User:Nevermore/Sandbox/Third-party company

A third-party company is a company that manufactures and releases products related to the Transformers brand, but is neither Hasbro nor TakaraTomy. Technically, all official licensees such as Fun4All or IDW Publishing are third-party companies, but in the Transformers fandom, the term has become more closely associated with small companies (often comprised of only a few people) that release unofficial, unlicensed products which are often identified by makeshift names to avoid infringing on Hasbro's trademarks.

These products can either be add-ons intended for existing official toys, similar to aftermarket car kits, or entirely new toys based on designs that usually aren't released as toys by Hasbro or Takara. Similar to customizing, third-party products are not limited to one-of-a-kind pieces, but produced in larger quantities with the intention to sell them for a profit. Sometimes those toys are directly based on existing official toys, effectively making them outright knockoffs. However, while "ordinary" knockoffs are typically cheaper, of inferior quality and aimed at unsuspecting everyday buyers, third-party reproductions tend to be more expensive, the quality can range from bad to really good, and they are aimed at fans and collectors who know exactly what they are getting.

History

One of the oldest third-party companies that still exists to this very day is Reprolabels. Launched by Aaron Black in 1999, they originally specialized in high quality reproductions of sticker sets for Generation 1 toys to help collectors replace missing or damages stickers. Later, they expanded their range to also offering original stickers intended as "upgrades" for toys, like giving toys of existing characters a more faithful Generation 1-based deco (e.g. Alternators Meister with "Martinii Racing" labels), or labels inspired by other sources (e.g. the Revenge of the Fallen Skids & Mudflap ice cream truck with a more extensive, movie-based deco).

Transrepro/KCC Collectible is a company that specializes in reverse-engineering high quality replacement parts and accessories for existing toys, particularly parts that are prone to breakage. The company suffered a severe setback when Ken, the creator of the replacement parts, suffered two strokes in 2003 and 2005 which resulted in physical disabilities as well as a memory loss. Ever since then, Ken's associates have been mostly trying to fulfill outstanding orders while re-training Ken to help him overcome the long-term effects of his strokes.

Transrepro and Reprolabels should not be confused with Transrepros and Translabels, which were both launched by Charles "Chip" Wallace and offered similar products as the other two. For the (then unofficial) BotCon 2004, Translabels also cooperated with Action Master kitbasher Joe Toscano of Custom Masters to create an exclusive Action Master version of Breakdown, with the body based on Action Master Sideswipe, a scratch-built Breakdown head sculpt and the deco of the BotCon 1994 exclusive Generation 2 version of Breakdown. However, Wallace eventually made the mistake of offering a full reproduction of Generation 1 Tracks in the black deco of a Takara contest prize, resulting in Hasbro demanding him to shut down both Transrepros and Translabels in 2004.

The Lukis Bros., owners of Unicron.com, have been offering a variety of "accessory packs" (six thus far) at various BotCons since 2000.

Japanese garage kits, usually sold at conventions, also qualify as third-party products. However, unlike in the USA, the creators of these Japanese sets occasionally acquire a one-day license from Takara/TakaraTomy to sell them at a specific convention (and only there).

Third-party company products really leaped into the collecting "mainstream" around 2004/2005, when several parties started to offer their own trailers for 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime/Masterpiece Convoy. One of these parties was an individual going by the name Dalianjj, another one was a Hong Kong-based company named Justitoys, which later went on to produce downscaled versions of the Generation 1 Dinobots in the style of Takara's Smallest Transforming Transformers.

China-based Fansproject was launched in 2007, with their first offering being an "upgrade" kit for Classics Cliffjumper with a new head sculpt based on Generation 1 Cliffjumper, several weapons and an add-on body kit for the vehicle mode. Subsequent products included the "City Commander" set which gave Classics Ultra Magnus a car carrier trailer that could transform into armor for the robot, based on the original Generation 1 toy's "armored" mode that was the standard robot mode in the cartoon, and add-on kits for Universe Superion/Revenge of the Fallen Superion and Universe Bruticus Maximus/Revenge of the Fallen Bruticus Maximus. They also released fully independent products such as a Classics-style version of Springer, dubbed "Warbot Defender".