The UK Toy Discussion

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by Boardwise, Feb 23, 2011.

  1. Underlord

    Underlord Frontier Psychiatrist.

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    Yeah, it’s not like we’ve got high unemployment, with lots of people who would jump at a chance for that kind of work.
    If, and that’s a big if overseas companies will still sell to the UK, there is no point asking them to mark things down, the £15 threshold has been removed.
     
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  2. Gumblor Gimbles

    Gumblor Gimbles Norn' Ironhide

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    It does indeed, so I ordered one yesterday afternoon!

    Set up a large scale TF cabal that raids Hasbro shipments and taxes Smyths a £1 for every TF they stock. If someone want TFs in NI or the UK, they come through you. :D 
     
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  3. Danforth

    Danforth Well-Known Member

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    Morning all,

    I went with Fansproject LER Severo for my Grimlock, but I often wonder if I should have saved up for Vulcun. Certainly Vulcun has a better T-Rex mode. How tall is he in robot mode? Got a photo of him with any CHUG (or similar)?

    I thought it was fine, disposable popcorn entertainment. Didn't hate it, liked most of the characters (especially Holtzmann). Six out of ten. I didn't like the trailer implying the movie was connected to the original when it wasn't!

    Back when it came out, the problem was *any* opinion expressed on the film was dismissed by halfwits as either women-hating or white-knighting, preventing any discussion. I noticed some actual women-hating of course, because hey! The internet! but I also saw reasonable conversations descend into slanging matches even quicker than normal :-D

    Anyway. I'll probably never watch it again, but if the movie rights holders take inspiration from the IDW comics and do a multiverse Ghostbusters crossover, I'd be fine seeing that team turn up :) 

    Couple more ebay sales went through at the weekend. That's the last of the Heroquest Zavvi order saved for, plus enough for another 3P Transformer. Considering X-Transbots Klaatu to represent Cosmos, I believe he will look well among my CHUG as part of Arcee's team from IDW1's exRID comics... although I could do without the slavish G1 stylings. Are there any other big Cosmice out there that look a bit better?
     
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  4. Ratchet2007

    Ratchet2007 Well-Known Member

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    Pretty sure there is a Zeta Cosmos as well but he's a little bit smaller than the XTB one
     
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  5. Siege Fan

    Siege Fan Well-Known Member

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    You know damn well I'd keep all the stock :eek: :D 
     
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  6. Duskscream

    Duskscream Well-Known Member

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    leas' we got our independence m8
     
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  7. Seeaich

    Seeaich Inaction Master

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    'Streak's paintjob is Premium that much is obvious from the additional details you mention to the fact that even his biceps are painted for colour correction, it just goes to show that even a Premium release is subject to the minor variances of mass production that can lead to the wonkiness of any other mainstream regular retail figure. Congratulations on your QC Lottery win!
    I shall hopefully be rolling that dice again today as Blue II's due, and Hothouse too!
    A nice frisson of tension to Monday after the first fast-talking gunner was ninja-secreted on my front doorstep, I shall be on my toes!
     
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  8. CyberShadow

    CyberShadow Wheeljacks Lab

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    I still function! Greetings all. Given that last weekend essentially kicked my arse, I wanted to return here to commiserate with the fine threadizens. Maybe it would also help you guys to know that it wasn't just the UK that got screwed. I am here in Singapore, where TFs were supposed be plentiful..... But we are almost exactly on the opposite side of the globe to the US, so I woke up on Saturday morning to find the announcement of Thrust and Runablackone, and that TF Source had already sold out with prices at 150% of regular. I managed to preorder the Dirge/Ramjet set here locally - although it hasnt arrived yet - and got Runawhiteone from TF Source, and I am somewhat of a Conehead and Battlecharger fan, so these remaining two are kind of important for me. We essentially have three good online stores here, but they are usually a bit behind the US, and Gigawatt only made it to two of these stores, about 10 days late.... I ordered from Kapow because I didnt want to risk him not showing up here at all.

    So I held out and hoped that at least one of the stores here would get these in. In the end, OhMyPrimus came through, and I managed to grab both there, but Thrust was available for a total of about 30 minutes before selling out entirely.

    But this entire experience has soured me more than it really should. I think its because its just the latest issue in a queue of issues. From Unicron not initially available outside the US, to so many store exclusives that make it difficult, to HasCon being only available to US customers despite being an online event (congrats Hasbro, you found a way to make exclusive toys LESS accessible than SDCC exclusives!), and then this. Honestly, I need a break. Its just not worth the stress for toys. The first thing I did over the weekend was go through my 'shopping list' and removed anything that I dont really, really want. I wont now be getting the Studio 86 line beyond Scourge and maybe Hot Rod. Kingdom had limited appeal to me anyway, but Warpath is the only one left from that line that I will pick up.

    I get that exclusives have to happen, but to make them tier three (ish) characters just sucks, and to make them the 'team gaps' just stinks. To sell Runawhiteone as a regular Deluxe in a regular release and then make his partner a US store exclusive, to sell a two pack of the Coneheads and leave the third as another store exclusive.... It used to feel that Hasbro just didnt give a damn, but more and more it feels like this is deliberate.

    A lot of 3P stuff has also come out recently and its been relentless, and I will probably focus more on 3P key releases and cut back on everything else now. I have come to terms that there will never be a 'good time' to cut back on these robits, but I am just not getting the reward that justifies the process any more.

    I did get the Selects Generation space fighter/tank Megatron which is objectively not a good figure, but just so crazy and fun that you dont notice, and the GCreation Dust (and Rebel rerelease now also preordered).

    TL:D R - I have spent too much and Hasbro are making it difficult, so its time to scale it all back drastically.
     
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  9. Napalm

    Napalm Drinking About Robots TFW2005 Supporter

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    Neither my Bluetooth nor Smokescreen line up correctly, it's a case of nearly but not quite in the same areas on both of them. They also feel identical in hand, that is to say they feel like your common or garden Deluxe class Transformer in 2020. I bet Prowl is the absolute fucking bollocks in all regards, smooth like butter, tabs like Burroughs.. and as a result all of our US Amazon orders get the shaft.
     
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  10. Fort Max

    Fort Max Too many is never enough. Veteran

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    Well this is just fucking terrible. :( 
    The most obvious outcome (to me at least) is that a lot of smaller online stores will just refuse to sell to us.

    It's the level at which duty becomes applicable to the purchase, in addition to vat of course, and the bastard handling fee.
     
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  11. Skjalddis

    Skjalddis Generations Strongarm when?

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    You could always *checks notes* retrain to make your own robots. Out of jam.
     
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  12. Seeaich

    Seeaich Inaction Master

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    I endorse this prediction!
    [​IMG]
    It has the real ring of truth to it!

    It really does seem that it's a matter of sophistication, and that mere micrometres of excess plastic, or ever so slight misalignment of pinning or other joins can quite minimally-but-majorly throw off the transformation tolerances. I'm appreciating me Smokey more and more, and feel pretty good about not fussing over his facepaint over spill, and Bowie eyeshadow, a little snagging is a trade-off I'll take to have a 'bot that lines up perfectly for car mode. Very much counting my blessings that the "paint burr" over one eye turned out to be a stuck eyelash that plucked off with tweezers without taking any of his face or eye paint with it!
    Our next Hobby could be in Cyber IP theft! :lol 
     
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  13. Fort Max

    Fort Max Too many is never enough. Veteran

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    Korea has companies that make toy robots out of kias and Hyundai's so clearly we need to do the same, by reforming British Leyland etc and making TFS based on their 'quality' vehicles.

    In better news, Bluestreak and Doublecrosser have just arrived from ID.
     
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  14. CyberShadow

    CyberShadow Wheeljacks Lab

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    The irony....

    Amazon - We have raised all of our prices because we are now charging you the tax on your items.
    Customers - Oh, so does that mean that Amazon is paying tax now?
    Amazon - Mumbles in fiscal.

    Earthrise Streak turned up in TRU here, but I already have Smokescreen on the way..... but I want a robot and the post is going to take forever..... Will my 'swan Starscream' arrive before I cave in and buy Earthrise Streak?
     
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  15. Danforth

    Danforth Well-Known Member

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    I would absolutely be up for a Britformers line. Ironhide and Ratchet as knackered Bedford vans. Prowl, Smokescreen and Bluestreak as Metro Van Den Plas...

    Jazz can be something genuinely cool-looking, though. Triumph Spitfire or summat.
     
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  16. Insurgent

    Insurgent The Amazing Tango Mysterio

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    Wife is having another big surgery this afternoon. :(  I just wanna kick life in the balls and tell it to piss off.


    I think I'm gonna throw in the towel with the tf collecting. It's just not worth it anymore. I'll get Fasttrack to round out the city companions, I'll get Kingdom Inferno because I still want that g1 inferno nostalgia assuming he's easy to get and I'll get Black Arachnia because she looks phenomenal and will be cheaper than the MP, even the MP KO, and I'll get Thrust because I want that god damn team completed, and that's it. Then I'm going to sit back and watch the sun set on the universe.


    This year really can just get in the sea.
     
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  17. Seeaich

    Seeaich Inaction Master

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    Quoted for truth.

    Best wishes for the Missus, mate.
     
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  18. Siege Fan

    Siege Fan Well-Known Member

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    Best wishes dude, and agreed, I'm approaching 'done' too.
     
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  19. Gumblor Gimbles

    Gumblor Gimbles Norn' Ironhide

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    @Insurgent very best wishes mate, hope that it all turns out well for you and the missus.

    I’ve always wanted a TF continuity where they really are in disguise- half of the Autobots turn into old knackered vans and sedans that you wouldn’t think twice of. As a comic, the artist could even do something clever like have a TF hiding in plain sight, drawn in vehicle mode in the background rather than the foreground.
     
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  20. barry

    barry Well worn member

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    True story: way back in the late 70's/early 80's, when my Mum was head of the display design team in Goldbergs (fancy department store in Glasgow way back when) a very drunk Dave Prowse tried to hit on her when he was in doing a Green Cross Code man store promotion. She had quite few b-list UK celebrity encounters back in the day, which I believe accounts for the signed (to my Dad) Fiona Richmond card I found in with some old photos. Judging from my Dad's rather coy response, I took it as a rather acidic joke on my Mum's part, presumably after catching him watching one of Ms Richmond's films.

    Man, you know...I miss the days of Catz's cryptic clues. No huge diss to Pixel Master, but I noticed he's back pedaled on his claim that we're getting a Galactic Odyssey redeco of Netflix Barricade as he realised that what his source was actually referring to was the Micromaster Barricade. Exciting though having a direct source, and the attention that comes from passing info on must be, lad might want to cool his trigger finger a wee bit. I'm no longer sure what, if anything, to believe from his various leaks. At Catz was vague enough that if the wrong conclusions were reached that was more on the fandom's speculators than the source.

    That said...

    yz plz!

    Cannae fucking wait. With the various shenanigan's with Hasbro UK and the lack of support they appear to receive one might conclude that BIG HASBRO is leaving us to fend for ourselves, because -logistically speaking- we'll simply not be worth the bother. Be interesting to see the exact shape and size of the mass exodus that follows.

    Hope the surgery goes well, swiftly, and without any complication. And, as ever, I hope you're looking after yourself as best you can through this. I empathise with how emotionally and physically draining it can be when a loved one is in for something like this.

    And yes, it's been a fucker of a year. I doubt many of us will look back fondly on it.

    MODULATE!
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
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