The Energon Pub

[fenrir72]

Just a shelf warmer in my country at TRU.

[Dead Metal]

Guy's if you're planning to import this do so only for the Cyclonus, I have this set and have to say that while Rodimus looks good the quality on him is pretty bad, he's about as good as a "high quality" KO and Galvatron, well lets just say that he actually feels like a KO and falls apart just from looking at him.

[Counterpunch]

Guy's if you're planning to import this do so only for the Cyclonus, I have this set and have to say that while Rodimus looks good the quality on him is pretty bad, he's about as good as a "high quality" KO and Galvatron, well lets just say that he actually feels like a KO and falls apart just from looking at him.

I don't have any issue with Rodimus. Actually, I think he looks quite good in person. No QC issues with mine, in fact, the paint aps and all are really nice.

[Dead Metal]

Guy's if you're planning to import this do so only for the Cyclonus, I have this set and have to say that while Rodimus looks good the quality on him is pretty bad, he's about as good as a "high quality" KO and Galvatron, well lets just say that he actually feels like a KO and falls apart just from looking at him.

I don't have any issue with Rodimus. Actually, I think he looks quite good in person. No QC issues with mine, in fact, the paint aps and all are really nice.

Oh he looks cool nothing against that, but damn don't touch his paint apps. Mine and the one of a friend had paint chipps the first day we opened the set at Auto Assembly and the plastic just feels cheap, also his joints loosen faster than my original Classics one. He#s good as a pure display piece but if you buy him to fiddle around with him, better get an older version of the mold. But I'm happy since Cyclonus turned out so good.

[HighPrime]

...if it wasnt for U.S. fans hasbro woud be nothing.

Spare a thought for us poor Europeans, we get royally shafted compared to you guys...

Okay, I'm sorry, but Hasbro is not just Transformers. We don't keep Hasbro in the black. They don't depend on us to continue to stay in business. They have so many other products besides Transformers. To think that it's the Fans that keep Hasbro afloat is just arrogant and ignorant.

Does it suck that we aren't getting this set here? Yes, it does. It's a bummer. But it was not a conscious decision by Hasbro to "screw the fans!" I'm pretty sure they have people that know marketing much better than 99% of us on this board.

So, suck it up. If you want this set bad enough, you'll find a way to get it. It probably would have been at least $30 in stores. An extra $25 won't kill anybody if they skip the Friday night pizza for two weeks.

My kind of response. I tip my hat to you, sir

In any case, picked up my set a while ago, so no sweat either way.

[Hal7300]

...if it wasnt for U.S. fans hasbro woud be nothing.

Spare a thought for us poor Europeans, we get royally shafted compared to you guys...

Okay, I'm sorry, but Hasbro is not just Transformers. We don't keep Hasbro in the black. They don't depend on us to continue to stay in business. They have so many other products besides Transformers. To think that it's the Fans that keep Hasbro afloat is just arrogant and ignorant.

So, suck it up. If you want this set bad enough, you'll find a way to get it. It probably would have been at least $30 in stores. An extra $25 won't kill anybody if they skip the Friday night pizza for two weeks.

A) If not the fans/customers that keep Hasbro afloat, who does?
If no-one buys their products (i include Star Wars, G.I. Joe etc), they go belly up like any other business.

B) I should have been more precise in my original post - i'm referring to the fact that Hasbro frequently fail to distribute their products in a proper fashion in Europe.

Eg., we never saw ROTF Bludgeon, Mindwipe et al over here.

'Skip the friday night pizza for 2 weeks'?
If i added all the extra cash i've spent on importing TF's...

[Rated X]

I never realized that Fans Project was contributing to this problem. I actually bought the Combaticons set for $30 when it was new before I was even aware of the Crossfire figures. I am a big fan of the Combaticons so I buy anything Bruticus. so after I got the Crossfire sets, my total was $130. However I do not believe it was Fans Project that raised the price of Rodimus. It was greedy hoarders who want to take advantage of people that gouged the price...as for the hoarders, I got 2 words for ya (Quote DX)

As for Hasbro and the so called "marketing experts"

1. Please explain how a certain shade of purple sells a toy better in the US ???

2. How black and white seekers sell in the US but a blue seeker will not ???

3. Why you can spend 1 million dollars on "Tuner Mudflaps" but cant spend $100,000 on releasing the last figures in the animated line here in the US ???

4. Are the "marketing experts" taking surveys of children around the US about what colors they like most ??? Or does Hasbro's marketing division go home and ask their own kids what shade of purple they think is the coolest ???

As far as the quality of Rodimus, I see no problems. he is fine. Im not sure why some people spend so much time analyzing a figure instead of enjoying it as a display piece. If you got a dud, by all means return it. But all these complaints about minor issues are a little annoying. (No disrespect)

[RodimusConvoy13]

...if it wasnt for U.S. fans hasbro woud be nothing.

Spare a thought for us poor Europeans, we get royally shafted compared to you guys...

Okay, I'm sorry, but Hasbro is not just Transformers. We don't keep Hasbro in the black. They don't depend on us to continue to stay in business. They have so many other products besides Transformers. To think that it's the Fans that keep Hasbro afloat is just arrogant and ignorant.

So, suck it up. If you want this set bad enough, you'll find a way to get it. It probably would have been at least $30 in stores. An extra $25 won't kill anybody if they skip the Friday night pizza for two weeks.

A) If not the fans/customers that keep Hasbro afloat, who does?
If no-one buys their products (i include Star Wars, G.I. Joe etc), they go belly up like any other business.

B) I should have been more precise in my original post - i'm referring to the fact that Hasbro frequently fail to distribute their products in a proper fashion in Europe.

Eg., we never saw ROTF Bludgeon, Mindwipe et al over here.

'Skip the friday night pizza for 2 weeks'?
If i added all the extra cash i've spent on importing TF's (and Star Wars), i'd bloody starve...

From the original wording, I took it to mean that Hasbro would not be in business if there were no US Transformers FANS. I don't think he was referring to the millions of Hasbro customers who don't buy Transformers. I'm sure Hasbro would be perfectly fine if Transformers Fans stopped buying. They'd still sell to their targeted market, which is kids.

[Blurrz]

However I do not believe it was Fans Project that raised the price of Rodimus.

No, it was completely and utterly FansProject who did it. Hoarders exist for every figure, but in no means does it justify the huge price spike. It could be Classics Mirage, Classics Bee or any other figure if 'hoarders' increased prices. But no, this time it's FansProject completely.

[Blurrz]

2. How black and white seekers sell in the US but a blue seeker will not ???

3. Why you can spend 1 million dollars on "Tuner Mudflaps" but cant spend $100,000 on releasing the last figures in the animated line here in the US ???

2) If you're referring to Thundercracker, it's a touchy subject and I really think Hasbro is going to wait another couple years before a Classics Thundercracker is released.

3) Your price assumptions are WAY off. Repaints like Tuner Mudflap cost little to nothing to a company. Know that the Animated toy line was not successful, despite it's large fanbase. There were repaints already by Deluxe Wave 4, horrible quality control issues and poor distribution.

[SJ21]

Does this suck? Yes. Does it surprise me? No. As soon as this came out, due to it's G1 color schemes, I figured it would not be coming here.

[kirbenvost]

However I do not believe it was Fans Project that raised the price of Rodimus.

No, it was completely and utterly FansProject who did it. Hoarders exist for every figure, but in no means does it justify the huge price spike. It could be Classics Mirage, Classics Bee or any other figure if 'hoarders' increased prices. But no, this time it's FansProject completely.

They caused the spike in prices, but in the end it's still the sellers who think they can get away with raising prices that high... and unfortunately they're right, because people still pay.

Meh, oh well. BBTS still had tons of these in stock the last time I checked, and unlike other stores they won't be raising the price as soon as they find out it's going to be less available.

[Gauntlet101010]

It's too bad this won't get a domestic release. But I can't say I'm too shocked.

For me this is an excersize in willpower. I have both the Henkei and classics versions of all these guys. While I do like Hot Rod and Galvatron (the characters and these molds too) I think it's a bit of a waste to buy them three times over when there's so many good TFs on the horizon. Especially since I mostly want it for Cyclonus! Gotta budget, after all.

[BrooklynPrime]

I said to myself a month ago in Long Island NY standing in Amok Time and seeing this set for the first time that I should grab 2 while they have it in stock and boy am i glad i did. After reading this paying 54.00 x2 seemed a bit much, but for 108.00 out the door you could not or I could not go wrong

[AutobotTrainer]

3) Your price assumptions are WAY off. Repaints like Tuner Mudflap cost little to nothing to a company....

Yes...which is why this decision by Hasbro is perplexing. The confusion expressed by many of us here is not based on any kind of supply and demand economics model, but on precedent. Hasbro LOVES repaints. If the molds are in active use, why not ship them to the states and make a Target/TRU/Wal*Mart exclusive? Shelf warming cannot be that much of a deterrent (again, look at precedent).

I don't care that they aren't available here, they aren't that much of an interest to me, but seriously, who slipped the decision-makers at Hasbro a Mickey? This is not normal for them to deny a quick $ on repaints.

Someone should check their temperature, they might have a fever...

[bvzxa]

Well we all know Hasbro has a complex about giving fans the paint schemes G1 accurate. They give crappy decos and dodge questions as they did at Botcon. I personally ordered the set for Cyclonus. This is definitally the most G1 accurate version. Getting a more G1 accurate Galvatron was an extra added bonus. The white should have been just a little darker shade of grey, but not as dark as the Hasbro version. And I dont understand why Rodimus has become so costly all of a sudden ??? I passed on his Hasbro version when it was $9.99 at Wal-mart 3 years ago. Why are so many a**holes saying it's worth $70-80 on e-bay ??? Who started this price gouge and why ???
But I gotta admit, this version of Rodimus looks BAD ASS under a blacklight !!!

Fansproject made Rodimus worth about $80.. As they did with Bruticus..As they did with Superion. Classics Op, classics UM, classics nemesis prime..The 3rd party market has that effect now a days...

I dunno, Rodiums did go up in value just not as high before FP announced an upgrade kit. ROTF Superion goes for $50 unless you have the Superlink version, that can go pretty high. I know plenty of people who paid $30 or $40 for SDCC Nemesis Prime, not bad considering how much more you'll pay for Henkei Convoy. Also for the City Commander and Shadow Commander sets they fluxuate in value due the KO's that are floating around.

I got my Classics Prime for $8 complete. It's Bruticus that's now $80 or more on the 'bay. You can even sell the leftover limbs for some change. Who knew?!?

[grimdragon2001]

im so glad i got this set from robotkingdom. the quality on these guys is top notch, id say even better than the crytal henkei SoC set. so what if rodimus dosnt have any translucent plastic on him, he still looks awsome

[Mindmaster]

NO HASBRO DON'T DO THAT!!!!!

Most of us neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed this release! For me;

*Need a new Galvatron; mine's leg keeps popping off.

*Never got the chance to get Classics Hot Rod

*A G1-colored Cyclonus? In retail in the U.S? When will this ever happen again?!

Reconsider Hasbro! Reconsider!!!

[joevill]

I'm not surprised but I was really hoping this would be released in the US.

[Autobot032]

They say there's no plans, but that doesn't mean there weren't any. Target was mentioned by several sources as the potential US release spot.

I'm thinking they backed out of it and Hasbro decided to stick with it as is.

[fenrir72]

There's always ebay. Just take time to compare the price. Same thing happened to me with Takara TFA Arcee, no TRU release in my country(both USA and Takara version), specialty shops sold Takara ver at US$80.00. Tried ebay and ordered one from Taiwan at around US$50+ including taxes.

[Julie85]

This is disappointing. I guess I will have to import it since I don't have any of the previous versions of them. (I do have SG Cyclonus, but he's a completely different character from G1 Cyclonus.) I've been trying to get Rodimus for a long time but every time I find him he's like $100. Getting all three of them for $50 seems like a good deal to me.

[666-SHOT]

Oh Well. I held out on Henkei Rodimus and Cyclonus. Have had the 3 pack for 2 weeks now. Love all 3 figs. The paint update on Galvy is awesome IMO. Beats out the Henkei and the U.S. version.