Are Kiss Play toys worthless now?

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:01 am

I have to admit it has been a long time since I was really knowledgeable about the prices of Transformers on the secondary market, but I've been trying to sell Kiss Players Convoy and Autolooper with no success.

A quick look at ended auctions on eBay show an average ending price of around $90 on the low end. Which is a lot less than they were when I bought them, I recall paying over $100 a piece for them.

However I been trying to auction them off and started with an $80 price and then dropped to $75, and finally $70. Still not one bid, several people watching the auctions until completion, but no bids.

So are these just worthless now and only a small amount of individuals want them, or just my characteristic bad luck? Any thoughts or suggestions? I don't really want to just give them away, but I need money pretty bad, and I've sold most everything else except a few sentimental toys.

Post by **Warcry** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:09 am

Alternators and Binaltech aren't as sought-after now as they were a few years ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if Kiss Players stuff has gone down in price. The 1/24 cars were the fandom's darling a few years back, but Transformers fans have a tendency to move on to "the next big thing" and forget about the stuff they were in love with just a few years ago. Only G1 is immune to that sort of thing, because it's G1.

I'm not into Kiss Players stuff myself (well, I do kinda want Glit but that's entirely your fault

) so I can't comment on those prices in particular, but just looking at general trends it's not a surprise at all that prices have dropped and fewer people are bidding on them than when you first bought them.

Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:24 am

Just had a quick glance around ebay's UK listings. Most Alternators toys are going for around the £15 - £20 mark, with some notable exceptions (Rodimus, Sunstreaker). Binaltech seems pretty steady, generally around the £50 - £60 mark (which is about what they cost on import, if memory serves), but I'll chalk that up to them being import toys and not widely available in the UK (at least) and slightly more disireable due to both the die-cast and the wider range of characters avaialble (UK shelves were choked with Alternators Shockblast, Swindle, Dead End and Smokescreen). Kiss Players seem to be hitting around the same target mark of £60 at auction, but there are a number of BiNs asking for anything up to £100, which would suggest that some sellers are expecting the same levels of interest as five - six years ago, in direct contrast to how the market for these figures has generally declined. Or at least consumer willingness to pay a premium for a dodgy child porn toyline.

Alternity, the 1:32 scale line that replaced this seems to have few auctions, with most figures on BIN Import for anything between £60 - £80. So make of that what you will (I'd guess smaller line with lower production runs).

I suspect as Warcry says, fandom so quickly moves onto the next big thing, but one can't underestimate the impact Classics and its follow on permutations have had on the popularity of Alts/Binaltechs/KPs. Alts and so forth did such roaring trade because they were based on beloved G1 characters , and for a lot of fans, the G1 aesthetic is what they're most interested in and anything that recaptures that that doesn't result in having to pay a fortune for a vintage toy is likely to be more of interest and in higher demand. That's why Classics toys now fetch a good return when sold on.

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:50 pm

Warcry wrote:I'm not into Kiss Players stuff myself (well, I do kinda want Glit but that's entirely your fault )

Guilty as charged... and that set of figures is really cheap these days too. I'm not looking to sell those, just because of Glit, and the fact that they aren't worth hardly anything at all now.

IDK.. I guess I'll keep trying, lower the costs a little more and lower shipping, maybe something will happen. The only other ace in the hole I have is my Animated collection. I don't really want to sell them, but if it comes down to it, and it likely will, I'll have to part with them. I still have most of my Classics figures, but have sold off a lot of the ones that were worth anything decent.

If I do start selling Classics stuff I'll give you a heads up Warcry, assuming you never got a Skywarp, and I know you used to try and get me to sell mine all the time

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:23 am

I don't own any Kiss-play toys but I do have many Alternators, They were excellent in their time but mostly haven't aged well.

Likewise, Kiss-Play Convoy being a subtle redeco of Alternators Optimus likely leads to driving his price down.

I think Alternators were the Masterpiece toys of their time, but Masterpiece is slowly replacing them. That is also driving demand down.

Would you rather have an Alternators Sideswipe or Masterpiece Sideswipe?
-I know which one is getting replaced on my shelf.

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:00 am

another tf fan wrote:Would you rather have an Alternators Sideswipe or Masterpiece Sideswipe?
-I know which one is getting replaced on my shelf.

Alternators Sideswipe is horrible, though. When they make the inevitable Masterpiece Datsuns, I'd be really surprised if it was good enough to supersede the Alternators versions of Smokescreen or Bluestreak. It'll be more Geewun, sure, but better? That'd be a tall order. I'd agree that a lot of them have lost some of their shine as time has rolled on and toy design has improved, but the good stuff still has staying power.

But Prime in particular probably suffers a lot from what you're talking about. The Ram mold was never the best, and there's just been so many good Optimus toys since then...

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:21 pm

Ackula wrote:never got a Skywarp

Probably only going to be worth anything until the set of Starscream / Thundercracker / Skywarp comes out.

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:23 pm

Denyer wrote:Probably only going to be worth anything until the set of Starscream / Thundercracker / Skywarp comes out.

Had no idea such a set was coming out. I really am clueless as to whats coming out anymore, all I ever see in the stores are those Prime toys, which don't interest me in the least.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:15 pm

Not coming out in the US/UK AFAIK, but considering the premium Skywarp started attracting after the two-pack came and went there'll probably be a lot of people splitting the Asia one.

Actually, pretty much **** all comes out in the UK... it's like they've stopped trying. Even in the US new moulds get held back for the end of lines.

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:11 pm

Hmm, guess I'll try to sell Skywarp then....

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:19 pm

Denyer wrote:Not coming out in the US/UK AFAIK, but considering the premium Skywarp started attracting after the two-pack came and went there'll probably be a lot of people splitting the Asia one.

Actually, pretty much **** all comes out in the UK... it's like they've stopped trying. Even in the US new moulds get held back for the end of lines.

What about all those Bumblebees?

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:56 am

Well I finally sold Convoy for $60, and have offers up to $40 on Autolooper, but I really want to get at least $50 out of it. Just really is a trip how much these things have went down in value though. All sort of makes sense though after reading through this thread and considering the age and design of toys.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:56 pm

another tf fan wrote:What about all those Bumblebees?

Someone, somewhere thinks there's a kid without one that wants one... and sure, I can see why it's worth producing more of some characters, but Hasbro have become Mattel on this one.