|
|
Post by Pinwig on Jul 24, 2020 22:43:46 GMT
Well Earthrise Skywarp is now in my collection so perhaps the time has come for the Siege one to wend his way to Yorkshire. If Hasbro had done the whole Cybertronian mode thing properly there would be reason to keep him as part of a separate pre-earth display, but they ballsed that up completely. I've got the Rainmakers; they're plain but enough to give me some tetrajets.
|
|
Stomski
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEECH!! But don't worry. It won't happen again.
Posts: 6,121
|
Post by Stomski on Jul 25, 2020 6:27:05 GMT
THAT'S MY BASTARS FUCKING BASTARD POINT!!!!! It was at Combiner Wars that I realised the collectors lines were just chasing the dragon. Up until then Classics, Reveal The Shield and Generations had done a decent job of keeping to a consistent style and minimal repeats with little mold reuse/repaints. Hasbro will continue to refresh the line with the same characters and new styles as staff and market changes. Most buyers aren't long term collectors I imagine and as much as we like to think CHUGs is for us, it isn't. |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Jul 25, 2020 7:24:30 GMT
Well Earthrise Skywarp is now in my collection so perhaps the time has come for the Siege one to wend his way to Yorkshire. If Hasbro had done the whole Cybertronian mode thing properly there would be reason to keep him as part of a separate pre-earth display, but they ballsed that up completely. I've got the Rainmakers; they're plain but enough to give me some tetrajets. Oh Pinwig, I would forever be in your debt. And I'll never call you a slut again. Unless you want me to. Lmk how much you want. Maybe... Maybe I can have a narrative for my collection- Earthy Autobots, Cybery Deceptions... That could work. |
|
|
|
Post by Llama God on Jul 25, 2020 8:42:51 GMT
Skywarp’s just an arsehole, and refuses to take an Earth mode.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Jul 25, 2020 8:58:42 GMT
Errr, maybe, Llama, maybe.
I was more thinking:
"The war... is over. The Autobots are victorious and live in peace, on Cybertron and Earth. But then, employing new powerful (errr, I dunno) Super-Tech alt' modes, the Deceptions return! More powerful than ever before! Some infiltrating Earth in order to plunder it's resources! Others, lead by the fearsome and rejuvenated MEGATRON, attack the Autobots throughout the Galaxy! Only the tireless champion OPTIMUS PRIME can save us now!" etc
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Aug 28, 2020 12:34:05 GMT
FUCKING ABSOLUTE BASTARD FUCKING TWAT!!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Benn on Aug 28, 2020 12:43:36 GMT
Well said?
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Aug 28, 2020 14:14:05 GMT
BASTAAAAAAAFS!!!!
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Aug 28, 2020 17:29:30 GMT
I have received The Email of Doom concerning ER Prowl.
T W A T F U C K S
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 28, 2020 17:31:58 GMT
Get on the .com preorder Shockers, go out with a bang. You can't not have this Prowl, he looks spot on.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Aug 28, 2020 17:37:49 GMT
I have now received my Email of Doom. Amazon UK Earthrise Prowl CANCELLED.
Yes, Pins old pal, I will have to suck it up any pay DOUBLE because yes, I have to have this Prowl of Prowls. Maybe I can sell on the Ironhide....
But I'm mad. Really mad. This is very disappointing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 28, 2020 19:21:49 GMT
Are you surprised though? Amazon UK's record of actually delivering these exclusives is shockingly poor. They managed Pottop Nemesis Prime if I recall, and I think they had the Alphastrike set for a bit didn't they? (but then the entire world had that in abundance) - everything else has been a fail.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Aug 28, 2020 19:29:22 GMT
No order I have placed for an Amazon exclusive on Amazon UK has ever been fulfilled.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 28, 2020 19:34:47 GMT
Oh! The Fan Vote 3 pack - I got that from UK. That hung around until it came down to around £45 quid. I got that then for Aragon.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Aug 28, 2020 20:27:25 GMT
AN ON-LINE SHOP SAYS I CAN BUY A THING FROM THEM. I ORDER THE THING. THEN THEY SAY "NOPE. FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!"
IT'S RIDICULOUS!!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 28, 2020 20:42:32 GMT
Quite right, quite right. It's all a bit shit.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Aug 28, 2020 21:54:22 GMT
AN ON-LINE SHOP SAYS I CAN BUY A THING FROM THEM. I ORDER THE THING. THEN THEY SAY "NOPE. FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!" IT'S RIDICULOUS!!!! I learned this from the Siege Skywarp debacle. -Ralph |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Aug 29, 2020 7:01:39 GMT
Well so did I but... I'm just fed up of it. All of it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Benn on Aug 29, 2020 7:34:44 GMT
Just occurred to me this morning, but what if you're a kid nowadays? Kids are onine a lot more than we ever were, so imagine you've seen this toy, and you've asked for it for your birthday or something and now you don't get your birthday present because Amazon or Hasbro have messed your parents around.
It's not like when we were kids when it was straight up "Swoop and Shockwave aren't coming out in the UK, sorry" at least we knew. None of this hanging around for months only to be let down when it's too late to do anything about it unless you can cope with being gouged on eBay.
Maybe someone needs to frame it to those in charge like that.
|
|
|
|
Post by Slack on Aug 30, 2020 9:47:24 GMT
Kids have no chance these days, expensive toys, huge volumes. Greedy adult collectors like us snapping up all the toys 😂
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 30, 2020 9:49:28 GMT
In my experience of the target age range for these kinds of toys they don't even know they exist. They don't care, Transformers to them is a series of dodgy films.
|
|
|
|
Post by Slack on Aug 30, 2020 10:03:33 GMT
True, the Netflix series won't win many kids over to the line
|
|
|
|
Post by Benn on Aug 30, 2020 10:13:08 GMT
Rather sad, that.
|
|
Stomski
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEECH!! But don't worry. It won't happen again.
Posts: 6,121
|
Post by Stomski on Aug 30, 2020 11:14:02 GMT
Do we think adult collectors outnumber for kid purchases in total of all lines now?
I guess, a single adult collector will buy a lot from each line, whereas a kid may only have a small number each year. So despite there being more children the total sales may be skewed in the other direction.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 30, 2020 11:31:11 GMT
I think that's true of Generations. I would imagine Cyberverse is still more balanced just through impulse purchases in supermarkets and toy shops. I was thinking back to what it was that hooked me with the original and I'm sure it was the comic - without that I doubt my interest in Transformers would have become what it did. These days kids don't read comics and as a consequence comics like we used to read (still do!) don't exist - kids don't engage with fiction very well at all, they live it through video games instead.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Aug 30, 2020 11:43:49 GMT
Back in the day, toys were sold with text specs/data files or with mini comics that told you about the character. It was a complete package. You could buy a toy without knowing any of the tie-in media. This also encouraged literacy.
Transformers has given up on that. Not even a one-line bio on packaging any more for Generations.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Toph on Aug 30, 2020 11:56:19 GMT
I dunno. The only places to really buy toys in stores in the US is Walmart and Target.
Walmart barely touches Cyberverse. They keep a bare minimum of Warriors and one steps, and sometimes I see ultras and deluxes.
Only Target carries the full range, making the entire line virtually a Target exclusive for all intents and purposes.
And Walmart outnumbers Target by at least 5 to 1.
Walmart also no longer carries the battlemaster or micromaster pricepoints.
|
|
|
|
Post by Syndication on Aug 30, 2020 12:14:55 GMT
I had collector fatigue back in 2013, around the time Thrilling 30 happened and Age of Extinction was on the way. Obviously I know now a lot of T30 didn’t make it over here, and the AOE film was the first time I watched a TF film and actively thought ‘god, that was horrendous’. So for a few years my TF collecting dwindled to nothing. I kept up on the comics and news, but not to the extent I used to.
In 2016, I got a job at Smyths, just in time for Titans Return to show up. I saw Chromedome on the shelves, thought ‘oh hey, he’s in the comics’ and picked one up. Then I found out Optimus and Megatron were getting new figures, and I picked those up too. That all said, it wasn’t until Siege was announced that things really went full throttle again, and so my period of collector fatigue came to an expensive end.
I think sometimes between waves, or when there’s figures I can’t be bothered getting/can’t find (looking at you, Ratchet) I tend to go back and fill some other gaps in my collection via eBay. Finding the T30 voyagers all incredibly cheap on there was a nice surprise, and the same occurred for MP Star Saber, a holy grail of mine I still can’t believe I own. I think those dalliances with second hand figures have helped me stave off another round of fatigue, even as the recent onslaught of exclusives has driven me slightly mad.
My main concern now is the further expansion of exclusives into the line, usually for American retail. As the UK supermarkets continue to ignore Generations, I do fear not being able to find select characters, or ones with sentimental appeal to me, (coughneedlenose) and I think that would certainly cause me to lose interest in the line (that, and next year’s focus on Beast Wars, which I don’t have much personal connection to.) But hopefully these issues will have solutions - I don’t think I ever expected to own the Target Seekers 2-pack - and if things do go downhill, I’ll probably look into some older figures I never picked up to stave off the fatigue.
...even if some of the eBay prices I’ve seen over the year would probably make said fatigue worse!
|
|
|
|
Post by Slack on Aug 30, 2020 12:22:15 GMT
Back in the day, toys were sold with text specs/data files or with mini comics that told you about the character. It was a complete package. You could buy a toy without knowing any of the tie-in media. This also encouraged literacy. Transformers has given up on that. Not even a one-line bio on packaging any more for Generations. -Ralph Now there is Tfwiki and countless other sources. As kids are online most of the time now I don't think the bios matter. I think adult collectors outnumber kids on the WFC line definitely. |
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Aug 30, 2020 13:42:55 GMT
It's the multilingual packaging isn't it. They don't want to translate everything or have the space to put it on the box. Crime. We're lucky in that most of the toys we're buying now already have predefined characters, but that lack of anything substantial to tell you who the character is you're buying is sad. Bios, tech specs, the comic - pivotal back in the day.
|
|
