Looks great, but not something I'd spend THAT much on.

 

Would have been more expensive. 15 is a low price for a fan-made product of this size and detail, both sculpted and painted.

 

Hope I can justify the expense next week! I'd love to go ahead and order one!

 

I'm in, that thing is BA!

 

I disagree with your first statement. No one knows what the finished product looks like yet either so, I cant really have an opinion on that atm

 

BBTS adjusted their price, preordered

 

Tfsource hasn't changed their price yet... My Pre order is still sitting at 17.99...

 

The new $14.99 price is just a suggested price, for retailers who are getting their axes directly from Corbot V.

 

Fixed that for you...

 

BBTS rolled back to 14.99, and they're "known" for being gouge'y (personally, I think their prices are very fair...).

I don't get what all the sniping in this thread is about anyway. It's a very nicely designed part. The price, while more expensive than the figure it's meant for, is at the EXTREME low-end of 3rd part price-pointing.

I paid 60 for the Perfect Effect Master Sword, which at the end of the day was probably not 4X the toy this is. *shrug*

D/L

 

Cool deal. I had one pre-ordered back when the first went up. It was nice to get a email saying it would be cheaper. =O

 

A must buy for me.
And I am expecting a recolor!

 

"Gougey" is probably the mildest word I'd use for BBTS. I use them, as do many others who have little choice, but sometimes I think they're part of the reason why so many fans have trouble finding store exclusives in their stores. I have no clue where they get their supply, but seeing Wal-Mart/Target/K-Mart/TRU-exclusive items show up on BBTS at a $10-15 markup is always pleasant.
To be honest, there are some local toy/comic/collectors' shops in my area that probably do enough scalping on their own.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to turn into a "snipe" @ BBTS. Their clearance deals are often very good, and I've never gotten anything broken in the mail from them.

And the axe looks sweet.

 

Well shame on them for wanting to turn a profit.

When I was importing direct from Japan from a contact I made back in the 90's (i.e. before BTs TFSource etc. existed) I usually had to pay approximately 2X retail plus shipping to get TF stuff.

By comparison, the big online-retailers are giving us great deals. As for store-exclusives and such, they make it to stores like BBTs in 1 of 3 ways:

1: Hasbro makes a limited number of units available to online retailers as a "shared exclusive" in addition to the big-box retailer (Not always advertised, but this happens a fair bit)

2: Fans buy the toys and turn them in to BBTS for "credit" or cash

3: BBTS reps buy the toys AT the store for resale on their site (presumably to sell to fans who don't have the relevant store near them)

In case 1, Online retailers deal in smaller volume than the big box retailers and so have to charge more per piece to turn a profit than do the big guys.

In cases 2 & 3 they're not getting the product "wholesale" so they have to tack on a few bucks to turn a profit/cover expenses (shippping, man hours, etc.)

A markup of $10-15 is nothing. Most of the local comic-shop snipers turn around and let the things collect dust at 2-3X original retail for a decade or two before some desperate collector decides to bit.

So, yeah, $15 for the axe seems like a bargain to me!

D/L

 

That's not so surprising, considering The 90s were 11-20 years ago now. Things are different today, and they should be. I ordered a few things off Hobby Link Japan back in the day too, but you can be sure I didn't do it very often.

I didn't know Hasbro would sell other stores' exclusives directly to online stores. Anybody else got any details on this scenario?

A markup of $10-15 on a deluxe toy IS 2X original retail.

 

Like most things of this nature, Hasbro doesn't feel the need to disclose the details of their deals very often, but a "shared exclusive" is not uncommon. Some product really is JUST for one specific retailer. More often it's a matter of a smaller-than-usual run being offered through a variety of "secondary channels" which can equate to a few different retailers "sharing" an exclusive, or a mix of retail and on-line channels.

Ahh, well I was thinking about the recent "Universe Hardhead & friends" wave as a relevant example.

D/L

 

in the last robotkingdom newsletter, they wrote that the axe will be out at late month only  

robotkingdom.com -- Online Toys Company

 

BBTS got them in today.

 

That is very interesting...

 

Oh god it's true !

Now it's weird more than other... They should have just got the stock if bbts has it yet...