i'd agree, if you're talking about partecipating in the "ugliest robot mode evva" contest 2018/19 edition 
(Sorry, never liked the 3rd season toys. Roddy is one of the, if not the, most acceptable imo)

 

To be fair unlike some of the other G1 figures they could do these. I do agree that their looks really off.

 

I have to say, I ended up buying a second Hot Rod, facing the correct way in the box, for $12.97, which lead me to open my previous Hot Rod reissue. I actually had a really fun time with the figure and experience. This is all with that I have not really liked Hot Rod at all over the years. He was a good release and good figure, they just made too many of him.

 

They should have done season 1 carbots or dinobots instead.

 

Hot Rod still full price, shelves full.
Devastator still full price, and dumb price at that, shelves full.
No mini bots.
All of my Walmart locations are crap.
No new Star Wars Black Series since spring.
Only 1 new Marvel Legends wave in spring, and 1 in fall, at 1 location, excluding Stud10s.

Hasbro overcharges, and then their distribution is shit.  

 

Walmart exclusives are 100% Walmart control. Walmart controls Walmart shelf prices, stock & arrival via it's trucking chain. Hasbro only sells to Walmart's distribution chain. So - you have bad distribution (Hasbro) feeding worse distribution & inventory management (Walmart). Walmart is the new TRU! Dunno what they were thinking when they said they were expanding toys for the holidays. In the 10 Walmarts in MA i've visited today, only Transformer on the shelf are those Hot Rods. Entire aisles, both sides empty pegs & shelves except those. Either sales are awesome for Christmas or someone can't get product to those stores (yes, not just HASBRO but also Mattel & Lego space)...ANY retailer with bare retail space like this a week before Christmas is either incompetent or worse...going out of business. Walmart is TRU, just more money to burn...

 

Come to Jonesboro, Arkansas. We got nothing BUT Hot Rods, must be where they all wound up!

 

It's sad, really, when they stuff places where people won't pay and starve places where we would.

 

Indeed it is.

In fact, it'll probably be why I quit buying figures altogether. There is no "joy of the hunt" (a bullshit excuse by Hasbro apologists), merely wasting time and gas. Or paying huge markups online. I truly doubt I will ever see any War for Cybertron Siege figures, and my interest in Generations was already waning. I'm not paying $25+ for the $10 deluxes. And Takara can quite frankly eat dick at this point, they can cram there $200-500 "masterpieces" up their collective asses. So my main interest is now down to sub-$100 3P and KO. The hobby is just getting too expensive.

To bring it back to topic, I doubt I'll ever see the minibots. It really does disappoint me, as I'd have bought at least a few them.

Toy Galaxy on Youtube had a great piece recently on how the status quo is broken. Something he touched on was that Hasbro Toyshop inflates prices to not undercut Walmart/Target/etc. They likely also limit their stock. And the collectors lose. So I have no love for either entity, they're not truly catering to us. They want our money, and give us lip service. As far as truly being a company the collectors can respect, hell no.

 

It really stands for your point much better it took them four whole toylines to release Reflector (As three separate figures, no less!) officially. Third party companies have been on this for YEARS now.

 

Its a 3p seller on walmart

 

Old people of TFW, is this what 1986 was like?

 

I don't remember ever being disappointed by stores until about 1988 when Kay Bee finally ran out of GoBots.

 

Wow, so ~24 hours later, they were pretty much all wiped out. Only managed to get Tailgate and Swerve, and there were only about 3 or 4 of each of those left. I was also there last Sunday and there were loads of Hot Rods left. They must've flown off the shelves when the price dropped to $13. Too bad the minibots weren't out at that time.

I really hope the minibots come back in stock. As a collector of other toy lines, I've quickly come to realize that San Diego really sucks when it comes to finding anything. And if it's on sale, forget about it unless you monitor Brickseek 24/7 and can drop what you're doing and immediately head to a store. I get the feeling that the scalper presence is especially strong in the area.

 

Yes... but more. Way more. Picture that, but the whole shelf stacked high with them, plus more minibots on the pegs. Check this thread out: So does anyone have pics of TF's in toy aisles from the 80s (that links to my post in it, but there are tons more. Scroll through.)

 

Yep - TRU, Kiddie City and Kay-Bee would have full sections of isles and end caps loaded with figures top to bottom.

 

Got all 4 Mini-bots from my Walmart in Santa Maria, California.

 

Anyone in MA or New England find the minibots yet?

 

We got a Bumblebee display here in Lancaster but of course it's just more of this diarrhea:

 

Dang, I was figuring Lancaster was going to be just about my best shot.