YES... and no

YES, i am still living in 2013 pricing imaginary self-world for FT pricing... still have this guy on PO  . Damn would be having Tak MP Starscream 3.0 too if i could...

No, i am living in current times, cause this is when i have my son with me, and back then, it was a dark age when i was just a soulless machine.

 

And even back in 2013, MP-13 was like $140-160, and MP-15 and MP-16 ran for $50-60 each, so you're still looking at $240-280 + shipping + duties for the "whole set", so I don't get where these fools think the whole set should've been priced at $150 or under. And no, don't start bringing in the Hasbro pricing even if we all know it's the same toy with different colour scheme. Smh....I don't go into a Ferrari forum and bitch and complain about the prices and how I can't afford the sports car. These are luxury high end figures. Want something affordable, go with CHUG.

This wasn't directed at you, just a general statement.

 

Publicly refuting pricing can be a good thing, but anyone claiming that this set should cost $150 isn’t doing it in good faith.

They’re definitely luxury items, but the high-end part varies a lot. That is what I’d love to see people mention: when shit products are given astronomical price-tags.

But the problem is that they don’t want those products, so they’re fine with the pricing. Toyworld’s Knight Orion was going for over $220 at some places (think it’s now down to $120 on Ebay) and members on here would post that a new piece would fall off every time they touched it.

 

That's a very good point. I suppose it's important to keep that in perspective. When someone comes into the release schedule thread and complains about price... there's a good chance that they're a real fan frustrated that they can't get a figure they want. It often doesn't appear that way in text. Lol.

 

It’s kind of funny to see some collectors try to mock other people for not being able to afford stuff, because anybody who actually has real wealth knows that not being able to afford the things you occasionally want is a constant.

Trashing poor people is, ironically, usually a poor person’s game.

 

Plus it's not always about affordability, but responsibility. There are many people who can afford something, but put personal responsibility first and prioritize their cash, while other people will buy everything despite not truly being able to afford it. Those people simply run up credit cards and throw themselves into endless debt. Usually those are the people who dislike preorders that want the cash up front or have high preorder deposits.

 

Yeah, I guess my point was... when people complain about price they often do it in a way that...

1) makes an argument that a figure is a "rip off" or "objectively too expensive" both of which are almost always untrue (and very adversarial). Some of this shit is surely overpriced, but it wouldn't sell if it was a "rip off" or "objectively too expensive".

2) make an argument that anyone who has purchased an expensive figure is stupid... which is probably untrue in most cases (again, very adversarial).

3) talk about a personal boycott in a fan thread (adversarial)

Under these conditions, it's usually easy for me to cast these people as "very negative" or "fans haters" but that isn't necessarily the case. Some of those people may legitimately be frustrated fans despite their adversarial tone. I haven't really considered it before, maybe because my reaction to not being able to afford things is a little different than raw frustration. At least for luxury goods like sick transformers...

Anyways, good comment on your part.

 

I agree with all of that except the last part. The FT-53 thread had a long segment about why pre-order deposits (non-refundable ones, specifically) are a bad idea in a lot of cases and I couldn't agree more. Lots of tales about people who spent thousands on pre-paid items and got taken.

Personally, I fall into the fiscally obsessive, organized group where I want to have everything paid off as soon as possible. But it's just not smart to do that with Transformers - especially if you're buying overseas - so I returned a lot of my pre-paid items to put the cash toward stuff being released now. ShowZ charging a $1 or 2 is one thing; and I do have three FansToys items pre-ordered where I paid a $15 deposit on one and about $30 each on the other, but it's the last time I'm doing it.

If you pay $30-40 for a $200 figure that is being released in six months and that piece shows up broken, if you want the full price of the figure back when you return it, you're at the mercy of the seller. Not to mention, the number of sellers who go out of business. I'd heard nothing but good things about SirToys before running into an issue with them where an item got returned (seller's fault; underpaid shipping) and had my PayPal coverage lapsed, I'd have been fucked, because he said, "If I get the item back, I'll refund you."

 

I don't carry balances on credit cards. If I don't have the cash, I don't buy. And I have a monthly budget for stupid stuff like transformers.

But I don't like pre-order deposits of more than a few bucks because putting $50 down for a figure that is likely at LEAST a year away from release means that's $50 that can't go to another figure that month.

And I don't really trust the manufacturers, overseas stores or governments enough to feel confident that a figure I pay to preorder a year ahead of time will actually make it to my doorstep or be able to get a refund at that point.

 

I run a Ponzi Scheme in order to afford FT and RP products.

My dream is to become the Bernie Madoff of the 3P world.

 

Pretty sure that guy on Ebay already beat you to it... And I'd bet my left nut that the person has an account here too and probably complains about the price hikes on FansToys reissues.

 

Shoot, I'm still a soulless machine, and I think these prices are getting out of hand.
Granted these are luxury items, but I'm planning my exit to collecting after completing a few collections, and probably selling off a couple of things here and there.

 

That guy sells FT products at inflated prices.

I pretend to invest in Dodgy Coins while using the money to buy FT products from Taobao. It's clear that my 4D chess skills are a lot higher than his.

 

IF YOU DONT KNOW THAT ROBOT PARADISE IS BEING SUED BY HASBRO THEN YOUR A AMATEUR!

 

Uncertain why FT went chrome gold for the chest bezel and went bright lemon yellow on the "knee vents'.
I wonder if they have the multiple tapes in chest gimmick like MP-13 has.

 

My cap is 200$, has been for 11 years when i was into Macross mostly before everything became 300 - 400$. I really wanted a proper Soundwave to go with my MMC tapes, and the FT cars / minis... which is unfortunately 3x Ft figures right now with POs, and considering dropping 1 or losing deposit.

 

My cap is apparently $700, since I’m ordering the robotic self-transforming prime. I bought both unicrons, and have been satisfied with all of them. We live in a world of ridiculous logistics prices, skyrocketing labor costs, etc. I remember getting action figures in the 80’s for $4.99. Now they are $24.99 the toys today are better sculpted, better plastics, and more effort is put into them (compare a Hasbro Marvel Legend with a Toybiz figure from the 80’s). I accept that as the cost of collecting superfluous “junk”. I buy Apple products even though I can get the same basic needs met with a $30 prepay cellphone and chrome book. There were years I wanted an iPhone but couldn’t afford one. Now I can. Never once did I demand Apple lower their prices or demonize those that could legitimately afford their phones. It’s just the cost of living in a materialistic, self-pleasuring world where most of civilization no longer has to worry where their meals are coming from or if war is around the corner. We are fat, entitled, and lazy as a culture.

 

FT actually has the colour layout on the legs correct. @Autobahn Jazz's last pic is an official cell that came up on Ebay, and he was coloured that way most of the time, including the movie where they generally got stuff right. But plenty of episodes they got it wrong in some scenes and coloured the inside lower leg fully blue.

I'm just hoping the promo pics are a bit over exposed - they do look like they could be, arms are almost blown out. Hoping the blue will be darker in hand and the white more of a light grey, which is how it should be. Also the different yellow/gold is baffling and I might have to paint that correct myself!

 

Thing is, I’ve seen another cell that had them filled in... so idk anymore.

I would prefer for there to be at least blue edges like Takara had... looks weird and unfinished without them.

 

The cel with white legs is 'approved' though, so I expect this is an earlier version