The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1 · Sat Dec 16, 2017 7:38 pm

Everywhere down here in the coastal Georgia area has TLK (which I don't collect,) RID (which I don't collect,) and Headmasters (which I don't collect.) I guess I should be grateful that Hasbro has saved me a lot of money this year by not putting out anything I want, and not shipping any PotP's anywhere near here until after Christmas, as I am forbidden to buy myself anything until after the holidays.

Still, with 2 or 3 Transformers lines going at all times, it baffles me that the section dedicated to professional wrestlers is twice the size of the Transformers sections. :-?

Sat Dec 16, 2017 9:01 pm

I’m wondering if we are ever going to see a TLK Hot Rod at retail?

News Credits: 4877 · Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:51 pm

lakebot wrote:I’m wondering if we are ever going to see a TLK Hot Rod at retail?

I saw several on the shelves... in Canada :-P

Anyways, my TRU was stocked to the brim. They had everything and the TF section was even overflowing into the Voltron and Pokemon section.

Thats RID, TLK, TR AND POTP (plus TRU exclusives like MPM line and Seige on Cybertron) all there at the same time.

News Credits: 131 · Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:53 pm

Ha, you're a brave man to go to TRU at this time of year. My last trip was a few weeks ago and it was a disaster. All the pegged items where just in a pile on the shelf below it was nuts.

News Credits: 1 · Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:04 pm

Beachcomber, Slash, and Windcharger have appeared in the grab bins at Walmart down here. I didn't know how to behave.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:46 am

Checked out the local Walmart today, looks like they might be preparing for the next reset as I noticed a lot of empty sections in the action figure aisle. Titans Return is just six or so figures that remain of Deluxe revision wave 4 (this store has never gotten regular wave 4, 5 or 6) and some Seasprays and Cosmoses. PotP is the same four Windchargers and two Shrapnels that have been there since the weekend before Christmas which I found a little worrisome. Unexpectedly they restocked a bunch of stuff from TLK. The pegs were packed with Deluxe waves 2 and 3 and a bunch of Voyager Nitro and Scorn figs. Everything else was cleaned out, this is really all there was. Looks like the simple TLK stuff was clearanced out.

I was going to take a picture, but before I could two teenage girls (13 or 14 I would guess) came into the aisle and complained about the Transformers section not being stocked yet. One of them mentioned Scraplets so they were definitely there as fans rather than looking for a gift for a little brother or something so that was great. I was in a hurry so I didn't hang around to wait for them to leave to take a pic. Just thought it was neat, I rarely actually see people in the store buying Transformers, let alone girls.

Emerje

News Credits: 25 · Thu Mar 15, 2018 6:31 am

Meijer #127 in Goshen, In:

While it holds no candle to those fancy Canadian toy stores....... this is the most well stocked Transformers section I've seen in manyour a moon.

News Credits: 4877 · Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:18 pm

Ironhidensh wrote:While it holds no candle to those fancy Canadian toy stores....... this is the most well stocked Transformers section I've seen in manyour a moon.

Looks really good.

Here is how my walamrt looked for comparison today.

Aside from it having a Cogman, its pretty much on par with yours

News Credits: 6 · Wed Mar 21, 2018 5:10 pm

Maybe 5-10 years ago, I still had the bug for collecting. Beast Wars, naturally. I wanted specific characters, for drawing purposes. now clearly physical retail wasn't really viable by that point, so I turned to eBay. Prices were reasonable and selection was greater than any readily available at the time.

One sour experience did put me off for some time however, when I was moments away from securing TM 2 Iguanus, some slag-sucking saurian gazumped me at the last moment... The rage could have ended the world!

But I digress. After reading through a few threads here, I decide to have a brief glance at eBay once more, out of curiosity. For starters, the selection is virtually non-existent. Multiple people selling the same, lone character from any line that isn't either G1 or the most recent.

More importantly, the prices!?!
I know I've been out of the loop for a while, but when did eBay sellers become so extortionate?

MyFigureCollection.net collection · Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:37 pm

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:But I digress. After reading through a few threads here, I decide to have a brief glance at eBay once more, out of curiosity. For starters, the selection is virtually non-existent. Multiple people selling the same, lone character from any line that isn't either G1 or the most recent.

More importantly, the prices!?!
I know I've been out of the loop for a while, but when did eBay sellers become so extortionate?

This is what happens when a line transitions from something in the attic to a nostalgia goldmine. The line is 22 years old now ( :shock:

) and the target audience of the time (6 to 10 years) is now 28 to 32, out of college and well into the workforce with a disposable income and they're snapping up their childhood toys left and right driving up demand and prices. We see this happen incrementally over time with RID 2001 due to gain value soon so if there's anything there people are on the fence about buying they may want to buy them now.

Emerje

News Credits: 295 · Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:09 pm

Went into target again to try and find moonracer. They still haven't restocked from earlier in the week but I was there for other reasons so it wasn't that I went out of my way.

News Credits: 6 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:43 am

Emerje wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:But I digress. After reading through a few threads here, I decide to have a brief glance at eBay once more, out of curiosity. For starters, the selection is virtually non-existent. Multiple people selling the same, lone character from any line that isn't either G1 or the most recent.

More importantly, the prices!?!
I know I've been out of the loop for a while, but when did eBay sellers become so extortionate?

This is what happens when a line transitions from something in the attic to a nostalgia goldmine. The line is 22 years old now ( ) and the target audience of the time (6 to 10 years) is now 28 to 32, out of college and well into the workforce with a disposable income and they're snapping up their childhood toys left and right driving up demand and prices. We see this happen incrementally over time with RID 2001 due to gain value soon so if there's anything there people are on the fence about buying they may want to buy them now.

Emerje

AKA Another example of how the Internet ruined everything. There was a time when you could go to a Boot/yard/garage Sale et al and buy a complete G1 Terrorcon for £1 from some old lady selling her son's old toys. She didn't know it's true value and merely wanted it gone. Everyone walked away happy.

The Golden Age...

As an aside, they had a MP Optimus Prime for close to £300 on eBay. Obviously those in the know can get it a lot cheaper but the sheer greed on display with such a price tag. I may be an avid TF fan but no toy is worth that alone.

News Credits: 4877 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:04 am

Ebay was pretty awesome in 2014/2015 with Lena around. Cloud Shockwave for 20-30$? Sure, why not.

News Credits: 6 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 3:28 pm

So I just saw Combiner Wars Liokaiser boxset is on sale, half price, at £60. Good deal or not worth it?

News Credits: 4877 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:49 pm

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:So I just saw Combiner Wars Liokaiser boxset is on sale, half price, at £60. Good deal or not worth it?

Good deal

News Credits: 6 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:53 pm

william-james88 wrote:
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:So I just saw Combiner Wars Liokaiser boxset is on sale, half price, at £60. Good deal or not worth it?

Good deal

Thanks. I'll look into it.

News Credits: 12 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:00 pm

You would think living in a big city would mean more options for getting TFs, but it's totally not the case. Since TRU is going out of business and there are no Walmarts in NYC, that leaves Target. And Targets in my area don't get a lot of new stuff, so I'm stuck buying from online.

So what is up with the online distribution of POTP??? Why isn't Walmart selling anything online? HTS only has wave 1 but not leaders. I'm still hoping it gets more wave 2 voyagers. And target.com is worse than Target B&M. (I didn't mention the online toy stores like BBTS since they generally charge more for individual figures). I hope things pick up soon.

News Credits: 2 · Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:42 pm

Rural Arizona aren't any better. I've got a two walmarts and a target, both in the closest city to me which have for the most part barren shelves. I've been either getting them on Amazon, or waiting till I go on trips to Los Vegas or Los Angeles to get anything.

Sun Apr 01, 2018 5:50 am

For anyone watching out for Shelfwarmers or Pegwarming toys out there Transformers RID 2015 Legion Class Groundbuster has been available for 1/2 years and and he still sells badly, no one seems to want him. TLK Legion Class Hound also seems to sell badly.

Location Toys'R'us Iceland.

News Credits: 1646 · Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:50 pm

Rogue-Primal wrote:For anyone watching out for Shelfwarmers or Pegwarming toys out there Transformers RID 2015 Legion Class Groundbuster has been available for 1/2 years and and he still sells badly, no one seems to want him. TLK Legion Class Hound also seems to sell badly.

Location Toys'R'us Iceland.

I got really confused and then really excited, and then saw the location, and it made me sad.

Groundbuster sold like hot cakes here, he was here and gone, much like Fixit.

Legion Hound was never sighted here.

And then I saw Iceland, and everything clicked :lol:

News Credits: 4877 · Sun Apr 01, 2018 8:04 pm

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:
Rogue-Primal wrote:For anyone watching out for Shelfwarmers or Pegwarming toys out there Transformers RID 2015 Legion Class Groundbuster has been available for 1/2 years and and he still sells badly, no one seems to want him. TLK Legion Class Hound also seems to sell badly.

Location Toys'R'us Iceland.

I got really confused and then really excited, and then saw the location, and it made me sad.

Groundbuster sold like hot cakes here, he was here and gone, much like Fixit.

Legion Hound was never sighted here.

And then I saw Iceland, and everything clicked

Yes, it was weird for me too. And its the reverse in canada, Hound i selling fine but groundbuster was skipped... twice!

News Credits: 6 · Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:46 am

I tend to gravitate towards Shelfwarmers though. I have both Transquito and Scavenger from Beast Wars. I never understood why either of these were so, they were fantastic and so detailed.

Likewise Armada Ultra Magnus was in-store for some time before I bought him.

News Credits: 9 · Mon Apr 02, 2018 5:45 am

william-james88 wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:
Rogue-Primal wrote:For anyone watching out for Shelfwarmers or Pegwarming toys out there Transformers RID 2015 Legion Class Groundbuster has been available for 1/2 years and and he still sells badly, no one seems to want him. TLK Legion Class Hound also seems to sell badly.

Location Toys'R'us Iceland.

I got really confused and then really excited, and then saw the location, and it made me sad.

Groundbuster sold like hot cakes here, he was here and gone, much like Fixit.

Legion Hound was never sighted here.

And then I saw Iceland, and everything clicked

Yes, it was weird for me too. And its the reverse in canada, Hound i selling fine but groundbuster was skipped... twice!

Nobody wants Drift over here.

:MAXIMAL:

News Credits: 2 · Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:22 am

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I tend to gravitate towards Shelfwarmers though. I have both Transquito and Scavenger from Beast Wars. I never understood why either of these were so, they were fantastic and so detailed.

Likewise Armada Ultra Magnus was in-store for some time before I bought him.

Sometimes I notice it is just the fact they aren't main characters. Or weren't in the popular Cartoon.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:23 am

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I tend to gravitate towards Shelfwarmers though. I have both Transquito and Scavenger from Beast Wars. I never understood why either of these were so, they were fantastic and so detailed.

Likewise Armada Ultra Magnus was in-store for some time before I bought him.

You mean Energon Ultra Magnus? I'm guessing you aren't American? The figure is notorious in the US for being exceptionally limited and ultra rare at retail and quite literally made at the last minute by Hasbro to get something on the shelves. Hasbro would later unload what didn't make it into US stores on other countries where it did indeed shelfwarm. He usually goes for around $200 on eBay these days.

Emerje