IL y est toujours, il me semble, ca fait 2 ans que je n'ai pas ete aller les voir mais j'ai un client las-bas, je passez devant leurs bureaux tlj.

 

Possible, je tente du mieux que je peux d'éviter Longueuil  

 

La, je suis avec toi!

 

You have MP Soundwave and/or MP Starscream over there, rotting on the rack?  

Either that's specifically untrue (you were generalizing), inventory got improperly distributed (as Exodus claimed), and/or scalping is somehow an American problem (why aren't we seeing TRU MP SWs flooding eBay?).

 

I just hope I can find one.

 

Over there they don't let you return it once the box is opened?

 

glad i got my Takara one months ago and cheaper xd

 

"Scalping is somehow an American problem " well it might seem like a suprise but it is cause it really annoys collectors especially people who want to film toy hunts...

 

Tell me about it.  

Not MP Starscream. From what I understand, barely any TRU MP Starscreams even made it to Canadian TRU locations at all. I think only one store in Quebec got some, and then no more. That's not a scalping issue though, so much as a distribution one.

If you're talking about that first TRU exclusive Soundwave from like 3 or 4 years ago... no idea. I don't think they were ever sold in my province due to language laws. I got one of the SDCC ones.

But if you're talking about MP Bluestreak, YOTH MP Optimus, YOTG MP Soundwave, or the MP Sunstorm, that stuff never moves. Those were all languishing on the racks in TRUs in Quebec or Eastern Canada for ages. They even got put on liquidation, but the prices were still so high, it didn't help much.

I was just out to my local TRU today, and while seems like the YOTG Soundwaves might -finally- be gone, there are still a ton of Bluestreaks... along with all the other TRU exclusive sets from the past year or so... the G1-style AoE Dinobots, the G1 Insecticons, YOTG Optimus, etc, etc...

This suggests an obvious problem here... the stuff that people really want tends to get bought. The stuff that rots on the shelf are the obscure or downright ugly repaints, all of which are ridiculously overpriced.

And the Autobot MP cars - if they ever started releasing them on a proper schedule - would also flop, again, due to pricing. Bluestreak and this Bumblebee are prime examples.

zmog

 

This MP has the possibility of becoming the first real 'who gives a shit' figure. Between the fact most collectors have this, and he's plain overpriced...not to mention smaller in size at that inflated price.

 

I'm starting to believe Hasbro is just trolling us with their blatant mistransformations on the box. I mean really, somebody over there has to know how to transform their own toys properly, right?

 

Yes, but not necessarily the photographer. And time doesn't always permit for a member of the design team to come along for the photoshoot.

 

What they ought to do is just give the photographer two samples of the toy: one in robot mode and one in alt mode. That way the photographer doesn't even have to think about how to transform it. Just pose and snap away. But that would make too much sense.

 

When a TRU serving a metro area of 50K+ people only gets 1-2 cases, tops, of anything, regular purchases are practically indistinguishable from scalping.

But really this is just a prelude to companies being completely unable to cope without dirt poor slave labor. "Leadership" grew fat, vomiting idiocy about shifting paradigms vis-a-vis core synergies, while the product was produced for free. Now that the west has stagnated enough that the 3rd world is close to catching up, it's much easier to just jack prices through the roof than add actual value or take less for doing little. But it's not sustainable, as they'll find out sooner or later.

 

I think Bluestreak already nabbed the "first" slot for that role. Dull point scheme of a figure for which the import version was cheaply available on Amazon and everybody had one... Or two already. Bumblebee just compounds the issues.

 

The problem isn't the photographer. The problem is the photos passed review to make it all the way into packaging production. Photo mistakes happen. They are quite common. Especially in ads and sales buletins etc. stuff that has a real time crunch. But packaging is more permanent. It is supposed to have a tighter review. Going through a lot of hands and eyeballs. That nobody caught that one is pretty bad.

 

VW could have requested their logo be visible in robot mode for NA release.

 

Occam's razor applies here. That flap and knowing where it goes is a particularly tricky and non intuitive part of the transformation. Getting it wrong is an easy mistake to make. Especially for a photog team that's been handed the thing with minimal instructions. When Volkswagon wants their label clearly seen, they put it on the box. Which they did here. They would not meddle in the presentation of the non car form. Why would they need to?

Normally companies fix this sort of screw up by gluing a new sheet onto the front of the box.

 

You're talking about a company that knowingly shipped MP Sunstorm with a custom MP-3 mold pictured on the front of the box. They clearly gave up a long time ago.

 

He has a point.