The Energon Pub

I've come to realize that almost everything Transformers I've bought on clearance over the years is either something I haven't kept or something that I didn't do much with, such as Alternators Sunstreaker.

I'm not counting things I found at secondary/discount stores that I couldn't find first at regular retail, such as HTS figures.

I have kept a few, such as some Animated figs.

What are your experiences?

DOTM HA Sideswipe, the K-mart exclusive. I thought it would be awesome for $15. I feel like it was an awesome mistake.

In my case, I got three awesome figures that pretty much kickstarted my TF collection again, back in late December 2004 / early January 2005.

First, at a WalMart, I found 20'th Anni Optimus Prime, in a damaged box, and ended up paying $20 for him. I then paid $7 for Alternator's Silverstreak (also with a damaged box). Then a few days later, I found (at I forget where) Armada Unicron, still on sale, and for only (get this!) $15!

All three have pride of place in my collection.

Can't recall many, but the few notable ones I can are Cybertron Menasor, some movie scouts, a bunch of things I already had(can't recall individual names), and the ones I take the most pride in being FPs G3 Trailer and D.I.A. Commander

My best instore purchase at one time is ROTF Devastator down from £100 to £30 and ROTF voyager Skywarp & Ramjet down from £18 to £8 each, all 3 are still boxed.

I got Armada Nemesis Prime, Bendy Prime, Powerlinx Demolisher, and Armada Jetfire on clearance at Kmart in 2004. I got the supercons for $6, and I got Jetfire for $12.

Death Star Darth Vadar. He was half price for weeks and I finally caved cos I felt sorry for him. I don't regret buying him but I do regret buying the Millenium Falcon TF to go with him.

Alternators Prime was half price. I certainly wouldn't pay more for him, his transformation is annoyingly fiddly and he's not very poseable but I don't regret buying him. One day, maybe, I'll repaint him as a Decepticon.

TFA voyager cybertron mode Megatron at half price. I haven't opened and currently feel no inclination to do so.

Classics Inferno and Cheeter on half price. Cheetor is not bad, he gave me something to play with on Christmas day. Inferno is awesome and way better than I thought he'd be.

Seems about half and half. I think I've learnt that impulse buys are a mistake though.

Mykltron wrote:Classics Inferno and Cheeter on half price. Cheetor is not bad, he gave me something to play with on Christmas day. Inferno is awesome and way better than I thought he'd be.

Long before the availability fiasco concerning HTS toys, the first and only time I think I saw Inferno at retail I snagged him...on clearance. I was a happy camper.

Years back, I picked up the entire "Machine Wars" run on clearance at a Kaybee Toys. More recently, though still a couple years ago now, I picked up Target Exclusive Fire Fallen on clearance for like $12. I saw a Cybertron Metroplex on clearance at Walmart years ago, not buying him is one of my few collecting regrets.

I almost forgot. Around 2005-ish, my local TRU was blowing out the Hasbro reissues, some of them selling for as low as $4. Back then I wasn't collecting for myself but was actually buying and selling things like that to make a little extra on Ebay. I was actually making a killing selling them to people in other parts of the country. The bad news is that I didn't hang on to a few more, their prices are super high now.

Some of the clearance TF's that stick out in my mind are:

Hasbro MP Optimus Prime from Walmart
Cybertron Supreme Starscream from TRU- $20
ROTF Bludgeon from TRU- $8

I don't regret those buys. All great stuff.

I regret not buying some clearance items:

Classics Skywarp/Magnus- $10. I will never forgive myself for this.

Countless, partially because I'm such a cheapskate , partially because Transformers are expensive enough as they are in regular retail in Europe.
In the US I'm much less stingy, but still always on the lookout for cheap figures.

If you need a list of figures over the years:

Armada Tidal Wave: from €40 to €17
Movie & Animated Leaders: from €50 to €20
Imported overstock Deluxes: from €17-€20 to €10

I'm so cheap

on a random trip to TRU,I found a Universe2.0 Unicron for $27
most other deals were hit or miss

Classics Mirage. $5 free shipping.

I can only confirm what Jelze already wrote... TF's are super-expensive here in Europe, so even when discounted, TF's are still expensive.

Anyhow, a couple of years ago I bought my first Binaltech TF (MISB Binaltech Lambor) for exactly €25 shipped from HLJ to Europe. I believe Lambor himself (no shipping) was about €17.00 (about $25).

More recently I was happy to find all the US released RtS Legends for €2,99 each (discounted from €5,99).

alldarker wrote:More recently I was happy to find all the US released RtS Legends for €2,99 each (discounted from €5,99).

Before any asks, it's all imported overstock from either the US or Canada.

I just bought:

Kreo Starscream $20 (minus $8 w/coupon)
Kreo Optimus $40 (minus $5 w/coupon)

I wanted to wait to see if they were going to drop in price further but snagged them today since my TRU only had 1 Starscream left.

I pretty much got them for the Kreons but I'll be damned, this is the first Prime figure I ever owned that comes with a trailer (I did have Powermaster Optimus as a kid but never remembered owning or playing with him. I found the trailer with no figure years later when we were cleaning out the garage for a sale)

TFA Leader class Ultra Magnus - $18 at TRU

TFA Black Arachnia, Soundwave, Lugnut - can't remember what they were priced at, but I ordered them, Classic Prowl and two other things from HTS at the time and remember only paying about $25. So... they were cheap.

HFTD Ironhide vs. Bonecrusher - $20 at Walmart. More of an OK buy. I really wanted Bonecrusher, wasn't so keen on the blue repaint of 'Hide.

Kmart HA exclusives for DOTM - 70-75% off... was an impulse buy I really could have done without xP Ah well, my niece liked throwing them around at any rate.

ROTF Wheelie - $4 or $5 at FYE

Elita-One statue - $10 from BBTS. No idea if it was actually clearance or not, was the first time I bought from them. But if the price is any indication...

Got an Ultimate Optimus Prime for $45 at K-Mart. For that price it's a'ight, but I pity those who spent $60 to 80 on it (which is the price range I saw on it at various other stores the same day I bought it).

There's no "clearance" area here, so everything is cheapest at sales. I mean even ROTF Skids is still $27.90 ...

Got ROTF Mudflap few years back, for $7. Cheapest. Deluxe. Ever.
Got ROTF Mindwipe for $29.90 ... pretty decent price.
Also, generations figs went on sale for $10 awhile back. And i paid $30 for warparth at collector shops. Well, i just picked up Kup, WJ, BB, Scourge, Skullgrin and others ...

Just got PRID Clifjumper for $17 at a sale yesterday. The fig is better than the FE one IMO... (I returned my FE one due to a missing foot, and I bought the last piece )

Cybertron Wing Sabre, Defence Red Alert and that Con repaint of Jetfire whose name escapes me. Went from 45euro each to 15euro so I got 3 for teh price of one.

Generations Lugnut and DOTM Strafe for 8euro from 28.

DOTM Starscream, Voyager Prime, Deluxe Sentinel Prime all significantly reduced.

Passed on Cybertron Megatron who was around 45euro down to a tenner because I always thought he was the worst looking Megatron ever. Though Prime Megatron's face really bugs me.

DotM Ultimate Optimus Prime for $17.50 at Target. He was half-ass transformed and thrown back in the box, marked as "Repackaged". Needless to say, I got him all the way into truck and trailer mode and parked him in my OP area, never to be transformed again, which is OK because he makes a lovely example of movie Prime's alt mode.

Speaking of Primes, I did snag 25th Anniversary OP for $35 at TRU a few years back. Unlike some people I actually like him a lot and use him as the G1 Prime in my display.

PCC Searchlight with Backwind (pronounced like "to wind a winch") He was $5 at Target and I couldn't resist! Then the nostalgia kicked in when I saw Generations Warpath. It's all your fault, Searchlight, you AND your awesome color scheme! Now there are quite a few more transformers on the shelf that was his alone for quite awhile. I even steal PCC Crankcase's drones once in awhile because Searchlight looks AMAZING in super mode. xD