Except now it is likely everyone is going to afford and have a chance to buy them.

Do you know many Asia toy shops stock TakaraTOMY exclusives? However, I have never seen any shops stocking BotCon exclusives. I guess it is because Hasbro does not supply them, and the only official way to get them is through BotCon.

 

Wow.
"I prefer fewer exclusives that are more accessible" is suddenly "No one should have anything I can't afford" ? That's not how words work.

 

please quote where i said those words. what i said implied that i felt botcon exclusives cost more than they were worth. what i said also implied id rather pay for a single exclusive/early release item that is an affordable cost than a boxset that is arguably 3-4 times what it is worth (before you have a heart attack of retorts, yes i am aware the figures are produced in smaller quantities, yes i am aware that many times funpub created their own heads, this all adds to the cost of production) but when you boil it down funpub predacus is a $100 toy, not a $400 toy. there is nothing special about them except not everyone can get them.

what i said was that for me, a single more affordable option is preferable. NOWHERE did i say that you shouldnt have more expensive options  

 

Well yeah, except "them" is one item.

I see a lot of shops stocking BotCon exclusives, many of which advertise on this very site. They stock them the same way they do TakaraTomy exclusives - they buy them and resell them at a higher cost.

Except the comparison you're making here is with the cost of admission. The "$400 box set Predacus" was the cost of the show, admission, dinner, all the extras, and the toys as something to show for it. It's not a $400 toy, that pays for the cost of putting on the show. It would be equivalent to compare it to the $365 HasCon entry and dinner price - something which doesn't give you a boxed set of exclusives that, if nothing else, you can usually flip and at least break even.

Now, if you want to compare Arcee to the at-show exclusives, that would be a fair comparison. Of course, the difference there, as you noted, is the far lower production runs, as well as having to pay a license fee to Hasbro and depending on those exclusives to make the profit for your company that pays it's employees. HasCon exclusives don't have quite those burdens on them.

 

So exactly Botcon's methodology? I can't believe anyone who saw Ravage and Tigatron still chooses to defend them.

 

How is this "Botcon's methodology?"
Are you trying to say that buying exclusives at a show and selling them for a markup somehow equates to paying for a license, getting approval, creating and producing new characters and toys for that show?

 

And are you implying that people should pay more for shoddy workmanship and budgeting?

 

I said nothing to imply that. Those are the realities of the situation. Those are also your opinions, whether or not I agree with it in some way. But again, how is that "Botcon's methodology?" No need to move the goalposts....

 

I'm not moving the goalposts, but it's nice that you have to resort to this tier of argumentation to beat me. Funpub, licensing issues and Hastak's final veto aside, was still having them foot the bill for production and the like.

 

granted its sold out currently but here is predacus loose on bbts for $400
2016 Botcon Exclusive Dawn of Predacus - Loose Set

here he is sealed for $500
2016 Botcon Exclusive Dawn of Predacus Box Set

oh but this is bbts and not the club. these were also the club prices as well, the same club that wouldnt let you buy a loose predacus without buying a sealed one as well for awhile.

that $400-$500 being charged to people who couldnt make the show was not going to admission, dinner or any of the extras, it was just for the boxset. ill concede that i liked a lot of the funpub figures, i also disliked a lot of them, probably about 50/50, but generally speaking the botcon exclusives, figure subscription service and club were all priced well out of the casual fans price range.

like i said for ME PERSONALLY, i prefer a more affordable option.

also keep in mind that this early release seems to have been thrown together recently considering its the remnants of one of the larger canceled boxsets. and on top of that hasbro has been doing their own botcon style boxsets at a much more affordable cost since combiner wars. i would definitely say that both cw computron and liokaiser feel like a botcon style set, as well as the two larger titans return box sets. i would rather hasbro keeps doing stuff like that instead of making really cool figures that only a handful of fans can get at 4x the cost of those same molds at retail.

 

You said people buying BotCon and TT exclusives and reselling them for a higher price was "BotCon's methodology." I asked how, in any way, producing a product equated to scalping a product. Rather than answer that, in any way, you came back with "And are you implying that people should pay more for shoddy workmanship and budgeting?" Something that has nothing to do with the original subject. That, is what is considered "moving the goalposts."

 

I don't mind a more affordable option either, personally.

The sale of the box sets is what pays for the convention. Doesn't matter if you're going or not. Rather than just charge $200-300, they charged $400 for a box set. IF you want an additional loose set as well, that runs another $295 (BBTS prices are NOT the same as club prices, BTW.) They didn't let you buy a loose set without the box set, because cheap people like me would just buy the loose set, and there's still a convention that needs to be paid for.
The purpose of the box set is to pay for the convention, which is why it costs substantially more than the loose sets (which in turn have gone up in recent years as an extra cash grab, IMO.)

 

meh, it is what it is at this point. for the fun pub exclusives i only ever got one and that is combiner wars tigatron, horrible head and all, simply because hes a must have character for me (if you couldnt tell by the name  ). there were more that i wanted, ended up making my own headmaster energon scorponok, and recently got kos of the platinum edition sweep painted as devcon and the chms punch counterpunch, which i really dont feel bad about buying either ko since the funpub ones are years old at this point, theyve made their money  

in an ideal world we could all get what we want, do i wish there was still convention exclusive figures? sure, those were some of the coolest ideas, but prior to funpub botcon only had 2-4 exclusives a year anyway. but i also dont have a problem with whatever hascon gets being made available to a larger audience for near retail prices after the con either. its only hascons first year, hopefully next year there will be a bit more of a selection of things on offer.

but no matter how you cut it the hascon offerings are a better option for those that can't make it to the con.

 

That was the great thing about BotCon. You could go to the show in 2016, see Stan Bush in concert Friday w/ the HoF awards presentation for free and then on Saturday get entry to the exhibit hall, the panels, autographs and pictures with all the regular guests and buy one exclusive and your total cost was $99. (Granted, one of those was Tigatron and yes, the head did not turn out right because of the mold we tried to use. Should have used a different car.)

Regardless, you can look at other years and the same basic formula can be applied. In 2013 you could have gotten Saturday exhibitor room, panels, autographs and pictures with 17 guests (Glenn Moreshower, Steven Blum and so on) and two exclusive toys for like $115.

There is no way around it. BotCon was in every way a better value than HasCon when you compare apples to apples. When you compare Primus package to the HasCon 3 day package the value is even more disproportionate: $395 vs $867 and that doesn't even include the boxed set!

Even if you try to compare toy for toy it doesn't work cause BotCon offered something 'exclusive' as opposed to this years 'not even actually exclusive' Arcee. Is what it is...

 

Well, just so we are clear. From my understanding, Hasbro Asia actually supplies TakaraTOMY exclusives to Asia. Retailers can stock them like any general release product. They are treated more like store exclusives, and their selling price is almost the same as buying them from Japan; some may have slight markups, but rarely 100% to 200% markups. Sometimes, I even see them shelfwarm.

I am not sure about BotCon exclusives, but I have a feeling these online retailers actually either have to attend the convention or go through other back door methods to get them.

 

definitely if you could make it to the con botcon was a much better value overall, not even going to attempt to argue that, i was just saying that for those that cant make it to hascon its nice that what they are offering will be made available for roughly retail after the con, which is much easier for hasbro to swing than funpub. i totally get why the funpub exclusives were priced how they were.

 

Here's the thing. If Hasbro did exclusives like BotCon they would cost about the same. Maybe slightly less since it would be direct from them, but that's neither here nor there because they are so worried about upsetting those that don't go to the show. However, now there is less value in actually going to the show, at a much higher price. So really, what has been accomplished here?

 

Major clusters = vast minority of usually the same people complaining over and over on message boards.

But even still the quality of the movies is not indicative of the over all state of the brand. (And there's been five of those movies with a sixth on the way, not exactly proof of a mismanaged property).

Hascon's success or failure also has no baring on Transformers as a property, it's not really a Transformers-only show and more of a general Hasbro toy expo. So even if it's a complete dumpster fire and everyone hates Hascon the damage to Transformers as a brand will be minimal because we'll move on and buy our Power of the Primes toys anyway. It's the same way that not having Botcon anymore doesn't make a real difference, lots of people will miss it but it's just one less nice thing we have now. We'll be sad yet we'll move on. (Unlike Joecon, where it was kind of the only nice thing they had going just for G.I.Joe fans, and losing it just kicks 'em when they're down.)

 

Wait, they want $600 for a full package ticket to this muddled shitshow?

LOL, not.

 

$600 plus tax.