Question: I have the MMC Insecticons. Have always thought of them as a stand in, albeit a decent one (lack of ankle rocker is rubbish though). Is the FT set worth 3 times the price I paid for the MMC ones? I heard there were some qc issues on the FT ones (I think the chrome wing on forager) and I've seen quite a few damaged ones on ebay. Was this widespread? I don't flip mine back and forth, but is it going to feel like I'm disarming a bomb like I did with MP HOUND?

 

That's weird. About 1.5 years ago a few Mercenaries popped up on ebay too. It was only Mercenary and not the other two. I wonder why it's just that figure?

 

Some thoughts on recent issues:

What we know so far:
- Fanstoys prices have been up since last year (this was officially confirmed, and can have several reasons);
- Fanstoys the original (probably preorder, but I can't confirm) for FT Insecticons in China seemed to be 400 Yuan for each (60 USD, as of now);
- Preorder price in China right now are 1700 Yuan, which means it's 560 Yuan for each (86 USD);
- Fanstoys mentioned that they lost the Insecticons molds (but not the design files);
- Original prices for TF12 and FT12T didn't seem to be different;


Some speculation:
- AS FT prices have been up since last year, every release will be up. I've already discussed some Chinese prices for other releases in the past, and they seemed to be up some 20-30 USD. So the current perceived difference for the Insecticons (60 to 86 USD) does seem in line with other recent releases.

- FT may have needed to create new molds, if the comment on losing the Insecticons mold was true. However, molds are very expensive, and If they would have to cast another mold, I would expect the prices to reflect that. With the comment above, it does not seem that the prices have gone way beyond recent releases, so either FT made new molds and the cost of the run paid for the molds (which is also normal), or they did not loose the original molds.

- If new molds were created, it may explain (part of) why the price of FT12 is so much more expensive than FT12T. I'm not sure how exactly the manufacturing process is, but they may have to have another, separate mould for the grey part only, or manufacture it elsewhere with different prices. But this topic is a little more difficult to understand, because even if they had to do a specific manufacture of the gray chest, the price seems much off-balance. It may be the case that FT is trying to get dome more money knowing the market, but from my experience and data, they did not seem to do this before (I mean, in terms of prices...I'm not discussing the fact that they use the market, particularly the release dates of other manufacturers, to release their products).

I've got some more thoughts, but I'm still thinking about them.

 

maybe cause hes the only one which claimed his mold hasnt been vanished? )

 

You could find a lot of Mercenaries in China until March of last year. This was probably because of the 2017 reissue.

 

The ptoduction of grey/gold/red/blue/or whatever figure would be the same since therea no connection between the mold and the color! You just mace cast on different color of plastic but theyre both on the same mold! The pricing differences from the purple to the grey FT-12 only metter of damends! Thats all

 

Call me crazy but I think they just want to make extra money. They know people turn into ravenous dogs when their stuff comes out and they are taking advantage. That's it.

 

I also think so, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, probably.

Part of all this fuzz with FT recently seems to be that a lot of people were getting a lof of money from FT figures, but FT was not one of these. So getting more money does seem like a general approach FT is taking.

 

Put in a order with Kooltoys. Shows shipping charge is $35.

 

Cheaper than what I pay from China  

(anyway, for me it's still cheaper to buy from China, because otherwise, I would have to pay double the shipping - from China to the US or Europe for the store, and then to Brazil - and also the more expensive price overall)

 

ARRRR MANNNNNNNN!!!!!! I bit the bullet over xmas and managed to swoop in ('swoop' - cuz I got a Dinobot  ) on a massive ebay raid for Stomp, Lupus and all 3 of the Insecticons.... and now these 'lost' molds have suddenly reappeared.

I don't know whether I feel mugged off due to the timing of this (as I've waited years to build up the cash and guts to buy these chaps at inflated cost), or more a 'meh' as, 1) I know the reissues won't come cheap anyway and 2) the window to buy them will be so small as soon as they are released that unless I'm constantly keeping watch, I know I'd miss out on them

 

I am a new TF collector and collect only FT, but my approach has always been (which is a general good approach) - give time to time. These scalper prices make no sense, and I don't buy them. And if FT does reissue them (and they probably will) I then can buy it for the reasonable price.

In fact, the Insecticons are a good example:
- When I begun collecting in March last year, I missed a selling of the trio for 320 USD here. They were already more than 450 on Facebook and Ebay
- I mentioned in some groups that I wanted to pay no more than 320 USD, which I thought was a good price, and people just mocked that I would never be able to do that with prices at that moment
- One year after, I just preordered them for 270 USD, less than the 320 USD that I thought was ok last year.

 

usually I'm in complete agreement with that. I missed out on Stomp ,especially, years ago and have spent ages regretting it as the prices have gone up and watched as my dino set was one short for years...so thats partly why I but the bullet on him.
The main problem I've got is I'm UK based and most of you guys on here are the other side of the pond and deal inhouse only when selling (not everyone for sure and also totally get that with postage issues and pricing) so that completely limits where I can grab these guys from. Unless a big retailer comes out with reissue news I'm kinda stuck.
Your right though, even I've got a limit on paying for them that I won't even cross (the prices were on the line though if I'm honest).
Nice one, I'm glad you held out and got a better preorder price later than was on Facebook/ Ebay   ....you'll go far in this collectors game kid!

 

I'm in Brazil, which is a lot worse than being in the UK  

In fact, I've got a Sovereign in UK waiting in a friend's house to be sent to Brazil  

 

......I take back what I said about it being it being difficult in UK lol lol  

Sovereign is worth the wait

 

These reissues are much more limited runs I think (500 each) so they're charging more to make up for it. Apparently, if they produce 500 or less HasTak doesn't care. So I think they're doing these small runs for money to produce the other stuff.

 

I don't think so. For preorders in China only that I saw yesterday and today, there's more than 400 in stores there.

 

Fans Toys looks like a giant arseh*le right now for two reasons:

• High perceived cost
• Limited availability

Both of which are extra irritating when concerning previous releases. The 500 number is interesting. That would at least explain the second point and provide a small excuse for the first.

If this is true then what are they going to do for stunticons/aerialbots/soundwave? Do they get a free pass since those are already announced?

All I know is it all sucks to be a Fans Toys fan right now.

EDIT:

I don't know if I buy the 500 because of HasTak excuse. They've already released these figures so 500 more just adds to the total count. And if it is true, then why not release 1000 now (500 of each version) and then another 1000 in a month? That's what they would do if they cared about their fans. They should change their name. It's clear to me they are only interested in establishing themselves as THE boutique special snowflake of the 3rd party scene.

 

Wow. $200 for each figure? Spindrift 2.0 is going for about half the price - at the same size and with even more accessories. Must be because of the second pair of insect legs.