The Energon Pub

Welp after my blundered whole night of staying up (by 1 hour of sleep at 5:15) I went to TRU this morning, nothing. Their Facebook said stores dont get them till August. Did get my Acid Storm (Although it said quantity exceeded blah blah blah)but paypal and email came through. PS sorry if this is a double post first one didn't seem to work

I just went to 3 TRUs and the one that would even help me said try Tuesday. Funny that Tuesday is not 7-18. I also learned from talking with them that TRU distributes as they see fit depending on the class of store and that since 2 of my TRUs are C class and the other one (The good one with decent employees) is a D class they will only be getting 1 case the other to might get 2. I don't care if it a Z class store there should be one on the shelf at every TRU on the release date. I'm literally sick to my stomach from the stress this is causing.

For the record I'm one of 4 guys that was at one of these TRUs at 10am when they opened. Why, I ask the Gods, Why are you not ready to take my money. If it's no good, I'll happily take one for free

Anyway, good luck to you all. I'm going to go puke now.

Antron wrote:I just went to 3 TRUs and the one that would even help me said try Tuesday. Funny that Tuesday is not 7-18. I also learned from talking with them that TRU distributes as they see fit depending on the class of store and that since 2 of my TRUs are C class and the other one (The good one with decent employees) is a D class they will only be getting 1 case the other to might get 2. I don't care if it a Z class store there should be one on the shelf at every TRU on the release date. I'm literally sick to my stomach from the stress this is causing.

For the record I'm one of 4 guys that was at one of these TRUs at 10am when they opened. Why, I ask the Gods, Why are you not ready to take my money. If it's no good, I'll happily take one for free

Anyway, good luck to you all. I'm going to go puke now.

Yeah, TRU are kinda dicks about their work. They rarely want to help, and if I actually find an employee that's nice and wants to help the customer, they never have it anyway. I'm just hoping that Soundwave will be in stock next Friday.

I called two stores by me and neither had them and had several inquiries. What a PITA. I stayed up last night to wait for midnight and didnt see squat and I guessed missed it the couple of times I checked this morning. Now Im going to have to make them a daily call which will only pan out if I can get it after work.

At least I snagged Acid Storm to go with all the other MP Seekers on the shelf.

Really, really dont understand why they limit production of these figures like this. All they are doing is hurting themselves. All the markups on the secondary market isnt helping TRU or Hasbro.

Order now at TRU. They are accepting orders.

.

I'm still getting the "you can add it to your cart, but we're going to immediately take it back out" thing

PEOPLE, PLEASE STOP posting every time it LOOKS like they have it again. Even if they DO, by the time you post your message and others read it, it will be gone.

So frustrating. I checked at around 6:10AM EST this morning. I was able to get all the way to the last page of the checkout process, hit the final "Place Order" button, and then I got dumped back to my empty cart. No order was placed.

Hit up the local TRU when they opened. Ran into some other collectors who had the employees check the computer. Sounds like the stores in the Fairfax, Manassas, & Sterling VA area might never get them in stock. Beyond frustrated with Hasbro and TRU on this. Optimus was just as bad. I found him on a shelf ONCE (which I bought. It even turned out to be opened, but complete and undamaged), and never again. I didn't have anywhere near this issue with Grimlock or Rodimus *sigh*

Arrrgh! This is ridiculous. I made it all the way to submit order and then it cleared my cart. TRU needs to seriously redo its system.

@Maquese I got Rodimus fine and plain old lucked out with Prime. I had to, well, my gf, for xmas had to get Grimlock off of ebay. $200+ I think I should just pawn all my TFs for crack. At this point I think smoking crack may be may be less harmful to my constitution. Imagine how safe the streets would be if the only place to get guns and drugs were TRU.

Takara's version of MP Soundwave is still available on BBTS, for anyone interested. The pre-order, to-be-re-released version is still $160. The 1st batch, that's available for shipment right now is $190

Personally I think the extra $40 (+shipping) for the pre-order is worth bypassing the craziness of TRU. Couldn't say the same for Optimus last year, considering the difference was $200...

Antron wrote:@Maquese I got Rodimus fine and plain old lucked out with Prime. I had to, well, my gf, for xmas had to get Grimlock off of ebay. $200+ I think I should just pawn all my TFs for crack. At this point I think smoking crack may be may be less harmful to my constitution. Imagine how safe the streets would be if the only place to get guns and drugs were TRU.

Good god, man. Imagine if TRU sold something that was ACTUALLY addictive, and also the experience of purchasing it had you so stressed that you truthfully need the drugs to take the edge off. That's just evil.

@Antron I lucked out with MP Grimlock. My girlfriend ordered the Takara version for me for xmas before the US release was announced, though the local TRU had a lot sitting around for a while after it came out. Rodimus I managed to get and exchange (had a bad clip for hooking the "backpack" up in robot mode.) and then found a few of them later on. Thundercracker I found a two of one day and picked one up. Found a number of them weeks later (at around $100 each according the shelf price). Optimus was basically MIA forever. It was amusing watching the shelf price rise slowly from $99.99 to $134.99 </sarcasm>

@Erailea I placed a preorder for that at BBTS. Figure I'll see if I can snag the Hasbro release, otherwise Takara it is. Hopefully they still have MP-15 in stock around the time it ships.

Erailea wrote:Personally I think the extra $40 (+shipping) for the pre-order (of Takara's version) is worth bypassing the craziness of TRU.

Except don't forget that Takara's only comes with one cassette, and the other four have to be bought in additional pairs. Whereas the Hasbro release comes with everything in one package. So if you want everything, the price difference will be a lot more then just $40!

fordprefect294 wrote:Imagine if TRU sold something that was ACTUALLY addictive...

Since when are Transformers not addictive?

Yotsuyasan wrote:

Erailea wrote:Personally I think the extra $40 (+shipping) for the pre-order (of Takara's version) is worth bypassing the craziness of TRU.

Except don't forget that Takara's only comes with one cassette, and the other four have to be bought in additional pairs. Whereas the Hasbro release comes with everything in one package. So if you want everything, the price difference will be a lot more then just $40!

I did forget about them But, to be fair, I thought Ravage and Rumble were extraordinarily disappointing, so I try to forget they exist...and that I purchased them. Total waste of money

Yotsuyasan wrote:

Erailea wrote:Personally I think the extra $40 (+shipping) for the pre-order (of Takara's version) is worth bypassing the craziness of TRU.

Except don't forget that Takara's only comes with one cassette, and the other four have to be bought in additional pairs. Whereas the Hasbro release comes with everything in one package. So if you want everything, the price difference will be a lot more then just $40!

Based on what TRU Soundwave is going for on ebay, the price difference isn't a whole lot

@Maquese My local TRUs all have 2-5 MP Thundercrackers and its been that way since they've come out. Flood the market with a seeker that most didn't bother with because of Scream and Warp (even though it is a different mold) but the ones people really want like Prime and Soundwave are precious few. Hasbros had marketing issues. Let's hope that the Hasbro "lay offs" bring in some people who know their markets.

My favorite local store is considered the bottom feeder here which sucks because there are a few collectors who work there and really know and care about this stuff.

To be honest I make the rounds pretty regularly. I can get to my closest in about 10-15 minutes and hit the other 2 within 30-45 min. It took me just over an hour and a half to start close, work my away across and come back home so, it's not a big deal to make the loop for me. I do it for fun. It's just frustrating when I'm told a product will be there and it's not.

Hasbro should just bail on TRU and just stick with the Walmarts and Targets. I've yet to not see one of their exclusives. They're serious about getting peoples money.

Are you listening Geoffrey LLC.? Just because you run a toy store doesn't mean you should treat it like a hobby. You should treat it like a business and honor your advertisements or at least be clear with them. If the info said "We'll start shipping it to stores on 7-18." that would have been fine but you said Available to purchase in stores on 7-18.

I'm sure Hasbro has a hand on this wrench too. Who cares about potential billions of customers when we have a few thousand ready to pay a mark up price right here at bot con and SDCC.

We should start our own 99% movement because it's probably only about 1% of collectors who got to go to either of those events. (I'm just being jealous. More power to those of you who got to go.)

I've been planning for this all year. I guess I don't matter because I can barely afford the toy right now, more or less a trip to CA to get him. I thought Rhode Island was on the East Coast team.

I'm sorry to rant again. I just haven't been this upset since Prime died in 1986.

Antron wrote:@Maquese My local TRUs all have 2-5 MP Thundercrackers and its been that way since they've come out. Flood the market with a seeker that most didn't bother with because of Scream and Warp (even though it is a different mold) but the ones people really want like Prime and Soundwave are precious few. Hasbros had marketing issues. Let's hope that the Hasbro "lay offs" bring in some people who know their markets.

Um... what proof do you have that MP Soundwave (or Optimus) were produced in fewer number than the Seekers? Soundwave and Optimus are WAAAAAAY more popular than Acid Storm and Thuckercracker, so they'll naturally have a far superior (ha!) demand, thus sell out quickly. Plus, these figures are really expensive, so most people have to choose one or the other. Most will choose the more popular character and hold out with high hopes that they'll get the figure they want.... and possibly throw their hands up in frustration and get neither when their favored figure is nowhere to be found.

Look at Furby! Two colors were the most popular and couldn't be found anywhere at Christmas time (and sold for HUNDREDS of dollars on ebay)!! But the others sat there, in mass, collecting dust.

I just talked to a TRU rep about MP Soundwave.
She told me that the figure is so popular that all locations do not have them.
They project the more figures could come in late August.
If you want to read this exchange just look at the lasted post in the Illinois sightings.

I received this reply from TRU today via Chat:

"Thank you for contacting Toys“R”Us regarding the online release of the TRANSFORMERS Masterpiece Soundwave from Hasbro.


We sincerely apologize for any confusion or inconvenience regarding this release. Limited quantities of the TRANSFORMERS Masterpiece Soundwave were made available online this morning in conjunction with International Comic-Con in San Diego. Due to high demand, this item is currently sold out, but is expected to be available in our U.S. stores and again online at Toysrus.com by late August."

Ugh, late August! That won't do for me, won't do at all.

No proof. Just observational really. I'm guessing from the fact that I make the rounds at least once a week and have only seen 4 Primes, as they were stocking them (1 of which I proudly own) and every one of my TRUs had at least 6 TCs on the shelf at one point or another. So locally I've seen 4 Primes upon initial release and 18 TCs.

I've seen more TC in one store at once than I've seen Primes at all. What's even more sad is that the one TRU in my area that did get Primes (Believe me, I called them all) was the one that's D class. Maybe it's just poor distribution locally that it went down that way. But, that's why I made the quantity comment.

As far as SW goes, I gathered some intel from talking to the one helpful guy at one TRU, whom I've chatted with before on several occasions (I used to work around the corner and went there 3 times a week minimum then) and he's not blown smoke up my tail pipe yet. I know that there are a little over 700 to be distributed to my district that contains about 90 stores. They were shipped out today and should be on the shelves Tuesday. He said they will get 1 case there for sure but doubts they'll get a second because they are a D class store. Oh and he was nice enough to let me know he's buying one as soon as they come in so I should be there at 10am Tuesday so I don't miss out.

BTW, does anyone know how many are going to come in a case?

They should do a pre-order to know how many they're going to need. It's a win-win-win for Us-ToysRus-Hasbro. But as the above posted, we're not at SDCC so we don't matter.

Questworld12 wrote:I just talked to a TRU rep about MP Soundwave.
She told me that the figure is so popular that all locations do not have them.
They project the more figures could come in late August.
If you want to read this exchange just look at the lasted post in the Illinois sightings.

To translate: "Items we know will sell, get short stocked and not widely released so scalpers can get their beak wet. But, you can still get one of the 6 Series1 Deluxe PRID Bumblebees that's been collecting dust on the shelves since the Prime toys started rolling out before last Xmas.

It's fine, we know you'll pay the jacked up Price in August just like you did when we pulled this trick with MP Optimus Prime. Now go play with one of your countless number of other Bumblebees and leave us be."

Antron wrote: To translate: "Items we know will sell, get short stocked and not widely released so scalpers can get their beak wet. But, you can still get one of the 6 Series1 Deluxe PRID Bumblebees that's been collecting dust on the shelves since the Prime toys started rolling out before last Xmas.

It's fine, we know you'll pay the jacked up Price in August just like you did when we pulled this trick with MP Optimus Prime. Now go play with one of your countless number of other Bumblebees and leave us be."

PRID BB? That's nothing. My TRU still has several pegs filled with DOTM Preview Cyberverse Optimus Prime with 3D glasses. At full price.