POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Tantrum »

SS '86 Sweep - I may have seen Scourge in store once, didn't get him. Now that I have Cyclonus, this guy seemed more appealing. I'm still not interested in Kingdom Galvatrom, though. The old Energon figure will do nicely.

Cyberverse Arcee - Another figure I passed on at $20 (with Maccaddam part) but bought at $13. This is my first non-brick-built Arcee.
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Clay
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Clay »

I got a Studio Cell Pumpkin about a month or more ago (Unicron). I only just now put him into planet mode.

Any reservations I may have had regarding the price (about $400 in the States, which is still only 2/3s the Hasbro Unicron's MSRP) have been quelled by experiencing the transformation.

Honestly, it's an obscure and profane witchcraft like the kind you'd find in the non-Euclidian geometry of the sunken city of R'lyeh where dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. It's absolutely bonkers. I mean, seriously. Perfect sphere in planet mode, super-accurate robot mode, no-kibble, no parts-forming. The people that designed this need a cookie.

Also, I found a studio series Gnaw a week or more ago. His robot mode's cute. It's like he's wearing Uggs.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Maybe Studio Cell can take a crack at Arcee. I knew the Cyberverse toy had a backpack. I just expected some effort be put into compacting it. The rear wheels fold into the cockpit, but that just means the cockpit sticks out farther behind the bot. Plus, the transformation puts quite a bit of stress on clear plastic.

The part of the bot that isn't backpack looks great, especially the face sculpt. The alt mode looks good and rolls well, though you can clearly see the folded up legs in the cockpit. I saw an Arcee design where the legs actually became the sides of the car, which solves a lot of problems. This was made less good in the T30 Acree, then abandoned entirely.

Gigawatt - I haven't opened this yet. I was visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, and they wanted ideas for birthday/Christmas gifts for me. I went on Amazon and found someone selling this guy for US$33, so I added it to their cart, along with a Rick and Morty comic I'd missed. Then, I saw him at a comic shop for $43, and was glad I'd found it on Amazon when I did.

A couple days later, it was still in the cart, because there wasn't enough to qualify for free shipping. The day after that, all that was in the cart was the comic. I don't know if my parents had bought the figure already, or if that seller had sold out. I was sick of thinking about this, so I went back to the comic shop and bought him. Worst case scenario, I end up with 2, and I'm a big enough BttF and TF fan that I'm OK with that.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Tracks, Wingfinger and Studio Series Jolt (Revenge of the Fallen) - From Big W, while discounted.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Bumblebee with Sam (Revenge of the Fallen), Earthrise Scorponok - From Amazon AU during Black Friday Sale.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Hasbro Pulse Con Exclusive Predacon Ravage Decepticons Forever Beast Wars Ravage Decepticon Cassette Ravage Does This Have Enough Words Yet?
The overkeen Hasbro delivered this next day, little realising I'm not a frothing fanboy who wants everything right now because God Hasbro, don't you understand the fans? Which feels like a sneaky attempt to steal custom away from other retailers. That aside, this is a nice figure. It's the Kingdom Cheetor mould, with a bit of retooling, so it's not an instant classic, but as with Shadow Panther, the black deco hides a multitude of sins. Comes with the 94th reissue of the G1 toy too, but this is done very nicely. The tampographing is nice a crisp and very vibrant. Only the cheap die-cast which suffers the same burnishing problem JBalvintron has lets him down.

Kingdom Waspinator
Better than expected, is my verdict. The T30 figure has this beat in terms of colour and sculpt and all the rest, but this isn't so bad. It has a lot of the same shared DNA of that earlier design, so you can work out the Transformation without the instructions if you're familiar with that earlier toy. It's a nice small deluxe, but ultimately I'm left with the same feeling of crushing inevitability I do for a lot of these Generations type figures.

Golden Disk Collection Jackpot and uh, the bird creature
What could have been an excellent figure is spolit somewhat by Hasbro's decision to have the head moulded in two halves down the centre of his head, so he looks like he's been a terrible accident and had his head glued back together as best as possible. This has been moaned about to high heaven online, but it's not so bad. What I do feel is that the head feels a bit narrow and small. Jackpot's head is basically a dynamic shoebox, and to make it work on the SS86 Jazz body, they've had to fudge it a bit and it looks a bit funny to me. Colours on the toy are brilliant and this is a solid figure all the same. The bird axe lad is great (amazing what a colour swap will do to a mediocre Battle Master) and Jackpot also has a blue gun. Nice. Despite being a slight disappointment, he's alright and a bet if Hasbro wanted, they could give us Rad with just a cheeky repaint of Jackpot.

It's 1988 and ugly is in!

Wearing of Hasbro's never-ending recycling of past glories, I thought I'd actually look at some past glories. I've been rewatching Masterforce which has lead me into picking up a sampling of figures from 1988. Don't get excited, its just the regular western stuff.

Can't remember if I posted about these before, but Submarauder has always been my favourite Pretender and I got a surprisingly nice condition one. I love the big sea monster shell and the silly pink robot.

To go up against him, I've got Waverider; the only one of the original Autobot Pretenders to not get much panel time in the Marvel Comics. He's actually one of the few inner robots that looks passable in alt mode as some sort of craft. Shell is alright, but like all these Autobot shells, it's a bit boring, lacking the wigged out craziness of the Decepticons.

Slapdash Holy crap, this guy is fantastic! He's daft and chunky and has a really clever transformation. The colours are nice and bright too. I like the toy's face plated head over the squarer effort used in the comics. I've always passed up the Autobot Powermasters as they've never looked that great, but I've been really impressed with Slapdash. Lube is a man that turns into a engine.

Landfill and the two wee fellas turn into guns
The Autobot Double Targetmasters are kind of forgettable (well apart from Scoop, who got a latter day makeover by IDW as a Wrecker and Soothsayer). Landfill's the nicest of the bunch as he feels solid, has a nice transformation and doesn't look like absolute crap in robot mode, despite his tiny head. The Targetmasters that have names are fun little things and I like you plug them together to make a MEGA GUN.

Ruckus I sold my one and bought another. Sigh. Collecting's a silly business. He's pretty cheap on the aftermarket as no one cares, but I think he is pretty frickin' ace. Really cool design, nice and chunky and turns into a cool looking dune buggy.

Quake and his two chums that also turn into guns
Yeah, the Titans Return figure is great and all that, but this original version is just so much fun. He's really tall, looks great, has a fun transformation and turns into a shooty tank. I've scored one where the peg whole on the turret hasn't cracked and I know not to fully push in any weapon ports into that hole. I love the colours on this fella. As with Landfill, he's the best of the bad lads DTs and the shooty lads are nicely painted, even if they don't do much.

Squeezeplay w/ Lokos
I've wanted Squeezeplay for the longest time. Like all the smaller Headmasters, he's stupid expensive now, but I held out for one in decent condition at a price I could afford and I'm really happy to finally own him. The alt mode is just the ticket, all claws and jaws and dragging his tail behind him. Robot mode isn't quite as awesome, but it looks good and is such a contrast from the crabby creature mode. I really would have liked it if Hasbro could have spent a few cents on doors to cover the stat meters on the bad lads. They look even more cut-price next to the small Autobot Headmasters. Lokos is cute looking blob and turns into a face. Don't fancy trying to get him to sit in the beast mode's stomach. Looks like something that would just get stuck in there.
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Denyer
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Hasbro Pulse Con Exclusive Predacon Ravage Decepticons Forever Beast Wars Ravage Decepticon Cassette Ravage Does This Have Enough Words Yet?
Cool, didn't realise they were available over here now. edit: Scored an open-boxed one.
Like all the smaller Headmasters, he's stupid expensive now, but I held out for one in decent condition at a price I could afford and I'm really happy to finally own him. [...] They look even more cut-price next to the small Autobot Headmasters.
Mmm. I picked up just the bodies to go with the Titanmaster heads in robot mode, and Horri-Bull took a bit of patience to get even without the bull head. I'd put them in the "charmingly shit" category and they have strong nostalgia from late Marvel and profiles.
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Not newly acquired, but newly opened.

Selects G2 Ramjet - A conehead in black, and Skeletor colors. I own 4 of the Deluxe version, but there's still some surprises. The way the arms fold in is a bit more involved, so there's no forearm gaps. It's not quite as intuitive as the Seige arms, though. There's a lot of detail carved into the bot. Probably too much. It looks like there's a robot face sticking it's tongue out on each forearm.

The jet mode is nice, just lacking the landing gear of the Deluxe. Some of that landing gear was formed by the feet folding up G1 style to reveal the thrusters. Here, the feet fold back behind the jet, and there are no sculpted thrusters. This is Ramjet, so there's thrusters in the wings. But, I assume other versions of this mold have no thrusters.

That said, he's quite good, and I'd be tempted to buy other characters in this mold if I could find them at retail. But, those aren't worth the effort or expense of tracking them down on the aftermarket. Maybe I'll check out the upcoming Leader Starscream, with the cape, crown, and throne.

Kingdom Cyclonus - This might be one of the best designed Transformers I've ever owned. Just enough vehicle mode kibble in bot mode to indicate that this does have a vehicle mode, no kludgy backpack. The only visible hollowness is the back of the thighs, which I think is necessary for transformation.

The jet mode is not of this world, but this is not used as an excuse to be an obvious chunk of folded up robot. If this jet showed up in a non-TF sci-fi series, I'd believe it. Even from below, the only clues that this is a robot are the thigh gap, and hexagons forming his knees and belly button.

The closest things I can find to flaws are the weapon placement in jet mode (which would look better more towards the back), and the fact that I need a pen cap to fold out the tip of the nose cone.

SS '86 Sweep - He's Scourge to me. While Cyclonus is a great example of bot and alt mode integration, this guy is a shellformer and damn proud of it. I wasn't fond of how the bot wings just dangle below the hovercraft until I realized that these are the only points of contact the vehicle has with the ground, which helps sell the whole hover idea.

The bot looks great. The shades of blue are broken up by little splashes of other colors, like the fingernails, and the red dots withing the 5-mm ports on the shoulders and ankles. This is the first TF I've owned where those ports are actually integrated into the bot mode aesthetics.

The exposed face vehicle mode looks bad enough that I haven't bothered trying to do it. The purple blast effect was warped out of the box. Like the other two figures, these are very minor issues.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Mutant Tigatron Tiger Tracks because Grimlock deserves some company in the future apart from others such as Ravage with a Russian accent... and who better than Tracks with a stripy tickle stick and fabulous attitude? Definitely has some Earthforce overtones. My MP Tracks (I forget if it was a KO) has a Classics head, so this more cartoon-influenced one was going spare. It's quite similar to Tigatron's actual head and much better than the battle mask. Currently attached with blu tack rather than clipped on, but it makes the figure feel a lot less like a zoo gift shop KO.

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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Shadow Panther, Waspinator - From Big W.

Battle Across Time Autobot Mirage & Maximal Grimlock, Sideswipe & Maximal Skywarp - Bought through the TCCAs freight forwarding service, J-Mart.

Jurassic Park X Transformers Collaboration: Tyrannocon Rex / Autobot JP93 - This was actually delivered to me from Amazon AU at the $92 preorder price that was likely a mistake.
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Heinrad
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“So all th’ Autobots use shuttles that’re this gold-orange, right?” Rattrap waved a hand around the Ark’s shuttle bay.

“That would appear to be the case, Vermin. What is your point?”

“Then what th’ slag is thing thing?” Rattrap pointed at a bulky jet, white with red trim, and a huge bulky red FAST pack with weapons mounted on top.

“Hnnn…..”. Dinobot crossed his arms, looking the jet over from back to front. “It resembles a human jet. I believe they called it a Valkyrie.”

“They made a shuttle that’ll act like a fighter jet?”

“I am NOT a shuttle. And it’s Tomcat, not Valkyrie.”

“Nah. You ain’t a Tomcat. I seen pics’a th’ one they put out fer th’ Top Gun crossover. You don’t look nothin’ like that.”

The jet transformed, looming over the two Maximals. “It’s a long story involving a lot of lawsuits. And the cartoon made me a shuttlecraft. I’m supposed to be the pinnacle of aerial superiority.” Jetfire sighed. “I will admit, I do miss having a Guardian mode.” Jetfire’s optics widened. “If the lawyers ask, I wasn’t here.”

Transformers War for Cybertron SIEGE Jetfire: Yup, hadn’t expected to find this one, but I wandered into the local retro game store, and there he was. There’s a collector that comes in now and then and sells some of his stuff. I like him. Especially after I figured out how the arms work. I’ll have to see if I can find a Skull Squadron emblem for his chest armor, though. Or have I been looking at my G1 Jetfire for too long…….
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Heinrad »

“…. and then when the delegation from Clom shows up, we’ll place them over….” The red and black Autobot looked at the tablet in her hand, tapping at it in annoyance. “Why the hell did Crosscut invite them to this? All they do is start fights!” She growled under he breath. “Just because I’ve been watching his skid plates on Primus knows how many diplomatic missions, I have to be the one to-“ She took a deep, calming breath, then looked down at Rattrap and Dinobot. “Why was I saddled with you two again?”

Rattrap shrugged. “Beats me.”

“We are closer in size to the delegates. Therefore it was believed that we might be less….. Distressing… to them.”

“Riiiight.” She subspaced the tablet. “Come on, I’ll drive you to where we’ve got the intake point for the delegates. Hope you two are good with dealing with a bunch of self-important slag sucking morons. Or as many planets refer to them, the Corps Diplomatique.” She transformed to vehicle mode, a sleek red Corvette C3 with a flame pattern on the hood.

“Huh. That vehicle mode look kinda familiar t’you, Choppaface?”

Dinobot nodded. “I noticed it with the robot mode as well. She kind of looks like Tracks-“

“IF YOU TWO FREAKING IDIOTS DON’T GET IN RIGHT NOW, I WILL SKIN BOTH OF YOU AND TURN YOU INTO SEAT COVERS!!!!!!!” The overhead magnabomb launchers whirred up out of her trunk and pivoted to lock onto Rattrap and Dinobot. “WELL?!?!?!?!?”

Transformers War for Cybertron KINGDOM Target Exclusive ROAD RAGE: Yes, finally after years of trying - although not trying too hard. Yes, I wouldn’t have minded a MP knockoff, but not for what I’d have paid for postage - I finally have Road Rage. Unfortunately it’s the Kingdom mold. Don’t get me wrong, I actually do like this mold, however I do think it should have been a Voyager-class figure, not Deluxe. The complexity for the lower legs is hindered by the smaller size. Oddly enough, her hips are tighter than Tracks, but the panels her feet are connected to seem looser. I’ve got a feeling I’m going to have to see if they make those panel inserts I got for Tracks in black…..

Also, though I couldn’t think of anything funny for this one….

Transformers TITANS RETURN Overlord: Saw him, like Jetfire, in the used game store. I do like the figure. The down side is now do I set him up slugging it out with God Ginrai or have a bunch of Wreckers hanging onto him……
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Studio Series Gnaw - Because this figure is popular with people who like to army build, it was getting a bit difficult to find.
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

Finally picked up MP09 from eBay. Lead to believe it's the "China" version or 3rd release so hopefully won't fall foul of any brittle shoulders, knees or ankles or at least make it through one transformation into Space Winnebago mode where he shall spend the rest of his time.

It's been another good year of toys for me all round. Hoping that Tigatron finally shows up at UK retail in the near future, then I'll have to find a Terrorsaur and Tarantulas and have the full set of WFC Kingdom Beast Wars S1 figures.

My masterpiece purchases this year have been too many to really list for you all not to get bored but stand outs from the year are Fans Hobby Double Evil (Overlord), Gigapower Guttur (Snarl), Infinite Transformation Emperor of Destruction (Megatron) & Cang Toys Firmament (Divebomb)
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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StoneCold Skywarp wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 4:47 pmFinally picked up MP09 from eBay. Lead to believe it's the "China" version or 3rd release so hopefully won't fall foul of any brittle shoulders, knees or ankles or at least make it through one transformation into Space Winnebago mode where he shall spend the rest of his time.
Good luck! My MP Rodimus fell victim to the exploding shoulders years ago now and will spend the rest of his time in the spare parts bin. :(

As luck would have it, this Christmas brought me a replacement this year in the form of Kingdom Rodimus Prime...which is honestly just a baffling figure. I really don't think anyone (even a huge Rodimus fanboy like me!) was pining for a Commander-class Rodimus before this toy was announced, which is probably why it wound up being massively discounted around Black Friday and subsequently wound up under my tree.

This feels like a toy that happened as a reaction to how disappointing Earthrise Optimus's trailer and accessories were. Hasbro saw all the forum posts pining for Roller and all the other bits and pieces that the 80s Prime came with, realized that there was a big market out there for a more "premium" release of the Autobot leader at a higher price bracket and went and did exactly that for their next big Autobot leader toy. But that wound up being a toy of Rodimus Prime, and Rodimus's trailer didn't actually have any of those neat features...so the trailer component still sucks.

The core robot on the other hand is super detailed by retail standards, with tons of articulation, a pretty complicated transformation and lots of small moving parts. It's pretty obvious that this is where most of the extra budget actually wound up going. It reminds me of the older MP cars like Prowl, Sideswipe or Wheeljack in a lot of ways. Whether that's a good thing or not will depend on whether you thought those toys' super fun robot and car modes were worth the bad tolerances that made their transformations a case study in frustration.

I wound up liking Rodimus quite a bit, but I can also see a lot of reasons why other people probably won't. And even so, that's entirely on the strength of the main robot figure, and I can't foresee any future where the trailer doesn't spend 99% of it's time stuffed in a box or a drawer somewhere.

I also received Kingdom Huffer, which is not a toy I'd ever have bought for myself because I usually forget that Huffer even exists. This is a really nice little Transformer, though. The colour scheme is really nice, and mixes the best of both the old toy (silver arms and a richer orange) and the character model (two-tone blue chest). Poseability is good but the figure still feels nice and solid, which is always a balancing act in a toy this size.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Yeah, I don't know who Hasbro thinks is the market, the old adage about 80% of a retail line figure sales needing to be to kids can't be applying to Commander class releases. I don't think it even applies to Leader class releases -- what kid's going to pick Astrotrain or Shockwave off the shelf or get given them, when most of the bulk is stuff that isn't part of the figure and only qualifies as a play set if they've spent too much time unsupervised with solvents? Doubledealer at least is chunky, even if nowhere near the Sixshot/Overlord sizes that preceded it.

However much other tat is bundled, these are all Voyager size figures:

Image
https://i.imgur.com/q6pAfQW.jpeg

The same with bundling of figures in pairs and box sets. Who other than collectors would be ordering these things unless, possibly, they were remaindered? Even most adult fans won't touch them at retail price when things they don't particularly want are added in to bulk up a price point.

In theory, we're the target audience. But we still have a sense of whether or not something is good/bad value. So how many of the things are actually selling?
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Clay »

Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pm In theory, we're the target audience. But we still have a sense of whether or not something is good/bad value. So how many of the things are actually selling?
To make a rough and not-at-all grounded comparison, the Victory Saber crowdfunded set hit about 2.5x its needed backers, whereas the Star Wars Rancor fell short by about 500 and isn't getting made. Sure, the Rancor's price was twice Victory Saber's, but there's also a larger fan base for it (and innumerable other variables too, I'm sure). So tfs are doing fine, I'd guess.

As for me, I found a Tigatron at retail! I also finally learned that it's Tigatron and not Tigertron! I like him. Fundamentally the same as Cheetor (as he should be), but with a few embellishments added because the increased size allows for it. The "dirty fur" parts look much better in person and under normal light.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Clay wrote: Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:04 pm
Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pm In theory, we're the target audience. But we still have a sense of whether or not something is good/bad value. So how many of the things are actually selling?
To make a rough and not-at-all grounded comparison, the Victory Saber crowdfunded set hit about 2.5x its needed backers, whereas the Star Wars Rancor fell short by about 500 and isn't getting made. Sure, the Rancor's price was twice Victory Saber's, but there's also a larger fan base for it (and innumerable other variables too, I'm sure). So tfs are doing fine, I'd guess.
I'm still shocked the Skystriker got funded while the Rancor didn't.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

The commentary I've seen suggests that the Rancor crowdfund tried to bundle figures/moulds that fans already had, making it particularly unattractive (and a deserved push back against bundling). Also it was in the lead up to holidays and we're still in a very shaky political/economic period -- things have to really excite people for them to put other concerns to one side. I can see Victory Saber getting some buy-in from individuals and stores that can add a margin after the directly crowdfunded ones are gone.

Leaders and up seem to reliably get marked down after not long at all -- eg BargainMax have still got T-Wreckers for about thirty, and Prime/Doubledealer got cleared by another online outlet for the same or less IIRC. Smyths has and is heavily slashing prices of "big" TFs like that X-Men Blackbird, BW vintage Megs/Primal, past Titans like Trypticon, and novelties like that Draculus thing, etc. The price point that actually sells feels like it tops out around thirty, or needing between 25% and 33% off to clear stock in the case of bigger items.

(50% off or greater apparently usually equals "won't get reordered" with Smyths, so unless the Masterverse MOTU figures that aren't Revelation get a new product code we won't see later waves here).
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pmYeah, I don't know who Hasbro thinks is the market, the old adage about 80% of a retail line figure sales needing to be to kids can't be applying to Commander class releases.
Commanders in particular seem to reliably get major discounts in Canada, at least. I own all three of them and haven't paid anywhere close to retail for any of them. None of them have been particularly hard to find either, in my experience. That certainly doesn't suggest they get a lot of "walk up" sales...more likely the retailers sit on most of their stock until sales push the price down to a point where adult fans are willing to bite. But this doesn't seem to be hurting the margins enough that they're slashing their orders, like they did with Titans after Fort Max and Trypticon warmed shelves.
Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pmI don't think it even applies to Leader class releases -- what kid's going to pick Astrotrain or Shockwave off the shelf or get given them, when most of the bulk is stuff that isn't part of the figure and only qualifies as a play set if they've spent too much time unsupervised with solvents? Doubledealer at least is chunky, even if nowhere near the Sixshot/Overlord sizes that preceded it.
The packaging doesn't help on that front, either. At a glance I really can't tell the Deluxes from the Voyagers or the Voyagers from the Leaders anymore. When the toys don't seem much bigger and the box they come in isn't much bigger, psychologically it's going to be tough justifying that extra $30 for Shockwave or Astrotrain over Soundwave or Starscream.
Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pmHowever much other tat is bundled, these are all Voyager size figures:
I think the most egregious of the bunch in that picture is Galvatron, who doesn't come with any extra junk to make up the price point. I don't value Optimus or Rodimus's trailers much at all, but at least they're there, and I know there's a subset of the fandom that really enjoys them even if I don't. But Galvatron is just...that's it? Nothing in the WFC Leader class assortment has really felt like it was worth it, but Galvy in particular is a real head-scratcher. It's extra noticable because that figure is smaller than the Titans Return Galvatron from four or five years ago, but costs almost twice as much.

(I realize all that, but I still really want the toy-colours version. I have a problem.)
Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pmThe same with bundling of figures in pairs and box sets. Who other than collectors would be ordering these things unless, possibly, they were remaindered? Even most adult fans won't touch them at retail price when things they don't particularly want are added in to bulk up a price point.
I'm sure I've grumbled about this before, but the multi-packing put me right out of collecting Hasbro's Marvel Legends stuff. They made it impossible for fans to buy the figures they'd want to complete a given team without buying extra copies of figures they already owned, or unrelated characters they didn't want. I just shrugged and decided there were better things to spend my money on, and the TF multipacks get the same sort of reaction from me. I adore Prowl. Ironhide? Meh. Ramjet? I played him in the RPG for like a decade, I'd definitely buy a fancy new toy of him...but not when I have to buy a Dirge that I don't give a damn about to get it. Road Ranger looks super cool! But Puffer? Etc., etc...so I generally wind up not owning any of them.
Denyer wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:21 pmIn theory, we're the target audience. But we still have a sense of whether or not something is good/bad value. So how many of the things are actually selling?
Every Hasbro line that I pay attention to seems to be so under-produced over the last few years that I'm not sure if sales even provide them with any useful feedback. If they can only ship one exclusive box set to each store that's stocking it, then it'll sell out whether it was a good idea or not. But you really do have to wonder how they figured a box set with three Deluxes and a Voyager would sell better than those individual figures sold separately.
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