The Energon Pub

So I was browsing through various picture and articles to catch up with all the goodies I've missed out on in the last 18 months and the name CrazyDevy keeps popping up.

With a name that has Crazy in it, I have no choice, but to investigate seeing how I don't know how anyone can be crazier than me.

Anyways, a BBTS showed to my shock and horror, some really cool accessories that are RIDICULOUSLY over-priced.

Now I'm all for these unique 3rd party accessories that come out, but that is ridiculous. I dropped $75 on City Commander and another $90 on Shadow commander so I clearly have no issue dropping cash on these type of item. CrazyDevy is where I must draw the line though. I wanted to buy the Devastator stuff, but at the price that they are wanting, I could pretty much buy 2 complete G1 Devastators after all is said and done.

FansProject seems to be more on top of things than these guys. Once my funds are better, I'm planning on ordering Munitioner and Explorer who pretty much cost the same price as a couple of the accessories.

It seems also that these CrazyDevy accessories are capable of destroying figures as well. I just read a whole thing about how the wings for Predaking can get munched on by simply sliding the new pieces over the wings. What, is there some kind of hacksaw installed in them? $60 for a couple ounces of plastic seems a little extreme to me as well. By the time your done buying most of these pieces you could have filled several large gaps in your collection

I was just curious about the fandoms thoughts on these pieces and if they're even worth the price. It seems to me that $30-40 for the entire upgrade package for one combiner would be more reasonable.

ditto robofreak! Though they are not pointing a literal gun on our heads to buy their stuff but, well compared to FP, their price range is just unbelievable!

I'm going to stop buying things from crazydevy!......after I finish predaking!!!!

Their stuff wasn't too badly priced. Nowadays... yeah. I've stopped buying their product. Not nearly enough value for their prices.

I'm getting the Devestator stuff. Devy looks really great, although their last set was a real dud.

The entire fandom seems annoyed at CD, but enough people seem to be buying because they're still in business. But I think most are just buying the one series they're interested in, like I am with Devestator. Taken together the Devy set is vastly overprices, but it's one of those things you don't notice as you go.

I, for one, am seriously annoyed at not getting a look at the product you're buying. Sure, you get one, maybe two, photos of it on the figure .... but they're usually at an angle and don't really show you the peice alone. I really resent this deceptive form of advertising.

The peices don't usually break the figures; Predaking is the exceptioon. I wouldn't recommend that set unless you have a junker Predaking. "Junker Predaking" ... lol! Although I found the forarm pieces too hard to come off of Devestator, in theory if I were willing to exert more pressure they *might*.

So the general drift I'm getting so far is that CD is screwed once anough of the fandom has completed their various combiners like Predaking or Devastator. It seems to me that it would be more logical to slash prices and make it more appealing to buy all of their products.

I noticed the poor photo placement as well. It's also very hard to get photos of the completed figures as well. I'm curious as to why they didn't wait until they had made a complete upgrade set first and then sold it as a kit.

I'm curious also as to how much of the fandom is in fact buying these pieces because it seems like their is a steady enough market to support CD apart from the negativity going on about their products which intrigues me.

I know it comes down to the argument of "They're not holding a gun to your head". It just seems like there would be a muh larger market open to them if the prices were lower and reflected the "play value" of the parts. I mean $40 for a Predaking head? You can buy an official G1 head for much less and it doesn't look much different. Granted, you don't get the LED feature, but how many people are actually using the LED light? It seems more like cartoon accuracy is the big appeal here.

Maybe one of these days I'll give in and buy up some Devastator stuff, but for everything else, it will require a price slash.

*waits for epic BBTS clearance sale*

These sets may never complete. They have Devestator, Predaking, Pirranacon, Superion, and Bruticus all going now. So Crazy Devy may never be screwed.

Devestator's head is 100% better than the G1 original. For argument's sake, let's suppose the other are as well. Many fans are interested in making their G1 combiners look as impressive as we thought they were when we were kids. That's what keeps us coming .... or me at least.

In fairness, we're not privy to their expeces. It *might* be that the price is justified on their end. ..... big maybe there. They probably don't release them en masse because of:
A) price and
B) they haven't been made yet. Profits get rolled into production.

Not everyone has a large operation after all and CD seems like a very small one. I'd feel more for them if it weren't for their ads. It ould be VERY nice if they released a sketch of their plans, though. Maybe I'd have bought more fomr them had they done that.

If I ever buy one for Devastar, it would be the hip part. Then no more.

"What's up with Crazydevy"

The prices.

zodconvoy wrote:"What's up with Crazydevy"

The prices.

This, effing cuckoo man. All the Devastator sets are pretty good except for the last one. The shoulder piece cocks his right arm at a useless angle and the waist pivot creates a pretty large and unsightly gap in his mid torso. The purple drum for Mixmaster was the only draw for me there. With their absurdly rising prices, poor preview(sales hype) images, rapid fire releases, and some questionably useless pieces I'm out. Maybe some day when money is much less of an issue, I might be bothered to care again.

What's really sad is that I think as soon as they actually finish a set some other company will KO it at a third of the cost. I was adding up just the Predaking upgrades at BBTS and just what they have so far is over $200 and just a couple years ago I picked up two entire Predakings for less than that. That's simply ridiculous.

zodconvoy wrote:What's really sad is that I think as soon as they actually finish a set some other company will KO it at a third of the cost. I was adding up just the Predaking upgrades at BBTS and just what they have so far is over $200 and just a couple years ago I picked up two entire Predakings for less than that. That's simply ridiculous.

That's what's bothering me on CD. By the time you complete an upgrade package for just 1 of the figures, you could have filled a gap in your collection for some very rare figures. Something is wrong when the 3rd party accesories costs even more than the thing it's supposed to upgrade.

Then again, that statement can go back on me since City and Shadow Commander were fairly expensive. Protector is also significantly more than the retail of the Rodimus figure. I think it boils down to the amount of stuff you get for your buck. FP stuff give you quite a bit of value for your money while CD tries to give you as little as possible.

One thing I notice is that FP products drive the value of the figures intended for them by quite a bit. CD has not been able to do that.

FP is very valuable for what they give you!!!
Every other third party I got this year not so much!

robofreak wrote:That's what's bothering me on CD. By the time you complete an upgrade package for just 1 of the figures, you could have filled a gap in your collection for some very rare figures. Something is wrong when the 3rd party accesories costs even more than the thing it's supposed to upgrade.

Then again, that statement can go back on me since City and Shadow Commander were fairly expensive. Protector is also significantly more than the retail of the Rodimus figure. I think it boils down to the amount of stuff you get for your buck. FP stuff give you quite a bit of value for your money while CD tries to give you as little as possible.

One thing I notice is that FP products drive the value of the figures intended for them by quite a bit. CD has not been able to do that.

The difference between Fansprojects upgrades and Crazydevys is that FP prices to scale. The smaller ones like Sidearm are $10 and even Munitioner is only $50. Compare that to Crazydevy wanting $60 for Predaking wings that initially destroyed the very toy you're upgrading! For less than those two basic wing extentions, FP gives you a fully posable and transformable scout class figure made of roughly 20 parts and enough weapons to satisfy Charlton Heston!

People are idiots. They'll buy CrazyDevy's ****, no matter how assinine the price.

TheDownshift wrote:People are idiots. They'll buy CrazyDevy's ****, no matter how assinine the price.

Not me anymore.

zodconvoy wrote:What's really sad is that I think as soon as they actually finish a set some other company will KO it at a third of the cost.

And hopefully package them in one relatively inexpensive set. That's what I want to see.

I'm coming to CrazyDevy's defense here. I personally like to have the best representation of a figure that money can buy. Therefore, the upgrade set for Devastator has value to me. A question of "worth" is totally subjective. Sure, I'd prefer a lower cost but if money is no object then all of their upgrade sets have been worth it to me because they truly do upgrade the figure. By the way, check out some of the aftermarket prices for Devastator parts on eBay. Some have more than doubled in price and people still buy them!

I have all of their current releases for Devastator, Superion and Predaking and am happy with them. They fixed the issue with the Predaking wings. The most disappointing release is for the feet upgrade to Predaking. It is hardly worth it taken as a solitary upgraded component, yet in the scheme of the whole upgrade (whenever it is finished) I have hope it will pay off.

My one suggestion for CrazyDevy would be to release an entire upgrade package rather than piecemeal like they have been doing.

I would prefer that they sold an entire upgrade package instead of everything by pieces. Looking at their products reminds me of how I put myself through hell when I put my Defensor together.(Never doing that again)

Anyways, I think in this case it isn't so much the price, but it's a blatant attempt to cash in on the fandom. I mean $30 for a single pice that will do nothing, but allow Devastator to do the pelvic thrust is not the greatest deal. Now say they make a set that costs $50 and you find yourself with a new head, arms,and the leg upgrade then you got something unique there.

Let's breakdown Predaking so far:

Head: $40 (There better not be anyone taking that out of context)
Cannons: $40
Wings: $60 (Also capable of maiming your toy in a hideous fashion)
Sword: $22
Feet: $40

There's $200 there for a figure that costs the same. Now, I'm of the opintion that they could have made a killing by grouping them as a set and slapping a $70 price tag on all of it. They would have sold a lot more and it would have handled all the production costs.

One of these days when I am doing better financially, I might buy the Devastator stuff, but I still can't help but look at the price tag and say no. I probably won't buy them until they're being cleared out.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Devestator's head is 100% better than the G1 original.

You're kidding, right? the CrazyDevy head is a deformed monstrosity.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Devestator's head is 100% better than the G1 original.

You're kidding, right? the CrazyDevy head is a deformed monstrosity.

No, I like it much better. More true to the animation, can turn, and has light up eyes. The original head was good for it's time, but I like the new one better.