Your insane if you believe MP-44 was $270. Amazon Japan had a pre-order up at a discount for $270, but his price was most definitely $400.

 

It’s because I didn’t know it happened that long ago.

It depended where you preodered from. If you preordered from a stateside retailer then you were paying $450+. If you preordered from AmiAmi or other Japanese etailers the preorder price was around $350-360+ IIRC before shipping. $270 sounds like an Amazon Japan price. Most prices seemed high back then but it’s yet to be rereleased and is scarcer on the aftermarket. So whatever you paid back then when you preordered might be substantially less than what you might have to pay for it now through the aftermarket.

My whole point in pointing out why MP Cliffjumper might cost as much as MP-45 or more, is because if so, I don’t think Takara plans to rerelease it afterwards, at least not at the frequency they used to rerelease MP’s. That’s why I brought up economies of scale being a contributing factor in the higher costs we’ve been seeing.

And for those who don’t collect any other Japanese toy lines, the other Japanese manufacturers(big and small) have been raising prices substantially as well and rereleasing stuff less frequently.

 

Ah, okay, that makes sense.  

Prices have been going up across the board in the toy industry due to rising cost of materials and labor. There have been news articles about this over the past few years. The pandemic has also impacted manufacturing in numerous industries and those effects are still a factor and are likely to be one reason that fewer rereleases have happened over the past two years.

As for price increases in the MP line specifically, aside from the factors mentioned above there have also been increases in parts count and complexity which accompanied the increased articulation and focus on higher cartoon accuracy for robot modes. Increased parts counts directly relate to increased manufacturing and assembly costs.

While a mold’s lack of planned reuse will also impact the retail price, there are many other well-know factors contributing to the price increases that have happened over the past 4-5 years.

 

I paid around 270 USD. Why would anyone choose to pay more? Amazon Japan, Anime-Export, Nippon Yassan, et cetera all had him for similar prices, which is much cheaper than the 500 USD that was just stated, and the 400 USD that you state now. Anyone could have purchased MP-44 for that pre-order price.

 

This looks awesome. Can’t believe we have basically a near finished painted prototype and TT hasn’t said a thing yet hahaha. Feb/March release?

 

Normally I would say no, but with them pushing Crosscut back to August, maybe they have plans to announce and release CJ earlier.
Don't know how that would work as CC was a mall exclusive, would they just do a shorter run or make CJ a mall exclusive and skip the 6 month wait. Figure King should be out in a few days, not that I'm expecting anything.

 

i think we will be looking at a september release if takara show off the finished product soon

 

I am ready for Cliffy . Got my Tamiya Clear Blue paint yesterday.  

 

thank you for gifting me with this sacred knowlege

 

I guess Back Lives still don't matter.

 

And they never have.

 

That was a trip for a good second there.

 

Seeing this toon Buzzworthy Cliffjumper, hope this announcement doesnt delay the announcement, from sooner to later if that was their original intention. Business wise it makes sense to get as many bites of the apple you can. It ll be quite a few raised eyebrows if the next MP is not Cliffjumper.

 

Will CJ be a new years reveal like Skids?

 

Find out in the next exciting episode of The Transformers!

 

I think ideally we would see something teased early next month and multiple reveals at Wonderfest in February. I dont know how well thats going to hold. The new SS were revealed in Japan already, so its a window for a MP release. It could easily be BW, Takara wasnt confirmed the anniversary like they did the movie and could be saving that for a " New Years" reveal.

 

lol imagine if it was MP Prime 4.0 instead