The Energon Pub

I was at TRU last night and saw that they hiked the price of the Generations deluxes to $15.49. That quite a jump from the 12 that they were selling at. There were several Thrusts on the pegs but I left it there due to the higher price.

I think that may just be a NYC thing. Everything costs more in the city.

--B-- wrote:I think that may just be a NYC thing. Everything costs more in the city.

I'm not so sure about that, the TRU I was at was in Nassau county which is not NYC.

Mine is up to $13.99.

Its seems TRU is always higher on Transformers or GI Joe or Starwars compared to like Walmart or Target. Thats why i dont shop at TRU unless its mandatory.

These price hikes are pissing me off. Especially sincs I remember when a deluxe was $9.99

Now the Scout class is $9.99

Well, DOTM may alleviate some of the pain if the prices given at Toy Fair will stand. The Voyagers are still down at $19.99 USD thank Primus. Unfortunately, the deluxes still stand at $11.99 USD, but I've highlighted some nice changes:
Legion Class: $4.99 (formerly Legends Class)
Commander Class: $7.99 (replacing the $8.99 Scout Class)
Human Alliance (basic): $9.99 (replacing Power Core Combiner 2-packs)
Deluxe Class: $11.99
Voyager Class: $19.99 (if I'm correct, they were $21.99-$22.99 before the second half of 2010)
Human Alliance: $29.99
Leader Class: $39.99 ($5.00 decrease)
Ultimate Class: $79.99 ($20.00 decrease: I've also been hearing $89.99, but still cheaper either way)

Well, those price updates make me feel a little better, but I still want my $9.99 deluxes back.

Seriously, is that too much to ask for?

robofreak wrote:Well, those price updates make me feel a little better, but I still want my $9.99 deluxes back.

Seriously, is that too much to ask for?

I know what you mean. It still drives me nuts that I have to pay those few extra bucks. I mean, if the leaders can come down five bucks, and the voyagers down two to three bucks, why can't the deluxes come back down?
Hmm...oooohh...
Maybe the sales of deluxes are still steady enough that they are keeping the higher price tag, since the deluxe class is Transformers' most popular figure class. Just a thought.

OptiMagnus10 wrote:

robofreak wrote:Well, those price updates make me feel a little better, but I still want my $9.99 deluxes back.

Seriously, is that too much to ask for?

I know what you mean. It still drives me nuts that I have to pay those few extra bucks. I mean, if the leaders can come down five bucks, and the voyagers down two to three bucks, why can't the deluxes come back down?
Hmm...oooohh...
Maybe the sales of deluxes are still steady enough that they are keeping the higher price tag, since the deluxe class is Transformers' most popular figure class. Just a thought.

It's easier to cut something that was already more expensive then find ways to cheapen an already cheap product. It's like in the car world, manufacturers have more room to work with the price of the more expensive cars. A Cadillac or luxury SUV has more profit built into it then a cheaper car like a Kia or a small economy car like Aveo or Yaris, where there is far less negotiating room to still break even. They can afford to give you 5,000 off the more expensive product and still make money at it, but can't afford to give you 1,000 off the smaller car.

Basically they probably can't cut the deluxes much more then they have because they still need to pay for the design process, molds, and materials. But the leaders, while containing more each of materials and design work probably only require a certain price to be still be profitable. And if they can get the leaders down those extra few bucks, the added sales it could generate will probably be worth it. Also, most would consider a toy in the area of 10-15 bucks to still be an impulsive purchase, like when lil Billy throws a fit in the store and you get the brat one to shut him up. So deluxes will continue to sell easily enough that they don't need to push the price down any lower.

I remember when Smoke Screen and Blue Streak from TFU 2.0 came out at walmart and the prices was $7.77 for each deluxe!!! Never gonna see those prices again..

I never even bother going into TRU anymore due to their prices. It seems just about everything is more expensive there now. The store near me still has a ton of the Universe/Classics 2.0 exclusives and their ROTF exclusives that I have yet to see any of them marked down. I sometimes check their website for clearance items but those are few and far between.

I also collect Legos and TRU's prices are highway robbery

In general, I just seem to boycot TRU now.

Unfortunately TRU is the only place I see any few figures. That goes for Transformers and G.I. Joes too.

OptiMagnus10 wrote:Well, DOTM may alleviate some of the pain...

True dat...there won't be many figures worth buying. Lots of money will be saved!

Here in the UK price differentiate quite widely, we were paying £12.99 for a deluxe, which seemed to be standard RRP, since ROTF finished, we have seen figs between £9.99 and £12.99, with 10.99 being the most common one.

TRU are the only store carrying wave 2 of reveal the shield and are only charging the £9.99 point.

The only places charging the £14.99(ish) points are the import stores, which you'd expect anyway. Our fellow collectors in mainland Europe have to pay even more than that!

Pretender Skywarp wrote:Here in the UK price differentiate quite widely, we were paying £12.99 for a deluxe, which seemed to be standard RRP, since ROTF finished, we have seen figs between £9.99 and £12.99, with 10.99 being the most common one.

TRU are the only store carrying wave 2 of reveal the shield and are only charging the £9.99 point.

The only places charging the £14.99(ish) points are the import stores, which you'd expect anyway. Our fellow collectors in mainland Europe have to pay even more than that!

Cheese n' crackers! 13 pounds for a deluxe?! Thats robbery. Thats almost voyager money. You Brits have it tough.

As far as RRP's go, Hasbro quite literally convert $1=£1. The ROTF Devastator had an RRP of £99.99 here....

Oh. Not too bad then. I know that the conversion rate isn't that good anywhere else.