The Energon Pub

[-Kanrabat-]

Read again. The reissues had the windows and the rubber tires, whereas the last releases in G1 had no windows and plastic tires.

WHAT THEY WERE THINKING?!

Cost saving.

Proof that corporations being cheap is not a new thing.

[william-james88]

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I missed out on it. Do these reissues have the same diecast as the original releases?

If the original have diecast parts, the reissue should have the same die-cast parts.

The same goes for most releases that originally had die cast, but switched to plastic later, like Ultra Magnus and Hot Rod. So far, the Scramble City combiners like Bruticus are exempt.

Yeah, forgot to mention that when a thing get reissued, only the latest edition get reissued. Hotrod with metal feet was only for the first wave or so before that got changed to plastic. So of course we will never see a Hotrod with metal feet ever again. However, Optimus never lost his metal so he will still be full metal reissued.

Hot Rod got the metal feet, and Ultra Magnus the metal cab when they got reissued.

UM have the "Optimus Prime" cab. Which was NEVER full plastics to begin with. Not counting the ever changing smokestacks.

But which Hotrod reissue got the metal feet?
Looking...
Eh. Twice. The first one, Takara's C-78, and Hasbro's white-box Commemorative. Suck that Walmart's only get the plastic feet.

Wat? The 2018 reissue has metal feet.

[-Kanrabat-]

Wat? The 2018 reissue has metal feet.

Using Jobby the Hong's cold touch technique©

Hey, that's true!
I didn't notice at first because of the thick layer of paint.

[Seibertron]

Why doesn't he have a trailer? Ugh!

[william-james88]

Fun fact, if you use the inflation calculator, G1 Optimus Prime would be sold today for.... $50!!!



... with his trailer.

[Emerje]

Well, it's the norm for reissues to be collectorflated at their starting price.

LoreKeeper, that $150 Primus wasn't just Hasbro. That was also TRU f***ery

It was not, it was 100% Hasbro. The cost per unit on TRU exclusives was really high, so TRU had to sell it at MSRP.

Hasbro doesn't set MSRP on store exclusives, those are entirely up to the store. The exception being those online exclusives that are available at multiple retailers like May Mayhem. Unit prices are also something they don't always get to dictate. It used to be a fairly well known fact that Walmart and TRU would bully Hasbro into unit prices so low they were barely making a profit off their own products and nearly shut them down. I'm curious what the actual unit price on TLK Cybertron/Primus was (I found the computer leak, but the unit price isn't listed), but I'll be re surprised if it's anything close to the actual retail price.

Takara Tomy's green Unicron makes more sense at the price. It's more limited, more obscure, online-only, marketed to collectors, and not released to coincide with a major motion picture.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Fun fact, if you use the inflation calculator, G1 Optimus Prime would be sold today for.... $50!!!



... with his trailer.

No idea if that Sears catalog page from 1985 is from the USA or Canada. Assuming it's American, that Optimus was 24$. Meaning 56.22$
Yup. That's pretty much exact. So that mean it's not just inflation at work here. And that Optimus could be considered a "leader class" with his trailer. So the price was fair at the time. So here, we are definitely overpay the "premium collector fee".


BTW, the city bot Omega Supreme was 40$. Meaning around 94$ today.
Oh, and assuming Tracks was a "deluxe", at 10$ in 1985, it's 23$ today. That one is on point I guess.

[william-james88]

Takara Tomy's green Unicron makes more sense at the price. It's more limited, more obscure, online-only, marketed to collectors, and not released to coincide with a major motion picture.

Emerje

I dont see how a toy made to reflect something that actually happened on a show be more obscure than a deco that has no source material. I also dont see how one can be claimed to be marketed to collectors while the other one is not. Afterall the reveal information for Primus was sent to transformers fan sites (such as this one) by Hasbro themselves.
And yeah, my use of the word MSRP was not correct, since there is no MSRP. I just meant that pricing matches the retail price we are seeing for Unicron, which is why I dont understand this double standard. Both are expensive exclusive redecos of Supreme class toys from the Unicron trilogy aimed at Collectors and at the same price/price point.

[Emerje]

Takara Tomy's green Unicron makes more sense at the price. It's more limited, more obscure, online-only, marketed to collectors, and not released to coincide with a major motion picture.

Emerje

I dont see how a toy made to reflect something that actually happened on a show be more obscure than a deco that has no source material. I also dont see how one can be claimed to be marketed to collectors while the other one is not. Afterall the reveal information for Primus was sent to transformers fan sites (such as this one) by Hasbro themselves.
And yeah, my use of the word MSRP was not correct, since there is no MSRP. I just meant that pricing matches the retail price we are seeing for Unicron, which is why I dont understand this double standard. Both are expensive exclusive redecos of Supreme class toys from the Unicron trilogy aimed at Collectors and at the same price/price point.

Something that happened in the cartoon 15 years ago for a few minutes that only dedicated fans remember is the very definition of obscure and was treated as such by Takara Tomy. Primus, on the other hand, wasn't sold as Primus, it was sold as Cybertron to tie into a movie that centered around Cybertron and marketed directly to kids as part of the gimmicky "Mission to Cybertron" sub-line with the decoder. Deco is irrelevant, only the intention matters. Them promoting it through collector sites is also irrelevant unless you're going to try to argue BotBots were made for collectors since they too were sent to fan sites.

Emerje

[william-james88]

This is all just opinions and assumptions. None of that changes the fact that both similarly sized redecos of toys from the same era are priced identically.

Also i think Hasbro is tryong to get everyone's money with Botbots.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Also, Encore Unicron of Light is an enhanced recreation of a rare (Only 10 made) lucky-draw campaign prize. That said, it is still a bit greedily priced.

I guess we know who's setting the prices:

[Emerje]

This is all just opinions and assumptions. None of that changes the fact that both similarly sized redecos of toys from the same era are priced identically.

Also i think Hasbro is tryong to get everyone's money with Botbots.

Doesn't sound like we're going to come to an agreement on this, but I don't think I'm wrong that Unicron is deserving of its price and Primus isn't.

Hasbro is trying to get everyone's money with everything.

Emerje

[no-one]

Also i think Hasbro is tryong to get everyone's money with Botbots.

Hasbro is trying to get everyone's money with everything.

Emerje

You don't say...

I agree with Will on the double standards, I've seen some crazy mental gymnastics done by fans.

[william-james88]

Doesn't sound like we're going to come to an agreement on this, but I don't think I'm wrong that Unicron is deserving of its price and Primus isn't.

If we are talking strictly numbers and production business, and not just fan opinion, then the only reason Unicron would be more deserving of his price is if he cost more to make. And since both supreme class figures cost about the same at retail back in the day when they each came out, I doubt thats true.

Of course one can be worth more your money to you, since you put more value on one than the other. I think that Unicron is far more desirable, I for sure want it more than "G2 Primus". But saying TRU is evil because they charge that much feels simply wrong on all accounts, especially since a similar price (Unicron does have an MSRP) for a planetformer redeco release is dictated onto retailers in Japan by the supplier.

And I 100% agree that Hasbro tries to sell everything to everyone, so we can agree on that

[Rodimus Knight]

On the plus side, Prime has the full smoke stacks, on the negative side, no trailer. If he doesn' thae Die cast parts at that price point though, pure rip off. Even with the Die cast I'm having trouble justifying it at that price.

[Sabrblade]

On the plus side, Prime has the full smoke stacks, on the negative side, no trailer. If he doesn' thae Die cast parts at that price point though, pure rip off. Even with the Die cast I'm having trouble justifying it at that price.

There's never been a release of the Optimus Prime/Ultra Magnus cab that didn't have die cast.

[o.supreme]

The folks at Hasbro aren't idiots

Objection Your Honor...

Seriously though, looks like the news this weekend of a *sans trailer* Optimus Reissue proved me wrong, and yet proved me wright at the same time

[william-james88]

The folks at Hasbro aren't idiots

Objection Your Honor...

Of all people I thought you would be nicer to Hasbro, especially since it looks like they took notice to your wants and needs and are providing you more combiner limbs.

[o.supreme]

The folks at Hasbro aren't idiots

Objection Your Honor...

Of all people I thought you would be nicer to Hasbro, especially since it looks like they took notice to your wants and needs and are providing you more combiner limbs.

It was more in jest, than seriousness...but it is one of the most frustrating things I've discovered since getting back into toy collecting because it seems like with every good decision, there is an equally boneheaded one to counter it.

[DMSL]

No trailer...….what was Hasbro thinking.

It's like releasing Fort Max without a head.

[EvasionModeBumblebee]

I saw that the minibots were starting to show up at Walmart now so I checked my local one - to no success.

The hunt continues! I will have a G1 Bumblebee. . .

[Wolfman Jake]

Since Walmart seems to be a partner with Hasbro in this "Vintage G1 Transformers" line, maybe they had something to say about having an Optimus Prime on their shelves without a trailer? They likely know that the character will sell, no matter what, from name recognition alone, and they likely want to keep the shelf space he takes up to a minimum. A box that just has to hold Optimus Prime's cab only would take up a LOT less shelf space than a box that has to house a trailer too. More product can go into less space, so there is less cost per unit to ship said product to stores. Plus, Walmart can charge a premium for a sought after collector's piece, even if it's technically incomplete, because where else are people going to go to get a newly produced vintage Transformers figure at retail? Finally, Walmart can just as easily ask for a premium "with trailer" version sometime down the line, maybe as a Holiday 2019 item. You might think no one would double dip, but I'd not be so sure, especially if they gave us a slightly different version of the cab, like with cartoon accurate coloring, the Music Label head sculpt, special accessories, etc. When it comes to businesses making money, there is always more than meets the eye.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I think i'm fine with this. I picked up the weird psychedelic Triple Changer two pack from a little while ago, and am perfectly fine with their left field decos, but depending on the deco they give this release, I could probably be convinced to go more "traditional".

I think I'm going to be happy to have an original and a reissue, so I'm hoping for something good looking

[william-james88]

The folks at Hasbro aren't idiots

Objection Your Honor...

Of all people I thought you would be nicer to Hasbro, especially since it looks like they took notice to your wants and needs and are providing you more combiner limbs.

It was more in jest, than seriousness...but it is one of the most frustrating things I've discovered since getting back into toy collecting because it seems like with every good decision, there is an equally boneheaded one to counter it.

I think there has been more good than bad. They reinvented combiners, giving us the best ones yet, they brought back head masters with a cool ecosystem and they are really indulging fans at this point with all the G1 stuff. Its like here you go fans, G1 everything: G1 designs in cyberverse for kids, G1 in Siege for older fans, and hell for everyone who thinks there is nothing better than g1 here are the G1 reissues, die cast and all!

[-Kanrabat-]

Plus the last Bayformer movie have been "geewunified".