The Energon Pub

Hey guys, hope I'm not bothering you here. I've been kinda out of the collecting game for a year or so now and apart from a few United figures I'm lagging behind with some Transformers I'd like to buy.
Unfortunately most of the ones I'm looking for are rather rare and expensive and as a result I'm probably looking at buying a maximum of one per month, so with that being said I wonder if the collectors here could give me an indication of which ones are the rarest and the most likely to be harder to get the longer I leave it?
I always want to buy them MISB and some of them are already very rare, even on ebay

Anyway the ones I'd like to get if possible (all Takara/Tomy) are:-

DOMINATOR UNICRON
E-HOBBY UNITED AUTOBOT SET (HOT ROD/KUP/SCRAP HEAP)
E-HOBBY UNITED DECEPTICON (GALVATRON/CYCLONUS/SCOURGE)
HENKEI INFERNO
MASTERPIECE HOT ROD/RODIMUS PRIME
2010 PREDAKING SET

Unfortunately here in the UK the only real way to pick up the Takara/Tomy versions, or indeed most Transformers, apart from the movie ones, is by ordering online.

As always any help you guys could give me would be much appreciated

Thank you

None of those are explicitly rare yet, just expensive. The big ones you'd be in any real danger of missing is most likely the ehobby United Autobot set and possibly Unicron.

Well, Unicron and Inferno you'd already have to resort to eBay or some other second-hand alternative as they're pretty much already sold out at all the online stores. How much they'll go up in price from here is anyone's guess. Masterpiece Rodimus will likely be available at its current price for a while yet and it looks like Predaking is actually being clearanced some places so you could probably hold off on those two and actually save some money on Predaking. The E-Hobby sets just recently hit the market so they have the potential to sell out and then cost more aftermarket. The Autobot set is the more popular so that might be the one to get first off your list...and soon.

Go after some rare Superlink and Micron stuff and then we'll talk.

Most of what you want are just big ticket items in terms of price.

I personally would not recommend the 2010 Predaking. The gold plastic kills it for me. I would heavily recommend the earlier reissue that uses the yellow plastic. Much better if you ask me.

robofreak wrote:Go after some rare Superlink and Micron stuff and then we'll talk.

Most of what you want are just big ticket items in terms of price.

I personally would not recommend the 2010 Predaking. The gold plastic kills it for me. I would heavily recommend the earlier reissue that uses the yellow plastic. Much better if you ask me.

To be honest I'm not really interested in the Superlink/Micron stuff. I'm really just a fan of the original Transfomers and the G1-inspired releases. Unfortunately most of the ones I'm currently looking for are quite expensive ones lol. I'm not wanting them for their value, I'm wanting them because I love G1 and want to display them

Yeah I do much prefer the original reissue Predaking but I missed the boat with that one a few years ago and money-wise it's just not an option for me

Thanks for everyone's responses so far. Much appreciated

Go for the united 3 packs first.

I honestly don't think that the e-Hobby sets are going to go nuts in the aftermarket unless it gets third party add-ons. It's because they are not new characters, but reiterations of others..... and to be honest they aren't even that good. They're not even convention exclusives either. Look at figures like Gentei Exclusives Strafe, and Dark Skyfire. I know they're not exactly as popular as the figures in the two sets, but both have shockingly been selling poorly in the aftermarket ever since they were released.

The only figure that I'd covet would be Scrap Heap, and who knows when Hasbro's going to come along and take a big swing. These aren't comparable to Wildrider.

Personally out of your list, I really ain't feeling the popularity out of any of them.. so it doesn't really matter which one you try to snatch up first. However, I feel that the two e-Hobby sets have surprisingly been bought through the roof, so I'd try to catch up on those guys first.... even though they're not even that good. They won't skyrocket in the secondary market, but they certainly aren't going to drop like Skyfire and Strafe.

You're right about Dark Skyfire and Strafe. I was surprised about DS as he's a great figure.
I could see a lot of people regretting that they didn't pick up Predaking in a couple of years from now when the price starts to go up.

Blurrz wrote:and to be honest they aren't even that good

I love you to death Blurrz, but:

You so silly...

These guys are the perfect crazy fan-wank exclusives. The Decepticon set is full of crystal figures, has two excellent molds, and captures right around 4 seconds of screen time. They're also the ultimate hand bag to the shoes of 2010 Unicron.

The Autobot set features three excellent molds. Kup is in toy accurate colors. Scrap Heap has arguably the best Junk color scheme yet and a crazy good head sculpt. Rodimus is crystal goodness, a perfect Neo-G2 stand-in, and another incentive for a Blue Protector repaint (with Sideburn).

Both boxes are wicked cool, and when you set them next one another, you get Unicron's face. That almost demands you buy both sets.

These are, hands down, the exclusive of the year, if and only if today's Stepper announcement doesn't make it out this year. Forget your BotCon figures, forget your DOTM retail exclusives, forget the United Targetmasters. It's these guys.

No hardcore collector should be without these as they are the pinnacle of what exclusives should be about.

Blurrz wrote:I honestly don't think that the e-Hobby sets are going to go nuts in the aftermarket unless it gets third party add-ons. It's because they are not new characters, but reiterations of others..... and to be honest they aren't even that good. They're not even convention exclusives either. Look at figures like Gentei Exclusives Strafe, and Dark Skyfire. I know they're not exactly as popular as the figures in the two sets, but both have shockingly been selling poorly in the aftermarket ever since they were released.

The only figure that I'd covet would be Scrap Heap, and who knows when Hasbro's going to come along and take a big swing. These aren't comparable to Wildrider.

I'm not real crazy about the sets either. I haven't caught the "craving clear plastic" bug so the Decepticon pack doesn't appeal to me. I would like to have Scrapheap for my Junkion army so I might go after him. I love Kup's robot mode but not enough to merit the cost.

Thanks again for your responses guys. I managed to get the Autobots & Decepticons United packs from eBay for a decent enough price just in case I regret not picking them up later. Now to save up for possibly Unicron.
United Frenzy & Rumble don't seem to be coming down in price much on eBay so I hope online stockists possibly get a second shipment of them in the future

Try UK online retailer www.toyzandgamez.com they still have some of the stuff you listed in stock. Also try kapow toys and all the cool stuff. Both reputable UK dealers.

Robot kingdom is good for some imports and isn't always as popular as some of the other import sites.

Other than that just keep plugging away at those eBay auctions or keep an eye on the forums people advertise stuff on them too for private sales or their eBay listings.

Blurrz wrote:I honestly don't think that the e-Hobby sets are going to go nuts in the aftermarket unless it gets third party add-ons. It's because they are not new characters, but reiterations of others..... and to be honest they aren't even that good. They're not even convention exclusives either. Look at figures like Gentei Exclusives Strafe, and Dark Skyfire. I know they're not exactly as popular as the figures in the two sets, but both have shockingly been selling poorly in the aftermarket ever since they were released.

The only figure that I'd covet would be Scrap Heap, and who knows when Hasbro's going to come along and take a big swing. These aren't comparable to Wildrider.

Personally out of your list, I really ain't feeling the popularity out of any of them.. so it doesn't really matter which one you try to snatch up first. However, I feel that the two e-Hobby sets have surprisingly been bought through the roof, so I'd try to catch up on those guys first.... even though they're not even that good. They won't skyrocket in the secondary market, but they certainly aren't going to drop like Skyfire and Strafe.

Late to the party here.

Dark Skyfire repaint is just not that great. I really don't have a clue why they made it. The first pics released gave it sort of G1 Astrotrain colors then in the end we got a repaint of the Classics Jetfire with chrome engines. It wasn't even the Henkei version. So all in all it was tanked.

Strafe was butt ugly, and the shattered glass version made more sense color wise, and just plain made sense.

The Autobot three pack however has so much appeal
Kup is accurate. even the oginal head has the two tone paint job.
Blue Rodimus - Better than the clear Henkei Rodimus. The paint doesn't flake off.
Scrapheap -- Looks better than RTS Wreck Gar...complements United Wreck Gar.

Now the deceticon set is just clear plastic. who knows what will happened. We have the now over used Cyclonus, next in line overused Galvatron, and now Scourge.

I really haven't even taken them out the twist ties yet.

As for value it's ?

The autobots could rise, but you are right the interest is in Scrapheap. He should have been a stand alone packaging. He sells for about $75. I have seen a few got for $80. That's about the cost of the set plus $40.

Time will tell but you either like the set, or buy to sell. I wouldn't buy it unless I like it.