Siege stock - is it scalpers or just limited supply from Hasbro?

[SharkyMcShark]

Only two points to make.

1. Distribution in Australia to retail department and toy stores has been increasingly poor for a few years now. A few recent examples

- Studio Series voyager class completely stopped here after wave 2, and leaders after wave 1
- Studio Series deluxe waves 3 and 4 came and went quite quickly, but now wave 5 is receiving what used to be seen as a more or less standard wide distribution.
- The Power of the Primes deluxe wave that had Rippersnapper was almost impossible to find at retail here.
- No one except Toyworld and Toymate has stocked WFCS Wave 1.
- TLK Premiere wave 3 and 4 deluxes turned up about 15 months after the movie en masse at Toyworlds and Big Ws.
- Lest we forget the Christmas 2018 Big W $5 TLK Voyager madness.

What you're seeing as possible "scalper" activity could really just be awful distribution.

2. It doesn't matter what someone does with their toys after the point of purchase, and it doesn't matter how many they purchase. I say this as someone who doesn't understand how even an iota of enjoyment could be gleaned from having a MISB collection, but it's the truth. Whether they open and play with it, leave it in box, flip it on ebay - it doesn't matter.

[Tilarta]

Something I've been wondering about, which may have an impact on Transformer stock levels is this:
Shortly before the Siege Toys arrived, a new stockline appeared in both Big W and Kmart, Fortnite toys and both stores put these next to the Transformers section.
I think the presence of this new stockline halved the available space for Transformers, so could it be that they didn't order as many to allow for the new items?

Me personally, knowing what I do about Fortnite and the unpleasant behavior it triggers in it's junior playerbase, if I was a stockmanager, I'd refuse to stock their merchandise on ethical grounds.
If you're curious, I learned about what it causes from gamer parents, who stated that they'd prefer their children would not play this game.
Think about that for a minute, people who enjoy gaming are telling me they don't approve of Fortnite.

As someone who is concerned about quality, BBTS has the "Collector" grade for $2. They inspect the item and individually package it for shipping. If you're really concerned about QC it's a good option.

The flaw with the Inferno Combiner toy wasn't something BigBadToys could fix, Hasbro basically packed the wrong combiner modules with him and when I insisted on a replacement, they just sent another mispacked toy and considered the case closed.
My next step was to take him back to Kmart and get my refund.

[Raider]

I agree with Gok about what a scalper is. IMO a person who buys multiples for their own collection (No matter how they choose to display them) is not a scalper.

I have no issues with a person buying multiples. First come first serve. Hence why I pre order almost all my stuff online so I won't miss out.

[Trent]

And also, if you have issue with people purchasing 2 copies of a figure for their own collection, I suggest you stay away from Macross Valkyrie collecting. Most collectors get 3 of every release with some getting 4. That’s one for fighter mode, one for gerwalk, one for battroid and one to keep MISB.

[Maruten]

Me personally, knowing what I do about Fortnite and the unpleasant behavior it triggers in it's junior playerbase, if I was a stockmanager, I'd refuse to stock their merchandise on ethical grounds.

Man, I don't think you would make a very successful toy retailer then.

And this is a separate conversation and I don't want to derail the thread, but Fortnite is extremely tame and cartoony as modern video games go - it may be an easy outlet for stupid behaviour, but I don't think there'd be too many cases where it was "triggering" something that wasn't actually driven by some pre-existing underlying cause. Video game scapegoat, lazy parents, blah blah.

I would REALLY love to get a reliable answer from Hasbro and/or a major retailer about Siege. I just can't imagine that Big W said "we don't want the launch product, only send us the wave two -Masters". Did Hasbro somehow underestimate how much of wave one they'd need to ship to retailers?

But then at the same time... Toyworld got plenty of wave 1. Kmart, Target and Big W went straight to wave 2. So it's not like Hasbro didn't make wave 1 available in Australia. There's just no explanation that makes sense. Maybe Toyworld just beat everyone else to the initial stock.

[UltraMarginal]

I don't know what mainland stores are like, but the factor to keep in mind is the local retailers aren't like mine, so taking every toy from them is a significant inconvenience.
Especially considering the Siege line isn't actually being stocked at this moment near me.

At the moment, I'd prefer to purchase the toys in person and examine them before getting them, because of something that went horribly wrong when I tried to purchase an Inferno Combiner toy.
There was a detail I couldn't see clearly and it was a defect, so I had to return the product.

That's why I'm forgoing internet orders for now, just because I can't look at the product personally.

The only one I have ordered is Siege Commander Jetfire, because I'm 100% certain I want him.
And the only company I could find in Australia who accepted my Jetfire preorder is Minotaur Entertainment, Melbourne.

Another complication is that my local retailers don't order the Titan class toys, I never saw a Metroplex or Trypticon and only saw one Fortress Maximus at Myers before he was sold and never restocked.
I'm still uncertain if I want to purchase Siege Omega Supreme or not, but if I do, I'd want to do this in person, because the size of the box may result in expensive shipping fees.

If you stack your order at BBTS with their Pile of Loot system and ship it after 3 months, allowing you to build up a 'larger shipment' the cost of shipping works out much less per figure. most larger international estores have a similar system. I have found it very beneficial in the past, especially for waves of figures where I wanted to buy entire cases of the toys.

The flaw with the Inferno Combiner toy wasn't something BigBadToys could fix, Hasbro basically packed the wrong combiner modules with him and when I insisted on a replacement, they just sent another mispacked toy and considered the case closed.
My next step was to take him back to Kmart and get my refund.

When I had an issue with Generations Blitzwing having 2 left arms, BBTS sent me a junker with the correct arm, free of charge so I could swap it out. they are very good with this kind of service. I have heard other similar stories from people buying at the larger international estores.
I'm also confidant that most local estores would also do their best to replace items like that for you.

I agree with Gok about what a scalper is. IMO a person who buys multiples for their own collection (No matter how they choose to display them) is not a scalper.

I have no issues with a person buying multiples. First come first serve. Hence why I pre order almost all my stuff online so I won't miss out.

Totally this, I literally have hundreds of Transformers still MISB, it's not because I plan on flipping them, I just buy them faster than I open them so I end up with a 'ballast' of unopened toys. I sometimes buy something with the intent that I don't miss out on it in case I decide I want it in my collection rather than paying after market prices a couple years down the track.

And also, if you have issue with people purchasing 2 copies of a figure for their own collection, I suggest you stay away from Macross Valkyrie collecting. Most collectors get 3 of every release with some getting 4. That’s one for fighter mode, one for gerwalk, one for battroid and one to keep MISB.

That shit be cray cray, I could never afford a collection that demanded 4 of everything.

I do buy multiples. the Generations and titan master scourge, I bought Hasbro multiples and one of the Takara version to have a 'scourge with sweeps'.

I and pretty much every other hard core collector will be chasing down 3 of the up coming refractor figure to be able to make the camera mode that demands 3 off. I have heard that Hasbro are even packing them 3 to a case of eight. but then this will cause problems, any one store seems lately to only be getting 1 or 2 cases in at any one time, that allows for only 2 collectors, and there are a lot of us out there. Then what happens when someone just buys one refractor? that means someone wanting 3 can buy the 2 there and will have to look for another case somewhere else.

I can tell you something for free, I'm no scalper, I even went to the extreme of only picking up the legion class Transformers Prime Vehicon one at a time on single visits to the store, I think I ended up with about 4 or 5.

[Sinnertwin]

I'd much rather just order 3 Reflector's, or any other toy for that matter online and not worry about the time and effort involved in physically going to a store.

[Tilarta]

@UltraMarginal,
I did check with some other Transformer toy collectors and they defined the Inferno Combiner module packing error as this:

There were actually two waves of Combiner Inferno toys, unmarked.
The first wave was packed with the correct modules as shown on the outside of the packet, the second wave as packed with Dinobot/Volcanicus modules.
Since the Dinobot modules aren't remotely compatible with the Prime Core module gun combination mode, that made them unusable by me.

I think Hasbro just assumed that what the box was packed with was meant to be, without actually reading my 2 page letter with pictures explaining what they did wrong and just sent another wave 2 Inferno as replacement without even bothering to check the contents of the box.

Then the collectors told me the same thing had been done with Combiner Starscream as well.

So I'm uncertain if BigBadToys can fix that particular issue, they'd have to find a wave 1 Combiner Inferno and sell that instead of the mispacked wave 2 version.






To keep the thread being derailed, you can go here and learn what I did about Fortnite:
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?p=609632

[KELPIE]

Me personally, knowing what I do about Fortnite and the unpleasant behavior it triggers in it's junior playerbase

The last time I heard about kids dancing as unpleasant behaviour was from a minister in a small mid-west town USA....

I and pretty much every other hard core collector will be chasing down 3 of the up coming refractor figure to be able to make the camera mode that demands 3 off.

Aww man... does this mean I need 6? 3 for camera and 3 for MISB? Or can I get away with 3 for camera and 1 MISB?

[Tha_Phantom]

Aww man... does this mean I need 6? 3 for camera and 3 for MISB? Or can I get away with 3 for camera and 1 MISB?

No, you need 9! 3 for camera, 3 for robot, 3 for MISB.