Hello all

I'm new here, so apologies if this is in the wrong forum area. I'm belatedly trying to find first-hand Alternators, and wondered if these are still available in the US. I bought a new Alternator Wheeljack here in the UK this week, but his breed seem to be otherwise extinct here now. My girlfriend's off to the US soon – are Alternators still available in shops there (esp. San Fran)?

Best, O

 

Not really. Might find one or two but I haven't seen them in stores for a long time now.

 

Don't know about the US, but in the UK, last time I checked Argos still had a couple of them in the catalogue, and I think my local Woolies still has a couple of Swindles and Deadends, but they've been there for LONG time and may have dried up in many parts of the country.

I reckon it's gonna be tough finding many of them though, a lot of the alts weren't even released in this country. Ebay yields most of them MISB, but you generally pay over retail.

 

Yeah, not even Fry's has them, and they used to have piles and piles of the same four Alternators.

 

Thanks, people. I thought this must sadly be the case. Aussiehippy, your local Woolies is not too far from me, so I might check there. Argos still have a couple available online, but the Alternators have now been removed from their catalogues. If anyone else has info on a last few stragglers hanging around the shops, please let me know. Best, O

 

Tescos sometimes still have the odd pieces of Alternators stock show up from time to time (probably shifted from store to store in an effort to be shot of them). Although I've not seen any since before Christmas so they've probably all gone now. Still, always worth a check just in case.  
After that I guess small independant toyshops are the only other place. A place near me had some Classics Voyagers a few weeks ago. All gone now though.

 

Are you only interested in MISB ones? I have a sideswipe (with box and everything) that I was going to sell soon.

 

Was Decepticharge in the plastic dome packaging available in the UK? I'd like to pick one of those up.


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New Binaltechs are scheduled to be released by Takara-Tomy, It the JPN Version of Alternatorsd.

Miester in Movie Jazz colours
Bluestreak
Arcee
Green Convoy.

Skids is easy to find.

 

The Silver Meister has the Laserwave RX-8 Mold (Just street tuned, or something like that, the front bumper is definitely closer to the ground).
I hope the Green Convoy is Springer though, it sort of makes sense.

The BT Skids has only recently become easy to find since a supplier found old stock, which dropped the price (Some sellers on Ebay are even selling for ~$55). Since it was once as high as $140, although I'm still lost on why (Other than the Die-cast and G1 paint scheme, I think it was popular with street culture consumers?).

That was the European packaging, I believe all (or most) Alternators were packaged in the bubble with a picture on the paper insert in the bubble, instead of a drawn boxart image of each transformer. TFsource carries these. Unless one is really hardcore to collect every variant, there's really no point (and unnecessarily expensive, IMO).

 

Rodentus and Lumpy, thanks for info on your MIBs for sale. I'm really looking for brand-new at the moment. Of course, I may well regret this policy later …

Gamleys (no relation to Hamleys) in Brighton had many Shockblasts in stock late last year, but I went back a couple of days later and I'm sure you can complete this sentence yourself. The Alternators I'm especially looking for are Shockblast, Dead End, Tracks, Silverstreak, Meister, Prowl, Mirage, Smokescreen. The original TF comic series ruined Skids for me by having him fall in love with a human. And the thought of Grimlock transforming into a car instead of a Tyrannosaurus Rex makes me feel a bit ill.

O

 

Skids and Ricochet were around here a few months back, but now they are gone, and that for me was like the death of the Alternator line- I mean, it was dead, but now it was like a final blow.

If you want Alternators, some places might have them, but there's like a 20% chance. The new Binaltechs' look promising. Arcee especially.

 

Even though they aren't in stores, there are tons being traded in the Junkion...

 

bigbadtoystore.com says that the Alternators of Optimus and Nemesis Prime are out in April. Anyone know any further details on this? Are these a general re-release, or specific to this store, and what date are they out? The site also mentions Binaltechs of Ravage and Skids for April – same questions here.