Universe out in UK?

Neuronutter · Post by **Neuronutter** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:45 pm

I went in an Argos at the weekend and they've got a new catalogue out with listings for Animated, as well as Universe. I managed to pick up Universe Prowl, and they also had Heavy Load. The price for Universe deluxes has gone up though, to £13. Bloody cheek! As if deluxes weren't expensive enough at £10. I still picked up Prowl though.

I'll post photographic evidence if anyone's interested.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:47 pm

Didn't grab a catalogue this morning, but they're on the Argos site.

Think I'll wait to see if Play.com get 'em in. Definitely aiming to score Sideswipe.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:50 pm

£13 has basically killed most of the interest for me, TBH - only Sunstreaker, and him a maybe. Argos tend to stick to RRP, and they're not likely to be much cheaper anywhere else. At £8-9, I might have been interested in, say, Prowl, but at £13 they can either piss off, or make much better figures...

Neuronutter · Post by **Neuronutter** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:38 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:£13 has basically killed most of the interest for me, TBH - only Sunstreaker, and him a maybe. Argos tend to stick to RRP, and they're not likely to be much cheaper anywhere else. At £8-9, I might have been interested in, say, Prowl, but at £13 they can either piss off, or make much better figures...

Yeah I know what you mean. I want most of the Universe line but the price is ridiculous. We knew price rises were coming but that's a hell of a jump. I'm in the US on holiday soon so I'm gonna try and pick up some of the figures over there. With the exchange rate it works out well and you can sometimes get figures that haven't shown up in the UK, like I picked up Cybertron Defense Scattershot a few years ago and never saw him in the UK. Can't bring back too may though, or I'll need another suitcase just for toys!

But £13 is a very high price for a deluxe.

martyboy70 · Post by **martyboy70** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:44 pm

Considering I got Movie Leader Prime from Argos for £15 a week and a half ago (granted he was on clearance)£13 is ridiculous.
Im gonna hang fire and see if Play get them in because they have the Animated Deluxes at £8.99 and they stocked the original Classics.
Id pay that for them so Heres hoping they will stock the Universe line.
Someone worked out that it was cheaper(inc postage) getting them imported fromm BBTS in the States than from the Argos that a mile and a half from my house how whack is that.
We are (mostly) responsible adults so we should all decide what we want and get it in one big load to the house of someone trustworthy(staff) and see if they would discount for a bulk buy.

MissingSea · Post by **MissingSea** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:04 pm

If someone where to order a case of 8 (3 prowl, 3 sunstreaker and 2 octane) and using the cheapest of the shipping rates from BBTS it would come out at just over £9 per figure (at the current exchange rate). Granted BBTS isn't the cheapest of options in the US from what I hear, so there may be somewhere(one) who would be willing to supply those of us on this side of the pond.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:09 pm

Problem is then there'd be the P&P charges for then sending them around the country, which would probably be £2-3~ a figure. Add in the potential of a customs bitch-slap, and would it really be worth the hassle?

MissingSea · Post by **MissingSea** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:39 pm

Nope, the only way it would really work would be to get them significantly discounted through a bulk buy. While BBTS does do the mark as gift option for shipping to the UK and other countries (which means no additional customs tax) they might be a bit suspicious if a large box came in marked as a gift :/

So in the end it would as you suggest not be worth it once you include the additional P&P to get it distributed to the other members. Unless of course one of the US board members where to be kind enough to supply those who are in need (then they could mark the items as a gift and again no extra tax

). Probably worth waiting to see whether Play do list them cheaper, plus in about 6 months or so Argos will probably do their usual of knocking a fair portion of the price off to clear the stocks like they have been doing with the movie line and Alts.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:00 pm

Aye - importing probably is the way to go in the short term, but I don't see much real benefit to doing so in bulk... buying the figures a couple at a time for yourselves would be the best option.

glazios · Post by **glazios** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:16 pm

Oh, crap... Must have Octane... *foams at mouth*

I have an obsession with Triplechangers. Deal with it.
Speaking o' which, anyone know where I can find Astrotrain without having to pay an arm and leg on import tax?

ismellicecream · Post by **ismellicecream** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:53 am

HEy, when you got prowl from argos, how did you get the one you wanted? In the catalogue it only shows sunstreaker and says 'one supplied, styles may vary' type thing.

What is argos' full range of universe, it says there are 8?

Neuronutter · Post by **Neuronutter** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:36 am

ismellicecream wrote:HEy, when you got prowl from argos, how did you get the one you wanted? In the catalogue it only shows sunstreaker and says 'one supplied, styles may vary' type thing.

What is argos' full range of universe, it says there are 8?

You have to go up to the customer service desk, give them the order no and ask to view the item/range of items they have. They'll send down the different items they have, so when I asked to see the Universe deluxe they sent down Prowl; Blackarachnia for the Animated deluxes. If they have more than one of each type they'll send them all down. It's a pain in the arse having to do that but if you wanna know what Argos has it's the only choice.

They say there's 8 in the range, but they'll probably get them in a few at a time, with the rest staggered over a while.

ismellicecream · Post by **ismellicecream** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:31 am

Cheers mate. I wanna get sunstreaker and prowl. I might pop in tomorrow.

Terome · Post by **Terome** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:05 pm

So I set foot in an Argos for the first time since I was five. It's a remarkably archaic system, isn't it? It seems to exist for the sole purpose of making children irritable and their parents angry.

Got me a Sunstreaker for Far Too Much Money. He's pretty spiffy, but not Food For A Week spiffy. And I really wanted a Prowl.

Octane looks a bit iffy. Probably won't splash out on one even though I love the cowardly little custard. And Onslaught is probably way out of the question.

glazios · Post by **glazios** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:01 pm

I've just got in from my local Argos, and was very disappointed to find they only had Sunstreaker and Prowl in the Deluxe class -- and I mean one of each, and that was it. They had a few other Universe bits and pieces, but no sign of the Voyagers, and no Ultras.
I was tempted to take pity on Sunstreaker and grab him, but I was p*ssed that they didn't have Octane and didn't know when they'd be getting another shipment in, so I left to him to warm the shelf with Prowl.

*Edited to avoid further sarcastic remarks at my expense. You're not helping to make a bad day any easier here, guys.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:21 pm

glazios wrote:The guy on the desk didn't even know there was an Ultra class.

An employee at a massive shop with a below-par knowledge of Transformers lines? ****ing disgusting, call head office and get the idiot sacked.

martyboy70 · Post by **martyboy70** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:32 pm

Why dont these people know everything about a niche toyline in amongst over 100 other toylines and thousands of other items overall in the catalogue.
Dont Argos believe in staff training?????
When you fail to prepare then you prepare to fail.

glazios · Post by **glazios** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:51 pm

Anyone know of any UK-based online shops stocking the new Universe stuff? Everything I've found so far is on Pre-Order until September, and even then is rediculously-expensive.
Does Argos have a monopoly on this or something, like they did with the Alternators/Binaltech stuff? Because that would really suck.

And yes, I'm ignoring all sarcasm posted above. Guess it's alright for those who don't happen to live in the proverbial middle of nowhere, to make jokes at the expense of those who do. Nice... No wonder people think adult Transformers fans are immature.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:18 pm

I dunno, is it alright for you to expect a desk worker at a store to know a toyline inside out? What if he was having a bad day? Seriously, get over yourself... I don't see what exactly it's got to do with your geographical location either. You think urban areas are packed with Argos staff wired directly into this forum or something?

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:42 pm

glazios wrote:live in the proverbial middle of nowhere

Been there, done that, in Wales. Yet to find Argos employees anywhere who're paid enough to care about the names of size categories of individual toylines in their catalogues, names of characters, etc.

Play have other Universe (Robot Heroes) pre-orders up, chances are they'll have the regular figures.

http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/ ... oduct.html