The Energon Pub

This set looks great! Good to see Blasters cassette buddies include here even if there is no Rewind. Even Perceptor looks like he comes with added accessories. The best part is they didn't give us wtf editions ala Crazytrain and Schlitzwing.

Definitely picking that set up. I never had Blaster or Perceptor as a kid so this set is going to be great. I love the cassette Transformers.

Schlitzwing!

MartianSpyGirl1996 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:The official Transformers site has just revealed the price of the Astrotrain and Blitzwing Platinum set to be 65.99$US (approx retail). This is less than the 79.99$ price tag of the Insecticon Reissue.

And just in case you weren't caught up, it seems we have a better idea of what the wacky Astrotrain colors are meant to homage. While Blitzwing's colors homage Flywheels, Astrotrain appears to homage the Mach Tackle set from Takara's Victory (which features a white and purple shuttle and a red/orange truck).

It is still unclear which retailer will get the exclusivity to these figures.

Exactly where I was going with this So even with inflation, these are still an additional 2/3rds (66%) markup, for repaints that they didn't have to put any money into engineering for this release... what the hell? Sorry Hasbro, but I'm not paying you for being greedy... that's what you have the movies for

I think you need to check your maths again.... Even at the smaller number of the range from the wonderful post on inflation, we're looking at $44 to $67, or an increase of $23. That's just over a 50% markup (with $22 being exactly 50%). From the higher one, $52, it's $15, which is, let me get my calculator...a little under 30% markup. Still a little high, but there could be other factors for this, like a smaller run. The larger the run, the more the initial costs of setup are spread out over the cost of the figure.

Now, I'm not saying Hasbro is not over-pricing these. (Certainly, they are more than I would spend.) But, I'm not sure I would go along with price gouging opinions...

I didn't realize that Blaster and Perceptor were going to be packaged together.


That's awesome!

william-james88 wrote:Big News to all G1 enthusiasts! Thanks to ACToys, we finally have a clear image of the upcoming reissue of Perceptor and Blaster, which will be released under the Platinum line.

It will be called the Platinum Edition Autobot Intel Ops set, featuring what looks to be mostly unchanged reissues of G1 Perceptor, Blaster, Steeljaw, Ramhorn, and Eject.

There are some additional accessories, some of which look to perhaps be microscope slides, as well as extra red pieces. The glare and size makes it hard to make out the extra details, so let us know what you make of this set and it's extra accessories in the Energon Pub forum.

Jesus, what will be the price of this awesome set? 200$?
This is a Platinum I'm looking forward to.

william-james88 wrote:

US re-release tripticon, conheads set, blitzwing & astrotrain set, Perceptor & Blaster set: cassettes included looks like to be the animals, and the shoulder cannon on perceptor has some special purpose, rumored to be able to view slide shows

And hey, now we get why this person was adamant about mentioning slides in terms of perceptor. This set gives us new slide accessories now, encouraging the play value of the microscope.

It's a little weird isn't it? These aren't exactly priced for kids, and yet they give them a kid-friendly play feature and most adults are going to leave in the box. I really have no idea who they're trying to target with these reissues. It's the same with painting Astrotrain up as Machtackle; why pass up the opportunity to bring over the real Machtackle and rest of the Multiforce here instead? The molds aren't lost, they were just used in 2004 as trading figures the same time as the Micromaster combiners were. I'm sure there are people who would pay the Insecticon prices for a Landcross reissue. Then we could get the purple and gray show accurate Astrotrain fans have always wanted from Hasbro and the proper Hasbro Blitzwing reissue we never got.

As for this set, it looks good, but replacing Rewind with a bunch of kid stuff is annoying. Then again I already have these guys so I'm not buying it anyway. I'm guessing the red V shaped thing is for feeding the slides under Perceptor's scope. It has a hinge so it can be straightened out. Not sure what the second function could be. The slides probably have pictures of Decepticons on them. I wonder if the scope is now red tinted and if any of the tapes will have enemy specs on them like some of the past and more recent tapes have.

Emerje

Sabrblade wrote:The lack of Rewind is likely to upset many a Rewind Fan.

Good thing I already have rewind!


(got it from a second hand store along with G1 Bombshell and a broken Kickback.)

Yeah, that's a LOAD of extra stuff... to then leave out Rewind. Still, very curious about the new bits.

Hmm interesting. I would like to have a reissue of blaster myself but the lack of a rewind is frusterating. I think

Sabrblade wrote:The lack of Rewind is likely to upset many a Rewind Fan.

Yes But I wonder if that is due to design. He is the most popular autobot mini-cassette due to MTMTE

I'm not sure if i'll get these or not. I already have preceptor and I think I personally would rather have a Twincast.

that nail man...

BERSEKAEL wrote:that nail man...

If that price point ($65-ish) is true, then that's a time warp back to 2002 and the first Commemorative Series baby! I hope it comes with a sub-prime mortgage application and a no spending limit credit card for applicants with less than 520 credit scores too

No but really, it's weird that this would have what really, truly is a great price compared to the Insecticons of all things. Glad they popped for the additional accessories, I'd have no interest in this otherwise. Though, this was an opportunity for wacky cassette repaints not taken, but I can get over that.

ScottyP wrote:If that price point ($65-ish) is true, then that's a time warp back to 2002 and the first Commemorative Series baby! I hope it comes with a sub-prime mortgage application and a no spending limit credit card for applicants with less than 520 credit scores too

No but really, it's weird that this would have what really, truly is a great price compared to the Insecticons of all things. Glad they popped for the additional accessories, I'd have no interest in this otherwise. Though, this was an opportunity for wacky cassette repaints not taken, but I can get over that.

Where are you getting that price point?

The 65$ price revealed was for the astrotrain and blitzwing set. Are you referring to that?

Quick question. It was said above that the average G1 toy was about 10$ back then (for the triple changers). How much was it for the individual Predacons? 20$?

william-james88 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:If that price point ($65-ish) is true, then that's a time warp back to 2002 and the first Commemorative Series baby! I hope it comes with a sub-prime mortgage application and a no spending limit credit card for applicants with less than 520 credit scores too

No but really, it's weird that this would have what really, truly is a great price compared to the Insecticons of all things. Glad they popped for the additional accessories, I'd have no interest in this otherwise. Though, this was an opportunity for wacky cassette repaints not taken, but I can get over that.

Where are you getting that price point?

The 65$ price revealed was for the astrotrain and blitzwing set. Are you referring to that?

Woops! I was indeed. It's still in line with original Comm. Series pricing though, so the point remains even though I referred to the entirely wrong set I'm gonna go get more caffeine now.

ScottyP wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:If that price point ($65-ish) is true, then that's a time warp back to 2002 and the first Commemorative Series baby! I hope it comes with a sub-prime mortgage application and a no spending limit credit card for applicants with less than 520 credit scores too

No but really, it's weird that this would have what really, truly is a great price compared to the Insecticons of all things. Glad they popped for the additional accessories, I'd have no interest in this otherwise. Though, this was an opportunity for wacky cassette repaints not taken, but I can get over that.

Where are you getting that price point?

The 65$ price revealed was for the astrotrain and blitzwing set. Are you referring to that?

Woops! I was indeed. It's still in line with original Comm. Series pricing though, so the point remains even though I referred to the entirely wrong set I'm gonna go get more caffeine now.

It is? I find that surprising because that makes it a little less than 33$ per triple changer. That's how much the commemorative reissue was? The insecticons are only 15$ more and you get a third toy, making them about 27$ each. And its not like the insecticons are so much smaller than the triple changers. And they even come with new accessories (energon cubes).

william-james88 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:If that price point ($65-ish) is true, then that's a time warp back to 2002 and the first Commemorative Series baby! I hope it comes with a sub-prime mortgage application and a no spending limit credit card for applicants with less than 520 credit scores too

No but really, it's weird that this would have what really, truly is a great price compared to the Insecticons of all things. Glad they popped for the additional accessories, I'd have no interest in this otherwise. Though, this was an opportunity for wacky cassette repaints not taken, but I can get over that.

Where are you getting that price point?

The 65$ price revealed was for the astrotrain and blitzwing set. Are you referring to that?

Woops! I was indeed. It's still in line with original Comm. Series pricing though, so the point remains even though I referred to the entirely wrong set I'm gonna go get more caffeine now.

It is? I find that surprising because that makes it a little less than 33$ per triple changer. That's how much the commemorative reissue was? The insecticons are only 15$ more and you get a third toy, making them about 27$ each. And its not like the insecticons are so much smaller than the triple changers. And they even come with new accessories (energon cubes).

I seem to recall paying roughly $36 dollars for the last release of both the Insecticons and Perceptor.

william-james88 wrote:It is? I find that surprising because that makes it a little less than 33$ per triple changer. That's how much the commemorative reissue was? The insecticons are only 15$ more and you get a third toy, making them about 27$ each. And its not like the insecticons are so much smaller than the triple changers. And they even come with new accessories (energon cubes).

All the Autobot cars and Decepticon Jets were $34.99 originally back then, though I think Hot Rod was maybe $29.99 in that first wave. So this would have been stuff like Jazz, Prowl, Starscream, and later on even Rodimus Prime, and Astrotrain (though it only ever hit Hasbrotoyshop and KB Toys at discount) was intended for that price point. (edit: so in other words, not the Insecticons, who were put out as a set of three at roughly the same pricepoint 6 years ago)

The reality is most folks didn't pay that much for them, as Series III-VII (and half of VIII and IX, with Sideswipe and Astrotrain being weirdly MIA for a long time) of the Commemorative Series shelf-warmed, and shelf-warmed like a boss. The markdowns were amazingly awesome. I think my Comm. Series Rodimus Prime was $9, Thundercracker and Skywarp about $15 each, Grapple, Bluestreak, and others around that too.

There was a consequence to this, however. Due to their failure at being a not-so-limited, yet still TRU exclusive line, every G1 reissue in the US market since then has been some form of exclusive, whether that be SDCC, a particular retailer, HTS, online, etc. and the perception is that the quantities produced are in much lesser numbers. Had this line succeeded, it's very well possible many of the reissues that Takara has put out over the years would have gotten out here as well, such as Trailbreaker, Ironhide, Ratchet, and the other Coneheads that are only now happening. Plus, had Ricochet/Stepper not absolutely bombed at retail, an Artfire would almost have undoubtedly happened.

To this day, let it be a lesson for "Clearance" shoppers - there's nothing wrong with waiting for a clearance, but keep in mind the message it sends to the retailer, who knows those numbers and gets them to Hasbro some way or another by direct reporting or by behavior in placing future orders.

While this is awesome, I have the TFC Blaster. So all I need is a Commemorative Perceptor and I'm good.

Both the Platinum Conehead seeker set (With Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet) and Triple changer set (with Astrotrain and Blitzwing) are now available for pre-order at TFSource.

They are listed at 99.95$ and 79.95$ respectively. Both of these are priced higher than anticipated, basing ourselves on the price of the Conehead set sold in Singapore at an equivalent of 78.89$ USD and the suggested retail price of 65.99$ for the Triple changer set on the Hasbro website.

Yeah, but $30 each for the coneheads? I'm in. Definitely more worth it in my opinion than the Insecticons... C'mon, BBTS!!

Agamemnon wrote:Yeah, but $30 each for the coneheads? I'm in. Definitely more worth it in my opinion than the Insecticons... C'mon, BBTS!!

Oh me too. If Canadian has similar prices (like 110$-120$) count me in! The deal with the seekers, in contrary to the insecticons, is that they come with so many damn accessories, and many are vital to the presentation (like their HANDS!). So getting a complete one is much harder AND much more in demand. I am glad Hasbro only sees it as three toys slightly bigger than the insecticons and just pricing it that way.

Excellent news. I've got Ramjet from my childhood, but I never had Dirge and Thrust. I've been waiting for years for a reissue of the coneheads. I'm going to buy this for sure. My only complaint is the cheaply designed box. I prefer an Encore styled box.

Gonna wait and see what BBTS puts up on these, since they've got a direct account. Cool that these are gonna be easy to acquire through online though!