SpikeyTigertron wrote:I still have no idea how the designers didn't see THIS and just run with it... versus whatever the hell they had for the "official mode"
Because it wont work in robot mode for flush kibble on the legs and they clearly valued the robot mode above all.
Also, this jet still sucks. We only think it looks better compared to what we got but if that was what they came out with I dont think any of us would have said it looked good.
Rated X wrote:Well you know where I stand on the Takara vs. Hasbro price differences. Weve been through it before and I damn sure dont feel like going through it again. I agree that what you say holds some truth.
Thanks, I always enjoy hearing from you too and I do totally agree that in this age of online ordering and companies which are purley operating online, having physical and national restrictions may sound counter intuitive, but I just think its laws not catching up fast enough to how commerce is changing and part of that is why we see such redundance and inneficience. And I do think its all about the money but not the way you think. I will discuss it more below when I get to that part. I will always agree that we should get a better price, but there seems to be some regulation in the way of that. But I am not an expert on it, I just read what other people, like Primal X Convoy, know.
Now for some other points I just wanted to clarify:
I only been to Japan in transit and at the time Takara Transformers Animated deluxes were selling at $40 USD in the airport gift shop and were at least 6 months old at the time. Granted airport gift shops sell things top dollar but thats still a far cry from the $20 a Hasbro deluxe cost in Miami International airport that year on the same trip.
I really dont think this anecdotal evidence on one airport collectable shop is the way to go for looking at a trend. One of my local collectable shops had Leader Megatron for $80 but I wouldnt use that to establish the price. I will give some solid evidence showing some trends, below.
As for the animated line, most online stores in japan sold them for a far more reasonable standard deluxe price than what the airport store had it for.
You can still get sealed Animated toys on the secondary japanese market for not too far from that price.
One thing I truely believe is that Japan is dealing with the decline in the popularity of action figures (among kids) in a different way that Hasbro does.
Yes they are. And we know that. They said it in an interview during the arms micron line where they felt the way to attract kids was to add model kits to Transformers sets. Thats why you had those Japan exclusive arms micron.
And while I will 100% agree that takara has greater efforts on attracting collectors, due to their MP line (which Hasbro is slowly getting to, with new efforts coming from them for the MPM line), every Takara designer keeps repeating that they make toys for kids and Takara is itself a toy company for kids. Like this most recent interview with a Takara designer, he defintely thinks of kids first when doing his job, and of the memories he will create:
https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... shi/39584/Bandai seems more collector oriented compared to takara, in my opinion.
E-Hobby is basically a way to charge adult collectors more. (Im not disputing that it isnt an actual company loosely affiliated with Takara) But I will say that I dont see any difference in quality or deco from regular takara releases to justify the increased price. (Runamuck vs. Runabout) Some might say limited release, but I crap on that theory. It doesnt cost them any more to make 1,000 figures than it does 5,000 figures.
This is really nebulous for me. But does that mean that you think the whole thing with Fun Pub was a scam and that they were able to make those figures more affordable and simply chose not to?
Because they have similar prices to e-hobby. Its all above what I am willing to pay for those molds, so I never really bothered with e-hobby or fun pub.
We got an idea how on average how many people worldwide were willing to pre-order Grand Maximus and it was under 3000. (Probably much less if you dont include the dealers who were willing to invest long term and buy more than they got pre-orders for) So that gives you a rough idea of how big the so called "high end" transformers fanbase really is.
That grand Maximus thing is also something we arent sure of. But here are some facts.
BBTS and TFSource (and others) always go through Hasbro asia or another route for TTMall exclusives. Thats what they did with Defensor, remember that time when it came up on TTMall and you couldnt place an order right away? So international retailers dont necessarily get ttmall excusives from ttmall (as odd as that may sound).
Plus, BBTS is selling Fort Max at around $250 which is similar to what TTmall is selling it for (similar price point, but the dollar value may change based on exchange rates) so it clearly couldnt have been purchased from TTMall because if thats the case then BBTS could not sell it at that price.
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/V ... ails/63049
So all evidence and common sense points to them getting it from a wholesaler/hasbro asia, as they always do. Which means that international sellers didnt go through TTMall and do not count towards the 3000 (since only TTmall orders go towards the goal), meaning that those 3000 collectors are all mainly in Japan and it is not a good enough indicator to assess how many collectors there are in the world.
Hasbro just trys to sell it to todays kids and in the last 2 years it has worked. But dont think for a second that the sudden burst of G1 love doesnt signal a shift in marketing strategy by Hasbro. They pretty much killed RID and the TLK line failed miserably. But CHUG is flying off the shelves.
CHUG aint flying off the shelves. The amount of Brawns I see could fill my back yard. Same for Broadside, and dont get me started on Doublecross
The only toys flying off the shelves are the new ones, but thats true for any TF toyline. Those wave 3 movie toys didnt last long when they first showed up. Also while I find it hard to believe, Hasbro CEO has repeatedly stated to reporters that the TLK line is selling well.
Is it really 5-8 year olds screaming "bring back the 80s" ??? I doubt it. Its a marketing switch in my opinion.
All evidence points towards marketting not giving a **** and just wanting product on the shelves. The direction of the toyline seems to be based on the head designer which right now has a mission of bringing back G1 as much as possible. All he is asked is to keep costs down and product coming.
The focus is shifting towards adult collectors and try to grab as many kids in the process as possible. Thats where the brand is heading. Remember Hasbro designs the molds, Takara just uses them after Hasbro is done with them.
The more and more I read about it, the less Hasbro seems involved directly in the design aside from planning. The designs come from contracted artists who are not part of hasbro. Those designs are then sent to takara for them to figure out how to get from one mode to the next.
This shot here shows both the contracted artist and the result from Takara. Hasbro is not involved in this aside from telling both parties they want an Optimus Primal that will sell at $45 MSRP.
As you can see in that image above, it is takara who is designing the mold and they are doing so more and more frequently (or at least as a codevelopper, the point is, the roles each company plays seems more interconnected than ever).
the real market is online sales. Hell I wouldnt be suprised if there are more Takara products sold outside of Japan than in Japan.
That is super interesting, and it has me curious, but for some reason I feel takara doesnt give a crap about International collectors. I mean, if they would they would at least have their main site available in english no? And if the real market is online sales, I dont really get the point of what you are asking of me below:
Take a trip to Japan and visit various hobby shops and retail toy chains and report back to us with pictures you took with your own camera confirming you bought a takara deluxe figure for $17 USD in multiple locations. Im not saying it couldnt happen. I am saying I doubt it will happen.
We are talking about online, so why not stick to that? Plus the retail toy market in japan is getting ridiculously small with many reports of the only toys remainging stocked are shelfwarmers. And with us as colelctors in north america buying stuf on amazon and bbts, why not compare apples with apples. Say I am a collector in japan buying transformers online, here are my options for TLK Drift right this second.
All of which are $18 and under. So maybe not $17, but thats at least 3 places where you could get a deluxe for $18 USD and under in Japan. The price points in Japan are similar to the ones in the US so I am not really surprised by this result.
Im not an insider, but I highly doubt Takara pays shipping twice to get a gigantic shipping crate of toys to BBTS or TFsource.
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I dont think so either, that sounds super inneficient and plus it would put a strain for getting items on time. Also, BBTS and TFSource cant order directly from takara (BBTS has said they have a direct account with hasbro, but not with takara). So what happens instead is they order from a middleman wholesaler. Basically, he will buy a TF on wholesale from Takara for $10, then sell it to BBTS for $15 and then BBTS will sell it for $20. Arbitrary numbers of course, but everyone gets a cut, basically. Thats why the prices are higher for imports, anyone can correct me if this is dead wrong. And the japanese middle man could simply tell the factories to ship directly to BBTS instead of him, that would make sense to me. It could be that the vietnamese factory ships to the middleman who then ships to BBTS but that sounds super inneficient, but who knows what has to be done contractually.
)
HasTak has gotten so good at making both modes of a Transformer look nice, I guess triple-changers are still a challenge.
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