Price revealed for Platinum G1 reissue Astrotrain and Blitzwing

This gives me hope that the Coneheads won't be prohibitively expensive.

I was at Kmart the other day, and there were 8 Platinum Insecticon sets just sitting there. Really, just a shame. I bet they really would have moved at $59.99.

Considering I bought the previous TRU reissue for $17.50 (yea BOGO 50% with the TRU Perceptor reissue!!!) that $79.99 price point is just brutal.

I dont get why they didnt do these homages in the classics molds instead of bricks ?

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I'll buy these just because. So is this the new thread for the Astro-Blitz talk?

You can use either, its up to you. But since the other platinum releases dont have a thread of their own and all the info regarding this line is here, I thought it would be best to keep all the news here as well. Like that someone can come on this thread and search for the relevant info they want instead of finding a certain info elsewhere and stuff being scattered.

So the news (t least when I write it) will be here with all the platinum news, but you can post wherever you wish since both threads exists.

MartianSpyGirl1996 wrote:

Rated X wrote:I dont get why they didnt do these homages in the classics molds instead of bricks ?

So Hasbro can drain more money from the collectors

I'm calling it an experiment, and leave it at that. If it proves successful, expect a few more of those. Flywheels was a Triple Changer in the Marvel and IDW comics, so it has some precedent.

Really, it's no different from e-Hobby's offerings, except not renamed and more accessible.

MartianSpyGirl1996 wrote:How much did these retail back in the '80s, and what year did they come out exactly?

They ranged from $9.99 to $11.99 depending on which store you went to. But that was 1985 dollars. The inflation adjustment makes the equivalent cost approximately twice that in today dollars.

Using an online inflation cost calculator I looked up the adjusted cost of each side of the 9.99 to 11.99 range and found the following:

9.99 in 1985 dollars = 21.79 in 2015 dollars
11.99 in 1985 dollars = 26.16 in 2015 dollars

If you had a time machine and went to 1985 and explained to them that all you had was 2015 money, you would have to use 21.79 dollars from 2015 to buy one triple changer in 1985. This is because 20.15 dollars don't buy as much as 1985 dollars did.

Going along with this scenario, buying two triple changers in 1985 with 2015 money would cost somewhere in the range of (21.79 x 2) = $43.58 to (26.16 x 2) = $52.32. So the equivalent of somewhere between $44 and $52 in 2015 money is what these would have retailed for back in the day, depending on which store you went to.

I've noticed that when it came to the old giftsets, the price of the set equaled the total cost of the individual members at retail. There were no real cost savings in buying the giftset. It all worked out to pretty much the same price.

The bottom line is that if all other things were equal and only inflation was accounted for, if Hasbro sold an Astrotrain/Blitzwing giftset in 1985 then the approximate inflation adjusted retail price would be in the neighborhood of $44 and $52 today.

I'm pretty sure these guys originally were in stores starting around mid '85.

gothsaurus wrote:I'm guessing the other factors involved are that these are now a niche market (for collectors), which means smaller numbers... and the oil prices, which affect the cost of plastic production. We can see how Hasbro/Takara are trying to minimize the plastic used in the new toys to help cut costs. Plus there is still die cast metal, which is its own production adventure.

I thought the same once, but I was eventually corrected. That has been debunked. It is not true that increase in oil prices results in increas in plastic prices because plastic is not made from that same oil whos price you (or anyone) are referring to. The oil used for plastic is not used for fuel.

Higher oil prices do augment costs, however, since we need fuel to transport the toys and an increase in those costs must be covered, but that is an increase that is felt by everyone regardless of the amount of plastic usage.

Obviously, plastic has it's own cost, so using less plastic does cost less, but I did want to state that the price of plastic is not related to the oil prices.

And in any case, fuel is actually cheaper now than its been in a while. There has been a massive dip in prices due to excess volume drilled in Alberta Canada.

Am I the only one who would have preferred a reissue of Flywheels to a reissue of Blitzwing painted like Flywheels?

Yeah, sadly we're subject to whatever usable molds can be located in the Asia factory warehouses. There are a load of older molds I'd love to see reissued.

That said, what are everyone's TOP picks they'd love to see along side these Platinum sets? I'm trying to think of some much-loved fan favorites that are also rare. Monstructor and Raiden jump out, especially because of gold plastic syndrome in the original. Grand Max also would be amazing since they have the Fort Max mold and have recently used it.

Dinobots also jump out.

Big News to all G1 enthusiasts! Thanks to ACToys, we finally have a clear image of the upcoming reissue of Perceptor and Blaster, which will be released under the Platinum line.

It will be called the Platinum Edition Autobot Intel Ops set, featuring what looks to be mostly unchanged reissues of G1 Perceptor, Blaster, Steeljaw, Ramhorn, and Eject.

There are some additional accessories, some of which look to perhaps be microscope slides, as well as extra red pieces. The glare and size makes it hard to make out the extra details, so let us know what you make of this set and it's extra accessories in the Energon Pub forum.

Sabrblade wrote:The lack of Rewind is likely to upset many a Rewind Fan.

The mold is probably lost (I kid, I kid)