IP infringement

This article is about unlicensed toys based on Transformers. For third parties that produce actual Transformers products under license, see Third party{{#switch:{{#sub:Third party|-1}}

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The many and varied facets of the Transformers brand are the intellectual property (IP) of Hasbro and TakaraTomy, and their ownership of these ideas and designs is protected by law. Alas, some rascally elements have, over the years, decided they'd like a slice of that pie, which has led to the creation of what have been described as IP infringing items by employees of former Hasbro licensee Fun Publications.

{{#if:Aaron Archer, former Hasbro employee<ref>Aaron Archer on Tumblr</ref><ref>Archer would later do design work for a not-Octopunch figure for an abortive Kickstarter project. TFWiki.net leaves you to make of this what you will.</ref>|

“	Theft of IP like this is staggering, develop your own characters and designs!	”
{{#if:Aaron Archer, former Hasbro employee<ref>Aaron Archer on Tumblr</ref><ref>Archer would later do design work for a not-Octopunch figure for an abortive Kickstarter project. TFWiki.net leaves you to make of this what you will.</ref>| —Aaron Archer, former Hasbro employee<ref>Aaron Archer on Tumblr</ref><ref>Archer would later do design work for a not-Octopunch figure for an abortive Kickstarter project. TFWiki.net leaves you to make of this what you will.</ref>{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

Kinds of IP theft

Technically, any use of Hasbro and Takara's Transformers names, characters, and concepts without obtaining a license could be considered IP theft. Things such as fan art and fan fiction, however, are rarely considered problematic, being as they are not intended to generate profit or are otherwise one-off works. In fact, in the past Hasbro has laid out guidelines to fan-artists and similar creators wishing to make and sell art and crafts based on Transformers, which basically boiled down to being careful how one "branded" it (or, in practice, didn't brand it by just avoiding the use of brand names and some minor semantics).

When things get dicey —and the license-holders get tetchy— is when IP theft occurs on a grander, and more organised scale.

Knockoffs

Automatons in Concealment

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In the context of Transformers, knockoff is often used to describe both low-budget/quality toys, the kind of off-color, oversized/undersized thing that one might come across in a "dollar store" cranked out by the bajillions from China, and higher-quality toys that actually attempt to pass themselves off as genuine Hasbro or Takara products. Knockoffs that are direct replicas of existing Hasbro toys are very obviously the result of theft – in that case, it is the precise design and engineering for the toy that has been stolen. However, it is not unheard of for manufacturers to create their own cheap toys in the image of Transformers characters, and these still constitute IP theft – Optimus Prime the Character is as much Hasbro's property as Optimus Prime the Specific Toy.

Conversely, a toy that copies the engineering (i.e. transformation) of an existing Hasbro/Takara product but is changed enough as to not resemble an existing character protected by copyright might not necessarily constitute IP theft: Functionality is protected by patents, and patent protection legally expires after 20 years. This is why you occasionally see off-brand toys that work just like the Jumpstarters but look nothing like Topspin or Twin Twist.

"Third party" toys

I Can't Believe It's Not Jetfire!

In the late Noughties, spurred on by the Transformers nostalgia boom invoked by the live-action film series, a new phenomenon arose – unlicensed products based on Transformers aimed at the adult collector market. The very earliest examples of this kind of product were accessories and then "upgrades" for existing Hasbro toys, such as a trailer/armor set for Classics Ultra Magnus, but the market quickly grew to include standalone action figures based on Transformers characters. The number of groups producing these figures has ballooned rapidly, to the point that two or even three separate companies will be simultaneously releasing toys of the same characters. Popular market trends have included combiners and, more recently, faux-Masterpiece figures.

The fandom's generally recognised name for these kinds of figures is "third party Transformers", although this is ultimately a misnomer for the plain reason that they are not actual Transformers products. (This terminology makes more sense in light of their history, as the initial accessories, add-ons and "upgrade" kits can still somewhat be considered "third party" products, and the term, once established among the fandom, was simply never adjusted when standalone figures became the main focus of such offerings.) Obviously, these should not be confused with the actual third parties who produce Transformers merchandise under license from Hasbro or Takara. In (very half-hearted) attempts to dissuade the notion that they are pinching Transformers characters, "third party" toy manufacturers typically avoid using faction symbols (although sometimes including molded spaces for the buyer to apply their own), and give their figures alternative names that attempt to capture the sound and/or spirit of the trademarked originals, with varying degrees of bizarreness. A toy intended to look like Starscream might, for example, wind up named "Stellaryell". Initially, fans would often avoid confusion by referring to these figures as "not" versions of the characters they were based on (for example, "Not-Starscream"), though as the market has grown that terminology has been mostly abandoned since there's liable to be multiple different Not-Starscreams.

After many years of these products, name overlaps are bound to happen; for example, different companies have figures alternatively based on Huffer and Grimlock that are both named "Rager". Even more hilariously (though not really surprising), there are even knockoffs of "third party" toys! Let's see them duke out their IP conflicts in court.

In addition, there are also "third-party" toys of characters that have yet to receive an official toy.

For reasons that should, again, be obvious, TFWiki considers "third party" toys unrelated to its goal of documenting the Transformers brand.

Types of "third party" toys

Note: The following terms are descriptors rather than actual official terms since, well, they're clearly not official products.

• Accessories: these are generally items that are designed to interact with official product, but involve no modification to said official product. These are most often weapons (e.g. the Star Saber and Dark Star Saber from Transformers: Prime), but may also include MacGuffins like the AllSpark Matrix or even characters like notable humans such as Sari and Isaac Sumdac.
• Add-ons: these are items that are designed to interact with official product and modify their appearance. However, said modification takes advantage of preexisting tabs, slots, posts and so on, thus requiring no actual modification of the official product. An example would be panels designed to fill in the gaps in the thighs of Titans Return Powermaster Optimus Prime, which slot in snugly into the gaps.
• Upgrade kits: these are items designed to interact with official product and modify their appearance, but require some sort of actual modification to the official product. This can be as simple as popping off and swapping a limb on ball joints, to more comprehensive modifications like partial disassembly and replacing of parts. A kit that allows someone to switch the head of Classics Bumblebee to create a Classics-styled Goldbug would be an example of this.
• Full figures: as mentioned above, these are generally what is meant when references are made to "third party Transformers". These are standalone fully transformable figures clearly based on and meant to evoke actual Transformers characters. One of the earliest and most (in)famous examples was a triple-changing Not-Springer which became wildly popular because official Springer toys of that time transformed into either a land vehicle or an air vehicle, but not both.

Again, these are descriptors, partially because there is a lot of overlap. For example, would a replacement head for a reissue G1 Bruticus that comes with light up LED eyes be considered an upgrade kit (since it replaces the original head) or an add-on (since it makes use of the post hole already intended for the original head)? Would hands and feet for a Combiner Wars Combiner that also transform into weapons for the component bots fall under accessories (as they're weapons) or upgrade kits (since they replace the original hands and feet) or add-ons (since they slot into preexisting ports)? And what about stickers that can change, for example, Siege Prowl into an approximation of an Autotrooper?

Reasons for popularity of "third party" toys

While many a Transformers fan would never buy a knockoff (save for reasons listed under the knockoff article), the market for "third party" toys is a healthy one. There are several reasons why fans seem pretty okay with them, despite their dubious legality. Note that the following points are very subjective and simply meant to list out some reasons why "third party" toys are so popular.

• Customizing: accessories, add-on and upgrade kits offer an easy way to customise official product, especially compared to something more advanced and time/labour-intensive like scratchbuilding. Reprolabels occasionally offer stickers that help repurpose a particular character into another, such as sticker sheets that can turn Titans Return Getaway into Siren or Goshooter.
• Show-accuracy: while modern Transformers toys often boast very impressive show accuracy (especially compared to the early days of the franchise) there are also many occasions where show accuracy had to be compromised due to cost and/or budget reasons, which is one of the major reasons for Hasbro and TakaraTomy's use of retools and redecos. A Star Saber that is properly scaled for a Voyager Prime Optimus Prime would be extremely expensive to produce, and so the official ones that came with various Optimus Prime toys were much smaller than the one in show (to explain, in the show the Star Saber was so huge Optimus had to wield it as a two-handed broadsword, while the toy versions were one-handed and closer to longswords in length).
• "Fixing" or "improving" official product: as noted in the design flaw article, as impressive as Transformers toys are sometimes issues come up once they are actually produced. Some "third party" products are produced with the intention of fixing genuine flaws, while others are very subjective. For example, Combiner Wars Optimus Prime infamously had issues in torso mode, and so a number of "third party" add-ons and upgrade kits were created to fix the issue. Another example was arguably a downgrade kit, as it involved replacing the head of Thrilling 30 Blitzwing with a new head without a head-switching gimmick.
• "Completing" official product: similar to the above point, some "third party" items and toys are intended to "complete" an official product that is viewed as missing something. The most famous example of this would be the so-called City Commander add-on kit that was intended for use with Classics Ultra Magnus, giving it the super robot form most associated with the character.
• Aesthetic reasons: sometimes fans purchase "third party" toys simply because they think they look good or make official product look better. Power of the Primes Predaking is very impressive, but wouldn't he look even better if his hands had those spiked knuckles he's often depicted with? Similarly, despite Combiner Wars releasing nearly all the G1 Combiner teams in new forms, many groups still produce "third party" combiners that are much more slavishly G1 in appearance.
• Scale: some collectors prefer to collect toys of a certain scale, but official offerings may be lacking. As an example, as mentioned above faux-Masterpiece toys are a popular subject of these "third party" companies, partly because certain characters may never have a proper Masterpiece toy. Before the announcement of an official Masterpiece Shockwave, there were at least two different faux-Masterpiece Not-Shockwaves. Meanwhile, fans of Slag may have to wait a long time for a Masterpiece, and forget about it if you love Snarl. Someone hoping to collect World's Smallest Transformers outside of the 20 or so official figures can easily find similarly-scaled "third party" toys.
• Lack of official product: This is the big one. At times, for some reason or another Hasbro and TakaraTomy may have no plans to produce toys of particular characters, even prominent ones (an example of this is how Breakdown and Jet Vehicons were never released in Hasbro markets despite their prominence on the Transformers Prime cartoon, becoming exclusive to the Japanese toyline.) There may also be no plans to produce toys of a particular design of a character e.g. it's very unlikely that HasTak has any plans to produce a Star Saber toy based on his IDW counterpart (at least, one that actually transforms). "Third party" toys are thus seen as stepping into a vacuum, as seen by how when it was clear Grimlock would be the only Fall of Cybertron Dinobot actually produced, "third party" companies started developing their own takes on the remaining Fall of Cybertron Dinobots. This is especially true when designs are so distinct that repurposing isn't possible. For example, while Generations Metroplex can reasonably pass for his Fall of Cybertron counterpart (right down to using voice clips from the game), there's no way to even pretend that Titans Return Trypticon can represent Aligned Trypticon as he appeared in War for Cybertron (unless one squints very, very hard).
• Dissatisfaction with official product: An extremely subjective reason, but sometimes people just aren't happy with the official offerings for whatever reason. Some of these can be at least somewhat understandable (e.g. Fall of Cybertron Bruticus not only doesn't resemble his game version very closely, he also suffers from balance issues due to all the members being Deluxe-sized. Onslaught in particular hardly looks at all like he does in-game), others not so much (e.g. complaining that Combiner Wars Motormaster doesn't resemble his G1 self). It isn't unusual for comments like, "this is how Hasbro/TakaraTomy should've made them in the first place!" to pop up on message boards announcing these sorts of items.
• Any combination of the above: A prime example of this is the concept of Masterpiece-scaled Combiners. Hasbro and TakaraTomy have been on record as stating there aren't any plans to create Combiners in the Masterpiece scale due to various reasons (chief among them being the cost, with safety and stability concerns also being mentioned).

Doujinshi

Generally understood to mean fan-comics, doujinshi (同人誌) are a uniquely Japanese occurrence. Japan has a very healthy culture of fan groups who make their own manga, many of them starring original characters but a huge portion starring characters owned by companies (for a Transformers example, imagine a gag manga where Deathsaurus is portrayed as a little child and being raised by Megatron and the other Decepticons to be the mighty Emperor of Destruction he is in Transformers Victory. Hijinks ensue). This would of course never fly in a litigious society like the US, but in Japan doujinshi exist in a strange gray area. <ref>A page explaining doujinshi and why they're tolerated in Japan</ref>

Basically, the difference between what would be understood as a fan-comic in the West and a doujinshi in Japan is that in the West (especially the US) while a company might turn a blind eye to someone making fan-comics for fun (e.g. on a site like DeviantArt), they would come down on them if they tried to put those same fan comics up for sale. Hasbro might allow (or at least ignore) people selling fanart and fan-comics at a proper Transformers convention like BotCon, but might be much less forgiving if those same people tried to sell those items at, say, a general science fiction convention. Meanwhile in Japan, there are various conventions where doujinshi are actually the key focus, such as the famous Comiket. A Transformers doujinshi might be sold at a Transformers-related convention, but might also appear at, say, a mecha-related convention or a general science fiction-related convention (since the Transformers would fall under a mecha or science fiction category).

Long story short, TakaraTomy could complain and shut groups making doujinshi down any time they wanted, but like many Japanese companies it appears that it simply isn't worth the hassle. People who make doujinshi are often the most hardcore of fans, and so alienating them isn't something most companies are eager to do. In addition, any victory would simply not be worth the resulting bad press, since fan groups are not exactly swimming in cash and while doujinshi are put up for sale, a lot of groups seem to just do it for love of the art or love of the series. It should also be mentioned that many big names in manga got their starts or honed their skills in doujinshi circles, and it isn't impossible for a company to want to recruit some of these up-and-coming talents.

It, er, probably should be pointed out that some doujinshi are very, very NSFW.

Hasbro and IP theft

Remarks and actions

Official statements from Hasbro on "third party" toys are few and far between. In one response, provided as part of the company's now-defunct fansite Q&A program, they noted the illegal nature of the figures, and remarked that this kind of IP theft was unfair to legitimate licensees who pay to produce Transformers merchandise.<ref>TFviews Hasbro Q&A, August 2009</ref>

In 2015, Hasbro's UK branch distributed an online survey of the collecting habits of Transformers fans to coincide with the Auto Assembly unofficial convention, which included a surprising number of questions regarding "third party" products. In a bit of an embarrassing faux pas, a Hasbro representative present at the convention itself also addressed a Vos cosplayer as "Cynicus", the name of an unofficial figure of that character.<ref>waspshot23 on Tumblr</ref>

To date, there have been no known instances of Hasbro pursuing actual legal action against the manufacturers of "third party" toys. They did, however, institute a last-minute ban on the sale of such items at BotCon 2012 (this mandate initially encompassed fan art too, but this was quickly relaxed). This policy did not return for the next two BotCons, but was reinstated for BotCon 2015, and continued with BotCon 2016.

Third party designs in official products and marketing

IP untheft?

In recent years, there have been occasions where "third party" figure designs have slipped into official media. One cover for More than Meets the Eye #18 saw Huffer and Gears drawn based on unofficial figures "Rager" and "Cogz" (do you see what we meant about the names?). Hasbro and IDW did not comment on this, although it seems likely that somebody somewhere might've gotten a slap on the wrist.

Meanwhile, official third party licensee Imaginarium Art's statues of Rodimus Prime and Devastator seem to be based on the unofficial figures "Carry" and "Green Giant", with Rodimus Prime featuring detailing on his forearms otherwise unique to Carry and Devastator having kneepads only found on Giant. One has to assume Hasbro wasn't looking too closely, or were understandably unaware of those figures, when they signed off on these.

In what was presumably an innocent mistake that resulted from the use of a fan's personal collection, a slide shown at the Hasbro investor and press event presentation during Toy Fair 2016 that represented Transformers "Spanning Generations" featured a photograph of a father and son surrounded by a variety of Masterpiece toys... and the "third party" Devastator "Green Giant".<ref name="toyfair16">Slides from the Hasbro investor and press event presentation during Toy Fair 2016.</ref> Oops!

Although stylized, the Transformers: Earth Wars models for the Predacons are recognizably based upon the "Feralcons" (remember what we were saying?), one of the three notable sets of "third party" Predacons. It even leaked into their combined mode. Meanwhile, Motormaster is modeled on the TransFormMission "Powertrain" interpretation of Motormaster's design from IDW's 2009-2011 ongoing series.

Similarly, Earth Wars and the Power of the Primes cartoon feature models for the Dinobots based on the Fanstoys' "Iron Dibots" figures, rather than those from the concurrent toyline.

In an odd occurrence for a game almost exclusively using screen models and recent toys, Jazz in Transformers: Forged to Fight is directly modeled on ToyWorld's "Coolsville" figure.

Lost Light #19 shows Rodimus and Drift in alt-modes based directly on the Mastermind Creations "Calidus" and "Stray" figures.

An ILM design presentation about the 2018 Bumblebee movie used an image of Fans Toys "Rouge" as a Generation 1 Arcee design reference for Bumblebee Arcee.<ref>Bumblebee: Developing an Epic Set Piece - ILM San Francisco</ref>

Hasbro does it too

First party problems.

Despite Hasbro's own (completely understandable) aversion against people making a profit off their IP without permission, it's not like Hasbro is entirely innocent in this regard: In fact, the Transformers toys' alternate modes being unlicensed reproductions of real-world vehicles and aircraft goes back all the way to the very first Transformers toys.

While the whole market situation was still very different back in the 1980s, and car manufacturers apparently didn't start properly enforcing their intellectual properties in the field of toys and merchandise until the early 2000s, Transformers toys with licensed vehicle alternate modes are still the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of popular Earth vehicle alternate modes are still unlicensed approximations of their real-life inspirations, basically "not-Lamborghinis" or "not-A-10s", with a few details altered to avoid a lawsuit. Some examples are a little more creative, meshing together two or more real-life inspirations to create a genuine "hybrid" design, but most are just barely altered and instantly recognizable for what they are supposed to represent.

While the target audience is obviously a different one (most people who buy a Hasbro Sunstreaker do so because he represents Sunstreaker the Transformers character, not because they want a Lamborghini for their toy car collection; however, most, if not all, people who buy a "third party" version of Sunstreaker do so because he represents Sunstreaker the Transformers character), any argument against unlicensed "third party" toys for "ethical" reasons should at least acknowledge what Hasbro has been doing for decades.

Less of a gray area appears to be the case of the Generation 2 Go-Bot High Beam (released in 1995), though: Its alternate mode looks plain identical to a vehicle from Mattel's Hot Wheels line that was first released in 1991 under the names "Back Burner" and "Sonic Special", but would eventually become more well-known in 1995 under the name "Speed Blaster". Unless both toys were based on the same obscure real-life concept car that has since been completely forgotten by history, that would be a very blatant case of Hasbro literally copying one of it's competitor's toys and just making it transform.

References

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