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Wow, there is no way I can be reading that price tag correctly! You know it's bad when that officially puts Wal-Mart as the most expensive retail store. I never thought I'd see the day TRU beat WM at deluxe pricing! Well, if that happens here, my buying strategy will be changing tremendously. I've been considering ditching the smaller lines (save a few here and there that really grab me) and focusing on MP's alone, and this may be the move that does it. With the increase in number of MP's, not to mention how great they're coming along, it's getting harder to resist. And as much as I love the show Prime, most of the toys are decent, but very few "must haves", it's been mostly for the completionist in me. I understand price increases, I really do... but (roughly) $7 in 2 or 3 years?!? Yeah, I've gotta draw a line somewhere ...

Are you frigging kidding me? That's it...I'm not buying toys at retail anymore.

In the last three years, I have rarely paid retail for any figure in any line. The hobby has been too expensive for my income for a while now.

Most of my purchases are either from reduced-price liquidators like Marshalls or old lots on eBay.

On a related note, I think this is one of the reasons why Cyberverse and Kre-o are so popular. It's a bit like the Squinkees phenomena. When the regular-scale toys are so expensive, the micro-scales seem like a bargain by comparison (even if they aren't).

It's not the rising costs that bothers me too much so long as quality wasn't sacrificed as well. But with rising costs mixed with diminishing quality and it's no wonder 3rd Parties are getting more and more collector attention.

Part of this is the holiday season. Prices will relax come February.

Another part of this might be due to competing toy packaging within the same line of toys. Prime, Generations, Bot Shots and Cyberverse - these are all competing for the same shelf space while ultimately being the same thing. And quite frankly, that's a frustrating product to sell because consumers want one and maybe not the other.

Raising the prices also means store can hold "sales" where the product remains "discounted" throughout the season. Of course, the sale price is the the MSRP. HTS always offers the toys at MSRP (though it is telling FoC/Generations went from $12.00 with OP, Jazz and Shockwave to $15.00 with the Combaticons).

Some food for thought.

this is getting out of hand now, do they really expect kids, parents & collectors to pay these outlandish prices? but this just proves the point ive been trying to make for the past year, if you dont fight it then its just going to get worse. I bet if we all stop buying then the prices would go back down. Yes i understand that oil has gone up but not enough to raise the prices this much. And this isnt the first time the price of oil has gone up, the last few times it did the prices didnt even fluctuate and if they did it was by very little. The main reason why prices are going up is because they see that there are still morons out there that will pay any price to get the product, thus the price goes up & other people cant afford to get them so they feel special in the end. Or they just dont give a flying frak. Also the holidays are coming and parents get really stupid around this time of year and will pay anything to get little timmy that toy he wants. So is it time for the fandoms to come together and fight this bullshit or are you people who "have to have it now" or "im a completionist and cant risk not getting it" or "the price gouging is justified" going to continue to frak the rest of us over? Eventually its going to reach a point as to where you wont even be able or be willing to pay the price they're asking. Suck up your goddamn pride & ego for a little while and help the rest of your fellow collectors out. In the end we all win, plus theres ebay so youll still be able to get what you want later on to complete that precious collection of yours.

On another note i am ashamed that its come down to this, companies preying on kids like this especially when the economy is shot to shit. I can only imagine how many kids have been unable to buy that toy that they want cause everytime they go to get it & they think they've save up enough the price is higher. All this is going to do is alienate people away from the product and thats going to screw everyone in the long run. A kid is going to realize eventually that hes getting screwed and go elsewhere, remember video games are just as big as toys these days and i wouldnt be surprised if alot of kids start saving their money to get more games than transformers or power rangers. Thats what ive been doing, ive been buying cheap figures off ebay (not just transformers either) & putting the rest of the money towards video games. And now that i look back i saved alot of money. Yeah it does suck that i cant go and get that new figure i want but ive learned to wait and ill pick it up on clearance and if i dont get it then oh well, my collection is still over 1000 strong. 1347 if i remember correctly.

Hmm... I was just at Wal-Mart yesterday and for me they are still listed at 12.99. Hopefully they don't get increased too much in my neck of the woods.

They are going up, to go on sale. It's what they usually do right befor a sale..

WAS 17.95

SALE NOW 15.99!!!!ZOMGWOWLOOKATTTHEMONEYYOURSAVING!!!

Well shoot, I guess I'm done collecting. Nice job Hasbro. Looks like only 3rd party for me. At least they make figures I actually enjoy.

I'm done with retail, myself. If I'm gonna spend an absurd amount of money, might as well just save it for the MP line. And if there is a Prime toy (which is now far and few between) it will be Takara. The rest goes to the 3rd party guys. Yeah, I'm just about done with Hasblo....