Would you pay more for toys if...

[Jaynz]

Americans, please don't answer this poll...

In the United States, there's a small but growing consensus that more products should be manufactured within our borders rather than rely on effective 'slave' labor in China, Korea, and so on. The downside to this is that consumer goods (such as toys) would increase in price by as much as fifteen percent due to the much higher cost of American workers.

Now, I'm curious, with Europe in even harsher manufacturing decline, I wonder what various toy-fans would think of price increases if it meant rebuilding Europe's manfacturing base.

So, what would you prefer?

[inflatable dalek]

Considering we already pay silly prices for toys I don't think it would make any difference whatsoever.

[StoneCold Skywarp]

Considering we already pay silly prices for toys I don't think it would make any difference whatsoever.

ECHO ECHO echo

I can't afford them as it is with all the bills I have to pay.

I never thought I'd see that day that I considered buying a TF a luxury and that the latest console wouldn't be mine due to it being, roughly, the same as a ****ing mortgage payment.

[RUNAMOK]

For crying out loud, toys are already expensive enough here, I'll try to compare some transformers prices for you:

My math is not precise, but the one US dollar is 5 Danish kroner.

LOC(single pack): 50 Kr, that is at least $10 (US price around $4 judging from reviews)
Scout: around 100 Kr, that is at least $20(review $8)
Deluxe: usually 150 Kr, $30(review $10)
Voyager: at least 200 Kr, closer to 300 Kr, lets say 280 Kr for good measure, $56 (review $20)
Leader: usually around 500 Kr, $100 (review $40) Edit: actually 580 Kr, $116

The Danish prices are from my memory, and the review prices are from various movie transformer reviews.

Edit: If anyone cares, £1 is around 10 Kr, actually a little under.

[inflatable dalek]

Plus, even if all toys for sale in America/Europe were made there [though "Europe" is a bit generic, why should I care about helping the Belgian toy making industry?] China and Japan would most likely continue usuing the same cheaper sweat shops so we'd just import them off Ebay.

[Treadshot A1]

It costs enough as it is.

[*BARRAGE*]

i say **** the slave labor issue- it has only become a bitch for some people because of the recent attention china has gotten- and that is idiotic to "all of a sudden" realise all our products (for the most part anyway) come from china...

and no- i probably wouldn't buy toys anywhere near as much as i do now (conservative as that has become) if the prices jacked up- where i am, the deluxe price point is 11.99 to 9.99... 10.99 being the norm- and that bugged the hell out of me enough...

so i guess i echo dalek, sc skywarp, and treadshot...

[RID Scourge]

. . . It's always been ~$10 where I am ($12 at KB) . . .

I wouldn't mind it. Mainly because it would create new jobs. Maybe I could get one of those.

[Chromia]

I know you didn't want us Americans to vote, but, I wanted to add my 2 cents.

For myself, I'd be willing to pay more for the toys, if they were just..made better!

I despise paying upwards of $45 for a toy, that disintegrates the first couple of times I try to change it's mode.

Or doesn't actually break, but is then so loose that's it wont even stand anymore. Bring back the die cast!

[Springer007]

I know you didn't want us Americans to vote, but, I wanted to add my 2 cents.

For myself, I'd be willing to pay more for the toys, if they were just..made better!

I despise paying upwards of $45 for a toy, that disintegrates the first couple of times I try to change it's mode.

Or doesn't actually break, but is then so loose that's it wont even stand anymore. Bring back the die cast!

I'm in agreement also. I don't mind paying more for a toy, as long as it's put together properly: paint apps not missing, horrific plastic quality, etc. i also realize that these toys are meant for kids who will break them anyway, but for the collectors out there, like myself, we deserve something better. I am afraid to transform my Animated Megs too much, and if anyone has read my review, one will see why I am getting disenfranchised with Hasbro/Takara recently...

[Treadshot A1]

Sorry, nothing to see here. Forum system error. Double posted, i submit once.

[Treadshot A1]

I think that as much as we need higher quality, we need to consider the fact that unless everything goes up in price, transformers will be even less affordable, and Hasbro will lose a lot of their market. That's where LOC's/LOC collectors come in.

So basically, point is, price hikes to improve QC will probably only be in stuff like Masterpiece, TFC, and maybe, maybe, TFU reissues (if it wasn't cancelled). Stuff that isn't exactly made for children, whatever sale numbers say.

[Jaynz]

I know you didn't want us Americans to vote, but, I wanted to add my 2 cents.

For myself, I'd be willing to pay more for the toys, if they were just..made better!

I can agree with that, but I wanted to see what the consensus was for 'all thigns being equal'. I also knew that Europe's politics about such things were different from the United States.

I was just wondering at what point the markup for buying 'domestic' or at least 'friendly' rather than Chinese would become a deal breaker.

[Cliffjumper]

To be honest, our toys are marked up to an astonishing degree anyway, to the point where it's possibly cheaper to import from America at RRP. A Classics Deluxe is I believe £13... American RRP is $9.99, which is, what, half price. Find a seller who isn't going to **** you over on postage (and I can tell you an awful lot of ebay sellers make transatlantic shipping up on the spot), and you're probably going to save money (the main question being whether it's worth ~£2 to wait 7-10 days, and/or run the minor risk of the thing being lost in the post).

But then the UK's a skewed market anyway, especially for toys - there just aren't many stores that actually carry toys, especially chains. There's less competition, so stores aren't undercutting each other. Even the supermarkets over here stock a lot less toys compared to a Target or a Walmart - it's generally a small aisle with everything on it, and that's usually only in the bigger ones. I doubt there's more than a dozen UK store chains that actually stock Transformers aside from when there's a film out, and those are very spread out - Argos is the only option in most towns as Woolworths is dying out, there are 74 TRUs in the country (better than most countries, but you're a bit of a privileged UK fan to live near enough one to make regular trips). Those that can, therefore, get away with selling stuff at that sort of price.

The things are prohibitively expensive for kids as it is, I think Legends are about £5/6, which is probably too much for pester power - a kid will probably just stick with the banker toy, and until the film came along the UK had been largely immune to the line's revived post-G2 fortunes... Putting the price up, however laudable the reason, would probably just kill of middleweight lines like TFs over here.

[StoneCold Skywarp]

whilst I agree with CJ in principal my local "big" Tesco has just started selling Animated figures (Deluxe £9.99 / Voyager £19.99) and all the deluxes were gone - I picked myself up a Voyager Bulkhead - and there was a massive gap.

I think parents don't see a tenner now as too much of a leap to buy a toy...not like when we were kids and something that cost 'that much' was a real treat.

It makes me shudder to think how many of those poor things will be broken and cast aside now by kids that don't realise quite how ****ing good they've got it.

As for TRU my nearest one's in Gateshead (no easy trek) and usually when I got it's almost thread bare & 1.5x more expensive just because they have the ****ing things :\

[Clay]

To be honest, our toys are marked up to an astonishing degree anyway, to the point where it's possibly cheaper to import from America at RRP. A Classics Deluxe is I believe £13... American RRP is $9.99, which is, what, half price. Find a seller who isn't going to **** you over on postage (and I can tell you an awful lot of ebay sellers make transatlantic shipping up on the spot), and you're probably going to save money (the main question being whether it's worth ~£2 to wait 7-10 days, and/or run the minor risk of the thing being lost in the post).

I know that numbat usually comes out ahead when I send him stuff I've found at retail. I remember buying the Movie Leader Brawl at $40 and shipping it to him without the box for about $20, for a total of $60, which after the currency conversion was 30 GBP, or 10 GBP less than what it would have cost him in the store locally. At least that's the instance I remember most clearly costing less than UK retail...

Of course, that's because of the weak dollar and the strong pound. What do other things cost in the UK? Loaf of bread, movie ticket, pack of cigarettes, etc.? What's the hourly minimum wage, if the UK has something like that?

whilst I agree with CJ in principal my local "big" Tesco has just started selling Animated figures (Deluxe £9.99 / Voyager £19.99) and all the deluxes were gone - I picked myself up a Voyager Bulkhead - and there was a massive gap.

Yeah, I noticed that when I bought Grimlock. Compare the average Animated Voyager to one from a recent line like Cybertron or Energon, and you'll find the difference. Vector Prime is bigger an heavier than Grimlock, and has electronics on top of that.

[Cliffjumper]

I know that numbat usually comes out ahead when I send him stuff I've found at retail. I remember buying the Movie Leader Brawl at $40 and shipping it to him without the box for about $20, for a total of $60, which after the currency conversion was 30 GBP, or 10 GBP less than what it would have cost him in the store locally. At least that's the instance I remember most clearly costing less than UK retail...

Yeh, all you need is someone willing to send at cost as a favour (although some ebay peeps do have reasonable shipping), you'd come out ahead... most of the time there's not enough of a gap to make bulk importing a money spinner - the other thing, of course, is that we often don't get later waves in significant numbers, let alone many American store exclusives - just because something nominally has a UK release doesn't mean many places actually physically stock it - for RiD, for example, it would seem a lot of retailers were a bit optimistic, and a lot of places didn't get much beyond the leaders, the Car Brothers and the 'show' Spychangers.

Of course, that's because of the weak dollar and the strong pound. What do other things cost in the UK? Loaf of bread, movie ticket, pack of cigarettes, etc.? What's the hourly minimum wage, if the UK has something like that?

I always forget the minimum wage, I think it's around £5.80 an hour, depending on age. Fags are £5.75-ish for a proper brand, loaf of bread £1.10ish for branded. No idea on a movie ticket - something like £7/8 last time I went (The Two Towers, would you believe?). I think CDs have gone down a lot recently, though - a few years ago a non-chart album was about £15, I think it's generally closer to £12 now. I don't buy a lot of stuff new, as my Paypal tends to be my disposable.

Here is a pricey place in general, to be honest. I'm not sure how much of my views on TFs being overpriced is due to personal lukewarm reception of TFs in general (even the best of Universe isn't much more than interesting to me), and being generally used to importing - I'm also fully prepared to wait a year or so until loose Sunstreakers show up on ebay for a fiver. If he's all that good, I'll still want him then...

[Clay]

the other thing, of course, is that we often don't get later waves in significant numbers, let alone many American store exclusives - just because something nominally has a UK release doesn't mean many places actually physically stock it - for RiD, for example, it would seem a lot of retailers were a bit optimistic, and a lot of places didn't get much beyond the leaders, the Car Brothers and the 'show' Spychangers.

That happens here too. I think the single biggest stumbling block to the Alterantors line was that Smokescreen and Sideswipe came out in quick succession, but the next figures (Streak and Hound, I think) didn't come out for many months later. Problem was that the first two figures sold well, and when stores went to order more, they got more of the same two figures.

It seems to be happening again with the Deluxe Classics at most of the stores around here. The store closest to me has eight or nine each of Prowl and Sunstreaker, so it's doubtful that they'll actually order more of the line when they overstocked the first wave.

I always forget the minimum wage, I think it's around £5.80 an hour, depending on age. Fags are £5.75-ish for a proper brand, loaf of bread £1.10ish for branded. No idea on a movie ticket - something like £7/8 last time I went (The Two Towers, would you believe?). I think CDs have gone down a lot recently, though - a few years ago a non-chart album was about £15, I think it's generally closer to £12 now. I don't buy a lot of stuff new, as my Paypal tends to be my disposable.

Here, the federal government is ratcheting up the minimum wage to $7.20 or so in increments (the last bump will be next July). Movie tickets at the local theatre are $7.50 for the night shows and $5 for the matinée. Bread is about $2 or more for a loaf. Cigarettes are $3.xx something; I don't smoke so I don't keep track. CDs, depending on where you buy them and what album/artist, are $10 - $20.

It would seem that in their local economies, toys cost about the same in hours of work at minimum wage or compared to other common mass-produced goods. The "they cost half as much in the states!" idea must stem almost solely from the strong pound / weak dollar exchange rate.