What do you pay for New JP MPs?

[GoktimusPrime]

slightly above rrp

If this is the average trend of what you've paid for New MPs, then you can vote "Above RRP." How slightly are you talking about though? For the purposes of this thread/poll, if you've paid $5 or less above RRP, then we can still count that as "Full RRP," but anything more then we'll consider that as "Above RRP."

reasons:

1. Is takara tomy, there isn't exactly anyone that brings in and sell at rrp to begin

There are a few. But they would be very expensive because Australian importing laws slap on loads of taxes, duties and levies that makes effectively doubles the Japanese RRPs (it's not the retailer's fault).

A lot of online retailers sell Japanese TFs at RRP (or less if you preorder), e.g. Amiami, HLJ et al.

2. I always take my time considering to buy and collect not just blindly "Oh wow Optimus in chrome colour! must have it"

Heh, that's fair enough. It's always good if you can see in hand reviews, or best of all if you can see someone else's toy in hand for yourself. I saw someone else's MP10 at a fan meet and decided that it wasn't worth buying.

3. The character, I can go "meh" on prowl but I can go "I want" on Jazz. Takara isn't stupid, they choose the cars with multiple same car design characters before going bumble bee and wheeljack.

Yep, same reason why I didn't want Starscream or Thundercracker, but I wanted Sunstorm and Acid Storm (and I paid full RRP for them both).

Overall, is very subjective, atm you point at Ultra Magus and the price just tells me to think. When in such situation it does affect my purchase as all pre-orders are already Sold out.

Definitely. As I said, for the purposes of this poll just have an overall look at your spending pattern for the new JP MPs and vote according to what your average spending pattern has been like.

For me it's been:
MP10 <--- skipped (got Hasbro's)
MP11 <--- skipped
MP Sunstorm <--- Full RRP
MP-12 <--- below RRP
MP-13 <--- below RRP
MP-14 <--- skipped
MP-15 <--- below RRP
MP-16 <--- below RRP
MP-17 <--- below RRP
Thus:
56% of my New MPs were purchased below RRP
33% skipped
11% at Full RRP
So I voted "Below RRP" since that represents how I paid for most of my MPs. I've also already prepaid for MP Bluestreak and Smokescreen at below RRP too.

For you, you can refuse to pay anything above RRP while for some of us do not entirely go by this method as mentioned sometimes it takes a while for someone to change from "meh..." hmmm... "okay, I think I buy it"

I NEVER said anything about my personal policy on this thread. I've intentionally avoided doing so. If people are willing to pay below RRP, at RRP, or above RRP for MPs (or whatever), then that's up to them. I am NOT making ANY subjective comments about such issues whatsoever on this thread.

This thread is NOT intended for ANYONE to debate how much people are paying for toys. Please stop trying to drag me into an argument which I am very deliberately attempting to AVOID. Everyone knows what my opinion about pricing is; I did NOT create this thread as a personal soapbox to harp on about it again. If you're REALLY interested in having that discussion with me, then shoot me a PM.

I'll say this again, the PURPOSE of this thread is to see what proportion of members are paying - on average - for new Japanese MPs. That is all. Please limit the scope of your discussions to the purpose of this thread rather than derail it toward more subjective or judgemental discussions/debates which this thread is most intentionally attempting to avoid.

Thank you once more for your understanding and cooperation.

[drifand]

For the current price of Ultra Magnus does make me question about the actual toy quality.

Here's my take on things:

I collect a lot of robots. Similar stuff I can compare to a Takara mp release:

Gundam Metal build > Gundam Destiny $RRP 180 > don't you even think about HLJ, they released 6 pieces only and so is the rest and I hardly could order it at RRP, ended up $210 delivered. Quality wise? I would say beats an mp hands down.

Macross Frontier chogokin: RRP $150 now $250 >$500 and I am thinking most people are scalpers causing this serious issue. So I ended up admiring and not buying most of it. For its size and quality? Good if you pay RRP, bad if you pay at current. And even then those who know, there is renewal and 1st version which made you went on an expensive ride if you collected since day one.

Now looking back at mp Sideswipe and if you ask me to pay $90 now for it, I say go get stuffed. Why? because soundwave is so much bigger and only at $130 shipped or so.

This makes me questioned about Ultra Magnus, if it reaches $300 mark, I may give it a pass. Have to see it to see whether this is worth the money, I cannot just click the "pre-order" button for this guy. I could for Soundwave, and that's the difference here.

[GoktimusPrime]

I don't collect other toylines, so I'm not qualified to comment on those.

Do we know what the official RRP for Ultra Magnus will be yet? I'm personally waiting for Amazon JP to list it, as they'll also list the RRP as set by TakaraTOMY. I'll see what Amazon JP's preorder price is like... still undecided.

Since there's no licensing issues with Ultra Magnus, there's no reason why Hasbro can't release this toy. And if so, there's a good chance that even local AU RRP will be even cheaper than preorder Japanese prices anyway. I'd like to wait for a local Hasbro release... but my impatience might get the better of me.

[drifand]

I don't collect other toylines, so I'm not qualified to comment on those.

Do we know what the official RRP for Ultra Magnus will be yet? I'm personally waiting for Amazon JP to list it, as they'll also list the RRP as set by TakaraTOMY. I'll see what Amazon JP's preorder price is like... still undecided.

Since there's no licensing issues with Ultra Magnus, there's no reason why Hasbro can't release this toy. And if so, there's a good chance that even local AU RRP will be even cheaper than preorder Japanese prices anyway. I'd like to wait for a local Hasbro release... but my impatience might get the better of me.

Hence, why I put on my brakes on the "pre-order" button. There is no reason why this should be priced so high if I am going to pre-judge the current quality of the mp series it would not be any far more metal otherwise.

Are we allowed to order from Amazon jp and do they ship here or you have your own contacts that does it?

[GoktimusPrime]

Replied here

[drifand]

Replied here

Yeah guessed it and thus won't apply to most of us here. Options are again limited.

[Trent]

My purchases tend to be all over the place so I voted for Full RRP. Some I get at, some I get below. And when I buy from BBTS, then I pay above. It all comes down to availability when I decide I want it. I ended up paying above for Sideswipe and Red Alert because at first I didn't want them. So by the time I bought, BBTS was one of the last places to have them in stock so I paid above RRP. However I managed to secure Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen for below RRP. MP-11 I got for slightly below, while MP-08 for above.

Sometimes I wait for Hasbro, like with MP-10 and MP-13, because I didn't think they were worth the RRP (now I'm starting to sound like Gok )

I think I'm to a stage now that with the direction that the MP line is moving in, I'll just preorder each item and get the discount. I'm a huge fan of the new releases. The figures are great, and while I may lose out on a Hasbro release, TT usually have the better colour scheme anyway.

[drifand]

However, it is also a challenge nowadays even to buy at RRP. Prowl was off Pre-order like in 30 minutes on HLJ. You are basically battling with the bunch of EvilBay scalpers who basically chop up everything.

The other thing is I tend to feel Takara doesn't mind reissuing stuff and thus why I can be okay to miss it.

There isn't anything wrong with Gok's method, it is by far the best bang for buck if you have budget for all of them. You can pre-order HLJ and cancel it when you feel you don't need it.

[Kapryiath]

the options in this poll are a fairly inaccurate representation of prices paid, as you'd have to assume that each voter paid the same amount for each toy, for example i got red alert fairly cheaply , but i had to pay scalper prices for soundwave and sideswipe, and full retail for the cassetes and then i havn't bought some of them so which option do i vote for? :S

[drifand]

the options in this poll are a fairly inaccurate representation of prices paid, as you'd have to assume that each voter paid the same amount for each toy, for example i got red alert fairly cheaply , but i had to pay scalper prices for soundwave and sideswipe, and full retail for the cassetes and then i havn't bought some of them so which option do i vote for? :S

I am in same situation as you, I probably am "I want to pay RRP' but I have to end up scalper's prices for some.

The situation WILL be different, if K-mart, Target and every other Australian joint brings it in and sells at RRP, I wouldn't need to go online at all.