TCC Update

If you have not seen them yet, pictures are up in the members site.

To order Astrotrain or Airazor, please follow the directions below as we will
NOT take phone orders until Thursday. Emailed orders will take priority. We
will start processing and making callbacks today from our list of emails. We
will get to you in the order the emails were received. Again, we will NOT take
any calls on these items until Thursday.

Please send an email to [email protected] with the following
information:

If you need to have someone call you back, just include your phone number and
name. If you have a credit card on file (which most of you do) please give us
the last 4 numbers of the credit card and expiration date, verify your shipping
address in case it is different from your mailing address, make sure you put
your first and last (not your screen name) name and daytime phone number on your
request.

Then tell us what you want to pre-order. These two pieces are currently
scheduled to arrive here in late January.

We are limiting the quantities you can order to two of each (two Astrotrains,
two Airazors) until December 11, to give all members a chance to order what they
want. Some people are not online and they will not see the announcement until
they get their newsletter. There are only 2,000 pieces of each item.

You must be a member to order these items. If someone is not a member, they can
join at the same time.

Astrotrain is $87 +shipping, Airazor is $42 +shipping. Shipping is $7 domestic
for the first item and $1 for each additional item. Foreign shipping will vary
by country. If you are placing a foreign order, we will calculate the airmail
cost and add it to your order.

Example order: if you are domestic and order one Astrotrain and one Airazor the
total cost will be $137.

Also, if you are a foreign member and need a call back, we will call you though
the time of day might be very late or very early.

We have put these rules in place to make this process as easy, simple and fair
as possible. Please follow them.

In case you are wondering why we are not taking orders online: the programmers
are working on a pre-order module for the store but it is not finished. Also it
is not a good idea to test new code with such an overwhelming amount of
processing. We would prefer to test it in a simpler environment to ensure there
is not another Nemesis Prime problem.

Thanks for your support! If you have a question please put it in the Ask Brian
area in the members forum and I will answer it. Angie and the other support
staff will be a bit busy.

Brian

=======================================

 

Preordered mine.

 

Cool. About what I was expecting, maybe a little lower even.

 

pretty much dead on what i was expecting for Clown-Pants-trotrain, but damn, $50 delivered for a deluxe, that's a hard pill for me to swallow.

not to mention the necesity of re-joining the club to get it. can we get a peek at next years combiner limb first  ? (i liked the first one, but thought the second one was pretty lame)

 

Thanks for the update, Pete. This helps me decide.

 

Well, sent the info to them. Although I asked for a call back from them anyways since I've used two different credit cards with MC and I'm not sure which one is currently on file. Is that going to be an issue Pete?

 

Just sent my e-mail, thanks Pete!  

 

Me too! I hope the long email I sent Angie with the "ifs" and "ors" isn't confusing.

-airfox

 

E-mailed.
I wonder will they be boxed or bagged?

 

Wow. well over $100 for $30 worth of recolored Armada/Energon toys? What is the interest, here? Do you guys really think they're ALL THAT? Or, is it just the relative exclusivity of having a limited run toy? To me, they're just more recolors, and not even very good ones at that. I wouldn't pay $20 and $10 for those, let alone $80+ and $40+. Is this rampant completism or something? And to top it all off, you've got to pay for membership in a club of dubious value to have the priveledge of overpaying for recolors?

/me boggles.

 

Order placed...thank you

 

I'm not wild about the Astrotrain, but I think the Airazor is a beautiful toy. Add to that the fact that it's got a newly sculpted head and boxed packaging, and I think $42 is reasonable for a limited collectible aimed at a niche market. Plus, it ties in with the 2006 BotCon set, which is just plain cool. 

 

I can see those prices for non-members, if it included the cost of joining the club, but man that is over the top. I would have thought about $40 for Astrotrain and $20 for Airazor (double retail price for the size class). Oh well, I'll still be preordering.

Leave the money on the nightstand, MC.

 

Both are about what I was expecting, though Airazor's on the high end of that. Consider both as good as purchased by me!

Not really sure why you'd have thought that, given the pricing schemes of past Botcon exclusives. Granted, these are bigger runs, which is why Airazor is on the high end of what I was expecting, but your estimate for Astrotrain especially-- remember he's an Ultra-class toy and comes with three Minicons not part of his mold, $40 would be barely above what he'd sell for if he was a mass-release figure. The Club usually sells things between three and five times what they'd be worth if they were mass releases.

 

Well, speaking in general, first they're not just recolors... they have completely new head sculpts. Which I'm sure costs them a good deal of money to have to have made from scratch. And, yes, they are limited run exclusives aimed at a niche market for people whom are already part of a club. And, honestly, the club is worth the value if you're stateside... the overseas guys don't get as good of a value for the cost of joining admittedly... however, if you're already a member, you might as well take advantage of this now. I can just imagine what these guys are going to go for on the after market. Admittedly these are expensive collectors items with a limited run and are in the same vein as the Botcon Exclusive sets that MC has been putting out as far as collectibility.

For myself, I actually really dig both molds. I have two versions of Armada Jetfire already (original & Powerlinx) and I dig the mold. An Astrotrain recolor with a brand new head sculpt is sweetness IMPO & add to that that his bio ties him neatly into the Armada/Energon/Cybertron Universe quit nicely... and it's a must get for me.

Airazor I've been dieing for since I saw her in the Botcon Exclusive comic three months ago and now I can have her. I love the Slugslinger mold and was sad that they didn't have a repaint of him available in Energon. Now I've got the opportunity to get one with a new head sculpt as character that I really really like.

Basically, it all boils down to personal taste. Let me ask you this: How much would you pay for a Fortress Maximus? Some would pay -and have paid- a lot for a nice MIB one. For others... it's just not worth the money. Like I said, personal taste here.

 

They are definitely overpriced, in my opinion, especially since you have to join the club to get them, but I will probably break down and get them anyway because I really like the molds.

 

Man, I think Airrazor should be a gift to the people who are club members AND dropped the cash on the timelines box.

 

Right right right, I forgot he was an ultra - I was thinking of Energon Jetfire's size class. And I suppose those prices are not so out of scope with what we've seen from MC up to this point.

Chalk up a part of my reaction to a bit of bitterness - I despise the concept of toy exclusivity and the associated astronomical price inflations.

*sigh*
Preorder placed.

 

Ill admit it does seem a bit high, but then I remembered that the Megs Waspinator went for $95 at the convetion IIRC. The astrotrain exclusive is essentialy the same thing but $8 less (one ultra, plus a basic (in this case three minicons)).

I guess the only one that seems a bit high is Air Razor ... and that's only because Im at a lose for what MC normally charges for an exclusive deluxe figure.