o.supreme wrote:Hopefully HP will offer them again somehow. Think about it. These had arguably one of the shortest windows of availability of any release (for Takara or Hasbro), even Unicron had a longer window of opportunity. And as some have argued Selects are not, supposed to be exclusives, they are supposed to be just figures available online only. Almost every other selects figure is still currently available on HP (Though of course not Star Convoy). Maybe the definition of Selects should be restated to mean online only for Hasbro, but Exclusives for TT.
Why would you need them to restate or define anything? Isn't it pretty obvious that Selects is really 2 different lines depending on whether it was a Hasbro effort or a Takara one? Hasbro selects is an online only type offering for most of the world through Hasbro Pulse and other retailers. The Hasbro ones are basically an affordable version of what FunPub used to cover, repaints using existing molds with maybe a new head. Takara Selects are pretty much what used to be the LG-EX releases (heavy retools or even new molds), and Hasbro Pulse is really just a retail outlet for them in the US. Whether you or I consider either type or both "exclusives" is just splitting hairs on defining an exclusive. Defining it or leaving it undefined has no bearing on how they are produced and marketed, we already know the deal here.
o.supreme wrote:I mean arguably one of the Best/Most popular Unite Warriors sets was Computron. It was the only one (IIRC), that also sold out prior to release by most online retailers, and was more widely available than the Selects Seacons are currently. Still, after release date, UW Computron was still available in limited quantities from some shops. These Selects Seacons are shaping up to be one of the most ridiculously hard to obtain (almost convention level) items of the past few years. I mean, is there any single place online whereby you can order all six today for a comparable price that Pulse was offering in their very, very short window of opportunity?
Nope, whether anyone likes it or not, the retail environment changed for transformers over the past few years. The loss of TRU as a retail outlet caused some of the changes and the brand unification changed some other things as well. Any comparison you try to make to toys offered before these changes is likely to be a fools errand.
Keep in mind that the brand unification essentially cut off a number of worldwide Takara customers because there is no longer a reason to wait for the Takara version for a more preferred deco if you can get the Hasbro offerings locally. This doesn't only affect Takara directly, but also indirectly through retailers like BBTS. With the brand unification in place, do you think BBTS is ordering nearly as many items from Takara as they used to? They got spanked pretty hard on PotP with the Takara versions just sitting there not moving much.
So you have Takara trying to make things work with a smaller regular customer base and smaller orders from retailers than before. If their customer base is smaller, then I can see them wanting to move more towards a pre-order/made to order format for their exclusives in order to have more secure numbers and leave less up to chance. Sure it may be a royal pain for some consumers, but giving us exactly the type of distribution you want to have likely puts too much risk on their numbers to be worth it to Takara.
How many of us waited out a price drop for Big Powered or Grand Maximus from BBTS or other retailers? While it may have meant a great deal for us, it also likely meant some losses or very thin profits from the retailers that had to discount them to move them. I'm sure this will affect how many extras those retailers want to order for non-secured pre-orders in the future.
And this isn't just Takara, Hasbro has tightened things up a bit as well. How were the Titan deals this year? Still good, but not as good as before, presumably because of lower stock. And how were the great "wait a year" deals on Predaking at TJ Maxx or Ollies this year, oh yeah, they didn't happen, or were very limited. It looks to me like both Hasbro and Takara are getting smarter as far as limiting overproduction on larger ticket items so that they or their retailers don't have to take as much of a hit if they don't sell.
The reality is that in trying to satisfy their own profits, retailers needs and the customer's desires, they will never be able to strike a balance that makes everyone happy. Some items will simply be harder to find and obtain than others. I personally am glad the Hasbro Pulse does offers the Takara Selects offerings, even with as much of a pain that it was to get the pre-orders in for the Seacons. As much of a pain as it was, it was still easier for me than hunting them down through the other online retailers or ordering direct from Japan with a forwarding service.