I saw a vintage Trypticon yesterday at the Mall of St. Paul (antiques mall on Selby). At first, I was super excited to see the guy, and his roughly $50 price tag. The chrome parts look extra nice. But as I further examined him... Serious sun damage/yellowing all over the place. One of the chrome artillery pods on his back is broken off at the hinge (but included). Left strut that connects the arms and legs for motorized gimmick is broken. No other accessories visible. So sad. :-( I really want a Trypticon now. Oh yeah, and no other transformers were to be seen anywhere.
They're generally not worth hitting regularly but I'll always check out antique stores for TFs at least once. There is one in Stillwater that used to have TFs semi-regularly (American Gothic I think?). I got an Eject & Snapdragon there a few years back for pretty cheap and they had quite a lot of other G1 toys. I haven't been there in a while so I don't know what they currently have. I've also seen TFs in other antique stores over the years, with varying degrees of condition and prices.
It's sorta like Goodwill. Every once in a while you stumble into something, but at some point words gets out (or you stop being the only one who knows) and just like that you're never in time to find the good stuff. Example: Used to check Goodwill in Apple Valley at least once a week. Then forgot to check few a few, and when I got in I found a single Power Core torso. Learned I had just missed a giant box of them that had come in a few days previously and just as quickly was bought up by somebody.
Whelp, HTS launched their new site today...and apparently they botched the world because people aren't able to get logged in, aren't able to recover their passwords, and aren't able to set up new accounts because their emails are already in the system. All while Devastator is currently available for purchase with a price of $0. So, my day's starting off just peachy. EDIT: ....And they fixed the price. So I'm grumpy now.
More to the HTS woes- HTS lists Quickslinger as available but when you click on add to cart, it comes back with no inventory available, ugghhh
A number of people had orders go through at the $0. So it'll be interesting to see what happens to those orders. Would've been worth a try.
The place in Stillwater is very hit and miss, with more misses lately than in previous years. Four or five years ago, they got me addicted to Headmasters when I purchased an incomplete Weirdwolf from them. I later purchased a Doubledealer with no accessories, a Mint-in-box Sixshot, and a loose Slag and Tailgate. They still have a mint-in-box G1 Metroplex for way too much money in one of the glass cases - it was still there when I rode my bike to Stillwater last month. I haven't seen anything really good in ages though. Their toy selection seems to have really dropped.
There's no way those are going to ship. Hasbro isn't going to just shrug their shoulders and let a grip of $150 figures wander out of their warehouse because of a website blip. I hate to be Debbie Dower, but cuh'MON.
It looks like Pyra Magna learned her lesson from that: Still wonder if Victorion's head opens into a bucket like Defensor's.
It's possible, I suppose, but I don't see a hinge in the back or the front. Still, it was pretty well concealed on Hot Spot. I still wish Ladygroove turned into a gun for her.
Christmas Scoria is in stock at Captured Prey, for those who need a holiday-themed Dinobot Fans Toys: FT-04G Scoria
The first batch of rush delivery Free Devy's have already started showing up on people's doorsteps today. Goddamn.