The Energon Pub

So I was looking on ebay to see if I could track down the oh so rare, unreleased, green variant of Beast Wars Transmetal Ramulus:

Well, I found one, unfortunately, thanks to the good ol' AFA, it's going for an asking price of $1250 in a BuyitNow auction on ebay.

I sure would love to add this incredibly rare variant to my collection, but not at that price, especially since I open all of my figures for play and display (that's why AFA is a no go for me).

Hopefully I'll stumble across one someday for a more reasonable asking price (though I fully expect that it will still cost in the hundreds of dollars range given its rarity).

By the way, for the curious, the gallery for this rare gem can be found here and it also contains a very informative article regarding the history of this unreleased variant.

would love to add one to my collection as well.....though that is way out of my price range.

FortMacs wrote:would love to add one to my collection as well.....though that is way out of my price range.

Yep, mine too. If it weren't AFA graded, I fully expect it would be somewhere in the $100-$700 price range, which I'd be fully willing to pay for it given its rarity, but I am NOT paying $1250 for something just because it's been 'AFA graded'.

AFA is great for the hardcore in-package collectors, but for guys like me who open all of their figures, no matter how rare or valuable, it's absolutely useless and worthless and only jacks up the price of rare pieces to a point where they're put well out of our price range (I have the same issue with all of the Lucky Draw figures on TFSource, they'd have a LOT of my money right now if they didn't insist on AFA grading all of their Beast Wars Lucky Draw figures).

im with you. i open all of my transformers.

1) to transform them, since thats the fun of them
2) keeping them MOC or MISB takes up way to much space for display.

cant see paying more for something i know im going to open and transform at least a few times. i tried not opening a few and that lasted less than a month before i broke down and opened them.

think i got most grammar errors, if not i apologize....been drinking

I hate AFA'd toys. It frustrates me to no end to see some clown charge a 1000% + increase on a toy just because some self-proclaimed-toy-judging-tosspot has decreed that it have a "grading". Well, if I could encase my middle finger in UV proof acrylic and give it a grading, I know where I'd be shoving it.
Thanks, and Goodnight!

Yeah, AFA is bullshit. I never got how or why this even got the power and acknowledgement it did. I guess there are elitists everywhere, even in the TF collector community.

According to that article, there may be only 4 of these in existence. In that context, that price hardly seems outrageous.

GuyIncognito wrote:>:oP According to that article, there may be only 4 of these in existence. In that context, that price hardly seems outrageous.

There's more than 4 out there. I did some research and it turns out that previously these were available at Hasbro's store in Rhode Island (before it closed) meaning they likely had several cases which included these.

Still, I will admit that it is quite rare and seldom seen.

I also believe that I've figured out who the seller is. A member of the TFW boards who had a thread about the figure and reported an AFA grading of 85+, the same as the one on ebay and both the member of TFW along with the ebay seller report a location of MI, US.

I am curious about how useful AFA grading is when buying figures though. I looked at the AFA's website and they don't have anywhere you can look up serial numbers to verify a grading on a figure, meaning all you get is a figure in a plastic box with a sticker. Boxes can be bought and stickers can be faked, so how does a buyer verify the validity of AFA grading?

Well, my obsessive need to have all things Beast Wars got the better of me. I bought it, got it today and as far as I'm concerned, it's money well spent for this gem .

I haven't taken it out of the AFA protective case yet and I'm still undecided on whether or not I'm going to, but I am sorely tempted.

xyl360 wrote:Well, my obsessive need to have all things Beast Wars got the better of me. I bought it, got it today and as far as I'm concerned, it's money well spent for this gem .

I haven't taken it out of the AFA protective case yet and I'm still undecided on whether or not I'm going to, but I am sorely tempted.

Congratulations xyl360. I think it's great that you took the leap to get this into your collection. It's a very unique piece. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed photographing it years ago when Glen Hallit sent me one en route to the Hartmans.

Seibertron wrote:

xyl360 wrote:Well, my obsessive need to have all things Beast Wars got the better of me. I bought it, got it today and as far as I'm concerned, it's money well spent for this gem .

I haven't taken it out of the AFA protective case yet and I'm still undecided on whether or not I'm going to, but I am sorely tempted.

Congratulations xyl360. I think it's great that you took the leap to get this into your collection. It's a very unique piece. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed photographing it years ago when Glen Hallit sent me one en route to the Hartmans.

Thanks !

The existence of your galleries are not only the reason that I was even aware of this figure's existence, but are also the only reason I've not yet opened him up. Every time I think 'Man, I wanna open this thing up, play with it, look at it and transform it!' I just tell myself that all I need do is visit your gallery and check it out in high-res, beautiful detail from every angle .

Seriously, if you didn't have your gallery of this thing, I would have totally opened it by now and would (possibly) be hating myself for opening a $1250 toy .