Highlights and Lowlights of 2012

[GoktimusPrime]

I seriously dislike re-issues. I saw my Predaking go from an easy $500 to, well, now one just sold for less than $160 and that was a mostly die cast version!!

As far as I can see, reissues are a win-win situation for fan/collectors - it gives people a cheap and legitimate means of getting a G1 toy that's in new minty condition (imagine a reissue Monstructor or Pyro that you could buy cheap without fear of it crumbling from GPS), and anyone trying to buy vintage toys off the secondary market will find it getting a bit cheaper. Every fan's a winner.

The only people who would be "disadvantaged" would be sellers, but it just means that their profit margin is reduced... they're STILL going to sell that toy well above its original price! Besides, reissues are always announced many months before their release dates -- the smart thing to do as a seller if you wanted to maximise the sale price of a vintage toy is to sell ASAP _before_ the reissue comes out, or sit on the toy for 5-10 years until the reissue is in less supply and try again.

While the Takara one with the sexy handle is nice it's a bummer how it changed the value of the originals.

I don't see how the aftermarket price of a toy would affect its inherent/intrinsic value at all. Consider the following...

* Laser Optimus Prime: one of the best Optimus Prime toys ever made IMHO, just love it. You can buy one now MISB on eBay for $129, which doesn't seem that high considering this toy came out in 1995 -- the reissue is likely to be keeping the aftermarket price of this figure down, especially considering that it's arguably better looking than the original. But that doesn't affect my opinion of this toy -- I still love it, whether this toy sells for $300 or $30.

* G1 Monster Pretenders: I bought these toys MOSC from Kmart for however much they were selling for at retail... a few dollars each. I don't hate the Monster Pretenders per se - but they're not my favourite toys, and if anything, the GPS on Slog and Bristleback has actually made me like these toys less now because I can't play with them no more. But the cheapest set of MOSC Monster Pretenders I can see on eBay atm is selling for US$899. This hasn't made me like my Monster Pretenders more than before.

And I agree with you Gok, most of the time the re-issues cost more !!! WTH!!
No one is to blame but collectors and some scumbags who try and sell re-issues/fakes as originals.

I think it's mostly due to inflation. I think the average price of most reissues is actually reasonable -- it's just that I bought my originals in the 1980s and 90s, a time when my Transformers comics cost me $1-2 an issue and petrol was 32c/L, whereas reissues today cost more in a time where my TF comics cost about $5-6 an issue and I'm lucky if I can pay $1.23/L for fuel. My original G1 Constructicons cost $8-9 each MOSC, so the whole set cost about $50. Encore Devastator retailed for a whopping 10500JPY ($120) - so more than _double_ what the originals cost. But to be honest, I think the inflationary prices of most reissues has been pretty reasonable. Reissue Hot Rod sold for 2500JPY ($29), and the Hasbro version sold at TRU here for $25, which is about nearly the same as what the original Hot Rod toy sold for in 1986.

and it bugs me somewhat how someone can say "Oh I have 150 G1 Transformers" and then you look at them and a large chunk are re-issues!!!

I count reissues as G1s (although the majority of my G1s are originals), but yeah, I know what you mean.