that’s your opinion and expectation but that is not the business practice. No where on Walmart or target or big chain that has retail stores is there print that says “your preorder will be fulfilled before or the day it’s on shelves in a store”

The primary point of a preorder again is securing your order especially if you don’t live close to an actual store. Not be the first person to get it. Preordering or ordering online in general is at the end of the day an alternative to shopping.

 

I got my Sparkles Seeker last week from Pulse 

 

For sure. I would also like the Netflix Bumblebee. I was just out of it and missed that one entirely. Seems strange, as the shelves seem flooded with Bumblebee iterations. The only one I would want that's not a masterpiece is that $20 one that now goes for $99 and up on ebay.

 

Hasbro: Oh what do you mean, "We didn't make enough Amazon exclusive Seige Skywarp sets?!

Collector Community: Yes! Seige Skywarp is exactly what we want more of! Not everyone was able to get a copy!!!

Hasbro: Well unfortunately we already sent every copy we had to Amazon, so take it up with them!!!

Collector Community: But Amazon doesn't make Transformers???!!...Isn't that what you do Hasbro????

Hasbro: Well that may be true...in theory...but unfortunately, it's just not possible for us to making anymore Siege Skywarp sets!!!!

Collector Community: Oh ok understood!

Hasbro: Ok now I know we had said that we couldn't make anymore Siege Skywarp sets, and that may be true, but...get this...now we have the exact same Siege Skywarp set coming out, only this time it's a Walmart Exclusive! And the best part is we slathered the Seeker in Septic Juice!!!! Isn't this Fantastic!!!!

 

I'd prefer that. Make it all or nothing

 

then you’ll complain about getting nothing or the G1 repainted characters not getting their due

 

These made their way into the Chicagoland area. This was one Walmart that had both the Primal and Sparkless Seeker in the northwest suburbs, and another one had only had the Sparkless Seekers.

The first 4 spots came up empty, but a lot of Wave 2 Deluxe and Voyagers all around.

 

Yup. We'd have gotten Sunstreaker and that would have been it.

No Prowl, no Ironhide, no Ratchet, no Soundwave, no Bee...

 

exactly. Store pay for their exclusives. That’s how it works. They want exclusives then companies look and brainstorm what they can produce for them.

if they didn’t do exclusives and if they just released everything that’s an exclusive to mass retail we’d still be on siege

 

And?

So no difference for alot of people?

 

no difference for vocal minority that do nothing but complain all the time over everything

it is when all you see is the same mold over and over and over on the shelves. Know how I know? Because that’s already happened and people complained the shelves are nothing but repaints all the time.

you say it makes no difference till you see every repaint of the sideswipe mold in one store and he’s the only thing on the shelf

 

honestly my only "pain" and I say this as a total first world problem is that I bought RT and Primal before knowing the 2 pack existed, could have saved a few pennies.

 

Wait I thought these were already out? Or am I just dumb and people were getting these early?

Kinda want the Seeker. Skipped on Hotline but the muddy Cybertronian jet look appeals to me for some reason here.

 

Ive said it before and I'll say it again.

Exclusives may not be ideal for some. But at the end of the day, it's the only way we get all the characters we want.

The toy lines names change to keep the retailers buying. They stop buying after awhile if they stop selling. It also gives Hasbro the ability to start fresh and wipe out shelf warmers left over. People would have hated if they had released the rainmakers individually at retail and they'd have shelf warmed because nobody but the minority would want them. Which is the adult collectors. They only did them because it could be exclusive. Exclusives are the reason we got the coneheads. It's the reason we got any ratchet at all. If we'd have gotten them in the main lines, they'd have taken things out to make room for them. Complain all you want about exclusives but this is the best time to be a collector.

We've gotten a ton of amazing repaints/remolds because of exclusives. Hell we even got Hasbro to make Runamuck and Runabout. We are getting obscure G1 characters and not the same 15-20 they ALWAYS have done because of constraints of the amount of figures they can release.

Yes, exclusives aren't available at retail for long usually. That does suck. But the retailer just wants the product to sell. And it does. So they're happy.

 

They've been out in Canada and other parts of the world for a few months. US just got them.

 

Gotcha.

Also since it got brought up...

Amazon Siege Skywarp was available for MONTHS. If you missed out it's because you came in a year too late or were waiting for a sale that was never guaranteed.

Hell, I waited until the last month he was readily available and got it no problem. I don't get where people think he was hard to get. It's like people's memories have gotten crossed with the Amazon Earthrise gaffs of 2020.

 

Well said. For those interested, Scott Neitlich, who was the brand manager for Matty Collector and MOTU at Mattel, and was a huge He-Man fan as a kid, is a lifelong collector and has an excellent YouTube channel, Spector Creative. Excellent channel to watch for any adult collector. Or, really, anyone interested in how some aspect of marketing and product research work. He also talks a lot about HeMan and MOTU and the background stories. Not a toyline I have any interest or experience with, but I love his passion and insight.

The toy industry works on a three-year plan from concept to retail. I suspect Transformers are a bit different, as they have a dedicated fan base in Japan and Asia, and these timelines may be off. Transformers also involve an insane amount of tooling to work compared with, say, Marvel Legends. So there are lots of factors why some things exist and others don't.

The adult collector market is a consistently single-digit percentage of toy sales. Especially in BigBox stores. The largest purchasers of toys are actually adults, and mostly for gifts for kids. (Some of us fall into that gray area. Sure, it's for our kids, but *we* like them, too.) But it's still about what adults will pick up.

I do kind of wish there was some flexibility. As a collector, I would love something like just unpainted transformer molds stamped out and shipped to enthusiasts. Even on sprues. Let collectors and older kids do projects like paint and customize bare molds and put them together like Gundam models. But that's also going to be a rare, niche market.

I'm also pissed I missed out on Skywarp. Only because I have two Siege tetrajets, and the OCD in me wants that third. I kind of resented paying extra for Skywarp because he came with those giant targetmasters or whatever they were. I mean, but I also could just buy a sparkless puke-colored one and customize it.** I have an airbrush. I'm sure the wife won't mind me spending time on that.  

**Just looked and saw the puke seeker comes with two targetmasters like Skywarp. Annoying.

 

I'd rather everybody across the world have access to everything at retail, even if that means less figures overall.

 

Yeah, exactly. I had an Ironhide and Prowl preorder cancelled, and the Walgreens Ratchet might as well have not even existed.

 

Maybe that's what you want. I'll take the same main characters repeating if that means everybody can easily get all the ones from the line they want.