Will you still collect MP Transformers with the higher prices?

[1AZRAEL1]

One can live on bake beans on toast for the foreseeable future.

Bread and water mate lol

[BigTransformerTrev]

I couldn't care less about Beast Wars. Sorry Verno.

One can live on bake beans on toast for the foreseeable future.

Bread and water mate lol

2-minute noodles with frozen peas & corn put in

I’ll still grab any new G1 characters they release, but no more variants or diaclone characters and I never bothered with the BW ones anyway

[Kranix]

I'm considering if I continue to buy any further MP with the exception of 2 figures, Hound and Jazz (should we ever actually see him released as an MP). Between the straight toon styling not appealing to me as much, no more access to Amazon Japan and higher prices in general I can't buy at the same rate was before. Even though there are a few more bots I would have liked to have purchased.

[Ace]

I know that as collectors we only make up a fraction of the market that purchases Transformers, but I can’t help but think that with TT making Masterpiece figures more expensive that they could potentially damage the franchise by slowing down sales of other toys in order to obtain the more expensive ones? Which would in turn provide less money to create MP figures?

Or am I being silly?

[bowspearer]

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.

[SharkyMcShark]

I've had a think about this, and realised that of the 8 MP figures I've owned only two were purchases on a whim and the rest were things that I'd long anticipated and decided I would get with a reasonable disregard of price.

So I suppose it probably won't change my pattern because I don't really buy that many MP figures, and when I do I'm usually happy to not overly concern myself with price. My impulse buy threshold is somewhere below $100AUD so this higher pricing doesn't really change things for me.

For example, I'd pay ~$300 USD for a fully fleshed out MP Movie Starscream, because it's a design I enjoy. Whether MP BW Megatron is $300, $150, $210, $294.84 or whatever, it's above my impulse buy level so it doesn't change things.

The eight figures are
Hasbro: 2007 Starscream, Skywarp, Rodimus Prime, MPM-3 Bumblebee
Takara: MP-11 Starscream, MP-12 Sideswipe, MPM-2 Starscream, MP-28 Hot Rod

The two impulse buys were Hasbro Skywarp and MP-28 Hot Rod, and mainly because I came across them in stores for about $75 AUD.

[bowspearer]

The two impulse buys were Hasbro Skywarp and MP-28 Hot Rod, and mainly because I came across them in stores for about $75 AUD.

This is where I think a large part of the shift will happen. Where in cases like yours, this situation of impulse buys by casual fans of the line when things have been on sale has been the sole domain of impulse buyers, I think that many like myself who have preordered at standard prices in the past, will shift our buying habits to waiting until figures go on sale after shelf-warming.

[christalcase]

I was a bit shocked at MP BW Megatron's price but I think this will be the last one I'll definitely get so I can pair him with Optimus Primal. After this, unless it looks amazing I'll be a lot more selective and skip.

[DELTAprime]

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.

I forget where I saw it but recently someone mentioned that apparently the whole thing of Takara selling 90% of its toys to adult collectors is not accurate. Apparently they sell more like 30% of their toys to collectors as opposed to Hasbro's number which last time Hasbro announced collector vs kids numbers it was something like 20% to collectors (and that number from Hasbro is incredibly high by Hasbro's standards).

That said I don't expect any kids to buy MP Megatron at these prices.

[Ralph Wiggum]

It really depends on whats coming out; lucky my focus on MP collecting is confined to G1 cartoon and movie bots only.

The slowdown in G1 cartoon announcements pretty much means I can buy whenever any is announced.