Fan-backed Hasbro project: Unicron

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26th July 2019, 02:25 PM
Sinnertwin

Y'all need to stop stressing about numbers.
It's getting made, 1000 or 8000, wont matter in the end.
26th July 2019, 02:26 PM
Trent

Up on TT Mall. 75,600 Yen. Over $1K aud.
26th July 2019, 02:33 PM
DaptoDog

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

Y'all need to stop stressing about numbers.
It's getting made, 1000 or 8000, wont matter in the end.

Yep.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trent

Up on TT Mall. 75,600 Yen. Over $1K aud.

More expensive than the US price as expected. But should be well supported by Japanese collectors. So now we wait for Hasbro Australia to show their hand.
26th July 2019, 03:24 PM
Trent

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

I'll certainly be asking Hasbro Australia about this, but logistically it would be unlikely, as Hasbro America want the money as soon as the reservation period ends (August 31st), which means, if Hasbro Australia were to play middle-man on these, they would need to take your money (somehow), and then be liable to Australian Consumer Laws (like refunds, which would have to come out of their pocket because the money would have been sent onto America).
Then you have the whole shipping procedure, that Hasbro Australia probably would have to outsource.
This probably should have been done through Amazon, which has branches in many countries, or can service many countries they aren't in... and they would then be the ones who would ship the items once they are produced (buuut, the price would be 30-40% more for the toy if sold through a retailer - Hasbro America are probably wanting to sell this themselves, to give this a better chance of reaching minimum numbers - a US$575 price from them would be at least US$900 if sold to a retailer first).

I think we just have to wait and hope that there are at least 8,000 seriously dedicated Transformers fans in America and Canada who have US$575 within 6 weeks, to warrant extras being made and then sold off to non-Americans (some how). (the big Transformers conventions only manage to get about 5,000 people willing and ABLE to splash out this much money to attend a dedicated event, not to mention, Unicron isn't a contemporary "iconic" character, so a toy of this price won't appeal to too many newer fans of the last decade, since TFPrime and the Live Action Movies... and there aren't a lot of us left who grew up with this character in the 1980s)

It's a bit of a catch-22 though... the non-Nth-Americans like us will only get a chance at buying this if they reach their 8,000 target in Nth America, but I'm pretty sure it would need the non-Nth-American fans to reach that goal. They would get a couple thousand in Japan and a couple thousand in the Hasbro Asia countries, a couple hundred in Australia and each of the main European countries... if they barely make it to halfway with their goal, they MUST find a way to take reservations from non-Nth-Americans, or else no one will get one. (they've certainly spent a lot of time and money already producing a prototype, as the fully coloured images are not a computer generated image - the factory tooling is the most expensive expense, but those images suggest that this is something they've already spent a lot of money on)

I love the size of it though... probably on-par with cost-to-volume of Fortress Maximus, taking into account the lower production run.

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2019/071604.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2019/071605.jpg

Lots of screen caps (and links to the video and images), including the two images above, from TFW here.

Did they show the back of the robot or planet mode at all?
If not... should we be worried that it has some kibble or issues that they are hiding?

Again... it's one of those rare occasions when I wished I lived in America. :p

Have you received a response from Hasbro Aus yet Griffman?
26th July 2019, 03:40 PM
UltraMarginal

Quote:

Originally Posted by Borgeman

I had a brief look at Qantas' site regarding this very thing, but couldn't determine how it would be classified/priced.
What did you use as the determining marker?

When I was in the states I used a box as my second return suitcase, it was full to the brim with transformers and clothing. It was exactly the limiting dimensions of an extra suitcase.
I have made the assumption that the length/width/height of the Unicron is going to essentially be a cube and fit inside their volumetric limit as an extra bag. it kind of needs to otherwise it'll be too hard for Hasbro to ship around the states. It should be as easy to handle as a suitcase and assuming 30lbs, should be well within the 23kg max weight for luggage.
either way MyUS seems to be the better value proposition.
26th July 2019, 06:34 PM
Borgeman

Quote:

Originally Posted by UltraMarginal

.
either way MyUS seems to be the better value proposition.

Righto. Since the devil is tempting me to buy two, Imight genuinely plan a trip around its release and thus hedge my bets and do one in each style, hedge my bets so to speak
26th July 2019, 07:04 PM
Dan

Assorted thoughts from someone who will never own this obscenity size-class toy... :)

- If I did get it I would also want to acquire a ton of micromasters (including transports and bases) to display with him. Masterpiece toys would only make Unicron seem small to me.

- The thing looks amazing (and as an aside it reminds me how beautiful spheres are somehow). I consider its cost reasonable (far more so than selling deluxe class toys for $40) even though I will never spend that much on a toy.

- Some are discussing the pros and cons of 'small production run at high unit price or vice-versa' and it got me wondering this - how cool would it be to have an organizational model (such as crowd-funding) that allows only those who want a product to have it made for them so that we eliminate the resource wastage of shelf-warmers.

- I am not remotely fazed by its kibble. I'm okay with some kibble as a rule - indeed I feel that some kibble helps distinguish Transformers from just any old toy robots. What does bug me however is that he has both robot head-horns and planet pincers. I have always assumed from the 1986 movie that those were supposed to be the same components and I dislike faux-parts.

- I will enjoy watching this toy reviewed on YouTube. It is like vicariously playing with a toy. However I was also recently thinking that what we need is toy libraries or hands-on museums for post-pubescent collectors to visit. I guess that's what cons and the like are for however...
26th July 2019, 07:14 PM
DELTAprime

Honestly. I don't think I'd trust MyUS or any other reshipper with Unicron. It's just too far out of my comfort zone. I even didn't really trust AusPost reshipping service to ship me a couple of exclusive Deluxe figures from TRU. It might cost me an arm and a leg but if nothing local comes up I'll just use BBTS's shipping.
26th July 2019, 08:15 PM
Sinnertwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by DELTAprime

Honestly. I don't think I'd trust MyUS or any other reshipper with Unicron. It's just too far out of my comfort zone. I even didn't really trust AusPost reshipping service to ship me a couple of exclusive Deluxe figures from TRU. It might cost me an arm and a leg but if nothing local comes up I'll just use BBTS's shipping.

BBTS estimate it's shipping at a measly $404 USD
You sure you want to go with them? :p
26th July 2019, 08:37 PM
DaptoDog

Quote:

Originally Posted by DELTAprime

Honestly. I don't think I'd trust MyUS or any other reshipper with Unicron. It's just too far out of my comfort zone. I even didn't really trust AusPost reshipping service to ship me a couple of exclusive Deluxe figures from TRU. It might cost me an arm and a leg but if nothing local comes up I'll just use BBTS's shipping.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

BBTS estimate it's shipping at a measly $404 USD
You sure you want to go with them? :p

To follow on from Sinnertwin, the total estimated cost with BBTS assuming that shipping quote is accurate would be ~A$1,850 including GST. That's something like $800 more than the cost I estimated with buying it direct and going with the MyUS route!

I'm not always happy with how MyUS packs items when we consolidate but in cases where you don't consolidate (you wouldn't consolidate anything with Unicron) they just use the original shipping box and ship it as is. My wife has ordered many high end Disney collectibles this way and never had anything lost or damaged. You can also insure the shipment from MyUS to Australia for US$2 per US$100 of item value (ie US$12 for Unicron's US$575 value) for peace of mind.

In the end it's totally up to you but you will certainly be paying a lot extra.

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