TF Views

JediTricks wrote:I saw that at one of my stores yesterday, Target is out for blood this year, they've changed the price on deluxes 4 times in the past 6 months, they keep micromanaging prices to compensate for slow sales before big pushes where they lower prices again.

Anyway, my point is that the price on SDCC Bruticus might be a teensy bit more justified, being as the new MSRP for Deluxes, and the price the Combaticons will likely be sold for once they hit retail, is $14.99, making the price increase for the exclusive 25%, rather than ~35%. Still a hefty chunk of change, but the markup itself isn’t as bad.

I think what stings the most is just knowing that the full set of toys would’ve been only a little over $50 at retail like four years ago.

I was going to just order a fucking case, but that was before my current situation...and before it was $100 for a case. BBTS, you crazy.

New cases have 8 figures instead of 6.

I think he meant to be refer to that five-figure pack BBTS is selling of all the Combaticons, which is priced at $105, which if you ask me is a worse case of price-gouging on BBTS’s part than the price of the SDCC version is on Hasbro’s.

Basic economics, I guess. Hasbro and retailers like BBTS know fans really want this toy, so they know they can get away with charging us more for it.

First off, you're complaining about someone else's feelings being "wrong", and while I won't get into the ridiculous nonsense comparison to the xmas iphone thing (they are spoiled because that was a gift, if they had PAID THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY FOR A WHITE PHONE AND GOT BLACK THEN THEY WOULD BE JUSTIFIED), I will point out that you are applying your standards and your outrage, you're saying we're spoiled because we don't like the colors on retail Bruticus and don't want to feel gouged for wanting the right colors that were originally shown to us, yet you have the privilege to make that choice and how you express it and you take issue with others for the same.

I just think that if you don’t like the look of one thing, and think the price is too high on another thing, you could just not buy either thing and move on to something you did enjoy, rather than griping like Hasbro is out to get you. Hasbro’s made lots of toys I don’t like. Lots of toy companies have made lots of toys I don’t like, I don’t hold it against them (well, except for Mattel, but that’s because they’re clearly actually evil). Can you imagine if I got upset and complained about every toy in the toy aisle that didn’t appeal to me specifically?

Yeah, I'm talking about a Transformer and Transformers-related business on a Transformers forum, what a spoiled asshole I am for thinking this might be the proper forum to discuss such things with other Transformers fans. Let's all talk about positive ways we can solve poverty and world hunger and overpopulation and murder and rape and hate instead, because if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem, nobody deserves to have any side interests or personal outlets until every single ill in the world is fixed first, amiright? This is a relative situation and you're applying non-relative standards to it. I am confident that for any and every fan there has been and will likely come another time that Hasbro will do something you don't like with the brand that will annoy you, and whether or not you whistle a happy tune past it, you'll still be bothered by it.

True, things bother me, annoy me about the hobby, I’m not denying that. Do you know how many threads I *could* start about how impossible it’s been for me to find a Vehicon, how stupid I think it is that Hasbro couldn’t find a place to release those cancelled Animated figures, or the unmade prototypes? My annoyance at the cancelled DOTM waves and how it gets me down that I’ll have to resort to eBay if I want to get Human Alliance Soundwave? The botched execution on Universe toys like Hot Shot and Cheetor, or the downright confounding color choices on the same line’s Dinobot? Yeah, I *could* complain at length about all those things, but who wants to read that, and how is it going to help me enjoy the hobby more? I’d much rather write about how kickass Masterforce is now that I finally get to watch it, or get excited about the fact that Hasbro’s actually attempting a Combiner again for the first time in a long time, or that they’re actually making a new Shockwave, or maybe go start a thread about that upcoming Thundertron figure, because holy crap bitchin’ third-faction space pirate lion guy!

It used to be to stretch the amount of time new eps were on the air, shrink the large breaks down a little, but then BSG went a really long time on a break, Eureka followed, all the Syfy shows followed those 2, and now a lot of shows do it to the point where it's impossible to follow a story arc because of 2-month breaks every few episodes. There was a time that TV shows ran nearly the whole year solid, now it's 26 weeks per year at best.

Switch countries, maybe? With the exception of a couple holidays and pre-emptings (like three weeks out of the year), I get to watch brand new episodes of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai every single weekend!

That's an odd hair to split. The very figure I referenced, Hasbro's Neon Camo Batman, also doesn't strictly follow your logic: http://gofigureactionfigures.com/product7352.html it's just that the name conjures up years of similar, uglier, even louder-colored Hasbro Batman figures. Still, bright colors are exactly what I meant, even if they aren't day-glo.

Holy hell, that’s an actual toy? Like, I knew that neon and camo and neon camo were common color setups on Batman figures back in the day, so I knew what you were referring to in general, but I had no idea there was an actual toy called ‘Neon-Camo Batman’. Oh man, that’s hilarious.

Still, it’s kind of apples and oranges, isn’t it? Neon Camo on Batman is goofy and out of place because he’s Batman, he’s supposed to be dark and blending into night-time shadows and all. With WfC/FoC-style Transformers though, where everything’s got neon lights pumped through it, where everyone’s some shade of glossy-shiny silver/black/gunmetal or bright red, yellow, or teal (lookin’ at you, Thundercracker), comprised of eXtreeeme pointy metal bits, then a couple of guys being bright yellow and green doesn’t seem too out of place.

Anyway, I just don’t see how the colors are ‘ugly’ just because they’re bright.

Since Hasbro solicits our input and has said that collectors' voices are vital to them, by taking such a hands-off approach you only leave yourself open to the affects that other collectors will have on Hasbro minus your voice, thus minus your interests. You will accept whatever they do and they'll hear from a vocal group at conventions and such and make choices based partly on that input. I'm not going to just take whatever without at least expressing how I feel to my fellow collectors in the hobby.

But by making a point of doing so, and getting so invested in the idea that your input is vital to Hasbro and they’re actually making decisions based on that input (which I personally am not so sure I believe), you’re just opening yourself up to be even more angry and disappointed when they inevitably do stuff that goes against those expressed views.

I dunno, you’re right when you say you have the right to follow/participate in the hobby however you want, it’s just that I can’t get my head around why you would want to set yourself up to get pissed off every time Hasbro makes something that you personally don’t like the look of, unless getting wound up and shitting all over Hasbro is a vital, enjoyable part of the fandom to you.

Again, applying your standards to someone else's situation and then getting outraged by what you perceive me to be saying. My life is not going to come crashing down and I NEVER SAID IT WOULD, but I would prefer the Transformers brand I enjoy to not come crashing down around me, that would bother me. Holy shit dude, I didn't equate Bruticus to my burning to death, I said I didn't like being paying 55% over retail for the product they originally solicited. You know where the real stress has been in this thread? You judging and criticizing me. You're acting like it's there's a clear and obvious delineation in the matter despite it being shades-of-gray that you just can't agree with this time. Hell, your next sentence proves it...

Hey, I agreed with you that the price was too high and that Hasbro was in the wrong for charging it, but I also admitted that I liked the look of the figure enough to bite the bullet and buy it. You on the other hand, I can’t figure out. You think the price is too high, you don’t like Hasbro’s practice of showing off the darker-colored figure as the main release only to relegate it to exclusive, you’ve consistently dumped on everything about the figure itself to the point that I can’t recall a single positive thing you’ve said about it, and you’ve expressed that you find waiting in line to buy the figures at Comic-Con to be a miserable, trip-ruining experience. So…why are you even talking like you still intend to buy the toy? You’ve pretty much made up your mind that you’re going to hate it, and now you’re going to wait hours in line and drop $110 for the privilege of officially detailing how much you hate it? Why not just skip the line altogether, enjoy the convention the way you want to, maybe drop less than $110 on another Transformer you don’t have that you actually like the look of from the dealer’s room where you won’t have to wait in an ungodly line, and have yourself a great weekend! Heck, you could do all that and just order Bruticus off of HTS after the con if you decide, against all odds, that you still want him, and that way at least you avoid the line you were talking about.

So you just perceive my specific comments to be an out-of-line type of thinking, it's a reasonable thing to do right up until it's not?

Reporting that there’s a new Bruticus coming out and saying there that you personally don’t like the look of it is one thing, reiterating how much you hate it every time it comes up in discussion and going on about how Hasbro clearly hates the fans because of how they’re handling it, and how under-protest you’ll be buying it just comes off as a little excessive.

Thanks for painting me in a specific light, and for writing my script for me. So it's ok to point out flaws, but not to "violently" gripe about it. How was what I said "violent"? Did I scream it in your face? Did I use 152pt fonts? Did I threaten to beat up families while I said it? Show me in my opening post you took issue with all the violence, show me where I said they owe me. Show me in my second post, where is it there? Point it out, prove yourself, show us that your script is matching the actual situation it's purporting to be representing. In public you are saying I'm not only wrong but being a dick about it. You are judging another person's written communications while applying your own slant on how you perceive the situation, that's a pretty fucked-up attitude to take while pretending to be above it all. You have no problem holding your tongue for Hasbro apparently, but it's all-hands-on-deck when it comes to everybody else? Don't paint me with your brush.

I dunno, you seem pretty mad here.

Seriously though, I did re-check out the beginning of this topic, and it was originally just the subject of the Comic-Con exclusives being pricy, which I heartily agreed with you on in my first post (in fact, I didn’t even comment on it there specifically, but I feel it needs to be pointed out that the price on that Cliffjumper is absolutely absurd). The trouble mainly started up when Dom said that retail Bruticus sucked because the colors didn’t match the game version, and I countered that it was still a cool toy just for being a big, kickass, combining robot toy regardless of the colors, and Dom said I was wrong and that I just didn’t have any standards and that such a thing must be generational, and then you jumped in and claimed that not worrying about the colors of my robot toys was some sort of reverse-snobbery and that enjoying things for what they are is somehow a worse view than getting upset with a toy company now that the ‘Final colors and styles of product may vary’ printed on every Transformers box for years finally applied here.

And honestly, yeah, I do just get a lot of negativity about the hobby from you, JT. Seems like a lot of posts from you concern how badly Hasbro’s screwing up the business side of things (I think there are at least two separate topics about how unhappy their release of the TFPrime line makes you), how much you hate the way current products look, how horrible they are at distribution which is clearly all their fault and has nothing to do with retailers over-ordering on initial cases and then giving Hasbro no chance to ship later waves, or just how much you hate the line of the moment for one reason or another (TFPrime, DOTM, PCC, what was the last TF line that you genuinely enjoyed?). It’s to the point that I was downright shocked when you started that topic about how good you thought FoC Shockwave looked.

Maybe you coming across excessively angry about such things is just the way I read forum posts (when is the future going to arrive and we’ll be able to properly convey emotion and tone through prose messages?!), but I think a lot of it is just carried over from seeing other, genuinely angry/entitled posts on other forums from people who really do think Hasbro owes them better toys just because they complain the loudest about it. It also comes from seeing just how many people *hate* Transfans in general for this attitude (seriously, we are not a popular fandom out there. Some people equate our level of annoyance with furries, just stemming from different factors), this constant griping and complaining despite all the cool stuff we’re privileged to get anyway, and I can actually see where they’re coming from, and damn if I don’t want to be equated with that part of the group.

"How could they have known what I wanted?" Well yeah, obviously, they can't have known because you actively don't participate in the process. They know what I want. They know what my friend Tycho wants, he tells them every single year at length at the show what he wants to the point where I roll my eyes and walk away because he has a very specific list of things. They solicit and actively seek out such opinions, but because you feel they're beneath you to express or not your place to take part in this sort of discussion, they don't know what you want.

Have they actually ever given Tycho any of the things that he asks for? Hasbro sends reps to these events to politely listen to what the fans have to say because that makes sense from a business-image perspective, but I don’t know that they’ve ever directly acted on ideas that the fans gave them, and I would never expect them to. I didn’t become a fan of Transformers so I could ask Hasbro to make stuff to appeal to me, I’m a fan of Transformers because the stuff Hasbro was making *already* appealed to me.

Up until now, I thought you felt everything was strawberries and smiles with this set.

Yeah, because I didn’t waste my time griping about things I couldn’t change on a toy I wanted to buy anyway, because I felt that might be fruitless and annoying. Crazy concept, I know.

You misunderstand, I am saying that every time you choose to buy 1 figure over another, you are as spoiled as anybody else voicing a preference. You said we're spoiled for voicing our preferences in discussion here, and I was saying that you're also voicing your preference but doing so at the register with your dollars.

No? There’s nothing spoiled about choosing how to spend my own money, that’s just…what you do in a society that pays you money to spend on goods. Hell, if I buy a toy, don’t like it, and write a negative review of it, that’s not spoiled either. Like you said, we’re on an open forum to discuss toys, and writing a few words to warn others about one that might be a less worthy purchase than another is a solid use of the text-space. It’s stuff like what went down with Bruticus that gets to me. Hasbro reveals a mold in one set of colors, then shows off the official retail version in a different set of colors (which has never happened ever, certainly not), and fans go ballistic, acting like they’re owed a darker-colored Bruticus simply because Hasbro’s aware of their existence, picking apart every element of the mold because they expect Hasbro’s first pass at a full-size gestalt in seven years to be absolutely perfect, and generally acting like entitled babies because they didn’t get exactly what they wanted instead of just going “Oh, that toy doesn’t really appeal to me, guess I won’t buy it” and shutting up there. Admittedly, JT, I’m referring more to other fans in other places in this, though you’ve been pretty vocal about how much you hate the toy too. It’s like, I get it, you don’t like it, how does hearing about this again help anyone’s enjoyment of the hobby? And if you hate it so much, why are you still talking like you’re going to buy it anyway just to hate it more?

Hasbro couldn't do a fan's choice poll the way Star Wars has it because the entertainment in TF is predicated by the toys, whereas in SW the toys are predicated by the entertainment.

That’s kind of a cop-out. There’s a billion established characters that Transfans ask for new toys of every day. You’re telling me they couldn’t throw Trailbreaker, Hoist, Blitzwing, Whirl, and Bombshell onto a poll to let fans pick who gets a new Generations toy?

Generations IS designed for you, they're designed for collectors, and meant to also appeal to casual consumers.

I’m still kind of lost on what this ‘casual consumer’ thing is. Movies have casual consumers, video games have casual consumers, but toys? You’ve got the people who are actually fans of the brand who are the adults going out and buying these things; very few average joes are at the store randomly going “Hey, I’ll see if any children’s action figures catch my eye!”.

What you inferred is not about me, it's about you; I was pretty clear with what I said and that wasn't it. I said babies like things ONLY because they're bright and shiny and colorful, but as they grow up and learn to become people, that is no longer their solitary criteria for liking something.

Okay, I’ll admit, I’m utterly lost now. Are you saying that I’m immature for liking Sharkticon’s colors, or is it somehow okay to like the colors so long as I also appreciate that he turns into a badass shark spaceship and has bicep swivels in robot mode?

Actually, in my eyes, it's more like if I'd been buying falafel at Trader Joe's for years, Trader Joe's solicited a new kind of falafel that looked good, I saw those solicits and said "Oh, that looks like it might be good, I'll try it when it comes out", it comes out, they've changed the recipe a bit since the original solicits, I try it, and I don't like it. But that's okay, because Trader Joe's still carries lots of other varieties of falafel that I DO like, and indeed plenty of other kinds of foods besides, so I'm not going to starve just because one new item they came out with doesn't suit my tastes.

Which is it, there's a lot of big combiners to choose from, or this is a unique situation?

Maybe there aren’t a lot of big combiners/falafel to choose from, but there are still plenty of Transformers/Trader Joe’s foods available, and it’s senseless and exhausting to get overly butthurt about a lack of either.

I appreciate your interest in conserving my time and energy, but if it's all the same to you I'll make those choices for myself, thanks. And I'm not worried about people who aren't listening, I'm expressing my feelings to my friends and opening it up to discussion on that specific matter. If I spent a considerable amount of my discretionary hobby money and time on taco salad, then I might seek out discussions with other taco salad enthusiasts and have discussions - pro and con - about taco salads, and I wouldn't feel that's a waste of my time and energy. But since I rarely eat taco salad or think about taco salad, I relegate those conversations to "virtually never" and save my time and energy for other things, like work, toy collecting, friends, photography, driving, watching tv, cleaning, paying for these forums so I can get trashed on the internet by people who are bitching about the perception of others trashing something on the internet.

Well at least you’ve got a good sense of humor about the whole situation. I’ll be honest, every time I compose one of these posts, I get on afterwards concerned that this might be the one that gets me banned for insubordination or somesuch. So I’m sorry if I come across overly strong or assholeish, and I’m glad at least one of us can be understanding.

Yeah world, that's right, it's my money bitch, I can do what I want! I'm a fuckin' grown-up, and if I decide I don't like the SDCC one maybe I'll buy the Amazon one in its hideous G2 colors because Dom made a persuasive argument. THAT COULD HAPPEN AND THERE'S NOTHING ANYBODY CAN DO ABOUT IT, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Your minds = blown.

I’m just going to laugh is Hasbro takes your purchase of G2 Bruticus not as “Make toys that are accurate to the media” but as “Make toys in ridiculous bright color schemes” and that’s all we get for the next two years.

$15 certainly is close enough as you wouldn't walk out of the store with the toy for anything less than that. (and I will now revise that upwards to ~$17 now since it's 14.99 plus tax).

Also, I like neon/florescent colors. Make of that what you will.

JediTricks wrote:

Tigermegatron wrote:The HTS.com site has been updated with a new saving code: SUMMER10 ,use this code to save 10% off ur order. this code can be used to save 10% off ur SDCC Bruticus.

That code expires on July 8th, 3 days before Comic-Con preview night and 8 before HTS puts up their stock.

Thanks for the code expiration date info.

Personally to name this HTS code "Summer" & have it expire in under one week is pretty weak/lame-o & not really a summer code.
a true summer code last for the whole summer,not 1 week of the summer.

Hopefully Hasbro releases a HTS SDCC code,so buyers can save a bit on their order. With the way hasbro has been doing things lately. I wouldn't be surprissed if their was no sdcc saving code. and in order to get free shipping on HTS SDCC ordering week a buyer needs to spend over $150 on their order.

Wow, that free shipping expiration date just seems like insult added to injury, ya know? Objectively, it should not. But, in this case, it kinda feels that way...

Quite right. The thing is, we gave a little ground on medium things, we gave Hasbro an inch and it feels like they're taking a mile now - I don't want to feel like a sucker like that, and it doesn't look like it's paying off that well as a business choice on Hasbro's part on the larger scale, but they keep making compromises and gaffes assuming since they were able to not totally fail last time that they can get away with just a little more next time. So how much are we willing to endure? A little? A lot?

Given their performance since late '10, it almost feels like Hasbro is trying to see how hard they can push on things.

Honest mistakes and misteps are one thing. But, Hasbro has been so consistently screwing up basics for the last 18 months that part of me wonders if they are trying to see how much they can get away with.

The t-crotches on the new "Spider-Man" figures come to mind here. Hasbro was phasing out t-crotches ~10 years back, and with good reason. They are shit. In some ways, the new "Spider-Man" figures compare badly to SW figures from 15 years ago, due to the lack of a waist swivel.

For the most part, kids are not going to realize what a step back t-crotches are for the simple fact that they are not going to remember anything else. Kids who are between 10 and 14, (who are past the "play" stage, are buying figures on rote and might be in the first stages of becoming collectors), are going to notice that new "Spider-Man" toys compare badly to old Marvel figures. Ironically, this might push a few potential collectors out of the hobby before they are properly in. But, Hasbro is likely assuming that most kids will age out either way. As for adult collectors, Hasbro might well be guessing that most of us will keep with the hobby out of habit or a sense of obligation to support the hobby to keep the hobby alive. Sadly, I think that too many adult fans will do that.

I remember 1988/89. I know that I skipped more TFs and (to a lesser extent) Joes at that point. Part of it was that I was getting older. Part of it was that I was getting in to comics and other stuff. But, part of it was that the newer toys compared badly to the older toys. The first time I saw a commercial for Iron Grenadier Destro, I knew that he was taking the "named character with small vehicle" slot pervious occupied by Serpentor. Destro and his chariot compared well enough. But, Overlord and Dictator? I bought that set, and felt almost betrayed. BF2000? I was left wondering why the vehicles of the future felt cheaper than the vehicles of yesterday. And, have I ever told you how much I hated Bludgeon's toy?

If not for comics, (which are even less appealling and accessible to kids than they were 20+ years ago), I likely would have been out of both hobbies by 91 at the latest.

Right now it feels like they're in a nosedive in all their brands, so either they tighten up or they flop on their faces like in '01 where they risked bankruptcy and had to totally restructure management and infrastructure.

Well, if they want to see how far they can take this, good for them. Thus far, TF: Prime is on track to becoming the second TF line that I have skipped entirely. If they want to turn their brands in to the types of brands that kids buy and forget, then good for them. I am not going to stick around for it. Provided that the comics are good, I will be happy to save money by skipping toys.

Yeah, but the promise of possibility of mainstream release on Thundergate was always there, while there's no promise of a subsequent mainstream release here.

It really is no less possible here. Hasbro could release a correctly coloured Bruticus at retail. Though it is much less likely, especially if the first retail release tanks anywhere nearly as badly as we are predicting that it will.

That's an odd hair to split. The very figure I referenced, Hasbro's Neon Camo Batman, also doesn't strictly follow your logic: http://gofigureactionfigures.com/product7352.html it's just that the name conjures up years of similar, uglier, even louder-colored Hasbro Batman figures. Still, bright colors are exactly what I meant, even if they aren't day-glo

That particular Batman almost makes sense. In the future, where (according to cartoons and movies) there are neon signs everywhere, Batman might have need for neon camoflage. On some level, it makes sense, though I doubt Mattel was thinking that when they released the toy. (Ski Batman on the other hand was a piece of shit through and through.) The real problem, as I am sure JT would agree, is the fact that shelves get choked with non-sensical (often obnoxious) recolours, often at the cost of legitimately coloured toys.

Hasbro couldn't do a fan's choice poll the way Star Wars has it because the entertainment in TF is predicated by the toys, whereas in SW the toys are predicated by the entertainment. However, they have repeatedly asked our opinions on stuff like Hall of Fame, which gives them marketing feedback to a degree, and in other ways as well. They make what they make, they are in charge, that's not in question, but they ask us to help them shape where the brand goes.

They could. But, unlike SW, Hasbro has no external force (a license owner/holder like Lucasfilm) to make them do it right.

That’s kind of a cop-out. There’s a billion established characters that Transfans ask for new toys of every day. You’re telling me they couldn’t throw Trailbreaker, Hoist, Blitzwing, Whirl, and Bombshell onto a poll to let fans pick who gets a new Generations toy?

Exactly. They could even, to a point, let fans choose aesthetic. (Trailbreaker ala UT or TFA?)

I just think that if you don’t like the look of one thing, and think the price is too high on another thing, you could just not buy either thing and move on to something you did enjoy, rather than griping like Hasbro is out to get you. Hasbro’s made lots of toys I don’t like. Lots of toy companies have made lots of toys I don’t like, I don’t hold it against them (well, except for Mattel, but that’s because they’re clearly actually evil). Can you imagine if I got upset and complained about every toy in the toy aisle that didn’t appeal to me specifically?

A big part of this is the blatant insult of releasing a better toy as a convention exclusive when it could easily have been a mass retail toy.

I’m still kind of lost on what this ‘casual consumer’ thing is. Movies have casual consumers, video games have casual consumers, but toys? You’ve got the people who are actually fans of the brand who are the adults going out and buying these things; very few average joes are at the store randomly going “Hey, I’ll see if any children’s action figures catch my eye!”.

In the case of toys, casual customers are kids/parents who are buying based on brand recognition, but not as collectors. At a certain level, all similar brands and products are competing with each other. TF has direct competitioni with Power Rangers or other robot lines. But, ultimately, TF competes with Marvel figures, with Joes, with DC figures, with..... You get the idea.

A 6 year old kid is as likely to buy a "Ben 10" figure or some "Bakugan" as he is to buy a Transformer. That is why each brand should try to make itself stand out. If a kid gets one figure from a line, that figure needs to sell the rest of the line. The more TF makes itself less unique, the less it will be able to claim customers and compete against other lines. Hell, Bruticus could lose to Bakugan because that line often sells cheaper combiners in complete sets. And, along similar lines, the less fun the hobby is for us.

(And, this is part of why understanding the business side of the hobby helps.)

I get on afterwards concerned that this might be the one that gets me banned for insubordination or somesuch.

If Synjo's furry ass was never actually banned, why would you be worried? (Of course, he had the good grace to eventually leave on his own, and to annoy people elsewhere. But, he was never banned.)


Dom
-should thank Hasbro for making it easy to save money....

And now Amazon has officially put up G2 Bruticus' preorder for $60. Grab the preorder; I didn't know this but apparently Amazon doesn't charge your card until the thing is ready to ship, ala BBTS. At that price, and with that knowledge, there's no reason not to click the button.
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-A105 ... 2+bruticus

Onslaught Six wrote:And now Amazon has officially put up G2 Bruticus' preorder for $60. Grab the preorder; I didn't know this but apparently Amazon doesn't charge your card until the thing is ready to ship, ala BBTS. At that price, and with that knowledge, there's no reason not to click the button.
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-A105 ... 2+bruticus

Oof, that's damn tempting. When does this thing come out? I was planning on grabbing SDCC Bruticus off of HTS post-SDCC, but this is just staring me in the face as cheaper AND easier to get (free shipping!). Dang, have there been any pictures leaked of exactly what this thing'll look like, exactly?

Yeah, AmiAmi does the "Don't charge until the item actually comes in" pre-order thing too, which can lead to...some dangerously easy impulsive pre-ordering. They compensate for this though by having most of the stuff I want (basically any SH Figuarts) sell out their pre-orders within a minute or two of going up. I've gotten...pretty adept at sniping those pre-orders.

Yeah, I've done things on BBTS before. I like it because it easily allows me to cancel and not really worry about it, either.

And yes, we do have pics...sorta.
http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/vi ... hp?t=86933

Here's the deal, this was revealed a few weeks (months?) back, with no actual connection to Amazon shown--but we did know Amazon would have an exclusive, and that there'd be a G2 Bruty skin if you preordered the game from there, so. (Speaking of, I'd think this would come out, at the least, in September at the earliest.)

But yeah, basically it'll look like that! Though judging by the poses, these are just shoops.

(Also, the regular Bruticus pics there don't make it look bad at all. Deco-wise.)

Ha ha, oh wow, it's sold out already. Total AmiAmi status. I'm really glad I put my pre-order in now, thanks for talking me into it, Six!

You're telling me! That was fast.

Onslaught Six wrote:And now Amazon has officially put up G2 Bruticus' preorder for $60. Grab the preorder; I didn't know this but apparently Amazon doesn't charge your card until the thing is ready to ship, ala BBTS. At that price, and with that knowledge, there's no reason not to click the button.
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-A105 ... 2+bruticus

I didn't get to post this earlier, but thanks for the info on that, I was able to get my preorder in.

BWprowl wrote:Ha ha, oh wow, it's sold out already. Total AmiAmi status. I'm really glad I put my pre-order in now, thanks for talking me into it, Six!

A buddy says that with their Unicron, they put up the preorder in a batch of 3, first morning, second day's morning again, and then second day's afternoon, and that was the final batch of orders. He got in on that and they went from preorder to shipping in 1 day. I only hope this isn't the case here because I won't be home when he arrives if so (I just set it so that if it does ship, it'll go to my mailbox place, but I'd prefer to get it in October if I get it at all).

Onslaught Six wrote:You're telling me! That was fast.

At that price? It's cheaper than retail! Of course it moved.