So I'm randomly noticing the metric crapton of Transformers being produced by 3rd-party companies (plural!), and wondering why the crossover Joe/COBRA Transformers aren't getting made. I can't imagine that fitting an 18th scale seat/cockpit into the TFing-necessary engineering is so difficult to render all of them non-starters. Does nobody think there'd be a big a enough market for them? Has nobody even thought of doing them?

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Haven't seen any in all my searches. The problem is the two communities don't overlap right now. Transformers collectors (for the most part) want CHUG or Masterpiece exclusively, and not cross-overs or additions. Some do, of course, but not that many. And in the Joe community, there are guys who clamor for TF cross-overs, but not enough to really get them to sell, especially when you figure that the average 3P piece goes for $70+. Not that many people in the Joe community would swing that (actually, probably closer to $100+ if you want articulation) for a piece that isn't really their main interest.

Agreed.
And if you are looking for actual 1/18 scale 3P vehicles that transform, you're looking at at least $200 dollars. Probably a lot more depending on the vehicle.

With these products I would guess, in general:
-Transformer collectors would have the will to spend that kind of $$ on Transformers, but not the desire to purchase these products.
-GI Joe collectors would have the desire to purchase these products, but not the will to spend that kind of $$ on Transformers.

Obvioulsly there would be some who fall right in the middle, and would snatch these right up, but I think they would be the minority.

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Yeah, you're right. I was being a bit conservative and going more with "Joe scale" than true 1:18, so you could have, say, a Wolverine that transformed and it wouldn't be about the same amount of parts and materials as Citizen Stack or Kronos, both of whom fall in the $150-$200 range. But a true 1:18 vehicle or even larger Joe vehicle would definitely fall into the price range of the almost a full combiner, such as War Lord and go for north of $200.

I'm probably in the minority here, but the idea of 1:18 Transformers has never really appealed to me. I most likely wouldn't display them in vehicle mode and in robot mode, they'd be a bit bigger than I would prefer. The Masterpiece Prime is about as big as I would want him to be if he were displayed alongside my Joe figs. And given how much Masterpiece TF's cost, a Joe-scale robot would probably cost a decent amount more.

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Man, with all this cynicism; I can see why it doesn't happen, lol. Didn't Frenzy/Rumble turn into Trouble Bubbles? That would be the perfect place to guage the market, imho. I'd pay $40 for a COBRA blue Flight Pod that turned into Frenzy, easy.

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Heh, mine's not so much cynicism as it's being a non-posting member of various TF boards. Those guys are nuts about their TFs to the point that I just don't see them wanting the Joeformers. They're pitching a fit now because a 3P version of Skyfire requires you to take his backpack off to transform him - calling the figure a turd and a partsformer, even though he looks just like the animation models in both modes.


ETA: I'd love some transforming Joe vehicles. I'm trying to get a CAD guy I know to do some printable designs for me just so I can have them in my personal collection. I've always wanted some, with various bots and cons getting upgrades or enhancements into different forms. But a lot of guys don't believe in crossing the streams.

You'd be willing to pay $40, but they'd probably end up costing closer to $80-$100.


Yeah, I try to stay out of that thread, due to all the hissy fits and bickering that is on almost every single page of it.
TF collectors can be VERY 'passionate' and VERY 'polarized'.

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I would think someone would at least try one to test the waters-- like Veidt said--a small vehicle like a Trouble Bubble. But Joe collectors are pretty cheap and I don't see it selling for what it would cost.

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Not an awful lot of mass in a Trouble Bubble to pack in a robot....


But considering the "not-Rolling Thunder not-Optimus Prime" pretty much flopped, third partiers probably aren't interested in doing more Joe-based stuff.

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Um, what "not-Rolling Thunder not-Optimus Prime"? Was it 18th? If not, it's of no more relevance than that Autobot that turned into the SnowCat, imho.

I'd think a human-sized Frenzy out of a TB would be easy. The difficult bit would be using the dome in bot mode, but the rest of it would basically be Frenzy flying backwards with his limbs bent behind him to form the side panels to the seat and the underwear mechanicals. Use the engines as his pounder-forearms. They make 18th motorcycle TFs that come out human-sized practically every year.

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I'd love a few the way Phanto's makes them..... but yea don't see them selling cheap either though...

we kind of discussed it over on the Overlord thread as well viewtopic.php?f=10&t=37172&hilit=Overlord

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