So we've now seen the hyped up Titans Return Fort Max drop from $150 to an impossible $55 in less than 6 months. Along the way it's sold for $100 and $75, both with free shipping, in not exactly isolated sales events. Who knows if even more discounts are yet to come?

We've also seen a prototype for Titans Return Trypticon. Knowing how you were burned for jumping in or rewarded for stalling, how will this impact your decision making process in 2017? I'd appreciate if we could focus on that question rather than rationalizations for whatever you did with regards to Fort Max.

Disclaimer: I sold Hasbro products at one time but have exited that market with absolutely no plans to return.

 

Ill buy him when he comes out, i dont care if i got burnt i want more titians so ill do my bit to make sure there are

 

Why do we act like this is weird? *EVERYTHING* goes on sale or gets deeply discounted at some point. EVERYTHING.

Does that stop Apple from charging $500 for an iPad? Or enough people paying $500 for an iPad?

Metroplex was $100+, a lot of people ended up going the Costco route and spending $80. Devastator was $100-125, a lot of people managed to snag one for less later. Same thing with Fort Max.

If the price was prohibitive, it wasn't prohibitive enough to either kill the Titan class or drop the initial price lower at release. Same for the CW boxed sets. Those kept coming out even after people were waiting for price drops.

You also assume that just because Hasbro charges $150 for Fort Max that any lower sale price means Hasbro's losing out rather than "just" breaking even or "only" making lesser profits.

Hell, Hasbro went to the effort of releasing Computron and Liokaiser even as G2 Superion and Menasor were dipping as low as $30-40. So obviously they were happy.

 

I predict that Trypticon is gonna blow up next year! What I mean is, it will be a highly sought after item. Metroplex and Fort Max didn't excite me much but I think the Constructicon set really excited the fandom. I think it'll be the same with Tryp.

But like others have already said, if Hasbro/Takara couldn't make money off of this, they would stop. Obviously they're not stopping so... why are people wondering/worried about discounts? Just enjoy the ride... 

 

If I wanted Trypticon I would buy him on release. Waiting hasn't been kind to me here in Ireland with large ticket items(when we get them that is). I am passing on Tryps though.....I have no interest in him at all.

 

Its a new mold not a repaint so a certain large quantity will have to be sold to recover production/marketing costs. G2 sets are not a corollary.

 

By virtue of being a new mold Tryps will already have a huge advantage over Fort Max. If you want something that'll be more likely affect sales, it's competition for space in both the collector's room and kids toy boxes.

2017 already has a giant combining Voltron and a giant combining Megazord. Even collectors have to admit that finding room for Metroplex, and Devastator, and Fort Max, and Trypticon, and what will likely be announced as the next Titan by year's end will be difficult.

I know personally that even at $55 I can't get Fort Max because I have no place to put him. I don't know what price would make that problem something I can figure out later.

 

Wow. What color is the sky on your world?

 

Normally blue, but they released a grey repaint in the last few weeks and it's been shelf-warming ever since.

 

Agreed. LOL

 

Go ROSS!

 

 

It was a distracting post, that's for sure. You made some serious leaps of logic* that have no direct bearing on the question at hand. That question is how you, as a shopper, having seen how it played out this time, will apply that knowledge to a future purchasing decision.

*Adressing just one, the fact that Ross had them for $55 immediately means that they acquired them for even less than that. If that supplier was another retailer, what do you suppose they'll think when the Hasbro salesman returns to sell a nearly identical (from a retail inventory perspective - brand/size/cost) product a few months later? If it was Hasbro, don't you suppose that still having leftover inventory that far down the food chain might prompt them to take another look at the projected ROI for new tooling?

 

Still at $55 they make money on it.

 

Who does?

 

My prediction is a few Fort Maxes showing up at Ross is going to fool a lot of people into thinking Trypticon isn't going to sell well.

 

I kinda wish they would've worked on Skorponok first. Tryp is going to take up a lot of shelf space.

Are they going to make him a Headmaster?

 

Waves 1-3 were sell outs for hasbro, even hts dumped their remaining max stock for what 75, plus discount codes? Hasbro is absolutely still making their money. As noted previously, Metroplex was at Costco discounted, same for Devastator. I bought Plex at full price from bbts, and was fine with that. When Devy was available in my area, the cash was not. A really awesome friend happened upon a stack at his Costco and bought 3 for 60, 1 for himself and two as gifts. I had zero plans to buy Max, but tried the ross price match and it worked. I loooooooooooooooved Trypticon as a kid and depending on his initial price, I will most likely get him either asap or wait and see, depending on how he turns out.

 

Living in the North of England where distribution is...unpredictable at best and seeing one of the three main Uk based online TF shops shut down, possibly temporarily, I'll be getting him as soon as he comes out. Maybe it's a hangover from my youth where you never knew how much of the catalogue would wind up in your local John Menzies, but I'd rather buy early at full price and know I'm getting it rather than take a chance and miss out, only to wind up paying three times the price on the secondhand market (hello Metroplex).