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Third Party Bionicle Sets?


MitriX75

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So...If any of you are Transformers fans, you may know about the rapid rise of third party companies and their plethora of products. If you do not know what I'm talking about, third party products are products produced by companies completely separate from the official company. (In Transformers case, Hasbro). These products are usually higher quality figures that fans want to own or sometimes even supplements to officially licensed figures. I'm pretty sure everyone out there wants at least one set of either a character that was never represented as a set by lego, or perhaps an updated version of a previously released set.

 

 

Now, my question. Can you see third company parties rising up in the future? I mean it wouldn't be too hard for a fully fledged company to make sets (considering the average amount of time/money/engineering that goes into making 3rd party tformers, bionicle sets aren't stretching the imagination by any means). Do you think Bionicle has or will ever have a big enough fandom to necessitate the formation of a third party company? And if this hypothetical company did produce sets, would you buy them? Or would you remain loyal to Lego?

Edited by MitriX75

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As a collector of action figures, having different 'brands' of figures can sometimes be a nightmare. Because you have a line made by, lets say Hasbro like you mentioned, which could easily consist of 18+ figures a year, and you have the Lego brand Bionicles to worry about too.

Now, having more sets isn't a bad thing, but I can see having so many different figures at once putting a lot of strain on the wallet.

Edited by Chasm

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As a collector of action figures, having different 'brands' of a figure can sometimes be a nightmare. Because you have a line made by, lets say Hasbro like you mentioned, which could easily consist of 18+ figures a year, and you have the Lego brand Bionicles to worry about too.

Now, having more sets isn't a bad thing, but I can see having so many different figures at once putting a lot of strain on the wallet.

Oh this IS a definite issue in the transformers community. I've heard of many people buying only one or two 3rd party figs out of the maybe 20-30 sets the companies have to offer. It makes sense especially considering the avg. price of a Third party transformer figure is $80-$120! Now, I'd like to believe a third party bionicle set would cost much less. But I definitely see your point. Edited by MitriX75

"It's got a great defense mechanism... you don't dare kill it..."

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Third party Bionicle will likely never take off simply because MOCing exists. When Bionicle fans want something more than the official sets offer, they build it themselves. That's because Lego isn't selling individual action figures. They're selling a building system that's inherently customizable. The only thing I could really see sold are a few custom parts, or custom instructions, as have been done with Lego before. The distribution of full-scale sets would be impractical and likely run into legal trouble depending on how it's handled. I really could not imagine myself buying what amounts to a fan-made bootleg.

Edited by Pranciblad
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Third party Bionicle will likely never take off simply because MOCing exists. When Bionicle fans want something more than the official sets offer, they build it themselves. That's because Lego isn't selling individual action figures. They're selling a building system that's inherently customizable. The only thing I could really see sold are a few custom parts, or custom instructions, as have been done with Lego before. The distribution of full-scale sets would be impractical and likely run into legal trouble depending on how it's handled. I really could not imagine myself buying what amounts to a fan-made bootleg.

That's a really good point. Full sets may be more trouble their they're worth. But what if, hypothetically, a 3rd party company came up with their own building system? One that either rivals or improves on the CCBS while still being compatible. What if said system consisted of parts fans have always wanted. For example, a unique torso piece, leg/arm pieces, or armor pieces. Or heck, maybe even new kanohi compatible with Lego heads. And if this is too much of a stretch, I could still totally see a third party company selling soley the armor, weapons, and kanohi we've always wanted.

"It's got a great defense mechanism... you don't dare kill it..."

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Other than custom Kanohi (Mask of Helaing, Mask of Adaption, VNOG-style Ignika, etc.) and parts that don't exist in the actual Lego sets, I don't think 3rd-party sets would sell that well due to Bionicle being buildable action figures. Most characters that don't exist in set form can be built out of parts from other sets. I would only buy a 3rd party set if it only used un-official parts when there is no official Lego part for something. So no copies of existing parts. Only 3rd-party-made parts would be custom ones like a new head/mask/hand-with-articulated-fingers/etc. I don't want to get non-Legos mixed with my real ones when they look identical, because I won't be able to tell the difference.

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