william-james88 wrote:It is? I find that surprising because that makes it a little less than 33$ per triple changer. That's how much the commemorative reissue was? The insecticons are only 15$ more and you get a third toy, making them about 27$ each. And its not like the insecticons are so much smaller than the triple changers. And they even come with new accessories (energon cubes).
All the Autobot cars and Decepticon Jets were $34.99
originally back then, though I think Hot Rod was maybe $29.99 in that first wave. So this would have been stuff like Jazz, Prowl, Starscream, and later on even Rodimus Prime, and Astrotrain (though it only ever hit Hasbrotoyshop and KB Toys at discount) was intended for that price point. (edit: so in other words, not the Insecticons, who were put out as a set of three at roughly the same pricepoint 6 years ago)
The reality is most folks didn't pay that much for them, as Series III-VII (and half of VIII and IX, with Sideswipe and Astrotrain being weirdly MIA for a long time) of the Commemorative Series shelf-warmed, and shelf-warmed like a boss. The markdowns were amazingly awesome. I think my Comm. Series Rodimus Prime was $9, Thundercracker and Skywarp about $15 each, Grapple, Bluestreak, and others around that too.
There was a consequence to this, however. Due to their failure at being a not-so-limited, yet still TRU exclusive line, every G1 reissue in the US market since then has been some form of exclusive, whether that be SDCC, a particular retailer, HTS, online, etc. and the perception is that the quantities produced are in much lesser numbers. Had this line succeeded, it's very well possible many of the reissues that Takara has put out over the years would have gotten out here as well, such as Trailbreaker, Ironhide, Ratchet, and the other Coneheads that are only now happening. Plus, had Ricochet/Stepper not absolutely bombed at retail, an Artfire would almost have undoubtedly happened.
To this day, let it be a lesson for "Clearance" shoppers - there's nothing wrong with waiting for a clearance, but keep in mind the message it sends to the retailer, who knows those numbers and gets them to Hasbro some way or another by direct reporting or by behavior in placing future orders.
So even with inflation, these are still an additional 2/3rds (66%) markup, for repaints that they didn't have to put any money into engineering for this release... what the hell? Sorry Hasbro, but I'm not paying you for being greedy... that's what you have the movies for 
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