My Alt Optimus Adventure...

It's a month after my birthday. Since it's release I had been unable to find Alternator Optimus Prime, so I decided to devote a shopping trip to finding just him. My only option at the start is a $29 Alt Prime off of JRS Toyworld and I hate paying more than I have to for a Transformer, especially when waiting is involved.

First stop was Walmart. The disappointment begins as I find the only Alts they have are the same two Skids that kept them from ordering new Alts for months. Worse they're up for clearance and after a reorganizing, they left no room for new Alts, so they may have stopped carrying them. This nearly killed my hopes as my closest TRU and my Target hadn't stocked Alternators in a while.

Went to said Target anyway, and to my amazement they had Alternators again. It's uncanny, cause whenever my Walmart stops stocking up Alternators, my Target starts again and vice versa. To my absolute amazement they had Alt Mirage which I snatched up immediately, as well as Alt Meister but I got mine the first time around. What annoyed me about it was it meant Alt Optimus (and Camshaft, technically) was there and I just missed him. They had the new deluxe Prime with symbols that I wanted but I decided to pass for now, money was running low.

Next day went out shopping with my girlfriend and since she took me to shops just for her, I got my pick of other shops. First was a new Super Target in the area, one Tracks, nothing else. Then was another TRU, the second and farther one in my area. They had Quickmix who I grabbed up, and one Skids but otherwise no luck again. Again, deluxe Prime with symbols, skipped a second time. Pulling out of TRU we get to the intersection, and at the light to our left what should I see...

Dodge Ram SRT-10, red, spoiler and all.

Now I'm being taunted, and that $29 Prime is looking really good at this point... And I had just enough for it since I kept passing up that $10 Prime. I go ahead and hop online when we get home and order it, just have to wait for morning for the card to be processed.

Next day, the order's finished and shipped... and I find they restocked the cheaper $25 version with the non-mint box. I'm an opener, a dent in the bubble wouldn't upset me. What bugged me was spending more than I had to.

3 days of waiting go by and now I'm nervous cause the day before our mail deliverer gave us mail for a completely different address, which is becoming commonplace, so who knows where my box could have ended up. I'm trying not to look, too, cause I know if I start waiting for the truck I'll just be torturing myself. But inevitable happens, my dog has to go out so face the road I must, in view of the corner I live on. Down the main road comes, yes, a red Dodge pickup, and coming down my street to the stop sign is another red pickup truck. Okay, now I'm seriously being screwed with.

Thankfully she got the address right, but I had to stand and watch out the window for 15 minutes while our houseguest bitched out the deliverer for screwing up our mail, apparently she almost gave us a completely wrong stack, all this time holding the box I'd been waiting for so long.

So the end of my story, got the box, beautiful Alt Optimus waiting for me inside. For anyone hesitant to pick one up online for $30, he is worth spending more than most Alts, being a good bit bigger and being Optimus. Keep in mind how much the gas money would cost just to go hunting for one in person, that alone might make up the difference.

And now that I have him, as my usual luck goes... I'll find him tomorrow at Target. Seriously, that happened to me more times than I care to count. I hope nobody else has to go through all of this just to get their Prime... Unless of course it's Nemesis, then we all have the same horror story to share.

Congratulations! Good for you. While Op doesn't have the most brilliant paint apps (sorry KP spoils ), the mold is more than adequate to show off his awesome awsomeness! You may see him on shelves, you may not, but it is without a doubt rare. Today was the first time I've actually seen him on shelves and except for the usual suspects (meister, tracks, et al) I typically don't find many of the desirable Alts.

Nice story with a happy ending. Congrats!

Congrats , he's pretty cool. Going though hassles like that helps us appreciate our prize a little more. And I agree, some may be better off ordering one for 30$ since we use 5-100$ in gas searching around for them daily.

And yes, you'll probably see him at Target tommrrow
That always happens to me

When Alt. Prime first came out, all of us in NY heard about it, but no one had ever seen one in person, until I was informed by a fellow member Sonscreen that there was one in Chinatown, but he was going for $35 so Sonscreen passed, but post it up in the sightings forum.

I went there the next day, and sure enough, it was still there, I guess the high price put many people off, I hesistated for all of 5 seconds, snatched him up and took him home. Opened it up I was sorely disappointed, tons of loose joints, had problems putting him back to the truck mold, etc. I was sure that I had wasted the money, but through the other members on the board, I found ways to make him better

It was an excellent learning process, and I feel like everytime I upgrade him, I like the figure that much more. I've found many Prime since then, and I've picked them up for friends that wanted him, but to me that was the best $35 I've ever spent.

Ugh, happened to me in the worst way, ordered the last four Energon combiners online cause the stores were overstocked on the older limbs, had to pay $10 for one plus extra shipping cause no shop had all four... and before I even got them in the mail I found them at Target. BAH!

Don't feel bad, can almost relate. Onlined those Energon combiners for 10ea and a week later, a thrift salvation army style market had a whole pallet full of them, cases 5 ft high, for 1.29 each. Still bummed for not getting a case.
It dwindled down pretty fast. That was probably scalpers dream come true.

If I did'nt online them though, my luck it would've jinxed them into never showing up locally.