Quote Originally Posted by Ace View Post
I know that as collectors we only make up a fraction of the market that purchases Transformers
Not in this case as I understand it. It's easy to forget, but technically and legally, these figures aren't made for Western markets, but the Japanese market. I could be mistaken, but I think it was Gok who told me once (it'd be over 15 years ago at this point) that where Hasbro's primary demographic for Transformers was overwhelmingly kids, Takara's was adults with a primarily G1 focus. It's pretty reasonable to say that the vast majority of the market for Masterpiece figures are adults.

To answer the question though, I'll probably wait for them to shelfwarm and go on special. For example, I'm pretty sure I've seen Roadrage go on special for as low as ¥3,500 on HLJ recently. I get the feeling that shelf-warming is going to happen a lot more frequently from now on with the Masterpiece line.