What I find funny is that Takara actually costs more than third party nowadays, especially in the MP segment, but ppl argue otherwise using companies that haven't released anything for nearly a decade using price comparisons that are just as old. Makes no sense. Facts are facts. So if you're overpaying for 3p then what's happening with mp44, v2 bee or Hound? There is no principle behind your statement.....unless we've been transported back to 2013. Then you've got a point. Btw I have no horse in this race, I'll buy both, if it's the best representation it gets my money.
Angry, knee-jerk reactions are not indicative of someone consciously "going against the grain". People have their tells nonetheless. The reason this is being done is that a project like this has absolutely zero viable path forward through general retail avenues. Everything done for this project is basically non-transferable to any other aspect of the brand. Retail is always the preferred end goal here. It represents guaranteed revenue due to distribution contracts and minimum order limits and such. Made-to-order crowd funding is literally the last resort option. There's absolutely zero guarantee of a revenue stream, and the yield is low. So you're absolutely being disingenuous. You pretend to spout words of wisdom for the good of the fandom, but what you're doing is surrounding yourself in an atmosphere of paranoia, to drum up support so you can feel self-justified in your decisions.
While the "everything is going to be crowd-funded and everything will be overpriced now!" argument is just fan paranoia, I do think if Hasbro has success with this that there will be more projects down the road. Honestly I can see Hasbro definitely looking to do more of the riskier Grand Max styled releases in the future the same way TakaraTomy handled it, where before they make this repaint/retool they want at least 500 preorders on Hasbro Pulse for it first, and that number has to go over 2000 if you want them to include a special Prime Master.
i agree. problem is, like i faced, i said my experience allows my opinion of prefering takara over hasbro and all hell broke loose. never knew my opinion mattered so much to a few strangers on the boards. since i've been on these boards, not once have i responded to someone by questioning, debating or arguing their comment, opinion or "fact". i couldn't care less. if i disagree with something, i move on because....this is a community. share your thoughts, likes, dislikes with a figure, company, whatever. it's your experience, your opinion and you have a right to it. some people can't see that or accept that. it's sad. someone wants to start with me though, yeah, i'm going to respond bc i really cant stand people like that. this whole collecting thing is a subjective matter and based on one's own experience - not that difficult to understand...is it? all in all, this unicron presents as a beautiful figure and i hope for the price tag it turns out to be a solid one. i am quite interested in it so hopefully it gets released and some reviews come out while its still available. i have no problem paying that money for something like this.
based on how good this looks and should it be a good figure, hopefully they will go down the road of a grand max and black zarak.
Personally I think the GP on Bot Bots puts all 3p to shame but no one argues it because the overall cost in relatively low. I'd rather pay 20 to 50 Percent margin on something well made with many parts and quality hinges than 200 to 300 percent margin on a poc or something with 4 ball balljoints even if it's cheap on overall price. The issue isn't that it's overpriced, it's that people can't justify spending at that price point. I'm sure these projects have a lot of molds, can't sit on retail shelves for months or years so these are the only ways we can get them as official releases.
That won’t be possible. It’s not going to get made until it’s funded. Once the funding window closes, you can’t order any more.
“Global Crowdfunding Project "HASLAB Unicron" Exhibition” “Hasbro's global crowdfunding plan just announced It will be decided to sell "HASLAB UNICLON" in Japan at Takara Tomy Mall! We plan to start bookings by the 1st festival day. On this occasion, it was decided to decorate the prototype at the won-fest venue. Please check the huge transformers of unmatched size in the past by yourself. Thank you for your support of crowdfunding!” Omg please be correct about the global part google translate! Also being at wonder festival we should get more pics!!!
Woah there, ease up. There is zero snark in my reply. Not sure how you’ve gathered that from my reply that helped the original question. Thank you for your service.
I'd find it far more concerning if folks couldn't budget a $600 anything. How tight is that expenses:income ratio? How many folks are walking that tight rope where one missed paycheck puts them in the streets? If you listen to folks like Dave Ramsey, the first thing they look at first is mortgages/rent and car notes. It's much easier to change one's living expenses than their income. It hurts to make that kind of sacrifice, but it's often necessary in order to secure a better future. You are right that moving has quite a few costs associated with it, and may not be immediately feasible. Plus there's the emotional toll of uprooting their whole life in the process. Is it better to stay in the confines of the known even though one is treading water, and just keeping their head above the surface? Or is it better to strike out into the unknown? Its not an easy decision to make. Of course, to do this in the pursuit of collecting toys would be ludicrous. The toy collecting would be a byproduct of increased financial stability, improved quality of life, and peace of mind. I find it interesting that you framed moving in all negatives. A degradation in all aspects of life. I've oft found the opposite to be true. I will admit I mostly work with those that moved from areas with high costs of living (Washington DC, NYC, California, etc...) to areas with much lower costs of living (Louisiana, Texas, Wyoming, etc...). Once they get over the culture shock most find their quality of life improved. The religious conservatives have been wrestling with this as well. Poll responses in regards to saving a drowning man verse a drowning dog have been skewing in favor of the dog. Quite the dilema if one believes in an inherent value to human life. Not to be cliche, but one's children are their future, and the utmost should be done to ensure the well being of that future. To sacrifice it out of avarice would be reprehensible. Frivolity is fairly subjective. A year back I removed a pair of speakers from a Dell executive's home. He had bought the pair for $25k, had them for a month, decided he didn't like them, and sold them for $12.5k. The guy's monthly "fun money" budget was roughly $30k. It really depends on the value one attaches to money. Is money something important in and of itself, or is it a tool to procure the things that matter most? Is a $600 purchase now frivolous if it yields years of enjoyment later? The figure in the pictures is 3d printed, so some hollowness could be subjective to the type of printer or printing method used. This is the ideal time to make such criticisms as everything is still in the software stage and if enough people complain it could be changed. I think the hands thing is blown out of proportion by a few folks. I don't believe I've spent any significant time examining the palms of my transformers. I'll have to disagree on the panelforming/shellforming. While not great, I think it's inherent to the process of transforming a sphere into a series of rectangular cuboids. We know they will gross a minimum of $4.6 mil, but that hardly equates to netting millions. Assuming "millions" means >2, and not >1.x, then Hasbro needs a 43.5% margin. Actually everything shown up to date has been with their money. The digital and physical sculpting, design, engineering, printing, assembly, etc... all funded by Hasbro. They think they have a viable product and are pitching the idea to bring it to a limited market. If the crowdfund fails then Hasbro is out on the manhours and compensation there of while we the consumers are out the potential enjoyment of the figure. I think that's very different from NOTHING. Does anybody actually expect Hasbro to produce figures purely out of the goodness of their hearts? Has anybody ever expected such endeavors to be purely altruistic? I fully expect and hope Hasbro makes a profit while providing me with a figure I find worthwhile and enjoyable. In fact I hope it's so profitable they try again and again and again exploring as many lines, IPs, and opportunities as possible. I'd love it if HasLab was the method by which a new GI Joe Whale could be produced.
The translation would seem to indicate that it’s 8000 for the entire global campaign, which seems much more reasonable. Still, there’s always the chance we’re losing something in an auto-translate. It’s kind of odd for Hasbro to leave us with so many open questions like this in what is literally a business proposal that they are asking us to partner in.
Curious if the TTMall numbers will be included in the 8000 HASLAB needs. However at this point, even if it doesn't make the goal, my bet is it's going to be released somehow. It was one thing when it was US only.
honestly if people find it hard to budget or have too much to pay out each week or month they shouldn't be collecting expensive collectible toys in the first place when i first started collecting i was not always in the position to afford transformers and tbh i shouldn't have been, i brought it up on these boards way back in 2010 or 2011 in one of the combiner threads and the exact same thing was said to me , i can't remember who said it to me and it pissed me off at the time but he or she was axactly right
It's 8000 at least just to get made, but after that they'll open up and start taking orders past that number, so there will in the end be more than just 8000.
Are people able to cancel their orders for this guy? I could've sworn that there were a few more orders earlier than I'm currently seeing on there now.
