The Energon Pub

Oh oh oh! For once, the TF in the USA are a few bucks more expensive than Canada!
Come on, just a little push and Americans will feel the European / Australian pain!

Still, in all seriousness, this mean that my BBTS and Amazon.com shopping will be way, way more limited than what it used to be. Seriously, you Americans were very privileged with your TF prices. So much so that EVEN WITH SHIPPING AND TAXES, buying Transformers form Amazon.com was barely 2 or 3$ more expensive than if I'd bought them at Amazon.ca, factoring the total costs.
I guess those days are over, unless it is a better alternative than eBay.

Speaking of eBay, do you Americans have to pay some extra tariffs when buying from a foreigner eBayer?

DeathReviews wrote:

Dino-Snarl wrote:Did they say prices would drop if the tariffs are dropped?

Nope. And it would be wishful thinking to think they would. Once they get raised, Hasbro generally KEEPS them raised. I mean really - when was the last time they ever LOWERED the prices for their figures, even during prosperous circumstances?

At best we've seen them make better figures instead of lowering prices like we saw When we had a high point with Universe and then a very low point with the initial Generations lines, and then a very noticeable uptick in quality with Thrilling 30 (especially Voyagers) without much of a price change. Maybe we could hope for that again, but it's pretty clear that the tariffs aren't going away, even if all countries agree on deals. There's also potential for those initial tariff numbers going back up from before we saw 10% across the board.

Emerje

Has Hasbro stated the impact of pricing on international markets. Pulse EU, UK, HK (Asia is now defunct). Thanks.

DeathReviews wrote:

Dino-Snarl wrote:Did they say prices would drop if the tariffs are dropped?

Nope. And it would be wishful thinking to think they would. Once they get raised, Hasbro generally KEEPS them raised. I mean really - when was the last time they ever LOWERED the prices for their figures, even during prosperous circumstances?

We knew that would be the response. That's always the case. Fuel charges at Canada Post remained even after the price of oil dropped.

I mean we certainly couldn't have it effect my corporate bonus and inflated pay....oh wait is my mic still on...

My collecting has slowed to a crawl at this point anyway once most of the major characters were done in Studio Series (all I've been picking up lately is the occasional Beast Wars and WFC game character), but this might be the push I need to just drop collecting for a while. The thought of paying almost $40 for a voyager when that was the cost of a leader like 10 years ago is kind of sickening to me.

Hasbro is doing the same across all their more collector-oriented lines, so GI Joe Classified, Star Wars, Marvel Legends, are also getting hit. May be time for me to just focus on other hobbies for a while.

Price increase. Huh. big surprise. What have we been complaining about for the last 4 years? Price increases. Shrinking figures and increasing prices. 10% is actually not nearly as bad as I was expecting.

First-Aid wrote:Price increase. Huh. big surprise. What have we been complaining about for the last 4 years? Price increases. Shrinking figures and increasing prices. 10% is actually not nearly as bad as I was expecting.

Tbf, the 10% is on top of 'everything else' price increases. It wasn't baked into the pricing strategy until 'recipricol tariff' was a thing. It's pain on pain.

I'm done collecting Transformers. With taxes, that's a $30 deluxe. I won't be paying that.

In case anyone was curious, Gamestop posted some updated post-Tariff prices:

$31.99 deluxes
$44.99 voyagers
$69.99 leaders
$119.99 commander
$209.99 Star Convoy
$269.99 Trypticon

6" scale star wars/marvel/GI Joe now at $31.99 starting cost too.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:In case anyone was curious, Gamestop posted some updated post-Tariff prices:

$31.99 deluxes
$44.99 voyagers
$69.99 leaders
$119.99 commander
$209.99 Star Convoy
$269.99 Trypticon

6" scale star wars/marvel/GI Joe now at $31.99 starting cost too.

They also slashed those prices to the same as Amazon and EE.

Pulse has set all pre-orders and some in stock figures to "temporarily unavailable" with no indication of new prices.

BBTS had taken pre-orders down this morning, but they're back up at the same price as they've been. Maybe pre-orders from now until they get the prices updated will get the tariff price added on at arrival like they were saying before?

Emerje

Solrac333 wrote:I'm done collecting Transformers. With taxes, that's a $30 deluxe. I won't be paying that.

Hahaha!

You will. Sooner or later.

You may already have via eBay or some 3P.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Solrac333 wrote:I'm done collecting Transformers. With taxes, that's a $30 deluxe. I won't be paying that.

Hahaha!

You will. Sooner or later.

You may already have via eBay or some 3P.

Personally I think for a lot of things it's going to be a matter of just waiting to see what Amazon does since they often drop prices a few dollars after release. Plus Target sales.

Emerje

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:In case anyone was curious, Gamestop posted some updated post-Tariff prices:

$31.99 deluxes
$44.99 voyagers
$69.99 leaders
$119.99 commander
$209.99 Star Convoy
$269.99 Trypticon

6" scale star wars/marvel/GI Joe now at $31.99 starting cost too.

I dont get it though, they are crossed out, so are those really the correct new prices?

Also, while on the gamestop site, I saw the image they are using for leader shockwave, its the least flattering image possible

megatran wrote:Has Hasbro stated the impact of pricing on international markets. Pulse EU, UK, HK (Asia is now defunct). Thanks.

Hasbro has not clarified anything on the matter

The tariffs have been a big part of the discussion for toy collectors all over the internet. We are currently waiting to see when Pulse updates their site with new prices, since right now no one can actually preorder anything anymore. Part of the discussion surrounding the topic was the idea to bring toy manufacturing to the US like never before. The issue is that, unlike Lego, Transformers toys and other action figures are made up of parts that need manual assembling. So labor becomes a much larger expense and it's always been handled in Asia due to cost. There is a video below of a car from Mattel being made and you can see how the labor component comes into play, as an example. All this is just to give context to the recent words from Mattel CEO, Ynon Kreiz, where he was asked if manufacturing in the US would be cheaper now that tariffs are in place. He simply answered "we don't see that happening".

The interview is very interesting for those curious about the toy industry He did follow that by saying that there is a toymaker association that is currently lobbying for toys to have zero tariffs. The logic behind that is that while the manufacturing component is done outside the US, all other steps of toy production are done in the US with Americans being hired as designers and engineers to make the toys. So the end product consumed by Americans is not an entirely foreign product. At least, that's how the CEO's words could be interpreted, he does get very word salad-y. The good news is that he said he didn't foresee Christmas shortages.

Obviously because slave labour isn't available in the US. What a stupid idea these people have about manufacturing returning here. We outsourced everything, no way its coming back. These greedy companies will simply make us pay the difference rather than pay people fair wages.

Trump did reply to those comments but misspoke, referring to Mattel as a country.

Haha lol.

This is all just about money, nothing else. Manufacturing will not return to America and definitely not assembly work.

gr1ml0ck wrote:Obviously because slave labour isn't available in the US. What a stupid idea these people have about manufacturing returning here. We outsourced everything, no way its coming back. These greedy companies will simply make us pay the difference rather than pay people fair wages.

It's not slave wages. The wages they are being paid are a living wage in those countries. We've come a long ways since the pre-80s and 90s when Nikes were being sewn together by kids in dirt floor shacks. These factories now offer incentives like food, housing, transportation and healthcare, and the facilities are being inspected by human rights watch dogs. I hear the same complaints from US tech industry opponents which is ridiculous when they require clean, if not sterile, conditions. There's any number of videos from inside toy factories in China, these aren't sweatshops. You want to talk about slave wages, our government doesn't even offer living wages for crying out loud, inflation outpaced minimum wage long ago, more US factories isn't going to change that! Federal minimum wage in 1968 would be worth more than $12 right now in 2025 when the federal minim wage is only $7.25. 21 states have state minimum wages tied to the federal rate. Bet I can guess which states will be getting factories!

What Trump and his cronies want to do is move manufacturing to the US is automate it, this has nothing to do with American jobs. You can't automate toy manufacturing, it's impossible, you can't make a specific machine for every toy ever made unless it's something very simple and timeless. Every action figure and doll is hand assembled and hand painted, lots of hands touch every single one of them down the assembly line. This isn't a cheap process. All that will happen with high Chinese tariffs is companies will just find a new low tariff, low living wage country to move to and it wont be the US.

Emerje

Yeah, it's easy to comprehend the basic idea behind Trump's tariff and what he's selling.
I can even give the benefit of doubt and say that he genuinely want to make everything better.

But maaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn, was all of this poorly planned.

Compromises are a inevitability. We just have to sit back and wait.

william-james88 wrote:

megatran wrote:Has Hasbro stated the impact of pricing on international markets. Pulse EU, UK, HK (Asia is now defunct). Thanks.

Hasbro has not clarified anything on the matter

Lets hope it doesn't become a contagion.

So when people wonder why toy companies aren't speaking out to Trump about the tariffs, know this: Aside from Trump calling Mattel a "country" when he probably meant "company", when Mattel said they'd move production out of China to another country other than the US Trump said he'd put a 100% tariff on Mattel and Mattel alone so they can't sell toys in the US ever again. That's the sort of abuse of power the industry is facing right now. He also continues to push the lie that consumers don't pay tariffs.

About 54:12

Emerje

Glyph wrote:I'm long, long past giving them the benefit of doubt on anything.


Re domestic manufacturing: Another factor that doesn't get mentioned as much, alongside costs, is long-term stability. Bluntly, even if US vs China manufacturing costs temporarily work out in the light of +145% tariffs (they don't, but assume arguendo), nobody is going to spend millions-to-billions of dollars setting up new US manufacturing capacity based on what Trump says today when they know full well that he might say something completely different tomorrow, and his tariffs will almost certainly not outlive him / his term (whichever comes first - as soon as Trump himself is out of the picture, expect Congress to suddenly remember "oh yeah, the President doesn't actually have the authority to do any of this").

This. All of this.