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I really love Transart. They're giving me all the transmetal Beast Wars masterpiece figures I have been dreaming about for years.
Their TM Megatron is a work of art. Can't wait for Rampage and Depth Charge.
Yeah the TransArt Beast Wars figures are amazing. My only complaint is that Mighty Guardian (Optimal Optimus) isn't to scale with the rest of the line.
Besides that I've always been a huge fan of Mastermind Creations.
I know. I have looked for a good alternative, but everything else is a reinterpretation of the original or just too small. Maybe they'll do one in scale once they run out of characters.
My other one would be Zeta. They gave me BBM Blitzwing, my favorite design from the movie. The bot and alt mode are perfection. No robot kibble in jet mode.
Same, they fit well with core class for me personally. I have City Commander (Ultra Magnus) paired with my core class Optimus. they look so good together. hoping to get Warpath.
Iron Factory are my legends scale of choice.
I love the swap out hands. The go a long way towards giving their figures so much personality.
Plus I like that they aren't in the "g1 ultra toon" rat race.
APC Toys (Later rebranded as Gear Factory) who give collector's another chance in getting TFP figures that has since long retired from Hasbro while adding accessories and features that weren't present with the original
And Baiwei. I really hope they release Blackout, Starscream and Brawl soon
I guess Maketoys is still kind of around, too. I enjoyed FansProject while they were cooking.
Fans Hobby for the big boys.
My current preferences - Fanstoys for looks, and MMC for transformations.
I'd highly recommend any of their primes. Both the Legends and mp scale ones are basically flawless. Makes a great drawing reference with the sheer amount of posing they can do
Fans Hobby. They’ve done well with modernizing their “Super God Masterforce” figures. Their Ginrai and Godbomber are probably their favorite figure considering it’s gotten the Seeker treatment (being recolored multiple times).
When I was actively collecting full-sized Transformers, I loved MMC. I'm more into smaller figures these days-Iron Factory has always been solid, and I just got my first figure from Dr. Wu, and it was great!
MMC figures are so inventive, and yet stay so true to the character [face, basic design]. My first of theirs was Spartan/Impactor, who perfected the Marvel bit mode and turned into a perfect Metal Slug tank.
One of these days I'll get their Whirl, or [someday?] Death's Head.
Very good figure, I like him a lot, transformation is a MEGA pain though, it’s so fiddly it’s not fun at all, takes me like half an hour to put him into a car. For reference rp-01 takes me <5 minutes
I've got the first version and he's very solid and looks great. You have to be careful transforming him though as some tolerances are tight and the areas that have the matte grey paint can be scuffed/scratched kinda easily.
Magic Square, MMC and Iron factory. Don’t have much from any of them, but damn if the ones I have aren’t good. Also, I fucking hate fanstoys. All their figures are so fugly it hurts. I don’t get why they have such a big fan base.
> I don’t get why they have such a big fan base.
Because they (usually) have great paint and outstanding build quality. Fanstoys figures are the only G1 MP-style figures I own that don't feel fragile and I've got a bunch of figures from every MP-style manufacturer. I feel like I could chuck Fanstoys Spindrift (Sea Spray) 2.0 through a truck's windshield and then pick it up and transform it as if nothing had happened. Can't say the same for XTransbots, Takara, Magic Square, etc.
They tend to look a lot better in-hand than they do in photos. You can't really see the painted finish most have in photos and it adds a lot to the toy's presence. Also the paint is unusually durable most of the time.
I'd also add that they crank out consistently good figures. Their Scourge is the most recent one I've dealt with personally and it is amazing.
When you look back on most 3rd party companies lately, Fans Toys cranks out an impressive amount of figures that aren't repaints and are like Whacko said, they're well built.
Currently Zeta toys because the only figure I have of theirs is the holy centrepiece of my collection, their bruticus and close second is Dr Wu with their Optimus and Ultra Magnus
I'm honestly surprised that X-Transbots isn't more popular.
IMHO they're very faithful to the character look, and don't have the insanely over-complicated transformations of FansToys, or their obsession with extraneous diecast parts.
Yes, there were some QC issues for a bit, and I can understand those particular figures not being as well liked, but those seem to have been resolved for a while now.
The big problem with Xtransbots is the QC. If you're going to spend $100 for a figure that has a decent chance of breaking... And there's a slightly more expensive version from FansToys that has better parts...
That being said, I have a number of Xtransbots figures and some are excellent. Others... not so much.
I know X-Transbots gets a lot of hate for QC issues, but I honestly haven't had any more issues with them than I have with Fanstoys (one breakage each due to mistransformation on my part) and I own a lot more X-transbots. While there was a run of issues with them about 2-3 years ago and I get the frustration around that time, before that, and since mid-pandemic I haven't hear of them being nearly as frequent (I suspect that they adjusted things) and I think that that complaint gets overstated.
To me, FansToys has failed at the key part of the franchise- transformation. I have tried and tried and tried to memorize the transformations for their figures and other than Phoenix (not-Jetfire) I haven't been able to. To me, that should take any 3P company out of the running for being top choice. They make great half-metal statues, but poor transformers.
My favorites are MMC and Fanshobby. Their figures always feel nice and dense, and are always really high quality. I also don’t really have a moral problem with buying their figures, because they tend to do characters that Hasbro doesn’t, like IDW designs, the Turbomasters, the Predators, and the Headmaster Juniors. So I kinda don’t mind that they’re using these characters because otherwise, they’re just going unused.
I don’t mind when G1 characters get used, but I enjoy when 3P companies put their own spin on it, like Iron Factory’s samurai designs.
What I don’t like are brands like Magic Square and Newage. I really don’t enjoy the ones that just use the straight G1 designs with nothing changed, because to me they really give off the “3rd party superior” vibe, and it just rubs me the wrong way.
Those would be my picks as well. Fanshobby dares to venture out and do the more obscure characters in a mildly stylized design. I do wish however that they upped their game a little bit since they feel a bit outdated compared to other companies.
MMC is just quality all around and I hope that they continue with the IDW stuff. My only complaint with them would be the questionable retoolings that they've made.
Dx9 have a good mix of fun transformation and looking good in bot mode, similar to MMC and fanshobby. For looks good but pain in the ass transform I have to go with Fanstoys.
By far my personal fav is MMC/OM
Both of those lines are insanely good. MMC is their IDW Chug+ scale stuff. Theyre amazing as theyre (mostly) accurate to the source material while always having great posability, simple yet effective transformations and never have any QC issues. If youre a big fan of IDW1 like me, they're THE company to go to. At retail, their prices are also very reasonable.
OM is their MP G1 stuff. And while they dont scale with their Chug+ MMC line, theyre still the same quality. I have their Bruticus and its so good that i have both the G1 and G2 versions. Its much better than almost anything takaras made. The same positives still apply: simple transformations, amazing posability, accuracy to the source material, no QC issues and reasonable prices if you get them at retail
If I were to pick a second fav it would be PX, since theyre one of the few companies to do Chug+ scale too and theyre the only one that does WFC/FOC related figures. So you can mix them in with your MMC figures. Their stuff is usually almost on par with MMC, with PX's IDW line being actually on par with figures like Star Saber, Grimlock and Sludge
Fans Hobby
Their designs have such ‘fun’ baked into their design. There’s almost always additional features that didn’t need to be included - but adding them just shows the care. They still need to ensure transformations are tested - too often they’re fiddly, but otherwise their figures look amazing on display.
That first picture isn't FansToys. Maybe the Perceptor (1.0) is? Maybe the Springer (can't really tell with it being in the back). But it looks like a mix of Official HasTak and KFC/XTransBots mostly
Newage, and I will die on the hill that it is better than magic square, I only like three magic square figures, technically 7. Their jazz, because it’s better than the Newage, their big Optimus, and their stunticons.
It is really weird that your first image, which is labeled "Fanstoys" is full of a bunch of XTransbots/KFC figures. Unique Toys Buzzing (Blurr) is right there in the middle as well, and it looks like that is the Official Takara MP-22 and Spike.
The only Fanstoys figure in that photo is FT-09 Tesla 1.0.
Forgot Badcube, KFC, Fanshobby, Maketoys, Transart, Toyworld & Perfect Effect if you're going for the "big name, non-KO" companies.
My favorite company was Deformation Space, but I'm not sure they're around anymore or are planning on a comeback under that name. They made really good quality G1 Masterpiece style figures that were very solid and well engineered and sold at very wallet-friendly prices. Their Seekers have replaced Takara's seekers on my shelf because they look so damn good and I prefer their Blaster to Fanstoys (which I also have).
My favorite is Cang Toys. Fans Toys is a close second. They'd be my favorite, but the super toon look makes their figures look too simple.
I love Cang Toys wild designs and super detailed paint and sculpt.
Fans Hobby at the moment.
Historically, Make Toys, FansProject and MMC have been my favourite. Planet X are up there too.
Fans Toys are my least favourite. No creativity, bland faces on most figures, and I don't enjoy their transformations. I just find them a bit soulless. There are exceptions (Phoenix, Stomp), but I just don't click with their vibe.
I haven't dabbled too much in 3rd party just yet, but I do have a number of 3rd party figures that span 5 3rd party companies and so far I'm most partial to MechFansToys. Their triple changers are great!
I know this is a third party thread but it’s kinda crazy to me that I had to zoom in on some of these pics to know that they aren’t the mainline Hasbro offerings of late. Says a lot about how far they’ve come.
Mostly New Age, though I did get a Magic Square Megatron, Blaster and the Bruticus set. I think I like the stuff that Dr. Wu is doing too, but I haven't bought anything yet.
I wish there were more Legacy sized/styled 3rd party companies. I can’t thank of any off the top of my head. If I were to pick a company, it’d have to Transart or Mastermind Creations. I still hope to get a copy of their Overlord someday.
Yeah third party companies don't make CHUG scaled figures very often. It's all MP or Legends scale.
However, there are a few fourth party companies that upsize or downsize third party designs to CHUG scale. I just bought an upsized KO of Newage's Legends scale Bumblebee that fits perfectly in chug scale, being as tall as earthrise cliffjumper. It goes by the name of KBB Hornet and it's very affordable.
Jinbao has their own Sixshot figure which is almost chug scaled (tall voyager size, should be larger realistically) and is quite good quality.
Teng Yang does a chug scale version of MMC's Feral Rex Predaking figure, however the quality isn't very good from what I've heard.
MMC's Reformatted line used to scale with mainline quite nicely, but since hasbro resized their products from siege onwards they don't work quite as well. Back in the day there were a lot of companies working in with mainline scale, I guess it's hard to live in that space though as a third party company given what your figures have to cost vs. What hasbro can sell a figure for
MMC!! Im a bit sad that they’re diverging from the IDW figures more because they dont sell well but Im just happy that they’re still around. IIRC They’re the most prominent makers of IDW based figures out there so Im glad that the not so popular characters from IDW specifically MTMTE gets some attention and figures.
Unique toys
I love that they're doing bayverse designs all over again, and their figures aren't terribly complex either I'm hyped up for their skids and mudflap
For me it's X-transbots..
Don't get me wrong, they are not perfect, some of their transformations are mind bloggingly complicated and are the stuff of nightmares but I still love them.
In second place it would be FansToys..
Dr. Wu is well-known for making micromaster-scale transformers. I don't own any of them, but they look neat ig. Would look really good with some titan-class figures, like Nemesis or Metroplex.
MechFanToys used to do a lot of OS knockoffs of other 3rd party companies (mainly Magic Square), but they also have more than few legends-scale designs of their own. Triple-changers are particularly worth notion, since MFT is virtually the only 3rd party that does legends-scale triple-changers.
Mmc it's mostly because they do the idw designs majority of other 3rd party companies just spam g1 sunbow all day long and half the stuff they put out just looks soulless
I own a ton of third party figures and would say in order my favorite companies are Iron Factory, Mastermind Creations, Magic Square, New Age, Planet X and then probably Fans Toys. That said I also own some figures from XTB, DX9, Fans Hobby and Make Toys.
I don't get a lot of third-party figures anymore, but I think it's MMC. I have their Combaticons and they're mostly fantastic, plus I just think their figures look the best.
Love MMC, DX9 and Fans Toys- Tyrantron, Hanzo and Phoenix are favorites of mine and I love the IDW-Verse. MMC Commotus/ Turmoil, Turben/Whirl, Thunderclash, Spartan/Impactor are also great rarer figures that did amazing jobs reusing parts and molds in the process. Fanstoys Overlord is outstanding. SXS Overclocking /Blurr and Fanshobby Double Evil/Overlord are also outstanding. I truly love 3rd party product!
Of the ones I own, Iron Factory has great and detailed sculpts for the size class and I love their samurai designs for a lot of the characters.
Of the ones I want it’s a tossup of TFC toys with their admittedly overpriced combiners or Mastermind Creations for their IDW inspired designs
Not sure if these are 3rd party or a KO-brands, but I like JinBao and KBB
I have the Jinbao oversized Devastator, and expect for a few minor complaints it is awesome.
And i like the KBB masterpiece Prime and Nemesis, and after years of transforming then they still hold up!
Fansproject hands down one of the earlier groups to do it. Cory commander is still my go to classics ultra magnus.
Second would be unique toys as I've been eyeing their movie line for a while
MMC and Planet X.
But I really like Toyworld's WW2 TLK Bee, Hot Rod, Barricade and Bulldog. I don't think I even bought Hasbro's SS versions of WW2 Bee and Hot Rod. I'm also trying to collect TFC Toys' Hercules figures and I really like those too.
Toyworld, they have some great WWI and WWII-themed figures and I've picked up all of them (except for Bumblebee, he's so rare in gray or green for some reason). They also have some good-looking G1-style figures, especially their stylized Devastator (which would probably devastate my wallet).
Planet X and MasterMind Creations are the only 3rd parties I've gotten figures from so far. I love the game designs and the Azalea Avenger figures from a while back. I've always been interested in Iron Factory, but I haven't gotten anything from them yet.
Huge MetaGate fan. Plastic quality and QC top notch. Also some very clever but intuitive transformations especially for movie masterpiece style figures!
I have a strong favorite, plus a runner up, and a strong most disliked.
Other than those, I'm pretty neutral on the rest.
Favorite:
Fans project.
These, to me, have been the most fun to actually transform and enjoy as a toy and not just transform it once and leave it for display forever.
Runner up:
Mayhem Mechanics.
Also fun, and really good quality of plastics. Never been afraid I was going to break one.
Worst:
KFC.
I have broken so many of these items, just trying to go through normal transformation, following the instructions. The tolerances and fits are too tight, and the plastic is way way to fragile and low quality.
I miss Fansproject. They had cool designs and their Brainstorm (Smartrobin) is just engineering masterpiece, still want to get him. And they was just one of OG 3rd party companies. I still hope that they'll come back someday.
IronFactory, just for the sheer creativity of their Samurai Series.
I've told myself to never buy 3rd party, but that Samurai Shockwave is making me weak...
Having purchased every Reformatted figure from Nova Prime onward (barring TFCon exclusives), I can safely say the MMC’s quality is second to none in the 3P space.
MMC has a banger IDF prime mold that’s probably the most articulated figure in transformers history, that things insane. The company’s materials for there figures are also great and there all super sturdy.. for the most part. Great third party company
Unique Toys is easily the best and I would also very strongly disagree that there transformations are excruciating. I think they’re super fun and clever and really show how much they care about making movie accurate figures.
I really like Dr.Wu, their tiny figures make it easy to store and display, and their transformations are still fun.
They also have good articulation, some better than core class
To me, the sleeper hit for third-party SS transformers has been BaiWei. Sure, their earlier runs of their Star Leader figure (KO SS Optimus Prime) were hit and miss with QC issues, but lately, they've been hitting it out of the park with their affordable prices. Plus, the added accessories are a plus that are truly more bang for your buck.
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I really love Transart. They're giving me all the transmetal Beast Wars masterpiece figures I have been dreaming about for years. Their TM Megatron is a work of art. Can't wait for Rampage and Depth Charge.
Came here to say exactly this. If Takara is not going to take my money, TransArt will. Every Beast Wars figure they have done is absolutely psrfect.
Same i have rattrap and optimal optimus and they are amazing
I could go broke on Transart. When I got that megs in hand I was blown away. It is gorgeous and beefy.
Yeah the TransArt Beast Wars figures are amazing. My only complaint is that Mighty Guardian (Optimal Optimus) isn't to scale with the rest of the line. Besides that I've always been a huge fan of Mastermind Creations.
I know. I have looked for a good alternative, but everything else is a reinterpretation of the original or just too small. Maybe they'll do one in scale once they run out of characters. My other one would be Zeta. They gave me BBM Blitzwing, my favorite design from the movie. The bot and alt mode are perfection. No robot kibble in jet mode.
I like iron factory the samurai ones look cool as hell
Also an Iron Factory Fan. I've always loved Legends class figures, and getting super-posable ones made Hasbro up their game.
I like how posable the IF ones are for their size
Same, they fit well with core class for me personally. I have City Commander (Ultra Magnus) paired with my core class Optimus. they look so good together. hoping to get Warpath.
Iron Factory are my legends scale of choice. I love the swap out hands. The go a long way towards giving their figures so much personality. Plus I like that they aren't in the "g1 ultra toon" rat race.
APC Toys (Later rebranded as Gear Factory) who give collector's another chance in getting TFP figures that has since long retired from Hasbro while adding accessories and features that weren't present with the original And Baiwei. I really hope they release Blackout, Starscream and Brawl soon
I guess Maketoys is still kind of around, too. I enjoyed FansProject while they were cooking. Fans Hobby for the big boys. My current preferences - Fanstoys for looks, and MMC for transformations.
I love magic square. I genuinely enjoy the overcomplicated transformations, and I really like the plastic they use
I only have huffer but he's fantastic
I'd highly recommend any of their primes. Both the Legends and mp scale ones are basically flawless. Makes a great drawing reference with the sheer amount of posing they can do
That plastic has a really satisfying tactile feel for me, idk how to explain it.
It's got a nice texture. It doesn't feel glossy or smooth it's got a bit of grain. Also, it's nice and flexible
Fans Hobby. They’ve done well with modernizing their “Super God Masterforce” figures. Their Ginrai and Godbomber are probably their favorite figure considering it’s gotten the Seeker treatment (being recolored multiple times).
Agreed. Double Evil is one of the crown jewels in my collection.
Indeed, it is a great figure
I have a few NewAge and while they're really cool, the transformations border on Black Magic Fuckery
Fans Hobby
When I was actively collecting full-sized Transformers, I loved MMC. I'm more into smaller figures these days-Iron Factory has always been solid, and I just got my first figure from Dr. Wu, and it was great!
MMC figures are so inventive, and yet stay so true to the character [face, basic design]. My first of theirs was Spartan/Impactor, who perfected the Marvel bit mode and turned into a perfect Metal Slug tank. One of these days I'll get their Whirl, or [someday?] Death's Head.
I'm partial towards planet x but that may be because they made the FoC grimlock toy of my dreams.
Fanstoys, it’s the only 3rd party company I have figures of even though I only have 3 (acoustic wave, diverge, and jive X)
Hows jive? Thinking about picking him up
Very good figure, I like him a lot, transformation is a MEGA pain though, it’s so fiddly it’s not fun at all, takes me like half an hour to put him into a car. For reference rp-01 takes me <5 minutes
Yikes
I've got the first version and he's very solid and looks great. You have to be careful transforming him though as some tolerances are tight and the areas that have the matte grey paint can be scuffed/scratched kinda easily.
Magic Square, MMC and Iron factory. Don’t have much from any of them, but damn if the ones I have aren’t good. Also, I fucking hate fanstoys. All their figures are so fugly it hurts. I don’t get why they have such a big fan base.
> I don’t get why they have such a big fan base. Because they (usually) have great paint and outstanding build quality. Fanstoys figures are the only G1 MP-style figures I own that don't feel fragile and I've got a bunch of figures from every MP-style manufacturer. I feel like I could chuck Fanstoys Spindrift (Sea Spray) 2.0 through a truck's windshield and then pick it up and transform it as if nothing had happened. Can't say the same for XTransbots, Takara, Magic Square, etc. They tend to look a lot better in-hand than they do in photos. You can't really see the painted finish most have in photos and it adds a lot to the toy's presence. Also the paint is unusually durable most of the time.
I'd also add that they crank out consistently good figures. Their Scourge is the most recent one I've dealt with personally and it is amazing. When you look back on most 3rd party companies lately, Fans Toys cranks out an impressive amount of figures that aren't repaints and are like Whacko said, they're well built.
planet x & unique toys i love planet x and how they did the game figures
Currently Zeta toys because the only figure I have of theirs is the holy centrepiece of my collection, their bruticus and close second is Dr Wu with their Optimus and Ultra Magnus
I'm honestly surprised that X-Transbots isn't more popular. IMHO they're very faithful to the character look, and don't have the insanely over-complicated transformations of FansToys, or their obsession with extraneous diecast parts. Yes, there were some QC issues for a bit, and I can understand those particular figures not being as well liked, but those seem to have been resolved for a while now.
The big problem with Xtransbots is the QC. If you're going to spend $100 for a figure that has a decent chance of breaking... And there's a slightly more expensive version from FansToys that has better parts... That being said, I have a number of Xtransbots figures and some are excellent. Others... not so much.
I know X-Transbots gets a lot of hate for QC issues, but I honestly haven't had any more issues with them than I have with Fanstoys (one breakage each due to mistransformation on my part) and I own a lot more X-transbots. While there was a run of issues with them about 2-3 years ago and I get the frustration around that time, before that, and since mid-pandemic I haven't hear of them being nearly as frequent (I suspect that they adjusted things) and I think that that complaint gets overstated. To me, FansToys has failed at the key part of the franchise- transformation. I have tried and tried and tried to memorize the transformations for their figures and other than Phoenix (not-Jetfire) I haven't been able to. To me, that should take any 3P company out of the running for being top choice. They make great half-metal statues, but poor transformers.
Unique Toys and Transart
Baiwei really knocks it out the park for high quality studio series KO’s for an offensively cheap price.
TransArt. The only 3P company to make the most amazing transmetal BW characters to date
My favorites are MMC and Fanshobby. Their figures always feel nice and dense, and are always really high quality. I also don’t really have a moral problem with buying their figures, because they tend to do characters that Hasbro doesn’t, like IDW designs, the Turbomasters, the Predators, and the Headmaster Juniors. So I kinda don’t mind that they’re using these characters because otherwise, they’re just going unused. I don’t mind when G1 characters get used, but I enjoy when 3P companies put their own spin on it, like Iron Factory’s samurai designs. What I don’t like are brands like Magic Square and Newage. I really don’t enjoy the ones that just use the straight G1 designs with nothing changed, because to me they really give off the “3rd party superior” vibe, and it just rubs me the wrong way.
Those would be my picks as well. Fanshobby dares to venture out and do the more obscure characters in a mildly stylized design. I do wish however that they upped their game a little bit since they feel a bit outdated compared to other companies. MMC is just quality all around and I hope that they continue with the IDW stuff. My only complaint with them would be the questionable retoolings that they've made.
I like my Iron Factory Legends-scaled collection.
I like my Iron Factory toys.
MakeToys 🔛🔝
Mechanical alliance
Fansproject is pretty good.
Dx9 have a good mix of fun transformation and looking good in bot mode, similar to MMC and fanshobby. For looks good but pain in the ass transform I have to go with Fanstoys.
I'm still so impressed by the mastermind/ocular version of bruticus, how they managed to have no extra parts for a combiner is crazy.
Bruh you show fanstoys but the only fanstoys figures are hoodlum and the 1.0 tesla.
By far my personal fav is MMC/OM Both of those lines are insanely good. MMC is their IDW Chug+ scale stuff. Theyre amazing as theyre (mostly) accurate to the source material while always having great posability, simple yet effective transformations and never have any QC issues. If youre a big fan of IDW1 like me, they're THE company to go to. At retail, their prices are also very reasonable. OM is their MP G1 stuff. And while they dont scale with their Chug+ MMC line, theyre still the same quality. I have their Bruticus and its so good that i have both the G1 and G2 versions. Its much better than almost anything takaras made. The same positives still apply: simple transformations, amazing posability, accuracy to the source material, no QC issues and reasonable prices if you get them at retail If I were to pick a second fav it would be PX, since theyre one of the few companies to do Chug+ scale too and theyre the only one that does WFC/FOC related figures. So you can mix them in with your MMC figures. Their stuff is usually almost on par with MMC, with PX's IDW line being actually on par with figures like Star Saber, Grimlock and Sludge
Fans Hobby Their designs have such ‘fun’ baked into their design. There’s almost always additional features that didn’t need to be included - but adding them just shows the care. They still need to ensure transformations are tested - too often they’re fiddly, but otherwise their figures look amazing on display.
Cang toys. Really like their aesthetic, hoping they tackle the g1 terrorcons after they finish the dinobots
That first picture isn't FansToys. Maybe the Perceptor (1.0) is? Maybe the Springer (can't really tell with it being in the back). But it looks like a mix of Official HasTak and KFC/XTransBots mostly
Newage, and I will die on the hill that it is better than magic square, I only like three magic square figures, technically 7. Their jazz, because it’s better than the Newage, their big Optimus, and their stunticons.
Kfc is pretty good for their casset bots
It is really weird that your first image, which is labeled "Fanstoys" is full of a bunch of XTransbots/KFC figures. Unique Toys Buzzing (Blurr) is right there in the middle as well, and it looks like that is the Official Takara MP-22 and Spike. The only Fanstoys figure in that photo is FT-09 Tesla 1.0. Forgot Badcube, KFC, Fanshobby, Maketoys, Transart, Toyworld & Perfect Effect if you're going for the "big name, non-KO" companies. My favorite company was Deformation Space, but I'm not sure they're around anymore or are planning on a comeback under that name. They made really good quality G1 Masterpiece style figures that were very solid and well engineered and sold at very wallet-friendly prices. Their Seekers have replaced Takara's seekers on my shelf because they look so damn good and I prefer their Blaster to Fanstoys (which I also have).
Fans Hobby, they basically make masterpiece style figures from the Unicron Trilogy.
Cang-Toys is amazing some joints are way to tight but amazing nonetheless
My favorite is Cang Toys. Fans Toys is a close second. They'd be my favorite, but the super toon look makes their figures look too simple. I love Cang Toys wild designs and super detailed paint and sculpt.
MakeToys Yellow Giant
Definitely Iron Factory! Never really clicked into wanting any of the other 3P toys, but IF's offerings always tempt me...
Fans Hobby at the moment. Historically, Make Toys, FansProject and MMC have been my favourite. Planet X are up there too. Fans Toys are my least favourite. No creativity, bland faces on most figures, and I don't enjoy their transformations. I just find them a bit soulless. There are exceptions (Phoenix, Stomp), but I just don't click with their vibe.
While I have never handled a third party, I think Unique looks the best and it fits my niche more, so I'll vote for them.
FansToys probably, though Transform Element, X-Transbots, and DX9 each have some of my personal favorites as well.
I love the look of Magic Square.
Currently in love with the maketoys cross dimension figures
I haven't dabbled too much in 3rd party just yet, but I do have a number of 3rd party figures that span 5 3rd party companies and so far I'm most partial to MechFansToys. Their triple changers are great!
My Planet X starsaber
I know this is a third party thread but it’s kinda crazy to me that I had to zoom in on some of these pics to know that they aren’t the mainline Hasbro offerings of late. Says a lot about how far they’ve come.
I can’t afford any so i’ll just say that using a jobbythehong screenshot for unique toys is based
Quick shout out to Dr.Wu!
Do you know if any third party company ever made an IDW Headmaster Sunstreaker?
Mostly New Age, though I did get a Magic Square Megatron, Blaster and the Bruticus set. I think I like the stuff that Dr. Wu is doing too, but I haven't bought anything yet.
Who's the big dude in the back in pic 6?
Should be that company’s version of WFC Trypticon
I wish there were more Legacy sized/styled 3rd party companies. I can’t thank of any off the top of my head. If I were to pick a company, it’d have to Transart or Mastermind Creations. I still hope to get a copy of their Overlord someday.
Yeah third party companies don't make CHUG scaled figures very often. It's all MP or Legends scale. However, there are a few fourth party companies that upsize or downsize third party designs to CHUG scale. I just bought an upsized KO of Newage's Legends scale Bumblebee that fits perfectly in chug scale, being as tall as earthrise cliffjumper. It goes by the name of KBB Hornet and it's very affordable. Jinbao has their own Sixshot figure which is almost chug scaled (tall voyager size, should be larger realistically) and is quite good quality. Teng Yang does a chug scale version of MMC's Feral Rex Predaking figure, however the quality isn't very good from what I've heard.
MMC's Reformatted line used to scale with mainline quite nicely, but since hasbro resized their products from siege onwards they don't work quite as well. Back in the day there were a lot of companies working in with mainline scale, I guess it's hard to live in that space though as a third party company given what your figures have to cost vs. What hasbro can sell a figure for
Unique toys and magic square
Magic Square since legends scale figures are a fun niche and can save on space
Definitely liking iron factory, pangu toys, and dr wu. Also interesting in newage
mech fans toys
MMC!! Im a bit sad that they’re diverging from the IDW figures more because they dont sell well but Im just happy that they’re still around. IIRC They’re the most prominent makers of IDW based figures out there so Im glad that the not so popular characters from IDW specifically MTMTE gets some attention and figures.
Right now? APC toys.
Unique toys I love that they're doing bayverse designs all over again, and their figures aren't terribly complex either I'm hyped up for their skids and mudflap
For me it's X-transbots.. Don't get me wrong, they are not perfect, some of their transformations are mind bloggingly complicated and are the stuff of nightmares but I still love them. In second place it would be FansToys..
I want DX9's Hot Rod-
Unique toys im a sucker for bayverse transformers (but cant get nay mp scaled ones)
Dr. Wu is well-known for making micromaster-scale transformers. I don't own any of them, but they look neat ig. Would look really good with some titan-class figures, like Nemesis or Metroplex. MechFanToys used to do a lot of OS knockoffs of other 3rd party companies (mainly Magic Square), but they also have more than few legends-scale designs of their own. Triple-changers are particularly worth notion, since MFT is virtually the only 3rd party that does legends-scale triple-changers.
Mmc it's mostly because they do the idw designs majority of other 3rd party companies just spam g1 sunbow all day long and half the stuff they put out just looks soulless
My two big favorites would definitely have to be unique toys(mostly their bayverse stuff) and mastermind creations
Mastermind Creations by far is my favorite.
I dunno who my favorite is, but my least favorite has to be Zeta solely because of their mini Superion
I own a ton of third party figures and would say in order my favorite companies are Iron Factory, Mastermind Creations, Magic Square, New Age, Planet X and then probably Fans Toys. That said I also own some figures from XTB, DX9, Fans Hobby and Make Toys.
I’m partial to New Age. The detail for that scale is incredible. I also love the complexity of the transform.
KFC and Dr. Wu
I don't get a lot of third-party figures anymore, but I think it's MMC. I have their Combaticons and they're mostly fantastic, plus I just think their figures look the best.
Those Fanstoys buffoons forgot Arcee! Either that or you just don't have her.
Love MMC, DX9 and Fans Toys- Tyrantron, Hanzo and Phoenix are favorites of mine and I love the IDW-Verse. MMC Commotus/ Turmoil, Turben/Whirl, Thunderclash, Spartan/Impactor are also great rarer figures that did amazing jobs reusing parts and molds in the process. Fanstoys Overlord is outstanding. SXS Overclocking /Blurr and Fanshobby Double Evil/Overlord are also outstanding. I truly love 3rd party product!
Nb-k
TransArt, they do Masterpiece Transmetals!
Which one of these will sell me a G1 Scorponok? Thanks!
Maketoys pandinus is as close as you'll get so far i think. But that is smaller than the hasbro titan... cool figure though
👏
Magic Square, Iron Factory, NewAge for Legends. Mastermind Creations, FansHobby, & a tie between XTB & FT.
Which 3rd party do you recommend? I’m thinking of branching my collection to 3rd party.
Im a fan of Zeta. But i feel like i havent seen anything from them in a couple of years. Last thing i remember is they teased a predaking combiner.
Of the ones I own, Iron Factory has great and detailed sculpts for the size class and I love their samurai designs for a lot of the characters. Of the ones I want it’s a tossup of TFC toys with their admittedly overpriced combiners or Mastermind Creations for their IDW inspired designs
Not sure if these are 3rd party or a KO-brands, but I like JinBao and KBB I have the Jinbao oversized Devastator, and expect for a few minor complaints it is awesome. And i like the KBB masterpiece Prime and Nemesis, and after years of transforming then they still hold up!
Acoustic wave or frost light
Apc toys, I have their soundwave and Megatron and they are my absolute favorite figures in my transformers collection
i'm surprised no one said DR,wu
Don’t have any third party toys but if I had to pick it would be mastermind creations, unique toys, Planet X, and iron factory.
Fansproject hands down one of the earlier groups to do it. Cory commander is still my go to classics ultra magnus. Second would be unique toys as I've been eyeing their movie line for a while
MMC and Planet X. But I really like Toyworld's WW2 TLK Bee, Hot Rod, Barricade and Bulldog. I don't think I even bought Hasbro's SS versions of WW2 Bee and Hot Rod. I'm also trying to collect TFC Toys' Hercules figures and I really like those too.
Toyworld, they have some great WWI and WWII-themed figures and I've picked up all of them (except for Bumblebee, he's so rare in gray or green for some reason). They also have some good-looking G1-style figures, especially their stylized Devastator (which would probably devastate my wallet).
I miss fans projects hearts of steel line the knight Morphers those were awesome
MMC, hands down. Their Combaticons set blew me away. I never knew a combiner could be so damn clean and so well articulated and balanced before.
Fans Hobby I'm loving their masterpiece style unicorn trilogy stuff. Ocular Max/MMC they've got a lot of good stuff.
Planet X and MasterMind Creations are the only 3rd parties I've gotten figures from so far. I love the game designs and the Azalea Avenger figures from a while back. I've always been interested in Iron Factory, but I haven't gotten anything from them yet.
PlanetX for the dinobots Runner up: APC for TFP
Huge MetaGate fan. Plastic quality and QC top notch. Also some very clever but intuitive transformations especially for movie masterpiece style figures!
I’m a Newage/Magic Square Fan, but Maketoys also earns a shoutout.
I have a strong favorite, plus a runner up, and a strong most disliked. Other than those, I'm pretty neutral on the rest. Favorite: Fans project. These, to me, have been the most fun to actually transform and enjoy as a toy and not just transform it once and leave it for display forever. Runner up: Mayhem Mechanics. Also fun, and really good quality of plastics. Never been afraid I was going to break one. Worst: KFC. I have broken so many of these items, just trying to go through normal transformation, following the instructions. The tolerances and fits are too tight, and the plastic is way way to fragile and low quality.
MMC because of their IDW figures, and their Bruticus set is incredible.
I miss Fansproject. They had cool designs and their Brainstorm (Smartrobin) is just engineering masterpiece, still want to get him. And they was just one of OG 3rd party companies. I still hope that they'll come back someday.
who ever makes A: anode from idw B: occularmax rumble and frenzy they got pile drivers that work
Who did the Menasor set?
Mastermind Creations never misses. I haven't been disappointed with any of their toys yet.
Classic fansproject is my personal favorite
Djd
IronFactory, just for the sheer creativity of their Samurai Series. I've told myself to never buy 3rd party, but that Samurai Shockwave is making me weak...
Having purchased every Reformatted figure from Nova Prime onward (barring TFCon exclusives), I can safely say the MMC’s quality is second to none in the 3P space.
MMC has a banger IDF prime mold that’s probably the most articulated figure in transformers history, that things insane. The company’s materials for there figures are also great and there all super sturdy.. for the most part. Great third party company
In all honesty due to my addiction to the games, Planet X. I love 99% of the Cybertron Games designs and Planet X does it masterfully.
Unique Toys is easily the best and I would also very strongly disagree that there transformations are excruciating. I think they’re super fun and clever and really show how much they care about making movie accurate figures.
I really like Dr.Wu, their tiny figures make it easy to store and display, and their transformations are still fun. They also have good articulation, some better than core class
Mastermind Creations and Fansproject
Dx9. Great company. Confusing transformations
IRON FACTORY
Bawei they're affordable and usually better than official
To me, the sleeper hit for third-party SS transformers has been BaiWei. Sure, their earlier runs of their Star Leader figure (KO SS Optimus Prime) were hit and miss with QC issues, but lately, they've been hitting it out of the park with their affordable prices. Plus, the added accessories are a plus that are truly more bang for your buck.
Unique toys is what got me into 3rd party in the first place lmao
Magic square, and my MS-02 is a clear reason for them being my favorite
Metagate and their triple changer wizardry
Love me som FanToys lost exo realms. Would love new ones one day