Hi guys!

 

I have been mulling over this Alt. Prowl thing all day now. It has already been beaten to death, I know... but I am still on the fence about him.

 

I am by no means a G1 purist - well, actually I used to be - but the newer figures with the added realism and articulation have swayed my opinion. I actually prefer the newer ones to the old. (I have been turned to the dark side!) :clap

 

However... has anyone noticed the similarity of this:

 

http://www.transformertoys.co.uk/image.php...NLLKkhXsq4FAA==

 

To this?

 

http://TFormers.com/ig.php?mode=view&album...ize=800&start=0

 

Maybe the prowl is the KO ths time, and not Happy Well toys?

 

Just a thought...

-Joe

and perhaps hasbro stole the Armada megatron and Quake molds from them too ;) and Macross pinched the VF1 design :P

Meh, I don't care. I wanted both anyway. :)

And maybe... just maybe -

 

Hasbro owns Happy Well, and pockets all the money anyways? :tfmad

Since we're just seeing Prowl now, is it safe to assume that Hastak sold the design before their own toy came about, and should we be expecting an Alt SUV now?

How are licensed toys knock-offs...? :tfhuh

I think he's talking about the general design / transformation. And I agree that they are suspiciously similar. However, my guess is that the HasTak one was designed first. We're only seeing Prowl now, but we have no idea how long the design has been around for.

It seems as though sarcasm doesn't bode well when typed. :tftongue

 

I was merely stating that it is strange that we see a Happy Well prototype about a month back, and now we see a new HASBRO Alt. Prowl with a very similar robot scheme.

 

I was being rhetorical, in a "which came first" sort of way.

It seems as though sarcasm doesn't bode well when typed. :tftongue

 

I was merely stating that it is strange that we see a Happy Well prototype about a month back, and now we see a new HASBRO Alt. Prowl with a very similar robot scheme.

 

I was being rhetorical, in a "which came first" sort of way.

You forgot to use the sarcasm tags...

I think he's talking about the general design / transformation. And I agree that they are suspiciously similar. However, my guess is that the HasTak one was designed first. We're only seeing Prowl now, but we have no idea how long the design has been around for.

I seem to recall it being mentioned that HasTak had prototypes of a number of cars for which they didn't yet have licenses - such as Bumblebee as a VW.

 

Doing this isn't a bad idea, it can help with the licensing if you have a physical example to show the car company representatives. And to avoid losing out on the expense of building the prototype, it's likely when they build the prototypes they take into consideration the overall shape/style type of that car and have back-up cars that could use the exact same transformation scheme - so the entire exercise isn't futile. For instance, they could have built the Viper prototype, and been unable to secure licensing from DaimlerChrysler - in this case they could have quickily flipped that design into the Honda S2000, as overall the cars are very similar in shape (long hood, convertible, etc.).

 

Considering the less than secure IP environment of China - it doesn't surprise me that we're seeing KO manufacturers now using designs that we haven't even seen in the "real" line yet - probably because the legal wrangling for the official licencing requirements for lines coming from two companys (Hasbro and Takara) in various countries is more time consuming.