things like how the back cleans up. It does look like he'll have a little driver as an accessory though, which is a neat touch. Skids is another character where I'd be more interested if it wasn't playing the G1 card so hard, the IDW design for Skids is far more visually appealing, at least in my opinion. Its cool that he comes with a little scooter, but the car itself is so boring, and the robot uses a lot of design cues seen in other carformers that I can't help but feel bored. Still, if you like Skids, you might like this a lot.
Keiths Fantasy Club showed off some more Not Junkeons. which is cool to see, I don't think these are using the same moulds as their Not Wreck-Gar, its a little hard to tell for me based on the images, and the fact that Junkeons, while having a lot of variety in potential styles, tend to blend together for me. They do at least look like heavy remoulds of Wreck-Gar if they're not straight up repaints. What is a surprise though due to it being another character that hasn't gotten a lot of love in 3P form is a pair of Decepticon Jets in the form of a Not Blackwing and a Not Dreadwind. These two do look really cool, and even keep their Powermasters (though they might not do anything) and their ability to combine into Dreadwing. It would have been cool to see more than just computer renders, but these two do have me really interested.
Toyworld brought a strange mix of things this year, a Not Masterpiece Galvatron, a Not Jazz, and two Combiner Wars upgrades in the form of a Not Motor Master and Not Onslaught. The Galvatron looks like it could be a solid MP Galvatron, and the extra detail helps it stand out more in terms of a visual appeal. I'm not a fan of the legs, the shins look way too long, though the rest of him looks great. All we see are two grey scale pictures only showing one angle each, would have loved to have seen more. Jazz looks to be a Legends class sized figure, based on the fact that we first see him in their Not Devastator's hand. It looks fine for a Legends Classed Jazz, but next to Devastator it looks like a Micromaster. Curious to see how it scales with smaller items like other Legends class figures. Motor Master and Onslaught look to be full upgrades for the CW combiners, letting you create a more G1 accurate Menasor and Bruticus. Only thing is that these do have some distinct flaws with them that are hard to overlook. Motor Master is going for the "full truck and trailer is my vehicle mode" look, and that just makes him look tiny compared to the other Stunticons. As much as people hate the mould used for him, the CW Truck is at least in scale with the cars. Menasor I don't think looks very good in combined mode, its the chest that I think looks awkward thanks to the panels that don't blend into the chest that is angling inward for the gut. The new hands and feet are fine, but most people have the hands and feet upgrade kits for all Combiner Wars combiners, so I don't think anyone cares about this and Onslaught coming with them. They feel like a waste of development time and there to inflate the price a bit more. Onslaught, on the other hand, looks a lot better and blends in a lot more to the current set of Combatacons. The torso mode is also a lot better in terms of proportions and out of the two, I'm more inclined to get the Onslaught (mostly because I don't have a set of G1 colours Stunticons). If I were to get either though, I will admit I'm glad they did have the hands and feet, I didn't feel like paying half of another combiner for the sake of new hands and feet.
Giga Power's MO is all about the size. Their Dinobots are gigantic, and it looks like they're about to get their Not Grimlock out to complement their Not Snarl, Not Sludge and Not Slag/ Slug. This does look like its going to be a really good Grimlock though, and from what I've heard, the Giga Power team is generous when it comes to accessories that let you customize what kind of Dinobot you want (G1 toy, G1 show or Diaclone. G2 would require a lot more work then some accessories and replacement parts). What's great was that they showed off a lot of images of the prototype, letting you see different things that it can do. I do wish they'd shown off their Not Swoop and that Not Sky Linx that they teased, but that doesn't change the fact that this Grimlock looks amazing, and I can't wait to see images of the completed toy.
Last, but certainly not least (no really, I still have another of these to write for the show floor), Mastermind Creations. We got images on their Not Tesarus to continue their takes of the DJD, a not IDW Guzzle, Not IDW Deathsaurus, Not Dai Atlas, and a set of Not Combatacons. Tesarus looks solid, most of the issues I have with it come more from the source material, rather than the toy itself. The design itself is still terrifying, and perfectly fitting for the character. The prototype mould image where Vos is using Tesarus to maul Wheelie is quite amusing. Guzzle does look quite cute, and depending on the size they make him, he looks like he's going to be a Legends class figure. The tank is neat. Simple, but effective, and does what it needs to do with minimal fuss. I haven't got much to say about this Deathsaurus as it's just some concept sketches and a head render. It looks like it could be really impressive, but I prefer to wait until I can see some plastic or at the very least renders, such as with their Dai Atlus. This looks really impressive, a tad too close to a Gundam design for me, but a large part of that is the source inspiration. I'm definitely interested in seeing more of this guy. For their Combatacons... Bruticus is one of those figures where, like Superion, I'm more interested in modern reimaginings rather then G1 focused recreations. Most of that honestly comes from Swindle, I've never been a fan of that design. It looks like it could be impressive, I'd just rather see some more originality. It's why out of all the Not Bruticus', the older Warbotron one is the one that interests me the most.
With that, I'm going to call this an end to part 1 of the news from TFCon. I'm going to go relax for a little bit, then get started on Part 2 which will hopefully come out on Saturday. That will not cover figures talked about here, but will instead focus on those that were only shown on the show floor. Oh Primus I hope that and the SDCC news is going to be far smaller then this was...
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