POTP: Pre-Order or Traditional Retail?

Good morning everyone!

How do people plan on getting the POTP toys (if they want them)?

Will you pre-order/purchase of an online only retailer or try and find them at retail?

My experience with Titans Returns saw me getting 50%/50% - and the 50% I got at bricks and mortal retailers were pure luck. I check the same Target/Kmart/BigW and Toys R Us' on a regular basis but it was usually the same old Deluxe and Titan Master figures warming the pegs.

Because of that I will probably get them all online, excepting some bargains (e.g. if Titan Class Predaking ends up discounted much like TR Fort Max and Trypticon).

Best regards
Darren

I am leaning towards your way. I have normally tried the stores first and then pre-ordered.

After the way the back end of Titan Master dragged out getting to stores I have jumped in and pre ordered the must haves and left the maybes for entertaining hunting trips. Also I think I can pre order the Leaders and Voyagers notably cheaper than they will be in store.

You'll never have trouble getting Wave 1 of a new series in store.

You might miss Wave 2 if Wave 1 doesn't move quick enough and the next new figures are Wave 3. In general though the first three waves will be available pretty easily.

Get towards the end though, particularly the Waves 5 and 6 (think TR Overlord, Ramhorn, Shuffler, Slugslinger) and you're best off ordering online to lock them in as they might not appear as Wave 1 of what-comes-next comes in instead.

Given how little of the Generations line has skipped Aussie retail in recent years I wouldn't be preordering any Hasbro product and if a wave does get missed I'd then goto TLTC and buy it after the fact.

That said though I buy the Takara Tomy versions normally (but not all the time) because they are more cartoon accurate in most cases and you have little choice but to preorder them if you don't want to buy them at a huge markup on ebay.

Plus don't forget Amazon is potentially days if not hours away from opening it's Aussie site to more than just books and Amazon is very likely to get every wave.

Well coincidentally I checked BBTS today and didn't see any for preorder yet

The first wave is available for pre-order from thelittletoycompany.

Best regards
Darren

I did about 50/50 for TR and 75% online for CW (USD was nicer then!), so I'm happy to wait and see... but I refuse to pre-order with pre-payment nowadays, so even when I go with TLTC I only buy once the items come into stock... #neverforgetpc
Also very unsure how I feel about the Dinobots so would like to see more reviews of them before I jump in.

In general I go out of my way to avoid anything from Hasbro at retail in personal protest against their ever increasing RRPs. In conjunction with diminishing figure quality I find them a little difficult to swallow, so I choose to support Takara Tomy's releases. The last Hasbro figure I purchased was Sixshot at full RRP$90, and he was certainly not worth THAT much. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

Well coincidentally I checked BBTS today and didn't see any for preorder yet

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Heh - and now they are :D

Works out a bit under $200us for Wave 1

I will use the China website to buy them, especially for the last few waves. normally as per everyone said, the first 3 waves are ok, sometimes you might have discount depends on the stores, however for the last few waves, they are extremely hard to get here in Australia.

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Originally Posted by Jim_jim

I will use the China website to buy them, especially for the last few waves. normally as per everyone said, the first 3 waves are ok, sometimes you might have discount depends on the stores, however for the last few waves, they are extremely hard to get here in Australia.

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would that be tabao? cheaper than the little toy company?

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Originally Posted by yoshi594

would that be tabao? cheaper than the little toy company?

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I've seen people use it, but was unsure if their international shipping was easy to use and up to scratch. Seems like a really great option though.

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

Heh - and now they are :D

Works out a bit under $200us for Wave 1

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The four deluxes from Wave 1 just showed up in my POL, hopefully the rest wont be far behind. They are all slated for a December release

I ordered POTP Jazz from Big Bad Toys Store yesterday, but I'll wait till others show up here in Australia

I'm gonna start from local retail and see how I go from there. I'm rapidly losing faith in Australian online retailers. -_-

Little faith in brick-and-mortar local retailers. I've already preordered the wave 1 Dinobots (from Oz online retailer).

I enjoy the hunt finding at the store than paying for something and waiting months and just getting it. Generally through the sales at target, big w you can get at a decent price. In recent years i picked up everything i wanted at retail.

In recent months for example picked up a blitzwing early on at kmart, you get that little buzz when you find something new. Even trypticon for the clearance price on weekend. I may even enjoy the hunt, more than the figure sometime.

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Originally Posted by SoundwavePerth

I enjoy the hunt finding at the store than paying for something and waiting months and just getting it. Generally through the sales at target, big w you can get at a decent price. In recent years i picked up everything i wanted at retail.

In recent months for example picked up a blitzwing early on at kmart, you get that little buzz when you find something new. Even trypticon for the clearance price on weekend. I may even enjoy the hunt, more than the figure sometime.

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I do agree... the hunting is the best part.
Was on holiday in Asia last week and POTP was everywhere.
The dinobots strangely didn't appeal to me... I saw starscream and boy was he a step backwards IMO.
Lots of cheap and nasty looking stickers on the figure.

Say, where did you find Tryppie for cheap?
Mine hasn't been delivered by the store that shall not be named so I'm looking for one now.

Yep. It's all about the thrill of the hunt. Ordering means one doesn't get to keep the rest of the Ozformers community up to date on the retail front.

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Originally Posted by shockNwave

Yep. It's all about the thrill of the hunt. Ordering means one doesn't get to keep the rest of the Ozformers community up to date on the retail front.

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If stores would actually fully stock their shelves then we wouldn't have to resort to tracking down stuff online