Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

My friend is going around to all the area TRU's looking for the new Springer figure to complete his Movie cast, grumbling about it not being a triplechanger all the way, and I asked him why he doesn't get Defender. He's seen and "played with" mine a bunch and he says it's exactly what he wants but he doesn't want to spent the money and he is, in his own words, "settling for Hasbro's crap." It got me thinking, Defender is a Deluxe. A beefy one but still just a Deluxe. Minus the diecast, it's something Hasbro could easily produce and in significantly more quantity than Fansproject can. The fact is, it would cost more to design and use more plastic than the one they actually made. So I had the thought that what if they put that much work and material into it and just made the price point higher? Like $40-$50 for a more complicated Deluxe?

I'm not saying an "adult collector line" because we all know those always fail here in the States but if Takara can do Kiss Players and Alternity and popsicles and baseball caps, why not a Classics Collectors line? Even repaints from a line like that would still sell and fill holes. A Springer with a planned remold head and chest piece that also makes Sandstorm? A similar Blitzwing that with a palette swap can be Flywheels? If they can get Banzai-Tron out of a Seeker that becomes a car, they can do a hell of a lot more that slap a new head on a chicken legged Bayformer and call it Springer.

I see your point. First off, the Tomahawk mold is barely a Bayformer. If he'd been in red and white, classics Blades would have been on the tip of everyones tongue. He's far closer to the classics-look than he is to the movie-look.
Repainting him into Springer is a 'take it or leave it' thing. There are already two other Springers out there and at least this one looks like Springer.

Secondly, a 3rd party toy is not a Transformer, it just looks like one. It continues to amaze me that people will pay 100$ for something with inferior plastic which looks slightly more like something would produce in 1986 than 2012.

The question you raise in the topic title is different from the one you eventually ask, though. People already pay more for a 3rd party PPOOBDUBXUIDS-1 NERDRAGE, so that answer for some is 'YES'. At the end of the post you ask if we'd pay more for a Hasbro figure with higher quality and compare it to a 3rd party figure.

In short- NO. The reasons for higher prices on 3rd party stuffs aren't directly related to the quality of the pastic and design alone. Hasbro should be able to deal with this for FAR less money.

RhA wrote:I see your point. First off, the Tomahawk mold is barely a Bayformer. If he'd been in red and white, classics Blades would have been on the tip of everyones tongue. He's far closer to the classics-look than he is to the movie-look.
Repainting him into Springer is a 'take it or leave it' thing. There are already two other Springers out there and at least this one looks like Springer.

Secondly, a 3rd party toy is not a Transformer, it just looks like one. It continues to amaze me that people will pay 100$ for something with inferior plastic which looks slightly more like something would produce in 1986 than 2012.

The question you raise in the topic title is different from the one you eventually ask, though. People already pay more for a 3rd party PPOOBDUBXUIDS-1 NERDRAGE, so that answer for some is 'YES'. At the end of the post you ask if we'd pay more for a Hasbro figure with higher quality and compare it to a 3rd party figure.

In short- NO. The reasons for higher prices on 3rd party stuffs aren't directly related to the quality of the pastic and design alone. Hasbro should be able to deal with this for FAR less money.

I actually like the Tomahawk mold and I actually think Blades would've been a better fit than Springer. The "Bayformer"
part wasn't meant derisively, but descriptively and mainly about those legs. The take it or leave it part is the main point I was making. Like I said, TakTom makes far smaller, more intricate, and more niche market things all the time. And this was not a 3rd party question. While I don't see the manufacturer issue as black and white as some do, I would rather get my Transformers from HasTak then from another company and I used FP as an example because 1) relevance to the situation and 2) they're the best 3rd party company in regards to quality and fan appreciation. The point was higher engineering and more material would mean higher costs than the already ridiculous retail that TF's seem to have these days.

The question is the one in the title, the reason I ask is what my friend said and his general situation.

Seeing as I'm sometimes willing to pay 3rd party prices then yes I would, providing it didn't cost more than the 3rd party equivalent.

Doesn't what your talking about equate to Masterpiece? They are, after all, overpriced figures and yes, I buy them cos I have more money than sense.

Unless it's a figure I really, REALLY want, my answer would be a loud "NO" if it's from Hasbro. A 50$ deluxe figure that is all plastic with poor paint aps? HELL NO.

Sure, I bought Delicate Warrior and Hegemon, both at around 130-140$ each if I count shipping. These two are the only 3rd party figures I own. It was the only way for me to have a cartoon accurate Arcee and Megatron.

I also have Alternity Starscream, Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee. They are 50-60$ deluxes that I cared to own because I care about these characters. They also felt very "premium" with all that diecast and rubber tires. Yes, rubber tires have been a luxury feature for a while now.

If Takara release Luxury Deluxes with die cast, rubber tires, superior paint aps, clear plastics where it should go like in the headlights,and superior engeneering like they did with Alternity... would I buy them for a 50-60$ price tag? HELL YES, but only for the characters I really care about.

@ zodconvoy

I think I get what you mean but maybe you should re-word the "3rd Party" part of the title.

Now back to the topic.

A few of us may be willing to drop a few more for a high quality Hasbro release but given all the bellyaching (noisy minority?) on the $ 99.00 SRP for Hasbro MP-10 Optimus Prime makes me wonder whether its from a noisy minority at all.

Add that to the ambulance chasers in the American market that you get stripped down releases of the now defunct TFC collection ( put an age appropriate warning on a collectible is no longer enough because of the lack of a sense of personal responsibility by consumers who will most likely sue the pants off Hasbro).

Using FP as a standard......well you needn't look further, Tomy's been doing that in a sort of way with their Encore series (die-cast parts on the 1st and 2nd season figures) and of course Masterpiece. Though with regards to Masterpiece, given that its been designed for adults, I wonder why the domestic release Grimlock's teeth had to be "re-adjusted".......are adults that "stupid"?

In the end, this might be just a pipe dream.........a lot of TFC are shrinking due to a lot of factors. Asking for a high end domestic release might be too much to ask from Hasbro.

Short answer; yes. I would pay for a collector-quality line of figures that would fit well with my classics line. However I would want two things from Hasbro. The first would be that a Hasbro figure that's comparable to a FansProject figure be cheaper by at least 25% because this is Hasbro and they have the facilities needed to make them more numerable and cheaper. The second would be that a collector-quality figure would have to knock me on my butt with how awesome it is. Many 3rd Party Companies continue to impress me with their figures. I'm sure Hasbro has the ability to surpass them but is constantly limited by budget and applicable laws.

A lot of the decisions at Hasbro are finalized by a corporate penny pusher. Who knows nothing of the branding.
And for that reason, it will always only be "Hasbro" quality.

*Queue the people complaining about the insane prices*

I think it might be a good idea, to listen to fans and produce a limited amount at a higher price, just for fans. But this kinda stuff is better handled by Takara. As you said, I don't imagine Kiss Player appealing to Kids.

Might work, just that the price would probably put me off anyways.