They've probably been working on their design for a while.  This is one of the reasons companies don't like to sign NDAs if you're showing them design work.  It has less to do with they're attempting to rip you off or "steal your idea" and more to do with protecting their business interests.

 

For instance:

(1) Let's say your Rodimus truck was actually designed by WraithVerge.  Let's also say that Wraith is in the process of patenting his transformation design (and he did everything right and well so he's gonna get it), and unbeknownst to Wraith you take his design, show it to Hasbro who buys it or hires you to work for them.  Hasbro then proceeds to sell a bunch of these Rodimus toys.  Wraith suddenly turns around and says, hey wtf, and sues Hasbro.  You just sold Hasbro a lawsuit-waiting-to-happen; perhaps they fire or sue you in return; suddenly it's Litigation City.  This whole scenario could play out in any number of ways and most of them would be bad for most parties.

 

(2) You secure the patent, or whatever other rights are relevant, before you go to Hasbro.  If you can establish to them that the design is owned by you and you have the right to sell it to them, that it's something they can use in their business, and they're willing to pay you more than it cost you, you have a much more useful asset.  Here you're selling them intellectual property that they would be taking advantage of.

 

The fact is if you go to them with just your kitbash like in (1), they don't know you from Adam.  And just because some guy off the street they don't know claims to having made your Rodimus truck offers them very little.  Intellectual property is what's marketable and has value.  Of course, IP can get pretty expensive if you're gonna try to do it yourself.  And because those are generally the steps they would have to go through anyway themselves when coming up with new toy designs, particularly since they farm the manufacturing out to third parties.  They may have better processes for going through all that than you do and it may generally be cheaper for them to do it too.

 

You could potentially argue that they "stole your idea".  But in order to get patents granted, I believe you're required to have not generally shown your design to the public or anyone else other than related business parties like your IP attorney and such.  The fact that Hasbro/Takara have released photos of their prototype suggests that they may already have a patent for their design and transformation, so even if you had people on this forum willing to say they saw your red truck first, it's not likely to mean much.  Beyond that, you're probably a small-time individual enthusiast like the rest of us and aren't overbrimming with the financial resources to spend on intellectual property lawsuits that you're likely to lose, especially against established businesses (we'll ignore whatever faults and setbacks Hasbro may have had).

 

Applying for a design position with them might be simpler.  You could package up your design sketches and any other work you did during the building of your Rodimus, along with your prototype as part of your portfolio and send in a resume.  In this case though, you're not trying to sell them a capital asset but your labor.  And here, you need to be able to convince them that you fit in to their entire business process as a designer, be it ability to make sketches, concept drawings, technical drawings, or whatever skills might be needed.

Yeah, pretty much what Glue said. I can definitely see the similarities in engineering between the two toys - both has that RID Scourge transformation going on there.

Beyond that, while your custom work is great, the "let's add a truck to the BT/Alts line" isn't an idea that's really defensibly unique or original.  I mean could you really see yourself convincing any judge that such an idea never occurred to anyone working for Hasbro? ^^

great rodimus. if can make alt or bt mold like G1 style

Well Glue the idea isn`t to try and sue them it`s simply to try and get a job working for them. Yes I was ticked at first but then I had the idea that I may be able to use this to my advantage. That`s all. I`ve been working on mine for almost a year now and I just about finished with him.

When I saw This Prime I immediately thought of your Rodimus. I think they've had this Dodge Ram in the works for over a year though.

Well Glue the idea isn`t to try and sue them it`s simply to try and get a job working for them. Yes I was ticked at first but then I had the idea that I may be able to use this to my advantage. That`s all. I`ve been working on mine for almost a year now and I just about finished with him.

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Portfolio then.  I saw "do I have a case" in the subtext of the subject, so that's what I thought of.  And yeah, hehe, I've lost count of the ways I've felt like that.  But I figured the info is useful too in knowing what's needed if and when one ever decides to get serious about taking their work in that direction.

 

By the way, the latest posting on Hasbro's job site seems to be the closest to what ye have in mind:

9/22/2005 Product Design Engineer

http://www.hasbro.com/careers/careers.html

Well Glue the idea isn`t to try and sue them it`s simply to try and get a job working for them. Yes I was ticked at first but then I had the idea that I may be able to use this to my advantage. That`s all. I`ve been working on mine for almost a year now and I just about finished with him.

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I think there are ALOT of people are wanting to work for Hasbro as a designer.  Are you looking to work as a designer or engineer?  According to their panel, Hasbro does alot of the designing and concept stuff whereas Takara does the actual figuring out the transformation and making the actual product (prototype).  BTW, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Aaron that Don F. does quite a bit of concepting drawing for their design ideas.  Not just Cybertron Starscream which is a straight rip from TWW Starscream but he also drew the concept arts for other Cybertron stuff (don't remember which ones exactly).  Anyways I'm glad they employ him (as an outside concept artist).

 

Yeah, I don't when you started your Rod VTS, but I remember reading about rumors of a red pick up truck for probably a year now.

I say you don't have a case for trying to land a job.  Hasbro and Takara have a lot of really talented and experienced designers and engineers, and there's plenty of kitbashers out there with much potential and work to show for it. 

 

I'm going to have to point out that your Rodimus is not the best of what's out there; It makes many concessions and it did take you *a lot* of revisions and trials & errors to even get it where it is now.  Has/Tak on the other hand probably whipped up Alt Prime's design back when they were trying to get the liscence from Dodge in Feb '04.  It's a very concise design and fits cleanly in with the style and mechanics of the alternators line.  yours really only resembles their in the chest, and that's out of pure necessity. You've got enough skill to do your own kitbashes, but I'm more than certain they're looking for people with far more experience, skill, and background than what's necessary for that. 

 

Hell, they fact that TFMaster or VP isn't working for them yet says a ton.

Thanks for all of the comments and advise guys. I`m still waiting to hear back from Hasbro although as Utsanomiko meantionedI do need to build my skills a little bit more before looking to such lofty heights. I do find it odd though that they chose to have the front fenders up as his shoulders rather than either hanging down w/ the hood or connected to the back of the fore arms or something. I don`t know but it looks like they tryed to do the same thing I did with the front end on mine but couldn`t figure out how I did it. So unless they say come on up and show us what you`ve got I`ll hold off on getting my hopes up until I get more kitbashes under my belt.