So here is an item that was given to all members of the Hasbro Transformers Team a few years ago. Not sure if one has been sold before. I think these are pretty rare... Maybe 100 or so produced? One of these was on display in one of the Hall of Fame displays showcasing Bumblebee product. LINK
That sure is interesting that they picked that toy to redeco for an exclusive for the employees. Very interesting. Nice job getting your hands on one!
The best way to describe this is "Neat". With quotation marks. Because even though it is what it is, the idea of employee exclusives is kind of cool. (You also must admit that an RPM is probably the least tempting thing to take out of its packaging, so it will sell better.)
An exclusive bumblebee...and it's an RPM? That's gonna have long term collector appeal. Have at it folks. I'll give you all a head start.
I like how Bumblebee's art is frozen, because CHRISTMAS. I mean, NON-SPECIFIC PRE-NEW-YEARS WINTER HOLIDAY. Makes you wonder what other employee exclusives there are...
I think it's the entire thing, including the packaging, that's the present. It's not really meant to be taken out of its packaging. That's why the packaging has special messages written on it. Takara did it with Transformer versions of Tomycars for its staff/shareholders, too. They are small so that they can be stored easily. These sorts of small gifts aren't meant to be massive, or complicated. They might have indeed been extra stock, just repainted, but waste not, want not. I don't see the problem with little exclusives like this. Anyway, I've edited the original pic so it hopefully looks brighter/clearer.
Yea, I like fun little things for shareholders. Starbucks used to send out $5 or $10 giftcards every year. Brewery near where I lived in Portland had a private stock (not sure why it was even issued) that entitled the shareholder to one free beer per day. I really should have looked into finding a share when I lived near there. For employees, I think it is more a novelty of something that the public doesn't get. Got a few military coins when I temped on the Strykers for General Dynamics, as well as a hat. One of the full-timers threatened me and demanded my hat since he had been there 5 years and never got one.
That is indeed an item that doesn't show up on ebay, as I've been looking for one since it was released. This would only be the second one I've seen on ebay, but it's already gone above what I would pay for it (my limit is $50, but even that is well above what I think it should be worth). It's the one RPM/Speedstar missing from my collection, and will remain that way for now... And for those interested, there were 20 different Bumblebees, and these are 19 of them... Bumblebee was the most prolific RPM/SS character, beating Optimus, who "only" had 13... . (the DOTM Speedstar truck was included on the end for comparison) .
This seems like a shitty gift. They may as well have put coal in everyone's stockings. That would have been more valuable.
Very nice collection haul for a series I don't see commonly appreciated! I feel that RPMs biggest failure was its inability to properly represent Sideswipe's Centennial Corvette car mode. Besides this being Hasbro's way of cashing in on Hot Wheels's target audience (but hey, Hot Wheels did Modifighters to cash in on the live-action movie craze), I like them for what they are but not enough to collect them. As for the Ebay listing, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've spent $70+ before to nab an item that was discontinued and rarely seen on Ebay, so I know the feels.
