MPM-12 Optimus Prime (Bumblebee Movie)

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by oku, Feb 9, 2021.

  1. bbanzai123

    bbanzai123 Well-Known Member

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    I'm buying the Go Better kit for the shoulders. I like that the kit has an extra hinge to lower the "cat ears" without the fold in the middle. I'll buy the DNA kit for everything else.
     
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  2. ACMagnus

    ACMagnus Phantom Thief

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    I'm glad there's a Book-Off in my city, because I couldn't resist at $90. 20210917_194454.jpg
     
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  3. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    F028E016-E6B6-4DE1-B477-CF818B573A8A.jpeg C1876E54-A145-4C2E-B5CA-1F75B467A935.jpeg He looks neat next to the other flat-nose Movie Primes. Yeah I'm counting G1 Prime as a Movie Prime, deal with it. 324BCF9D-EBC1-497B-896B-59CD72EFEFEA.jpeg And I did some "experimenting and found it amusing if I kept MP-10's legs extended you can mimic the way how stretched the FL used in BB was. But next truck will be a more standard length cab, and I'm kind of glad. 5F0DC025-2707-48E4-8A25-516E8CD51E55.jpeg But good Lord is his vehicle mode small in comparison to MPM-7. Another thing is how much worse Prime's hands are, like honestly Bumblebeetle has pretty good hands, imo, so idk how they dropped the ball with Prime.
    Just in case you haven't seen Bee's hands.
     
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  4. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    God dammit the photos are out of order.
     
  5. ACMagnus

    ACMagnus Phantom Thief

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    So after a bit of fiddling around, this might be the most solid MPM I've handled. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it feels so robust. It's also weird how simple this feels compared to SS38. I'm not one to usually spring for upgrade kits, but that DNA kit might be the first time I purchase one. It looks to make an already fun figure into a nearly perfect one.
     
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  6. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    Of course, if you're enamoured of the stock figure's solidity, there's always the possibility that the "upgrade" makes it... less so, in pursuit of its other features. So just be wary.
     
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  7. ACMagnus

    ACMagnus Phantom Thief

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    That's why I haven't put a preorder in yet. I'd like to hear people's opinions on the kit before I decide if I really want it for myself. After all, $55 is a whole leader class figure.
     
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  8. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    $55??? Nuts to that shit, I don't even think the figure as is, is bad. Just needs better hands and shoulder fixes, one of which is on its way to me. Go Better Studio really remedying HasTak's bullshit.
     
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  9. Dexatronic

    Dexatronic Well-Known Member

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    These upgrade kits are always way over priced.
     
  10. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    Deadass. Only upgrade kit I've ever bought was for MPM Ironhide, an almost necessary UK for a figure since HasTak nailed the LOOK of the robot mode but just didn't take a second thought as to how the unlocked shoulders may be a bit of a nuisance when messing with him. And I only got the Up. Kit is because I realized BMB's OS Figure with "improvements" really ain't shit. And oversized figures, I'm just done with. I just lost the fascination with them.
    Plus it wasn't a HUGE investment in money since I got MPM 'Hide for about $50. That with the Upgrade Kit only made him to be about $90(counting taxes and all) , still less than the original retail price for him.
     
  11. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    They don't produce them in enough quantity to make them a good price.
     
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  12. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    Is it because they CAN'T or WON'T produce a lot?
     
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  13. Dexatronic

    Dexatronic Well-Known Member

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    Same here man. I do love the look of that Ironhide tho. And seeing as I got him at Ross for $25 I didn't mind shelling out on that one tho.
     
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  14. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    I'd recommend the upgrade kit, it helps out a ton. And having his Heavy Iron guns holstered in his back gives him a nice silhouette. Good Mojo included too.
     
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  15. Dexatronic

    Dexatronic Well-Known Member

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    I did mate.. I just said that lol. Yeah I love the guns in his back and the little mojo cracks me up.

    Edit-just re-read what I typed and forgot to mention that I ment that was the only kit I'd also bought. Ha sorry
     
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  16. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    Oh shit I'm an idiot. It's late. Lmao
     
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  17. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    Plastic injection molding costs a pretty penny. Even a small steel mold will probably cost you $10K to set up. A full suite of full-figure toolings like Hasbro uses can cost up to $500K.

    So a kit like this, where we see at least 4 colours of plastic in use, we'll put at a low-ball estimate of $40K.

    What do you consider to be an "acceptable" price? More like $20? At that pricepoint, selling a whopping 2K units will only get you as far as covering the tooling costs for the molds in the first place. Not even including the cost of R&D. And then you want to make a profit on top of that. And then it's going to be a pain in the ass to distribute these kits by yourself, so you go with a retail outlet to shoulder that burden for you. Well, they want their cut too. And so the price balloons to account for all of that.

    Even if I'm high-balling the low-end guesstimate a bit, you should be able to see how quickly the price tag ticks up. There's a reason why everybody and their mother can't get into plastic molding whenever they feel with it, and we have to deal with this sub-par 3D printed stuff or resin castings for custom projects. It's prohibitively expensive.
     
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  18. VVa

    VVa If you don't Booyah back I want you dead.

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    I wouldn't s
    I'd think $20 is a bit too low for the amount of "upgrading" that's being molded for this kit. Maybe $35 at LEAST.
    But damn, I didn't think it was that expensive to make. I guess that's why Hasbro figures may lack paint? Coz budget
     
  19. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    While I can lay out generalities like that, I'm not involved in the industry at all, so I can't give actual specifics on what standard margins look like, but we can further break it down with some vague logic:

    In the restaurant industry, a general rule of thumb you're told to follow is the rule of three: If your food cost is X amount, then your menu price should be at least 3x to cover your needs, split equally to cover: food costs; restaurant overhead; profits.

    If we apply a similar train of thought here, you probably want 1/3 of the price tag to cover all your overhead costs, from R&D through to manufacturing. 1/3 of that will be profit for you, 1/3 for the retailer (although I've been told before that retail margins on things like toys are actually pretty thin, so it might even swing towards 1/2 overhead, 1/4 self, 1/4 retailer or something, I dunno). And then on top of that, I've been lead to believe through circumstantial evidence that the average 3P production run is minimum 1000 units, but probably closer to 2000 for a first run.

    So if we take the $55 pricetag, and work back from there, then we get a $110K gross take, with a $33K overhead cost, and each party taking home $33K for themselves. That's not really that much money, for something that takes several months to come to fruition (a full figure frequently takes at least a year). Further divide those profits between possibly multiple employees/designers. Plus some of that profit you probably want to reinvest back into the company in order for it to become a perpetual source of revenue.
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2021
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  20. rego0012

    rego0012 Well-Known Member

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    I don’t have an issue with the upgrade kits price….but waiting until next year for it…oof…time to preorder and forget it exists