The Transformers VENTING Thread

[The Nemesis]

Originally Posted by LegendaryArticuno

Is Hasbro Pulse worthwhile to check? Factoring the exchange rate and shipping cost, does it still end up being cheaper than Amazon or Ebay?

I've never ordered from it so I can't say. Mostly because in the past nothing that was on Pulse wasn't available through other retailers. Then they changed that with the Centurion Drone and all its extra gear that I wanted and by the time I realized I was SOL.

Originally Posted by wesperino

So will be do overs if they were in the shipping containers that are now lost at sea from the big dump in December.


My exclusive seeker set is with Davey Jones. I sure hope they do another run so every Canadian that pre ordered through amazon Canada gets them. Shit I didn’t even get my ironhide prowl set either.

If something does get a do-over or additional run the Conehead pack might be one of the safer bets because it was weird extenuating circumstances that put them out of circulation. But I'm more thinking about the various exclusives and other limited run productions like Retro Headmasters, Netflix Wave 2, assorted Generations Selects, end-wave Earthrise, maybe even Studio Series 86 and whatnot that have been like pulling teeth to find reliably in store or online. I'm not sure if Hasbro's going to see the impetus to want to do more of them at a later date.


I would love to see for 2022 a sort of secondary non-retailer-exclusive Selects line that is some of the harder-to-find stuff from this year and last. Do a slightly different paint applications Sunstreaker, a non-Netflix bug Bumblebee, the coneheads individually, Runabout and Runamuck, maybe a Netflix Soundwave super-pack with all his tapes. I just have my doubts because that seems like a bit of an undertaking and Hasbro hasn't seemed terribly put out by our struggles this past year or so as collectors.


and I'm right there with you about the coneheads. I have an amazon pre-order as well that's been sitting in my queue since last August. I'm just thankful that it's not been cancelled like some peoples' were.

Originally Posted by UsernamePrime

europe had coneheads on preorder a week ago which is a positive sign at least

Yeah, that's a good sign. I'll still believe it when I see it. Just like I'm allegedly getting Thrust by Thursday via a TRU web order but I'm still fully expecting to open the box and find out it's like... beyblades or something because the way things have gone nothing will surprise me.

[steamwhistle]

Receive Botropolis from Amazon.ca today.
For the first time ever, I received a TF with the shipping label just directly slapped onto the TF box.

[The Nemesis]

If you've seen me in the TRU.ca or BC sightings thread this afternoon, you know where I'm going on this already:


Found out this afternoon that Runabout is done. TRU's computer has it marked as discontinued and no longer shipping to stores.



To the best of my knowledge my local TRU got ONE stock of them which I missed because a stupid employee told me there was none in stock or in transit when there clearly was (because they were there later in the afternoon and I didn't find out until it was too late to get there. And by the next morning when I could get through to ask again they were already gone because people lined up outside the store at opening to clean up the remaining stock)


And TRU.ca was a total gong show, restocking in the middle of the night or early in the morning when half the country is asleep or trying to get ready for their day and the stock they bring online only lasts for like 10 minutes if you're lucky (at which point you have to still be lucky to not be one of the people who gets their order cancelled for ill-defined reasons)


So now the only option out there unless some kind boardie has an extra they're willing to sell at cost is to go on ebay where it seems like the expected sell price with shipping is at least $50-$60. I wanted Runabout badly because I have a G1 one, but like hell do I want to pay close to 2x retail for what is basically a current product line.



Fuck you Hasbro and Toys R Us for botching the rollout of this product so spectacularly. This wasn't some silly limited edition specialty bot that was only being sold to a maximum of 1000 units or something. It was a bog standard figure that happened to be a retailer exclusive. There's basically no excuse for falling this short of meeting demand. but I'm sure they'll magically do a Pulse release again later in the year or something where we can have the honor of paying $25+ for shipping/duty too.


I said it before but collecting from about wave 2 of Siege onward has been so frustrating and taxing that it makes me wonder why I would even want to bother continuing. Unless they really shape up I think Kingdom might be my last line for a while. Which means that their asinine setup has driven me out of the hobby in less than 3 years since I got back in with Power of the Primes in 2018 and here we are in the early stages of 2021 needing to step back off the ledge.

[pandaprime]

I'm not sure if more blame goes to the manufacturer for not producing reasonable quantities for retail to distribute adequately (and fairly!) among the number of stores or more blame goes to retail for really bad distribution of inventory geographically but seriously dislike both happenings.

[nuropa]

I had runabout in my cart 3-4 times in the first couple weeks of March, it restock for a few days around 8-9 am pacific but sold out quickly each time. i couldn't find anything else to get free shipping and not ready to pay $50 for a deluxe. I got thrust though, but too bad about Runabout but i did have my chances.

[The Nemesis]

Originally Posted by pandaprime

I'm not sure if more blame goes to the manufacturer for not producing reasonable quantities for retail to distribute adequately (and fairly!) among the number of stores or more blame goes to retail for really bad distribution of inventory geographically but seriously dislike both happenings.

I blame TRU more than Hasbro. Getting caught off guard by pandemic weirdness in your production setup sucks, but was unexpected and couldn't be controlled for easily. But what's TRU's excuse for a garbage website, unreliable stock tracker info, multiple random, extremely short window restock periods, the high likelihood of getting your order cancelled for undefined reasons, the lack of purchase restrictions (nobody needs 5 Runabouts via the website and many stores weren't restricting copies at all), unhelpful crap customer service people who can't or don't check stock properly, the lack of a pre-order or guaranteed order-to-store/reservation system in 2021, and a general sense that they are simply content to go "oh well" at the first opportunity if it gets you off their back.


I honestly have not had a good experience shopping at TRU over the last several years. The best that I could hope for was to get into and out of the store in a few minutes with maybe what I wanted if I randomly found it on shelves. But trying to buy any specific item from them has been like pulling teeth. And especially my local location hasn't reliably stocked anything remotely new in-store since... maybe wave 1 of Earthrise?


But hey, they've got like 8 Gigawatts that nobody wants because collectors panic-bought them last year when everyone was afraid they would be short-stocked.

[Sunburst]

Recently received some of the kingdom BW toys from a fellow member and while they are awesome toys, I see design pet peeves of mine resurfacing.

- Paint scratching: OP's thighs and waist are painted. With those parts rubbing so much together, why did they even bother?
- Super thin parts: Cheetor's beast neck and Blackarachnia in general comes to mind. Makes the figures feel very fragile, moreso than previous toylines. Oh, and add those neck and chest tabs that are just begging to be broken.
- Hindered articulation: Probably the biggest offender for me, especially when it can easily be avoided. Cheetor's knees that can bend 90° backwards but not forward? Blackarachnia that can hardly lift her legs forward because of her pelvis sculpt? It's a wonder why these things still happen when waist joints and ankle pivots are standard stuff.
- Dissapearance of screws: Good luck trying to mod figures that are hard to disassemble. Won't even try to give Cheetor a 90° knee bend. While attempting to remove the screw on Blackarachnia's butt to try and improve her leg articulation, it sheared right through the threads! and I still can't disassemble with ease as the part is clipped in place! The only screw on the entire figure and it serves no purpose!

I could keep going on about bad distribution and ridiculous price increases, but I'll stop here. Thank you VENTING thread!

[The Nemesis]

The thin plastic is definitely something that I see as an issue too. I've already broken a tab off the back of the cat neck. It happened the very first time I transformed him out of the package. It doesn't hinder the transformation or integrity in cat mode because the hinge is stiff enough, but it's disappointing. I also bent a bit of the side edges of the cat neck the same way, though that didn't actually break clean off.


I know a lot of people have complained about breaking the tab that hold Blackarachnia's boobs in place but that hasn't happened for me yet. Of course I'm also hesitant to transform her at all because of how fragile she feels.




I also feel like elements of BW Megatron are quite stiff and they scare me about potentially breaking something in the act of transformation. Particularly realigning his legs/hips with the double hinge or separating the robot torso from the lower body so you can work the transformation from bot to dinosaur.




It's kind of odd how fragile or risky the BW figures feel compared to how impressively chunky and solid most of the G1 bots in Kingdom or the Studio Series bots do. Studio Series Grimlock is a damn tank and never feels stressful to transform.

[ssjgoku22]

Ugh, the scalping is getting nasty. Saw 5 of the Headmaster reissues (Skullcruncher is now added to the list) selling on Amazon.ca (marketplace seller) for $85-$110 per figure. Makes sense why they're so difficult to find. Disgusting.

[The Nemesis]

Originally Posted by ssjgoku22

Ugh, the scalping is getting nasty. Saw 5 of the Headmaster reissues (Skullcruncher is now added to the list) selling on Amazon.ca (marketplace seller) for $85-$110 per figure. Makes sense why they're so difficult to find. Disgusting.

There was a Chromedome I saw on ebay the other day that was $50 and free shipping, but that was only within the US. If I could just cross the border I could ship it to a depot in Washington and pick it up there, but that's not exactly an option now.