The Energon Pub

Counterpunch wrote:Ghostbusters reference?

anyone?

...

is this thing on?

I got it. Awesome. Awesome.

Counterpunch wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:From this point on any bitching or flaming threads will be split from this thread, locked and moved to our custom storage facility.

I am from the EPA and I demand, you shut all of this down.

Can't do that..
This thread is a news linked item, is on the front page and those are not supposed to be locked.

Please let's keep this civil alright?

Ghostbusters reference?

anyone?

...

is this thing on?

Just don't tell us about the Twinkie....

Counterpunch wrote:Ghostbusters reference?

anyone?

...

is this thing on?

I am glad a few of you got it..

I did but didn't have a good comeback

Lord Crump wrote:It's sad but it's true.

I would have been banned several pages back. But I simmered and cooled. And now I see a positive.

Out of the blue, has anyone seen the work this guy over at tfans is doing on a masterpiece Metroplex? It is truly amazing, and the final thing is said to be on show at Botcon this year!

Linky linky
http://www.tfans.com/talk/index.php?sho ... 500&st=120

Start at page one and work your way through. This guy is truly an engineering god!

Stay positive!

Insulation foam, is there anything it can't do? Seriously the stuff is great. You can make just about anything out of it. Just check out a warhammer site sometime, you'll see some great stuff!

Wow, thats some figure he is building. C'mon Takara, but his design and make us a 10 foot tal MP. I'd give up my car and car payment to start making payments on that.

Truly, it's a masterpiece.

Now I'd like him to build one 4 times the size. As this current one Is WST scaled, so 4 times the size should fit Classics figures perfectly. And the toy would be about 14 feet tall...

Wow, at that size most of the transformation would have to be motorised!!!

Counterpunch wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:From this point on any bitching or flaming threads will be split from this thread, locked and moved to our custom storage facility.

I am from the EPA and I demand, you shut all of this down.

I know you can't come in here without a warrant or a writ or something.

Beautiful

Counterpunch wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:I have honestly never understood this sentiment. Why should I be glad that something I really wanted was made, but then priced far above the price I'm willing to pay, simply because it's an exclusive? How does that make sense for me?

Important point there. Beyond what you're willing to pay.

I smpathize with any and all who can't make it, due to distance, hardship, or whatever. I also understand that we're all in varying degrees of financial stability. You can't blame someone for being disappointed that their car/home/childcare expenses outweigh the opportunity to acuqire rare and sought after figures.

But a simple unwillingness to pay? No sympathy.

Don't care. I'm not asking for sympathy.
You're missing the point, willingly or otherwise. These figures should not be exclusives. They're part of a group of six, half of which have been released at retail. They should have found a way to release the others at retail at some point, in other lines, as store exclusives, whatever. Sure, I can afford to buy the figures. So what? In my mind, it's ridiculous to pay $329 for 3 figures (I am only speaking of the seekers. The other two I'm not including, as there is no reason to release them at retail) I should have been able to get at retail for no more than $60.
And the quote was in response to someone who said I should just be happy they got made. Why? I'll never own them, so how exactly should this make me happy?

Lord Crump wrote:I might have fun learning how to kitbash properly anyway. And after I learn, the posibilities are endless!

My thoughts exactly.

MagnusPrimal wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:I have honestly never understood this sentiment. Why should I be glad that something I really wanted was made, but then priced far above the price I'm willing to pay, simply because it's an exclusive? How does that make sense for me?

Important point there. Beyond what you're willing to pay.

I smpathize with any and all who can't make it, due to distance, hardship, or whatever. I also understand that we're all in varying degrees of financial stability. You can't blame someone for being disappointed that their car/home/childcare expenses outweigh the opportunity to acuqire rare and sought after figures.

But a simple unwillingness to pay? No sympathy.

Don't care. I'm not asking for sympathy.
You're missing the point, willingly or otherwise. These figures should not be exclusives. They're part of a group of six, half of which have been released at retail. They should have found a way to release the others at retail at some point, in other lines, as store exclusives, whatever. Sure, I can afford to buy the figures. So what? In my mind, it's ridiculous to pay $329 for 3 figures (I am only speaking of the seekers. The other two I'm not including, as there is no reason to release them at retail) I should have been able to get at retail for no more than $60.
And the quote was in response to someone who said I should just be happy they got made. Why? I'll never own them, so how exactly should this make me happy?

Well, you know what they say. Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. For me personally, the desire to own them outweighs the price. I think it is a personal thing for every individual with the decision coming down to, how madly do you want to complete your seekers.

A lot of the time, I will pass on such stuff and later pick them up cheaper on ebay or through sales. However, in this case, I have a feeling this is as cheap as the set is ever going to be, sooo....

I do respect your sentiment though. My gut instinct when I first read the price was "Go F yourselves!."

Bonger wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:I have honestly never understood this sentiment. Why should I be glad that something I really wanted was made, but then priced far above the price I'm willing to pay, simply because it's an exclusive? How does that make sense for me?

Important point there. Beyond what you're willing to pay.

I smpathize with any and all who can't make it, due to distance, hardship, or whatever. I also understand that we're all in varying degrees of financial stability. You can't blame someone for being disappointed that their car/home/childcare expenses outweigh the opportunity to acuqire rare and sought after figures.

But a simple unwillingness to pay? No sympathy.

Don't care. I'm not asking for sympathy.
You're missing the point, willingly or otherwise. These figures should not be exclusives. They're part of a group of six, half of which have been released at retail. They should have found a way to release the others at retail at some point, in other lines, as store exclusives, whatever. Sure, I can afford to buy the figures. So what? In my mind, it's ridiculous to pay $329 for 3 figures (I am only speaking of the seekers. The other two I'm not including, as there is no reason to release them at retail) I should have been able to get at retail for no more than $60.
And the quote was in response to someone who said I should just be happy they got made. Why? I'll never own them, so how exactly should this make me happy?

Well, you know what they say. Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. For me personally, the desire to own them outweighs the price. I think it is a personal thing for every individual with the decision coming down to, how madly do you want to complete your seekers.

A lot of the time, I will pass on such stuff and later pick them up cheaper on ebay or through sales. However, in this case, I have a feeling this is as cheap as the set is ever going to be, sooo....

I do respect your sentiment though. My gut instinct when I first read the price was "Go F yourselves!."

Yeah, this set will never be cheaper. So I'm going to teach myself to customize! I've already bought two more Ramjets, now I only need to find another Starscream or two.
I never got past my gut instinct when I first saw the price. I still want to tell them that!

lol, If I had any artistic ability whatsoever,I might have decided to go the customizing route myself. However, from experience, I know that me attempting that is gonna just end up being a waste of $30 on the figures and whatever the paints cost.

Here is a suggestion for those put off by the price.

Buy the Iacon package plus the bagged set, then individually resell the figures in the bagged set on eBay later on. If this Botcon set sells out, and it very well might, then you should make enough profit on the sale of your bagged pieces when the aftermarket prices jump up. If each figure sold for $100 you would have made enough to cover all of your expenses plus have a set for yourself.

I'd rather do that than waste $40 on figures and paint. Besides, I have yet to see a repainted figure look as good as a figure with original factory applied paint.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:Here is a suggestion for those put off by the price.

Buy the Iacon package plus the bagged set, then individually resell the figures in the bagged set on eBay later on. If this Botcon set sells out, and it very well might, then you should make enough profit on the sale of your bagged pieces when the aftermarket prices jump up. If each figure sold for $100 you would have made enough to cover all of your expenses plus have a set for yourself.

I'd rather do that than waste $40 on figures and paint. Besides, I have yet to see a repainted figure look as good as a figure with original factory applied paint.

We have a winner! I ordered a second set to help pay for my trip.

Fender Bender wrote:We have a winner! I ordered a second set to help pay for my trip.

But ... but ... you were suppose to be getting a set for me!

Any idea how many the box sets are limited to?

I know the bagged sets is 200. I am waiting and praying that I got my form in on time to nab one of those.

Burn wrote:

Fender Bender wrote:We have a winner! I ordered a second set to help pay for my trip.

But ... but ... you were suppose to be getting a set for me!

Believe me Burn, if I could get 2 extra sets, I would hook you up, but since I can only get one, I gotta use the profits to help pay for the flight to Providence (The plane from Chicago is about $200.00 alone, and that's not adding the price of me getting to Chicago from Madison, WI).

However, as I said in our PM, there is an alternative, shoot me a $$$ amount of how much your willing to spend. I want you to get the set, but I also want to get the maximum money in return that I can.

I can't commit to selling them without knowing how much they are worth on ebay, based on what I see them go for, I will be willing to skip ebay and sell them for 80% of the average price I see.

So if the 3 seekers each start going for about $100.00 each, I'll sell them $80.00 a pop.

That's all I can tell ya for now.

Now that some of the dust has settled on this, I'll chime in with my two cents.

Even though I bought the non-attendee Iacon package to purchase these exclusives, I'm obviously still irritated to high hell about the character selection & price point. But not because the 3 remaining Seekers are included instead of being released via retail - because I think they should have either done all or nothing with this set. Releasing 3 characters who are in such high demand from fans & collectors with 2 space filler characters is where I feel burned.

My view is that, if you're going to release 3 such important additions to the Classics line, then you might as well just go all the way with it since people are already going to be pissed off anyway. How about instead of including whoever/whatever the hell Bugbite & Dreadwing are, repaint BB's mold black & white and give us Runamuck & Runabout? Not becuase I think those characters deserve Classics treatment or anything - far from it - but because they would at least make some valid sense in keeping with the Classics theme of releasing very/fairly known G1 characters in new forms. Or hell, repaint Starscream's mold two more times and include Sunstorm and/or the generic purple & green guys. Or release Sunstorm and repaint Megs in G1 colors. Etc etc etc.

But yeah, at the end of the day, it's the inconsistency of this set that has some of us up in arms more than anything. I just paid over $400 CDN to essentially buy 3 deluxe sized jets since the other 2 characters really don't mean squat to me nor the Classics collection itself. And that's what burns. I don't care about how big or small they all are - it's about character selection. Yeah it's great that we're likely getting a Con voyager in the form of a repainted Jetfire mold, but whatever, since when do we need a character such as that having an obligatory Con repaint counterpart? I mean, outside of fan-made "nemesis" versions or whatever.

I guess the only thing to add fuel to the fire is what the bonus attendee figure(s) will end up being. If it's something like Sunstorm or a Megs repaint, the sh*t will really hit the fan, especially for everyone that sold a limb in order to afford the main exclusive set.

Anyhoo...

Lapse Of Reason wrote:I'd rather do that than waste $40 on figures and paint. Besides, I have yet to see a repainted figure look as good as a figure with original factory applied paint.

I'm sure it won't look as good. But hopefully, I'll have fun doing it, and actually learn how to do it. I've wanted to do this for awhile now, so this is a good time to try.

Bonger wrote:lol, If I had any artistic ability whatsoever,I might have decided to go the customizing route myself. However, from experience, I know that me attempting that is gonna just end up being a waste of $30 on the figures and whatever the paints cost.

I have no artistic ability, believe me! Hopefully, this will help. I'll try Dirge first, since I have the reissue version of him, and he's not one of my favorites anyway. Actually, I have all of the jets that were reissued, Dirge is just the lowest on my priority list. Then Thundercracker, and Thrust is tops. Of course, my Thrust will only be repainted, nothing I can do about the wings.
Heck, I may even attempt a Sunstorm. Depends on how I do on the others, and how much I'm enjoying it.

MagnusPrimal wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:I'd rather do that than waste $40 on figures and paint. Besides, I have yet to see a repainted figure look as good as a figure with original factory applied paint.

I'm sure it won't look as good. But hopefully, I'll have fun doing it, and actually learn how to do it. I've wanted to do this for awhile now, so this is a good time to try.

I wish you luck!

As for Thrust, it might be possible to locate two multi-blade model propellers about the size of a dime and superglue them into drilled holes on the wings. You'd probably need to use the Starscream mold.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:I'd rather do that than waste $40 on figures and paint. Besides, I have yet to see a repainted figure look as good as a figure with original factory applied paint.

I'm sure it won't look as good. But hopefully, I'll have fun doing it, and actually learn how to do it. I've wanted to do this for awhile now, so this is a good time to try.

I wish you luck!

As for Thrust, it might be possible to locate two multi-blade model propellers about the size of a dime and superglue them into drilled holes on the wings. You'd probably need to use the Starscream mold.

See, I never would've thought of that on my own. Thanks!
So far, I haven't found any Starscreams. Just two Ramjets. If I can only find one Starscream, he'll become Thundercracker and Thrust will simply have to remain straight repaint.

I just bought a set of Dinobots for $250, and it seems a little strange that my Classics Thundercracker would cost more than my G1 complete Grimlock.

I hear the argument that Trans-fans ‘aren’t the target market’ and I agree up to a point. While the fandom may not be the greatest source of income for Hasbro, it is one of their greatest sources of advertising. Websites like this one, and all the other big TF sites, are run by competent, passionate individuals who go out of their way to buy, analyze, discuss, review and recommend purchases of toys to other consumers. For the amount of technical know-how, content-generation and traffic sites like Seibertron provide, Hasbro would have to spend millions of dollars on an in-house staff, but they get it for free. Advertising costs tons of money. Think about how much time you spend on sites like this, how many TF episodes you’ve seen, how many toys you own, how many posts you’ve made about those toys, and then think about how much you’re job would have to pay you to be that devoted.

Hasbro thinks about it, and it’s probably why Classics was developed in the first place. The entire Classics line looks and feels like Hasbro’s ‘good-will’ gesture to the fandom. But the decision to take mainline characters out of the stores and into the convention exclusives is not the ‘only way’ these guys could have been produced. The convention decided to capitalize on movie timing, picked out characters that everyone would want, and created a set of highly desirable exclusives that will have perceived and actual appreciation over time. Kudos to the club for making a sound financial decision, but it's a profiteering decision from the word go. Too bad it takes the Classics’s good-will sentiment and runs it into the ground (for most collectors, it seems).

If anything, Botcon’s decision has dramatically increased the number of kitbashers and repainters. The club guys should see if Krylon, Tamiya and Testors would be sponsors this year.

I'm not sure it's so much about the cost, cause we've all spent it...if not on Transformers, video games, computer equipment, blow... but the way the whole Classics line has been presented. It’s like finally working up the courage to ask out the prettiest girl in high school (or hunkiest dude, if your persuasion dictates) and surprisingly, she agrees. So you go on your date, and it’s awesome. It’s one of the best dates you’ve ever had, and while maybe’s something is missing , things are going great. Wonderful, even. Best time in years. You get her home, and on the doorstep, just before you lean into give her a good night kiss, she kicks you in the nuts.

Takes something you really want (redone G1 characters), finally be able to have them (Classics) and right at the finish line...Botcon Exclusive Seekers.

Time to break out the spray paint.

Asderiphel wrote:...

Time to break out the spray paint.

I recommend using an airbrush. You can get airbrush kits for about $20 at Walmart.

As for the rest of your post, you're right. Hasbro should try to make the fans happy and decisions like this do not bode well for fan morale. Like I said in a previous post, however, the only thing you can do is accept how things are for this year because that's not going to change. Hopefully Hasbro or Takara will pickup Classics again and release more of the figures I want (Wheeljack, Hound, Prowl, Shockwave, Soundwave (a redone version), etc...)