At the end of the day a repainted TF is still a kids toy, just with a nicer paintjob and no amount of pompous verbal diarrhrea that comes from some of these egomaniacs and their supporters will convince me that they are justified in charging so much, especially when some of them have the nerve to claim people should only do it "for the love of the hobby". Hasbro should do the job properly themselves anyway. They spend enough developing the molds so they can surely afford to spend a bit more on paint.
Ever heard of something called "parts and labor"? In regards to "Hasbro should do the job properly themselves anyway", they're a company that creates things, at heart, for kids. 5-12 year olds don't give a DAMN whether something like ROTF Jolt is missing a glob of red paint on his crotch. Hasbro is (understandably) trying to maximize profit. They are trying to make sure things of the same size class cost the same to produce, just as they cost the smae to sell. They are not going to charge an extra dollar for just one toy in the class just because of some extra paint. Why should they extend the effort of adding just a little more effort when 95% of the people who buy said product Do. Not. Care. You want to buy a Hasbro product where the paint is as important as the sculpt? Go buy a masterpiece. As fan-geared collectors items, those have the liberty of being priced to factor in engineering and decoration.
Show me where you can buy a Masterpiece Movie Prime or Starscream and I'd gladly buy them, or the Takara versions anyway.
It's simple man, Brazil's parents got no idea of the real prices, so they just go HURR DURR 300 R!??! OH IT'S IMPORTED AND ELECTRONIC SO IT MUST BE WORTH IT!!! And the local stores know that, so they go MAX FORCE.
The point is not that the work is being done on a kids' toy. The point is that it is many hours of skilled labor. Skilled labor is not even a little cheap.
I was once quoted a price of $150 plus shipping for a very basic repaint of a freaking DELUXE sized mold and IMO that is taking the piss. If other people want to pay these con artists to make up for Hasbro's slackness then that's entirely up to them but I certainly won't.
Even a simple repaint of a deluxe takes HOURS. Look at it this way: Customer: Spend your entire Saturday working for me. I'll give you $30. Radicon: Ha ha ha no. Customer: Spend your entire Saturday working for me. I'll give you $150. Radicon: OK. When you buy a kid's toy... 5000 customers: You ten guys spend your entire saturday working for us. We will each give you 10$ After you pay for the machine you are running to make these things, you will each have $150. 10 guys working: OK
Was this deluxe by any chance a pre-release item? Those things will go for much more than actual value if they can be sold off before the repaint hits retail shelves. Plus, these toys are mass-produced, so less paint=more product off the factory floor on their way to to stores=more proffit. As stated many times before, kids don't care if the toy would look better with more paint apps, most TF toys will get roughly treated anyways by being thrown into toy boxes or smashed into each other, wearing down the paint. To be frank, I don't mind that the toys don't have alot of paint apps if that means we get higher quality engineering, because the toy's engineering will stand the test of time far better than even a a perfect paint job, because paint will come off eventually while engineering will stay in the figure forever.
Well, i take back what i said about the jet being fat . Although, it would have been kool if the undeside were smooth .. this is still by far very awesome. Unlike the voyager, this time the robot mode has some mass to it.
you're right the transformers movie.. with all of the bad language, sexual innuendo, and violence was really geared towards kids 5-12 years old right? nope.. not to mention why, on the rotf special features, would one of the designers say that they look to several boards to see what the fans do and don't like.. i doubt 5-12 year olds are sitting on their computers discussing transformers. i understand if they don't go all out on paint for deluxe figures and smaller.. but once you get to the voyagers, ultras, and leaders.. an effort should be made to make them as accurate as possible.. a leader class figure costs $45 .. you're telling me they can't spend a little extra to get the thing accurate.. couldn't they.. just for the leader figures give us a buster prime quality paint job.. i don't think i've ever seen a kid buy a leader class figure.. the transformation and price are geared more towards the older collector. but here's where i have another problem.. with the deluxe figures.. they can't even get a shade of a color right.. universe ironhide.. what a terrible shade of red.. other than the yellow stripe and some of the body of the vehicle mode there is really no paint.. the takara version just used the right colors in the right places.. no black, off-white where there needed to be off white.. this same problem goes for dino bot.. i mean they made him PURPLE.. would it have really been so hard to make those parts blue? or give us a darker shade of brown with the stripes lighter and inverted. or hound.. they couldn't have used a forest green instead of that terrible pea green.. and smoke screen.. you're telling me that it would have cost so much more to use a brighter blue, or have there be a smaller white line on the bottom and a smaller one between the red and the blue.. i mean.. give us a few less voyager repaints, use that money and get the paint right on the new molds.. or instead of repainting dropshot or whatever a million times.. give us a red alert. not only can they not paint properly.. but they can't even give us a repaint that we'd like. like with the first movie they gave us a ton of really terrible repaints.. and for this one.. they could give us a g1 tracks from sideswipe.. or prowl.. or name any number of G1 cars and use the sideswipe or bumblebee mold and give us one of them.. i mean hell.. they used that terrible jazz mold for smokescreen.. who was really going to buy that.. jazz was a terrible figure.. and the paint for the figure was awful. sorry.. sometimes i just get really sick of seeing one company produce a figure and another company produce that same figure just in a different shade and a couple more minor details which make it a million times better.
The hundreds of millions of dollars ROTF grossed would like to have a word with you. And the movie may not be particularly geared towards them but they surely buy the toys. Why? What boy doesn't love a big cool robot that can turn into a truck or a jet? As for the second part... sure, they make certain characters based on some fan input but are they going to specifically make every one solely for the fans? That's what BotCon exclusives are for.
no one knows when this is comin out yet we have a vid and tons of pix 12 months before its release????? lol
yea...something tells me we'll be seeing it before the end of next year at this rate, maybe mid-year, or even early =]
Yay! International prices! I love talking about international prices (that wasn't sarcasm. I really do) The cheapest I've found the leaders here is for Bs.F 699, that's close to $350. That price is at a retail store, not on a specialty/collector's store. And I think the local Hasbro representative (Faventoys) is contributing to the problem: lately I've seen in the same store ROTF Voyagers at a much higher price than Universe Voyagers, like Bs.F 430 vs. Bs.F 250. Heck! In some stores, Universe Deluxes are cheaper than ROTF Scouts. It's no wonder with these prices in toys (not only limited to TFs) that I ended up ordering The Clone Wars AT-TE from tru.com during a sale. It's better to pay $70 shipped than Bs.F 1920 (around $900). P.S.: and our per-capita income is pretty low compared to Australia, the UK and the US. -airfox
What girl doesn't want her big cool robot that she can turn into a truck or jet too!!! Just saying, don't forget about us, while our numbers may be fewer we spend our $$$$ for these bots too!! And lots of Moms out there buy toys for boys and girls, everyday!!
