The Energon Pub

Let's start this off by making a rule. First one to break said rule shall be subject to the kind of flaming that only Hellfire itself can bring.

Simply, let's not mention Swerve or Camshaft. These guys saw some bizzare distribution, were last gen repaints, and were minor characters. Nuff said.

On to business, were Transformers Alternators actually hard to find? Were they just snatched up at every opportunity by hungry collectors? How many of the distribution issues affected your area?

I ask all of this, because the prices these bad boys fetch now is getting silly. Fortunately, it is somebody elses problem (I have all of the Alts). However, I am very interested in market trends with these toys etc.

For myself, I actually found all of these guys on the shelf. I saw every figure more than once and in many different stores.

To name a few, at one point or another Smokescreen, Sideswipe, Hound, Jazz, Tracks, Swindle, Windcharger, Shockblast, Battle Ravage, Rollbar, Richochet, Sunstreaker, Skids, and Wheeljack either were "shelf-warmers" or went on clearance in one form or another.

See, this just doesn't seem like a line that was all that hard to find from my perspective.

Was it? Or are the new guys to the collecting world just playing catch-up and driving up aftermarket prices?

For me, its a matter of playing catch up as the reason I don't have but about 2/3 of this line. It took me a long time to actually buy an alternator. Then a long time to buy another. And so on, and it wasn't until they were out in bubble packages that I realized it was a line that I wanted to collect.

I started getting some of the older ones on clearance that I could find, but some (Grimlock, Decepticharge) are just too stupidly high in price every time I see them aftermarket that I don't think I'll ever get them.

I've wondered the same thing as well, especially since I've watched a few reviews and the alternator toys seemed to me to be real inferior when it came to the bot modes... lots of them just sucked for me.

Can I ask how much were they retail, and which year did they come out in?

They were hard to find. No Swerve, Swindle, Shockblast, Battle Ravage, Grimlock, Rumble, Ravage, Windcharger, Decepticharge here at retail.

i remember seeing them on the shelves a lot around me but i wasn't really interested in them at the time. my brother kept telling me that i should be getting these but i wasn't really into them when i first saw them. i think the pure g1-er in me really wasn't feeling the realistic molds and the totally new concept at the time but to answer your question cp, no they weren't hard to find, at least not where i am.

Some of them weren't released over here in the UK as far as I know (Jazz, Prowl, Skids etc), so that's probably 1 reason why prices are so high. Some lucky person got hold of a Prowl from somewhere, and is currently selling it on eBay UK for £31, which is about $62 (last time I looked). I am, however, currently seeing Swindle, Shockwave, Silverstreak and Dead End on the shelves in local supermarkets.

Dr. Z wrote:No Swerve,

Busted.

I would say both new collectors & opportunists played major role of making these alternators almost non-existence in the stores now. I belonged to the first group and I was only able to purchase a small portion of my alts at sensible retail prices (Sunstreaker, Rollbar, Skids from Walmart, Rodimus & Ricochet from HTS.com), the rest were all from eBay or BBTS. Eventhough I had to pay more to complete my full 27pc Alternators collection now, but I still do it gladly because these figures are just too awesome, AND I can't imagine if I hesitated now and try to fetch them 10-20 years later.

My last few BT/KP figures are coming in within the next few weeks (excluding Wonderfest Black Convoy, I'm just gonna pretend I never knew it existed), by then my Alt/BT/BTA/KP lines will be all complete, and I will find time to take them all out of storage boxes and do a few nice group shots to share with everybody.

Cheers,
Coolpop

jazzrules wrote:I am, however, currently seeing Swindle, Shockwave, Silverstreak and Dead End on the shelves in local supermarkets.

You should snatch up Dead End. Nice looking figure with only one full wave release here in the states.

Counterpunch wrote:

Dr. Z wrote:No Swerve,

Busted.

Would you mind stopping being annoying for just one day?

I'm sure if you were in a main market area they were easy to find. In New England the last few are still abundant, richochet, rollbar, and skids

But as I started collecting at the end of the summer I had to hunt online. I got lucky and picked off most of the ones I wanted for only $10 over retail.

Prices will ebb and flow but once alternators are a few more years in the past, they will remain high, though it will greatly help the transformers hype if 10 years or so from the last of these new movies are out, there is a new exciting revival again.

I was taking a break from TF toys when alternators were released I believe, so I never really saw what "normal" store stock was.

The only alternator I bought from a real department store or TRU was Prowl. I thought he was cool and the idea was cool. But he was expensive $30 and I didn't care much for his bot mode, so I stopped right there.

I got heavily back into toys around early 2006 and saw pictures of other alternators and seibertron.com's galleries. I automatically understood that Prowl just happened to be a bad bot in my opinion.. lol

Anyways at that point I started going back to stores and all I ever saw was Meister, Optimus Prime, Skids, Richochet, Camshaft (I guess I should have picked that one up) maybe a few others.

In the past 4-5 months I've come across a few random ones, Tracks, Mirage (bought that one!), Sunstreaker.

I played the catch up game about a year ago and bought every alternator or binaltech on eBay that I liked the characters of (All autobots, and all well known G1 characters). I paid 30-50 for each. Of course, I got a new job at that point so I didn't mind forking out all that money.

Since then I'm pretty much done with Alternators. I recently bought a loose Mirage, am looking for a Binaltech Red Alert to turn into Prowl since I just recently traded away my original Prowl (the first alternator I bought, perhaps not a great idea, sold Prime too cause MP Prime takes his place . Sold Windcharger too.. my god.. shouldn't have done that!)

I do wish I could have seen what a full store stocked of alternators looked like. Were were sort of sporadic, up here in Cananada.

Dr. Z wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:

Dr. Z wrote:No Swerve,

Busted.

Would you mind stopping being annoying for just one day?

I think you'll find he's being a DOUCHE. It's his job




Pardon me if I sound pissy, but I get very annoyed about this subject.

It may have been all rainbows and sunshine for many collectors of in the US, but the rest of the world (again) weren't so lucky. (Again) Hasblo didn't give a ****, and only released a handful of these babies to us.


They cancelled three that were meant for the UK- Prowl, Jazz and Mirage.

These three go for some of the highest prices now, and it will cost me an arm and a leg to get them (If I have to use ebay etc. Hopefully I'll find a member here or elsewhere that are selling them [check the sig]).


It was very unfair of Hasblo to do this to us again, none-the-less on one of the best lines ever released.

Dr. Z wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:

Dr. Z wrote:No Swerve,

Busted.

Would you mind stopping being annoying for just one day?

Say my name three times prior to making a direct request.

necare wrote:Prices will ebb and flow but once alternators are a few more years in the past, they will remain high, though it will greatly help the transformers hype if 10 years or so from the last of these new movies are out, there is a new exciting revival again.

Interestingly enough, even hard to find alts at the time of their release did not grab significantly higher values on eBay. It's only been in the past few months that a real jump has occured. I think maybe that the line ended meant that some people said to themselves, "Hey self! I can actually finish this line of toys!. neat-o"

this happened around here in phx. many, many alts were left on shelves for months, so i could actually wait for a sale to pick most of mine up. ironically, did get swerve and decepticharge at fry's marketplace.
it seems to me, that basically until the line was over and finished distributing, that at that point, then everybody wanted them.
i honestly never had much of a problem finding them, but it was random.

Counterpunch wrote:
Say my name three times prior to making a direct request.

Is it Corky? You mentionned something about wheelchairs and helmets in another thread.

I was initially pissed at not being able to find the newly released Alternators in my area... until I started buying online. Maybe a tad more expensive (sometimes cheaper too), but at least you get the stuff right away in the comfort of your home.

I remember Ricochet, Skids, Sideswipe, Rollbar and Silverstreak being shelfwarmers.

decepticonjon wrote:i honestly never had much of a problem finding them, but it was random.

That's true.

I saw two cases of Alts with Dead End, then nothing for about 3 months. I went into a Wal-Mart at the time and they had about 15 or so cases of the Dead End assortment up on the risers.

That's not even to say how long Shockblast sat on all of our TRU shelves.

I've only seen 4 Alternators at a local store called Pamida, 3 of which I managed to buy... Autobots Rollbar, Skids, and Ricochet. The fourth one I saw, Optimus Prime, I should have gotten him first thing I saw him.

Be nice to find Alternators of Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, Hound, the Autobot twins, and some of the Decepticons like Shockblast (Shockwave).

Unfortunately ... the prices probably went up due to new collectors like myself. If not just that, maybe a combination of things ...

What about Binaltechs, were they always as expensive to get from Japan? I assume that they didn't reach mass retail here.

AlienQuiksilver wrote:Unfortunately ... the prices probably went up due to new collectors like myself. If not just that, maybe a combination of things ...

What about Binaltechs, were they always as expensive to get from Japan? I assume that they didn't reach mass retail here.

Proportionately, Alternators have increased in price far more than their Binal counterparts.

They did not see release were I live!

I had to buy them once I was in England, always having the luck of grabbing the last one!
The last Smokescreen, the last Hound, the last Shockwave and the last Silverstrek.

Now they finally came out in Germany, well Ravage that is, he's a shelf warmer, I don't want him, I would like to see the others, but that will never happen.

The binaltechs were much more difficult to obtain than the Alternators. But in terms of Alternators, I would say Prowl was kind of difficult.

Initially Alternators were very easy for me to find, but then I noticed I'd only find the same ones over and over again. I.e. Tracks, Skids, Silverstreak, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Battle Ravage, Meister, Deadend and Prime.

Then as Alternators become more popular try as I might I could NOT find them. Never saw Shockblast, Decepticharge, Swerve, Prowl, Grimlock, Wheeljack, Mirage and all of the other popular ones.

Part of what really turned me off from collecting ALL of the Alternators was the lack of new molds and how poorly distributed these bots came out. We'd see three months without a single new Alternator just the same annoying shelfwarmers never getting discounted. And during this time while we patiently waited we'd be waste GAS on the damn hunts.

Then when the line ended without much notice to the newer customers and more importantly to the stores, people started buying them all. Factor in the movie madness then hell, good luck finding ANYTHING at a reasonable price. So yes in sum the Alternators were HARD TO FIND largely due to sporatic releases and the repeated repaints (which equaled shelfwarmers). This line above all the rest had real potential and should've continued on especially if they tie the products in with the movie which for the life of me I still do not understand why they did not do it.

I don't believe they were that hard to find. At one point or another i saw all of them on shelves within the last year with the exceptions being...the two obvious, decepticharge, mirage, and prime.






and wouldn't directly calling someone annoying be, ummm...flaming. "No need for that, ok?"

The Alternators were so-so to find like smokescreen and silverstreak where shelf warmers but i never saw Hound, which is one i really wanted. I settled for Swindle in the end because i like the mold, not really the colour though but no choice really, but the bigger wheels and bullbars make it very nice.

Like all other UK collectors I'm seeing Shockwave, Dead end, Silverstreak, Ravage, Wheeljack and Optimus prime at the moment.

I really don't know If i should get wheeljack, to be honest he looks crap in the gallery here, really bulky but i like the mustang shape. I just don't know if I should get him. I really want Mirage and it sucks so much that he will never be released here

I'm staying well away from Optimus prime, just looks so crap and I like the scaling better with 20th Prime. they shoyld have made the Ram trailbreaker or Hoist instead.