The Energon Pub

Let's see.. Between late last night and early this morn I have been to.....

6 Walgreens in the NO area.. Nada.
2 Kmarts.. Nada
6 Wal Marts.. Nada
2 TRU's.. Nada
2 Targets.. Nada

I tire of this...

I did read that a fellow louisianian found Jazz in Baton Rouge though (too far a drive for me right now)..

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

Same here I had to go way out of the way to get Soundwave and Red Alert, and have not seen even a hint of Wave 4 or 5 anywhere.



HOWEVER, I did find and buy Jazz at the Walgreens in Alabaster, AL. I found Fallback as well. No more Jazz-mine was the last one, but Fallback should be there.

Jazz is an amazing figure, but the speakers won't allow his doors to close all the way.

MegatronTheGreat wrote:

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

Same here I had to go way out of the way to get Soundwave and Red Alert, and have not seen even a hint of Wave 4 or 5 anywhere.



HOWEVER, I did find and buy Jazz at the Walgreens in Alabaster, AL. I found Fallback as well. No more Jazz-mine was the last one, but Fallback should be there.

Jazz is an amazing figure, but the speakers won't allow his doors to close all the way.

the doors close they just have to be a very certain way

Seibertron wrote:Anything I should make sure I pay attention to when I'm doing the galleries for Tracks and Jazz? I know Jazz has his speaker mode/attachments, I read that Tracks has the wing deployment in vehicle mode but I'll have to look that up. Anything else I should really watch for that's most likely not documented in the instructions?

Jazz's speakers and all three of Track's weapons have the little Lego-man-hand looking hooks that Straxus' armaments have. Also Jazz's gun has two posts on the sides that you can attach the speakers to. I think that's featured in the instructions though.

EDIT: Oh, and of course Tracks has his pseudo-Wheeljack robot mode.

Found them here on Thursday in Colorado Springs. Went to check to make sure they'd still have some Boo Berry Fallen for Black Friday and there they were. Got all sad because I didn't see Jazz until my wife pointed out where the last one had fallen on the floor from someone knocking it off the rack.

Skyfire-5 wrote:I'm sorry, but the act of posting pictures of "clearing out" new figs, and turning around and openly stating they do not contribute to sightings threads is a dick move. I believe that's a whole case worth of figs. I dont plan to buy RtS, but if I did, I'd be pissed that this guy lives near me and would take a picture of and post said "fan" looting the aisle. Scalpers need to be exposed for not only the good of the fandom, but also to stop the retailers from allowing them to profit from bad form. It's in their right to scalp, but they should be stigmatized by all who join forums such as these. By buying from these guys on ebay, the fandom expresses their approval of this heinous act. You sir, should be ashamed.

To whom are you directing this message? If you're directing this to me, I already found a home for these to a fellow Illinois/Chicago Seibertronian ... dahpadre, thanks to my post about this in the Illinois Sightings thread. I even passed along the discount I got at Kmart to him.

As for your animosity toward "scalpers", I'll play devil's advocate to your rather harsh post. I'm not ashamed of selling things on eBay to make a few bucks to help out people that can't find figures in their area (particularly foreigners who won't see most new figures for months or possibly ever in their countries which is where about half of what I sell online goes to) not to mention covering something for my time and the fees to sell stuff on eBay. I buy most of my stuff online so when I do find figures at stores where I can pass them along elsewhere, I don't have any quams with that since my collecting habits don't usually affect the people around me for the most part. I'm also a heavy contributor in our Illinois sightings forum so I think I do more than my fair share in helping people find figures that I've seen elsewhere. I'm also pretty sure that when you look at the eBay fees that sellers have to pay (not to mention the Paypal fees), that there's a very small profit margin made on most of what is sold that's brand new. If you don't sell on eBay, this would be a part of the equation to which non-sellers don't consider. Especially when you factor in time to "scalp" items (as some fans would put it), because time is money, as well as the cost of gas.

I live in an area where there are something like 200+ retail stores within a thirty mile radius of where I live (including Kmart, Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, Sears, Meijer, etc). Just one store never gets the new items in an area, the trucks that departed from warehouses got the same stocks and delivered to multiple stores. If you watch the sightings threads, you can pretty much figure out shipping and distribution patterns and such.

I generally try to buy a case whenever I can because of the galleries on this site. Nothing sucks worse to me than being in the middle of working on a gallery, transforming it for the first time, then discovering that the figure has a defect (which most recently happened with Blurr who had a deformed head on one side). Once I noticed this, I opened up the 2nd Blurr to finish up the gallery with and to retake a few photos where I thought it was important his head look correct. It's also nice to have a backup in case I accidentally break a figure while I'm in the middle of working on a gallery, which I've done several times over the years. Getting multiple figures and then selling the extras ensures that I take photos of the best figure possible to share with the rest of the world.

Just went to one in Bridgeville, PA near the destinta and had Mindset and Fallback (of course, no jazz or tracks). Got Fallback. Quite fiddly and tight, but a nice homage to outback. Glad I got him since I missed ROTF Brawn,

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Anything I should make sure I pay attention to when I'm doing the galleries for Tracks and Jazz? I know Jazz has his speaker mode/attachments, I read that Tracks has the wing deployment in vehicle mode but I'll have to look that up. Anything else I should really watch for that's most likely not documented in the instructions?

Jazz's speakers and all three of Track's weapons have the little Lego-man-hand looking hooks that Straxus' armaments have. Also Jazz's gun has two posts on the sides that you can attach the speakers to. I think that's featured in the instructions though.

EDIT: Oh, and of course Tracks has his pseudo-Wheeljack robot mode.

Where do you put Tracks 3rd weapon in his flight mode?

Seibertron wrote:

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Anything I should make sure I pay attention to when I'm doing the galleries for Tracks and Jazz? I know Jazz has his speaker mode/attachments, I read that Tracks has the wing deployment in vehicle mode but I'll have to look that up. Anything else I should really watch for that's most likely not documented in the instructions?

Jazz's speakers and all three of Track's weapons have the little Lego-man-hand looking hooks that Straxus' armaments have. Also Jazz's gun has two posts on the sides that you can attach the speakers to. I think that's featured in the instructions though.

EDIT: Oh, and of course Tracks has his pseudo-Wheeljack robot mode.

Where do you put Tracks 3rd weapon in his flight mode?

It's inside him, same as his regular car mode. I feel like it could be pegged somewhere though.

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Where do you put Tracks 3rd weapon in his flight mode?

It's inside him, same as his regular car mode. I feel like it could be pegged somewhere though.

Ah, ok, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Thanks Diem!

Seibertron wrote:

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Where do you put Tracks 3rd weapon in his flight mode?

It's inside him, same as his regular car mode. I feel like it could be pegged somewhere though.

Ah, ok, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Thanks Diem!

No problem. Hope you're enjoying the figure in between snapshots!

Seibertron wrote:

OptiMagnus10 wrote:

Galvatrondestroyer 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.

yeah my local kmart just got WFC Megatron and Darkmount like two three weeks ago and i've had to succumb to the devil that is ebay for megs soundwave and blurr..then next week its red alert and dirge since it takes FOREVER for anything new like RTS to show up here

Well, I haven't been to my only local Kmart in two or three years maybe, but last time I was there they didn't have much, but maybe I should check back again.
But with Generations it is very hard to find post wave 1 stuff. There's no way I'm going for ebay though. I guess I'll wait to see if anything shows up. I really want Blurr and Dirge, though.

Any reason why you guys don't buy them online from ToysRUs.com, Target.com, HasbroToyShop.com, or sites like BBTS.com, TFsource.com, etc?

Do you guys participate in the Toy Sightings forum to find out where other fans are finding them in your area? If anyone went to the Kmart where I found these, they wouldn't find a whole lot of new stuff other than Battle Blades Optimus Prime so if they didn't visit Seibertron.com, they wouldn't know that that store had 8 brand spankin' new figures earlier this morning in stock before I cleared them out.

normally when i hit the online stores they have em sold out cause i was gonna get dirge and blurr from hasbrotoyshop till the went out of stock on dirge then blurr.

Galvatrondestroyer wrote:normally when i hit the online stores they have em sold out cause i was gonna get dirge and blurr from hasbrotoyshop till the went out of stock on dirge then blurr.

Dirge is currently in stock at HasbroToyShop.com, Blurr is out of stock currently. I'd keep an eye on HasbroToyShop.com though because I just got both of them from that site this past week for part of a trade deal that I made with someone.
http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/transforme ... 6&ID=27554

Blurr is in stock at BigBadToyStore.com
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

Or you can buy a case to bring the cost down per figure, then sell the extras to people you talk to online or via eBay

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

jlogano20 wrote:

MegatronTheGreat wrote:

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

Same here I had to go way out of the way to get Soundwave and Red Alert, and have not seen even a hint of Wave 4 or 5 anywhere.



HOWEVER, I did find and buy Jazz at the Walgreens in Alabaster, AL. I found Fallback as well. No more Jazz-mine was the last one, but Fallback should be there.

Jazz is an amazing figure, but the speakers won't allow his doors to close all the way.

the doors close they just have to be a very certain way

After reading your post I tried fiddling with the speakers, and I got it. They fit and the doors shut.

MegatronTheGreat wrote:

jlogano20 wrote:

MegatronTheGreat wrote:

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

Same here I had to go way out of the way to get Soundwave and Red Alert, and have not seen even a hint of Wave 4 or 5 anywhere.



HOWEVER, I did find and buy Jazz at the Walgreens in Alabaster, AL. I found Fallback as well. No more Jazz-mine was the last one, but Fallback should be there.

Jazz is an amazing figure, but the speakers won't allow his doors to close all the way.

the doors close they just have to be a very certain way

see no prob its just 1 of those annoying things

After reading your post I tried fiddling with the speakers, and I got it. They fit and the doors shut.

MegatronTheGreat wrote:

jlogano20 wrote:

MegatronTheGreat wrote:

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

Same here I had to go way out of the way to get Soundwave and Red Alert, and have not seen even a hint of Wave 4 or 5 anywhere.



HOWEVER, I did find and buy Jazz at the Walgreens in Alabaster, AL. I found Fallback as well. No more Jazz-mine was the last one, but Fallback should be there.

Jazz is an amazing figure, but the speakers won't allow his doors to close all the way.

the doors close they just have to be a very certain way

see no prob its just 1 of those annoying things

After reading your post I tried fiddling with the speakers, and I got it. They fit and the doors shut.

Dammit I cant find em yet...

Need tracks, jazz, mindset, skullgrin, thunderwing and grapple. Im sure they will be everywhere in 2 weeks...

To: Seibertron

While we all enjoy what you do for the people you help, what about those that practice what you do with not as significant quantity of retailers around? This discussion has been argued since the practice of "scalping" began. "In a capitalist society, why not - this is why not - you're wrong - no you're wrong..." loops have wasted a whole lot of space on boards. I regret my previous post because of this realization. But for every post stating why it should be fine; with several situations, there's a toy collector out there on a failed hunt as well. So, for whatever reason, do what you do, you'll do it any way. I guess I just don't need the practice advertised to the collectors where I live, which is what you, the owner of this site, obviously have no qualms with. If I said I care about what people abroad want or need, I'd be lying, and I plead ignorance on the subject - with no hesitation. But what I do know, is that when there is a sighting posted where I live, I go the same day, and I find out that a scalper used that sighting post to get that toy into the hands of a non local fan (small profit or whatever) its a damn pisser knowing the store was raided of two or three cases to do so. All that money I would have saved on a sale, is wasted on gas. With all due respect to what you intend to stand for, it's infuriating to know that you don't see the negatives.

Skyfire-5 wrote:To: Seibertron

While we all enjoy what you do for the people you help, what about those that practice what you do with not as significant quantity of retailers around? This discussion has been argued since the practice of "scalping" began. "In a capitalist society, why not - this is why not - you're wrong - no you're wrong..." loops have wasted a whole lot of space on boards. I regret my previous post because of this realization. But for every post stating why it should be fine; with several situations, there's a toy collector out there on a failed hunt as well.

I agree with this, and therefore it's unfortunately a no-win situation that will continue for as long as we collect toys. But there are ways to help alleviate your situation, hopefully we can help you figure out how to find figures first.

Skyfire-5 wrote:So, for whatever reason, do what you do, you'll do it any way. I guess I just don't need the practice advertised to the collectors where I live, which is what you, the owner of this site, obviously have no qualms with. If I said I care about what people abroad want or need, I'd be lying, and I plead ignorance on the subject - with no hesitation.

I understand your points. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, this hobby is more-or-less all about "every man for themselves". I wasn't advertising "scalping". I picked up an extra set for one of the collectors that live near me. If anything, maybe I shouldn't have used a picture with all 8 and only used a picture of the 4 from the set because this led to a lengthy discussion which distracted me from taking pictures instead.

Skyfire-5 wrote:But what I do know, is that when there is a sighting posted where I live, I go the same day, and I find out that a scalper used that sighting post to get that toy into the hands of a non local fan (small profit or whatever)

This is the part that I always have a problem with in the "anti-scalpers" discussion. Why is that when fans can't find what they're looking for, even in a case like the one you mentioned above where you used the sightings to locate new figures, it's never "another fan beat me to the punch!"? Why do some fans always want to blame the legendary "scalper" instead of another fan that might have just seen those figures as well or possibly saw on a fansite such as Seibertron.com that those figures were also at that store? You guys realize you aren't the only collectors in your city, right? There are TONS of Transformers fans out there (30,000+ people visit Seibertron.com every day, some days it's around 50,000 -- and that's just Seibertron.com!) and we're all looking for the same things at the same stores. "Scalpers", if they exist on the scale which some fans theorize they do, are most likely a minimal part of the equation when trying to figure out why one can't find a new figure.

Skyfire-5 wrote:its a damn pisser knowing the store was raided of two or three cases to do so. All that money I would have saved on a sale, is wasted on gas. With all due respect to what you intend to stand for, it's infuriating to know that you don't see the negatives.

I became so fed up by endless hunting for new figures and disappointments knowing the figures were at a store earlier in the day, that I buy most of my Transformers online now. I pay more to buy figures online so that I don't have to waste time and money hunting for figures. On the odd occasion when an opportunity arises like it did this morning where I was able to easily find new figures like I did, I jumped at the opportunity and canceled my preorder for those figures that would've cost me almost double online. I assure you, I've been in your shoes many times over the 26 years that I've collected Transformers. I do see the negatives, but I also see the positives as well. It's a no-win situation to which there is no right or wrong answer because both sides have valid arguments.

When I couldn't find TFA Arcee and Cybertron Mode Ratchet after going to about a dozen Toys R Us stores over the course of 10 hours one day, I was pretty hot at the end of the day. A couple of weeks later after I had heard that the stores were getting restocks in, I wasted another 6 hours driving around before giving up. It wasn't until a trip to New York City back in February that I randomly found them at the last remaining Fao Schwarz store near Times Square. I had somehow missed the news that Fao Schwarz was bought out by TRU in 2009 so I wouldn't have even thought to have looked there for those two figures. While I definitely understand your frustrations, I don't blame any of it on anyone (collector or "scalper") -- I just blame me for not getting to the stores fast enough to buy them. Or for waiting too long in the day to go hunting. Or for not calling around. Or for a multitude of things that I could've done to have increased my chances of finding the figures first before they were sold to someone else.

Again, I live in Chicago and am surrounded by about 200 retail stores like Walmart, Toys R Us, Target, Kmart, and Meijer within a 25 or 30 mile radius. There are an insane amount of stores around me where you can find new products. A collector's situation becomes increasingly more frustrating when there is only 1 Toys R Us within 45 miles of you, or only 1 Target or 1 Walmart nearby. Texas doesn't even have Kmarts any more so imagine their frustration with collecting those exclusives or when a product shows up first there.

It's not that I don't see the negatives, it's that I choose to not blame others when I can't find figures. There are too many online resources with sightings tools and too many online retailers to put the blame on other people. If a collector really wants a figure when it first comes out, the collector will find a way to get their hands on it. I have a ton of hints that I'd love to share with those of you who have trouble finding new figures, and I'm sure many other collectors out there have great ideas about how to find that new elusive figure as well.

Seibertron wrote:

Galvatrondestroyer wrote:normally when i hit the online stores they have em sold out cause i was gonna get dirge and blurr from hasbrotoyshop till the went out of stock on dirge then blurr.

Dirge is currently in stock at HasbroToyShop.com, Blurr is out of stock currently. I'd keep an eye on HasbroToyShop.com though because I just got both of them from that site this past week for part of a trade deal that I made with someone.
http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/transforme ... 6&ID=27554

Blurr is in stock at BigBadToyStore.com
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

Or you can buy a case to bring the cost down per figure, then sell the extras to people you talk to online or via eBay

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

sadly dirge is only up for preorder and i just ordered blurr from ebay. thanks for the help though. Dirge is up next with a classics grimlock since im missing a large majority of the classics autobots

I hate to further derail this topic, but I have to agree with Seibertron on "legendary scalpers". Are there scalpers out there? Sure, but more often than not they are not the reason you can't find the figures you're after.

First off when new figures get put out they generally get put in front of the older figures, the employees aren't rotating the old stock to front and new to back. They just fill the pegs. This of course puts new product out in the open for customers to see. So if Jane Doe is cruising down the TF isle and wants to grab a b-day gift right after a restock guess which figure she is most likely to grab, the one in front. Also we shouldn't down play kids, they know what's new and what's been peg warming. Good chance they will be going for the new stuff as well.

Second, local collectors will often ban together to find the new stuff and hook each other up. That's what me and my fellow collectors have done. Between all of us we can cover just about every store in our area. Guess what happens when we find new stuff? We clean them out and hook each other up, and we do that until all of us have got the new figures we're after. Don't be naive either, there are more collectors in you're area than you think. If someone had told me there were as many active collectors in my area before using the internet to seek them out I would have thought no way, but there are at least 20 other very active collectors near me.

Third, I'm sure there are a few scaplers out there. In fact I'm pretty certain there is one near me, as others from my group have encountered him on several occasions and TRU employees basically confirmed it.

Realistically I think scalpers are the least likely culprit to collectors not finding new figures. If anything it's your fellow collectors that are beating you to the punch. That and the stocking practices and buying habits of the general public.

El Duque wrote:Second, local collectors will often ban together to find the new stuff and hook each other up. That's what me and my fellow collectors have done. Between all of us we can cover just about every store in our area. Guess what happens when we find new stuff? We clean them out and hook each other up, and we do that until all of us have got the new figures we're after.

Which is exactly what I was did before this turned into an an anti-scalper thread. Though I'm also one of the people that generally dislikes the practice you mentioned above because I know it goes on here in the Chicago area. I don't like meeting up to swap figures or buy figures off other fans because my schedule makes it too difficult and too frustrating to orchestrate it. But I thought I'd give it a shot again to see how it goes.

That's just me and my personal preferences. If I participated in the practice of "banning together with local collectors" on a regular basis, I wouldn't be complaining if others were helping me out like that so I have no one to blame but myself when I see it going on and I'm having a difficult time obtaining new figures. They're just doing what they (or you) think is best -- hence my statement about this hobby ultimately being "every man for himself" because it all comes down to what you personally need to do in order to get new figures.

I also knew getting those figures with the peg sticker for $7.99 each was a one-time shot so I snagged them so that I could pass the savings along to a fellow collector here in Chicago. Not 100% sure where they're going to end up yet. I just want them out of my hands by tomorrow night or I'll offer them to the Seibertron.com staff or throw them up on eBay at that point so that I'm not sitting on them (I've got to pay the mortgage too so it doesn't do me any good to sit on figures that might become pegsitters either by waiting too long).

man, im still stuck with WAVE 1 generations figures. im never gonna see this sh*t, am I.

hey seibs not to argue with you, but texas does have kmarts. ours just suck. a lot. I seriously went to all the walgreens and kmart and still nothing. and to make it worse, none of the preorders have shipped them yet. i'm gonna explode!

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:Second, local collectors will often ban together to find the new stuff and hook each other up. That's what me and my fellow collectors have done. Between all of us we can cover just about every store in our area. Guess what happens when we find new stuff? We clean them out and hook each other up, and we do that until all of us have got the new figures we're after.

Which is exactly what I was did before this turned into an an anti-scalper thread. Though I'm also one of the people that generally dislikes the practice you mentioned above because I know it goes on here in the Chicago area. I don't like meeting up to swap figures or buy figures off other fans because my schedule makes it too difficult and too frustrating to orchestrate it. But I thought I'd give it a shot again to see how it goes.

That's just me and my personal preferences. If I participated in the practice of "banning together with local collectors" on a regular basis, I wouldn't be complaining if others were helping me out like that so I have no one to blame but myself when I see it going on and I'm having a difficult time obtaining new figures. They're just doing what they (or you) think is best -- hence my statement about this hobby ultimately being "every man for himself" because it all comes down to what you personally need to do in order to get new figures.

I also knew getting those figures with the peg sticker for $7.99 each was a one-time shot so I snagged them so that I could pass the savings along to a fellow collector here in Chicago. Not 100% sure where they're going to end up yet. I just want them out of my hands by tomorrow night or I'll offer them to the Seibertron.com staff or throw them up on eBay at that point so that I'm not sitting on them (I've got to pay the mortgage too so it doesn't do me any good to sit on figures that might become pegsitters either by waiting too long).

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.