The Energon Pub

I'm 19 now, and this makes 2 price markups in the last what, five years? Hell $20 for deluxes that all vary in size? No thank you. At this point there's no purpose in varying them by size class if cliffjumper's gonna be smaller than sideswipe at the same price. This is primus tier b.s. This is why I wait for masterpieces. Id rather pay an inflated price for something show accurate than a parts forming p.o.s. that's made of cheap plastic and more hollow than joe biden's head. This is why I never understand you people complaining about masterpiece prices. More accuracy= more complicated engineering= more parts= more machinery and molds= inflated price, and if they have to add some accessories that had 3 seconds of screentime to justify the price for us, then more power to em. Bumblebee was awful yes but we all know we needed a seeker update to get rid of the first mp seeker's upsidown cockpit beer gut . "Ugh I'd rather have a toy that feels nice rather than accuracy" Guess what? MAYBE DON'T BUY THE MASTERPIECES?!?!? I'd rather have a line that prioritizes accuracy AND fun rather than only playability. Some of you people complain about the price hike of masterpieces but will then proceed to buy 30 bots that transform into RAMPS that fit MAYBE two separate size classes. I know someone said "ugh if you don't like complaining then why did you complain about the funko pops? A. Those things are abominations, and can't decide between being toy or show accurate, and instead try and fail to do both, B. I'm going to give you all the benefit of the doubt and say 40% AT THE MOST of your complaints against masterpieces are justified. God this rant spiraled into a completely separate subject, but I think it's relevant. This is barely even my opinion it's just marketing and economics, and if someone cares to correct me and make me look like an idiot and lose all credibility then go ahead, I don't care, it's not my website. It's Primus' universe and I'm just getting railed by it with Negans baseball bat, and I hate the walking dead.

Heck, the $20 for current deluxes is too much, especially when you have big open empty spaces in the legs & arms, & the legs can easily fall off.

I'm no white knight, but when you think about the fact that hasbro is selling marvel legends figures for 20 bucks and that they are incredibly simple and straightforward figures with zero engineering or complexity, 23 for a similar sized toy that has equivalent articulation, better feeling plastic, higher parts count, and actually turns into an entirely different toy doesn't seem so ridiculous.

To be honest, I think the prices for deluxe have been sitting @ $21.99 Walmart/Amazon/Target just keep it down. BBTS and TFSource have been charging $21.99 since... what... the start of siege, if not the end of Titan's Return? For a while I thought it was just e-tailer mark-up. But I think I remember SDCC cards from last year mention a 21.99 MSRP. As for those complaining about mark-ups. I remember when dexluxes used to be $8.99-9.99. Sure that was probably going on 20 years ago now... but... it's just price creep with the times.

LE0KING wrote:I'm no white knight, but when you think about the fact that hasbro is selling marvel legends figures for 20 bucks and that they are incredibly simple and straightforward figures with zero engineering or complexity, 23 for a similar sized toy that has equivalent articulation, better feeling plastic, higher parts count, and actually turns into an entirely different toy doesn't seem so ridiculous.

Seriously, just look at what else is on the shelves and their prices. Look at the cost of the Angry Birds or Fortnite stuff which have zero articulation and cost ten to twelve bucks. Lego sets have gone up and they are literally just bricks.

Just about everything is going up in price it's not just Transformers, it's not simply a matter of greed from the company this is just the reality we live in where concepts like inflation are in place.

If you don't like the prices now it sure ain't going to be better 5 years from now, so I'd say it's about time for anyone to jump out of collecting if the prices are too much for yourself right now.

Deadput wrote:Just about everything is going up in price it's not just Transformers, it's not simply a matter of greed from the company this is just the reality we live in where concepts like inflation are in place.

If you don't like the prices now it sure ain't going to be better 5 years from now, so I'd say it's about time for anyone to jump out of collecting if the prices are too much for yourself right now.

Greed and covering what are almost certainly license disappointment returns from Star Wars. Seriously, didn't even have a toy line from the last movie and Transformers which Hasbro owns has as much shelf presence in most stores I visit and its last movie was even longer ago.

Just feel annoyed I'm paying more cause Lou has been losing money at the track. (old reference)

I'll be honest, I can see the complaints about the extra $3 if you buy figures in batches. Once you hit 6 deluxes, that money could have bought a 7th deluxe, or at 3 deluxes, you could have bought a core class. But, I feel the need to point out that it's only an increase on the deluxes, which so far have been really solid figures. Plus, if the extra $3 had to go somewhere for the core class guys to get their weapons, I'm fine with it. I mean, the new Megatron supposedly comes with himself in gun mode as an accessory, Prime should have his rifle, Starscream has his Null Rays, and Rattrap has his gun. Given the fact that the previous Legends class guys had nothing since CW except for Brawn/Outback and Seaspray, if $3 extra dollars provides the core class boys their weapons, then fine.

Besides, Deluxes are the easiest to justify. Core class is half the size at $10, but at $13 you might as well save a bit longer and get a bigger toy (from a casual fan's POV), Voyagers at $33 would be the other decent argument, but that still runs the risk of people seeing them and saying it's not worth the price and might result in Voyagers shelfwarming, and I feel leader class is the obvious no go due to the fact that shelves are still flooded with Siege Shockwaves, and likely will be flooded with Doubledealers while Kingdom is out.

FED's to blame for printing money and causing inflation. Worse is that the extra money is coming out from our pockets instead of into it!
Where is the low inflation if we get price hikes so often?

Another excuse for is to match prices in Japan. Abenomics has caused retail prices to skyrocket more than double in the past 5 years. Those of us who import using sites like Amiami, HLJ and Amazon Japan will know

Deadput wrote:Just about everything is going up in price it's not just Transformers, it's not simply a matter of greed from the company this is just the reality we live in where concepts like inflation are in place.

If you don't like the prices now it sure ain't going to be better 5 years from now, so I'd say it's about time for anyone to jump out of collecting if the prices are too much for yourself right now.

This^

Waiting for the £15 plus price tag on the $10 cores would love for the days of kenner and toybiz prices to come back, but it ain't happening.

blackeyedprime wrote:Waiting for the £15 plus price tag on the $10 cores would love for the days of kenner and toybiz prices to come back, but it ain't happening.

Nope, what would really offset these prices rises is if the wages increased along side them so they were still affordable. You'd still get the talk of "these were cheaper in my day" but then we have to remember that wages were a lot less as well. In some cases the money we paid on Deluxes back then is roughly the same as what we spend now, thanks to inflation and rising material costs.

The prices going up hurts a bit more now because the mainline is producing things I want all at the same time. Before it took ages to build the entire G1 case. I'm not rebuying everyone, but even without that everything's basically coming out all at once.

It seems odd to complain about getting MOAR, but .... here we are.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The prices going up hurts a bit more now because the mainline is producing things I want all at the same time. Before it took ages to build the entire G1 case. I'm not rebuying everyone, but even without that everything's basically coming out all at once.

It seems odd to complain about getting MOAR, but .... here we are.

Yep especially when by the time Kingdom concludes we are probably at double the amount of figures released for the entire Armada-Cybertron time line.

Walmart had already increased the prices of the SS voyagers and leaders by 5$ since months ago. But only Walmart.

Hasbro's official reveal of some figures on IGN.
https://www.ign.com/articles/new-transformers-generations-war-for-cybertron-kingdom-figures-announced-by-hasbro

Holy

*runs to news desk*

They all look great, but Cyclonus tho!

Cheetor and Rattrap official pics too!

Megs is looking good and non explodey. Cyclonus probably needed to be commander class to be my desired size for him and cheetor is still a great big pass no matter the fancy photoshoot.

Cheetor was my favorite character on Beast Wars and its annoys me to no end they didn't give him his Quasar Cannon from his gut and his tail gun. They gave him some stupid tail whip he never had. also $22.99 for him hard pass. I will stick with my OG Cheetor I have

Missing pic of Megs's smile:

Thank goodness for Covid and the complete eradication of what social life I had as I can use that money to pay for all of these

Megs looks like he put on a a few pounds in dino mode. But robot mode looks excellent. Damn... seems like i’ll ve preordering all these kingdom figures.

We thank Nuclearxpotato for letting us know of Hasbro's official reveal of some figures on IGN.
https://www.ign.com/articles/new-transformers-generations-war-for-cybertron-kingdom-figures-announced-by-hasbro

Here is the info on each of these reveals, one per size class.

Core Class Beast Wars Ratttrap
Deluxe Class Beast Wars Cheetor
Voyager Class Generation 1 Cyclonus
Leader Class Beast Wars Megatron

There will be more reveals at the Transformers Saturday Toy Panel at Hasbro PulseCon. Also, pre-orders will be available on 09/26/2020 at 5:00pm ET on Hasbro Pulse.


“The WFC-K2 Core Class RATTRAP collectible figure stands at 3.5 inches tall and converts to Beast Wars-inspired rat mode with molded fur texture in 18 steps. RATTRAP comes with classic Fusion blaster accessory inspired by the one featured in the Beast Wars cartoon. Wise cracks not included, but you can imagine! The mini-figure allows fans to collect a mini version of the iconic character to pose out with other RATTRAP toys at larger scales (each sold separately, subject to availability)!

“The WFC-K4 Deluxe CHEETOR collectible figure stands at 5.5 inches tall, converts to Beast Wars-inspired cheetah mode in 20 steps with intricate cheetah-inspired molded fur texture, and features lower jaw articulation in cheetah mode for classic look of CHEETOR enthusiasm. CHEETOR’s tail also detaches from cheetah mode during conversion and becomes a tail whip accessory that can be held by the figure in robot mode. CHEETOR includes a Golden Disk card that reveals a possible destiny of a key character. Collect other KINGDOM figures to reveal all 3 alternate destiny variants for each character (each sold separately, subject to availability)!”

“The WFC-K9 Voyager CYCLONUS G1-inspired figure stands at 7 inches tall, converts into Cybertronian fighter craft mode in 34 steps, and comes with the classic Oxidating Laser accessory. CYCLONUS, a herald of UNICRON, first appears in the 1986 movie when BOMBSHELL/SKYWARP were reformatted into the second-in-command of GALVATRON. CYCLONUS includes a Golden Disk card that reveals a possible destiny of a key character. Collect other KINGDOM figures to reveal all 3 alternate destiny variants for each character (each sold separately, subject to availability)!

“The WFC-K10 Leader MEGATRON (BEAST) collectible figure stands at 7.5 inches tall and converts into Beast Wars-inspired T. rex beast mode in 27 steps, featuring intricate dinosaur-inspired molded scales and an articulated jaw with molded teeth. MEGATRON’s dino head and tail also become his classic claw hands, and fans can add laser fire effects by placing fire blasts accessories inside his dino head (sold separately with other figures, subject to availability). MEGATRON (BEAST) includes a Golden Disk card that reveals a possible destiny of a key character. Collect other KINGDOM figures to reveal all 3 alternate destiny variants for each character (each sold separately, subject to availability)!”