The Energon Pub

El Duque wrote:It's worked out great for me. Before I got involved with the local collectors in my area I never found anything when it first came out. I would literally hunt all day for new stuff and come up empty. Now that I'm part of the team I get new figures weeks in advance. I know it probably puts others in the same boat I was in prior to joining up, but they could seek us out just as easily as I did.

That's if you want to deal with meeting up with other folks and going to their houses or having them come to your house or meeting them at local stores, etc. It's not for everyone! Just because I'm not a fan of doing that usually, it doesn't meant that it's right or wrong. It works for people who enjoy doing that, it helps you guys out, and therefore it's a great system for you guys. The trick for me is to figure out how to be one step ahead so that I can get figures that I need before groups of fans come along and buy them all up.

The biggest advantage that I have is that I always pre-order everything at BBTS (which is great for regular retail but not retail exclusives). I've had Reveal The Shield wave 1 pre-ordered since they were first available. In situations like this where they start showing up at a chain with regular sightings around Illinois, Indiana, Michigan or Wisconsin, I'll go on a hunt -- but only after I've figured out which chains I should hit, then if I see a certain area in Chicago they're showing up at (southside, far burbs, northside, etc), then I'll drive directly to that area to hit the stores there (generally after I hit the store nearest to me). I rarely have trouble getting new figures first. TRU exclusive Arcee and CM Ratchet were the only two that truly eluded me this year.

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:It's worked out great for me. Before I got involved with the local collectors in my area I never found anything when it first came out. I would literally hunt all day for new stuff and come up empty. Now that I'm part of the team I get new figures weeks in advance. I know it probably puts others in the same boat I was in prior to joining up, but they could seek us out just as easily as I did.

That's if you want to deal with meeting up with other folks and going to their houses or having them come to your house or meeting them at local stores, etc. It's not for everyone! Just because I'm not a fan of doing that usually, it doesn't meant that it's right or wrong. It works for people who enjoy doing that, it helps you guys out, and therefore it's a great system for you guys. The trick for me is to figure out how to be one step ahead so that I can get figures that I need before groups of fans come along and buy them all up.

The biggest advantage that I have is that I always pre-order everything at BBTS (which is great for regular retail but not retail exclusives). I've had Reveal The Shield wave 1 pre-ordered since they were first available. In situations like this where they start showing up at a chain with regular sightings around Illinois, Indiana, Michigan or Wisconsin, I'll go on a hunt -- but only after I've figured out which chains I should hit, then if I see a certain area in Chicago they're showing up at (southside, far burbs, northside, etc), then I'll drive directly to that area to hit the stores there (generally after I hit the store nearest to me). I rarely have trouble getting new figures first. TRU exclusive Arcee and CM Ratchet were the only two that truly eluded me this year.

Same here, I pre-order everything at BBTS as soon as they open the pre-orders and just cancel them if I find the figures locally first. It's a good safety net, occasionally stuff just never shows up here. The lasr I can remember is the Legends wave with Warpath, Cosmos, and Wheelie. It never showed up here period.

El Duque wrote:Same here, I pre-order everything at BBTS as soon as they open the pre-orders and just cancel them if I find the figures locally first. It's a good safety net, occasionally stuff just never shows up here. The lasr I can remember is the Legends wave with Warpath, Cosmos, and Wheelie. It never showed up here period.

I think I only saw that wave once at a Walmart. There seems to be a lot of distribution problems with the last wave of a series as well as the first wave of a new series. I wouldn't really consider Reveal The Shield a "new series" since it feels more like a continuation of the HFTD "series" but with a new title, same packaging. Retailers just will swap HFTD for RTS.

Other figures that a lot of people had problems obtaining were HA Mudflap and the last wave of the Cybertron Legends Class figures (had the Bumblebee repaint of Hot Shot), but no problems with BBTS pre-orders.

I seriously can't believe the irony of the guy with KOs in his signature complaining about one person scalping.

It Is Him wrote:I seriously can't believe the irony of the guy with KOs in his signature complaining about one person scalping.

I seriously don't see that connection. Has Hasbro or Takara offered the seeker mold in all gold chrome, even in their lucky draws? You really need to work on your indirect insinuations. I'm sure the members of the forum are tired of the off topic nature my post has instigated, and again, I'm sorry. But you know my stance, and that's all I wanted to express. If you have a problem with knock offs, so be it, but just know that I'm not taking the knock offs in mass quantity away from your choice of purchase. I swear, the post just doesn't hold water in this context. "Hittin below the belt", please, i'ts not even in the realm of offense.

Skyfire-5 wrote:

It Is Him wrote:I seriously can't believe the irony of the guy with KOs in his signature complaining about one person scalping.

I seriously don't see that connection.

Hey Kettle, you're black!

OptiMagnus10 wrote:

Galvatrondestroyer wrote:can't find anything past wave 2 of the generations line an now these are showing up? argh

Hello fellow Ohioan! I'd say you're lucky. My area only has wave 1 and ROTF rejects. Except for my local Kohl's oddly, which has wave 2 HFTD deluxes and PCC 2 packs, but that's about all.

I'm not in Ohio, but my stores are always quite slow. Both my Targets have basically only had waves 1 of HFTD and Generations, although strangely one of them had two Darkmounts a while ago. My TRU is in even worse shape, with tons of wave 1 figures clogging the shelves. A Meijer near me is quite similar, as is a somewhat further away Target, although it got wave 2 of Generations recently. One of my Walmarts is the worst of all, with probably close to two pegs' worth of Tuner Mudflaps (although it also has wave 2 of Generations). Also, like in your area, the most up-to-date store seems to be Kohl's, which was the first place I saw any wave 2 figures, aside from those two Darkmounts I saw at a Target back in September. I've come close to giving up on getting any wave 3 or 4 figures in stores, and am looking at them online, although I refuse to pay over $20 with shipping for a WFC Soundwave or Dirge.

Optimus1138 wrote:

OptiMagnus10 wrote:

Galvatrondestroyer wrote:can't find anything past wave 2 of the generations line an now these are showing up? argh

Hello fellow Ohioan! I'd say you're lucky. My area only has wave 1 and ROTF rejects. Except for my local Kohl's oddly, which has wave 2 HFTD deluxes and PCC 2 packs, but that's about all.

I'm not in Ohio, but my stores are always quite slow. Both my Targets have basically only had waves 1 of HFTD and Generations, although strangely one of them had two Darkmounts a while ago. My TRU is in even worse shape, with tons of wave 1 figures clogging the shelves. A Meijer near me is quite similar, as is a somewhat further away Target, although it got wave 2 of Generations recently. One of my Walmarts is the worst of all, with probably close to two pegs' worth of Tuner Mudflaps (although it also has wave 2 of Generations). Also, like in your area, the most up-to-date store seems to be Kohl's, which was the first place I saw any wave 2 figures, aside from those two Darkmounts I saw at a Target back in September. I've come close to giving up on getting any wave 3 or 4 figures in stores, and am looking at them online, although I refuse to pay over $20 with shipping for a WFC Soundwave or Dirge.

Here's my store situation:
I'd consider you lucky to be able to get ahold of Generations wave 2. It is nonexistent here. My Targets are still trying to sell wave 1 and are failing, except, oddly, I found one BB Optimus Prime and one Banzai-tron there. The Walmarts are doing the same except they have Mudflap, Tuner Mudflap, and Gears to get rid of in addition. Toys R Us hasn't even restocked wave 1 around here at all since they first put them out and sold them all. Now they have Animated deluxes galore and three pegs packed full of Tuner Mudflap for $12.00 each.
I'm in the same boat with waves 2, 3, and 4, but I also refuse to pay ridiculous prices. I'd really like Dirge and Blurr.

OptiMagnus10 wrote:

Optimus1138 wrote:

OptiMagnus10 wrote:

Galvatrondestroyer wrote:can't find anything past wave 2 of the generations line an now these are showing up? argh

Hello fellow Ohioan! I'd say you're lucky. My area only has wave 1 and ROTF rejects. Except for my local Kohl's oddly, which has wave 2 HFTD deluxes and PCC 2 packs, but that's about all.

I'm not in Ohio, but my stores are always quite slow. Both my Targets have basically only had waves 1 of HFTD and Generations, although strangely one of them had two Darkmounts a while ago. My TRU is in even worse shape, with tons of wave 1 figures clogging the shelves. A Meijer near me is quite similar, as is a somewhat further away Target, although it got wave 2 of Generations recently. One of my Walmarts is the worst of all, with probably close to two pegs' worth of Tuner Mudflaps (although it also has wave 2 of Generations). Also, like in your area, the most up-to-date store seems to be Kohl's, which was the first place I saw any wave 2 figures, aside from those two Darkmounts I saw at a Target back in September. I've come close to giving up on getting any wave 3 or 4 figures in stores, and am looking at them online, although I refuse to pay over $20 with shipping for a WFC Soundwave or Dirge.

Here's my store situation:
I'd consider you lucky to be able to get ahold of Generations wave 2. It is nonexistent here. My Targets are still trying to sell wave 1 and are failing, except, oddly, I found one BB Optimus Prime and one Banzai-tron there. The Walmarts are doing the same except they have Mudflap, Tuner Mudflap, and Gears to get rid of in addition. Toys R Us hasn't even restocked wave 1 around here at all since they first put them out and sold them all. Now they have Animated deluxes galore and three pegs packed full of Tuner Mudflap for $12.00 each.
I'm in the same boat with waves 2, 3, and 4, but I also refuse to pay ridiculous prices. I'd really like Dirge and Blurr.

I'm not sure if this is out of your price range but you can get them both from BBTS for $34.99. The set is currently in-stock. Here's the link if you're keen

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

Thanks to this news post, I managed to finish my Christmas shopping today.

Headed to my local K-Mart in Bountiful (just north of Salt Lake City, UT), and found all four of them on the shelves. There were 4 Mindsets, 3 Fallbacks, 2 Jazz and 3 Tracks, and I got one of each except Mindset. I'm not familiar with the original character he's homaging, plus the mold just doesn't interest me, so I left him on the shelf. A Walgreens in the same parking lot didn't have any Transformers figures whatsoever.

I've been reading thru this whole post and I have seen some very good points made to both sides of the argument. Do scalpers exist? Hell yeah they do. Arcee should tell you that as she got scalped for months. Do I hate scalpers? Yup but I dont blame them for me not getting a figure. Because there is a group of offenders that do far more damage then they do. The freaking sucky stock people. They will let cases sit in the back for months if only to do less work. Got an example for you. My closest toys r us was seemingly without Blurr and Dirge forever, until the transformers space went from 5 pegs to multiple bins due to the sale this weekend. Then all I saw was bins full of them. Yet nothing but tuner mudflaps on the pegs.

I've opened Fallback (so I could pose him with Outback, his G1 counterpart) and Jazz, from my earlier shopping trip, and I have to say.....I'm REALLY disappointed with Jazz. Fallback, I knew what to expect, since he's a Brawn repaint/remold (as was Outback), and though the legs pop off a little too easily, the mold feels solid and tough looking. Jazz.....not so much. The mold itself feels cheap (the plastics in particular feel sort of flimsy), the chest doesn't lock into place, and some joints already twist way too easily for a just opened package. I'm hoping Tracks isn't more of the same.

Bounti76 wrote:I've opened Fallback (so I could pose him with Outback, his G1 counterpart) and Jazz, from my earlier shopping trip, and I have to say.....I'm REALLY disappointed with Jazz. Fallback, I knew what to expect, since he's a Brawn repaint/remold (as was Outback), and though the legs pop off a little too easily, the mold feels solid and tough looking. Jazz.....not so much. The mold itself feels cheap (the plastics in particular feel sort of flimsy), the chest doesn't lock into place, and some joints already twist way too easily for a just opened package. I'm hoping Tracks isn't more of the same.

I know what you mean about Jazz actually.

Tracks doesn't have any of those issues. He's the better of the two.

This wave hasn't made it to the deep south, yet. I've been looking everywhere. Nada. I checked the Walgreens. Usually they are surprising, but not this time......

Counterpunch wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:I've opened Fallback (so I could pose him with Outback, his G1 counterpart) and Jazz, from my earlier shopping trip, and I have to say.....I'm REALLY disappointed with Jazz. Fallback, I knew what to expect, since he's a Brawn repaint/remold (as was Outback), and though the legs pop off a little too easily, the mold feels solid and tough looking. Jazz.....not so much. The mold itself feels cheap (the plastics in particular feel sort of flimsy), the chest doesn't lock into place, and some joints already twist way too easily for a just opened package. I'm hoping Tracks isn't more of the same.

I know what you mean about Jazz actually.

Tracks doesn't have any of those issues. He's the better of the two.

Oh, excellent! Good to know; if Tracks had the same problems, I was going to have to give up on the RTS line, which would have sucked, because I'm REALLY looking forward to Wheeljack, Frenzy and Rumble, and others.

Found all of them at Kmart in Canton, OH. they were 11.99 but weren't ringing up so I got them for 7.99 each. Just picked up Tracks and Jazz for my son.

I went on a Walgreens hunt today but found nothing but fallback ..I needs me a jazz! Did find Generations Thunderwing though at walmart so it wasnt a total loss

darkjedi187 wrote:Found all of them at Kmart in Canton, OH. they were 11.99 but weren't ringing up so I got them for 7.99 each. Just picked up Tracks and Jazz for my son.

C'mon you gotta be kidding me! EVERYWHERE in NE Ohio has all kinds of new stuff except Akron! My Kmart probably still has Cybertron figures...

Can't find the post, but Walgreens had them for buy one get one half off. Picked up Jazz and Tracks for my son last night. Now he has them before I do. Maybe he will share?

Thanks for the tip.