william-james88 wrote:Thanks for the in depth review of the options in the US, Autobot032.
And just to be clear, when I was saying that Amazon was a bad idea it was in terms of them carrying exclusives for the world. Few aside from TRU can do this at that scale. But with the decentralization of exclusives (meaning that a item will be exclusive in different retailers depending the country), then Amazon can do for the US. Its kinda out of my field since now we would be talking of where its exclusive in the US (as opposed the the world in general) and I am not an American. I do favor the decentralization idea since it gives a chance for everyone to get these toys. Target is nowhere outside of America, but other retailers could carry their exclusives in other countries.
I do find that as a specialized international toy retailer, Toysrus is the best one of all (maybe Walmart as a second option) but the main reason we are not happy with them is because they dont have their cluck together. Instead of looking elsewhere (getting out of the frying pan and into the fire), it would be best to simply explain to TRU and hope they figure out the demand of these toys. Me and Kanrabat and many others in Quebec kept bombarding TRU to add french on the platinum editions so that we could get them too and now they did, hourray! This proves that TRU does listen to feedback. Its not like they are purposefully trying to lower their sales.
Think about it, it must be tough for non fan statisticians and business analysts to understand the logic of why one masterpiece sells like crazy while another one doesnt. If there was the exact same level of demand for Bluestreak as there is for Starscream, the same thing would have probably happened but they dont see it and will probably lump them all and simply average out sales for market anticipation in future released.
I'm not entirely sure TRU actually listens to the number crunchers, honestly. They probably should, but I doubt it. It's not just Transformers, it's their ideas, period.
Limited numbers of some of the most sought after figures, but overstocked to the gills on ones that had people scratching their heads. Acid Storm? A random show cameo background character (I think he was in an episode of G1) gets his own Masterpiece? That just seems silly to me.
Cybertron Supreme Class Starscream receiving a reissue at nearly $100.00? Zero sense.
But let's look at other lines in their stores for a moment. Power Rangers is another prime example of "What are they doing?!"
Legacy Titanus. In all actuality, $100-125.00 is fair price for him. (People were under the impression that he was handpainted and that's what the extra cost was on top of the die-cast metal, but it wasn't. They're tampographs applied by machine.) He started out at $199.99, which is ridiculous. I was dumb enough to buy him with a coupon at $175.00 plus tax. (I won't make that mistake again. Period.) Fortunately, they had coupon after coupon and sale after sale, since it was Christmas. I ended up getting him for closer to $100.00 and because it was a present from my Father, it ended up being more like $40.00 out of pocket for me.
They have a ton of Dino Charge Zords and Megazords right now. What do they do? Repaint the main Megazord plus the two readily available auxiliary Zords and throw 'em together in a box with a few add ons for about $10.00 less than you'd pay buying them individually. Sounds like a great deal, but it's just more shelf clutter that won't sell in the end. Sure, people who've never owned 'em before, as well as completests will go out of their way to buy these products, but generally they just end up clearancing these items out when it's all said and done.
They did so with the Legacy Megazord because it was taking too long for the Dragonzord to come along and there was no whisper of Titanus at one point. Then years later, both of them show up, but also with a year or so between them as well.
Now, TRU is rereleasing older PR role play items in special packaging as a TRU exclusive, for roughly the same price they went for originally, or even slightly higher, and I can't imagine they'll move much, if at all.
So, it's no surprise to me that TRU would botch a release like Starscream, at least in the beginning. I've noticed that Acid Storm, Prowl and Bluestreak (Silverstreak) have been more plentiful, so hopefully Starscream will too. Maybe they listen some, but you have to admit, they don't seem to pay much attention to number crunchers or people who seem to "get" it.
It's great that we have an option for exclusives, it really is, but some of them just make you scratch your head. Some just don't make any sense, plain and simple. Especially the PR stuff...
NOTE: Realize that I am not a perfect Christian, nor do I profess to be. I apologize if anyone's ever offended by me, I'm not perfect. Don't hold my posts and opinions against other Christians.
