Transformers is pretty much dead here now, or it will be soon. :/

 

It does seem so.

 

Seems i'll have to start visiting the harder to travel to Smyths more often, and order wherever possible through Kapow.

Speaking of which, they got the Big Powered trio back in stock, hopefully they stick around for a few weeks so I can afford them.

 

It was quite a few weeks since I went in to The Entertainer in Nottingham but struggled to find the TF section. All they had were a few Cyberverse figures (I think) and a couple of SS Thundercracker.

 

It's been dead in my local area for the last three or four years. Unless I travel out of my way it's extremely rare I find any (new) Transformers figures.
It's made a massive dent in my interest in the brand. I no longer get enthused when news of upcoming figures is announced as I'm unlikely to ever encounter them out in the wild. Right now I couldn't tell you anything about what's happening with whatever is currently out or coming soon.

I'd been collecting TF solidly since 1984 until a few years ago. I have money to spend. Nobody with regards to Transformers seems to want it. I'm rapidly going 'meh' on the whole thing. That kind of thing should really be a concern to Hasbro when someone who's been a collector since the beginning has such low interest in it anymore.

Whereas I can find Lego easily everywhere. So I've been giving them my money instead of Hasbro. I buy at least one Lego set a week. No fuss. No hassle. No quality problems. No disappointment. Even though Lego can sometimes be costly, these days it often feels like far better value for money than Transformers do.

*sigh*

 

I feel sorry for The Entertainer at times and then frustrated with them too .
Sorry they are still lumbered with shelves of TLK stock which nobody even wanted when the movie came out and are unlikely to want now ... and frustrated that they dont get rid of it all to discounters somewhere and see if cyberverse and siege do any better . ( and by cyberverse i dont mean Optimus , Bumblebee , megatron , grimlock and starscream ..... i want Acidstorm or Thundercracker to show up somewhere )

 

This really sucks as I was only just getting back into buying figures. I have been building Gundams for quite a while and longed to go into a local Blighty toy store and stare at the stuff I wanted to buy.

I did buy Siege Hound and Sideswipe from Fenwick for very good prices (16.99) and was hoping shelves would be full, but it does seem to be deteriorating. My local Entertainer stores also have the same shrinking shelf space being used instead for what look like Star Wars.

 

Entertainer Bolton has a few new offers on. Deluxe Studio Series Ratchet, Lockdown, Bumblebee, Crowbar, and Stinger for £10 each. Unfortunately i'm not interested in Bayverse designs and only really want car mode Shatter and Dropkick from SS.

Titans Return Cosmos and Seaspray for £11 each. Picked up one of each.

They also have a single Combiner Wars Scattershot for £20. I'm saving up for the Computron set so thats a pass too.

 

Eh, these things come in waves. Go back through all two thousand pages of this thread and you'll see the same comment pop up again and again and again. Store supplies start to dry up, everyone says that the brand is dead, something changes (maybe a staff change at Hasbro UK or something), we suddenly get a wave before the US does and everyone instantly forgets about the bad times.

It'll probably get better. It might get worse. I'd just roll with it. Brands go through fallow stages. I'd argue that it's actually vital for long running brands to have periods where they aren't "in your face". But I suspect that because we've been here before, we will be again. And again. And again. No point in worrying about it.

 

There is if you want what should be out now and next!

 

Fair. To be honest I had lost a bit of enthusiasm for the product over the past year or so. "G1 + with knees" wasn't really my thing. But Siege has started to get more interesting again. And to be fair, I've bought all those products in physical stores. It would be nice to see the Targetmasters and Soundwaves tapes in the wild though...

 

W1 Micromasters ..... I think I saw in one store, Bentalls in Kingstwon, owned by Fenwicks and Toymaster affiliated. They also had Battlemasters W1 which were widely available in The Entertainer. Smyths didn't bother iirc - don't have one I can check.

W2 Micromasters - inc Soundwave's tapes - was stocked by Hasbro UK MONTHS ago. We know this because that's what Kapow and IDToys had. I don't think they've been seen in store outside of the specialists/importers.

W2 Battlemasters are AWOL and famously holding up some Kapow & IDToys orders, along with Chromia. Amazon.com was your friend for these but are presently sold out.

 

Smyths Cribbs Causeway have Siege Wave 1 Leader Class back in stock, three of each. Otherwise still with TLK Leaders, TR Overlord and a large restock of Studio Series Deluxe Wave 1 + Jazz/Lockdown. Also quite a few Siege Megatron with just the one Prime to keep them all company.

They were also putting out new Lego including the Batcave, Batmobile, Harry Potter and City Space sets.

 

Went into Swindon's Entertainer this AM. A few studio series - saw the original Voyager Op and Thundercracker - some Cyberverse warriors - Op,. Megatron, Windblade, Acid Storm. A larger Cyberverse purple jet and some big BBs. Siege Battlemasters all gone alas from my last visit, which is what I was hoping for - need another Blowpipe to parts swap with Caliburst.

What it did do was confirm the suspicion I had from last week's London trip that there's very little new Hasbro product around at all and that the problem is wider than just TFs. All the SW is older stuff, years old in the case of the heavily discounted black series. Couldn't see hardly any Avengers Endgame.

 

As long as Kapow and co carry on getting in Transformers I’m happy. Big retailers can get fucked.

 

Call me old school, but nothing i like more than going into a bricks and mortar, eyeing up what I want on the shelves, piling them together into a little wall to make my decisions and then bundling them into my getaway trolley before a few ogles on the way home.

Sadly, it is a bit of limbo at the moment here in Blighty and seems have to go all the way to the far east to do that while getting some comprehensive choice.

 

B&M, Ruislip: 1x TLK voyager Megatron and Hound. £10 each, I think.

 

The only Siege I've seen in the wild was a peg of Wave 1 Battlemasters at The Entertainer in Hull. And that was out of a reasonably sized TF section, considering the size of the store.

 

Smyths website seems to suggest that they’ve had a restock of Ultra Magnus. My local was saying 2 in stock which is hasn’t said for weeks. I haven’t checked in store though. Price is still £46.99.

That said, I just went on Amazon and bought Magnus with a £3.19 reduction. I’m not sure what other items it applies to but it went straight through on mine, no strings or anything. Magnus is £44.99 or something similar so it’s a good deal. I had a £10 gift card so just snagged a Magnus (finally) for £30. I’m happy with that.

 

Hmm. They've been £19.99 each in B&Ms the last few weeks.
That'll be irritating if they've gone down by a further tenner so soon after the stock showing up.