even i wouldn't pay this....... (botcon preorder)

Mirage · Post by **Mirage** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:51 pm

i was searching on ebay and found the lovely games of deception set. if i had not been so lazy earlier in the year i would have pre ordered the games of deception set but alas i am lazy and so missed them.

i thought i would find some on ebay at some point and had a figure in mind as to what i would go up to for a set (actually, $400- $500 - insanely high in itself). i have actually found one already and it is already at a stupid price, doesn't look like i'll be getting a set so i'm gonna make the most of the regular classics and leave these botcon exclusives to people who have an even greater money:sense ratio than myself.

here's the link to watch people go crazy...........

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... &rd=1&rd=1

Post by **Denyer** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:00 am

People are crazy. Best time to bid is when there's a relative glut straight after BotCon, at a guess.

Civ · Post by **Civ** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:03 am

I love how the ID is kept private -- mostly for safety reasons probably related to identity theft but in this case, I guess it doubles up as protection from people who know that 10 someones (thus far, assuming 10 different people though that's not necessarily the case) are nuckin' futs.

sid burn · Post by **sid burn** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:10 am

In terms of the $700 Bugbite, I am surprised more people arent members of the collectors club, at $279 for the boxed set with a membership it is well worth it for me.

If one was so inclined, they could make a bundle later on.

Ravage · Post by **Ravage** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:40 am

Stupid exclusives. Let's not sell toys people want at retail but rather at a con that only certain few can get too and few can afford 300 bucks for a set of Transformers.

Grumbles oh well.

sid burn · Post by **sid burn** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:34 am

Way of the world, money takes care of just about everything.

I do find it strange that they didnt sell the rest of the seekers retail though.

And I would have taken a Sunstorm over Dreadwind myself.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:45 am

That's not a $700 Bugbite, that auction contains the whole set.

And yes, I do

con exclusives indeed. At least store exclusives don't sell for extortionate prices on second hand market!

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:27 am

Originally posted by sid burn
In terms of the $700 Bugbite, I am surprised more people arent members of the collectors club, at $279 for the boxed set with a membership it is well worth it for me.

If one was so inclined, they could make a bundle later on.

Lots of people probably are planning on just that, and as Denyer says we'll see cheaper (relatively) packs avaliable after the convention.

sid burn · Post by **sid burn** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:28 pm

Again, makes me wonder why people dont take more advantage of the collectors club. I dont think I have ever read anyone on this forum listing themselves as a member.

RID Scourge · Post by **RID Scourge** » Wed May 30, 2007 1:19 pm

When you order the set, there's the option on registration form to join the club, so that you receive an instant club discount for the sets. It's about the only reason I joined the transformers club. Too late to get a set through the club, though. You either have to order through ebay or hope that some place, like BBTS gets them in stock.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:02 pm

Originally posted by sid burn
Again, makes me wonder why people dont take more advantage of the collectors club. I dont think I have ever read anyone on this forum listing themselves as a member.

* A lot (most?) of us are in Europe or further afield.

* For the Americans, Master Collector have managed to alienate fans by emphasising Transformers as a secondary priority (i.e. there's only a summer convention this year because there's a movie -- even if MC weren't up for the increased chance for profit, Hasbro would have leaned on them. Next year as far as we know it'll be back to conventions outside of the main convention season.)

* The club comic and freebie toys so far have been of very specialised interest so far. (Transparent combiner limbs and comics that are fights or feature pieces for obscure figures.) A fair number of people have asked MC to not bother sending the regular non-comic newsletter/ad-sheet, seeing it as a waste of paper and postage.

* Joining the club is a great deal for people going to BotCon, but a fair proportion of the fandom in general [unlike the older Joes fandom] is studying / working in education / newly into career-building.

* People have seen how the club organisers interact with other fans, and some are a bit pissed off about it.

But mostly, I think it comes down to the seeker repaints being the first thing the club/convention have done to really get people interested. Beast Wars went down pretty well last year, but BW fans aren't the largest part of the fandom.

edit:

* Limited club store exclusives so far.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:22 pm

Originally posted by Denyer
But mostly, I think it comes down to the seeker repaints being the first thing the club/convention have done to really get people interested.

That's the clincher... Convention exclusives rarely get much time off anyone aside from anoraks and hardcore BotCon loyalists 9i.e. those who were going to go anyway, no matter how pathetic the latest round of RiD remoulds were) - beyond that, they're usually a bit of a joke (Onyx Primal et al.). Nobody really expected any change this year, and most people didn't start getting really excited until pictures started to surface, by which time there was a mad rush for remaining pre-reg packages and the like. This is the first time BotCon/OTFFC/Whoever have actually managed to come up with with figures that can be described positively without words like "elitism" and "aftermarket value" coming into things.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:26 pm

without words like "elitism" and "aftermarket value" coming into things.

Would maybe restructure that as "with words other than "elitism" and "aftermarket value" coming into things." i.e. It takes some self-convincing for items such as Packrat and Fractyl to be treasured additions to a collection.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Wed May 30, 2007 5:08 pm

Originally posted by sid burn
Again, makes me wonder why people dont take more advantage of the collectors club. I dont think I have ever read anyone on this forum listing themselves as a member.

Not to mention no one but Anoraks (as Cliffy put it) and fans with excess money want to pay five times the price for toys of a certain size class. Even if you DO join the club, they STILL cost a fortune. Not to mention joining the club itself already costs money...

Well okay, you probably could have bought a "bagged" set for a lot cheaper, but they STILL would've been way overpriced. Plus I honestly don't care for Dreadwind, Bugbite even less so. I just wanted the seekers dammit!

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:15 pm

Yeh, the other thing to consider is hardly anyone's that interested in Bug Bite except the anoraks, and Dreadwind isn't a must-have for most people (the original toy isn't so bad as late-era Decepticons go, and for a lot of his [hardly numerous] fans he's very strongly tied to the Marvel look). As Tetsuro said, the toys still won't be cheap, and the club membership isn't free either - if you were just going to pick up the Seekers anyway, you probably wouldn't have to spend that much more anyway... Plus I doubt it's as cheap for someone from the UK or Finland to get their stuff that way either. These aren't like any other convention exclusive - there aren't going to be a vanload of these babies being loaded up at the end of the weekend, a lot of people at the convention will be buying as many sets as they can get away with with an eye on resale...

I could be wrong, but the three Seekers are the first time there've been "canon" toys (i.e. based on existing characters and deliberately mimicking their appearance in a well-known media - even the Cybertronian Beast Wars stuff isn't universally accepted, while the three jets looking just like their old selves but not being crap toys won't get any arguments off anyone) in the BotCon/whatever line... Outside of attendees, BC media is generally regarded as well-promoted fanfic, and the toyline as well-funded kitbashes - to 90-odd percent of fandom the likes of Apelinq, Tap-Out or CatScan aren't "real" characters [to take a seque here on something that sprang to mind, the biggest problem with the TF Wikia is most of the contributors are a cluster of older hardcore fans who take the line that BotCon's stuff has the same weight as everything else simply because they all go each year - any, say, Transforce equivalent of http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Seafood_Louis would probably be swiftly dismissed]. Dirge, Thrust and Ramjet are very much "real" characters, and very much "real" toys based upon them. Nothing's been messed around with these guys, we're not expected to accept that Rattrap just happened to look like Cybertron Ransack.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:35 pm

Originally posted by Cliffjumper
I could be wrong, but the three Seekers are the first time there've been "canon" toys in the BotCon/whatever line...

As in "Characters that aren't totally obscure and appeared frequently in the TF media they originated in"?

RID Scourge · Post by **RID Scourge** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:44 pm

Not sure I've heard the term, "anorak," before. What's it mean?

Aye, aside from the seekers, there are really only a few I can think of:

Iron Hide and Ratchet kinda look like their cartoon counterparts, which was a no-brainer with the Energon Towline mold. Not sure if Fallback counts (he was apparently supposed to be Outback, but there were trademark issues).

Ones that were based off of pre-existing figures, but don't look the same are: Cyclonus (repaint of the large Jetstorm), Arcee (repaint of TM2 Blackarachnia), Tigatron (repaint of Ravage), and possibly others.

But yeah, your point still stands, as these are the first exclusives that really were more than a tiny blip on the radar.

EDIT: Grammar you're/your thing. I'm ashamed of myself . . .

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed May 30, 2007 8:13 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorak_%28slang%29 - an anorak is basically a completely charisma-free anal nerd obsessive type, usually to the nth degree... The term has been reclaimed a little bit in the same sort of way "geek" has, though. That Fred bloke who has that site on all the tiny little variations in TF figures is an anorak, for example - more interested in trivia and the like than the actual figures (well, judging from the site anyway).

The whole thing about Cyclonus etc. was that they didn't "mimick... their appearance in a well-known media". Aside from the colour scheme, BIG JETSTORM looked nothing like Cyclonus, and the only "proof" the character was Cyclonus came in the aforementioned fanfic, whereas everyone has DVDs/comics where the Decepticon jets look like that - these guys look more like the characters than the original toys did.

RID Scourge · Post by **RID Scourge** » Wed May 30, 2007 10:23 pm

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up. Quite interesting.

Indeed, Bug Bite had me scratching my head. Though, it could be worse, I suppose. The GI Joe convention got Cobra Mortal, which was a reissue of an extremely rare, extremely expensive, extremely ugly exclusive that was released in Argentina back when Joe first came out, in their set. I'd have rather seen a repaint of Rodimus or Mirage instead (I heard someone say Mirage as Dragstrip, once and Rodimus would've worked for any of the other three limbs. Maybe one of the attendee exclusives could have been Prime as Motormaster, too). Meh. Nice enough, I suppose.

All in all, the winners in this set are the seekers, but Dreadwind uses a really awesome mold (I'd highly recommend Classics Jetfire to anyone, who doesn't have him).

Post by **Denyer** » Wed May 30, 2007 10:35 pm

Mmm, I might see if there are any cheapish Dreadwinds floating around when I get back... my prediction is that people will tend to keep the three seekers and try to recoup some of the cost on other items.