Fans Toys Re Issue Mercenary(FT-13), Grenadier(FT-12), And Forager (FT-14) Petition

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by anakko, Sep 3, 2018.

  1. divinecomedy

    divinecomedy Board Certified Fans Trollar

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    I just love the fact that the same guy who posted that Fanstoys will release 2 figures this month can say with a straight face that Fanstoys can only release one figure a month.

    Which is it?
     
  2. Ryanme1973

    Ryanme1973 Well-Known Member

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    I only stated what an owner of a pretty big US retailer told me. If you go by Fanstoys history they release 1 every 4-6 weeks over the past couple years. They did just break that mold by shipping Sever and Grinder together. Why are you such a troll? Who are you cause you have a big mouth
     
  3. dmarsee

    dmarsee Minibot Action

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    I didn't know (1) That their factory was at 100% capacity, and (2) that they are incapable of increasing factory output. That's an amazing bit of insight!

    Yeah, I get the feeling you might not be familiar with how petitions work.
    At most of my employers, the brand managers considered each "signature" to represent ten people who agreed with it. If FT saw 100 signatures as representing 1000 interested customers, that might mean something.

    Screen Shot 2018-09-05 at 2.53.52 PM.png

    "I suffered. My suffering would mean nothing unless others suffer (as much or more) as I have. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to haze the new freshmen pledges."
     
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  4. GAUGE

    GAUGE Wargod ARTS

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    Nope. I'm more than happy with my 2 Badcube sets.
     
  5. maz25

    maz25 Well-Known Member

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    Right you are. That is how I completed my set. I picked up Forager on YJP for $160 USD a few months ago.
     
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  6. edgecrusher

    edgecrusher "She wanted nothin', and I delivered." TFW2005 Supporter

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    Sorry but I don't buy pre-owned junk from the children in FB groups that ask retail or more for their "priceless artifact" that's in reality just a well-worn used product.
    These Insecticons have deserved a reissue well before most of the other FT products you listed. It's not collectors' fault that FT chose not to reissue them yet. We collectors who don't own them yet hope the delay is because whenever they do reissue them, they also fix the foibles present in the first run.

    He buys a lot of product so he talks with his dealer. Half the time what he hears ends up being wrong/different. Some of the time it's because the retailer can't tell him everything they know, other times it's because the retailers don't even know everything and what they've been told by manufacturers also changes frequently. This is why retailers rarely if ever wade into this swamp to provide information. They know 3P plans change frequently and it would hurt their reputation to post information that changes and thus looks incorrect or false when read later on, even if it was true at the time they posted it. So he's perhaps learning the hard way that maybe he shouldn't post everything he hears.

    Maybe you need to relax, too. There's a difference in time-to-market for a reissue vs a new product. It's very possible FT can release two reissues in the time it takes them to deliver one new product. This is not the first time they've shipped two products together to retailers, nor is it the first time they've delivered two products within 6 weeks. But generally, when they do, one of them in a reissue. So you're not incorrect because it's a technicality that makes it possible for them to drop two reissues together but usually only release one product at 4-8 week intervals.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2018
  7. Hero

    Hero Well-Known Member

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    Here's my vote for a reissue.

    @dalianjj - hope you can consider this request and get them reissued.
     
  8. pilot00

    pilot00 Well-Known Member

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    All I am seeing here is people who are bitching for no rerelease, because they paid more when out of stock, and people who want newer stuff.

    Newsflash: Rereleases happen, so if you dont have the patience and go pay half your fortune, its on your head.

    As for the release plan 1) There is no chance in hell FT will accomodate all of their projected releases in the next three years, and second a rerelease doesnt take away time from R&D. So chill your socks, you are not the only ones in this fandom to accomodate your needs only.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2018
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  9. TigerBlade

    TigerBlade Prepare for extermination

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    And I'm sure in your business environment 100 might equal 1000 interested customers but here were talking a niche of a niche market here where the total sales in the life time of a product is probably around 3k tops if you're lucky.

    It's apples and oranges.
     
  10. edgecrusher

    edgecrusher "She wanted nothin', and I delivered." TFW2005 Supporter

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    Fair point but this particular scenario is one where they don't have to sell the whole run up front just to generate enough revenue to fund its production. FT is well established and this product is a reissue so it has a lower production cost. And a lot of time has passed since these were first issued, so the demand over time has grown. This product is completely gone from basically all retailer inventories and those inventories can easily cover several hundred units in total, so even if the up-front demand was only a couple hundred, add every sizeable retailer that inventories a significant quantity of a product beyond the number pre-ordered, to have some to sell over time. imho, a run of 500 each would be perfectly viable.
     
  11. pilot00

    pilot00 Well-Known Member

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    Id say depends on the release really. DX9s terror (the one I am most familiar with) was a special limited release and was 2k pieces and pretty much sold out. I would say a standard production run would be 2x, 2.5x that as standard at the least, depending on a companys reputation ofc.
     
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  12. edgecrusher

    edgecrusher "She wanted nothin', and I delivered." TFW2005 Supporter

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    FT does 500-unit runs quite a bit. If they weren't sure a four-digit run would be saleable, they could do 500 of each.
     
  13. pezley

    pezley Well-Known Member

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    While everyone sees re-issues as easy free money the reality is that it isn't. You still have the pay for the factory tooling set up and rent the factory time. The only cost saving is the initial design of the product and tooling creation. And yes you are also taking factory time away from new products. Everything on their backlog is at risk of TT announcing their own and when that happens pre orders will drop, avoiding that is worth more to them than a limited run on an older product.

    also for what it's worth, our voice on wanting things re-issued means very very little. It's the retailers who need to feed this back to a manufacturer. they are the ones opening their wallet with real money to commit to a run and open pre orders for them.

    keep in mind you buying one product for $55 isnt worth anything to a manufacturer. multiple retailers committing to 50 pieces with a commitment is. If retailers arent seeing demand for a product that information isn't getting back to FT

    Source - worked for a toy manufacturer/distributor in my younger days as a product designer & ambassador
     
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  14. angelic

    angelic Well-Known Member

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    While this can happen, I've bought and sold a lot in groups without ripping people off, and received great deals. It all depends on the integrity of people, the "children" are easy to spot, as well as the newbies with their silly prices.

    re: insecticons

    They have had reissues, so it would now be a re-reissue, apart from forager who did come last in release order. I really dont see any excuse for people not having grabbed them. I'm not being unsympathetic, but we can't have new figures if they're messing about with reissues.

    And if I'm really honest about it, reissues are catering for the fans who either couldnt be bothered to get them/do their research etc on release, and cause the real enthusiasts who have them to wait around for the new stuff. While it's a fun topic on the surface, seemingly harmless, it's actually calling for a rather annoying thing. Reissues inconvenience the the loyal fans to cater for the lazy/cheap and are actively damaging to someone like me who wants the new stuff. So on top of not signing the petition, I'd sign an anti-reissue petition.
     
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  15. Metallikatron

    Metallikatron Well-Known Member

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    Added my vote in favour of the reissue, for whatever it's worth.

    If Fanstoys decides it’s good business to reissue them I’ll be happy to get them for a logical price, and not the absurd and overblown quantities that some would have you pay for them.

    Not everybody arrived to collecting 3p or transformers at the same time, or not everybody’s financial possibilities might have allowed for it then, so the stance that goes ‘you had the chance when it first came out....Now either pay absurd prices or f* off’ doesn’t really seem terribly fair, does it?
     
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  16. angelic

    angelic Well-Known Member

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    That's your right to say that in free speech, but you're also actively trying to clog up the FT production line because you didnt buy them before. No one stopped you learning about them earlier, and no one's stopping you earning some more money. It's not "terribly fair" that you want everyone to wait an extra year for FT Blurr, Hotrod etc either is it.
     
  17. Metallikatron

    Metallikatron Well-Known Member

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    ‘No one stopped you learning about them earlier’

    Is it that hard to understand that some people get into collecting at different points in time? Is it inconcievable that by the time some learnt of the ft insecticons they were long gone? Or that someone might have personal circumstances that are just more complicated than to be solved by a generic ‘work harder, get a raise’,.. erm, illness or other scenarios?

    I’m not conspiring to interrupt production of the current pipeline, or to rob you of timely releases you are expecting....just participating in a request to add this to the queue. They have the molds and most of the work done already. I’m pretty sure they can, —-if they figure it’s profitable for them—-, how to work it into production without hindering the rest of releases. Who’s to say if it might take 5 years, 6, or I’ll be alive for that matter..
     
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  18. angelic

    angelic Well-Known Member

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    In which case you pay more. Stop trying to slow FT down with reissues. I'm not interested in catering to the weak collector, you had your chance. Twice.
     
  19. Metallikatron

    Metallikatron Well-Known Member

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    Lol, I’ll do whatever I damn please, thank you. Your particular interests are your own, not the entire fandom’s. Start a petition to ask Fanstoys not to ‘Cater to the weak collectors’ :D  cartoon moustache-twirling is always amusing
     
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  20. angelic

    angelic Well-Known Member

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    Feel free to do what you like, I wish you no malice. My interests concern smart collectors, not mewling crybabies who missed out, and want to clog up the product supply chain. Thankfully FT agree and are pushing forward, you're the one signing an ineffectual petition.
     
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