The Energon Pub

T-Macksimus wrote:Given the state of the economy right now this is about the dumbest move either Target or Hasbro (whichever is responsible) could have possibly made. Even with a 10% discount there is no way in hell I'm buying any TF stuff at Target. Scary thing is, if they are going that high in mark-up, I'm thinking that it must be Hasbros doing which means Wal-Mart and everyone else will be next.
Looks like I'm not getting ANY RotF figures and neither are my kids. Not unless they buy them themselves. Their mother and I sure won't be buying them. Hasbro just screwed up.

Knee-jerk reaction FTL.

Seriously, you'll deny your children a figure because you can't have one? (I mean, that's what this boils down to.) And don't blame Hasbro, just yet. A quick check over at Hasbro Toy Shop tells you the prices haven't gone up everywhere. It's most likely just Target.

Take a chill pill, and give it a bit of time to make sure all the facts and figures check out before your rant and boycott get out of control.

I don't like the idea of a price increase as much as the next person, but until I know for sure what's going on, there's no point in boycotting anyone, or depriving yourself or your children of an action figure simply because one store was reported to have upped their prices.

There's still Wal-Mart, TRU, and yes, even K-Mart. Besides that, a poster in this thread checked the Target website and his local store and the prices have not increased.

This could also be a pricing error on behalf of that store's management, not the entire chain, and not Hasbro.

Knee-jerk reaction FTGL. (For The GIANT Lose.)

He's not boycotting, he simply cannot afford the higher prices.

A lot of people will be in the same boat.

Burn wrote:He's not boycotting, he simply cannot afford the higher prices.

A lot of people will be in the same boat.

If the prices are going up. If. We have no confirmation outside of one store's prices.

If the raise in price is real and stays that way or continues to climb, then it's time to be angry and consider walking away.

Autobot032 wrote:

Burn wrote:He's not boycotting, he simply cannot afford the higher prices.

A lot of people will be in the same boat.

If the prices are going up. If. We have no confirmation outside of one store's prices.

If the raise in price is real and stays that way or continues to climb, then it's time to be angry and consider walking away.

Luckily they didnt kill optimus- or we would be paying through the nose for one.

Hahahaha.

Canadian friends, remember when Deluxes were $13? Those were the greatest days ever .

I'm barely making enough to cover my current toy purchases with all the bills, especially with the last increase. I loved the $8 sales but I guess they were a way to lure us and then raise prices again. I don't like it and I would buy TF's again but if this is widespread I might be down to 2 or 3 toys every few months.

The Target that i go to has leaders for $44.99 deluxe for 12.99 and scout for 8.99 but my informant tells me they will go up in a month or so......did not/could not tell me why or for how long though.

Cheetron wrote:I'm barely making enough to cover my current toy purchases with all the bills, especially with the last increase. I loved the $8 sales but I guess they were a way to lure us and then raise prices again. I don't like it and I would buy TF's again but if this is widespread I might be down to 2 or 3 toys every few months.

Oh believe me, my figure buying has come down to the lowest possible. So far out of ROTF I've purchased:

Scout:
Dune Runner
Ransack
Scalpel

Deluxe:
Chromia
Mudflap
Rampage
Ravage
Sideswipe
Sideways
Skids
Soundwave
Wheelie

Voyager:
The Fallen
Mixmaster
Optimus Prime (for parts)
Starscream

Leader:
Jetfire
Megatron
Optimus Prime

Human Alliance:
Bumblebee with Sam

Now, that sounds like a lot, and it is, but compared to the first movie's toys, that's a drop in the bucket. Every figure tossed our way, I went out and bought if possible. Heck, I even have Ultimate Bumblebee from the first line.

This time, I'm choosy with what I buy. If it's in the movie, I buy it. If not, it sits on the shelf forever. If it's a repaint of something I already own, forget it.

EDIT: It also helps that I try to buy from HTS as much as possible with their discount codes and coupons. Plus, PayPal and eBay have codes so that when you make certain purchases you get free shipping and whatnot. Those little bits add up in the end and make it far more affordable this time around.

Autobot032 wrote:EDIT: It also helps that I try to buy from HTS as much as possible with their discount codes and coupons. Plus, PayPal and eBay have codes so that when you make certain purchases you get free shipping and whatnot. Those little bits add up in the end and make it far more affordable this time around.

It's called smart shopping and I think we're going to see more and more of it in the future.

When A/E/C was out and TF popularity wasn't what it is today, I took advantage of online sites and they're free shipping if you spent over a set $ amount.

It worked out great for me. Their prices were VERY competitive with retail stores and due to the lack of popularity at the time, the majority of the figures I couldn't find in this town, and even had trouble finding them 100km's away at the bigger stores.

Even now i'm starting to hold back on purchases and waiting for big sales. K-Mart Australia royally screwed us over by making the bulk of the Transformers line "Too hot to layby" which meant we couldn't take advantage of their Christmas layby which allowed you to keep something on layby until Christmas Eve. You were only allowed to use their usual 8 week layby and conidering how much I wanted to put on layby, well I wouldn't have had it paid off in 8 weeks!

I don't doubt over the next few years we'll see a lot of the big retailers "tightening their belts" either by raising prices or taking away customer friendly services like extended layby's.

But hey, hopefully i'm proven wrong on that one.

This is a very dumb move. Increasing the prices that much. Who is going to buy that? A scout class now cost as much as a deluxe used to be. Leader class is now the price of a Supreme class. Voyager is now the price of an Ultra. I was planning on picking up Leader Optimus Prime. But this overpriced stuff might turn me away. I will check and see if my Target is doing it. Hopefully it has not hit IL.

WOW

So far my Target hasn't gone up

To everyone that's upset, I am sorry

I did'nt mean to make anyone upset, or to "boycot"
Target, I was just as shocked as anyone and this might
just be my store or district here in South Florida

If I did make anyone upset, I am deeply sorry - - -
I did not mean it, and just FYI, starting Sunday, July 12th,
Target will start to "price match" any item, except electronics,
so just bring in a competitor's current newspaper ad listing
any TFs that we also carry, and we will match their price of that
TF figure - but you gotta bring the current newspaper ad - not
"web ad" to Guest Service at the front of the store w/ the TF figure you want
to purchase Hope that takes the sting out a little

my target has leader figs for only 44.99.

the rest are the way they should be, must be just in that area..

So target is becoming kmart? What the hell. Just another reason why i do my shopping at TRU and walmart. Target never has any thing any way so this wont effect me to much. That is until the other stores follow suit.

As I said before, I'm not going to worry about it until we have some reliable confirmation on all of this.

I rarely shop at Target, anyway. The closest one is 40 miles away, and aside from finding The Fallen, and a few other odds and ends (like exclusive figures), I hardly ever use their services.

I spend most of my money at Wal-Mart, once in a blue moon, TRU, and lately it's been BBTS, HTS, and Amazon.

Heck, I think the last I bought anything at TRU was the first wave of Classics. No...I take that back. Last thing I bought from them was the NX-01 Enterprise model, before that it was Classics.

Target only receives a little bit more of my business than TRU, and even then, I can usually overlook their services as being unimportant.

Man, what is this world coming to...? 50 bucks for a leader??? I remember for the first movie line it was just 40! Man, I wish it was 2007 again If this happens at my Target, thank God, cuz it gets crap in. Wal-Mart gets in everything AND has it on sale

Tekka wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Almost welcome to the rest of the world US friends.

Hey, remember when Voyagers were $40? Those were the days.

Yea those where happy days.

Burn wrote:There's already been a slight increase in Australia with the ROTF line.

Tell me about it, deluxes went up by 3.5 euro, Voyagers by 7 euros, Leaders by 15 euros and scouts by 2.

The current price for one deluxe over here is $27,87.

That has to be local, probably someone in the Toy Dept trying to see if they can get away with it.

The Target by my job had carded GI Joes for $9.89 for a long time, they were the only Target around here that had them at that price, the others had them at $6.89. The price came down after they stopped selling.

$50 for a Leader fig?! Looks like I'll be buying them at Walmart from now on. Hopefully, they won't follow suit, too.

Okay. Well then, I guess I'd buy TF figures at Meijer and Wal-Mart only. The Deluxes at Meijer are actually $11.99 or something like that. Voyagers at Meijer are $21.99 as for leaders are $41.99, I think. I don't know. I got my Universe Hot Shot there and it's been a while since I went to Meijer. Plus, before I saw TF2 in theatres, the Target prices were lower than 50, 25, 15, and 10 bucks. I only got Leader Prime, Leader Megatron, Voyager Starscream, and Deluxe Bumblebee and Soundwave, all for $145 plus tax.

Yeah, those are the prices at my Target too...oddly enough, the Voyager figures were still $21.99 tho.
I'm betting that with all the sales at various retail chains we will still be able to hunt down good deals on the figures we want...at least they waited until after the release of these figures to increase the prices. Honestly I can think of 3 or 4 figures I would have skipped had the price point been this high.