Exclusive Repaints: Useless or Worthy?

[SkyWarp91]

What do you think of those exclusive repaints of normal figures meant for exclusive events like BOTCON, TFC, etc. (with exclusive repaints such as Universe G2 Sideswipe, TFCC Sideburn, Animated Cheetor and so on)? Are they worth it or are they just expensive repaints that could be customized to look the same at much cheaper costs?

[jaydisc]

Some are awesome, e.g.

Botcon Seekers, TFCC Punch/Counterpunch, TakaraTomy Animated Activator Ramjet, Henkei Crystal Convoy

Some suck, e.g.

< most of the ones you mentioned >

Of course, that's purely subjective and only my opinion. As to whether they're "worth it", only you can know whether something is worth it to you (which is the only value proposition that should matter to you).

As to whether the original molds could be customised to look the same at cheaper costs? That's also subjective. I personally don't like the look of most customised toys, especially ones with putty or other materials to alter their mold, so regardless of price, that wouldn't be worth it to me. I also don't possess the skills to do it myself. Additionally, the money that could be made in the time it would take me to customise a figure, could easily pay for the exclusive and give me change.

And unless your Frenzy Rumble, or one of these other customisers who sells customs for 1K or over, I can't believe there's money in it. Here's a recent example, one you mention, Animated Cheetor. I have just ordered this in a small group order and paid A$65.11 delivered. How long would a customiser take to make that from Animated Blurr? Let's assume we paid $20 for the base figure. That leaves $45 for labor and supplies? Would it take two hours? More? How much does paint and putty cost? What about other costs, like tools and setup? How much time and money was spent perfecting those skills? I'd argue that for a customiser to make me an Animated Cheetor at the same price, they could make more money working in a cafe.

[Vector Prime]

I'm a sucker for redecos (whether they're exclusive or not) so IMO, if it's something that interests me, I will pay the asking price for it.

They don't necessarily have to be limited run Botcon or TFCC exclusives, I am even prepared to pay a premium to get some of the Japan redeco releases (e-Hobby, etc).

One of the examples you list (Cheetor) is of no interest to me whatsoever, so in this case, IMO this particular figure would not be worth it.

Whereas other people may think G2 Sideswipe's a complete waste of money, yet I think he's worth the price.

I guess it's all relative to your collecting habits and personal taste (and bank balance!)

[Sky Shadow]

It depends on the mould and the price. Many of my favourite toys are exclusive recolours, like Shattered Glass Prime and Megatron:

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8579/p1030171.jpg

...and White Lio Junior, Flash Lio Convoy, Botcon Tigatron, CatSCAN, Springer, Weirdwolf and many more.

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8349/orcanoch.jpg

I'm also generally a sucker for e-Hobby and other weirdly-coloured G1 and G2 toys, like Garboil and lavender Anime Galvatron above and these below:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3135/p3090278.jpg

I hate customised toys, so for me, if I want a toy in a specific colour scheme it's a choice between either buy it for whatever it costs it or just not own it. Sometimes the toys are clearly not worth it - I'm not going to pay $1000 for a BotCon G2 Sideswipe. In fact, generally more than $150 is too much, but I have paid that amount before, and I would again.

[kaiden]

I don't think they're worth the after-market prices... they're insane.

but g2 ramjet has such an awesome paintjob! so im buying my first botcon toy through griffin this year.

im interested in getting united stepper (jazz redeco) but that is turning out to be more expensive than it should be. $100+ USD -.-

[kup]

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3135/p3090278.jpg



What in the name of all that's holy is that?

I saw that see through AM Prime trailer and automatically went 'WTF?!'

[Sky Shadow]

What in the name of all that's holy is that?

LOL. :D It's the Microman LED Powers Micro Trailer. Sharky posted about his one here too: http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=213481#post213481

There's also a Microman version of Countdown's base: http://www.microforever.com/rocketbase.htm

[GoktimusPrime]

As jaydisc said, it's all subjective to one's personal tastes. I personally like the e-Hobby G1 repaints as they allowed me to:
+ Collect reissues of Transformers in their Diaclone and Microman colours, with new fiction adding them to TF lore.
+ Original characters based on existing obscure characters in G1, e.g. Hauler, Sunstorm, GADEP etc.
+ Reissues of otherwise very rare G1 toys that I'd probably never get, e.g. Megaplex (Goodbye Megatron), Twincast
+ Other interesting repaints like Astrotrain in his prototype colours (used in catalogues and cartoon).


I don't think they're worth the after-market prices... they're insane.
Yeah, I'd never pay inflated after-market prices for any of this stuff. All my exclusive toys I pay current prices (or less) for.

I'm an opportunist when it comes to exclusive repaints... if the opportunity arises for me to buy an exclusive repaint at close to its original price, then I'll go for it. If not, then screw it. Exclusive repaints are a nice novelty - but that's it, they're a novelty; for the most part not "essential" to my collection.

And even if they were, as in the case with the BotConSeekers, I still wouldn't pay premium prices for it. I managed to get Thundercracker and Thrust later as Gentei exclusives, but I missed out on Dirge. It wasn't really until Generations Dirge came out that I finally got myself a proper "Classicsverse" Dirge (Universe Dirge, the repaint of Voyager Cybertron Starscream, stood as a substitute for a long time).

Then again, I very rarely pay after-market prices for anything. RRP FTW!! :D

-------------------------------------

P.S.:


Are they worth it or are they just expensive repaints that could be customized to look the same at much cheaper costs?
I suppose in many cases you could just customise them yourself... but I personally wouldn't customise an existing toy. If I can't get an exclusive figure, then I'll just go without. For instance, I could have gotten a Universe Starscream and repainted him as Thundercracker, but I chose not to.

I did once make my own repaint of an "upgrade" of an exclusive toy -- I took my reissue Goldbug and repainted him in the colours of BotCon Glyph and called her "Lexicon" -- an upgraded version of Glyph herself! :)

I personally don't believe in buying or selling customs based on existing TF characters because it is an infringement of HasTak's intellectual property. I remember once reading a magazine article about how eBay were cancelling auctions of custom DC toys at one stage because DC had threatened to take legal action.

Customs are unlicensed and unauthorised Transformer products - and especially when they're based on a character/likeness owned by HasTak, then yeah... no way I'd pay for it. When we made our unlicensed Autobot Chainmasters for the Sabretron 2004 Transformers convention in Sydney - even though the Chainmasters were original creations made by us (they all have Australian themed colours and Australian-based fiction), we gave those toys to attendees as free gifts. All remaining stock have since been given away as competition prizes at fan meets and the Smash! 2009 OTCA stall (the last remaining Spectre was the random draw prize for the trivia competition that ran for the weekend). We did sell the exclusive comics at OzFormers 2003, but that was due to a misunderstanding on my part -- I thought we'd acquired a licence when we hadn't. The 2004 comic was subsequently given away as freebies to attendees; as well as freebies at subsequent meets/events. Some of you who've traded with me would have received those comics for free too. :)

[Sky Shadow]

+ Reissues of otherwise very rare G1 toys that I'd probably never get, e.g. Megaplex (Goodbye Megatron)

Believe it or not, despite his boxart, Goodbye Megatron has red legs and bullets, not blue. Megaplex is a reissue of original Japanese 16/VSX Megatron.

[GoktimusPrime]

Believe it or not, despite his boxart, Goodbye Megatron has red legs and bullets, not blue. Megaplex is a reissue of original Japanese 16/VSX Megatron.

That too. :p Either way, it was a cheap way for me to get that toy, cos there's no way I'd pay the aftermarket price for a VSX Megs. And I'd totally forgotten to have Megaplex sent to me in robot mode!! :eek: Ironic that when Megaplex was sent to me in alt mode, it made it through customs, but my Machine Wars Megatron did not! The toy wasn't confiscated of course, but the rough handling by customs meant that his card was BENT in half and a lot of other Transformers ended up with some scrapes and minor damage to their packaging from being just roughly shoved back into the parcel box. :(

On the plus side, when I purchased Megaplex eHobby automatically put me into a lucky draw and I won silver chrome reissue Bluestreak! :D So my rarest exclusive repaint was also my cheapest, so I got it for free. :)

[LordCyrusOmega]

As a general rule I don't think they are worth it and usually avoid it. However I did buy Animated Cheetor and am after the animated botcon boxset. Only cause I love Animated.
I saw the price for animated activator Ramjet and I can't justify it, though I'll get it anyway. Why do they cost so much? Only thing I can think of is because we'll (some of us) will pay for it.
As for customising I do some if I get bored. Some are a win and some are a fail. I repainted Cybertron Thundercracker into Skywarp and he looks good (when I have my new room set up I'll take pics) but turning Movieverse Inferno into Armada Red Alert was an epic fail.

[GoktimusPrime]

As a general rule I don't think they are worth it and usually avoid it.
It depends. Some exclusives are more expensive than others, but a lot of exclusives - when they come out - sell at a similar price as their regular retail counterparts.

e.g.:
+ 2000 reissue G1 Convoy RRP 4980JPY --> JafCon 9 black repaint = 5000JPY.
+ TFC Megatron RRP 5980JPY --> eHobby Megaplex = 6000JPY.
+ TFC Astrotrain RRP 3000JPY --> eHobby Proto-Colour Astrotrain = 3000JPY. Identical to the cost of the regular reissue.

...so in general I find exclusive figures are well priced when you buy them at their original price... which is what I do. The inflated after-market prices can be silly, which I won't pay.

Some BotCon exclusives can be more expensive because they have retools - which obviously costs more to produce/manufacture in limited numbers, and the cost is passed onto the customers. Consequently I have very few retooled exclusives.