Transformers Legacy toyline

[Superomegaprime]

I for one would welcome a new version of BW2 Galvatron. And a new version of Big Convoy, but I feel like Big Convoy's pretty much a given at this point.

It be tough for them to improve upon a bot who already pretty much prefect with Big Convoy, thou the only real improvements to the desgin would be:
1. A waist joint
2. Better feet
3. Hands that open
4. A more stable head joint

If I'm not mistaken Big Convoy was the first toy to have a removable Matrix, the original Lio Convoy desgin never and the previous Primals & Optimus's never, anyway, if they are going to do a modern Big Convoy, he better be commander class, it be only fitting for such a bot, the resent Lio Convoy is ok but rather on the small side, thou that is merely my view

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

I'm also interested in any potential recolours or remolds of "obscure" characters like BW Galvatron, etc as hopefully the potential new figure will be equally obscure or out of left field. Something like slightly remolding BW Galvatron and repainting it as Gigatron or Even Gigatron as BW Trypticon to name but a few. That or use Galvatron as a base for any Takara "Brave" kaiju-styled robots? I would like to see some then dip into the Brave figures and bring them into the TF multiverse.

 

[Shadewing]

I for one would welcome a new version of BW2 Galvatron. And a new version of Big Convoy, but I feel like Big Convoy's pretty much a given at this point.

Why becuase of Magmatron? Then we should be getting Galvatron first. As much as I love and want Magmatron; Galvatron could REALLY use a modern toy to improve his proprotions and articuation, and maybe tank mode somewhat.

 

[Sabrblade]

Why becuase of Magmatron? Then we should be getting Galvatron first. As much as I love and want Magmatron; Galvatron could REALLY use a modern toy to improve his proprotions and articuation, and maybe tank mode somewhat.

And his colors, too. His original toy was purple, but his on screen main color was pink.

 

[unluckiness]

I feel that even with the more obscure characters, they’re still thinking with marketability in mind. Lio Convoy/Prime was the go-to lion mold repaint for over a decade and Magmatron was actually released internationally. Both also showed up in mass-release comics. Galvatron… got his colors used on a Botcon toy once and showed up in some club comics.

I'm also interested in any potential recolours or remolds of "obscure" characters like BW Galvatron, etc as hopefully the potential new figure will be equally obscure or out of left field. Something like slightly remolding BW Galvatron and repainting it as Gigatron or Even Gigatron as BW Trypticon to name but a few. That or use Galvatron as a base for any Takara "Brave" kaiju-styled robots? I would like to see some then dip into the Brave figures and bring them into the TF multiverse.

We might get Brave-y figures but nothing directly referencing Brave characters. Bandai owns the Brave franchise now.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

I feel that even with the more obscure characters, they’re still thinking with marketability in mind. Lio Convoy/Prime was the go-to lion mold repaint for over a decade and Magmatron was actually released internationally. Both also showed up in mass-release comics. Galvatron… got his colors used on a Botcon toy once and showed up in some club comics.

We might get Brave-y figures but nothing directly referencing Brave characters. Bandai owns the Brave franchise now.

And yet they've released:
- boxes sets with minor (and/or non-transforming) characters from TF The Movie.
- Obscure G2 repaints that have never been released before.
- New TFs that turn into skeletons or rock vehicles.
- etc

So I doubt anything else previously mentioned is that far away from the stuff above. Anything is possible.

As for Brave, thanks for the update. Tfwiki does also state that it's been referenced (via AVP) a few times as being "obscure". ( https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Brave_(franchise) ). I'm sure though, that they could just repaint something as Brave figure and state it is from that obscure sector of the Multiverse and be done with it.

 

[unluckiness]

Not saying it’s not possible but there’s a reason why some Japan-only characters get toys and the others don’t. As has been noted before, just because they do obscure stuff every once and a while doesn’t mean they do it full time. They have many more universes to work with, with characters more popular to more people

As for Brave, as I understand it, they can make toys with the usual white-red-blue-gold colors and crazy headgear but with how strict Japanese IP laws are, they can’t make anything that looks too much like any existing Brave character or make halfway clear references in-fiction at risk of getting sued. Hasbro might be able to get away with it in their markets but I doubt their markets care.

 

[Echowarrior]

Why becuase of Magmatron? Then we should be getting Galvatron first. As much as I love and want Magmatron; Galvatron could REALLY use a modern toy to improve his proprotions and articuation, and maybe tank mode somewhat.

Not because of Magmatron. I think that Big Convoy is a given to see release because he's a Maximal, therefore a heroic character, and good guys tend to sell better than bad guys. At least, according to the toy companies.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Not saying it’s not possible but there’s a reason why some Japan-only characters get toys and the others don’t. As has been noted before, just because they do obscure stuff every once and a while doesn’t mean they do it full time. They have many more universes to work with, with characters more popular to more people

As for Brave, as I understand it, they can make toys with the usual white-red-blue-gold colors and crazy headgear but with how strict Japanese IP laws are, they can’t make anything that looks too much like any existing Brave character or make halfway clear references in-fiction at risk of getting sued. Hasbro might be able to get away with it in their markets but I doubt their markets care.

Strict? I don't believe they're any more strict than other places, especially between companies. The debacle over the Takara Gobots was mainly down to how Takara felt and showing due diligence/a good public image rather than any actual legal action, from what I've gathered.

Regardless, Brave isn't a hill I'm interested in dying on here, but rather a placeholder for any interesting ideas we could get from some hopefully mandatory reuses of a hopefully released Galvatron mold and the current Magmatron mold. As both characters are fairly obscure, perhaps their repaints might equally be so?

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Big Convoy looks like Optimus Prime and will probably have "Prime" in his name somewhere. We'll see him at some point. There's just a bunch of other Primes they also need to get to.

 

[Shadewing]

We did get Big Convoy released over here, the mold at least:

 

[Sabrblade]

We did get Big Convoy released over here, the mold at least:

Twice, even.

 

[Shadewing]

True, but I didn't include him since he was a convention exclusive; while Universe Nemesis Prime, like Magmatron was a Store exclusive; both Target iirc.

 

[unluckiness]

Strict? I don't believe they're any more strict than other places, especially between companies. The debacle over the Takara Gobots was mainly down to how Takara felt and showing due diligence/a good public image rather than any actual legal action, from what I've gathered.

Regardless, Brave isn't a hill I'm interested in dying on here, but rather a placeholder for any interesting ideas we could get from some hopefully mandatory reuses of a hopefully released Galvatron mold and the current Magmatron mold. As both characters are fairly obscure, perhaps their repaints might equally be so?

They're very strict about copyright to the point where unauthorized uses have to be mosaiced out or otherwise censored for broadcast. This goes even for things that are clearly parodies, as those aren't covered as fair use there unlike in most other countries. It’s not often enforced but it affects the way they make their media.

Family Guy can make entire skits about Transformers with full character models and names, for instance, but even the DVD release of this gag anime featuring a background Convoy bust for a few seconds has to censor it with some sort of gremlin or get sued.

At least once I’ve heard of, an entire episode of an anime got pulled from broadcast and edited due to the animators drawing a background character too close to another anime's character. The laws are also why Toei is so triggerhappy in copyright striking anything with Dragon Ball or One Piece content on Youtube. I heard their laws got reformed fairly recently so I dunno how that affects things.

 

[LordGigaIce]

We might get Brave-y figures but nothing directly referencing Brave characters. Bandai owns the Brave franchise now.

And it sucks. Brave is awesome, shares A LOT of design DNA with Transformers, and I'd love Brave re-issues or even just using it to enrich the Transformers line.

But TT can't do anything with it, and Bandai only seems interested in using it as a spot filler in some of their more premium lines.

 

[LordGigaIce]

They're very strict about copyright to the point where unauthorized uses have to be mosaiced out or otherwise censored for broadcast. This goes even for things that are clearly parodies, as those aren't covered as fair use there unlike in most other countries. It’s not often enforced but it affects the way they make their media.
View attachment 17396
Family Guy can make entire skits about Transformers with full character models and names, for instance, but even the DVD release of this gag anime featuring a background Convoy bust for a few seconds has to censor it with some sort of gremlin or get sued.

At least once I’ve heard of, an entire episode of an anime got pulled from broadcast and edited due to the animators drawing a background character too close to another anime's character. The laws are also why Toei is so triggerhappy in copyright striking anything with Dragon Ball or One Piece content on Youtube. I heard their laws got reformed fairly recently so I dunno how that affects things.

This is also why we don't see more GoBot homages in Transformers. AFAIK Hasbro has the rights to the GoBot franchise, and can release media to that effect (the 80s series on DVD, the IDW comic miniseries) but making toys of those designs is a no-go because Bandai still owns the Machine Robo IP.

The only reason we occasionally get Crasher/Fracture is because there are real black, white, and red F1 race cars Hasbro can legally claim were the inspiration, not the Machine Robo's Porsche Robo.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

They're very strict about copyright to the point where unauthorized uses have to be mosaiced out or otherwise censored for broadcast. This goes even for things that are clearly parodies, as those aren't covered as fair use there unlike in most other countries. It’s not often enforced but it affects the way they make their media.
View attachment 17396
Family Guy can make entire skits about Transformers with full character models and names, for instance, but even the DVD release of this gag anime featuring a background Convoy bust for a few seconds has to censor it with some sort of gremlin or get sued.

At least once I’ve heard of, an entire episode of an anime got pulled from broadcast and edited due to the animators drawing a background character too close to another anime's character. The laws are also why Toei is so triggerhappy in copyright striking anything with Dragon Ball or One Piece content on Youtube. I heard their laws got reformed fairly recently so I dunno how that affects things.

Thanks for the info. Copyright in media and products, although similar, aren't the same though.

I've added some of my thoughts behind spoiler tags, due to page length/off topic concerns.

Spoiler

Also, there are examples of "knock-off" TFs in other Japanese media, like the NSFW "Panty and Stocking" episode, "Trans Homers".

And don't forget the "totally not for profit, honest" copyright lawyer's dream/nightmare that was the animated intro to the "Daicon IV" convention.

Doujin and other fan-made anime/comics/etc are also a thing too.

As for YouTube, Japanese media have always been fairly trigger-happy about allowing their media to be online and/or shown outside their markets. Such companies have, like many other aspects of Japan, arguably slow to change or adapt. I think at one time, NHK itself wasn't able to show reruns of its own shows at its only streaming service/website. I'm not sure how much of this has changed now but that's how things are in Japan. Yes, the copyright can be infamous when it comes to online/foreign access (in order to control the market) but in terms of homages and suchlike, in not sure if it's so strict.

Of course, as a disclaimer, this is all my opinion. I'm in no way an expert on the subject and the info you supplied was rather interesting. I might add it to the Knockoff Transformers thread we've got here as there's a section about how copyright and Transformers are linked. Cheers.

 

[unluckiness]

Yeah, parodies can happen with the permissions of the rights holder. The point is in most other places, you wouldn’t even need permission at all. That’s how strict their laws are and why Takara would be very careful around them.

For fandom works, as I understand, they are technically against the IP laws but the companies choose to not enforce them.

And it sucks. Brave is awesome, shares A LOT of design DNA with Transformers, and I'd love Brave re-issues or even just using it to enrich the Transformers line.

But TT can't do anything with it, and Bandai only seems interested in using it as a spot filler in some of their more premium lines.

As far as Bandai is concerned, the only Braves are Gaogaigar and sometimes Might Gaine.

 

[LordGigaIce]

As far as Bandai is concerned, the only Braves are Gaogaigar and sometimes Might Gaine.

Boooooooooo

 

[Shadewing]

This is also why we don't see more GoBot homages in Transformers. AFAIK Hasbro has the rights to the GoBot franchise, and can release media to that effect (the 80s series on DVD, the IDW comic miniseries) but making toys of those designs is a no-go because Bandai still owns the Machine Robo IP.

The only reason we occasionally get Crasher/Fracture is because there are real black, white, and red F1 race cars Hasbro can legally claim were the inspiration, not the Machine Robo's Porsche Robo.

We get more then Crasher. Bugbite is a Gobot Homage, so is Road Ranger; they might not be using their gobot looks or colors; but they are still the characters. For another that's actually in ment to look like the gobot is Deadlift being Spoons.