Of course Megatron goes back in stock but only for Premium members. Great   guess my interest in the figure/line is slipping.

 

If you're premium, Breaker is up too.

 

Available to everyone now.

 

It was only for the premium window. He is now available to pre order for anybody. Red Alert also.

 

Snagged Red Alert. Great. Now I don't need to visit Walgreens constantly! Added Ceremony Leia for free shipping. Will cancel her as soon as Red ships.

Try getting him now.

 

Thanks for the help. Figures he’d be available right as I’m coming back from break but I secured one. Was waiting to get paid when he went in stock the first time, sold out when I did get paid. But wasn’t missing out this time; shame Starscream go delayed.

 

Dammit hasbro. The seacons! Restock the last two seacons!

 

G.I. Joe Classified Series Cobra Trooper Action Figure – Hasbro Pulse

^Is that Back-in-Stock from today or had it always been in stock all this time under the radar?  

Okay Hasbro, I'm on it and yoink! Finally nabbed a Cobra Island Cobra Trooper!  

Still need Alley Viper to rub my nostalgia feels from the G.I. Joe Operation: Dragonfire cartoon (mini series?) I fondly remember from my youth, lol.  

edit: and one free month of Disney+ with my order? Nice!  

 

They've restocked it a couple times and today they added more (I got mine a month or two back; let's hope for Viper and Regal\Supreme Cobra Commander restocking again soon!)

Also, again in Rancor news... their live stream has completely backfired. The Rancor project has now lost about 140 backers since the start of the live stream and is now at 5,010, in danger of dipping back down below 5,000. It's not looking good and I really feel bad for the Marketing Drones at Hasbro. As a lot of people in the stream chat were saying, the presentation did seem fairly "out of touch" and the tier goals were not what was desired\expected--which is irrelevant, because at $350 and with two other campaigns going on right now, they are in danger of not even funding the project at all.

 

Yeah why they didn't put all 6 back up for pre-order at the same time is beyond me... even if they didn't arrive at the same time at least we'd have had a restock of all 6, not just 5... watch there's a secret horde of Overbite's just waiting to drop



.... on ebay  

 

Too bad, they still have the limit in place.  

Can't order if you previously did already.

 

see star saber thread…….. half funded with 17 days to go is hardly reason for the people who want this to worry

 

It may be my brain misremembering but isn't the reason the last two seacons didn't get restocked is because the first stock had over twice the ammount of stock than the other seacons? I think the initial 4 had 400-800 while the latter had 1200 to 1600 or something.

Once again, it could just be my old man brain kicking in and reading one post and fusing another. Wouldn't know how to double check either....

 

I honestly don't really *get* the Rancor or the Skystriker. I think both were questionable moves.
With the Skystriker, it's essentially a somewhat more in-scale and much more featureful and accessory-full version of a jet that was last released in 2011 for $35. It comes with two extremely retro-style GI Joes who will likely be carded and you'll never open without massively de-valuing the set. The 18,000 backers is just two pit crew guys (shoulda been an entire team). For $229. I see $200 for all that is offered and like 8 pit crew guys. Maybe. But as it stands, $229 is a big ask. I almost feel like if TRU were still around, we'd get the jet, the pilots, and a bunch of missiles for $99. The Skystriker is iconic for GI Joes, but maybe it's not "Haslab-level".

The Black series Rancor is kind of stupid. Yeah it's hyper detailed and hyper posable. But in a sense, this should not exist. GI Joe and Star Wars line were always about figure interaction with vehicles. A 3.75 inch scale made that economical because it meant you could have vehicles the size of a dinner plate that kids could pick up, and could be mass produced for retail. Classified exists because it was a latch ditch effort to save an IP that just could not be economically sustained at the 3.75 inch scale. So they did Joes with major design upgrades at the 6 inch "Marvel Legends" scale that everyone uses, and it's done very well, mostly by keeping things pretty narrow. But then there is Star Wars, which does Black Series also at 6 inch, also likely to appeal to the Marvel Legends crowd and that separates it from the vehicles which have defined Star Wars. The X-Men have one vehicle - the Blackbird, whose most iconic design is from the 1990s (the rest are forgettable). The Avengers have one vehicle - the Quinjet, that has no iconic design. THey aren't about vehicles. Star Wars and GI Joe are defined by them.

The Rancor isn't a vehicle, but I put it in the same category because it stretches the line past 6 inch into something that becomes hard to interact with and display. It's the same thing that happened with that Black Series Tie Fighter that shelf warmed hard. Who was it for? It was way too big for kids. For an adult, it was the size of a minifridge. I also think if TRU were still around, a version of this Rancor would be an exclusive there for $200. Is it worth $350? Not a chance I think. It's quite cool but it's not that cool.

Both will probably get funded, but if I were hasbro, I'd be a bit more discerning about what they Haslab with these franchises and look to Transformers for inspiration. Unicron could only be done for $575 at the grandeur they wanted WFC to be. Never could have been an exclusive. Star Saber was highly desired by hardcore fans for years, and the version we're getting is basically retail price for a Commander class and a leader class with a $20 premium for extra paint and accessories. EVen the Star Wars Vintage Khetanna was an awesome choice, because it could only be done through Haslab, and was highly desired and never before made (and also perfect scale for Vintage).

If I were Hasbro, for Star Wars Haslab, i'd stick to Vintage. Look at the Razorcrest for example (hilarious blown up in the show just after the end of the backing period btw). For GI Joe, I'd cut some accessories and try to keep the prices sub $200.

 

Wow, ordered Kingdom Red Alert just before noon today. It has been shipped,picked up, and at a fedex facility already.
Think that was the fastest I have seen that done at Pulse for an in stock item.

 

Good points. One thing I think you left out: who on earth thought it was a good idea to hold THREE Kickstarter’s at the same time? Space them out and Let them breathe. You are competing with yourselves here!

 

especially right before Christmas...and we won't talk about the rising cost of fuel, utilities, food, etc that people spend a little less for high end hobbies at this time of year. I also think if they added options to make multiple payments by a certain date (the way fun pub did with the tfcc) they would get more backers as they don't have to commit in full in one lump sum. $225 for a skystrker or whatever, $350 rancor...might have more if it were 3x $75 or $120x3 for rancor...just saying.

 

Probably the same marketing geniuses that were like "Here's Haslab Unicron, have your $575+tax ready by the end of the month". That was such a knuckleheaded decision I still don't believe it was the legitimate, "real" deadline.

Also given the Super7 TMNT Party Wagon and the Thundercats Battle Tank, I think toy makers got the way wrong lesson from the Khetanna and Unicron. Both were long desired, once in a life time pieces that if done at retail would have been dramatically different and very compromised (just think what even a $200 Titan class unicron would have been by comparison). There will never be a TF figure larger than unicron, or a project as ambitious as it (FT Fortress Maximus doesn't count). But if instead of Unicron it were like, Transformers: Cybertron Primus, would it have done as well? I think not.

With Marvel Legends, probably the #1 toy line overall right now, we got the Sentinel and Galactus that are amped up versions of what would have been a $200-$250 TRU exclusive in a better universe where TRU wasn't assassinated by Bain Capital. The Razorcrest? Everything you need to know about it is that, as it was being funded for $349, Target was taking orders for the Theme Park / Sequel trilogy version of the 2008 Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon (the modern, bigger mold) for $399. The Razorcrest was basically made to order, because TRU was not there.

Every one of these Haslabs had a great reason for being. 2 of them never would have existed anywhere close to their delievered form with out (Khetana, Unicron), 3 were basically made-to-order because TRU is gone and it's too costly for Target or Walmart (Sentinel, Galactus, Razorcrest).

I kind of get the Ghostbusters Backpack. I'm surprised it did so well so fast. I didn't realize there was any market for Ghostbusters still (my brother and I played the heck out of it when growing up and had all the dress up weapons and suits like everyone else). But it makes sense because it's a companion piece to the mass retail wand/gun thing that the Ghostbusters use.

But I don't get the Skystriker, the Rancor, the Party Wagon and the Thundercats Battle Tank at their marketed price points. All are cool in their own way (I'm very partial to the Skystriker in particular), but they seem to exist almost because they *can*, not because they should. The Party Wagon could have easily been $200, not a laughable $450.

Lord knows what's next. I think we can be thankful that, as Transformers fans, our line is so overwhelmingly popular that most of what we get will avoid being priced in mega installments like that. Instead it'll just vast mass retail figure lines in $22, $32 and $52 installments.

 

I hear that. When Unicron and MP-44 Optimus Prime landed in the same year, there were threads about how that was the most expensive year in Transformers by far (and it absolutely was). $610 + $420 really hurt (but totally worth it). But it's not something I'd do again.