The Energon Pub

Well, I can't say this is going to get me out of collecting altogether--c'mon, we've all spent an obscene amount on these toys at one time or another because of our hobby (read: obsession), right? Good lord, some of the e-bay stories I could tell (WHAT? I won ALL FOUR of those auctions??? I was just bidding for the heck of it!!!).

Anyway, I'll still find a way to get what I like. That said, I'm glad I've already decided to basically skip the ROTF line (except for a few scouts that look cool) and stick to Universe (on hiatus anyway during ROTF) and what's left of Animated.

Here's hoping for a turned-around economy.

Maybe I am out of the loop living in Japan because I don't understand why everyone is up in arms. I can understand the disappointment with the price, but a $13 for a Deluxe is still a great buy. In Japan, we're paying $23 for a deluxe; and even with that price, I'm not complaining when I consider what these deluxes can do.

Consider the level of engineering that go into these, the complex number of parts, and the amount of time to assemble. Also factor in that the U.S. dollar has fallen, rise costs for raw materials. And, an increase in Chinese labor costs.

Being a Transformers collector is not cheap. It costs money to be dedicated. If you've been collecting Transformers for a while you already know that the price for present day Deluxes have remained stable over the past 25 years. G1 Jazz cost about $12 twenty five years ago. I think we are getting a heck of value for more complex and articulated toys.

HaHaHa...

None of you are going to quit. It's like drugs man.

2 or 3 dollars more won't kill ya, it just makes your addiction that much funnier..

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

What books did they jack up to 4$?

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

This price increase of Hasbro's isn't only limited to Transformers Deluxe figures. I suspect an increase on Voyager, Ultra, and Leader as well, especially with the movie coming out this summer. But more importantly, I've noticed an increase in the price of numerous Hasbro Action Figures.

When the 25th Anniversary GIJOE action figures first appeared in the toy stores (Wal-Mart specifically), the figures were $4.97 each. These figures are now $6.97 and I suspect the summer movie figures to be closer to the $8.00 mark.

Star Wars figures have always been expensive, but they've never been $7.50 to $8.00 each, except when it had a special "action" ability and even then it was $9.97 to $12.97. But the regular line of Star Wars action figures that are hanging on the pegs right now are close to $8.00 each.

The world economy is doing poorly right now and an increase in price on things that no one needs (admit it, collectors, we don't need them except to complete a collection) is ridiculous. People are going to be spending their money on food, clothing, and shelter right now, not on toys. No matter how much some kid begs their unemployed mom for a $13.00 Movie Deluxe Bumblebee this summer, he's not going to get it if his sneakers have holes in them and he NEEDS new sneakers instead.

Hasbro can't keep counting on us hardcore collectors to buy their toys in order to line their pockets with the green stuff. They need to lower the prices on these toy lines and count on ticket sales to this summer's two big hit movies - Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen and GIJOE. With the success of the movies, then people will want to buy the toys, as long as the prices are reasonable. And right now, $8.00 for GIJOE and Star Wars figures and $13.00 for Transformers Deluxe figures are not reasonable.

Well, Stormrider may have a point about the price of G1 Jazz being $12.00 25 years ago,and that prices have remained stable for that size range all along, but there is one thing missing from the equation...die-cast metal! We were paying good money for something that would actually survive 25+ years if we took decent care of it.
Now I've got figures that I wont even let my kids lay there hands on for 2 seconds just because I know that parts could break if you so much as use harsh language near them. We are definitely not getting what we are paying for, quality-wise, which is what makes the price increase so hard to cope with.

First of all, diecast:

And even if we assume that diecast is worth more money, it still misses the point being made. If the price of figures hasn't gone up in 25 years, then of course the money put into making them has gone down. Look at almost anything else you buy. The cost of a can of Coke has more than doubled in the same 25 year period, and it's still the same product. So why do people bitch about TF prices rising? Prices go up, but we've got more money, so it doesn't really make a difference.

I noticed this yesterday when I stopped by Wal Mart.. All of the deluxe figs both animated and TFU were effected.

I know with the price increase and my work cutting back OT will effect my buying toys period.
When I buy it will only be "select pieces".

meh.

Double the price, add another $4-$5 and then you have the price in $AU.
The Pommies have it worse.

But you want to do this the long-winded way. Fine. Die cast sucks. It's heavy, the paint scratches off, it's no more resiliant than a decent plastic toy, and it ruins toys. All of which is pretty irrelevant given the issue at hand is value for money. An issue you sailed right over so you could take offense to a perceived insult. If that's what being "adult" means, I'll stay childish. Good day, sir.

To return to the topic: is there any country where TFs cost less than in America? Not wanting to start a "You Yankee pig dogs don't know how good you have it!" thing, just curious as to which country I should move to.

[quote="Sledge]"You Yankee pig dogs don't know how good you have it!"[/quote]

Yay i was called two animals!

NuclearConvoy wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

What books did they jack up to 4$?

New Avengers is now $3.99, Dark Avengers is a new book, but it's $3.99 for 32 pages, the upcoming Spider-Woman is the same, as is the Ronin/Mockingbird book. But sadly, once it starts, it rarely takes long before the other books from the company follow suit.

Dead Metal wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

Something funny? Do tell.

I don't look forward to paying higher prices, but that is pretty normal.

as far as the quality of the figures as compared to the old figures of days gone by, i think there is a give and take with the way figures are manufactured now. i like some of the uses of the die-cast in G1, but there were limitations that came along with the use of that material. i wish there was still some use of die-cast metal, but i think the all plastic designs go better with the increased transformation complexity of current toys. so now, if i mistransform something, an arm might come off but it doesn't matter-it's on a ball joint that breaks away! yay!

MagnusPrimal wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

What books did they jack up to 4$?

New Avengers is now $3.99, Dark Avengers is a new book, but it's $3.99 for 32 pages, the upcoming Spider-Woman is the same, as is the Ronin/Mockingbird book. But sadly, once it starts, it rarely takes long before the other books from the company follow suit.

As I recall they were raising the prices on books they figured would sell well even at a higher cost so as to not raise prices across the board, if you get what I mean. Raising the big sellers that the majority of the slavish collectors will buy will save the guys who buy Iron Fist and X-Force from having their book upped in priice or cancelled.

Sledge wrote:To return to the topic: is there any country where TFs cost less than in America? Not wanting to start a "You Yankee pig dogs don't know how good you have it!" thing, just curious as to which country I should move to.

Yeah, you need to move to China. Let us know when you find the 25 foot Optimus Prime over there.

Pffft, those prices have been at K-Marts and Meijer's stores for years. Target was like the only place by me to have $10.00 deluxes to begin with.

Stormrider wrote:Yeah, you need to move to China. Let us know when you find the 25 foot Optimus Prime over there.

If that thing transformed, I could probably put up with living under a communist system. Not to mention that the security at TF factories appears to be a blind narcoleptic.
*Guy approaches security checkpoint with enormous bag of stolen toys*
"Hey, I'd better search you for stolen t-zzzz. Zzzz."

MagnusPrimal wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

What books did they jack up to 4$?

New Avengers is now $3.99, Dark Avengers is a new book, but it's $3.99 for 32 pages, the upcoming Spider-Woman is the same, as is the Ronin/Mockingbird book. But sadly, once it starts, it rarely takes long before the other books from the company follow suit.

The cost of comics has inflated quite a bit over the last few years and it is usually done in jumps. Think of how much they have raised in the last couple decades, but also look at the paper stock that they are using.

In the Nineties, The paper stock was still a bit crappy as they were still using the the same supplys as Newspapers and Flyers. As paper costs rose, the major newpaper companies began buying up huge lots of lower quality paper, forceing the Comics and Magazine industry to seak higher quality papers for printing, the result is a higher retail cost offset with higher quality paper and printing value.

NuclearConvoy wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:

NuclearConvoy wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:It's happening now with comics. Marvel raised the price of some of the comics I bought to $4. I no longer buy those comics. And since I imagine that's just a harbinger of things to come, I figure by the time the year is out, I won't be buying any Marvel comics. If it happens, it happens. People can say "Oh, we say we'll quit, but we'll still buy them" all they want. But I, for one, will not.

What books did they jack up to 4$?

New Avengers is now $3.99, Dark Avengers is a new book, but it's $3.99 for 32 pages, the upcoming Spider-Woman is the same, as is the Ronin/Mockingbird book. But sadly, once it starts, it rarely takes long before the other books from the company follow suit.

As I recall they were raising the prices on books they figured would sell well even at a higher cost so as to not raise prices across the board, if you get what I mean. Raising the big sellers that the majority of the slavish collectors will buy will save the guys who buy Iron Fist and X-Force from having their book upped in priice or cancelled.

Then they need to up the prices on the Spider-Man and X-Men stuff. And leave my books alone. Cause $3.99 is where I draw the line for Marvel and DC stuff. Heck, if IDW goes any higher, I'll probably stop buying it too, especially if they continue with the AHM direction.

Optimum Supreme wrote:Meh, it's not that high of an increase. I usually found them for between $10 and $12 dollars, hardly ever as low as $7 or $8, I think some of you people are just spoiled by finding such great deals in the past.

I'm more concerned with the way Hasbro seems to be going with cheaper plastic on a lot of the toys. It's one thing to raise prices and keep the quality the same. It's quite another to raise prices while simultaneously lowering quality. Pick one or the other, jerks!

I guess it depends on how much product you actually buy. In 2008 I bought over 100 deluxe figures. I spend on average $1200/month on toys.

In 2009 if I continue to collect as I did in 2008 I am looking at spending roughly $2,500 more this year on toys.

I just recently picked up Animated Blurr, Blazing Lockdown, and Swindle at $13 each. I was stunned at first that it was raised that high. I don't think it'll change my spending habit on these and I'm looking forward to the ROTF line since I missed most of the first movie line. I understand the shape the economies in, but I also decided that I will be picking up some of the activators, and I decided to get the Beast Wars/Beast Machines/Victory/RiD Robot Heroes. I hope that they are able to pick up the Universe line after ROTF. I know that I can't make a huge difference, but I hope that Transformers will persevere. We all have to make sacrifices during a recession, but we must also think positively. Thisfranchise has existed for 25 years now. That's a quarter of a century. Let's keep it going.

Also, I want to collect the movie line of G.I. Joe figures when they're released.

Okay. I bought those 3 Animated figures at Wal-Mart, but then I went to TRU and Target and the deluxe figures were only $10. Actually, at Target they were $9. They didn't have the 3 figures I bought, but still. I don't know if any of the other stores got the memo, but that doesn't seem right. I don't feel cheated, though, because they were figures that I really, REALLY wanted. I wonder what's going on with this.

Just came from TRU and the price was at 9.99 for the deluxes. I have not been to a Target, is Walmart the only one raising prices?

Also, I read on here that Aussies are paying close to 40 bucks for a deluxe? Why is the price so steep in that country?

Another thing, I just got back from Target. They had Universe Figs at 11.99, and the animated deluxes were 9.99. I picked up the last Animated Wreck Gar for 21.99

So,again, is Wally world the only place that is going nuts on price or have the other stores not fallen in line?