Just a question on this and the answer can completely be no. The trick is, let's respect each other opinions. However, up to this point any main line (seen in the G1 Sunbow Cartoon) MP figure has flown both off the shelves and off the websites. So far MP Prowl which is priced at $69.99 has been sitting on shelves for it's first week. The fact that I can go online and find 5 stores in my local area that has him, and also that he is still available on line is "weird" to say the least. With MP Soundwave, he lasted less then 1 day on the site. He was seen in the stores, and sold out the same day they got him in. So this leads to the question, did they over price him? The opposite could be that he is not popular enough to see as well, hence he will sell like MP Acid Storm and the rest. So I ask you guys, is he over priced? Is that the reason he is not flying off shelves? Now, if that's the case, what's this mean for the future of MPs in the US? For me personally, I think he is over priced. If I could get a KO for 50% of cost, or if I could get TT MPs at the same price an year earlier, I have no need to wait for Hasbro to release MPs. Thoughts?
Here's my thought: when I pre-purchased Takara Wheeljack and Bumblebee, together they both totaled only a little more than HASBRO's TRU Prowl. And I, like many others, already own Prowl. And the MP cars aren't any more than Voyagers in size and engineering.
Only Hasbro can answer this for sure, but the higher-than-expected price could be a factor of having to acquire the licensing from the US side of Nissan, which is different than TakaraTomy acquiring the licensing for Japan. That, plus this being an exclusive anyways, can't help in terms of cost. In the end I don't know for sure if its truly overpriced as much as "cost of doing business on licensed MP Transformers" (though that could mean all licensed MP cars will be "overpriced" by default). I wouldn't worry about future MPs, in general, being released here, but if Prowl does sell unusually poorly (at least meeting the "eye test" that MP Skywarp met at Walmart), I will then wonder how many other licensed cars will be released beyond this and Sideswipe. All that said, with Prowl now out there, I hope those that were waiting on Hasbro versions of the MP cars that thought they could get it for as cheap or cheaper than importing it rethink that position, because unfortunately that does not appear to be the case like it does with the larger MPs.
Unless they had to pay some considerable licensing fees to bring the Datsun/Fairlady design stateside... yes, Prowl does seem overpriced. Ultimately, though, wouldn't TRU set the final price? A lot of people were able to buy Prowl at 2/3 the price during the Buy-One, Get-One Half-off promo. Which means a lot of them sold for $46.66 [assuming you bought two at once].
I think he is overpriced. Where is the cheapest place to acquire a Takara Prowl, because I will not spend the time driving to look for him when the Price difference is so small.
Toys R Us is also struggling to stay in business and has to get every extra dollar they can where they can. But they are also the only nation-wide retailer willing to take a chance on the MP line, so if TRU goes kaput so may the MP line in America. +-MWG-+
I think for sure his price is a little high. His sale price should have been around $44.99. If I can get one with a sale then good, if not, I'll pass.
In this area, depending on the TRU he is flying off the shelves, just like other MPs. So yea, my answer is definitely no. At the TRU closest to me, they have restocked three times, and he's gone by the end of the day. I was just at TRU on opening this past Sunday, they got in one case of Prowl, two of the figures were out the door by 10:05 am and the other one was gone a few hours later according to a sighting. The TRU a bit further out? Same thing. The last TRU near me got in like 4 cases at once, and has slowly been selling through the stockpile of 12. Last time I was in there, I think they had only 4 left? I'm glad he's not selling out quickly like Soundwave, it means people can actually get him and don't need to go through the TRU exclusive bullshit of camping out at the door every morning or jamming F5 to get one. He's definitely not shelfwarming, not by a long shot. It's nice that product is actually available for this who want it.
For his size, I would have to say no. I went with a KO Takara version for about $35 and he looks great but I wouldn't say he's $70 great. For a figure that's less than Voyager size, unless he comes with all the after market add-ons that are out for him. It'll have to be a pass.
I also think $44.99 would have been the right price point for him. I was lucky enough to get him during the bogo 50% off sale. So I technically got him for $35 plus tax which was more than worth it.
Yeah...he's overpriced. It's the only reason he's still available. We may even see Prowl shelfwarm a little. The price is even turning the scalpers off. He's still available on TRU.com...that says alot.
Yes. I am stunned that he costs what he does. I expected him to be priced around $40, with an outside chance he could be as low as $30 or as high as $50. $70 is INSANE. I paid $55 including shipping to import my Takara Prowl almost a year ago. The fact that people waited a year for the privilege of paying $15 more for a domestic product with an ugly stamp on the leg is unprecedented. Now, I do think Prowl will probably sell, albeit at a slower rate than the blink-and-you'll-miss-it pace of other recent Hasbro MPs. But that's because I think people were caught off guard. Nobody expected the Hasbro release to cost what it does. Now that people know this is the baseline for Autobot cars in the MP line, there's no incentive to wait anymore. If you can import them for cheaper (or get them from places like BBTS/TFSource for only slightly more) an entire year earlier, why wouldn't you? So I think the real after affects of this are going to be felt with the eventual US releases of things like Wheeljack and Bumblebee that aren't out yet in either region.
I would say that he is relatively overpriced when you look at his price in the context of the recent MP Grimlock that TRU released and last years Soundwave (with the cassettes). That said, I wouldn't say he's overpriced just because he didn't fly off the shelves and disappear - I would say that indicates that they just didn't get supply and demand right; Which I do believe is the case. They (in an ideal world) should have a better sense of the figure popularity and try to supply that - possibly erring on the side of less rather than more. For example, they clearly could have made / sold more MP-10, MP Grimlock, and MP Soundwave than they did being as all of those things were barely on shelves in some areas, but the seekers and now prowl will probably hang around for a while since they appear to have made more of those molds. I tend to think it's part of their plan maybe, since it seems to be consistent year after year. They produce scant numbers of high profile MP characters at good to great prices and then have ones like Rodimus, Thundercracker, and now Sunstorm and Prowl that are in abundance with relatively higher price tags given what you get.
