The Energon Pub

Seibertron wrote:

3.8TransAM wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

3.8TransAM wrote:Currently showing available again at HTS.

Its funny, been out of stock 3 times now and magically restocked.

Interesting

same thing happened with soundwave last year

Hasbro works in mysterious ways

Anyhow , Ryan (it is correct?), I owe u a beer some day, live in NW IN(so not far away) and its just to say thanks for this site, so thanks

if you're ever up around o'hare, i might just take you up on that offer. do you post in the Illinois or Indiana toy sightings section here? i keep thinking i want to do a seibertron.com get together at TGI Friday's or something nearby.

I do when I have something worthy of putting there, so not too often, but I do when I find something.

I'd prolly try and make it. O'Hare's like 1hr for me or so depending on time of day and traffic(can be really quick or really bad)

Seibertron wrote:i keep thinking i want to do a seibertron.com get together at TGI Friday's or something nearby.

Seibertron meets are awesome.

We have a PA/DE meetup every few months. It's a lot of the site regulars (rotating on and off):

Counterpunch
Delicon (and Jamie)
Prime Evil
Me
--B--
SJ21
Geekee1
Soundstang


It's pretty rad.

If you're not having one in your area, I suggest you do.

Kinda like Geek-i-Con MidWest lol

It would be cool to meet some folks and network a little in person, it helps the hunt for stuff as well.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:i keep thinking i want to do a seibertron.com get together at TGI Friday's or something nearby.

Seibertron meets are awesome.

We have a PA/DE meetup every few months. It's a lot of the site regulars (rotating on and off):

Counterpunch
Delicon (and Jamie)
Prime Evil
Me
--B--
SJ21
Geekee1
Soundstang


It's pretty rad.

If you're not having one in your area, I suggest you do.

This man speaks the truth! Do as he says!

--B-- wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:i keep thinking i want to do a seibertron.com get together at TGI Friday's or something nearby.

Seibertron meets are awesome.

We have a PA/DE meetup every few months. It's a lot of the site regulars (rotating on and off):

Counterpunch
Delicon (and Jamie)
Prime Evil
Me
--B--
SJ21
Geekee1
Soundstang


It's pretty rad.

If you're not having one in your area, I suggest you do.

This man speaks the truth! Do as he says!

Speaking of, I heard you're not going to make it this Saturday. WTH?

I'm ahving a hard time ordering anything anymore from HTS after the disaster that was my SDCC Soundwave last year...The oversized box and no packaging and damaged item left a very bad taste in my mouth...Their unwillingness to help me out also kind of soured my opinion of them.. I might get one just in case some one here on the forums needs or wants one...

Counterpunch wrote:There have only been 3 figures since 2002 that I have not seen at retail...

Universe Soundwave and Spacecase
Alternators Camshaft (because I was in the middle of a move)
Human Alliance Mudflap (and he's probably on his way with the next wave again)

Toys these days are mass produced and plentiful. The issue is that they are not on shelf for a long period of time (by design) so you have to jump at the opportunities when they are present.

I saw Universe Soundwave, Titanium Soundwvae, and Titanium Rodimus all at once at my local TRU that year. I was making a trade with someone for Armada Overload for my Energon Slugslinger. That they the person who is a member here bought the Titanium and Universe Soundwave, all I could afford was Titanium Rodimus. I have never seen those toys but that one time. Also I never seen Titanium Grimlock, I was just fortunate to have someone scoop it up for me when I had no car.

Now my 2 cents on scalpers....they don't exist.

Scalpers can only get what those in want are willing to pay. If people would stop feeding the scalpers to pay double for an item due to lack of patience, you'll find what you are looking for because the scalper is ready to return them when they can't make any money.

This is true with Hot wheels. When I first learned about Treasure Hunts, I was going crazy to find them. I went to my first Kmart Days Hot Wheels event and scored two '57 Chevy Treasure Hunts. I paid $1.00....it sold for $51.00. This was common for T-hunts when they first stated showing up in stores. Plus the feees for selling weren't as bad. Even after all is said and done I made still made a $43 profit on a $1 car.

It amazed me how people would pay $50 or more for a $1 car, but it's not the scalpers fault. If no one fed him the inflated price with cash, then the $1 he paid for the treasure hunt would be just that.

Back to TF's, Animated Arcee is a hot commodity, but I refuse to pay extra for it. If everyone calmed down and wait, things may show up again. This happened with PS3's when they first came out. For a week they were selling for $1100 to $1300 on ebay when they first came out. After that they beagn a sharp decline because of the economy and the fact that people just did not care. Within two weeks, the Target I worked at beagn to see returns for the 60GB model. Most people said they did not like it, or there were not enough games for it, but none said there were any problems with it.


Don't hate the scalper, hate the buyer.

Just put in my Preorder for Blaster. Woot! (I thought I'd have to pay $80 or more for him.)

The TFs recently that I've had trouble with were RotF Scattershot (saw once at a Walmart and never again), Arcee (are you sure scalpers are a myth? Or is this just that popular a figure?), and the companion to Mindwipe, Skystalker I think? With Arcee, I watched the Amazon marketplace like it was the stock market. I saw her as high as $45, I think, and finally bought her for just under $30 a few months back. I've seen many an animated Ratched, but no Arcees. She was around $15 to $20 last I checked a week ago or so. I have never seen Skystalker on sale at Amazon. He's the last one I'm interested in for the RotF line. Was he actually ever released? Will he be a part of the Hunt for the Decepticons line?

Seibertron wrote:
I haven't done this in a while, but I have to get it off my chest again. In the interest of full disclosure, I do buy and resell some new Transformers that I come across. snip

I'm only quoting the first part of this to save on space, but VERY well put. This entire diatribe against scalpers must now become mandatory to read before one can post in the toys forum.

on a related side note: I just found out last week that there are a number of transformer fans in Wichita that get together every month...who knew.

Gutter Bunny wrote: on a related side note: I just found out last week that there are a number of transformer fans in Wichita that get together every month...who knew.

I am in Wichita and never knew this either.

Just called HTS and asked them about why there are so many hiccups with availability. Apparently the scalpers orders are being put on hold and/or cancelled. If one orders more than a certain quantity going to the same address it is investigated. Expect more to be made available as these investigations are reviewed. It looks like 4 is the max one can get in an order.

so there is some justice in the world

grimdragon2001 wrote:so there is some justice in the world

It appears so.

LiKwid wrote:I'm ahving a hard time ordering anything anymore from HTS after the disaster that was my SDCC Soundwave last year...The oversized box and no packaging and damaged item left a very bad taste in my mouth...Their unwillingness to help me out also kind of soured my opinion of them.. I might get one just in case some one here on the forums needs or wants one...

I had the same experience (no packing materials in the box), compounded by the fact that they cut off my apartment number on the shipping label. So, it was delivered to the wrong address TWICE.

Veritas Prime wrote:

LiKwid wrote:I'm ahving a hard time ordering anything anymore from HTS after the disaster that was my SDCC Soundwave last year...The oversized box and no packaging and damaged item left a very bad taste in my mouth...Their unwillingness to help me out also kind of soured my opinion of them.. I might get one just in case some one here on the forums needs or wants one...

I had the same experience (no packing materials in the box), compounded by the fact that they cut off my apartment number on the shipping label. So, it was delivered to the wrong address TWICE.

I remember staying up all night and F5ing forever waiting to dsee it pop up in stock..I was exhasuted but I had a great feeling of accomplishment..That all changed..I eventually got another one but it took months..3 to be honest...

If the packaging on blaster wasn't so damn cool I know I would pass in a second....

Blaster is still available at HTS.com and order mine at 5:00am this morning.

Thanks for the tip. I ordered one there but I've got a question. HTS says this is Universe Blaster altho the picture shows the SDCC version. Before I cancel my order with BBTS, this is the correct blaster, right?? I'm picturing that other Universe blaster, the voyager figure for some reason.

(yeah, I'm a new poster, not new to the site, I lurk, constantly)

CelticDragon wrote:Thanks for the tip. I ordered one there but I've got a question. HTS says this is Universe Blaster altho the picture shows the SDCC version. Before I cancel my order with BBTS, this is the correct blaster, right?? I'm picturing that other Universe blaster, the voyager figure for some reason.

(yeah, I'm a new poster, not new to the site, I lurk, constantly)

Welcome aboard, and this is the SDCC exclusive reissue of the G1 figure (plus cassettes). It is in Universe packaging:



and comes with this snazzy slip cover:

Welcome aboard, and this is the SDCC exclusive reissue of the G1 figure (plus cassettes). It is in Universe packaging:



and comes with this snazzy slip cover:

Thanks! Universe refers to packaging, not figure. Got it.

I am fortunate to have the TFC Blaster, so this release is a bit of a moot point for me. Best of luck to the fandom across the pond in securing one, I'm one less buyer you have to worry about!

SCALPACABRA IS REAL I'VE SEEN THE EMPTY CARCACASSES OF ONCE-FILLED SHELVES IT IS ALL THE INTERNET NEEDS FOR PROOF

I'm sorry Seibertron, but we've all seen the blurry photos of him skulking in the shadows of the Tupperware aisle, that one fuzzy video of the shadow you know to be Scalpacabra's in the far end of Automotive. Hunting. Yearning. Waiting. For all your good points, you can't contest this level of proof. Also...

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:i keep thinking i want to do a seibertron.com get together at TGI Friday's or something nearby.

Seibertron meets are awesome.

We have a PA/DE meetup every few months. It's a lot of the site regulars (rotating on and off):

Counterpunch
Delicon (and Jamie)
Prime Evil
Me
--B--
SJ21
Geekee1
Soundstang


It's pretty rad.

If you're not having one in your area, I suggest you do.

For the first (and perhaps only) time I'll be able to join you guys this weekend. Nobody on this site seems to live in San Diego D:

Figgers...I wait in line to get this from the booth at Comic-Con and they put on sale for cheaper the day I get home.

Seibertron wrote:

revengeofstarscream wrote:

revengeofstarscream wrote:I could have purchased more, but to me scalping is immoral.

I believe in supply and demand dictate price.

Seibertron makes good points. People who complain about scalping forget that Hasbro and any other company's goal is to make money. If Hasbro believed it could sell more figures, it would produce more. But if they overproduce, they won't be able to sell at a premium price like $50. On the other hand, they'd rather pull in more revenue than less, so they guesstimate the demand and set a price and production count based on what they believe people will be willing to pay and how many they think will pay it.

And you'll notice that even sites like Amazon and Toys R Us will sometimes set limits on how many figures you can order at once to prevent scalpers from cleaning out inventory that other customers want. I mean, heck, even Target has signs in the store now warning collectors not to ask employees if they have more figures in the stockroom. After all, businesses also know that 10 paying customers are more valuable than one paying customer, even if the dollar amount sold is the same.

In any case, it's a free market, and frankly anyone with the wherewithal is welcome to buy as many figures as they please. Ultimately, if you and I refuse to pay them a higher price for the figures they try to resell, they won't be able to charge it, and they'll be stuck with a lot of boxes that take up a lot of space. So, they'll be forced to accept a lower price if they want to get rid of them. Most would-be scalpers--and there clearly are some, judging from the order limits and so forth--eventually give up and move on to the next get-rich-quick scheme. I don't envy them one bit.

But back on topic, I waited a while on Soundwave last year. One day it would be sold out, a day or two later it'd be back in stock. The same will probably happen with Blaster. With Soundwave, I didn't order until August 20--and I still saw it in stock for weeks after that. So who knows? You might find a better coupon than THANKS10 and be able to order at a better price than those of us who already placed their order.

Heckfire wrote:Figgers...I wait in line to get this from the booth at Comic-Con and they put on sale for cheaper the day I get home.

How much did you pay for it at SDCC? I thought it was the same price.

Seibertron wrote:

Heckfire wrote:Figgers...I wait in line to get this from the booth at Comic-Con and they put on sale for cheaper the day I get home.

How much did you pay for it at SDCC? I thought it was the same price.

Same price, but without the code for the 10% off given here.