ok, these two have been called the two rarest massed produced transformers ever made....what is the story behind them?

oh and for people that haven't seen them:
Black Shadow (1989) - Destron Space Gangster - www.tfu.info
Blue Bacchus (1989) - Destron Space Gunman - www.tfu.info

 

Only available in Japan and only for a few months. And this is before there was the internet to order merchandise from overseas.

Mix all that together and you have a couple of pieces that just wasn't here in the states at all. I've been looking for a Black Shadow for a reasonable price (under $500) for a long time and they just aren't out there.

 

  Those two are the only Transformers which can be heart-breakers to us collectors. Not to mention the cash involved in trying to get pristine conditioned ones.    

 

Too bad the likelyhood of them getting reissued in Encore is somewhere between slim and none, and slim left town. They could even have ehobby Thunderwing and Crossblades.

 

For the most part they were redos other than a retooling of the Pretender shell faces. Both Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus have different Pretender "faces" than Thunderwing and Crossblades.

 

They arent that terribly rare. On par with alot of jpn. exclusives. Fanastic toys though.

 

Agreed, no more rare than many Japanese G1's. I don't particularly care for them - mine'll be up for sale at Botcon, most likely.

 

Space gangsters rock. So what if they were only in one episode of Victory for like 5 minutes.

 

Word.

These ain't that rare as compared to other mass-released pieces.  

IMHO: They're leaning more towards "highly-priced" than "Rare" category.

 

There's a knockoff of Black Shadow out there, I picked one up a couple years back. I don't remember much about the quality other than the box feeling a bit flimsy and it having a really thin plastic tray.

 

Are you referring to the "Universe of Evil" bootleg? If so, it's of pretty decent quality. Of course, the actual toy is mostly purple/lavendar and bears little resemblance to the colors on the box. Of course, the box basically just ripped the graphics off of Black Shadow's package.

I own both the real thing and the bootleg. The bootleg is certainly a nice alternative but it's not quite as nice-looking as the genuine article.

-SS (And $500? Really? I think I paid $180 MIB in 2006 on eBay)

 

Dino-cassettes anyone?

 

no way near as expensive as these

 

Battle Gaea is more rarere and more expensiv.

 

It all depends on situation.

$2000 for four little cassettes seems like a price that will never be surmounted.

I've seen the set of these two MIB for $400 so it's apples and oranges.

 

Here's one.

Price seems in line with typical Japanese non-us release stuff like the old Stepper, Dino Cassettes and Black Zarak

 

Thanks to eBay and other international auction sites, there's not much of mainstream Japanese G1 that's truly rare. If something pops up 5-10 times a year on eBay (like the Dinos, these guys, BZ, etc...), it's not all that rare. You may have to hunt a bit, but you can find it without much difficulty.

On the other hand, I've been looking for a white Shuffler for ten years - THAT's rare!  

 

Trust me, nothing's as rare as it seems if one's prepared to pay top quality $$$ to obtain 'em.  

The lot of us finds that hard because we're all in the opposite camp.