The Energon Pub

Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:13 am

Well, I've finally done it.

It took a while, but it was time for a change if I was to remain in this hobby.

I'm speaking of where it is I now exclusively buy my TFs.

Too many wasted trips, too many frustrated, grumbling walks out of Target, Y'All-Mart, K-Mart, and TRU. There came a point where every last vertebrae in the camel's back was shattered beyond repair.

I had been in denial. I was all for "support your local economy". I believed the idea that if we didn't buy our TF's locally, then stores would eventually stop ordering them altogether. I also fondly remembered the days of yore when I could walk into pretty much any of these stores and scoop an entire wave of deluxes into my shopping basket and go home a happy camper.

In the past six or seven years I guess I endured the madness and irritation of the increasingly futile hunt for TFs at local retail in the optimistic hope that "It'll get better". Someone, somewhere, be it at Hasbro or at the store's corporate headquarters would eventually HAVE to wake up and fix this worsening issue.

But they didn't. And they never will.

We now have TF pegs and end caps stuffed to capacity with toddler TF items. Notice I didn't say TFs. They are TF THEMED, but that's about all they are. Super easy to change toys for the slow witted or very young, non-transforming chunks of character shaped plastic, plastic objects with TF faces molded into them, lego-style building sets, plastic masks and swords...the list goes on. Over time, the REAL TFs (Generations and main line) have had their shelf space squeezed into a tinier and tinier sliver until now, it's gone, or if not gone, never gets restocked with new waves. Try asking the help why there's no Transformers there and they'll stare blankly at all the crap on the TF display and say that there's "plenty of Transformers".

The problem is, that retailers don't know the difference between a baby toy and a real Transformer, they just see the word "Transformers" on the packaging.

I completely lost faith in local retail. I used to go into these stores explicitly for TFs, and having found what I wanted I would then maybe pick up a few other household things. Now, I never darken their doorways. I get all my TFs online, and the other stuff I can get at my local grocery or hardware store. 98% of my TFs over the past 8 months have come from online sources. I just bought 9 items from HTS which would have taken an eternity to track down at brick and mortar.

It was a hard lesson to learn, and I had stubbornly clung to the past, but I've finally done it and completely made the switch!

News Credits: 9 · Thu Sep 04, 2014 7:00 pm

I completely understand where you are coming from.
Nowadays i still do a small weekly run for some deals but Amazon and the sales threads on Seibertron are pretty much the way I go.
Keep your head up and keep on moving forward.

News Credits: 402 · Updated Oct 21, 2022

Personally, I don't have a choice but to use online retail. I work away from home literally 2/3rds of the time. I use BBTS for 90% of my purchases because of their awesome Pile of Loot system and their great customer service.

I can certainly understand your frustrations. I used to go check out stores for Transformers. Now I go to the stores to buy actual things I need, and I walk into their toy aisles with no expectations whatsoever. Every once in a while I'm surprised like the TF: Generations Legends figures showed up before they did online, and I'm holding out hope for Sky-Byte too...

Chin up, and keep an eye on your spending. The added shipping charges can add up quick if you don't pay attention.