The Energon Pub

I was browsing ebay the other day and noticed that every single Unicron trilogy figure has gone up in value. Since when is Leobreaker worth $150? Sure some are only worth a couple bucks more than retail, but they're going up in value. I know they're now older figures, but before the movie you could hardly give them away on ebay. Does anyone know why their prices increased?

EDIT: ebay was having problems before I posted this. Not every figure has had a large price increase, but I still find it strange that they have maintained their value as well as they have.

Leobreaker is very particular in that area. for unknown reasons its gone up through the roof. I've seen them go as high as 260 bucks.

Why who knows, I guess the Unicron Trilogy is now the stuff everybody wants.

I remember seeing leobreaker on the shelves and I was like ".....fugly."

Then christmas rolled around, and people on ebay were willing to pay bajillions (not literally) for Leobreaker. Perhaps little boys and girls out there watched Transformers Cybertron and wanted it to connect it to prime? It's hard to say why. Then, i proceeded to kick myself. I was able to nab its repaint though, nemesis breaker.

I was also browsing ebay recently, and i saw a tidal wave for around like $125, and an overload for $115ish, and megatron (all from armada) for like $60, all at least MIB.

I thought armada was worthless up to that point. Now i feel like i haven't the foggiest clue as to what fiscal "worth" is of any of the figures in that line. =o

About the only reason I can see Leobreaker or Nemesis Breaker being even REMOTELY more expensive than any other figure its size class is because of the "Savage Claw" mode type thing.

More and more people are getting into this hobby because of the movie and more recently Universe. Add to that, the Unicron trilogy toys were all, great figures from a time where you did not need to spend hours in the toy isle finding the one, with the most decent paint applications. Or in other words, these toys were genuine quality and that’s proven by their rising value.

That’d be my guess.

Nekoman wrote:More and more people are getting into this hobby because of the movie and more recently Universe. Add to that, the Unicron trilogy toys were all, great figures from a time where you did not need to spend hours in the toy isle finding the one, with the most decent paint applications. Or in other words, these toys were genuine quality and that’s proven by their rising value.

That’d be my guess.

Interesting.

I've been putting my TF's into a spreadsheet over the last couple days and I have noticed that none of my AEC figures have any paint flaws or loose joints. They are really high quality compared to the figures that now fill the shelves.

I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

Energon Superion anyone? Superlink Superion had the same problem.

I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

It wasn’t perfect and I can say that from experience. But it was way better than what we have out today.

I don’t remember any of the AEC lines having a sticky thread just for fixing them. Nor can I find a single one out of my collection with bad paint applications.

DeathAura wrote:I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

I would.

In 4 years of AEC toys I can count on one hand the number of toys I had to return due to QC issues on one hand.

I returned that many toys in the past month in regards to Universe alone.

Counterpunch wrote:

DeathAura wrote:I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

I would.

In 4 years of AEC toys I can count on one hand the number of toys I had to return due to QC issues on one hand.

I returned that many toys in the past month in regards to Universe alone.

And so, the trilogy was not perfect.

I do agree however that in light of the lines that have come out since then, they did fare better in terms of QC problems. Better to the point that I wish we had the QC problems of yesterday.

DeathAura wrote:I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

Energon Superion anyone? Superlink Superion had the same problem.

I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

Superion's issue is not QC related, its more a design flaw than anything else. Its not like you are going to find one without the Problem.

As for the figures in those lines, they where good fun toys. With cool features.

They are also now part of TF history and lore. So people tend to want them more.

So yeah prices are kind of out of whack.

Heck even Online stores such as BBTS want ridiculous prices for A/E/C stuff. BBTS has an Energon Wing Saber going for 100 bucks.

Overcracker wrote:

DeathAura wrote:I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

Energon Superion anyone? Superlink Superion had the same problem.

I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

Superion's issue is not QC related, its more a design flaw than anything else. Its not like you are going to find one without the Problem.

Okay, fair enough. For the sake of debate however, do design flaws not also fall under the umbrella of quality control/issues?

Overcracker wrote:As for the figures in those lines, they where good fun toys. With cool features.

I also remember the day when sooo many people would hate and hate and hate on armada (and the trilogy too in some cases). I remember Counterpunch purposely tiptoe-ing / acknowledging (around) that issue with the armada line in particular in his "positive things about armada" review/ appreciation / thread. I personally liked minicons though. The haters did not persuade me from seeing the good things in the different lines either. And so, i agree with your above statement.

DeathAura wrote:
I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

My Wing Saber was just fine.

Toy quality took a dive around the time of the movie line.

A/E/C had some issues, such as loose leg joints of Energon Mirage and Superion's peg. For the most part, the figures were solid, had very minor if any paint flaws, and were overall a better quality compared to most of the current stuff.

I cannot explain the rising prices for figures like Leobreaker. I passed by so many of them on toy aisles and I kick myself a bit on the inside each time someone brings up this figure. Same thing with Cybertron Galvatron.

robofreak wrote:

DeathAura wrote:
I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

My Wing Saber was just fine.

So was mine. Though it was Superlink Wingsabre. .. well hold on a sec. It's MISB. *checks* I can see through the window that mine has both fists. yay

Lapse Of Reason wrote:
I cannot explain the rising prices for figures like Leobreaker. I passed by so many of them on toy aisles and I kick myself a bit on the inside each time someone brings up this figure. Same thing with Cybertron Galvatron.

Oh man. I recall seeing a few cybertron galvatrons also, and had a really hard time justifying shelling out another $40 at a time i didn't have much money for another megatron repaint, and this, at the time, was just after armada. Armada's galvatron repaint wasn't a big deal at all seemingly, and so i extrapolated that to the next galvatron of the energon line. Though now, I, like you, kick myself over that too.

DeathAura wrote:

Overcracker wrote:

DeathAura wrote:I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

Energon Superion anyone? Superlink Superion had the same problem.

I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

Superion's issue is not QC related, its more a design flaw than anything else. Its not like you are going to find one without the Problem.

Okay, fair enough. For the sake of debate however, do design flaws not also fall under the umbrella of quality control/issues?

Well Yes, and No. Yes they fall under quality control as they should have checked that the peg was strong enough to hold the combined mode together. But no, because its not really a manufacturing issue, like sticky paint, or swapped parts.

Its not something you check at the production line, where QC is supposed to be at its strongest.

From my point of view, and looking at Online prices and such.

Armada is the oldest of the lines and for some reason due to popular discontent with the line, Armada's fairly cheap. I'm happy with this because Armada is my favorite line, and picking up certain things for half of their original retail price is just too much of a steal. While i'm not saying all of Armada is half of it's price, there's just certain things that are..

Energon is worth a bit more than Armada simply because it's a bit popular than Armada. Other than that I can't really say much about it, other than it's probably the most expensive of the three because of the discontent for Armada.

Cybertron is the cheapest of the bunch and this is simply due to the fact that it just came off store shelves. It's probably the most popular of the lines, so that's why some prices might be a little bit too much.

Other than that, the lines do have their expensive points. Armada has Takara's Linkage comic mini-cons, as well as Costco's Prime and Overload. Tidal Wave is pretty popular as well as the Air Defense Mini-con team. Energon has Takara's Galvatron, as well as the popularity of Optimus Prime. Cybertron has Leader Starscream, and a lot of other exclusives.

Overcracker wrote:

DeathAura wrote:I wouldn't vote for the trilogy's alleged QC perfection.

Energon Superion anyone? Superlink Superion had the same problem.

I have also heard of Energon Wingsabre having two left or right fists. I'm having difficulty remembering other issues off the top of my head at the moment.

Superion's issue is not QC related, its more a design flaw than anything else. Its not like you are going to find one without the Problem.

As for the figures in those lines, they where good fun toys. With cool features.

They are also now part of TF history and lore. So people tend to want them more.

So yeah prices are kind of out of whack.

Heck even Online stores such as BBTS want ridiculous prices for A/E/C stuff. BBTS has an Energon Wing Saber going for 100 bucks.

Not to badmouth them, as I do order from there, but I have noticed they have a severe habit of overpricing MANY of their listed items severely. Their current sale, too, where even toys that have been listed for 2-3 months are still tagged as "new" also gets on my nerves. They have a loophole not to mark down anything that might sell fast.

I've generally, aside from City Commander, purchased things that were on sale in all cases.

DeathAura wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:
I cannot explain the rising prices for figures like Leobreaker. I passed by so many of them on toy aisles and I kick myself a bit on the inside each time someone brings up this figure. Same thing with Cybertron Galvatron.

Oh man. I recall seeing a few cybertron galvatrons also, and had a really hard time justifying shelling out another $40 at a time i didn't have much money for another megatron repaint, and this, at the time, was just after armada. Armada's galvatron repaint wasn't a big deal at all seemingly, and so i extrapolated that to the next galvatron of the energon line. Though now, I, like you, kick myself over that too.

I think you mean Energon instead of Armada. If so, I, like you, was happy with the purple Energon Galvatron. At that time I started getting into non-G1 transformers because some looked like updated G1 figures and I was happy with that.

The reason LEobreaker went through the roof was becuase of his limited run. I remember wanting Nemesis Breaker more. The same thing with the E-Dinobots and E-Beachcomber, limited run of that particular figure.

As for the quality of AEC, it's better then Animated, and Universe, but by far was no means perfect.

I had Final Battle Optimus Prime form Armada, and it was so much in bad shape, it didn't transform properly at all.

I have a mix of all three lines, and for the most part they are solid.

Value wise, Energon had a lot of G1 homages, more than Armada, or Cybertron. And since it's been now a few years since the series' has ended, it mostly comes down to people who either missed out on some toys from the lines', or saw the show.

I know I have since bought a few from BBTS, which has high prices for Energon, and Cybertron. It seems the uperlink and Galaxy Force toys are not as expensive.

Here's what I really think happened to push the value of AEC toys through the roof: Classics.

Prior to Classics there were a lot of fans who were content to leave AEC toys alone. They were the 'kiddie' brand when compared to Alts, G1, reissues, etc.

What Classics did for the collectors out there was show that the modern designs worked and that the toys could be brightly colored and entirely plastic, yet still be really cool. This in turn caused them to say, 'well, now what else did I miss out on?'

AEC did a lot to release toys that would appeal to collectors, however, almost all of those toys were done in significantly smaller runs.

Add up the following: 2-5 year time gap, growing popularity, original limited availability, and the fact that these toys were sold to kids (meaning that many were actually broken or thrown away eventually, leading to even less availability)...and you get a formula very, very similar to the reasons why G1 became so expensive.

It's one of those things about collecting; nothing that says "Limited Edition" or "Collector's Edition" ever really becomes really more expensive than it originally was. It's the things no one expects and so no one keeps around that become expensive and valuable.

Counterpunch wrote:Here's what I really think happened to push the value of AEC toys through the roof: Classics.

Prior to Classics there were a lot of fans who were content to leave AEC toys alone. They were the 'kiddie' brand when compared to Alts, G1, reissues, etc.

What Classics did for the collectors out there was show that the modern designs worked and that the toys could be brightly colored and entirely plastic, yet still be really cool. This in turn caused them to say, 'well, now what else did I miss out on?'

AEC did a lot to release toys that would appeal to collectors, however, almost all of those toys were done in significantly smaller runs.

Add up the following: 2-5 year time gap, growing popularity, original limited availability, and the fact that these toys were sold to kids (meaning that many were actually broken or thrown away eventually, leading to even less availability)...and you get a formula very, very similar to the reasons why G1 became so expensive.

It's one of those things about collecting; nothing that says "Limited Edition" or "Collector's Edition" ever really becomes really more expensive than it originally was. It's the things no one expects and so no one keeps around that become expensive and valuable.

You have a point here.

I can see people getting into Classics, then looking at previous lines to fill in some gaps. For example, Energon Downshift, E. Galvatron, E. Shockblast, LeoBreaker (Leo Prime), etc... Basically any that could be put on the shelf with classics and fit in.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:Here's what I really think happened to push the value of AEC toys through the roof: Classics.

Prior to Classics there were a lot of fans who were content to leave AEC toys alone. They were the 'kiddie' brand when compared to Alts, G1, reissues, etc.

What Classics did for the collectors out there was show that the modern designs worked and that the toys could be brightly colored and entirely plastic, yet still be really cool. This in turn caused them to say, 'well, now what else did I miss out on?'

AEC did a lot to release toys that would appeal to collectors, however, almost all of those toys were done in significantly smaller runs.

Add up the following: 2-5 year time gap, growing popularity, original limited availability, and the fact that these toys were sold to kids (meaning that many were actually broken or thrown away eventually, leading to even less availability)...and you get a formula very, very similar to the reasons why G1 became so expensive.

It's one of those things about collecting; nothing that says "Limited Edition" or "Collector's Edition" ever really becomes really more expensive than it originally was. It's the things no one expects and so no one keeps around that become expensive and valuable.

You have a point here.

I can see people getting into Classics, then looking at previous lines to fill in some gaps. For example, Energon Downshift, E. Galvatron, E. Shockblast, LeoBreaker (Leo Prime), etc... Basically any that could be put on the shelf with classics and fit in.

I agree that Classics did a lot to bring people back to the hobby, but you also have to look at the fact that transformers in general are more popular than they ever have been, a lot of that due to the movie. People are getting into Transformers who never were before and they are starting to discover all the other lines. It does help that A/E/C display the best with the current TF's, too.

If anyone has a K-B Toys in their area, most of them carry a decent amount of older figs repackaged under the Universe label. It can be cheaper that way than Ebay.

Delicon wrote:I agree that Classics did a lot to bring people back to the hobby, but you also have to look at the fact that transformers in general are more popular than they ever have been... [snip]

At least "More popular than they have been since 1984/1985"...

Popularity aside...

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/temp ... late=10458

That is unacceptable for a mass-release $10 toy! I go tone in a box of yard sale toys and ended up giving it away.... wish I'd kept it now.

Or not. I can't even sell Sailor Moon animation cels which are one-of-a-kind. I'd be lucky to get $2 for it since things are worthless in my possession.