Million Publishing Generations Vol2 GoShooter Deco revealed

[GoktimusPrime]

The only book-exclusive mail order toy that I've gotten was United Artfire, which cost me $66 (for toy + postage), or $98 if you include the cost of the book. I wanted United Artfire because, as we all know, back in 2004 Takara reissued Stepper. But they never reissued Artfire, making him the only G1 Targetmaster missing from my collection. Ordinarily I wouldn't care about Japanese G1 characters, as it's not the G1 of my childhood, but it kinda bugged me that I had Stepper but not Artfire. So when news of United Artfire came out, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the TF Generations 2012 book and order Artfire. Even though it meant paying $66 for a Voyager (or $98 including the book), I figured that it'd be cheaper than purchasing an original G1 Artfire off the secondary market. So yeah, while getting this Go-Shooter toy is never going to be cheap for anyone, it would arguably be a cheaper alternative to getting the original G1 toy off the secondary market.

Wow... I'm surprised to see that Artfire has appreciated (arguably depreciated if its initial after-market price was higher than this or vs. the aggregate cost of purchasing the book + toy) so poorly. If this is the case, perhaps it might be worth waiting to see if Go Shooter will similarly depreciate. <shrugs> Then again, Go Shooter isn't nearly as obscure as Artfire, so there may be greater demand for it. <shrugs.again>

[griffin]

The only book-exclusive mail order toy that I've gotten was United Artfire, which cost me...
* Transformers Generations 2012 = 2625JPY ($28)
* United Artfire = 5700JPY ($60)
* Postage for book and toy ≈ 1000JPY ($10)
+ Total ≈ 9325JPY ($98)
^Double the AU RRP for a Voyager. Although the base cost of the toy plus postage (i.e. not including cost of the book) would be 6260JPY ($66), which is what I consider to be what I paid for the toy itself. While the purchase of the book was a prerequisite to buying the toy, I still see it as a separate purchase.

At any rate, I wanted United Artfire because, as we all know, back in 2004 Takara reissued Stepper. But they never reissued Artfire, making him the only G1 Targetmaster missing from my collection. Ordinarily I wouldn't care about Japanese G1 characters, as it's not the G1 of my childhood, but it kinda bugged me that I had Stepper but not Artfire. So when news of United Artfire came out, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the TF Generations 2012 book and order Artfire. Even though it meant paying $66 for a Voyager (or $98 including the book), I figured that it'd be cheaper than purchasing an original G1 Artfire off the secondary market. So yeah, while getting this Go-Shooter toy is never going to be cheap for anyone, it would arguably be a cheaper alternative to getting the original G1 toy off the secondary market.

Wow... I'm surprised to see that Artfire has appreciated (arguably depreciated if its initial after-market price was higher than this or vs. the aggregate cost of purchasing the book + toy) so poorly. If this is the case, perhaps it might be worth waiting to see if Go Shooter will similarly depreciate. <shrugs> Then again, Go Shooter isn't nearly as obscure as Artfire, so there may be greater demand for it. <shrugs.again>

You forgot postage to Australia... and even if you picked them up in person, it is only fair to factor that in when making it known how much less you paid than everyone else here who has to pay for postage.

[GoktimusPrime]

I did actually edit my last post to try and make it sound less boastful, which was never actually my intent, however you appear to have replied (and quoted my pre-edited post in its entirety) just a few minutes after I edited it. I actual intention was to point out how, even when purchasing the toy directly, it's still quite expensive, as even I still ended up paying $66 for a Voyager. The point that I wanted to make was that there is no cheap method of getting these toys, only some methods which are less expensive than others, but they're all expensive. Even if you were living in Japan, Artfire would've cost at least 5700JPY (that includes the cost of domestic postage), which is about 1920JPY ($20) above JP RRP for a Voyager. Every conceivable method is expensive. <---that was the point that I wanted to make.

You forgot postage to Australia...

No I didn't. The cost of domestic postage is included in the base cost of the toy (5700JPY). So everything that I said about postage was about the cost of postage from Japan to Australia. I get my Japanese stuff posted in bulk, which makes it cheaper per unit (e.g. the postage cost for Artfire worked out to be 560JPY ($6), hence the total cost of that toy + international shipping was 6260JPY (≈$66)

[griffin]

I think these are official images of the two Generations toys for this year - Go-shooter and Shouki.

[reillyd]

I've never collected train bots before, but an Autobot character that can transform into a shuttle is mighty tempting......Plus a train bazooka mode. I'm going to have to bigbad Shouki I think. Even Artfire is on clearance too, and he's voyager sized

[griffin]

The second volume of the 2014 Generations book came with a poster like the first volume, and it is character art of Movie characters.

The odd thing is that it is a Hasbro poster (no Japanese and no TakaraTomy on it) in a Japanese book. I understand the usage of some English on packaging and books, but it seems lazy that they used a Hasbro poster without changing the language or even the name of the movie on it, from "Age of Extinction" to "Lost Age" (the Japanese name).


.

[GoktimusPrime]

I do agree that it feels lazy, but the majority of people who get this in Japan are unlikely to be able to read/understand the text, let alone notice/care about the differences in names.

[DELTAprime]

The whole Lost Age line also felt lazy from a packaging prospective, just Hasbro's packaging with a sticker. So very lazy.

[griffin]

Apparently these are some new images of the Go-Shooter toy... for anyone thinking of getting one.

Looks like it comes with a redeco of the Legends partner of Bumblebee (the helicopter - Blazemaster), to represent the human partner Shuta... but looks to be missing the rotor blades. The earlier image had yellow blades on the back, so I'm not sure if that is just a mock-up, or if Shuta will end up being a helicopter that can't fly.

[griffin]

This is becoming a hot little item before its release, so those wanting one had better jump on it fast when it gets released.
More images have been released, of the box, and an attack/flight mode... which has the helicopter plug into the back a bit like Armada Hotshot.