Mech iDeas Announces and Cancels Unofficial Transformers Huffer and Pipes Toys
Announcing the Techno Toons Titans earlier this week, Mech iDeas presented images of two completely unofficial Transformers toys in an animated style. The set of two was listed for $63 at the Big Bad Toy Store site . . . and I say listed because they’re already cancelled.
It is with a heavy heart that we have to confirm the rumors that the Techno Toon Titans line will not be going forward at this point. We are aware that this may be seen as premature, but history has shown that day one preorders are a significant indicator of how a product will sell, and even after two days we are not anywhere close to the benchmarks needed to move forward with production.
We strongly believe in this project, and hope that one day we can find a market to support creative efforts that stray from the G1-era of characters and designs, but it seems like today is not that day. There is a possibility that, much like Gauntlet, this project will see a resurrection at a later date, but for now it is indefinitely on hold.
Due to this matter we unfortunately must cancel our preorders since the item will no longer be released. We do apologize for this matter and greatly appreciate your understanding. If this product is re-solicited in the future we will be sure to publish it on our website once again.
That’s very sad, but also understandable. What I find most interesting is that the one day pre-order measure is used so very heavily for such things, telling me that fans of third party Transformers toys need to be on top of announcements and ready to pre-order instantly, otherwise toys may die before they even exist. And that, to me, is the most important bit of this sequence of announce/cancel that’s happened this week.
Related articles
- X-Transbots Unofficial Transformers Huffer and Pipes (battlegrip.com)
- Cubix Old Timer Series: Huff (paxcybertron.com)
- TFCon 2013 Mech iDeas Exclusive – Prototype X & Project Z (paxcybertron.com)
Thats disappointing. I had no plans to order them myself but they are nifty little designs and I think it was exciting to see TF:Animated (by far my favorite incarnation of Transformers since Beast Wars) get some 3P love.
Were these Huffer and Pipes figures supposed to look like robot versions of Mario and Luigi? Because that’s what my eyes saw. These designs didn’t evoke the G1 characters very much for me.
But this gives me an idea – you could include a section on unproduced third party toys in your next book!
@Kevin – Unproduced toys is a fun idea. The challenge would be securing both permissions and high-resolution photos for the book. I suspect the manufacturers aren’t all that willing to work with me; they probably want the “mistakes” forgotten.
So bummed that these are not coming out. I was interested in them but I did not want to put in a pre-order until I saw color shots.
I guess I could have went ahead and pre- ordered and cancelled later but I think that is a bad practice
@mazintotoro – I do worry about the need to get enough pre-orders on Day One to decide if they continue or not. Not everyone is online all the time, is able to just pre-order without planning, or willing to pre-order before seeing — as you said — color images.
I wasn’t interested in these particular figures, but as a fan of Mech iDeas’ Jumpstarters and someone who is looking forward to their upcoming Ironfist (aka Fisitron) I find this news disheartening.
Oddly, TF Source mentioned via Twitter that they contacted Mi about these figures and were informed they were BBTS exclusives, declining their offer. That seems like a pretty odd business strategy.
Phil, would you need permission from the companies if you secured, for example, photos someone took of prototypes at a toy show?