|
|
Post by Jaymz on Sept 8, 2012 1:51:31 GMT
Seeing as a lot of us here like TF reference books, this is worth having a look at: Transforming Collections Toy Reference BookJust over 20 days left to pledge some money toward it if you are interested, and $20 to get a copy of the book shipped overseas when it's printed [$30 for 2]. The more money the project gets, the bigger and better the book gets. Apparently they've already lined up an interview with the designer of PP05 [Ratchet and Ironhide from igear]. |
|
|
|
Post by Marc Graham on Sept 8, 2012 7:43:23 GMT
As someone who remembers 88mph and someone who thinks 3rd party stuff is generally low quality crap hawked by people with no respect for copyright law or their customers (based on personal experience) - I'll be giving this an ocean sized miss.
Marc.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jaymz on Sept 8, 2012 11:58:18 GMT
I remember 88mph, the great thing with Kickstarter though is that you only pledge money for now and it's not taken from you until the project actually materialises. However, if the subject matter isn't to your liking, then yes, best to avoid. A couple of interviews with the guy putting the book together can be found here: Day Time NinjaFruitless Pursuits |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Sept 8, 2012 13:41:49 GMT
Whatever happened with that 88mph thing, I remember a huge kerfuffle at the time. Was the book actually published or was it vapourware?
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 8, 2012 13:47:22 GMT
It was published, but not in the quantities needed to ensure everyone got a copy. So lots of people preordered and got fuck all. Spotted one in FPG with Ralph when it came out.
A quick google on the company and the head honcho Sebastian Clavet will lead you to many corners of the internet where people hate him. He also fucked over the Ghostbusters comic fans too.
Andy
|
|
|
|
Post by Marc Graham on Sept 8, 2012 16:36:37 GMT
88mph strongly implied pre-ordering directly was the only way to guarantee getting the book, when they finally produced it they didn't fufill pre-orders (possibly 5-10% if that) - instead copies got sold elsewhere and folk who pre-ordered got screwed, 88mph went prompty out of business. Effectively they sold all their product twice and then disappeared.
Also for my two cents, I can't see there being enough content to fill a book on 3rd party stuff, there aint that much of it. As far as designs go - vast majority are rips of existing stuff, the companies are almost entirely fly-by night operations with chinese manufacturing to avoid getting sued up the wazoo, for anyone already into 3rd party stuff I'm not sure if this'll have much new or interesting. Just my view at least.
Marc.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jaymz on Sept 8, 2012 18:46:16 GMT
Also for my two cents, I can't see there being enough content to fill a book on 3rd party stuff, there aint that much of it. As far as designs go - vast majority are rips of existing stuff, the companies are almost entirely fly-by night operations with chinese manufacturing to avoid getting sued up the wazoo, for anyone already into 3rd party stuff I'm not sure if this'll have much new or interesting. Just my view at least. There's quite a lot of 3rd party stuff, covering add on kits to existing figures to whole new figures themselves, but if you're not a fan then you've probably not kept up to date with the various releases. As for "new or interesting", it's a reference book. Much like the Generations books that have been released by Million Publishing and the like. The whole point to me is to showcase all the various bits that have been released, as I have no plans to own all of it, but like to look at it. |
|
|
|
Post by Marc Graham on Sept 8, 2012 19:44:44 GMT
I dunno if I'd consider there to be a lot of 3rd party stuff out there, I'm aware of most of it, was at the 3rd party party at Botcon and seen most of the product from accessories to full toys, but compared to a standard TF line there doesn't seem to be the volume of items. I guess it'd be nice to have a source with decent images of every toy, but these kind of books are rarely complete (and I daresay this book might have some problems should Hasbro's lawyers get wind of it).
|
|
|
|
Post by Jaymz on Sept 8, 2012 20:05:51 GMT
It'll be far from complete, it is only 24 pages afterall. But if the project goes well, I'm sure the guy behind it will do more volumes.
As for Hasbro's lawyers, I'm sure they're more concerned with the actual companies that steal their IP than a book that isn't even going to be released to stores. I don't know if they'd even have a case against this type of book, there's been unofficial guides before, such as the Cybertronian guides. They had photos of real Hasbro product and reprinted the tech specs, so were technically profiting off Hasbro's work more than this book will.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marc Graham on Sept 8, 2012 20:11:20 GMT
Well, with pictures of official toys you can argue fair use, with fairly blatant IP infringement I don't know if the fair use argument would hold. In any case I doubt anything will happen as Hasbro lawyers are probably too busy going after the manufacturers (perhaps they need to borrow some of the sharks working for crApple).
|
|
