BotCon 2013 Rainmakers Set Sold Out

Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

You know, hasbro might aswell make a line that's just repaints of the classics seeker mold. They'll still go like hotcakes.

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

What make you say that?

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

I agree, they're the same, the only difference is the plastic color they're cast in. They practically look like knock-offs; they're so poorly detailed and bland.

You know, I think FunPub coulda done a full size mainline run of these things and be sold out, I'd almost guarentee that if they had ANYTHING left over they could burn through it online in a week...

It's funny how nobody ever seems to want repaints, unless it's the Seekers, in which case they want infinity of them.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

I agree, they're the same, the only difference is the plastic color they're cast in. They practically look like knock-offs; they're so poorly detailed and bland.

I think the main reason they look like KOs is that we've gotten used to the fact that CHMS beat HasTak to the punch on this years ago. If bland and undetailed makes them more show-accurate, then that's the right way to go.

Noideaforaname wrote:It's funny how nobody ever seems to want repaints, unless it's the Seekers, in which case they want infinity of them.

Traditionally, the Seekers were the Vehicons of Generation One. So in a way, it's alright that Starscream be repainted over and over, because that's one of the norms of Transformers: there's always lookalikes of Starscream. Plus, despite the wings getting in the way of the null-rays, the Classics Seeker mold is pretty cool.

I just shelled out $175 + $10 shipping for the set on eBay. If you really want these, now is the time to strike, not later.

Bumblevivisector wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

I agree, they're the same, the only difference is the plastic color they're cast in. They practically look like knock-offs; they're so poorly detailed and bland.

I think the main reason they look like KOs is that we've gotten used to the fact that CHMS beat HasTak to the punch on this years ago. If bland and undetailed makes them more show-accurate, then that's the right way to go.

Then can the club give us these

I preordered from BBTS. I guess there's a chance these will turn out to be worthless later on, but isn't that the story with any TF? I think these have a better chance of staying relevant than the original characters FP puts out at times and they're unlikely to be released by Hasbro or Takara at any point. I think Sunstorm will probably retain some value over time, at least.

I have the CHMS KOs already, but like jello, there's always room for more! Seekers are really fun army builders because each deco can be it's own legitimate character, unlike Sweeps who are all the same. But, unlike the KOs, these will probably be just as fun to transform as the other official Seekers. Getting the hand out of the arm is a problem with every single KO Seeker I own except the Rainmakers ... whose plastic feels light and cheap. Hm.

I have a ton of Seekers and would actually love to see Actionmaster / Pretender Starscream done one day. The toy deco just morphed into a unique colour scheme I'd love to see replicated. Out of the above shots the monochrome Seeker Is really appealing.

Edit: I'll concede that these guy are pretty bland, though. If they were going for 100% toon accuracy, they should have made them 100% toon accurate. Although I think the idea was to make these guys look more like a unit (where does that black arm colour come from, then?). Barring that, shades of colour would have done well.

Still, even while bland, it's nice to see my Seeker army grow.

mooncake623 wrote:

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

What make you say that?

Put simply, market saturation. They made a lot of these sets and most of the folks who want em already got em. Once that flavor of the week luster wears off, its just 3 more versions of a toy most of us already have at least 6 versions of.

They will never be cheap, but there's no way they'll stay at the $190+ mark.

If Hasbro is hurting for money, why not print more of these for regular retail? From what I understand, the mold has already been engineered, so the only costs are manufacturing, packaging, and shipping.

Help me out here, guys: Is it better to release a set like this in LIMITED quantities at a con? Or to mass-produce them and sell as many as you can (before interest dies off)?

Maybe Hasbro is keeping this mold as a "Get-out-of-Bankruptcy-Free" card? Meaning, I can stand to skip on this over-priced trio: more are surely on the way.

I think thhese will look great holding a Nullray. they shoudl of included extras with a hose maybe?

mooncake623 wrote:I think thhese will look great holding a Nullray. they shoudl of included extras with a hose maybe?

Yeah, they make a point of including the guy firing the flamethrower, but don't make his iconic weapon...could Hasbro have ordered FunPub to lay out some sort of cunning legal trap for any 3rd party company who dares make it before they release the official version next year?!?

Or are they just content to keep milking the mold and only splurge on repairing it when necessary, rather than new accessories? Really hoping it's the latter, since they'll never run out of seeker color schemes. Maybe next year it'll be the three guarding Shockwave's lab in The Ultimate Doom; that would mean a lovely pine-green-hued guy who's also not Acid Storm. My supply of cheap KOs of this mold to repaint into new guys seems to have dried up, so just let this mold remain the Botcon troop-builder from now on! Market saturation fires imagination!

Apparently making new moulds is the most expensive part of the whole exclusive toy enterprise and, seeing as how expensive these are already, I'd rather just leave that to whoever in the 3rd party scene picks up the ball for that.

We'll see if people get sick of the Seeker mould by next year. Between official stuff and KOs (and two of these guys are already available via KOs) a lot of people have a large Seeker army already ... and these sold out even so. So the game's on! The seekers are plenty popular, so I kinda think these will hold water for a while longer, but we'll see, I suppose.

Yeah, middle finger to Hasbro for not thinking that these would do well at retail....


Ya screwed us again...

Well... They'd need to jazz up the colour scheme a lot for me to believe this would do well at retail. Especially since Acid Storm was a real pegwarmer.

Anyway, FunPub is FunPub and Hasbro is Hasbro. I don't think Hasbro feels like their thunder is stolen by FunPub. Ever. Remember the Games of Deception Seekers?

This set seems to be designed specifically to piss me off.

I got mine off the second run at TFsource for $139.95. They sold out less than an hour after I placed my order. FunPub made 2500 of these, 500 more than any other set at the convention. Clearly, people want these.

Anyone who attended BotCon able to tell us what rate FunPub sold them at?

They sold for $99 dollars at Botcon.

I find it amazing they seem surprised that they sold out so fast. Given the incredibly crappy set they saddled on people this year and the fans who've been clamoring for these for years it should come as a surprise to no one they sold out and have done better than any other set to date.

Metrosuplex wrote:Help me out here, guys: Is it better to release a set like this in LIMITED quantities at a con? Or to mass-produce them and sell as many as you can (before interest dies off)?

1) That would ruin the exclusivity of the set. I don't know how the Generations Seekers were received compared to the BotCon 2007 ones, but it wasn't pretty, that I'm sure of.

2) We fans know who they're supposed to represent. Parents and the newer generation of kids, not so much: to them it's just "the same toy only in different colors". I keep telling people, would parents keep paying for essentially the same toy, only in different colors? No.

They probably thought people were sick of Seekers. I mean we have had a ton of KOs, even KOs representing Sunstorm and Hotlink. Just off the cuff, would you think pricy official version would sell when people have had a fancier deco already for much, MUCH cheaper?

Galactic Prime wrote:They sold for $99 dollars at Botcon.

I find it amazing they seem surprised that they sold out so fast. Given the incredibly crappy set they saddled on people this year and the fans who've been clamoring for these for years it should come as a surprise to no one they sold out and have done better than any other set to date.

Well, the biggest reason they sold out so fast was because one dealer - yes, DEALER - kept getting in line and buying the max he could per trip on the line ride! There were plenty of fans actually in attendance that couldn't get them and were upset about it due to this one person's tactics. If that weren't insult enough this same jerk tossed them on ebay and bid against himself (using multiple dummy id's) to jack his profit up to over 100%!! At last count he'd sold over 60 sets, but the number could be much higher than that since he was fudging ebay's rules completely by re listing the sets several times after he'd sold the original sets.

Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

So it's not just me with a floppy Universe Starscream?

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

So it's not just me with a floppy Universe Starscream?

Do we really need to answer that?

If yes, most if not all Universe 2008 Starscreams are floppy at best, thanks to one too many mold alterations. The original still functioning mold was reinstated with Ghost Starscream and Generations Thrust.

Yeah, Universe Starscream being floppy was a standard for that toy's release. Afterward, they fixed the mold for all subsequent Seeker releases (unless I'm forgetting any more floppy ones that came after).

Sabrblade wrote:Yeah, Universe Starscream being floppy was a standard for that toy's release. Afterward, they fixed the mold for all subsequent Seeker releases (unless I'm forgetting any more floppy ones that came after).

So is Universe Acid Storm also affected by this floppiness? I own two of them, and the only floppiness I've had issues with is a teeny bit on one of their wings.

Mindmaster wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Yeah, Universe Starscream being floppy was a standard for that toy's release. Afterward, they fixed the mold for all subsequent Seeker releases (unless I'm forgetting any more floppy ones that came after).

So is Universe Acid Storm also affected by this floppiness? I own two of them, and the only floppiness I've had issues with is a teeny bit on one of their wings.

Yeah, my Universe Acid Storm is a little more loose than average, but still holds a pose well. My Universe Starscream is, actually, not too bad either. It's definately looser than a lot of other Hasbro releases of the mold, but I don't have problems with his legs trying to spontaneously do a split on the shelf like I've had with some Seeker figures (BotCon '07 Thundercracker).

I've never had a problem with my Universe Starscream being floppy. He holds together well and holds any pose I give him, even with the ginormous-ness that is Dr. Wu's Magnum/gun mode Henkei megs.

Actually, never had any problems other than one of my CHMS KOs of the mold.

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

The prices on these are dropping already. I scored a set for $150 shipping included on eBay yesterday.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Sad to say, but if you bought from a seller with the user name "ALMAR_ENT" - you DID buy from the scalper. As of right now, he still has several sets up for grabs, and he's even broken down a few sets to make more from selling them individually than he can get for the set.

I'm trying to spread the word about this guy, cos this appears to be a tactic he uses in ALL his sales which are very heavily TF based. Economy is tight for most folks, but it isn't right that one person is sitting pretty at the expense of so many others. In the long run, this kind of behaviour hurts the whole fandom.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Sad to say, but if you bought from a seller with the user name "ALMAR_ENT" - you DID buy from the scalper. As of right now, he still has several sets up for grabs, and he's even broken down a few sets to make more from selling them individually than he can get for the set.

I'm trying to spread the word about this guy, cos this appears to be a tactic he uses in ALL his sales which are very heavily TF based. Economy is tight for most folks, but it isn't right that one person is sitting pretty at the expense of so many others. In the long run, this kind of behaviour hurts the whole fandom.

Mine came from ALMAR_ENT as well
Glad I now know why he has so many sets. I'll be avoiding him in future because of his tactics.

On a plus my Rainmakers arrived today, and I'm very happy with them. Nice joints and feel to everything. My aces seekers set feels horrible compared to this set. Cuts in plastic from mold tree are a lot better. No floppy wings, everything fits together very nicely as if it was the first ever use of this mold what is it up to now? 29 uses...

The BotCon 2013 Rainmaker is back in stock at BBTS.com
I ordered mine this morning after I thought I had missed out.

MyBumbee wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Sad to say, but if you bought from a seller with the user name "ALMAR_ENT" - you DID buy from the scalper. As of right now, he still has several sets up for grabs, and he's even broken down a few sets to make more from selling them individually than he can get for the set.

I'm trying to spread the word about this guy, cos this appears to be a tactic he uses in ALL his sales which are very heavily TF based. Economy is tight for most folks, but it isn't right that one person is sitting pretty at the expense of so many others. In the long run, this kind of behaviour hurts the whole fandom.

Does this guy own some sort of store? Is that why he did that?

I got my set in hand and I noticed a few things about the mould compared to my older seekers.

Nosecone - if you look carefully at the earliest seeker moulds (Skywarp and Starscream) the nose of the 'plane bends ever-so-slightly to the right. This problem is a lot worse on the Rainmakers.

Wings - align the seekers next to each other and their wingtips touch, right? Wrong. One wingtip sits higher than the other and this has always been the case with the seeker mould, but again seems to be worse on the rainmakers.

So I guess my point is that mould degradation has taken its toll on these guys, just not manifested as loose joints in this case. Also, my Sunstorm is missing the 'cap' that sits on the rear of one of the missile launchers. Anyone else notice this?