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Sabrblade wrote:Back from TRU and Metroplex is mine!

I also picked up a Prime BH Deluxe Night Shadow Bumblebee (the first and only one I've ever seen in stores) and I did my TRU the courtesy of ridding them of what is hopefully the last lingering pegwarming DOTM figure they'll ever have: Deluxe Air Raid.

I got that Bumblebee a few weeks ago from HTS I never saw it on Amazon for less than $30 believe it or not. Prowl is hovering around that price point now as well.

vectorsigma757 wrote:Curse this website. I would have been more wealthy if I never typed in this URL. With all the bruticus upgrades running around, I had to get the Grimlock Bruticus set. I already have Grimlock but I have the upgrade set on order. Does anyone need a spare Grimlock?

I DO!!!!

dedcat wrote:Putting MP Soundwave, who is always out of stock, on sale like that is just a cruel and sadistic cock-tease.

THIS!!!

I was never able to get a mp Soundwave and I'm still kicking myself over it. I want one SOOO BADLY, the US Version and seeing it listed for 77 bucks but OBVIOUSLY not in stock is insult to injury.

got my metroplex and grimlock vs bruticus more than a month ago.. and saw this called them to see if they will adjust the price.. sure enough they gave the price difference..

gjcv1408 wrote:got my metroplex and grimlock vs bruticus more than a month ago.. and saw this called them to see if they will adjust the price.. sure enough they gave the price difference..

Wow that's pretty awesome. I wonder if they'll do price adjustments for soundwave too. I've definitely brought it well over a month ago though.

I hope others had the same luck I did. Metroplex was "in store pick up only" and though I was working three blocks from the Manhattan Times Square TRU the site claimed they did not have Metroplex in stock or available for pick up. So I stored the add on my phone, walked over there and asked a sales associate if they would honor the online sale.
"Absolutely" she said.
Online, as you know, the toy was listed for $129, on sale for $84.49. Now the Times Square TRU is notoriously more expensive, the toy was priced at $150. So I got this behemoth for $91 after tax with $60 off. I wasn't going to purchase him, and admittedly had buyers remorse. But after opening him, applying the stickers, and messing with the gimmicks I am so grateful for the TRU sales ploy that earned them $91 more than I intended to give them.

IronhidesGhost wrote:I hope others had the same luck I did. Metroplex was "in store pick up only" and though I was working three blocks from the Manhattan Times Square TRU the site claimed they did not have Metroplex in stock or available for pick up. So I stored the add on my phone, walked over there and asked a sales associate if they would honor the online sale.
"Absolutely" she said.
Online, as you know, the toy was listed for $129, on sale for $84.49. Now the Times Square TRU is notoriously more expensive, the toy was priced at $150. So I got this behemoth for $91 after tax with $60 off. I wasn't going to purchase him, and admittedly had buyers remorse. But after opening him, applying the stickers, and messing with the gimmicks I am so grateful for the TRU sales ploy that earned them $91 more than I intended to give them.

They also had him at the CostCos on the Upper East Side and Brooklyn for $80. Not so hard to get to, and if you're someone who keeps the boxes or likes the boxes in displayable condition, CostCo is a better option (TRU Times Square has the sensors on them with wires that make dents in the box). I got a Metroplex at each NYC CostCo location, and couldn't be happier (though one is still in box, and might return it given NYC apartment space constraints).

Then again, if you work just a couple blocks from Times Square, it's hard to argue with convenience

gothsaurus wrote:I think you may have needed a comma there, my friend. Black, talking Bumblebee is quite a far cry from black talking Bumblebee. Laughing out loud here at work.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I would LOVE a "black-talking" BB! I haven't heard that awesome of a suggestion since they made "Big Daddy"! "Sick of all these cracker-@$$ Decepticons!" and the like! "Where's me fried chickenergon?" The beautifully racist possibilities...

megatronus wrote:Acid Storm is OK - he's certainly not terrible, and the deco is a nice change of pace from what we're used to. A Seeker is a Seeker in my book. At any rate, it sounds like your real problem is with MP scale, which I don't quite understand, but OK.

Also, I'm not sure how you can deliberate between getting Platinum Bruticus -OR- Microblaze Onslaught. Why would you get Microblaze Onslaught without a Bruticus to upgrade?

(Love your avi and sig pics! )
MP scale is too large. And you don't have to insinuate how strange it is to think that. I submit to you that the MPs are too large to display effectively (how many fit on a shelf nicely, without cluttering them up?) and are made unnecessarily large just to pump up the damn price. If you look at the recent MP cars, they're just a spit above a Voyager class (height-wise), and they cost what? $80? If you make the scale large, you can charge more - you don't even have to add special features, die-casting, or rubber tires. Let's make em big and charge more! WOO! (Plus, face it, almost your entire collection is deluxe size, so you're really starting from scratch with MP - and you just might be one of those, "I only collect MP now" braggers, too! ) It's like the old timers say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" So someone explain to me how the deluxe class was so broke that it needed MP scale fixing. Cause as far as I see, these MPs would work as Deluxes, but there's no money in charging a reasonable $15 when you can go $80+. F*ck you, Takara. (even $30-40 Takara deluxes are "reasonable" compared to MPs).

Re: Bruticus,
I must have 3-4 full sets. I'm a fan of Cybertronian-style TFs, and love him or hate him, Bruticus is one of the only group that's fashioned in that style. The issue is whether or not I need THAT deco of Bruticus, and really I'm just saying I'd rather stick to my colorful, sold-separately set and get that 3rd P. Onslaught instead (considering how the prices are likely to be comparable; damn 3rd P. expense!). If I give a small company $80 for a fig, I've accepted that smaller companies have more costs and less economies of scales/connections. There's no reason for Takara to charge $80, except that they can because you, the fans, will pay virtually any price for those MPs. I bought Tigertrack and Soundwave (Hasbro) and Ravage & Rumble - special items that I considered worth the extra. It just pains me to see the collecting prices skyrocket like they have, and I can't be an MP completionist at $80+ a pop.

So yeah, I'm complaining for no good reason. As much as I would like to collect the seeker armada, it's prohibitively expensive, even at the TRU discount. But that's just my minority opinion, so feel free to go about your expensive MP business. Just thought I'd explain my alternative lifestyle, since you seemed perplexed and interested.

Metrosuplex wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:I think you may have needed a comma there, my friend. Black, talking Bumblebee is quite a far cry from black talking Bumblebee. Laughing out loud here at work.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I would LOVE a "black-talking" BB! I haven't heard that awesome of a suggestion since they made "Big Daddy"! "Sick of all these cracker-@$$ Decepticons!" and the like! "Where's me fried chickenergon?" The beautifully racist possibilities...

Well, we did at least get the first step to this in Animated, in which African-American voice actor Bumper Robinson voiced Bumblebee (and Blitzwing, so we also got a Black German Blitzwing ).

Metrosuplex wrote:MP scale is too large. And you don't have to insinuate how strange it is to think that. I submit to you that the MPs are too large to display effectively (how many fit on a shelf nicely, without cluttering them up?) and are made unnecessarily large just to pump up the damn price. If you look at the recent MP cars, they're just a spit above a Voyager class (height-wise), and they cost what? $80? If you make the scale large, you can charge more - you don't even have to add special features, die-casting, or rubber tires. Let's make em big and charge more! WOO! (Plus, face it, almost your entire collection is deluxe size, so you're really starting from scratch with MP - and you just might be one of those, "I only collect MP now" braggers, too! ) It's like the old timers say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" So someone explain to me how the deluxe class was so broke that it needed MP scale fixing. Cause as far as I see, these MPs would work as Deluxes, but there's no money in charging a reasonable $15 when you can go $80+. F*ck you, Takara. (even $30-40 Takara deluxes are "reasonable" compared to MPs).

I... obviously disagree.

I'm not sure why you have all this pent up aggression towards Takara. If you dislike the MP size, and wouldn't really consider these figures a mainstay in your collection anyway (which is just as valid a collecting decision as any other) why gripe about the price?

Takara wanted to make upscale figures in response to the rise of the 3rd Party market, and MP was the perfect venue through which to accomplish that goal. Like any company, they need to make money to survive, but they didn't make the figures bigger with the express purpose of ripping us off. Rather, they needed to distinguish this upscale line from those that came before it, and the scale - which enables HasTak to design the smaller scaled robots with infinitely more detail and care - was a great way to do it. Also, you seem to be unable to distinguish between Takara and the American retailers that sell their products. In Japan, an MP car costs something like $45-$50. It's the import costs that jack up American prices.

At any rate, if Takara thought deluxe/voyager scale Classics figures were really "broken" and MP was a "fix," why are Classics still such a large and central part of the future of Transformers? They're certainly not discontinuing these figures. As you must know, we're getting new waves of them as we speak, and they by and large look awesome. Takara sees nothing broken there.

And neither do I, for that matter. I collect Classics in addition to MP - I love both lines and what they bring to the brand. It's wonderful to have an outlet for my G1 nostalgia as well as means through which to express a modern Transformers future.

Metrosuplex wrote:Re: Bruticus,
I must have 3-4 full sets. I'm a fan of Cybertronian-style TFs, and love him or hate him, Bruticus is one of the only group that's fashioned in that style. The issue is whether or not I need THAT deco of Bruticus, and really I'm just saying I'd rather stick to my colorful, sold-separately set and get that 3rd P. Onslaught instead (considering how the prices are likely to be comparable; damn 3rd P. expense!). If I give a small company $80 for a fig, I've accepted that smaller companies have more costs and less economies of scales/connections. There's no reason for Takara to charge $80, except that they can because you, the fans, will pay virtually any price for those MPs. I bought Tigertrack and Soundwave (Hasbro) and Ravage & Rumble - special items that I considered worth the extra. It just pains me to see the collecting prices skyrocket like they have, and I can't be an MP completionist at $80+ a pop.

No one said you need to be an MP completionist, and again, what's with your baseless hate for Takara?

Metrosuplex wrote:So yeah, I'm complaining for no good reason. As much as I would like to collect the seeker armada, it's prohibitively expensive, even at the TRU discount. But that's just my minority opinion, so feel free to go about your expensive MP business. Just thought I'd explain my alternative lifestyle, since you seemed perplexed and interested.

So now it's no longer about scale, but price?

Listen, you have every right to think that Japanese MPs are too expensive for the average American collector. But if that's the case, just state it plainly. There's no need to divert to scale as an excuse, or blame Takara for the fact that American retailers charge a high price. Send the negativity somewhere else.

megatronus took the bait.

GuyIncognito wrote:megatronus took the bait.

Yup. I'm a sucker.

Hip-Hoptimus Rime wrote:Great deals! Just ordered the black talking Powerizer Bumblebee for my daughter, the BH Ultimate Optimus for my son, and Platinum Ultra Magnus for me. Daddy needs a Classics Magnus stand-in. Bam.

...and they just showed up! Free 2-day shipping, wow. It's like somebody just drove these things over from the store that's 10 minutes from here.

Going to hate waiting for Christmas to open Platinum U-Mag.

Picked up Platinum Ultra Magnus yesterday in-store. They priced matched online. Too bad I already bought Grimlock vs Bruticus, cause $65 is a sick deal.