The Energon Pub

News Credits: 11 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:35 pm

Sure it's hard to find, but shouldn't the price reflect the size class at least? That's a voyager class price for a deluxe toy... I'd be comfortable paying $25 at the most for a deluxe. I mean, I paid less than $29.95 for the Henkei version online. :shock:

Well, I still shop there for comics and loose figs anyway, or if I see any deals. Not that I'm at Metro much these days though, it's pretty far out of the way for me.

34's not old yet, don't worry! :mrgreen:

News Credits: 9 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:19 pm

Oh don't worry I don't think i'm that old yet, so all's good.

The thing to remember is that stores like Metropolis and and other comic book stores get completely shafted by big box companies on items they both carry.

For the example of the day let's take an average animated figure. Now TRU, Walmart, HBC/Zellers, RCS/Loblaws et al is likely buying these in lots from Hasbro where they get them for about $6. a figure, so they can sell them for about $15 and make a good return but be able to cut them down to $7.50 and still profit.

Your general Comic store, can't go to Hasbro directly as they are too small so they make up for this by buying thru secondary distributors. These Secondary agents are buying stock from Hasbro at similar or higher costs that the big boys, and need to cover their costs/overhead and profit as well. The net result is the smaller stores end up with product that in the best case situation is no better than the retail price at the big boys.

Hence, (within Vancouver) Metropolis and Golden Age sell Transformers for twice as much, GIJoe for $13 to $20 for a fig thats $8 at Walmart, and so on.

It's also why (at metropolis again) Johnny will not be stocking the amounts that Spencer did, not can he sell them for the prices Spence did. Wether he is trying or not, he is following the basis rules almost all comic stores need to realize.
* You can't beat the big box stores or the same products.
* The products you both have can still sell for a higher price if there is a local market that is willing to pay more instead of waiting/running around town. (Call it a conviniance fee, if you will)
* You can build your store up by offering products that the big stores can't/won't/aren't interested in offering.

Johnny has reduced the shelf space for Transformers/Joe/Starwars, in exchange for increasing the space to gaming, models, and comics. Is it sad that he won't be doing all the "special items" that made A3U interesting in the first place? Yhea, but the lesson is that A3U died, and hopefully Metropolis won't follow the same fate.

I'm wasn't interested in spending $30 for Hound, but clearly from the fact that items are still selling, others are.

News Credits: 11 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:47 pm

It really is a shame Hasbro doesn't supply small retailers, but I guess there's no incentive to, since it's a very small share of the market.

I do understand the plight of small shops like Metropolis, and it does make sense why they have to charge higher prices, but to a point. All that being said, it seems like they are charging more for the desirable figures. I guess it's cost-recovery or something, but it's kind of price-gouging in my mind. Figures should all be the same price for the size class, unless they're some sort of exclusive. A $10 price difference between Animated Starscream and Skywarp is unacceptable, IMO. And if they're selling the good deluxes for higher prices than the less desirable ones, it's the same thing.

I'm pretty sure Golden Age has slightly lower prices, and they get theirs from Diamond too. However they stock much less than Metropolis, so maybe that's how it evens out.

*shrug* I dunno, this all just my opinions, if I don't like the price of something, I don't buy it, simple as that. I'm fine waiting for figures or ordering online if I have to.

News Credits: 9 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:12 pm

Universe Hot Shot:
Metropolis: $29.95
Golden Age: $29.99

Universe Ratchet:
Metropolis: $29.95
Golden Age: $29.99

Cobra Paratrooper:
Metropolis: $11.95
Golden Age: $16.99

But I digress...

It is cost recovery and many stores like that do it. When I was working (lo so long ago) for Triple Play in Surrey, and McFarland toys had yet to break thru to bigger stores it was common to open a box of about 12 figures and find:
4/5 of Figure A
3/4 of Figure B
3 of Figure C
1 of Figure D

So If we were buying at $10 a figure, and selling for keystone (business word for buy at 50% sell for 100%) It would cost $120, sell for $240, and make $120. But that doesn't always work so.

Figure A = $16 (@5 = $80) -$20 (@4 = $64) -$16
Figure B = $18 (@3 = $54) -$6 (@4 = $72) -$8
Figure C = $22 (@3 = $66) +$6
Figure D = $30 (@1 = $30) +$10

Even selling the "Chase" figure for twice as much we were losing $8-10 on the box, but it was needed to get rid of the shelfwarmers that would accumulate to offer more of the Chase figures.

For the collector however they usually just see 4 figures for a set that should cost them $80, costing them $76. which makes them happy, but people looking for just the chase figure to be pissed that they are expected to pay more.

It's a cost of doing business in that game.

News Credits: 11 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:00 pm

Oh, I didn't know Golden Age charged more, it's been awhile since I was there I guess.

Well that does all make sense...I'm just cheap. lol, I can't afford not to be. :lol:

Oh well. I guess Hasbro should quit having wonky figure amounts in their waves, but that's not going to happen.

News Credits: 9 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:38 pm

Supply and demand...

On the positive side, down at Sakura-con I was able to finish my WST Dinobot set $18us each for Sludge and Swoop. Talked the dealer down from $22us.

Another dealer sold me SDCC Universe Nemesis Prime for $40. and when I got home on Tuesday I have the pick-up slip for Thrust and Dirge from B2K.

At this point a couple animated figures (sunstorm if i can find him), and universe ratchet once he shows up at regular retail around here, and I should be good for most of the rest of the year seeing I only plan to pick up a couple of the movie figs.

News Credits: 11 · Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:29 pm

Pretty good deals.

I'm in a similar situation, I've only got a few figures left in Universe & Animated, and am only getting a couple of the movie ones. After that I can resume catching up on previous missed figs... Energon Galvatron and a bunch of G1s are high on the list. Most other lines I'm pretty caught up I think... I guess there's Alt Rumble but he's not really high priority.

News Credits: 487 · Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:38 am

Editor wrote:I'm wasn't interested in spending $30 for Hound, but clearly from the fact that items are still selling, others are.

I would think that's because Hound, along with the later wave stuff, hasn't gotten him yet. Hearing that he was at the Metrotown RCSupersotre was the first time I've heard that he was somewhere else.

kirbenvost wrote:Metropolis Comics & Toys is selling Ironhides for $34?

Actually, they're selling them for $29.99. With tax added, it comes to $33.

News Credits: 1 · Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:01 pm

The Comic Book Shoppe in Ottawa got the newest wave of Universe deluxes, at $19.99 each. I picked up Hot Shot 'cause I didn't want to wait around for him to finally show up at Walmart. Plus, I've picked up my last 4 deluxes for less than $10 thanks to sales, so the extra $5 wasn't a big deal.

News Credits: 487 · Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:02 pm

I picked up Hound at the Metrotown Superstore, and Galvatron from the Coquitlam one. They're both great, but I just got one question: how the *@&# do you transform Galvatron? I've been trying for an hour without success.

News Credits: 11 · Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:51 am

He's pretty tough...what part are you stuck at? I had a really hard time getting the turret to swivel around to become his arm... in the end the turret popped off and I had to use a small metal object to basically pry the hinge part up so I could swivel it around, then re-attach the arm. Pretty annoying.

News Credits: 487 · Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:30 am

kirbenvost wrote:He's pretty tough...what part are you stuck at? I had a really hard time getting the turret to swivel around to become his arm... in the end the turret popped off and I had to use a small metal object to basically pry the hinge part up so I could swivel it around, then re-attach the arm. Pretty annoying.

I had trouble getting the barrel out, but I got over that. Then I spent what felt like an hour trying to seperate the upper arms on account of the fact the ident that connects it to the tank form was seriously tight there. So tight that I only managed to get it out by using the flat end of my toenail clippers.

News Credits: 11 · Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:35 pm

Yeah, I found those bits annoying too, especially getting the barrel out, I thought there was some step I was missing but it's just relaly tight. I've never taken so long to transform a deluxe in my life. Oh well, even with its flaws it's still a really cool looking figure, I probably just won't transform it much.

News Credits: 2 · Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:18 pm

Anyone see animated shockwave yet or did I miss him?
I found a samurai prowl in a wal-mart (and bought it) and I thought he would be a later release.

News Credits: 11 · Sat May 09, 2009 1:29 pm

I have not seen Shockwave at all, we still have Lugnuts all over the place here... I just bought the purple Shockwave on eBay.

I was at Broadway TRU yesterday, and all Transformers were 40% off. I guess they want to clear shelves for the ROTF figs, which there were no sign of yet.

For Universe Deluxes they only had Dinobot and Acid Storm... they had a ton of Universe Ultras though, unfortunately I didn't want any. Would've been a good chance to get the Minicon pack, but I only want the one that looks like Warpath, so it's still not worth it. Lots of Unicrons, too bad I don't need one of those either.

Not much left for Animated, only a few deluxes and a ton of Lugnuts.

News Credits: 9 · Sun May 10, 2009 10:10 am

Metropolis has much of nothing.
Mini-con packs and Lugnuts and hand fulls of other boxes, but no carded universe and only B. Lockdown for animated.

the surprise however was that they had a Darkwing. i say had, because they didn't after I left. looks like i missed out on Countdown.

And to confirm Kirb, one of their attendants said about the sale "we are clearing them because something BIG is coming in next week." so yhea, get your movie money ready if you plan to get any of them.

Also, I've given up on zellers getting the 2-packs and have won an ebay action for Sunstorm. ($28 canadian) If they do get them I might pick up Shockwave.

News Credits: 487 · Sun May 10, 2009 1:00 pm

Editor wrote:And to confirm Kirb, one of their attendants said about the sale "we are clearing them because something BIG is coming in next week." so yhea, get your movie money ready if you plan to get any of them.

So are we going to be adding them to the list of people breaking the May 30th street date?

News Credits: 9 · Sun May 10, 2009 4:52 pm

I would guess so, unless there is something else special that we don't know about.

News Credits: 487 · Sun May 17, 2009 6:40 pm

Well, Metroplis didn't have them, but Lougheed Town Wal-Mart did. Sadly, I couldn't pick any of them up. Hopefully they'll be at least one Sideways and Sideswipe still there next weekend.

News Credits: 9 · Sun May 17, 2009 9:37 pm

i must have gone to places in the wrong order yesterday.

I was at the lougheed wal-mart in the morning and the only thing of note were legends Bumblebee, Beachcomber and Brawn.

I was at Metrotown about 6:30, and they had nothing but the boys at MC&T said they had them earlier.

News Credits: 1 · Wed May 20, 2009 5:48 pm

Found some Universe Legends (Bumblebee, Brawn, and Beachcomber) at Walmart @ the Trainyards. Nothing else new there or at the South Keys Walmart.

Toys'R'Us St. Laurent had nothing new, but signs saying that they'd get the new toys on May 30th (so get there early before I get them all

).

Sears Rideau had the 1st wave of RotF Legends, Scout, Robot Heroes, Gravity Bots, and Cyber Stompers, but they were all marked up, so I'll wait til TRU gets everything.

News Credits: 487 · Sat May 23, 2009 7:06 pm

It was perhaps foolish of me to think that Wal-Mart would have kept some of the ROTF figures they had out last week, but it still sucks that they didn't have the deluxe figures. They did, however, has some Robot Heros and Robot Replicas.

News Credits: 4 · Sat May 23, 2009 9:54 pm

Found ROTF preview figs and Robot Replicas at the Walmart in Guelph. I bought Soundwave. There were about 3 more of him left and 3 of Bumblebee. Robot Replicas seemed to be pretty even at three of each: Optimus, Starscream, Ironhide and Ratchet.

News Credits: 487 · Tue May 26, 2009 10:17 am

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but Lougheed Mall Wal-Mart, as of Sunday, had the ROTF preview figures (Bumblebee and Soundwave). They had more Bumblebee than Soundwave, though.

News Credits: 9 · Tue May 26, 2009 1:42 pm

The good news, I was at Zellers on Scott Road and they had the Shockwave and Sunstorm exclusives.
The bad news, is they are asking $49.99 for them. Yes about double the price from Target. Glad I got SS online for $30.