Headmasters?

[Cheers Ian]

Lately I've been really into the G1 Headmasters, and I've been trying to track some of them down, I've managed to get a few of them but I've noticed that the prices are INSANE on these guys.

I managed to track down Chromedome for $58 landed, and I managed to find Skullcruncher for just under $60 as well, both were complete

What's with the high costs? I didn't think they were overly rare, is it just fan demand?

Or is it the fact that complete headmasters are hard to find? After all it is pretty easy to find a headmaster body. The heads can easily cost more than the bodies in most cases.

Just curious if anyone had any opinions on this...

Cheers!
-Ian

[Mighty_Galvatron]

Good question man. If my memory serves, store shelves used to be packed with Headmasters back in the day. I remember being in a TRU and seeing what seemed like one hundred Fortress Maximi alone! And I had no trouble finding Chromedome amongst the boat load of those they had too. Weird. Maybe if people lay off buying them for a while, prices may come down?

[Bruticus82]

The heads are so little, and are easily lost (same with targetmasters). That accounts for the high prices.

I've also heard that the targetmaster "original five" (blurr, kup, hot rod, scourge, cyclonus) are particularly expensive because people had the original mold so they didn't make/sell as many headmaster versions.

[Supernova]

I think there is a bit of a rarity just for the fact that they've never had any kind of re-release unlike many of the 84-86 figures. So, there just isn't the sheer numbers available as you'd have for, say, a Prowl, or Hot Rod, or something.

Also, I think there's just a lot of fan appreciation for the characters and/or gimmick, and they'll tend to want to hang onto them, making for even less of secondary market. It would take quite a dire situation for me to part with my Brainstorm, for example.

[UltraMarknus]

Originally Posted by Supernova

I think there is a bit of a rarity just for the fact that they've never had any kind of re-release unlike many of the 84-86 figures. So, there just isn't the sheer numbers available as you'd have for, say, a Prowl, or Hot Rod, or something.

This!

Back before reissues, it was easy to find these figures for $40 complete TOPS! I think a complete Sureshot could be found for $15 easily. TM Hot Rod used to be the "grail" of the line, easily going for $120. Once he got re-released....not so much. I love these figures and I am a TM Kup body away from having all TMs and HMs and ya, I've paid quite a bit to get them!

[brr-icy]

a lot of people lost the heads, and small weapons/helmets from the hm jrs, so they are expensive

[chans formers]

Originally Posted by Mighty Galvatron

Good question man. If my memory serves, store shelves used to be packed with Headmasters back in the day. I remember being in a TRU and seeing what seemed like one hundred Fortress Maximi alone! And I had no trouble finding Chromedome amongst the boat load of those they had too. Weird. Maybe if people lay off buying them for a while, prices may come down?

actually,each store (tru,etc)only had 4-8 fort max's each along with 3-4 gijoe uss f.l.a.g.g.'s.(boiled down to shelf room)

but like brr-icy said,it's basically more expensive because most people lost all the small accessories.although there are certain bots who nobody liked/bought back in the day,prefering to purchase more well known bots instead.(kinda like how many target master kup/blurr/hotrods there are floating around,as opposed to target master cyclonus and scourge,who are that much harder to find nowadays.everyone wanted the good guys,no love for the decepticons)

look at fort max.his rarity is due mostly to most parents back in the eighties not being able to afford the big bot.then,out of those that could,how many of the owners had friends that would come over and fortmax would magically be missing his head or spike because some said "friend" decided he needed spike and cerebros more than the owner?(as a young'un,i had a complete foort max for all of one week before a "friend" decided to liberate me of his 2 heads)
this is one reason why the price of a complete fort max is so vastly different as compared to a junker/incomplete fort max.the same rule can pretty much be applied to the smaller headmasters too,just nowhere near as expensive.

[Pascal]

I remember buying minty mint and complete Apeface and Snapdragon for about $35 each 4 years ago. Try that now... impossible.