The Energon Pub

HighPrime wrote:I'm not falling for this again.

No Movie purchases until the Premium line is revealed and/or there's so many decaying on shelves, they mark them down; only exception would be for store exclusives.

Zeds wrote:Just a warning to those that may purchase the Leaders. Hasbro has brought the quality down on them. I handled the ROTF OP Leader at the recent TFCon and the quality of plastic is cheaper and lighter weight. Also the rubber tires are gone and replaced with hollow plastic ones. Overall you are paying the same price or more than the TFM mould release and the product for the ROTF line is not as good. I cannot comment on the deluxes and voyagers but it would not be far fetched to expect the same decrease in quality.

This is Hasbro's response to a 47% share drop. IMHO fans will not be happy with this

Autobot032 wrote:I don't know if the lower quality thing is across the board though. My Voyager Starscream is an excellent, sturdy piece.

Though...to be fair, he's also not as intricate as Prime is.

Bouncy X wrote:i still dont understand why people gotta show their receipts for proof. i mean even if the person were lying, least the photo shows the toys are there right?

Autobot032 wrote:

Megatron_Wolf wrote:$12.88 for a FAB? ok this is getting out of hand. Well there goes finding the Universe and Animated figures ive been looking for. Because the movie figures are coming out the stores wont be ordering any more of the last figure sets. This is why we're seeing these out early. Theres no stock to put out but these. I knes this movie was going to screw up more than just the franchise. Guess im going to have to order from HTS after all.

We never had any guarantees that the remaining Animated figures would come out now, anyway.

Hasbro said 2009, and there's a lot of '09 left. I have a feeling we'll see Animated during the Fall when ROTF has left theaters, most of the hot toys have been sold and we're stuck with straggler repaints and the like.

Think back to TF07 for a moment.

June 2nd:
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Bonecrusher
Brawl
Barricade
Bumblebee (classic Camaro)
Ratchet
Starscream
Ironhide
Jazz
Blackout
Scorponok
(Plus whatever video game or line filler bot that came along.)

That's all of the main cast in one form or another.

July/August/September:
Bumblebee (concept Camaro)
Ultimate Bumblebee
Leader Class Brawl
Final Battle Jazz
(Plus whatever video game or line filler bot that came along.)

October/November/December:
Repaints
Premiums
All Spark Power (three new molds and a slew of remolds)
(All of this included repainted video game or line filler bots as well.)

So, as you can see, by the end of September through the beginning of January '08, it was either a remold, repaint, or four new molds (three ASP, Ultimate Bumblebee) and they had a terrible time selling.

Desert Brawl (Leader Class) went on clearance EVERYwhere.
Ultimate Bumblebee either sold out due to them only ordering one or two cases, or quickly shot down the clearance meter to prices as low as $15-20.00!

All Spark Power sold terribly. (I mean terribly)
The only ones that sold out? New molds.
Even the Premiums at that point were easy to find. I was finding Bumblebee and Barricade Premiums several times, when just a few months prior, I couldn't find either one in stock anywhere. (not even online)

ROTF seems to be shaping up the same way.

May 30th:
Optimus Prime
Megatron
The Fallen
Starscream
Ironhide
Ratchet
Demolishor
Rampage
Sideways
Sideswipe
Skids
Mudflap
Bumblebee
Soundwave
Chromia
(plus line filler and game characters)

June/July:
End of wave 2/beginning of wave 3
Jetfire
Ravage
Blackout
Cannon Bumblebee
More Constructicons
(plus whatever game and filler bots come along, plus other new molds I'm not thinking of)

August/September:
Devastator set
Remaining Constructicons
Ultimate Bumblebee remold
Etc.

By Fall we should be seeing more and more repaints, remolds, Premiums.

I said all of that to say this: Animated will be new molds, fresh blood pumped into the TF line by the time late Fall/Christmas comes around to help ensure it sells.

Kids will have already gotten most of what they've wanted/parents were willing to buy, at this point in time. Christmas is coming, so the Deluxes could be stocking stuffers. Collectors will want 'em (because if Hasbro denies us a car mode Arcee, we'll have their heads)

So yeah...if we see them, they'll be Fall/Holiday season time releases, well after ROTF had it's big debut.

ShGarland_1383 wrote:Could this have been a mistake made by some stores? I bought Beachcomber today at Wal-Mart, and didn't see any ROTF stuff. Maybe the stores these photos are from just put their stuff earlier than they should have.