The Energon Pub

Delicon wrote:

BeastProwl wrote:BTW, not a transformer, but the USS Flagg is worth an honerable mention. $899.00.

Actually, that's not a bad at all price for a conmplete Flagg...and considering that sucker is over 7 feet long, I don't consider that expensive at all. For reference, what is Fort Max, 2 and a half feet tall?

yeah, then look at the price difference!

Personally I think the DOTM Human Alliance figures are over priced. 32$ !? old figures were 23.99. Specially because at least for me, The Dark of the Moon line was a total flop except for a few figures. The weapons are WAY to big, so under Undetailed, and every tformer has a bunch of kibble shooting out from everywhere.
To expensive for me anyway.

donnie_707 wrote:how exactly is hercules a rip off? he stands 12.5 inches. looks bad a$$. each robot is a triple changer that is fully poseable. just because some companies choose to jack the price up(no names here but you know who you are) doesnt discredit TFC for making THE baddest combiner to date

So turning into a robot, a dump truck, and a crotch is triplechanging now? Okay let's break down Hercules (no horrible QC/they already are broken pun intended) and compare it to Classics Devastator. Yes, the one that was from Walmart. First, fists. Everyone went gaga over the Herc fists filling the massive hole in the back of the vehicle mode (edit: after rereading this before I posted, I can thing of no better metaphor for Herc! ) but in robot mode you have to options: either they have fists nearly as large as their torso having off their backs giving everyone the finger or they still have the "fist from nowhere" problem. If they were going for the AHM forearm look they could have made the fists do a split and fold like WFC Megatron's hands did. Now, the Classics one didn't have hands per say, more of claws. They attach to the vehicle mode, were used as weapons in robot mode and could grab things as hands.
Number of robots: Herc- 6; Walmart- 5.
Toon accuracy: Herc- right vehicles, didn't even f***ing try on the botmodes; Walmart- Energon was a toon, right? Doesn't count? Damn.
Quality control: Herc- . Walmart- for all the gripping that has been done about this mold, I have never EVER heard any complaints about it being broken or of a single bad paint app. I personally had the thing drop 6 feet off the top of my shelf and didn't even come apart.
The wait: Herc- nearly a year with no assurances in the beginning that they were ever going to finish it. They did. What big boys. Walmart- All in one box. If you saw it and had some money on you, it was yours!

Height: Herc- 12.5 inches (less than half an inch taller than MP-01 Optimus); Walmart 10". So Herc has the height advantage by literally [_____________________] <- that much on my monitor. Is that enough to justify...

the Price: Herc- average $600+ and that's without shipping it. Walmart- $30 and whatever sales tax was applicable where you were. Bonus points for buying it from Delaware.

So for the original cost of Herc and the original cost at Walmart, you could have bought 20 Devastators per Hercules. Or paid your mortgage, rent, car payment, Botcon trip, what have you. "But Zod, Walmart's not GeeWun enough!" Encore Devastator is $125 at BBTS so you can get nearly five of them to full your G1 craving. Hell, as much of a rip off as everyone agrees CrazyDevy is, you could get the Encore and every single CD upgrade for it for $360 (prices taken from BBTS, includes the out of stock CDMW-09) and still have enough left over for eight Walmarts at original price. So in the end is Hercules > G1 + CrazyDevy + 8 Classics Devastators?

It's easy to look at something and say "I'd pay six hundred dollars for that!" It's quite another thing to have to look at everything else you can get for that and still say it's worth it.

And notice how I never even once had to compare it to Maketoys Giant.

Of course all that depends on if you like the overall look of Classics / Energon Devestator enough to pay $150 for it to begin with. Would you really buy 5 toys you find mediocre or take all of that and buy one you find awesome?

When I'm paying $80 for FP's trailers it's tough for me to say an extra $20 for a full-fledged figure is a rip off in context.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Of course all that depends on if you like the overall look of Classics / Energon Devestator to pay $150 for it to begin with. Would you really buy 5 toys you find mediocre or one you find awesome?

When I'm paying $80 for FP's trailers it's tough for me to say an extra $20 for a full-fledged figure is a rip off in context.

I just sold my Classics Devastator on eBay in December and it went for less than $50. The "Buy It Now"s that are up on eBay are asking the same price they did in 2008 when thy were the only option. And if you're going to use the original City Commander price please also acknowledge the original Classics Devastator price of $30.

Okay, how's about this: The original price I paid for MP-01 Convoy, nearly universally agreed upon to be the best toy ever, was only $100 from Small Blue Planet. That was the average price at the time and I only went with them because their warehouse was 10 minutes away from my girlfriends house at the time so it could be picked up rather than shipped. Now, it Dr. Crank worth Masterpiece Optimus?

My argument is the same as it was: it's easy to say what you'd be willing to pay but not so easy if you compare it to what else you could have gotten. If Scrapper is your personal favorite character for some reason, it's worth $100. Does that make a Long Haul who looks nothing like Longhaul and oh, by way, it broken and the only way to fix it is to buy the next $100 guy worth it?

The total height difference between Classics Devastator and Hercules is one Legends Goldbug. Is that really worth $600? It's not a Masterpiece, no diecast, no fun extras like comics or the neat photo history you get with an MP. At this point I really do think it's defending the "investment." Most 3rd party items skyrocket in price but after some initial ballooning, I think Herc will end up only being worth what you paid for it or less. I don't want to hear any Herc owners b!tching that they can't afford to got to Botcon. You made your choice.

Beast Wars figures...Hasbro shoulda paid people to take those craptastic things

As for 3rd Party prices...yes, they're too high (largely because of the retailers mark-ups.) But they're really no higher than Hasbro club or Botcon exclusives and the 3rd Party figs are at least new molds.

@Zod

Again, though .... that depends on if you like the look enough to buy Classics Devestator.

For $30, I might have bought him, but I hadn't seen him around at the time. The first time I had a chance to buy him (or his Energon twin) it was for $50 at a con. I was tempted, but wound up passing.

I mean, I did think about getting Classics Devestator. I really did. For years. Never bit the bullet. Hell, Crazy Devy came out with their kits to make G1 Devy into the kind of thing I'm looking for and I opted for those instead. Little did I know there'd be two much better sets coming out.

I gotta say, I do not like the overall look of Classics or Energon Devy. I mean he's passable. But Devestator (the whole) is one of my favorite Decepticons; for him I don't want to settle on just a passable representation. In concept I'm tempted by Energon Devestator (just to have him), but I just can't bring myself to bite the bullet on the guy when I just do not like his overall look.

For the record, I'm comparing the price to what I've personally paid for, not for the prices they are now. If we do that then, really, he's even more worth it. A quick look on ebay shows me a non-KO of CC is going for $200+! You don't even get a complete item you can use and it's that much.

The QC issues are a fair point and there's no excusing them. And sure, you don't get as much bang for your buck as you would for MP-01. But compare it to any given Botcon release. Just traveling to Botcon and getting a hotel would probably be over $600 for me, never mind actually buying anything.

Within the realm of 3rd party products approx $100 is about right. Now if you think they're ALL not worth the price, then there's no arguing about it, but just within the category of exclusive items I don't feel ripped off.

Except after finding better prices after buying from BBTS. My customer loyalty there kinda took a hit after Herc.

Kibble wrote:As for 3rd Party prices...yes, they're too high (largely because of the retailers mark-ups.) But they're really no higher than Hasbro club or Botcon exclusives and the 3rd Party figs are at least new molds.

Try to find a Nova Prime...

@Gauntlet101010: Fair enough. I am more than willing to agree to that. I wasn't necessarily advocating the Classics over it, merely using it as a comparison. If you can find the Energon version for a good price, I'd still recommend it for your collection, just to have.

Again, I submit the biggest (and briefest) ripoff to have been having to buy a $12,000 Chevy Aveo to get Swerve. Even though the miscommunication only lasted a few days.

@zod

ok zod...we can agree to disagree. you would rather spend 600 bucks on a bunch of mediocre/ugly looking toys. id rather spend 600 bucks on a combiner that forms the biggest BADDEST looking toy. but saying 2.5 inches dont matter for toys that are measured by the inches is only lying to yourself. then why would hasbro even bother with deluxe size or voyager size since they are only about half an inch(IF THAT!) difference. keep buying mediocre toys while i have the best combiner to date on my shelf

One year and a half ago. I remember seeing a HUGE pyramid of Leader RotF Megatrons for sale at my local Wallmart at 50$ each figures. I passed because I was not really into Transformers and I find him ugly and too expensive.

Because of no Leader Megs for DotM, I finally want a RotF one. Turn out I was not the only one with that idea because he's 200$ minimum on Ebay right now.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffffffff....................

-Kanrabat- wrote:One year and a half ago. I remember seeing a HUGE pyramid of Leader RotF Megatrons for sale at my local Wallmart at 50$ each figures. I passed because I was not really into Transformers and I find him ugly and too expensive.

Because of no Leader Megs for DotM, I finally want a RotF one. Turn out I was not the only one with that idea because he's 200$ minimum on Ebay right now.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffffffff....................

Supply and demand is a crazy thing, isn't it?

Shadow Command leader Megatron looks to be the one going for stupid amounts of money. I almost bought one when they were marked down to $25 or so but I couldn't think of a single reason for actually having the damn thing. Bummer, because I thought of one now that it's too late...fools on eBay.

AFA:
Don't care what anybody says. Where do you get a degree in Toy Grading? What University? I want to start my own company. Send your toys my way people. I'll put them in a little acrylic box, whack my grading on it (I'll gladly take donations if you want your $30 toy graded a 1000 out of a 100) charge you $50 for my opinion, then you can go on eBay and charge the rest of the world $4000.

and Henkei Wildrider. $650? Really?

DOTM Jetwing Prime, especially the black one.

Jetwing prime went for $180SGD at 1st release here, currenly goes for $220-$250.
Black jetwing costs $230-300

Its basically buster prime with a jetpack. The jetpack is barely half of primes mass, and yet costs so much, considering i payed only $90 for buster.

I'll be the first then, MP11s Sunstorm

Kibble wrote:Shadow Command leader Megatron looks to be the one going for stupid amounts of money. I almost bought one when they were marked down to $25 or so but I couldn't think of a single reason for actually having the damn thing. Bummer, because I thought of one now that it's too late...fools on eBay.

I did buy one for $35 at Walmart, had it for a year on display, and sold it for $80. Though it does go for ridiculous amounts on eBay, I don't regret not wringing every dime I possibly could have out of him. I would like to get a regular RoTF leader Megatron, but even that is way overpriced.

Transformers Lucky Draw Gold Optimus Prime Twin Blaster

Only US6000$ on Ebay. No AFA bullshit.

At least, the shipping is free.

Yeah. only 3 exist but still, WTF? Who would pay so much?

In before a rich nerd with way too much money on hand.

-Kanrabat- wrote:One year and a half ago. I remember seeing a HUGE pyramid of Leader RotF Megatrons for sale at my local Wallmart at 50$ each figures. I passed because I was not really into Transformers and I find him ugly and too expensive.

Because of no Leader Megs for DotM, I finally want a RotF one. Turn out I was not the only one with that idea because he's 200$ minimum on Ebay right now.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffffffff....................

I remember I was waiting on ROTF megatron. There were 2 releases I was interested in. The silver voyager class, japanese exclusive, which was canceled. Then they had a voyager class recolor with some legends packed in. Wanted to see what this looked like before I bought any version of ROTF megatron. Of course, this got canceled as well. I wanted the voyager mold in silver, and figured, if they never did one, I'd just get the leader class.
I tend to always wait to see the repaints, unless I really like the figure from the beginning, and it's never an issue. In this case, it didn't go so well.

Well I dont know if this qualifies,

but one that stands out in my memory is classics Skywarp/Ultra Magnus.
now I wasnt buying tfs at the time I saw it first back in target stores but there was a
boatload of them all over the place. Not too long after i saw them and passed (as I wasnt buying tfs for some odd reason) they were on the fabled .04 cents ending price of like 3.04 maybe>>?

Now flash forward to a couple years ago and Im really regretting not buying them and cant/can understand why the set is up to over a hundred on ebay or so. I finally broke down and bought 2 sets last year since I was rolling in dough at a botcon and the price was fianlly "right"

I still feel a lil ripped off since I know the people who bought them probably still have a warehouse of them and are putting them out one at a time ("last one folks") and made a veritable killing off a rediculously good toy that was super underpriced for a time at target stores, and is now somewhat overpriced today.

So thats one example of an overpriced toy though it is somewhat in demand et al.

DOTM Jetwing and Striker Primes. Even Buster Prime remained around $120.00 shipped for about a year after its release, allowing me to finally be in a position to get one.

These other two were a different story. They shot up to the $200.00+ mark so fast that they were permanently out of range before I could even THINK about saving up for them. And as is ALWAYS the case with some online stores including BBTS, reasonably priced, but ETERNALLY OUT OF STOCK. TAKE IT OFF THE FREAKIN' LISTING ALREADY!!! GOOGLE IS SUCKING PEOPLE IN TO YOUR USELESS LISTING!! AHHH!! AHHH!!

(Sorry, I was briefly posessed by Sam Kineson's ghost there)

Ahem. Those figures are awesome, but not $200+ awesome.

Diem wrote:I recall having an argument with Counterpunch about this when I was still fresh and new...I said Botcon exclusives were overpriced, he said that a huge amount of work went into producing a limited run figure like that, I said that regardless of the work, the customer is still paying $50-$400 dollars for something that, in different colours, is available on the shelf for $10 and so on.

That said, Darkside Megatron commands a hell of a lot of money for a retool of a mediocre voyager.

Well, BotCon figures aren't really overpriced at their retail price. That's usually 3-5 times their shelf retail value.

The aftermarket prices that you're referring to, those are over-priced. I'm always surprised at what some things go for now.

I think the most over-priced transformers in years are the Human Alliance figures. The price bump for the little human figure is a flat out scam.

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:I'll be the first then, MP11s Sunstorm

I second that.

Counterpunch wrote:I think the most over-priced transformers in years are the Human Alliance figures. The price bump for the little human figure is a flat out scam.

An even bigger scam is the aftermarket prices for some of them...I got stuck with an extra HA Barricade at the end of the ROTF line...was happy to see fools were paying over $100 for that mediocre thing. Sold mine for $112. Looks like they sell for around that loose even. I'm tempted to unload my own copy! I'm kinda tempted to sell all my movie toys that are going for stupid money, actually.

Kibble wrote: I'm kinda tempted to sell all my movie toys that are going for stupid money, actually.

Yeah, I'm very tempted to sell my Optimus and Jetfire. I could make at least double what I paid for them. But it's a damn awesome figure...