COUNTDOWN: 5 game-changing 3PMP toys

The story of unofficial “third party” transforming robots is long and complex, with as many giddying highs as crushing lows.

Yet regardless of how much attention you pay to the 3P scene or how “legitimate” you consider it to be, there’s little doubt that it’s had an enormous impact on the way many of us collect over the years and even influenced the direction of official toys in some very distinct and palpable respects along the way. Specific individual releases have led the charge in that regard, especially during a particular five-year period from 2013 onwards.

So today, let’s look at five absolute game-changers in the third-party world from over that time, specifically related to Generation 1 Masterpiece-style collecting and ranked in order of release. Note that we’re not talking about “the best” figures of the era, just those that were hugely influential in whatever way.

#5: FansToys Quakewave (2013)

Though FansToys Quakewave may have become “obsolete” in the eyes of many collectors in recent years, make no mistake that this was the very definition of a game-changer on release. Sure, third-party Transformers toys were already very much a thing in 2013. Still, this figure almost single-handedly brought about a significant shift in collecting, leading to the vast majority of the unofficial scene skewing towards Masterpiece-styled toys from this moment forward. This was the first 3P figure that could legitimately stand toe-to-toe with your official Masterpiece toys, filling out your ranks in a way previously not thought possible and perfectly tantalising about where things might go from here on out. Following its 2011 ‘reboot’ of sorts, Masterpiece 2.0 may have been in full swing at this point, but it was already clear that it could never move fast enough for the appetites of many collectors, and Quakewave was the first indication that 3P could fill in those blanks. Again, it’s been surpassed since, but for many, this was simply the gateway drug to yet more unofficial Transformers collecting at the time.

#4: FansToys Scoria (2014)

To this day, I can distinctly remember seeing the FansToys Scoria prototype pictures for the first time. Strange as it might sound to some now, it ranks up there with the most exciting moments in my collecting history, and for good reason. If Quakewave started this whole ebb towards Masterpiece-style dominating the 3P world for a good while there, Scoria is the figure that opened the floodgates. In many ways, Quakewave alone isn’t quite the whole story, as the one-two punch of both figures in relatively quick succession is what truly changed the game. Where Quakewave made collectors sit up and wonder what might happen next, Scoria was the firm proof of concept, the true sign that things were shifting in a new and exciting direction. Not only was it incredible to see a fully-realised Masterpiece-styled Slag all by itself, but the prospect of the rest of the Dinobots being given the same treatment before too long was enough to blow our brains. What a time it was.

#3: X-Transbots Apollyon (2015)

One of the most notorious 3P figures of all time, X-Transbots Apollyon is nonetheless hugely significant. Like Quakewave, many will credit this toy as the release that first tempted them down the unofficial rabbit hole, not least because of how important a gap it filled in their collections. Let’s put that into context: this was several years before the official MP-36 take on Megatron, and at this point, it felt like TakaraTomy was unlikely to ever tackle the maniacal despot in Masterpiece-style at all. That left collectors with the genuine possibility of a fully-fleshed-out Autobot crew left to stand off against the likes of Soundwave, Starscream and (unofficially at least) Shockwave. Yet despite that, the notion that any 3P outfit would be ballsy enough to make a Megatron (especially one complete with a Walther alternate mode) was somehow unthinkable… until it wasn’t. It’s hard now to understand how massive the hype around this figure was on its way to release, and even though it was sadly plagued with some very notable quality control problems once it made it into collector’s hands, it remains a solidly influential part of 3PMP collecting at the time.

#2: Toyworld Constructor (2016)

One thing that even now surprises me whilst putting this list together is the timeline of releases. The idea that something like Toyworld Constructor followed the year after the likes of X-Transbots Apollyon is almost beyond belief. Still, it should be a solid indicator of just how much everything snowballed after the unofficial Megatron effort. To say things went up a notch is an understatement of the highest order, as this hulking combiner effort will no doubt testify! Sure, there had been 3P combiners before – lots of them! However, this was the one that considerably upped the stakes (and the size), delivering a fully-articulated and (crucially) solid combined robot form that fell in scale with your standard Masterpiece figures. At roughly twenty inches tall, Constructor was the gigantic representation of Devastator that many of us had been dreaming of since the notion of a complete Masterpiece collection first appeared, and it immediately made previous much smaller combiner attempts feel obsolete in some way. Sure, the individual ‘bots didn’t quite match up to the cartoon aesthetic many of us were after and yes, there was a heavy dose of rather extreme partsforming required to achieve the end result but wow, what a thing this was to behold. There’s a reason this is the gold standard of 3PMP Devastators in many collectors’ eyes (although there are some attempts to surpass it on the horizon as we speak), and especially as it paved the way for all of the more sizeable efforts from the likes of Zeta Toys and X-Transbots that we’re now so accustomed to.

#1: Maketoys Meteor (2017)

Our final entry is yet further evidence of how much the whole arena of Masterpiece collecting changed in just five years. What began with Quakewave in 2013 had already burgeoned to unimaginable lengths within a significantly short span, with the sheer proliferation of unofficial product being something no one could have predicted and enthusiasm for more still at fever pitch. Yet somehow, the game was set to be changed again, as Maketoys took the bold move to debut their take on a G1 Starscream that not only challenged the already well-established official figure in many people’s collections but not-so-subtly showed that third-party producers were firmly keeping their eyes on what TakaraTomy’s line was perhaps missing out on. After all, MP-11 was a release that seemed to age like milk, not least because the style of the line swiftly moved on to ever-more slavishly cartoon-accurate fare, leaving its notably greebly aesthetic at odds with the toys we were now filling our shelves with. Meteor was evidence that as much as the official line was evolving, so too could third-party shift to keep up with it, matching the smoother and softer appearance of newer designs like MP-27 Ironhide, MP-33 Inferno and yes, MP-36 Megatron. Though it was the first 3P figure to attempt such a move, it proved to be a successful gamble, as the updated style and superior articulation on offer soon meant that many fans were supplanting the legit Starscream in their collections. As further proof of just how in demand this design became, I’m not exaggerating when I say that at one point, sets of Metor and its two Thundercracker and Skywarp-styled repaints were effortlessly commanding sums of around $900 on the second-hand market. It’s all changed now, of course, but for a time, this figure was the one everybody was screaming for.

So that’s our list! What other 3PMP toys were as significant as these, in your opinion?

TTFN