Awesome Shelfwarmers

[brr-icy]

Originally Posted by UltraMarknus

I remember the original Hasbro MP Prime shelf warming here for a long time. That worked out for me because I was on a TF break and my buddy convinced me to pick it up. I also remember the Alternators line...you could find Hound and the first releases for years after their release.

think this has more to do with how little collectors there were in 06, i remember having months to decide if i wanted that prime, and got most of the alts off the shelf as well

[Scrapper6]

Shelfwarmers in todays market are not the same as the past markets. So I really can't say I'm surprised at all the figures left hanging around, they produce more product in the whole nowadays thanks to the influx in interest that is the Bayverse which is why I'm not surprised to see figures hanging around years after the fact. It is much better for budget conscientious collectors compared to the past, as it helps because you will be guaranteed to find a product you really want if you're just calm and saavy enough to take the time to prioritize based on market trends.

That being said there is still the odd development that will take you be surprise when a figure you thought would be snatched up like a hot tamale is around years after the fact.

I will however admit to a few surprises from the Beast Era that hung around a great deal longer than expected.

All of the Fuzors were in pretty large abundance years afterwards, at least when it comes to the Basic sized figures. I remember this because my first Buzzclaw had the peg snap off his arm and I bought a second one at least three years later from Superstore for 5$ Clearance. (As well as a duplicate MOSC BM Buzzsaw, one of my all time favorites from the BM Basic size class.)

Buzzclaw, Bantor, Air Hammer, Noctorro, Terragator all of these are great molds, but because they weren't in the show they hung around a lot longer than I would have expected.

Buzzsaw and Scavenger also seem to have been really bad for shelfwarming from the BM series, as well as Longhorn I think.

I can understand if the toyline was a bit of a flop due to the cartoon and a lack of any meaningful commercials during prime child watching spots, but come on, these figures are all damn skippy in my books and derserving of being recognized by collectors and children alike.

Universe 1.0, oh God Universe 1.0, why did you shelfwarm so much? Bright colors and cool looking figures, that's supposed to be the thing kids like right? Then again...

I loved every version of those toys I had, I'm a bit dissapointed that not many others appreciated them or their color choices. It pains me to think I sold off some figures, but then again, I know in the future I can easily find them again due to the nature of Universe 1.0's lack of selling.

But that's no excuse, these characters and paint jobs were top notch, and the molds were all quite wonderful. Silverbolt, Reptilion, the Machine Robot Rescue repaint car brothers. All of them were great molds with some pretty damn unique paint jobs that deserved better than what they got.

[Alexander Quinn]

ROTF Deluxe Sideways. He's still hanging out at my local Zellers, at full price of course. Still, I really dig that guy. Feet are a wee small, making him a little difficult to stand at times, but I love the transformation and really like the details in bot mode. Course I added some paint apps to mine which I'm sure the general public just wouldn't do, but the mould itself was still pretty fun, especially for a character that was butchered and murdered to death after only seven seconds of movie screen time.

[Commandoclone87]

Originally Posted by Alexander Quinn

ROTF Deluxe Sideways. He's still hanging out at my local Zellers, at full price of course. Still, I really dig that guy. Feet are a wee small, making him a little difficult to stand at times, but I love the transformation and really like the details in bot mode. Course I added some paint apps to mine which I'm sure the general public just wouldn't do, but the mould itself was still pretty fun, especially for a character that was butchered and murdered to death after only seven seconds of movie screen time.

Got the Dead End version of the mold. A tip for the feet is to position the wheels so that they act as sot of heels. It will increase his overall footprint and make him more stable.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I remember both iterations of the lenshead car mould from the first movie sticking around for quite a while after their release, despite being pretty well-designed figures. Even the head, while a bit off-putting at first, does have a bit of personality in a weird sort of way.

'07 Longarm was also a pretty good toy, and '07 Salvage is still probably my favourite pickup truck Transformer in my collection. I'm not sure how well they sold initially, but I know I didn't have much trouble finding mine.

[Nomad]

Well about the Fuzors, I just remember being very lucky to snatch up Quickstrike when I did because at least in Saskatoon anyway, he definitely didn't hang around long like some of his friends. Superstore was the lucky spot once again for getting that guy, and I guess it just reinforced how much easier it was to sell characters that were on the show compare to the ones that weren't.

I mean, we had PLENTY of Lazorbeak, but rarely a Terrorsour, plenty of Razorbeast/Armadillo/the racoon, but rarely a Rattrap, and I'd even go as far as to say that the non-cartoon figures from the ones I just mentioned were better than Rattrap & Terrorsour from a strictly figure to figure perspective. I also remember seeing a good amount of Snapper who again, looked to suffer from the fact that kids weren't drawn to him from the tv show like they were with say Dinobot or Waspinator.

Toys R Us also had a shitload of those Primal & Megatron two packs with the comic (bat & Croc), and I remember freaking the fuck out because I thought these would sell out really fast, especially since they'd been selling this for the same price as a single basic for whatever reason. However, people didn't seem to care about em, and just watched the T-Rex & Gorilla.

[Sun Swipe Prime]

Wasn't the Magnus/Skywarp set a shelfwarmer? Wasn't collecting back then but I remember reading something about it being totally unwanted.

[Nomad]

I don't remember 1st hand either, but I remember people talking on the boards about that, and how like you say, it went from a pack that nobody cared about to something that people were shitting their manties over later on.

[gagagalvatron]

Originally Posted by Nomad

I don't remember 1st hand either, but I remember people talking on the boards about that, and how like you say, it went from a pack that nobody cared about to something that people were shitting their manties over later on.

I remember my thoughts at the time. Classics was relatively new. No one knew where it was going -- I certainly had no idea that eventually all six seekers would come out, for instance. And this set was recolors of stuff that had just come out. It's kind of like now, where a few waves later we find recolors of stuff still on the shelves.

It was a good value, but they were simple recolors. I already had Prime and Starscream. There wasn't anything special about Magnus or Skywarp, and at the time I didn't really have the space for multiple, identical figures. I remember being annoyed that Magnus was just a white Prime, with nothing else special about it. Give me some armor, Hasbro, and I'll care. But at the time, I had no reason to.

I would have passed on it completely had I not found it on clearance, when the good price overrode (what was at that time) good judgment. I still didn't really need them or know what I was going to do with them.

That set sat in my closet unopened for a long time. At one point, I was thinking of selling it for a pittance or even giving away one or the other figures since I didn't think I'd ever need it.

[Nomad]

Yeah, I guess one would have needed to be really attracted to at least one of them in order to pick it up at all (especially at full price). Also, I totally hear ya on the Magnus. Like for me, he was never truly a white Prime. I knew he was that way for the sake of the toy, and I of course assumed he looked like that from seeing the alt mode. However, it was the armour always made him his own character through my eyes, and to have him without it seemed unsettling. Heck, I was even turned off by the classics Nemesis Prime or whatever it's called at first because in my absence from the fandom, I had no idea who he or Scourge was, and I initially saw it as a lame way of releasing a new Motormaster toy under a new name.

However, since black repaint are great by default (can never be too many ), this feeling soon passed, and thus began my slow return to what now surrounds me.


I just thought it'd be interesting to look back on the stuff that nobody seemed to want at a certain time, but that seemed to grow on us later on. Well that, and of course to poke around on wide ranger, regional & personal trends that can often be just that.