The current best case scenario (who knows how likely it is) would be them finally showing a physical full combined mode at TFCon in around a month.

 

Or at least painted prototype of Fireflight/Viper. I'd say we'll get that months before Slingshot/Jester and the combiner parts.

 

I really feel like FT is clearing inventory of every minor character (with the exception of the next two) over the next year or so and then pretty much everything they reveal will be a high-demand FOMO PO sold-out banger. All they gotta do is get past that Gears/Pipes/Swerve/Powerglide morass and then it’ll be nothing but hot fire from them from like September 2023 onward.

If, you know, the world still exists then.

 

Wondering if anyone can help me with a damaged Iceman. FT sent me replacement parts; however, I have no idea how to install them. In short, one of the hips arrive sheared off. I need to open the pelvis to replace the hip joint, but I can only find one exposed screwhead, that one above the center of my thumbnail. I assume two more are hiding under those black circles, but I cannot figure out a way to get the (what I assume are screwcaps) out.

 

See those 2 black circles? There are screws behind it. Use blue tack to stick on the black circles and see if u can pull it out. Or use a screw bit and if u drill on it u can remove it. FT should have sent u replacement circles to replace it as well.

 

You're right, they did. I mistook those two caps as black screws in the baggy (I'm farsighted). I guess I'll try drilling them out later tonight, as the caps are quite tight. At the moment, I'm a little nervous. I have never taken a drill to a figure before.

 

Use glue instead? Glue an old nail or screw to the covers and then just pull them off.

 

Thread a small screw into the caps that is long enough to grip with a pair of pliers and give a little wiggle then pull.

 

I know inflation and the like is a bitch, but people need to stop justifying some of these prices. $200+ for a reissue? Are you insane? Inflation isn't remotely that bad. FansToys keeps getting away with this bullshit because people will just buy these for any bloody price.

Which is a damn shame, because I'd still like to get these, but if we see a $200+ (especially $250+) Silverbolt, I'm not touching that shit. Hell, their combiner limbs at $150 is already a rip-off and yet people are acting like that's a good price (it's not). I'm not asking for them to just give this stuff away, but we need to be reasonable. These prices aren't. And these prices started going through the roof well before 2020, when inflation was still rather stagnant. The armchair economics on this board hurt my brain. I don't care if you're a billionaire - don't just overspend on something because it exists.

I guess it doesn't really matter how many times I say this though because nobody ever listens, too many people overpay, and companies like FansToys continue to increase their prices to a point that will eventually make even cryptobros blush.

 

Nobody listens, because why should they? Your opinions on FT prices are just that...your opinions. You're not enlightening people to some secret. They just have a different perspective of what prices they're willing to pay for a thing they want.

 

Wrong.

I'm speaking factually, actually. People don't have to listen. I never said they did. However, it's not my opinion (nor did I ever state it was, since it's factual).
My point is that inflation doesn't push prices up as high as they are. For example, 10% inflation doesn't add $50 on top of the original MSRP for these figures (which, from my understanding, already have a decent profit margin).
My argument is purely factual here: these price increases are not all inflation, people should not excuse them as being all (or even mostly) inflation, and on the less objective but still very factual side, more people need to be educated on why these prices are unnecessarily high (and, if possible, not pay them).

A different perspective on what something is subjectively worth is completely different from what something is objectively worth. But that is precisely what people don't want to hear, and why I've mostly given up trying to convince most people, especially in FansToys threads where the fanboys are rampant (which has unfortunately spread to many other companies now too, let alone everything outside of this hobby).
Few people seem able to distinguish between objective and subjective value, or even acknowledge that there is a separation in the first place.
Would that we could teach children the value of a dollar in school, but instead, schools are more worried about teaching them a bunch of pointless shit that doesn't matter, especially these days.

EDIT: I should add that my original argument of ~$200 being overpriced is debatable, as if Silverbolt did indeed come out at $180, if we assume inflation of 10% (it's less than that but it's a nice, round number to work with), that's almost $200 right there.
But since Motormaster was about $150 and inflation was mostly stagnant between the two releases, a $30 increase sounds more like price gouging on FansToys' part rather than a genuine price increase.
THIS, however, is speculation. $250 for a Silverbolt, however, is definitely (objectively) overpriced. But if you want to continue overpaying, be my guest. I'm not here to stop you, just to educate you (if you want to listen - and if you don't, that's fine, just move along).

 

I think some of the problem might be more with the fact that subjectivity and objectivity have to work together. A person shouldn't make decisions based solely on one or the other in collecting.

 

The reason that people pay (what you and I consider) stupid prices for FansToy’s (and indeed any other company’s) figures is because this is a purely luxury pursuit. Not a single thing within the whole third party transformer industry is in any way a necessity of life, therefore there’s no generalised consensus on what any of it is worth. Its all subjective. The only objective measure is the value of the materials and labour. It’s all bought by discretionary spending done by people with enough leftover cash each week that a majority of the population of the world (eg. third world countries) would, quite justifiably, burn us all at the stake if they got half a chance. And I’m not even talking about upper class society here.

Go out and show a random adult on the street a FansToys Silverbolt and tell them that you paid $180USD for it (a price you indicate as being acceptable) and watch them look at you like you’re insane. Perceived value is a scale and we all place differently on it based on our own interests and tastes. Hell I think that Hasbro deluxe and voyager prices here in Australia are bullshit yet at $35AUD Cosmos’ and the rest of Wave 1 Velocitron still flew off the shelves.

Also, as the husband of a teacher and a father very involved in his kids education, what the hell do people think kids are being taught in schools these days? My kids are learning to read, write, do maths, art (my 8year old educated me on Picasso the other night at dinner!) and a whole bunch of other useful stuff. Teaching the value of money is, and has always been, the role of parents because you can’t teach that shit in a half hour lesson once or twice a week. It has to be learned through experience and by earning/spending/saving.

 

Have you been following Fanstoys prices lately? If you ask me, it seems like Fanstoys aren't selling as well as they used to.

You should research things first before writing. Fanstoys prices are coming down.

 

I do listen

 

Ultimately we don't have the numbers, just the price trends... hard to truely say what influences their prices to go up or down without having more insights from being an industry insider of some kind. That said, as someone else mentioned, prices going down for FT should generally mean things aren't the best for FT at the moment as etailers are either fighting for sales with increased competition, and/or stock is sticking around and they want it sold off... from what I've heard from an etailer, there is lots of FT stock...

 

The reason there's a lot of FT stock is they priced out a lot of the market but pushing these crazy high prices and right now inflation is high and money is tight.

These sales are just a price correction to what they should have been priced at. It's not like these deformation space with their slashing prices by 50% or Dx9 reissuing their items at reasonable prices.

I have no problem buying Fantoys figures over KO even if they're $50 more than the KO.

What's great is even the 2nd hand market is settling down too. Yeah I had to pay a late tax for a decent amount of figures since I was late to the game but I suspect it's not as bad as it had once been.

 

Yeah, I'd say that's likely the reason for FT sales... people are not able to splurge like they used to, and FT prices were always known to be high, so most in tougher times will wait or buy alternatives.
Also, FT fomo seems to have gone away, so I bet people aren't snapping them up as often at reg or even sale prices...

 

"Thing is too expensive" is not a fact. It's an opinion.

 

It's also no longer pandemic times when stock and production was extremely limited.