New to collecting

Im a big Transformers fan (G1) and decided to collect the toys, mainly the masterpiece line (only japanese, not Hasbro).

At a Toys R Us i have been able to find a Ultra Magnus MP 22, Cybertron Commander Convoy MP 10, and Star Sabre MP 24

All up it will cost me around $850.

The figures are all behind a glass cabinet/cage thing and i have been told they are in good shape (figures and boxes) and its not second hand. This is interstate btw so i am relying on my sister to have a look and see if its all good.

What worries me is that i know Ultra Magnus has been out of stock for a long time and will be re-issued soon.

Should i go ahead with this purchase?

Toys R Us should be a last resort unless they have a mega sale. Their MP prices are always inflated.

MP10 should be a lot cheaper here.
https://www.nippon-yasan.com/figures...y-reissue.html

Ebay is a good place to look for old MP's. Prices can be competitive especially when Ebay does one of their sales.

Yeah, might be cheaper to get MP-10 Convoy and MP-22 Ultra Magnus online?

HobbyLink Japan still has them available (Magnus is the Feb reissue, but they can hold items for you for up to 3 months, so you can combine orders and ship together when they're all in stock)

Convoy, around $212 AUD:
http://www.hlj.com/product/TKT39840/Sci

Magnus , around $174 AUD:
http://www.hlj.com/product/TKT80320/Sci

Cost of shipping them together is around $65. (Also, MP27 Ironhide is out this month in Japan so you could chuck that in your order too)

Can't help with you with a cheaper Star Saber though. :o Is he still $300 at TRU?

I mean, if you're ok with TRU's prices, and the items you're buying aren't returns, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. :)

Thanks guys.

You saved me some money. I have decided to purchase these items from Hobbylink Japan

Just curios. I placed my order with HLJ and got an order confirmation email from them.

In the email it states:
"Since you have chosen "Private Warehouse" for your order handling, available items will be billed and held for you in your Private Warehouse until you request shipping. Preordered or backordered items will be billed and moved to your Private Warehouse as they come into stock."

However when i go to the HJL website and check my order history it shows nothing. When i go to my private Warehouse it says "your private warehouse is currently empty". However below that box there is another box that is called Private warehouse and it states "items ordered but not yet available".

Im guessing the sales guys need to process my order or do i need to do something manually?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AussieVectorSigma

Thanks guys.

You saved me some money. I have decided to purchase these items from Hobbylink Japan

Just curios. I placed my order with HLJ and got an order confirmation email from them.

In the email it states:
"Since you have chosen "Private Warehouse" for your order handling, available items will be billed and held for you in your Private Warehouse until you request shipping. Preordered or backordered items will be billed and moved to your Private Warehouse as they come into stock."

However when i go to the HJL website and check my order history it shows nothing. When i go to my private Warehouse it says "your private warehouse is currently empty". However below that box there is another box that is called Private warehouse and it states "items ordered but not yet available".

Im guessing the sales guys need to process my order or do i need to do something manually?

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Don't worry, you don't have to do anything. It just takes a little while to update and be visible your account. If you got the confirmation email it means they've got your order.

Items that are instock and you have paid for will be listed in the Private Warehouse box.
The "items ordered but not yet available" box just shows your preorders.

Also, if you have something on preorder, when it comes into stock on the site sometimes your orders won't be visible while they're updating your account.
Or, annoyingly, the item appears to be listed as 'discontinued' in your account. It's not cancelled! It just means all their stock came in and they're distributing it to each account that has an order. I don't know why they do that, it freaked me out at least once haha.

The forums here are pretty awesome and you can get heaps of advice and help for starting your collection.

I started a couple of years ago.. i thought i was starting late :p

If you want, i have MP12-T Tiger Track i want to sell for $120 transformed once and in perfect cond.

Also if you find something on ebay that seems really really cheap, it's most likely a knock off. Knock Offs (or KO) are bad.. stay away!

have fun on the forums!!

Thanks for the response guys.

Just a quick question, which store is it better to order these items from? HJL or AmiAmi?

AmiAmi is a bit cheaper, but my (quick research) has shown that HJL uses plastic air bubble bag things when sending these items out, while AmiAmi mainly uses paper.

,My main concern is that i dont want these toys damaged when sent to Australia, or the boxes have dents/destroyed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AussieVectorSigma

Thanks for the response guys.

Just a quick question, which store is it better to order these items from? HJL or AmiAmi?

AmiAmi is a bit cheaper, but my (quick research) has shown that HJL uses plastic air bubble bag things when sending these items out, while AmiAmi mainly uses paper.

,My main concern is that i dont want these toys damaged when sent to Australia, or the boxes have dents/destroyed.

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Lucky draw my friend, you can bubble wrap and still come damage and is all up to postal services.

Hlj may be a bit dearer but their shipping charge can be cheaper.
Service wise hlj will entertain you more than amiami would if anything goes wrong

It helps if you are not a box collector as slightest dents would just upset you.

I have tried amiami with MP cars only and they all came in very good condition and boxes are also very mint. HLJs prices are usually a little bit more but you are allowed to cancel your order

http://i.imgur.com/DuGBSfY.jpg

Welcome to the boards?

Thanks for the responses guys and i may have a few more questions sorry.

Question 1:
I was thinking of collecting some of the combiner war figures as i doubt they would appear in the MP line (or any time soon). However from my brief research it seems like Takara have a "unite warriors" collection of toys as well. From the looks of things it seems that the combiner wars and unite warriors toys are almost the same? Im guessing it comes down to preference of the paint job as to which to get? Or does one company have the better release in terms of design?
Which should i collect?

Im leaning towards the Unite Warriors as they are all in the one box and i have those bubble wrap things.


Question 2:
Would love to get the older MP toys like soundwave, starscream etc but the prices on ebay and gumtree are a bit too much for me. Do you think Takara will re-release them later on? Or am i stuck with trying to find a decent price on ebay?


Question 3:
Similar to question 2 - i would love to get a Starscream MP toy (such as MP3 or MP11) but the second hand prices are too much and im not sure if Takara will re-release them.
I know a few Toys R Us stores that have MP-07 but the reviews i have read are not so good of the figure.
You think its worth buying the MP-07 or just wait and hope to find a better MP starscream in the future?

Unfortunately collecting Masterpieces late to the party tends to be an expensive affair. They’re a “high-end” collectible item and with it comes the price gouging down the track. Some well-known online stores like BBTS seem to sell older Masterpieces at a reasonable prices which are nowhere near as bad as ebay, however when the currency conversion comes into play then things start getting expensive.

I’d honestly be surprised if there were re-issues of figures dating back more than 2 years. Figures like Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus I think are being re-issued soon by TakaraTomy, however they were only released in the past 18 months or so. For quite a number of figures, your best hope is to wait for Hasbro to do a re-packaged release, but they’ve already done that for Soundwave. Keep an eye out on these forums to see if anyone has pieces to sell…people here tend to be pretty reasonable when it comes to selling.


In regards to TRU MP-07 Starscream, the bottom line is do you want a MP-11 mold Starscream and how much are you willing to pay for it? I have one myself, as I missed out on the MP-11 Coronation Starscream. There was no way I was going to pay $300+ for the MP-11 mold, and $150 was how much I was willing to pay. In terms of the figure itself there’s plenty of differing opinions… TT MP-11 and Hasbro MP-07 Starscream are presented in an unpainted grey plastic which looks quite bland and cheap compared to other masterpieces. Even though I also have the gloriously painted Walmart Masterpiece Starscream, Hasbro MP-07 stands alongside the other Decepticon Masterpieces as I enjoy the mold a lot, lot more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AussieVectorSigma

Question 1:
I was thinking of collecting some of the combiner war figures as i doubt they would appear in the MP line (or any time soon). However from my brief research it seems like Takara have a "unite warriors" collection of toys as well. From the looks of things it seems that the combiner wars and unite warriors toys are almost the same? Im guessing it comes down to preference of the paint job as to which to get? Or does one company have the better release in terms of design?
Which should i collect?

Im leaning towards the Unite Warriors as they are all in the one box and i have those bubble wrap things.

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The forum has a toy review section. Have a read of other member's reviews & make up your own mind. :)

Some characters are different between Hasbro's Combiner Wars & TakaraTomy's Unite Warriors. Some differences in paint apps as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AussieVectorSigma

Question 2:
Would love to get the older MP toys like soundwave, starscream etc but the prices on ebay and gumtree are a bit too much for me. Do you think Takara will re-release them later on? Or am i stuck with trying to find a decent price on ebay?

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Recent history has shown newer items in the Masterpiece line to be reissued. And not just once either. Hold off paying high prices if you have the patience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AussieVectorSigma

Question 3:
Similar to question 2 - i would love to get a Starscream MP toy (such as MP3 or MP11) but the second hand prices are too much and im not sure if Takara will re-release them.
I know a few Toys R Us stores that have MP-07 but the reviews i have read are not so good of the figure.
You think its worth buying the MP-07 or just wait and hope to find a better MP starscream in the future?

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Refer to answer to Question 2. All the best!

Sorry to bump up this thread.

I have been looking at the store "Big Bad Toy Store". How do you guys find the customer service and are the products that you order traceable?

I notice that they are selling some older masterpiece figures like soundblaster, grimlock ,starscream etc
Im willing to buy these figures but am worried if they are second hand products or something dodgy like that.

BBTS is totally legit and I consider myself a really careful buyer. You can buy with confidence from them.

There's a review thread going back a few years HERE. The last post was September last year.

However, I generally find BBTS fantastic. They're my retailer of choice for new American releases and older clearance items. They're a bit pricier than most, but their customer service has always been great.

Shipping can be a bit high for single items, but if you're buying many items at once, or using their Pile of Loot feature (basically stockpiling lots of individual purchases for one shipping lot) the costs get pretty reasonable.

I've always gone UPS postage, as that's the cheapest when ordering big lots, and you get a tracking number with fairly accurate shipping estimates and package registration at each stop.

People have been finding they take a little while to fill the order (few business days) but once fulfilled, the shipping is pretty quick.


As for whether the product is second hand, they do have a second hand market, but they clearly note where it's a 2nd hand product. Pretty much all their Masterpiece is new stock.

You can shop with piece of mind with BBTS, they always mention if an item they are selling is second hand.
I've used them a few times and they're a top notch lot to deal with.
For newer MPs though I can't go past http://www.premiumcollectables.com.au/
They're a local store with access to most of the MPs as they are released and a lot of members here use them (myself included).