The Energon Pub

Sad reality of troop building .
Is it just me or is troop building like vehicons is really impossible as far as aquiring them for a normal price.
its not just transformers but in other toy lines in general.
such as stormtroopers, cobra troopers. They seem to be rare than the main characters.
and in hot toys those chituari are as expensive as avengers. its just not realistic to troop build cheaply.

The trouble with the not-main-characters is that they probably don't sell as well in general, therefore they put less in a case. Of course, in Transformers the only viable character for troop building is Bumblebee.

In Singapore, there were a TON of left over 1st ed and PRID vehicons after BH came in. They all went on clearance for ~$13 US, (which is relatively cheap to our $24 retail price). It used to be the rarest fig, and then there was just a bunch left over from later cases and the first ed re-release.

I've never really had a problem with it. Out of my 6 RiD Vehicons and 2 FE, only 3 weren't at retail price: one from eBay before I found 2 more the same day at two different Targets and 2 from TJMaxx. So, they kinda all balance out to retail price anyway, since paying double for my eBay one and half price on the TJMaxx ones.

Course, I'll be paying more if I want a couple more Jets...

Here's my theory: Troop builder actions figures of nearly any type create their own rarity by simple virtue of their troop builder status. Why? Because that's what everyone will be wanting to do with them, therefore causing them to sell out quicker than all the others, therefore creating their own rarity. Not to mention smart scalpers will take advantage of that too

Troop building the PRID Vehicons was actually pretty affordable if you live near an Aldi last year. They had tons of them for about five bucks a pop. That's where I got most of mine.

Ehhhh, I only have three Vehicons. Bought one online after I saw one and didn't have enough money, came back to get it and it was gone. It was double the price on eBay.

Saw at least one on the shelves each time I went to Toys "R" Us this year, but I was never there to get them. Then, last month, when I went to get Platinum Edition Grimlock & Bruticus, there was Buy 1 Get 1 free on all PRiD figures. There were two Vehicons on the shelf.

Point being, for me, they've become more common and cost-effective as of late.

I have limited my amount of Vehicons to 1 each from the Japanese release; to keep costs down, didn't pay more than 30 each for them, shipped.
2 FEs i got as part of a bogo50 from a while back @ TRU; one of which i used for AA Barricade.
The 3 PRiD ones I bought were for 5 a piece @ 5Below, stopped myself there unless I hit a bad dry spell.

Truth is, if I didn't get them for below average prices/ deals, I wouldn't have even considered it.
The concept is awesome but not for my wallet when there are other things I can put those shekels towards.
That being said, those huge troop pics are amazing to see; big thumbs up to those who aspire to that level.

Troop building the Beast Machines Vehicons was particularly difficult, especially for certain ones, such as Thrust, where I preferred the Japanese Beast Wars Returns deco. Same goes for Obsidian, who's Universe incarnation was the best/most show accurate of the bunch and had to be purchased in a 2-pack with that dreadful repaint of that already dreadful massive Tankor figure. But I had to have a minimum of 4 of each and didn't start collecting them until a year or so ago so digging them all up was pretty rough and pretty expensive.

I own 10 Vehicons (1 FE and 9 PRIDs), all from brick-and-mortar retail stores.

1 from TRU (the FE)
2 from Aldi
1 from Ross
1 from Walmart
2 from Target
1 from Big Lots
2 from any of the above (besides Aldi, only ever picked up the first two from there)

I use the FE for Fearstorm.

southpawdragon wrote:and in hot toys those chituari are as expensive as avengers. its just not realistic to troop build cheaply.

HT Chitauri army building is basically financial suicide. You'd probably need about a dozen of those at least, in order to recreate the NY battle scene in Avengers. You'll also need a display area the size of a pool table for the diorama.

Exceedingly cool, but unbelievably expensive and space-consuming.

I think sometimes it just depends on your area.

If I was interested in troop building Vehicon's I probably could have gotten a dozen or two of them. Lol. There was a point earlier in the year when Ollie's had a bunch and the Five Below had several just a month or two ago.

The TRU near my workplace also had a boat load of them at one point this year too... don't remember when. I just remember laughing at how hard it had been to find mine, and then they were suddenly very common.

Erailea wrote:I think sometimes it just depends on your area.

If I was interested in troop building Vehicon's I probably could have gotten a dozen or two of them. Lol. There was a point earlier in the year when Ollie's had a bunch and the Five Below had several just a month or two ago.

The TRU near my workplace also had a boat load of them at one point this year too... don't remember when. I just remember laughing at how hard it had been to find mine, and then they were suddenly very common.

Hehe, having an obsessive need to own every variant of each figure I like certainly helps. It meant I had to get 2 of each Vehicon (Hasbro+Takara) and I also ordered 2 of the Takara exclusive Jet Vehicons. I also have an FE so in total, from TF:Prime I've got:

• 1 FE Vehicon (Takara)
• 2 PRiD Vehicons (1 Hasbro, 1 Takara Arms Micron)
• 2 Jet Vehicons (had to get 2, couldn't resist )
• 1 Jet Vehicon General

All purchased from BBTS as soon as each emerged for preorder.

Mykltron wrote:The trouble with the not-main-characters is that they probably don't sell as well in general, therefore they put less in a case. Of course, in Transformers the only viable character for troop building is Bumblebee.

Son of a bitch! you're right