Fanstoys went nuts on prices

[drifand]

I am actually a good supporter of their products until recently.

I noticed a number of members on a Fanstoys group buying up pieces and just reselling them at 40% price hike.
Is saddens me that a third party now cost way more than an original Masterpiece by Takara.
I understand in older Fanstoys pieces asking for higher prices, but some are just insane!
A Quietus asking for $600USD, wow honestly. Even my Omega FT didnt cost that much.

Even the new ones like Hunk, Sherridan are asking over $190 is to me over the top.
It saddens me that people are buying it as an Investment rather than how great the toy is.
Not sure what others feel. I kind of turning away from Fanstoys at this stage.

[jimoinj]

Yeah there is a scarcity to the toys, some would say artificial scarcity, which along with demand is driving up the prices on the secondary market. However wait for the reissues and you will get a better deal. For example I heard Quietus is being reissued, and since X-Transbots is releasing a greatly improved version that may put pressure on the price. Sadly though, prices are rising in part because of what people are willing to pay. It's a pity the QC from Takara has fallen away because frankly I think Fanstoys is doing a better job, as well as being more prolific and putting out characters never done by Takara (eg. Astrotrain). But yes I can see how it's pricing some out of the market. Luckily there are other options like Xtransbots and MMC.

[Omega Metro]

Missed out on Sheridan because I didn’t want to preorder it because Fans Toys take forever to release stuff. Still waiting for Berserk that I paid for back in 2017 which Toybot won’t refund me for. So will never buy a Fans Toys product again. So prices don’t concern me as other companies will get my money instead.

[Jellico]

Got to say I wanted a Thomas, but the prices after pre-release have scared me off. If I want to spend that money I would crack and buy a MP44.
The price on the little guys like Hunk and Sheridan are a worry too because they need to inspire me enough to replace reasonably solid Bad Cube bots I already have on the shelf.
Finally I held off pre-release Thomas last year because of weak design and quality choices with bots like Jabber. Fans toys did themselves no favours over the last two years.
This has been a bad year for me with all MP scale bots. There have been new characters I want like Arcee (have Rouge but I had hopes...) and Astrotrain but the execution and prices make it hard to support anyone.

[1AZRAEL1]

People suck. They are scalpers, nothing more.

[primatives]

Yeah I hear you. Was a bit of a turn off seeing how pricey they are.

But they have such good feel and quality compared to Takara. Not to say they dont have QC issues of their own

[jimoinj]

Got to say I wanted a Thomas, but the prices after pre-release have scared me off. If I want to spend that money I would crack and buy a MP44.
The price on the little guys like Hunk and Sheridan are a worry too because they need to inspire me enough to replace reasonably solid Bad Cube bots I already have on the shelf.
Finally I held off pre-release Thomas last year because of weak design and quality choices with bots like Jabber. Fans toys did themselves no favours over the last two years.
This has been a bad year for me with all MP scale bots. There have been new characters I want like Arcee (have Rouge but I had hopes...) and Astrotrain but the execution and prices make it hard to support anyone.

Wouldn't you worry about MP44's QC?

[graza78]

I don't think reissues will help the price. I bought fanstoys jetfire when it first released for $220 AUD delivered. Its reissue price is around the $380 mark. Similar story to Kup, paid around $120 delivered, now its $215 for the reissue.

I don't think prices will go down. The demand is too high and takara set a precedent with MP44 for around $500, so fantoys know they can also sell at a high price (Fanstoys product are far superior to takara imo).

[Jellico]

Wouldn't you worry about MP44's QC?

At then end of the day, for better or worse, it is the new default Masterpiece everything will be judged against. There is a reason MP10 was the standard comparison piece in every MP review. MP44 now fills that role.

If you are a collector you need a Prime and MP44 is the Royals Royce. No matter how good, 3rd party will always lack that Takara cachet.

Besides there will be a decade of reissues. They will get it right eventually.

[loophole]

I've found that in the last couple of years if you don't get your preorders done straight away you will miss out where as before you could get in last minute