Well, there it is, then.

Yeah, this is the thing that's making me want to bow out of MP. Nothing to do with whether it's affordable--I can buy these all day. I just refuse to pay these amounts. And people argue how the parts count and engineering is driving the prices up (which has truth), yet the animated-style Prowl and Wheeljack are selling at $80. I bought MP Wheeljack in a group-buy with my friends, and after shipping it was $48. The group buy was simply a way to save on shipping. No way that's an $80 figure (and the prices for carbots at TRU were always way too high to begin with).

I got lucky and bought Cheetor through ta similar group-buy for around $65. When the other figures started coming out at $250 and $300, I sold him. I just decided, as much of a BW fan as I am, I'm just not dropping that kind of money on these things. Which is sad, because it was a line I wanted to get into.

Oh--and the quality has been subpar across all the MP lines. Maybe not consistently, but enough where I just wouldn't want to take the chance.

 

All these reports of breakage to Cheetor are worrying me. I haven’t transformed him since he was released (my stuff just sits on the shelf), he always seemed a little delicate but I had no issues going back and forth a few times.

 

I think you'll be fine if you just take your time transforming him. Pretty sure there's more breakage horror stories of the repaint than Cheetor. I broke the arm guards on mine but that was totally user error.

 

And now Takara Masterpiece MP-34 CHEETOR. They titled it 2019 Reissue.

Hopefully Amazon JP will have him.

 

The reissue is on AmiAmi and HLJ by the way, for the original price.

AmiAmi [Character & Hobby Shop]
MP-34 Transformers Masterpiece Cheetor (Beast Wars) (Reissue)

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/トランスフォーマー-マスターピース-MP34-チータス-ビーストウォーズ/dp/B01K19IM5Y/

Up on amazon.co.jp

$68 USD to my door, expected delivery early April.

 

Sweet, $66 Cad from Ami is an awesome price, grabbed two, praying the shoulders are updated

 

So is this a preorder? Or does it take that long to ship?

 

Preorder. Should have been more specific. In my experiences Amazon Japan shipping is very quick- about a week.

 

2-3 days for most of us

 

Price will drop for sure. I expect $58 USD shipped by the time April rolls around. I definitely did the right thing selling my first run for 150 (after eBay fees and shipping).

 

BBTS has reduced their price. It's now 74.99 before shipping. I bet Dinobot's price will come down as well.

 

Yikes! I've pre-ordered Primal so does that mean I have to pre-order this too.... do i really need to double up... good lord I'm gonna do it arn't I. At just under £40 its a total steal...not looking forward to deciding if I'm gonna buy a second Dinobot or Megatron though!

Edit: Pre-odered.

 

not exactly, this is a TT reissue also, they cant charge more than they originally charged if everything is the same on that side of things. Barring a TT reissue announcement I expect the price to stay the same

 

Yesterday it was 99.99. There's been a price change. I don't get what's to argue here. Customers don't care whether it's TT or Hasbro Asia or what have you. Why should they?

 

It's not arguing, takara doing a release changes the dynamics. One is a limited run the other is a main release run. Takara's announcement yesterday was with the same MSRP as 2017. The domestic price is normally MSRP converted in to dollars give or take. MP44's 50000 yen at the time converted to about 440 USD, pretty close to that magical $450 stores are selling him for. It would have been obvious they were overcharging at 99.99 when that's more than the MSRP, hence the price reduction to what it was in 2017. My guess they assumed there was going to be only a HA run which is always more expensive, charging $100 is more than the original release, but in a limited run it's alot better than his going rate. Takara announced theirs and they were pretty much forced to cut the price to reflect the MSRP, not what they would prefer to charge. Unless takara throws out a Dinobot run of their own, the price will reflect it be a HA run only.

 

I think that's your interpretation. My interpretation is that the Cheetor reissue has always been intended to be broad (regardless of whether it's TT or Hasbro Asia). It's just that the distributor decided to give US retailers sometime to build up a preorder pipeline (and throw in a price drop). Judging from previous releases like Ultra Magnus, Rodimus MP-09, whenever Takara has made a fix to a mold, the ensuing release has never been a limited one. Also, the Dinobot release was a TT release. Hasbro Asia declined to take it on.

I bet Japanese retailers will have a Dinobot reissue listing up in about 2 months time.

 

Doesn’t the fact that the Dinobot reissue costs more, and that the original release was precisely not Hasbro Asia, fit in with what @jackisking is saying to you?

Anyway, @jackisking is right until proven wrong  


I’m thinking of ordering Cheetor from Amazon Japan, just in case there are any QC issues (like some had with Shadow Panther), so that I have their excellent customer service to rely on.

 

I just think your more optimistic about it than me . I see it HA runs as an excuse for either HA or retailers to make some extra money. The best example would be the seekers/coneheads who averaged about 15000 yen, so we should have seen prices from $140-150 not the $179 or even $200 we got from retailers. Or even the last Rodimus, not that I think takara will ever reissue it but, the price probably would have been a lot better with a TT release. I do agree though , if Takara does introduce another run the price will magically drop. I just think that since Transformers is a lot more popular in China than Japan, we'll likely to see a lot more of these instances when something is reissued by HA and not necessarily Takara for more than the original cost.

 

AE is 45 bucks right now, order by end of month to lock it in