The Energon Pub

News Credits: 25 · Fri Feb 06, 2015 5:13 pm

Oh well Holly shiet

News Credits: 1235 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:10 pm

Fellow Seibertronian Bounti76 got a tip from a fellow Transformers fan and checked his local TJ Maxx. His trip was rewarded as he came across Generations voyager class Brainstorm for $16.99. He sent us picture proof to spread the news around for those still in need. If you have a new retail sighting, be like Bounti76, take a picture and send it to sightings@seibertron.com to let your fellow Transformers fans what's available.

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:17 pm

thats a cool price

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:17 pm

Nice find! I love Brainstorm.

News Credits: 7 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:24 pm

Is it the one with the fixed head, or the one that breaks?

News Credits: 122 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:34 pm

Hell yea! Totally getting out of bed to check out my local TJ Maxx in the morning!

News Credits: 1 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:34 pm

I've had a feeling that's where those elusive fembots are destined to show up after their absence from TRU and the big-boxes in my neck of Michigan, and now THIS equally unfindable Generations fellow shows up. I'll have to canvas them toMarshall's--er, I mean tomorrow.

He's got to teach a cer10 Cerebrocrustacean just who's worthy of the name...

News Credits: 104 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:54 pm

Wow, I posted finding brainstorm today in the Louisiana thread and was completely ignored. I even posted on the transformers addicts facebook page with photos (uploading photos here is difficult due to size).

https://m.facebook.com/groups/241629393 ... 1186142746

News Credits: 1235 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:03 pm

Cyber Bishop wrote:Wow, I posted finding brainstorm today in the Louisiana thread and was completely ignored. I even posted on the transformers addicts facebook page with photos (uploading photos here is difficult due to size).

https://m.facebook.com/groups/241629393 ... 1186142746

But did you send it to sightings@seibertron.com? To be fair, Bounti76 sent his in before your post in the sightings forum and Transformers Addicts is a closed FB group so only members can see the posts.

News Credits: 4877 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:04 pm

Nemesis Primal wrote:Is it the one with the fixed head, or the one that breaks?

Probably the one that breaks since there are no elastics on his head in the package.

News Credits: 4 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:32 pm

Does anyone know if the Takara version has the fixed head. I have been waiting for botcon to try and get that version.

News Credits: 122 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:39 pm

My understanding is there's no "fixed" or "broken" head - it's just that the first run had the headmaster inserted too far into the figure. A bit of TLC will get it out.

News Credits: 10 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:50 pm

megatronus wrote:Hell yea! Totally getting out of bed to check out my local TJ Maxx in the morning!

There aren't many better reasons for getting out of bed :WHISTLE:

News Credits: 122 · Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:55 pm

Arctorro wrote:
megatronus wrote:Hell yea! Totally getting out of bed to check out my local TJ Maxx in the morning!
There aren't many better reasons for getting out of bed

Of course there aren't... Especially on a Saturday!

Fri Feb 27, 2015 11:14 pm

And I just bought one two days ago for $25.99 on Amazon :C

News Credits: 14 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:23 am

Guess where I'm going tomorrow!!!

News Credits: 3 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 1:56 am

Curious how some figures seem to bypass regular stores completely and wind up only findable in TJ Maxx or Ross. I remember you couldn't find Solar Storm Grapple anywhere for love or money, until I stumbled across FOUR of them in Ross.

How exactly does that work, anyway? I'm beginning to think I'll never find generations Arcee in stores, and that it's another of the figures (like Brainstorm) that for whatever reason just didn't make it onto regular store shelves....

News Credits: 8 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:56 am

Shockwave7 wrote:Curious how some figures seem to bypass regular stores completely and wind up only findable in TJ Maxx or Ross. I remember you couldn't find Solar Storm Grapple anywhere for love or money, until I stumbled across FOUR of them in Ross.

How exactly does that work, anyway? I'm beginning to think I'll never find generations Arcee in stores, and that it's another of the figures (like Brainstorm) that for whatever reason just didn't make it onto regular store shelves....

Distribution. Company A, be it Walmart/Target/Meijer/whomever orders product from Hasbro, including the wave that had Brainstorm in it. This product goes to their primary distrbution and then trickles down like a water fountain. Oh, but the storefronts are not/can't take product right now, they have too much other stuff or no "capital" (I want to say that each department can "spend" so much on product at a time, their not actually buying from their own warehouse so much as balancing how much value of a product you bring in vs. send out. Even though the Generations pegs were empty, since the AOE deluxes were still sitting, the books were showing an excess of capital on shelves and the stores couldn't bring in MORE until that went away. Or I could be compelteley looney) to aquire from the warehousing, so stuff has to wait. This is why 90% of us didn't get Whirl or Roadbuster until SIX MONTHS+ after Hasbro released them. Sadly, Poor Brainstorm got to the distribution warehouses and discovered the stores were not taking product due to the AOE stuff on shelves. Some of it clogging (Grimlock), some of it the new stuff (Drift-Copter). I suspect the Fembots ran into the same issue. So he (and the girls) sat in a warehouse, racking up an actual debt because the company bought him from Hasbro, but could not sell him because the storefronts couldn't take him. He was soon being joined by more product, that also needed to get on shelves, So the warehouses cut their losses on "old stock", and sold the excess stock to a liquidator store that was interested to make room for "new" stock. Even though a lot of stores hadn't seen Either, or never saw more than a single case or two. In the olden days, this might've been KBToys taking him instead.

This happens a LOT to the ends of series, and is partly why the last wave or two are typically loaded down with repaints over new molds.

News Credits: 25 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:20 am

Flashwave wrote:
Shockwave7 wrote:Curious how some figures seem to bypass regular stores completely and wind up only findable in TJ Maxx or Ross. I remember you couldn't find Solar Storm Grapple anywhere for love or money, until I stumbled across FOUR of them in Ross.

How exactly does that work, anyway? I'm beginning to think I'll never find generations Arcee in stores, and that it's another of the figures (like Brainstorm) that for whatever reason just didn't make it onto regular store shelves....

Distribution. Company A, be it Walmart/Target/Meijer/whomever orders product from Hasbro, including the wave that had Brainstorm in it. This product goes to their primary distrbution and then trickles down like a water fountain. Oh, but the storefronts are not/can't take product right now, they have too much other stuff or no "capital" (I want to say that each department can "spend" so much on product at a time, their not actually buying from their own warehouse so much as balancing how much value of a product you bring in vs. send out. Even though the Generations pegs were empty, since the AOE deluxes were still sitting, the books were showing an excess of capital on shelves and the stores couldn't bring in MORE until that went away. Or I could be compelteley looney) to aquire from the warehousing, so stuff has to wait. This is why 90% of us didn't get Whirl or Roadbuster until SIX MONTHS+ after Hasbro released them. Sadly, Poor Brainstorm got to the distribution warehouses and discovered the stores were not taking product due to the AOE stuff on shelves. Some of it clogging (Grimlock), some of it the new stuff (Drift-Copter). I suspect the Fembots ran into the same issue. So he (and the girls) sat in a warehouse, racking up an actual debt because the company bought him from Hasbro, but could not sell him because the storefronts couldn't take him. He was soon being joined by more product, that also needed to get on shelves, So the warehouses cut their losses on "old stock", and sold the excess stock to a liquidator store that was interested to make room for "new" stock. Even though a lot of stores hadn't seen Either, or never saw more than a single case or two. In the olden days, this might've been KBToys taking him instead.

This happens a LOT to the ends of series, and is partly why the last wave or two are typically loaded down with repaints over new molds.

I work in retail, and this is damn near spot on. The AOE figures, and Beast Hunters before that, were absolute stinkers. That crap kept shelves warm for months, at least in my region. It'll have some negative long term effects. I know for a fact that both Meijer and Walmart are scaling back the amount of transformers items they stock for this coming year.

News Credits: 8 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:18 am

Goddamn, I want Brainstorm. I haven't seen him once in person. I woulda grabbed that in a nanosecond.

News Credits: 122 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:29 am

Well, no Brainstorms at my TJ Maxx. Oh well. At least I know it's time to start visiting regularly again. The hunt begins!

News Credits: 3 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:58 am

I submitted a news story about DoubleDealer being spotted at a discount chain and suggested to keep an eye out for them in such places as this, but was told it should be posted in "sightings"

I didn't have a photo, was this why it wasn't considered for a news post?

I'd just like to know so I can do it right next time. Not seeing the difference here.

News Credits: 4877 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 11:09 am

Optimizzy wrote:I submitted a news story about DoubleDealer being spotted at a discount chain and suggested to keep an eye out for them in such places as this, but was told it should be posted in "sightings"

I didn't have a photo, was this why it wasn't considered for a news post?

I'd just like to know so I can do it right next time. Not seeing the difference here.

Well there's a pretty big difference. Doubledealer was found all across toysrus across north america while Brainstorm was rarely ever spotted (and probably never spotted at tru, someone correct me if I am wrong). Brainstorm had a very limited run at the big retail stores and few people got him. Hence him showing up at a discount chain is big news because that means he's available somewhere, thats the main news here. And it will be big news if we see chromia or arcee there too simply because these were sparsely found at retail initially, unlike doubledealer and a bunch fo others who end up being found in retail.

News Credits: 3 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 11:40 am

I work in retail, and this is damn near spot on. The AOE figures, and Beast Hunters before that, were absolute stinkers. That crap kept shelves warm for months, at least in my region. It'll have some negative long term effects. I know for a fact that both Meijer and Walmart are scaling back the amount of transformers items they stock for this coming year.

Which is a pity, because it means they won't be getting lots of the Combiner War figures - which people really DO want. The CW figures are really hard to find because they're not making it onto shelves very fast, and when they do turn up, they get snapped up right quickly. And this, you say is because the AoE and Beast Hunter garbage clotted the shelves for so long that the stores think people don't 'want' Transformers anymore? (I remember the Beast Hunter stuff was such a dud that Wal-mart wound up duct-taping two deluxes together and selling 2 for the price of 1)

How short-sighted. It's only half right. We don't want CRAPPY Transformers anymore. The good ones, like the CW line? Yeah - we want those. And they're being short-shrifted because of the garbage.

News Credits: 8 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:19 pm

william-james88 wrote:
Optimizzy wrote:I submitted a news story about DoubleDealer being spotted at a discount chain and suggested to keep an eye out for them in such places as this, but was told it should be posted in "sightings"

I didn't have a photo, was this why it wasn't considered for a news post?

I'd just like to know so I can do it right next time. Not seeing the difference here.

Well there's a pretty big difference. Doubledealer was found all across toysrus across north america while Brainstorm was rarely ever spotted (and probably never spotted at tru, someone correct me if I am wrong). Brainstorm had a very limited run at the big retail stores and few people got him. Hence him showing up at a discount chain is big news because that means he's available somewhere, thats the main news here. And it will be big news if we see chromia or arcee there too simply because these were sparsely found at retail initially, unlike doubledealer and a bunch fo others who end up being found in retail.

So, this to me seems like one of those really US specific things. Like, in Canada i don't personally know what kind of discount chain would carry legit TF products and not just KOs. I can be easily proven wrong, I bet, because I come from Quebec and only recently moved to Ontario... but still, I would love to know.