I'm curious: what categories of toys do you folks see on there that you feel are pricey? I really only buy Masterpiece Transformers (official and 3rd party), and I have a hard time thinking of something that was above MSRP. TFSource routinely hikes up the price on anything that's more than five minutes old; Toy Dojo tends to be MSRP; The Chosen Prime tends to be either MSRP or $5 above MSRP but only for some items (I haven't noticed a pattern yet); and BBTS tends to be MSRP.
When getting pre-orders, 3rd party Transformers fans tend to shy away from BBTS because they always get their stock in much, much later than the other stores I mentioned (like, one month later at least, sometimes more). They also seem to take a long time to ship an order out. Otherwise, they are extremely dependable, they have excellent customer service, and they've been around forever (my first order from them was in 2010)
I'm curious: what categories of toys do you folks see on there that you feel are pricey? I really only buy Masterpiece Transformers (official and 3rd party), and I have a hard time thinking of something that was above MSRP. TFSource routinely hikes up the price on anything that's more than five minutes old; Toy Dojo tends to be MSRP; The Chosen Prime tends to be either MSRP or $5 above MSRP but only for some items (I haven't noticed a pattern yet); and BBTS tends to be MSRP.
When getting pre-orders, 3rd party Transformers fans tend to shy away from BBTS because they always get their stock in much, much later than the other stores I mentioned (like, one month later at least, sometimes more). They also seem to take a long time to ship an order out. Otherwise, they are extremely dependable, they have excellent customer service, and they've been around forever (my first order from them was in 2010)
The items I normally look for there are the current Transformer runs, and they're always more expensive than, well, anywhere else.
EDIT: Looking around, TFSource and Chosen Prime are both similar price to BBTS, so I guess BBTS isn't more expensive than some of the retailers out there, but if I can get it at Target/Hasbro Pulse/Amazon/Walmart, I'd do so just because it's cheaper.
EDIT: Looking around, TFSource and Chosen Prime are both similar price to BBTS, so I guess BBTS isn't more expensive than some of the retailers out there, but if I can get it at Target/Hasbro Pulse/Amazon/Walmart, I'd do so just because it's cheaper.
That's interesting and good to know. I've always noticed that BBTS sometimes was a few dollars more than retail (Target, Walmart, Hasbro Pulse, Amazon) but didn't realize that The Chosen Prime and TFSource were similarly higher. I figured BBTS went a bit higher since they offered $4 flat shipping and needed to cover their loss there. Seems that they are just eating the cost to hopefully gain more business.
Given how bad toys are being shipped via Amazon, Walmart, and Target this year I have gone to buying from BBTS, Entertainment Earth, and Hasbro Pulse if I really want a toy. So far those three have not let me down by cancelling a pre-order, shipping a boxed toy in an envelope, or just flat out delay it till next year. Unfortunately there are some exclusives that I still have to buy from the main stores but I'm now questioning if I really want to buy toys if I have to suck it up.
Haven’t had too many problems with Amazon, the worst I can say about them is that it’s difficult to get their exclusives because resellers snap them up immediately and then repost them as 3 party sellers at triple price. I got the clones but literally everything else I’ve gone for went out of stock almost immediately.
Walmart I actively avoid as much as possible (mainly because the one near me almost never had what I’m looking for), but their website did hook me up with G1 reissue Astrotrain and considering they’re the only game in town right now for the G1 reissues I don’t have much choice
Target is hit or miss, if I can go into the store and pick it out great.
Haven’t had too many problems with Amazon, the worst I can say about them is that it’s difficult to get their exclusives because resellers snap them up immediately and then repost them as 3 party sellers at triple price. I got the clones but literally everything else I’ve gone for went out of stock almost immediately.
Walmart I actively avoid as much as possible (mainly because the one near me almost never had what I’m looking for), but their website did hook me up with G1 reissue Astrotrain and considering they’re the only game in town right now for the G1 reissues I don’t have much choice
Target is hit or miss, if I can go into the store and pick it out great.
Yeah, I've been lucky myself. *knocks on wood* Well ok, so far Target's exclusive Thrust has been delayed twice now and a pre-order from Walmart for Snapdragon back in February of this year is now delayed till January 2021, but all the cancelled pre-orders I had with various stores I was able to purchase after launch date (Target mainly). I ended up buying Trailbreaker and pre-ordering Warpath from BBTS since Target cancelled that order and at the time they were the only ones who had a pre-order or in stock. Since then Trailbreaker has been in stock on Amazon taunting me. Ha ha ha ha.
Reading the horror stories on TFW2005 Forums of Amazon cancelling pre-orders taking too many of them (rumored on toys, but actually happened on a music pre-order), Walmart shipping essential oils instead of Transformers orders (and even bowel movement supplement), Targets randomly cancelling pre-orders, and all three of them shipping toys in padded mailers just makes me worry about them getting orders right or intact. Heck, I recently got an Amazon Japan order cancelled since they would not allow me to change payment methods (this also happened to many others on Walmart and Target sites).
But yeah, 2020 has been crazy!
Edit: I also forgot that I don't go into stores if I can help it. So yeah, all of my toy purchases have to be pre-ordering/online or for store pickup. 90% of my orders have been online. I did brave going to the mall to finally pick up my pre-ordered copy of The Rise of Skywalker from the Disney Store and a Lego AT-AT since my wife did not want me to miss out on getting an AT-AT after missing out years ago.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
edited December 2020
I know ya'll aren't talking about the ball jointed doll sphere when discussing price, but in case anyone's curious, Smart Doll, the type of doll I collect, is actually mid-range in terms of price, even on the lower end of mid-range. This is because BJD's are largely done by individual artisans and take a lot of effort and time and handmade crafting. Even if you decide you wanted to craft your own BJD, it would never be to save money because it would cost you just as much if not more to sculpt your own, at least compared to the average price.
So Smart doll is around $500-$800, another very popular BJD brand, Dollfie, is around $600-1,000. Not too long ago I bought a porcelain BJD from an Etsy artist for $350, it's much smaller scale, however (Barbie size). There's a BJD artist I greatly admire who does the 1:6 (Barbie) scale and sells her porcelain dolls for $60,000 each, with a second-hand market that can start from $30k on the low end.
Edit: The expensive BJD artist, whose brand is Enchanted Doll, also uses things like real gold in making headdresses an tattoos on her dolls, so the price is partially explained by that. But mostly it's just because it's quality art.
Cambiata on
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I know ya'll aren't talking about the ball jointed doll sphere when discussing price, but in case anyone's curious, Smart Doll, the type of doll I collect, is actually mid-range in terms of price, even on the lower end of mid-range. This is because BJD's are largely done by individual artisans and take a lot of effort and time and handmade crafting. Even if you decide you wanted to craft your own BJD, it would never be to save money because it would cost you just as much if not more to sculpt your own, at least compared to the average price.
So Smart doll is around $500-$800, another very popular BJD brand, Dollfie, is around $600-1,000. Not too long ago I bought a porcelain BJD from an Etsy artist for $350, it's much smaller scale, however (Barbie size). There's a BJD artist I greatly admire who does the 1:6 (Barbie) scale and sells her porcelain dolls for $60,000 each, with a second-hand market that can start from $30k on the low end.
Yikes! I'll never complain about the prices of mass produced toys again! Even the most expensive Transformer was $450 in the USA (a Masterpiece Optimus Prime), which you could get for under $400 on sale. Heck, even the crowd funded Hasbro Pulse Haslab Unicron was $574.99. No wonder you cry when they put them on sale.
I know ya'll aren't talking about the ball jointed doll sphere when discussing price, but in case anyone's curious, Smart Doll, the type of doll I collect, is actually mid-range in terms of price, even on the lower end of mid-range. This is because BJD's are largely done by individual artisans and take a lot of effort and time and handmade crafting. Even if you decide you wanted to craft your own BJD, it would never be to save money because it would cost you just as much if not more to sculpt your own, at least compared to the average price.
So Smart doll is around $500-$800, another very popular BJD brand, Dollfie, is around $600-1,000. Not too long ago I bought a porcelain BJD from an Etsy artist for $350, it's much smaller scale, however (Barbie size). There's a BJD artist I greatly admire who does the 1:6 (Barbie) scale and sells her porcelain dolls for $60,000 each, with a second-hand market that can start from $30k on the low end.
Yikes! I'll never complain about the prices of mass produced toys again! Even the most expensive Transformer was $450 in the USA (a Masterpiece Optimus Prime), which you could get for under $400 on sale. Heck, even the crowd funded Hasbro Pulse Haslab Unicron was $574.99. No wonder you cry when they put them on sale.
The funny thing is the sale wasn't even that much of a reduction! It was something like the difference between $480 and $450 - barely anything when you compare it to the full price! If Danny Choo really did a sale and put them up for $250 or something I probably wouldn't be able to resist, but he'd also probably be selling them at a loss if he did that.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I know ya'll aren't talking about the ball jointed doll sphere when discussing price, but in case anyone's curious, Smart Doll, the type of doll I collect, is actually mid-range in terms of price, even on the lower end of mid-range. This is because BJD's are largely done by individual artisans and take a lot of effort and time and handmade crafting. Even if you decide you wanted to craft your own BJD, it would never be to save money because it would cost you just as much if not more to sculpt your own, at least compared to the average price.
So Smart doll is around $500-$800, another very popular BJD brand, Dollfie, is around $600-1,000. Not too long ago I bought a porcelain BJD from an Etsy artist for $350, it's much smaller scale, however (Barbie size). There's a BJD artist I greatly admire who does the 1:6 (Barbie) scale and sells her porcelain dolls for $60,000 each, with a second-hand market that can start from $30k on the low end.
Yikes! I'll never complain about the prices of mass produced toys again! Even the most expensive Transformer was $450 in the USA (a Masterpiece Optimus Prime), which you could get for under $400 on sale. Heck, even the crowd funded Hasbro Pulse Haslab Unicron was $574.99. No wonder you cry when they put them on sale.
The funny thing is the sale wasn't even that much of a reduction! It was something like the difference between $480 and $450 - barely anything when you compare it to the full price! If Danny Choo really did a sale and put them up for $250 or something I probably wouldn't be able to resist, but he'd also probably be selling them at a loss if he did that.
Ahhhh, that makes sense why you were sad but not desperate. Although that is the difference of having a doll AND a ton of instant ramen. :P
Haven’t had too many problems with Amazon, the worst I can say about them is that it’s difficult to get their exclusives because resellers snap them up immediately and then repost them as 3 party sellers at triple price. I got the clones but literally everything else I’ve gone for went out of stock almost immediately.
Walmart I actively avoid as much as possible (mainly because the one near me almost never had what I’m looking for), but their website did hook me up with G1 reissue Astrotrain and considering they’re the only game in town right now for the G1 reissues I don’t have much choice
Target is hit or miss, if I can go into the store and pick it out great.
Yeah, I've been lucky myself. *knocks on wood* Well ok, so far Target's exclusive Thrust has been delayed twice now and a pre-order from Walmart for Snapdragon back in February of this year is now delayed till January 2021, but all the cancelled pre-orders I had with various stores I was able to purchase after launch date (Target mainly). I ended up buying Trailbreaker and pre-ordering Warpath from BBTS since Target cancelled that order and at the time they were the only ones who had a pre-order or in stock. Since then Trailbreaker has been in stock on Amazon taunting me. Ha ha ha ha.
Reading the horror stories on TFW2005 Forums of Amazon cancelling pre-orders taking too many of them (rumored on toys, but actually happened on a music pre-order), Walmart shipping essential oils instead of Transformers orders (and even bowel movement supplement), Targets randomly cancelling pre-orders, and all three of them shipping toys in padded mailers just makes me worry about them getting orders right or intact. Heck, I recently got an Amazon Japan order cancelled since they would not allow me to change payment methods (this also happened to many others on Walmart and Target sites).
But yeah, 2020 has been crazy!
Edit: I also forgot that I don't go into stores if I can help it. So yeah, all of my toy purchases have to be pre-ordering/online or for store pickup. 90% of my orders have been online. I did brave going to the mall to finally pick up my pre-ordered copy of The Rise of Skywalker from the Disney Store and a Lego AT-AT since my wife did not want me to miss out on getting an AT-AT after missing out years ago.
I can definitely relate on not going in. We generally only go in Target super early or super late to to avoid crowds when we need to get something that they have issues with for store pickup. I haven’t been in a Walmart since 2019 (and the one near me is terrible with stock anyway).
According to the TFW2005 sighting thread for my state Snapdragon has started shelf warming at Target, may be worth canceling that preorder and seeing if you can store pickup there (assuming you have one nearby).
Preorders have definitely been whack though. I have one outstanding preorder going through Target for Gigawatt and they keep pinging the card for the purchase amount without charging it so they’ve earned a side eye. My Amazon ones (the Clones and Alicon) both were delayed at least once each, but I can put that down to COVID related shipping issues.
Haven’t had too many problems with Amazon, the worst I can say about them is that it’s difficult to get their exclusives because resellers snap them up immediately and then repost them as 3 party sellers at triple price. I got the clones but literally everything else I’ve gone for went out of stock almost immediately.
Walmart I actively avoid as much as possible (mainly because the one near me almost never had what I’m looking for), but their website did hook me up with G1 reissue Astrotrain and considering they’re the only game in town right now for the G1 reissues I don’t have much choice
Target is hit or miss, if I can go into the store and pick it out great.
Yeah, I've been lucky myself. *knocks on wood* Well ok, so far Target's exclusive Thrust has been delayed twice now and a pre-order from Walmart for Snapdragon back in February of this year is now delayed till January 2021, but all the cancelled pre-orders I had with various stores I was able to purchase after launch date (Target mainly). I ended up buying Trailbreaker and pre-ordering Warpath from BBTS since Target cancelled that order and at the time they were the only ones who had a pre-order or in stock. Since then Trailbreaker has been in stock on Amazon taunting me. Ha ha ha ha.
Reading the horror stories on TFW2005 Forums of Amazon cancelling pre-orders taking too many of them (rumored on toys, but actually happened on a music pre-order), Walmart shipping essential oils instead of Transformers orders (and even bowel movement supplement), Targets randomly cancelling pre-orders, and all three of them shipping toys in padded mailers just makes me worry about them getting orders right or intact. Heck, I recently got an Amazon Japan order cancelled since they would not allow me to change payment methods (this also happened to many others on Walmart and Target sites).
But yeah, 2020 has been crazy!
Edit: I also forgot that I don't go into stores if I can help it. So yeah, all of my toy purchases have to be pre-ordering/online or for store pickup. 90% of my orders have been online. I did brave going to the mall to finally pick up my pre-ordered copy of The Rise of Skywalker from the Disney Store and a Lego AT-AT since my wife did not want me to miss out on getting an AT-AT after missing out years ago.
I can definitely relate on not going in. We generally only go in Target super early or super late to to avoid crowds when we need to get something that they have issues with for store pickup. I haven’t been in a Walmart since 2019 (and the one near me is terrible with stock anyway).
According to the TFW2005 sighting thread for my state Snapdragon has started shelf warming at Target, may be worth canceling that preorder and seeing if you can store pickup there (assuming you have one nearby).
Preorders have definitely been whack though. I have one outstanding preorder going through Target for Gigawatt and they keep pinging the card for the purchase amount without charging it so they’ve earned a side eye. My Amazon ones (the Clones and Alicon) both were delayed at least once each, but I can put that down to COVID related shipping issues.
Nice! My wife and I have been tempted to go in early or late to either Walmart or Target on occasion, but just end up not going. Figure if we went at "dinner time" it would be nice and dead. Yeah, Snapdragon I feel has come and gone for deliveries to the stores. Mine was a price mistake and got him for $18 or so. Since I really do want him though I better go and pick him up. Just worrying that my wife might have got one for me as a Christmas present so waiting till after to buy him.
Yeah the Target pinging card for pre-orders (and Walmart too) is annoying and even more so that they'll cancel your pre-order if the ping doesn't work. Hopefully you'll get your Gigawatt. I think Target is the last to get their shipment in and sent out to people from what I read. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a second on later one like Ectotron so I can open one box. The box for him is really awesome and I would hate to open it up. The side has a flap that doesn't open in the traditional sense but folds "down" to simulate the back of the van opening up to reveal the DeLorean.
Whoa, how does that work? Is the porcelain just a surface coating? I imagine that a ball joint made of porcelain wouldn't work unless you were constantly pouring oil into it, but maybe I'm wrong.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
Whoa, how does that work? Is the porcelain just a surface coating? I imagine that a ball joint made of porcelain wouldn't work unless you were constantly pouring oil into it, but maybe I'm wrong.
So this is interesting, actually! What they do is put a leather lining on all the ball joints. Like so:
For the longest time when I was staring longingly at pictures of Enchanted Dolls I wondered what the heck that was between the joints, now that I have a porcelain doll I finally know!
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Hope your sad life stuff gets better. I'm still bouncing around but getting better myself. I know that plus fear of missing out really got me to buy too much. Luckily I went through and cancelled a bunch of pre-orders on stuff I really didn't need. Oddly most were Transformers Exclusives from Amazon.
Thanks, yeah, things are going mostly better now
And yeah, FOMO is brutal. Stupid brain being stupid... but then sometimes I do miss out on things that it turns out I wanted and I get bummed, which brings me too:
I definitely regretted not getting these when Hasbro first put them up, but thankfully they've slowly popped back up here and there. I snagged Tentakil from Hasbro when I posted it not long ago. I also got Overbite from Hasbro months ago when it went up for a bit. BBTS put up Snaptrap(Turtler) and Skalor(Gulf) a couple months ago and I got those on preorder, and now they just threw those final two (Nautilator(Lobclaw) and Seawing(Kraken)) up today.
So I should have them all soon. Strangely, these two today are showing as being available in Jan 2021, whereas Snaptrap and Skalor are listed for May 2021.
And of course before all of this, I preordered God Neptune since I missed out on these originally, and apparently that's currently in transit, so now I have both I guess... I may try to sell God Neptune now.
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Hope your sad life stuff gets better. I'm still bouncing around but getting better myself. I know that plus fear of missing out really got me to buy too much. Luckily I went through and cancelled a bunch of pre-orders on stuff I really didn't need. Oddly most were Transformers Exclusives from Amazon.
Thanks, yeah, things are going mostly better now
And yeah, FOMO is brutal. Stupid brain being stupid... but then sometimes I do miss out on things that it turns out I wanted and I get bummed, which brings me too:
I definitely regretted not getting these when Hasbro first put them up, but thankfully they've slowly popped back up here and there. I snagged Tentakil from Hasbro when I posted it not long ago. I also got Overbite from Hasbro months ago when it went up for a bit. BBTS put up Snaptrap(Turtler) and Skalor(Gulf) a couple months ago and I got those on preorder, and now they just threw those final two (Nautilator(Lobclaw) and Seawing(Kraken)) up today.
So I should have them all soon. Strangely, these two today are showing as being available in Jan 2021, whereas Snaptrap and Skalor are listed for May 2021.
And of course before all of this, I preordered God Neptune since I missed out on these originally, and apparently that's currently in transit, so now I have both I guess... I may try to sell God Neptune now.
Glad to hear that things are going mostly better now. Yeah, that's why the FOMO is strong... since there has been some things I regret not buying when I had a chance. Just finding a happy medium right now.
Cool! I thought there was someone here who missed out on the Seacons when they were first available but didn't know who. Glad you managed to get them all pre-ordered (and one in hand by now). I sorta wanted the God Neptune, but just couldn't justify having two similar huge bots, plus I'm trying to get rid of two combiner teams right now. Haven't listed them yet, but have them on the chopping block. Hopefully you can find a buyer for yours if you do sell it.
I have three new additions to my toy hoarding collection I need to take photos of and share. Well ok, now that I think about it I have way more than that, but off the top of my head 3 big ones I want to share.
Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
edited December 2020
So, speaking of God Neptune, it showed up... in this:
Average 6” Marvel Legend figure for reference.
WTF... I was so confused! There should only be God Neptune in there, no other orders... I assumed it was a box set, but maybe they were all in individual boxes?
So I cracked it open:
lol
Just a bit wasteful
Forever Zefiro on
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
So, speaking of God Neptune, it showed up... in this:
Average 6” Marvel Legend figure for reference.
WTF... I was so confused! There should only be God Neptune in there, no other orders... I assumed it was a box set, but maybe they were all in individual boxes?
So I cracked it open:
lol
Just a bit wasteful
Hahahaha, so you also got the huge box of seafood. I saw photos of lots of people getting that huge box. One person said that their family is going to have fun all day popping all of the pillows. Someone mentioned that this might be because of a cardboard shortage and this was the biggest/smallest box they had in the shipping location. Either way that is seriously funny and sad at the same time.
So last night I couldn't help myself and gave in to my desire to open my newest toy and take photos to share. Now there is a huge story behind this toy that I shall put behind a spoiler tag since, well it is long and I'm going to be long winded.
So back in July Bandai announced the pre-orders for the newest Macross Valkyrie. Their DX Chogokin VF-1S Valkyrie Roy Focker Special Figure (Super Dimension Fortress Macross). Now if you don't know anything about Bandai Macross pre-orders I managed to get one in on the day. For those who don't, here's the problem. First off this toy is not permitted to be sold in the USA because Bandai did not want to get it licensed for sale here, so you can only buy these in Japan. This means that I had to use a site like Hobby Link Japan, Amazon Japan, etc. to purchase it. Now imagine the problems people complained about buying a new Playstation or Xbox and shrink that down to only a half hour at best. So I had sat up till midnight, tons of browser tabs open, phone had a few sites open as well and managed to lock in a pre-order with Amazon Japan. This was lucky since it was only available for a split second it seemed plus Amazon Japan has really cheap shipping via DHL. So I went to bed around 12:30 AM happy that I managed to lock one in at MSRP.
Now here's part one of the fun. Last year my bank voted to merge with another bank. They slowly merged together and they warned that there would be new credit cards issued and early November the old numbers would not work. Now I was waiting patiently for my cards to arrive and they never did. Luckily I called and got a great Manager who called me that Saturday morning to give me my new number so I can swap all my pre-orders over to the new card since the old one was dead as of that morning. I couldn't change over the Amazon Japan pre-order even though Amazon USA allowed me to do so. I figured that this was just a glitch and when the day of the charge they would send me an e-mail letting me change it (like I have done in the past when my bank would block the payment thinking it was a fraudulent charge). By the way, Amazon Japan is an independent entity from Amazon USA.
Part two of my problems started on the day Amazon Japan did not allow me to change the payment on my order. Yeah, they tried to charge my card and it did not work. Amazon Japan and I went in a few circles. This included me e-mailing Jeff Bezos' e-mail address twice to get them to respond. In the end they gave me more money on my Amazon Japan gift card to cover the difference between the pre-order price and the 3rd party sellers.
So yeah, I now have an awesome VF-1S Valkyrie in my collection and couldn't be happier. Here are the photos to share.
The Jetfire funko and a new Stan Lee pop are dropping at 1 CST today and I'll be at work likely slammed so I'm probably gonna have to scoop it secondhand, booo
Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
Awesome, thank you for the heads-up! Those are the same that I preordered from BBTS... I guess they knew about this restock somehow ahead of time? Kinda weird.
Anyway, BBTS did up the cost of two by $5 a piece, plus I get free shipping from Hasbro, so this definitely helps! But damn, why are Turtler and Gulf not until June?? 😩
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Awesome, thank you for the heads-up! Those are the same that I preordered from BBTS... I guess they knew about this restock somehow ahead of time? Kinda weird.
Anyway, BBTS did up the cost of two by $5 a piece, plus I get free shipping from Hasbro, so this definitely helps! But damn, why are Turtler and Gulf not until June?? 😩
Yikes that is some lead time. Although they might get them earlier since some of their deliveries have been early lately.
Apparently, MP Arcee (MP-51) is out in stores in Singapore. An official transformation video came out several days ago, but there were some shenanigans with viewing it (I think it was region-locked and date+time gated or something) but apparently there's a way to work around that on YouTube, and some industrious Internet person downloaded it and put it up on Facebook (which is where I watched it, under the protection of Firefox's Facebook-quarantining features). It might be more readily accessible now, I haven't checked.
It was pretty much what you'd expect: an outer shell made of multiple flaps that fold up into each other, with the robot body tucked inside. My mind wasn't blown by the transformation, but there were a few moments that seemed reasonably interesting. I'm curious to see if the backpack will make her topple or not.
Apparently, MP Arcee (MP-51) is out in stores in Singapore. An official transformation video came out several days ago, but there were some shenanigans with viewing it (I think it was region-locked and date+time gated or something) but apparently there's a way to work around that on YouTube, and some industrious Internet person downloaded it and put it up on Facebook (which is where I watched it, under the protection of Firefox's Facebook-quarantining features). It might be more readily accessible now, I haven't checked.
It was pretty much what you'd expect: an outer shell made of multiple flaps that fold up into each other, with the robot body tucked inside. My mind wasn't blown by the transformation, but there were a few moments that seemed reasonably interesting. I'm curious to see if the backpack will make her topple or not.
That's a bit disappointing that it is mainly a shell with a robot folded up underneath like her Siege version. But I guess there are only so many ways you can make a robot with her proportions transform into a space race car.
I just think the figure looks off. Masterpiece figures had gotten to a point where they were aping cartoon designs incredibly hard, and while it required increased intricacies in the designs, raising the prices by a LOT, I could at least respect it even if I was no longer interested in buying them.
But Arcee has all the negatives of that process, but still misses the mark incredibly hard. Between the bizarrely large collar area which looks TERRIBLE to me, they AGAIN made her waist curvy instead of boxy like in the cartoon. (Which is a sin most Arcee figures suffer). If you're going to charge a double premium, it better look like it walked off the screen. If you're going to not go all the way, at least do so in a way that lowers the price of the figure.
That said, I haven't seen a third party Arcee I like either, so I'm just stuck with my oversized knockoff of the Generations mold.
The extended collar is the main reason I'm not really interested in the figure. It just seems off - and there's nothing about the transformation that seems to warrant it, which means it's either an intentional aesthetic choice, or maybe there's some clearance issue I didn't notice. Either way, disappointing.
That's a bit disappointing that it is mainly a shell with a robot folded up underneath like her Siege version. But I guess there are only so many ways you can make a robot with her proportions transform into a space race car.
Yeah, that's the common thread between the MP Arcees I've seen (Takara's, Mastermind Creations's, Fans Toys's). I wonder if there's a way to have parts of the shell fold into the torso and legs.
There's a chibi, SD-style Arcee from Magic Square that came out recently that hides most of the shell inside her oversized head, which I thought was clever (and kinda funny), but of course isn't applicable to regular Arcee. Unfortunately, the rule seems to be that if you're making a feminine action figure, you have to sexualize her even in chibi format (in this case, very pronounced butt cheek sculpting), so I'm gonna skip her. A bummer, because otherwise she seems really neat.
I am still going to stick with the pre-order of Arcee mainly because I feel guilty for buying a third party one. I always try to buy the legitimate version of any third party toy I get. Since mine was Azalea and she is a somewhat MP version I got the MP Arcee. I made this rule for myself long ago when I used to pirate mp3s. Yeah it is a weird system of mine, but it helps me feel better at night.
Design wise, yeah MP Arcee looks a bit off at some angles. I'm just happy they finally made a version of her to go with Hot Rod. In a way I'm glad they didn't fully sexually objectification her like the third party Nicee did, but yeah I wished they went a bit further and not make her waist all curvy.
Posts
And now you know.
When getting pre-orders, 3rd party Transformers fans tend to shy away from BBTS because they always get their stock in much, much later than the other stores I mentioned (like, one month later at least, sometimes more). They also seem to take a long time to ship an order out. Otherwise, they are extremely dependable, they have excellent customer service, and they've been around forever (my first order from them was in 2010)
The items I normally look for there are the current Transformer runs, and they're always more expensive than, well, anywhere else.
A quick example: The upcoming Kingdom Megatron
Hasbro Pulse: $49.99
Target: $49.99
BBTS: $52.99
EDIT: Looking around, TFSource and Chosen Prime are both similar price to BBTS, so I guess BBTS isn't more expensive than some of the retailers out there, but if I can get it at Target/Hasbro Pulse/Amazon/Walmart, I'd do so just because it's cheaper.
That's interesting and good to know. I've always noticed that BBTS sometimes was a few dollars more than retail (Target, Walmart, Hasbro Pulse, Amazon) but didn't realize that The Chosen Prime and TFSource were similarly higher. I figured BBTS went a bit higher since they offered $4 flat shipping and needed to cover their loss there. Seems that they are just eating the cost to hopefully gain more business.
Given how bad toys are being shipped via Amazon, Walmart, and Target this year I have gone to buying from BBTS, Entertainment Earth, and Hasbro Pulse if I really want a toy. So far those three have not let me down by cancelling a pre-order, shipping a boxed toy in an envelope, or just flat out delay it till next year. Unfortunately there are some exclusives that I still have to buy from the main stores but I'm now questioning if I really want to buy toys if I have to suck it up.
Steam: betsuni7
Walmart I actively avoid as much as possible (mainly because the one near me almost never had what I’m looking for), but their website did hook me up with G1 reissue Astrotrain and considering they’re the only game in town right now for the G1 reissues I don’t have much choice
Target is hit or miss, if I can go into the store and pick it out great.
Yeah, I've been lucky myself. *knocks on wood* Well ok, so far Target's exclusive Thrust has been delayed twice now and a pre-order from Walmart for Snapdragon back in February of this year is now delayed till January 2021, but all the cancelled pre-orders I had with various stores I was able to purchase after launch date (Target mainly). I ended up buying Trailbreaker and pre-ordering Warpath from BBTS since Target cancelled that order and at the time they were the only ones who had a pre-order or in stock. Since then Trailbreaker has been in stock on Amazon taunting me. Ha ha ha ha.
Reading the horror stories on TFW2005 Forums of Amazon cancelling pre-orders taking too many of them (rumored on toys, but actually happened on a music pre-order), Walmart shipping essential oils instead of Transformers orders (and even bowel movement supplement), Targets randomly cancelling pre-orders, and all three of them shipping toys in padded mailers just makes me worry about them getting orders right or intact. Heck, I recently got an Amazon Japan order cancelled since they would not allow me to change payment methods (this also happened to many others on Walmart and Target sites).
But yeah, 2020 has been crazy!
Edit: I also forgot that I don't go into stores if I can help it. So yeah, all of my toy purchases have to be pre-ordering/online or for store pickup. 90% of my orders have been online. I did brave going to the mall to finally pick up my pre-ordered copy of The Rise of Skywalker from the Disney Store and a Lego AT-AT since my wife did not want me to miss out on getting an AT-AT after missing out years ago.
Steam: betsuni7
So Smart doll is around $500-$800, another very popular BJD brand, Dollfie, is around $600-1,000. Not too long ago I bought a porcelain BJD from an Etsy artist for $350, it's much smaller scale, however (Barbie size). There's a BJD artist I greatly admire who does the 1:6 (Barbie) scale and sells her porcelain dolls for $60,000 each, with a second-hand market that can start from $30k on the low end.
Edit: The expensive BJD artist, whose brand is Enchanted Doll, also uses things like real gold in making headdresses an tattoos on her dolls, so the price is partially explained by that. But mostly it's just because it's quality art.
Yikes! I'll never complain about the prices of mass produced toys again! Even the most expensive Transformer was $450 in the USA (a Masterpiece Optimus Prime), which you could get for under $400 on sale. Heck, even the crowd funded Hasbro Pulse Haslab Unicron was $574.99. No wonder you cry when they put them on sale.
Steam: betsuni7
The funny thing is the sale wasn't even that much of a reduction! It was something like the difference between $480 and $450 - barely anything when you compare it to the full price! If Danny Choo really did a sale and put them up for $250 or something I probably wouldn't be able to resist, but he'd also probably be selling them at a loss if he did that.
Ahhhh, that makes sense why you were sad but not desperate. Although that is the difference of having a doll AND a ton of instant ramen. :P
Steam: betsuni7
I can definitely relate on not going in. We generally only go in Target super early or super late to to avoid crowds when we need to get something that they have issues with for store pickup. I haven’t been in a Walmart since 2019 (and the one near me is terrible with stock anyway).
According to the TFW2005 sighting thread for my state Snapdragon has started shelf warming at Target, may be worth canceling that preorder and seeing if you can store pickup there (assuming you have one nearby).
Preorders have definitely been whack though. I have one outstanding preorder going through Target for Gigawatt and they keep pinging the card for the purchase amount without charging it so they’ve earned a side eye. My Amazon ones (the Clones and Alicon) both were delayed at least once each, but I can put that down to COVID related shipping issues.
Nice! My wife and I have been tempted to go in early or late to either Walmart or Target on occasion, but just end up not going. Figure if we went at "dinner time" it would be nice and dead. Yeah, Snapdragon I feel has come and gone for deliveries to the stores. Mine was a price mistake and got him for $18 or so. Since I really do want him though I better go and pick him up. Just worrying that my wife might have got one for me as a Christmas present so waiting till after to buy him.
Yeah the Target pinging card for pre-orders (and Walmart too) is annoying and even more so that they'll cancel your pre-order if the ping doesn't work. Hopefully you'll get your Gigawatt. I think Target is the last to get their shipment in and sent out to people from what I read. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a second on later one like Ectotron so I can open one box. The box for him is really awesome and I would hate to open it up. The side has a flap that doesn't open in the traditional sense but folds "down" to simulate the back of the van opening up to reveal the DeLorean.
Steam: betsuni7
So this is interesting, actually! What they do is put a leather lining on all the ball joints. Like so:
For the longest time when I was staring longingly at pictures of Enchanted Dolls I wondered what the heck that was between the joints, now that I have a porcelain doll I finally know!
I can definitely recommend the set if you were on the fence.
Thanks, yeah, things are going mostly better now
And yeah, FOMO is brutal. Stupid brain being stupid... but then sometimes I do miss out on things that it turns out I wanted and I get bummed, which brings me too:
I came here to post this, hah. Here's the links just for convenience:
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/144794
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/144791
I definitely regretted not getting these when Hasbro first put them up, but thankfully they've slowly popped back up here and there. I snagged Tentakil from Hasbro when I posted it not long ago. I also got Overbite from Hasbro months ago when it went up for a bit. BBTS put up Snaptrap(Turtler) and Skalor(Gulf) a couple months ago and I got those on preorder, and now they just threw those final two (Nautilator(Lobclaw) and Seawing(Kraken)) up today.
So I should have them all soon. Strangely, these two today are showing as being available in Jan 2021, whereas Snaptrap and Skalor are listed for May 2021.
And of course before all of this, I preordered God Neptune since I missed out on these originally, and apparently that's currently in transit, so now I have both I guess... I may try to sell God Neptune now.
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Glad to hear that things are going mostly better now. Yeah, that's why the FOMO is strong... since there has been some things I regret not buying when I had a chance. Just finding a happy medium right now.
Cool! I thought there was someone here who missed out on the Seacons when they were first available but didn't know who. Glad you managed to get them all pre-ordered (and one in hand by now). I sorta wanted the God Neptune, but just couldn't justify having two similar huge bots, plus I'm trying to get rid of two combiner teams right now. Haven't listed them yet, but have them on the chopping block. Hopefully you can find a buyer for yours if you do sell it.
I have three new additions to my toy hoarding collection I need to take photos of and share. Well ok, now that I think about it I have way more than that, but off the top of my head 3 big ones I want to share.
Steam: betsuni7
Average 6” Marvel Legend figure for reference.
WTF... I was so confused! There should only be God Neptune in there, no other orders... I assumed it was a box set, but maybe they were all in individual boxes?
So I cracked it open:
lol
Just a bit wasteful
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Edit: Fixed already
Hahahaha, so you also got the huge box of seafood. I saw photos of lots of people getting that huge box. One person said that their family is going to have fun all day popping all of the pillows. Someone mentioned that this might be because of a cardboard shortage and this was the biggest/smallest box they had in the shipping location. Either way that is seriously funny and sad at the same time.
Steam: betsuni7
Now here's part one of the fun. Last year my bank voted to merge with another bank. They slowly merged together and they warned that there would be new credit cards issued and early November the old numbers would not work. Now I was waiting patiently for my cards to arrive and they never did. Luckily I called and got a great Manager who called me that Saturday morning to give me my new number so I can swap all my pre-orders over to the new card since the old one was dead as of that morning. I couldn't change over the Amazon Japan pre-order even though Amazon USA allowed me to do so. I figured that this was just a glitch and when the day of the charge they would send me an e-mail letting me change it (like I have done in the past when my bank would block the payment thinking it was a fraudulent charge). By the way, Amazon Japan is an independent entity from Amazon USA.
Part two of my problems started on the day Amazon Japan did not allow me to change the payment on my order. Yeah, they tried to charge my card and it did not work. Amazon Japan and I went in a few circles. This included me e-mailing Jeff Bezos' e-mail address twice to get them to respond. In the end they gave me more money on my Amazon Japan gift card to cover the difference between the pre-order price and the 3rd party sellers.
So yeah, I now have an awesome VF-1S Valkyrie in my collection and couldn't be happier. Here are the photos to share.
Steam: betsuni7
Pretty crazy what you went through though! Glad it ended up coming together at least
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Yeah, I'm glad that I ended up getting one in the end. Plus now I have a story to attach to it.
Steam: betsuni7
That seems about right.
https://hasbropulse.com/collections/back-in-stock
Steam: betsuni7
I got my set previously thank you!
But I can definitely recommend them.
Anyway, BBTS did up the cost of two by $5 a piece, plus I get free shipping from Hasbro, so this definitely helps! But damn, why are Turtler and Gulf not until June?? 😩
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Yikes that is some lead time. Although they might get them earlier since some of their deliveries have been early lately.
Steam: betsuni7
It was pretty much what you'd expect: an outer shell made of multiple flaps that fold up into each other, with the robot body tucked inside. My mind wasn't blown by the transformation, but there were a few moments that seemed reasonably interesting. I'm curious to see if the backpack will make her topple or not.
That's a bit disappointing that it is mainly a shell with a robot folded up underneath like her Siege version. But I guess there are only so many ways you can make a robot with her proportions transform into a space race car.
Steam: betsuni7
But Arcee has all the negatives of that process, but still misses the mark incredibly hard. Between the bizarrely large collar area which looks TERRIBLE to me, they AGAIN made her waist curvy instead of boxy like in the cartoon. (Which is a sin most Arcee figures suffer). If you're going to charge a double premium, it better look like it walked off the screen. If you're going to not go all the way, at least do so in a way that lowers the price of the figure.
That said, I haven't seen a third party Arcee I like either, so I'm just stuck with my oversized knockoff of the Generations mold.
Yeah, that's the common thread between the MP Arcees I've seen (Takara's, Mastermind Creations's, Fans Toys's). I wonder if there's a way to have parts of the shell fold into the torso and legs.
There's a chibi, SD-style Arcee from Magic Square that came out recently that hides most of the shell inside her oversized head, which I thought was clever (and kinda funny), but of course isn't applicable to regular Arcee. Unfortunately, the rule seems to be that if you're making a feminine action figure, you have to sexualize her even in chibi format (in this case, very pronounced butt cheek sculpting), so I'm gonna skip her. A bummer, because otherwise she seems really neat.
Design wise, yeah MP Arcee looks a bit off at some angles. I'm just happy they finally made a version of her to go with Hot Rod. In a way I'm glad they didn't fully sexually objectification her like the third party Nicee did, but yeah I wished they went a bit further and not make her waist all curvy.
Steam: betsuni7