Quote:
Originally Posted by Vorahk
Alright since everyone is all hunting for mp soundwave and congrats to everyone who got theirs but i am kinda wondering...why the hell am i going all hard for this thing? To be truthful if i did get him i'd just turn around and trade him to someone here or tfw2005 for something else. I have no mp figs, mostly cause i've passed on the last 4. Passed on skywarp, passed on rodimus, passed on prime, and bought thundercracker but first chance i got sold him. I don't even really like classic soundwave really either. Can anyone prove to me this transformer is worth all this or you know me shelling out what 120 bucks on him?
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(Put on your best British accent when reading this so it sounds as sophisticated in your mind as it does in mine, lol)
Fine Sir,
I'm not going to try and prove anything here, because seriously any sanity or logic goes mostly out the door when any of us step into this realm of hobby and collecting for Nostalgia. Nostalgia collecting is more of an emotional thing than for financial value or logic. Unless you get really nostalgic about coins or stamps, I can not speak more on that matter for I have no experience in it. As for money I can speak on that. Simply a Hasbro MISB MP Soundwave with 5 MP Cassettes for $120 plus tax or the Takara Versions of 4 MP Cassettes for $120 (avg.) and the MP Soundwave for ($160 to $180) to me the value is there as anyone who purchased one with one the coupons for just over $100 is paying a third of the import price of $300 for a similar set. It's hard to not see the value considering that part of the price is engineering and packaging as well as the figure and transportation. Maybe if other things pricing was broken down like when we buy cars there'd be more of an understanding. How much is freight on a toy? I don't know, but $1000 when shipping a car between rail and truck and all the cars that are sold some further math needs to be done on that subject that I'm not going to do here.
All I can provide is my and other motivations behind why I do what I do and in this matter of MP Soundwave and basically all figures I collect for myself anyway. I simply want the best representation of a figure I can have. It's like a personal sport for me, I'm always striving to improve. If I were a hunter or fisherman, I would mount only my first, most challenging, best and/or biggest catches on my trophy wall not all the minnows and Bambi's that I have caught and when I get a bigger one or in this case a better one it will go up on the wall. We choose our battles in collecting, discretion is the better part of valour. There are definitely some characters I like better than others as with any of us we have our favourites and Soundwave is genuinely one of mine. (Motovation 1)
For me I am happy with my Deluxe and Voyager size collection for Classics/G1 and a good chunk of them are from Takara with the exception of Hot Rod, Galvatron and I have a Universe Cyclonus as the "Armada". It'll drive me crazy now though that Blitzwing will be a bit taller than his triple changing Decepticon compatriots, this is all just an example from me of how meticulous I am about collecting Transformers and it's my own personal "thing". On the Masterpiece side of things I'm not really a big collector of them, now that they seem to be at this new level I want to try each mold out once. I have MP Grimlock simply because he is Grimlock and I never had him as a kid but wanted him, Swoop and Sludge to go with my first official TF Snarl and my brother's Slag (another motivation, the ones we never had but wanted). I also got the Tigertrack and it's a fun mold as I've stated elsewhere I'm sticking mostly with the odd balls.
I was a bit older (11) when Transformers came on television and Cassette Man/Soundwave was the first figure I had. Anyone who had Soundwave as a 1st figure I think is more partial to him in my opinion as is anyone to the first figure they had. After watching the show and having the toys I had wanted more then too. I wanted more show accuracy and better articulation and 30 years later I am getting that in spades. I'm still interested in getting that wish fulfilled, why would I pass it up? If you had a 30 year wish in front of you, would you pass it up? If so, why?
Transformers for me has a special place in my heart from growing up, it has provided hours upon hours of enjoyment from show, toys, video games, memories of playing it in the school yard with friends and "oh ya, cool, what one do you have?" and even the occasional heartbreak like the '86 movie which to me is the single biggest reason I am still interested and happy to see Transformers doing as well as it is today. I didn't know how much I liked Prime until he was killed. To me I hated it at the time, even cried in the theatre but I respected that Hasbro had the "balls" to do such a thing many years later because it got me emotionally invested more so than any other program at the time. (3rd motivation?) It's also a reason I don't care much for G.I Joe as even as a kid I was sick of them getting out of a jam or that there we're no real consequences to their war and thus no emotional investment from me other than disdain.
Now for me I have recently acquired the Hasbro MP Soundwave and I would call him an insurance policy (another motivation) for when I do buy the Takara one and hope there are no issues with it or that it does not get damaged in my home. Then I will have spare pieces to use for repair. Also seeing how in demand he is I thought I ought to grab one just incase it's harder to get later. I have already expressed in a couple of threads my thoughts on the Hasbro version of Soundwave and I'll leave it at that.
The last motivation for me is Soundwave is an Iconic enough character and figure in either mode to be a conversation piece in my home when I have visitors be they Transformer fans or not. Another reason I collect TF's is they are also like art to me.
That last motivation, which is not my own is the internet. (I love my old school song by Public Enemy called "Don't Believe the Hype" playing in my head right now) Fortunately and unfortunately the internet provides us with connection, information, instant opinion and gratification which depending on our disposition can be good or bad for us. As I've learned in my wrestling and judo training is to act, not react. I personally witness more reaction than action when it comes to the internet in general terms that is. (If I'm looking in the wrong place please point me to where the action is, lol) So needless to say and as many of us may know it gets people hyped up and shit gets all crazy.
That my friend is my long winded diatribe on this subject, now on to the next thread
