Hellscream9999 wrote:That thing is so under-painted, as to be insulting
Glad to see they kept the electronics, and am not surprised they jacked up the price even more than others; at least mp soundwave was like $60-80 so $120 was not a huge increase; but $100+ for this thing? not happening, not ever happening
I am totally there with you.
However, there are a few things you and others should know since the distinction presented in all the comments I read is not clear.
Firstly, Soundwave was a much better deal than that. Because you are comparing prices for an MP which was not released with all his casettes with an MP that was. If you bought all the cassettes Takara issued in individual 2 packs, it would have cost more than Hasbro Soundwave.
Now, the deal with these Zodiac releases. There is no point in comparing since these are not the same kinds of releases (you can only compare the prices to previous zodiac releases inorder to make sense of it all). The Chinese new year releases, unlike the other platinums, are made for wide distribution in the asian markets, and are sold as exclusives here (sometimes online shared or with tru). I dont get why everyone understands why their Hasbro Asia Thundercrackers cost 200$ but are boggled with these prices. It is the very same kind of "exclusive".
They arent looking at how much toy you are getting. They just see a big figure, a special edition paintjob and voila: 150$ collectable for the asian market.