The Energon Pub

[SeanoptimusPrime]

I'm new to the world of toy conventions. I'm going to TFcon this weekend for the first time. I see they're offering this exclusive: https://www.tfcon.com/exclusives

Can someone explain the idea of exclusives to me? I assume they're only being sold at this particular conference, right? And does that mean they're more valuable? Is there anything else to it?

I'm a big Optimus Prime fan, but $80 seems a little pricey to me for that figure... it looks OK, not amazing to me, and there might be other figures I'd rather spend that money on.

Thoughts?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I'm new to the world of toy conventions. I'm going to TFcon this weekend for the first time. I see they're offering this exclusive: https://www.tfcon.com/exclusives

Can someone explain the idea of exclusives to me? I assume they're only being sold at this particular conference, right? And does that mean they're more valuable? Is there anything else to it?

I'm a big Optimus Prime fan, but $80 seems a little pricey to me for that figure... it looks OK, not amazing to me, and there might be other figures I'd rather spend that money on.

Thoughts?

I'll gladly help you out partner.

Exclusives are basically rarer runs of certain figures with certain paint jobs or tooling, in this case, you are seeing a 3rd Party Company Diaclone blue repaint of their Optimus Prime figure. He is not going to be widely available and will most likely only be found at the convention and then maybe briefly on Chosen Prime immediately afterwords.

Exclusives can be more expensive, and normally are, than retail releases because of rarity.

Since it is a 3rd party item, 3rd party items tend to be more expensive, with $80 being a reasonable 3rd party price. It's high compared to retail official figures, but average for 3P.

So part of this comes down to 1) do you have any reservations about buying unofficial product, 2) do you think there will be other figures there you really want, and 3) how dedicated are you to the repaints, and will you kick yourself if you pass? If you pass now, you'll most likely have a hard and expensive time getting this figure in the future.

Hope that helps!

[SeanoptimusPrime]

Helpful, yes, thank you! I would probably kick myself, so that pretty much decides it, haha. Wonder if I'll have to show up early to line up for it...

[Blitzwing is bae]

Im also going to Tfcin this saturday for the first time, Ive only save up about 365 bucks, so I may have to pass as well, glad to see Im not the only one going in blind

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Helpful, yes, thank you! I would probably kick myself, so that pretty much decides it, haha. Wonder if I'll have to show up early to line up for it...

Eh, i doubt it, there are normally some exclusives listed after the convention, so you might be good!

I've never gone, but I've heard and seen enough from others that I could help here! Hope you both enjoy your Cons!

[SeanoptimusPrime]

I ended up getting the Delta Magnus exclusive. Didn't look great at first, but the robot form is very posable and I really like it. Kind of a pain to transform though, two steps are super tightt. I rushed to get in line when the vendor floor first opened, stressing out with others by the lines, but the vendor had plenty of them leftover even on the second day of the conference.

The Starscream exclusive was cool but not worth $145 in my opinion. I think there was a Red Alert Exclusive too, but it wasn't advertised at all so I'm not sure!

[hyperconvoy69]

I ended up getting the Delta Magnus exclusive. Didn't look great at first, but the robot form is very posable and I really like it. Kind of a pain to transform though, two steps are super tightt. I rushed to get in line when the vendor floor first opened, stressing out with others by the lines, but the vendor had plenty of them leftover even on the second day of the conference.

The Starscream exclusive was cool but not worth $145 in my opinion. I think there was a Red Alert Exclusive too, but it wasn't advertised at all so I'm not sure!

This was also my first experience with the Maketoys Striker Manus mold but I love it. Extremely posable. Very much worth it in my opinion. So much so that I regret not buying the Nemesis Prime inspired figure when that was available years ago. That metallic finish Striker Manus that is currently on preorder is very enticing though.

The G2 inspired Inferno analogue from Maketoys was cool, but in no way would I have been able to bring it on the plane with me with everything else I picked up.