Takara G1 Reissue & Classics Extravaganza!!

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Wow, I didn't know that Omega and Sky Lynx isn't show up in Japan G1! So all that time they had on the cartoon and Japanese fans would have been wondering how to get one.

This is fantastic news though. Once I have both I can have a foot race!! I had Omega when I was a kid, as I got him for Xmas one year, but the walking/driving feature broke so I took him back and got.............Octane.... Godd news is I love Octane ( hey I was very young and the shop didn't have any Omegas in stock at the time).

As for Gok and your plans for having one in both modes, well lets hope you have a LOT of space available.

[Soundwarp]

This is fantastic news though. Once I have both I can have a foot race!! I had Omega when I was a kid, as I got him for Xmas one year, but the walking/driving feature broke so I took him back and got.............Octane.... Godd news is I love Octane ( hey I was very young and the shop didn't have any Omegas in stock at the time).

Lol i raced my Skylynx and Trypticon and tryps won by heaps, can't wait to add Omega..


Oh and Octane does rule!!

[Adzma]

Hmm it seems my Grimmers wish has caused much stirring amongst the board... espically Gok... Maybe, Gok doesn't want a reissued Grimlock! He's in league with Takara and is paying them millions a year to prevent all Grimlock reissues and instead has one made each month purely for his own benefit! As he sits at his desk, he cackles away and uses the various Grimlock boxes to light Cuban Cigars, then tosses the toy into the fire!

Anyway, getting serious again.

Well, I guess it depends on where you live in Australia! I've had no problems importing a G1 Megatron reissue recently, and my MP Megatron arrived in the post too! Also, several stores I frequent have had no problems getting Encore Megatron or MP Megatron in (Shintokyo had 8 MP Megs delivered before Christmas!) It seems like the eastern states are the only ones with the problems unfortunately!

Ooh! That's awesome. That means that anybody on the West coast who's willing can import MP Megs for us folk on the east coast and send it to us. The national customs is REALLY lax compared to the international. My brother has a replica Walther PPK that he ordered from WA and it could be mistaken for a real gun no question. Hell, it's even weighted accuately. I'll post a pic of it in a sec...

EDIT: Here we go.

Now I know if I was a 7/11 clerk, or a bank teller I would be shite scared if someone drew this on me. If someone drew an MP-5 on me, and I didn't know what it was I'd probably be like... What the hell is that ludicrously oversized plastic gun thing?

[iceburn]

Not sure if anyone has seen it but Omega Supreme in digital-toys is only priced at US$110 (to be released in June 2008).
Bumblebee and 5 minibots will be at US$35 (to be released in May 2008)

sorry for those whom have read my earlier post.

[kup]

The Dinobots wont happen because the KOers are already doing very competent (but illegal) recreations of them. Takara would need to compete with those which many fans have probably already purchased thanks to popular fan websites promoting them such as FTW2005.
________
Volcano vaporizers

[STL]

Remember that:
a/ Bootleggers don't have the produce to the same production and quality standards that Takara sets for themselves and that their consumers would demand.
b/ Bootleggers have far less operational costs than Takara. For one thing, they don't have to pay for R&D/engineering which is an entire division in Takara.
c/ Bootleggers don't have to pay for licensing. Believe it or not, but licensing cost craploads. Remember those little comic books that I published for the Sydney TF conventions? Do you know how much Hasbro asked me to pay to purchase the licence just to publish those little comic books? AU$10,000. That's right. Just imagine the cost of licensing for action figures with registered trademarked and copyrighted names etc.
d/ Bootleggers don't pay for marketing. Advertising costs a lot of money.
e/ afaik most bootleggers operate entirely from very low-wage countries like China and paying their employees entirely in cheaper currencies like RMB. Companies like Takara are based in Japan paying full wages to employees in JPY. Sure, their primary production is done in factories in China, but their design and main operational staff are located in Japan. Then there's the cost of coordinate their operations between Japan, China and the United States with Hasbro - all legit, which means they pay taxes. Somehow I doubt bootleggers pay full tax. (-_-)

Takara themselves have stated that reconstructing a toy from scratch is heniously expensive. Do you remember how they were... well, not complaining, but they certainly weren't hiding the fact that recasting Optimus Prime's arms were a massive expense for them.

I haven't heard an exact amount, but I've heard that Takara said it was a lot.

I don't know. I still can't see it. This is part and parcel of their operations. Something they should be used to. There should be economies of scale and, if not that (or both), economies of scope. I can't see it. I mean, they licence all the time. Certainly it shouldn't be that -much- work to a company that makes a living out of this.

Knock-Off-ers have lesser costs granted. But they also by definition have lesser reach. So they're not exactly better off. There's pros and cons.

I'm not saying I don't trust Takara's word. But I'm still at a loss. Hardcore and knowledgeable fans like you don't understand it.

Either way, I'm not ungrateful for these new re-issues, mind you. Just stating that there's an inherent flaw in the logic that I'm being asked to accept.

I'm mighty excited about all these and am going to grab all the Encores. Most so far, I already have. But that doesn't stop me from wanting a crisp, clean new version (unless there's a TFC version floating around)

[1orion2many]

I'm glad you guys are all excited about Omega, I have 2 of them. One is in it's scruffy box and working and the second one needs to be fixed and put back together but I think both are complete from what I can remember so I haven't got to excited myself. Show me Shockwave and then you'll see this

[STL]

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=163255

New and better images of Takara Classics.

They're all pretty awesome, especially, Starscream. I'm glad I preordered them early on. Grimlock looks a little funny with all the red

[Robzy]

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=163255

New and better images of Takara Classics.

They're all pretty awesome, especially, Starscream. I'm glad I preordered them early on. Grimlock looks a little funny with all the red

Yeah, they're not bad... but Megatron's the only one I'll be getting I think!

I wonder (when it comes time to release repaints) if we'll see Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust in this line. Maybe even anime-coloured Astrotrain?

[jaydisc]

I've seen a lot of commenters hoping for a differently colored Astrotrain, but the Hasbro Astrotrain is the already colored in the Japanese colors... I can't image Takara would paint theirs with the USA colors.

Ooooh. lots of chrome on these... I'll still stick with just Megs for now.