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Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Wow this is going to suck for anybody who wants a real Henkei Ramjet, Henkei Starscream has already sky-rocketed in price and has become really, really hard to find ever since the KO came out.

However, I'd be interested in a Hybrid of the standard and the conehead mold, just for how awesome that would be.

Did they skyrocket in price? That's an interesting consequence of KOs. I'd have imagines the price being floored.

Nope, sadly not. Just before news of the KO where announced he was almost everywhere for around the same price as when he was originally released, 2-3 months ago he was still around for around 35-45 and plentifully in e-bay. Now when I finally managed to go and buy him, he was sold out and when he was in stock somewhere he was priced at around 70 to 120, all thanks to the KO.

Yeah, after getting all the seekers, Sunstorm, Rainmakers, and an assortment of purple clones... I can't get too excited about any more seekers coming out. Ready for some other classic bots, too. Insecticons anyone?

gothsaurus wrote:Yeah, after getting all the seekers, Sunstorm, Rainmakers, and an assortment of purple clones... I can't get too excited about any more seekers coming out. Ready for some other classic bots, too. Insecticons anyone?

I'm totally burnt out on this mold! I've been wanting a Classics Thundercracker for a long time now and i've seen him quite a bit at retail but i just cant seem to bring myself to buy this mold again. It's boring the shit out of me now. Even if it is THundercracker or whomever.

Dead Metal wrote:Nope, sadly not. Just before news of the KO where announced he was almost everywhere for around the same price as when he was originally released, 2-3 months ago he was still around for around 35-45 and plentifully in e-bay. Now when I finally managed to go and buy him, he was sold out and when he was in stock somewhere he was priced at around 70 to 120, all thanks to the KO.

That simply isn't how the laws of supply-and-demand work; I'd be hard pressed to blame that KO (which, parenthetically, wasn't from CHMS). There was a general huge upward trend in the prices of most Henkei figures in the time frame you mentioned across the board; have you priced out a Henkei Sunstreaker or Sideswipe lately?

Perhaps the supply of actual Henkei Starscreams finally dried up? It seems like you're making your case on correlation without causation.

In any case, I couldn't care less about most possible products based on the conehead molds, though I might bite on some in the unreleased G2 camo schemes. I don't know why anyone would actually want a Botcon Dirge now that there are more G1-accurate versions, but I suppose there are some transfans who base their collections around rarity instead of how cool a toy something is.

OTOH, I'm very much looking forward to the CHMS Classics Deep Cover and will be very happy to see a g1 Classics Breakdown.

G2 Ramjet. That's ballsy. And stupid.

Now I need to get my hands on a TFCC G2 Ramjet before the market floods with KO.

This also makes me glad that I already have the Henkei Ramjet and Starscream. What's funny is the reason I got them was because I missed out on the US Classics so I bought them cause they were cheaper along with a few others. You can probably guess how grateful I am that I made that choice.

metaphorge wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Nope, sadly not. Just before news of the KO where announced he was almost everywhere for around the same price as when he was originally released, 2-3 months ago he was still around for around 35-45 and plentifully in e-bay. Now when I finally managed to go and buy him, he was sold out and when he was in stock somewhere he was priced at around 70 to 120, all thanks to the KO.

That simply isn't how the laws of supply-and-demand work; I'd be hard pressed to blame that KO (which, parenthetically, wasn't from CHMS). There was a general huge upward trend in the prices of most Henkei figures in the time frame you mentioned across the board; have you priced out a Henkei Sunstreaker or Sideswipe lately?

Perhaps the supply of actual Henkei Starscreams finally dried up? It seems like you're making your case on correlation without causation.

The supply dried up because people panicked that if they waited a little longer they would end up with a KO.

Dead Metal wrote:

metaphorge wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Nope, sadly not. Just before news of the KO where announced he was almost everywhere for around the same price as when he was originally released, 2-3 months ago he was still around for around 35-45 and plentifully in e-bay. Now when I finally managed to go and buy him, he was sold out and when he was in stock somewhere he was priced at around 70 to 120, all thanks to the KO.

That simply isn't how the laws of supply-and-demand work; I'd be hard pressed to blame that KO (which, parenthetically, wasn't from CHMS). There was a general huge upward trend in the prices of most Henkei figures in the time frame you mentioned across the board; have you priced out a Henkei Sunstreaker or Sideswipe lately?

Perhaps the supply of actual Henkei Starscreams finally dried up? It seems like you're making your case on correlation without causation.

The supply dried up because people panicked that if they waited a little longer they would end up with a KO.

OK, that _does_ make a bit of sense, though one can make an argument that the release of the KO did all the people who had Henkei Starscreams languishing in their stock a favor by making all the fence-sitters actually buy them.

These shouldn't cause that same problem since CHMS makes changes to the packaging their KOs ship in (and only seem to dupe the Henkei packaging in any case), though it could create some confusion for loose samples. (CHMS has not, as far as I know, duped the basic Henkei Starscream as of yet.)

Based on what I've seen of CHMS's products before, I doubt they'll be able to copy the tampos on the fan club G2 Ramjet particularly closely. I wonder how many people would buy one of those without the fan club's packaging in any case (which is unlikely to be KO'ed)?

Yeah, club packaging is pretty unique. I don't think CHMS will attempt to copy it. Everything I've seen so far, they've been pretty adamant about not trying to create a believable copy of the vintage items. (Their Reflector and Devastator have their own original boxes... G1 styled, but obviously not vintage items.) I respect their choosing to do this.

I'm glad the Club has gone to lengths to include bio cards and new artwork/boxes with their figures... as well as appearances in the comic, pages in the magazine. That stuff helps bring the characters to life, instead of just throwing out a toy.

AAAND I'm glad someone is stepping up to reissue these toys, since apparently HasTak's hands are tied. From what I hear at conventions, it hinges on finding specialty vendors to purchase the limited edition/store exclusives. (ie. Target, WalMart, Sam's.) If none of them bite, then they don't get to release the toy. This is what happened with the Seacons... delayed for a year or two until the Club secured the toy for a release.

Sadly, there's a lot of politics behind the scenes that throw a wrench in releases. (Not to mention copyrights, licensing, and child safety... that botches releases like Fort Max and Megatron.)