Yes. Id gladly pick a cheaper 3rd party figure that might be slightly less accurate over some of their recent prices from Takara. I also do not need 15 random accessories to toss in a box somewhere with each figure to help justify the price. I know people say that doesnt add much to the cost but thats still designing, mold making, the actual plastic itself, possible paint apps all being added. Give me their main gun(s) and call it good. I dont need a key they used for 2 secs in one episode, etc.

 

I think the prices are too high

 

400 dollars for a single toy is overpriced. Bandai has been doped up for a while and now Takara is doing Coke too.
Looks like they dragged Hasbro into it now with that Unicron project.
I'm not paying for their addiction.
Dudes need an intervention and a trip to a detox clinic.

 

Yes... and deliberately so.

 

I'd be surprised if anyone answered "no", though. I'm fairly certain that all of us would like to see the price come down.

 

Yes, and that's before you factor in their recent string of poor quality control. I felt they were getting too pricey as far back as MP Shockwave and its gotten even more ludicrous since.

 

Yes, but I think the reason the prices are increasing is because TT is unnecessarily chasing complexity and a certain aesthetic, which adds production expense.

 

I think it comes down to 2 things...

1. Is the QC good? I’d have to say lately it hasn’t, with the exception of Sunstreaker.

2. Do the extras they are adding feel like they’re worth it? I’d say I was hoping for even more extras for Bee and Hound, maybe even Optimus? Like maybe some diorama type elements?

 

The last time I paid triple digits for a figure was 2019. August, to be exact. I bought Planet X's Deathsaurus and Star Saber, plus the upgrade kit. They look like Masterpieces, but play like actual toys. I'll be buying their Victory Leo as well.

That feels like money well spent. This? Not so much.

 

Does a bear shit in the woods?

 

It's obvious their designs are clever but whatever happened to cause the issues on MP-44/45/47 recently, clearly wasn't supposed to happen and makes people question the price even more. The big question is, if and when, they will rectify anything.

 

Or acknowledge it . TBH won’t have much of a complain if the quality was great throughout but there’s a definite dip recently . I’m a tad worried for my upcoming lio convoy order .

 

Does any of the inflation have to do with this stupid “trade war”?

 

We'll have to ask Chainclaw and Grizzly-1.

But in all seriousness, absolutely. I don't have many Masterpieces due to my strict vehicle scale preference but I'd love all the Seekers. Sadly, Acid Storm, Sunstorm and the Coneheads are just too high to justify.

At least the ko's of Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp are just under the €50 mark. I picked up the ko's of Shockwave and Grapple for €42 each with free postage. I know some fans frown on knock offs but why pay €80+ for an official figure when you can get a good quality ko considerably cheaper. At least ko's of some of the Autobot cars are available under €40.

In truth, it's not just the Masterpieces that are too highly priced. The Titans are worse. No way am I paying €150 for Omega Supreme. Siege Shockwave at €55 is too high also.

The thing is, if you wait long enough, some of the stuff goes down significantly. I saw the Combiner Wars Leader Seekers go from €75 to €25 in a year. Overlord halved in price and the Computron set ended up at €55 which was a bargain given that sold separately, the Technobots would have been at least €120.

Sorry for the long winded text but this is an expensive hobby as it is without charging astronomical prices for bloody toys.

 

The QC doesn’t justify the price. People are opening up Hound only to find crumbled pieces flopping around in the plastic tray, and others are discovering cracks appearing just from the figure standing in place. Big Money Prime had common QC issues. Good Megatron had paint flaking and a terribly-designed back. (I realize that’s not a QC issue, but it still took away from the figure.)

Some of the older MPs still hold up very well. Soundwave, the Datsuns, original Wheeljack, and MP-10 are still some of the best figures in my own collection.

Going full toon seems to be what pushed the line into poor QC territory. It forces certain design choices that have lead to more brittle figures. I don’t know if it costs more to do it and that caused cheaper materials to be used, or if they think because it looks so much like the show they can just get away with it at that price.

All I know is that for the very first time, I cancelled a Masterpiece preorder. I won’t buy that Hound only to have him disintegrate on me. I didn’t mind the shift in aesthetics, but once the actual quality becomes...this, then these figures aren’t worth it at any price.

 

$160 Hound that's prone to cracking, nah I don't think that's too much to ask. 

 

Single word response: Yes.

Extended response: Prices are too high but what has brought them into the foreground so prominently is also the poor QC. If figures had much better QC I think about half the complaints would disappear.

One mistake which I think people make is conflating cartoon accuracy for rise in complexity and poor QC. If not mistaken, bad QC started happening when production moved to Vietnam. Even if the line had kept the earlier "hybrid" model of combining toon, toy and other iterations in a design [see MP Sideswipe, Prowl etc], Takara's confidence in the line has grown anyway so higher budget per toy means more play for the designers.

We're also witnessing a re-treat of a very familiar situation, namely MP10, his price, and the price of the carbots that followed him in comparison to earlier designs. If people were around back then, MP10 opened to a 250 or so USD price, which was ridiculous at the time considering the bigger and heavier MP01 opened at 50 USD [US version] or 9.890 JPY [Japanese release]. MP Sideswipe may look cheap now but he was averaging 50-70 USD at the time, which was equal to, more, or substantially more than the Binaltech and Alternator figures of the time.

This is not markedly different from today. Given time, and a slew of good releases, fans will move on with the line or lose interest and drop out. Either way, I assure you, Takara will get the message and adjust accordingly.

On the topic of prices, it's not a single factor, but prices have gone up on pretty much every collectable across the board. Look at the cost of a new Hot Toys release compared to older ones, heck, look at the cost of non transforming action figures. This doesn't make me any more keen to spend 300+ USD on MP Prime 3.0, but at least it puts this into perspective.

The one thing I disagree with a lot of the comments is the inclusion of all the extra parts [ie accessories, episode-specific kits etc]. It's the norm for collector lines in Japanese markets and honestly, the 2-5 USD you'd save from each figure in pretty miniscule IMHO. I'd rather pay a marginally higher price and have a full, complete package of a figure/character I like and call it a day.

 

Yes, I believe the price point is too high for the quality if the product.

But the QC is the biggest reason I don't own any MPs post MP44. Bee sounds like he's ok, but poor Hound. It's a bit too predictavle at this point.

I've essentially turned into an MP collector who is ok to wait for clearances, or at least some kind of sale to catch up. And I can still snag a few others I missed.

But sadly my MP days are largely over due to price and questionable QC. But...if the quality was good? I would still be on the ride.

 

Classy bears shit in dumpsters: