The whole preorder RIGHT after the official announcements thing started a couple of years before ,but Covid forced all of us to be online so you’re competing with more collectors than ever. It’s very clever of the toy industry to do this because we are the most excited during the official reveals, then lose enthusiasm over time. This way , they can lock in the order to ensure a sale. I know I personally question some of the preorders I’ve made by the time they show up. In this current selling pattern, the toy company are in control; the old way of us deciding if we want it when it comes out is when the consumer was in control. I do hate the whole “involvement” thing where you can’t be casual about the hobby. If you aren’t watching the official reveals and preordering right after, you might miss it. It’s frustrating when you just learned of a toy and it’s sold out before the release. The industry has moved to a rare collectible mindset. Yeah, hate it. Ironically, years ago I was wishing for the day when I could just pick out what I want and it’s held aside for me without having to drive to Walmart and Target at 7am every morning.

 

It sucks. I wish I got back into collecting when Unicron was crowdfunding.

I pretty much set limits on myself as a collector and preorder the figures I have to own like any of the 84-86 G1 characters (WFC and Studio Series 86 has done right by me with these characters). I have pretty much all my faves and most of the ones I’m missing are coming within a year or two.

I appreciate the leaks though and that’s informed my decisions lately. i passed on Black Zarak because I knew the Ark was coming and I would rather own that. I canceled my Generaton Selects Volcanicus order when Studio Series 86 Grimlock was announced. I avoided buying old figures on ebay when I know a newer version is coming. overspent on a few characters but found bargains else where. I also I accept I might not get every figure I want. I really want a Haslab Unicron but I’m not spending 2 grand to get him either.

 

I won't lie, I have been getting exhausted with the "Day 1 Preorder or you don't get it".

Though I find this more of a problem with G.I. Joe Classified and Black Series than Transformers.

 

Nope, I like locking in an order when the official reveal happens, if not before, which you can do with Amazon sometimes via the wishlist method. If you keep up on news and rumors, you know most of what's coming months in advance.

I rarely order from anywhere that demands the money up front, so I can always cancel before it ships. It's better to order early and sleep on it for a while, than to have to scramble after the fact with FOMO and the aftermarket!

 

Ugh, I hate it so much. I'm a very indecisive person and I generally like to see reviews and hear feedback on new figures before deciding whether to buy them. Now even a preorder doesn't guarantee you'll get the figure in question.

 

Yes, everyone loves money, and they love easy money the most. Since enough of us are idiots that will dramatically overpay for a figure, our fandom is infested with people whose sole interest is to intercept retail products before we obtain them in order to extract value from you as a reward for "creating liquidity". But anyone who's doing that should probably be put into milkshakes.

You know, yes! And yet, I really love that drive and the excitement of rounding the corner of the destined aisle... and seeing... fucking nothing. Empty pegs, and an Arcee or a Warpath. Maybe. Usually not. Megatron Action Attackers still linger, too. But yeah, fuck retail stores, encountering sick morons, the driving and wasting gas only to find that no one stocks enough of anything, anywhere, ever. And if they did, some asshole would roll through and scoop it all up and leave it on his living room table to put on Ebay.

Until the motivation to scalp is checked by legislative changes, this problem will continue and worsen, especially since social media encourages the "flex" involved.

 

Yes. It's bad enough with lackluster distribution. Now it's at the point where exclusives are a game in which the only winning move is not to play at all.

 

It’s killed my interest in a lot of things.

As of now, I’ve stopped ordering Mezco 1/12 stuff and GI Joe classified altogether. I’ve either sold off or am in the process of selling a lot of it. I’ve also changed my buying on transformers as I’m being incredibly selective with my purchases now.

This current practice is really making me reevaluate my collection.
I’m probably going to start clearing out a lot of stuff I just don’t need.

 

It's extremely tiresome! Transformers has always had some exclusives and poorly distributed figures that were a pain to get, but ever since 2020, the scalping has gotten outrageous. Collecting used to be a lot more relaxed - I couldn't find 2010 Jazz when it came out, but I eventually got it 7 years later for just a little over MSRP. But these days though, the aftermarket just skyrockets. People are asking $60+ for Siege Ironhide!

 

I am totally taken aback on Siege Iron Hide's pricing. Why is that one so crazy?

 

I mean Hasbro and collectors can’t predict the future. You can’t predict if you’ll find the figure you’re looking for on a store shelf. And Hasbro can’t predict if they should over produce a figure.

So if you don’t want to risk it, you gotta pre-order. I can understand people feeling frustrated but at the same time, who’s fault is this? Ultimately if things are hard to find or costly in the aftermarket, it’s a sign the franchise is healthy.

Shrug, not sure what else there’s to say…

 

I'd assume the rarity of Earthrise Ironhide is a big factor.

 

Yeah I absolutely hate having to preorder everything. A lot of figures in my collection are things I became interested in after they came out, or changed my mind after watching reviews, the ability to buy figures late without paying absurdly inflated prices is invaluable to me.

 

I hate, hate, hate that I feel like I need to pre-order mainline toys Day One of announcement or risk missing out. Exclusives I understand, but the stocking situation around me is so dire that I'm lucky if I ever see a given wave of a mainline more than once, and later waves even once.

I'm glad Amazon is so flexible with pre-orders, but I'm not even sure I want all of Galvatron, Rodimus, the Ark, and Rhinox that I ordered after Pulse Fest a few weeks ago, but I might not even have the ability to make a choice later.

 

I pre-order everything I want the day it goes up.. then just sit back while the toys roll in. I don't see a problem. I get everything I want delivered to my door. No fuss, no muss. Although as a New Yorker I occasionally have to get Wal-Mart Exclusives from a scalper. Sure, it sucks to pay extra but the convenience of not having to drive out to Long Island only to come up empty handed makes swallowing the extra cost a little more palatable.

 

Covid messed it all up. Add to this an predicted emergence of new collectors. Covid killed distribution and Siege brought in a ton of new fans that I don't think Hasbro was expecting.

Let's go back to COVID, It hurt distribution and Hasbro lost wave or 2 and made them all into exclusives. Of these exclusives, it appears Amazon and Walmart make one case of each and that is that. Realistically, the Amazon exclusives did not see a full release and not coneheads are $300ish.

Bad distribution, exclusives with extremely low quantities and a growing fandom equals a hard series to get. What is the result of all this? Buy it as soon as you can. I dunno what the kids are doing but there doesn't seem to be enough figures to fulfil the collectors market.

 

Yes and no. I hate that some of the preorders sell out so quickly because not everyone can be glued to a computer or technological device when the announcements are made and preorders go live. At the same time I like that if I am at a computer and can preorder the entire wave when announced that Hasbropulse usually gives at least five months before the figures are released so if I change my mind I can cancel.

 

Absolutely. Especially the fan toys stuff. If you don’t preorder within the minute , shit gets sold out & your rather f’d. I could buy all new furniture for the asking prices that there insecticons are going for !

 

It’s a storm of greed, FOMO, the need for instant gratification, an utter lack of patience and the willingness to pay absolutely ridiculous amounts of money on plastic crap many people will likely just stand on a shelf and barely touch. Don’t expect things to change as long as there’s money to be made in prolonging the problem.

 

I do like the fact that I do not have to drive around to 3 different Targes, 4 different Walmarts and 2 different Meijers hunting for figures anymore. I just preorder them all at retail price and relax.