Prices continue to rise on Transformers toys and other popular brands

I absolutely refuse to buy any Deluxe toy at retail for that price until/unless Hasbro can give us a good and clear explanation for why the prices are suddenly on the rise after staying mostly the same for the better part of 20 years. And why Voyagers aren't getting price-jacked.

Seibertron wrote:The retail prices of Transformers toys and other popular brands continues to increase at stores across America. These price increases continue at nationwide chains such as Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, Kmart and others. Is there an end in sight? How much is too much? Is there a limit to how high these prices will climb before you stop collecting? Sure oil prices and overseas labor costs have increased ... but is that enough to justify almost doubling the prices of these toys in the past 2 or 3 years? Share your thoughts and comments by joining our discussion by clicking here.

Pictured below are some new price tags of Transformers and Marvel Universe toys at the Rosemont Target near Chicago, IL. Time to front page this so that others can join the discussion about this issue.

$17.39 plus tax??? if this gets around to California i’m done with retail it’s going to be all about online

It's been a growing concern for me since Dark of the Moon came out. Smaller deluxes at inflated prices. They could have done one or the other, but instead they did both. The new deluxes are barely larger than the size of Energon basics. I remember when deluxes were $6.99-7.99. I am tapping out on buying multiples unless its classics. It really is ridiculous. I just spent $34 on Dreadwing at retail. I am ordering almost exclusively through BBTS from here on out. KMart has some deluxes at 12.99, the day they became the low cost provider I started to lose my marbles.

Is this across the board or just a few stores playing the price hike game?

Also wondering if this has anything to do with the holidays coming and/or future sales so the store(s) can gain more profits while making the consumer think they are saving...

That Bot wrote:And why Voyagers aren't getting price-jacked.

...yet.

This is getting a little bit ridiculous. There was a thread I commented on awhile back about changes in TF buying habits. This pricing further justifies buying online from BBTS, TFSource or the like. Not to mention the gas money you save and you don't even have to suffer the frustration from not finding what you want! Online stores will probably see an increase in purchasing...assuming they don't go up in price!

I don't care, really. I like to find deals & whatnot, but I am a completist and will buy them regardless of the price. I see what you are saying Ryan, about the absurdity of the situation, but those who can not afford it will simply quit buying. Those of us fortunate enough to be able to afford these figures will continue to buy them if we choose to do so. I don't really see the big deal.

Erailea wrote:Is this across the board or just a few stores playing the price hike game?

Also wondering if this has anything to do with the holidays coming and/or future sales so the store(s) can gain more profits while making the consumer think they are saving...

I've been wondering that myself.

My local WalMarts (in California btw) aren't quite that high yet. I'm sure it's only a matter of time though.

#&%*ing oil-prices!

To whoever killed the electric car back in the day: Jolt is hunting you down as I type this.

If I saw proof that Hasbro had abandoned sweatshop labor entirely, I wouldn't mind as much, but we seriously need to stop using oil as fuel wherever possible so that it can be used for plastics as Primus intended. There may not be a realistic alternative for rocket and aircraft fuel, but if the U.S. had switched to some sort of electric/solar/flywheel combination for cars 20 years ago, we could've led the whole world away from this situation.

And no, that's not trivial, since the rise in plastic prices is surely hurting products that we actually need.

*Yawn* Wake me up when there's something new. I have been paying 19 dollars each for a deluxe ever since 3 years ago. Peace out~

Prices can go up it costs more to make...

But I believe it is because the demand is so high. Collectors buy out these toys as soon as they hit the shelves(you know who you are). Collectors will continue to snatch these toys up no matter the cost and Hasbro will continue to raise it.

Wow, there is no way I can be reading that price tag correctly! You know it's bad when that officially puts Wal-Mart as the most expensive retail store. I never thought I'd see the day TRU beat WM at deluxe pricing! Well, if that happens here, my buying strategy will be changing tremendously. I've been considering ditching the smaller lines (save a few here and there that really grab me) and focusing on MP's alone, and this may be the move that does it. With the increase in number of MP's, not to mention how great they're coming along, it's getting harder to resist. And as much as I love the show Prime, most of the toys are decent, but very few "must haves", it's been mostly for the completionist in me. I understand price increases, I really do... but (roughly) $7 in 2 or 3 years?!? Yeah, I've gotta draw a line somewhere ...

Are you frigging kidding me? That's it...I'm not buying toys at retail anymore.

In the last three years, I have rarely paid retail for any figure in any line. The hobby has been too expensive for my income for a while now.

Most of my purchases are either from reduced-price liquidators like Marshalls or old lots on eBay.

On a related note, I think this is one of the reasons why Cyberverse and Kre-o are so popular. It's a bit like the Squinkees phenomena. When the regular-scale toys are so expensive, the micro-scales seem like a bargain by comparison (even if they aren't).

It's not the rising costs that bothers me too much so long as quality wasn't sacrificed as well. But with rising costs mixed with diminishing quality and it's no wonder 3rd Parties are getting more and more collector attention.

Part of this is the holiday season. Prices will relax come February.

Another part of this might be due to competing toy packaging within the same line of toys. Prime, Generations, Bot Shots and Cyberverse - these are all competing for the same shelf space while ultimately being the same thing. And quite frankly, that's a frustrating product to sell because consumers want one and maybe not the other.

Raising the prices also means store can hold "sales" where the product remains "discounted" throughout the season. Of course, the sale price is the the MSRP. HTS always offers the toys at MSRP (though it is telling FoC/Generations went from $12.00 with OP, Jazz and Shockwave to $15.00 with the Combaticons).

Some food for thought.

this is getting out of hand now, do they really expect kids, parents & collectors to pay these outlandish prices? but this just proves the point ive been trying to make for the past year, if you dont fight it then its just going to get worse. I bet if we all stop buying then the prices would go back down. Yes i understand that oil has gone up but not enough to raise the prices this much. And this isnt the first time the price of oil has gone up, the last few times it did the prices didnt even fluctuate and if they did it was by very little. The main reason why prices are going up is because they see that there are still morons out there that will pay any price to get the product, thus the price goes up & other people cant afford to get them so they feel special in the end. Or they just dont give a flying frak. Also the holidays are coming and parents get really stupid around this time of year and will pay anything to get little timmy that toy he wants. So is it time for the fandoms to come together and fight this bullshit or are you people who "have to have it now" or "im a completionist and cant risk not getting it" or "the price gouging is justified" going to continue to frak the rest of us over? Eventually its going to reach a point as to where you wont even be able or be willing to pay the price they're asking. Suck up your goddamn pride & ego for a little while and help the rest of your fellow collectors out. In the end we all win, plus theres ebay so youll still be able to get what you want later on to complete that precious collection of yours.

On another note i am ashamed that its come down to this, companies preying on kids like this especially when the economy is shot to shit. I can only imagine how many kids have been unable to buy that toy that they want cause everytime they go to get it & they think they've save up enough the price is higher. All this is going to do is alienate people away from the product and thats going to screw everyone in the long run. A kid is going to realize eventually that hes getting screwed and go elsewhere, remember video games are just as big as toys these days and i wouldnt be surprised if alot of kids start saving their money to get more games than transformers or power rangers. Thats what ive been doing, ive been buying cheap figures off ebay (not just transformers either) & putting the rest of the money towards video games. And now that i look back i saved alot of money. Yeah it does suck that i cant go and get that new figure i want but ive learned to wait and ill pick it up on clearance and if i dont get it then oh well, my collection is still over 1000 strong. 1347 if i remember correctly.

Hmm... I was just at Wal-Mart yesterday and for me they are still listed at 12.99. Hopefully they don't get increased too much in my neck of the woods.

They are going up, to go on sale. It's what they usually do right befor a sale..

WAS 17.95

SALE NOW 15.99!!!!ZOMGWOWLOOKATTTHEMONEYYOURSAVING!!!

Well shoot, I guess I'm done collecting. Nice job Hasbro. Looks like only 3rd party for me. At least they make figures I actually enjoy.

I'm done with retail, myself. If I'm gonna spend an absurd amount of money, might as well just save it for the MP line. And if there is a Prime toy (which is now far and few between) it will be Takara. The rest goes to the 3rd party guys. Yeah, I'm just about done with Hasblo....

I'm done with retail, myself. If I'm gonna spend an absurd amount of money, might as well just save it for the MP line. And if there is a Prime toy (which is now far and few between) it will be Takara. The rest goes to the 3rd party guys. Yeah, I'm just about done with Hasblo....

You have got to be kidding me?! Just when I begin to work on my anger issues with this franchise THIS has to happen LOL. All kidding aside, I just don't see how they could possibly think that this is gonna fly. I mean they went from $9.99 to $11.99 in the past few years and then they raised them to $14.99 this summer on the heels of their Botcon unveiling (using less plastic to make the toy mind you)and your telling me that now TARGET is charging close to 18 bucks. The phrase WTF comes to mind. The only thing I can think of is they are trying to catch potential Christmas revenue to boost End of Quarter totals.

This does seem like good old fashioned greed in effect. I wouldn't be the least bit suprised if this doesn't result in some type of backlash. I like the FOC game but I havn't been the least bit impressed with the figure line associated with it. I'm still trying to figure out what classifies this as a "Generations" line but thats a different discussion. And their charging MORE for these? I mean its ludicrous. I'm well aware that their are plenty of you that like the new line and have the expendable income but doesnt it hurt just a little bit when your forking over that cash or plastic at the register versus what your getting in return?

I bet their will be a ton of peg warmers come the first of the year. And then you'll see a price drop back to previous rates.

For me personaly this has been such a tough year for this hobby. Botcon came too early, prices skyrocketing, the FunPub fiasco and nothing really good coming out except in the Masterpiece line and those cost a small fortune and now to add insult to injury they charge almost $20 for a Deluxe class. I may need to take a breather from this pretty soon, and that sucks b/c its brought so much joy over the years.

i have to save my allowance once a week to get a deluxe transformer. now i have to wait for two weeks to get a deluxe TF.

Screw Hasbro, I'm done with them now. I was really getting into collecting the past couple of years (as a result of joining Seibertron) and now I just can't afford it. It used to be a matter of saving up for getting a Takara Transformer for the first time and now it's just deciding on which ONE Hasbro figure out of all of them is worth dumping my money on. This is just utterly ridiculous. I'm done buying action figures from now on.

I'm a 14 year old who doesn't really have a steady job, and I simply can not afford this. I already spend a lot on LEGO right now, they're getting my business because their prices aren't going up and they continue to deliver a quality product. I am not going to buy Prime anymore. I think I'll just buy those First Editions and some of the FOC stuff, otherwise it's going to be Masterpiece and Encore. I think Hasbro is already feeling the financial pinch. They reported lowered profits during DOTM and they had to cancel that line early. I won't be surprised if Prime ends prematurely due to poor sales. It is my opinion that sales are down because the toys are noticeably getting worse and the prices are going up. If Hasbro were a good company they would be reading these comments by a significant buying sector of their product, and trying to save this sinking ship. I'm sorry Hasbro, but I'll be buying LEGO for a while...

This pisses me off. Bigger prices, smaller product. But here is what really confuses me, transformers.com shows suggested retail of $11.99 (http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/en_U ... FE6B:en_US). HasbroToyShop.com has price of $14.99 (http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/transforme ... 6&ID=30339).

So first off, it apparently is the retailers bending us over, not Hasbro. Secondly, why is Hasbro themselves showing 2 prices? It's actually too bad at both Target and Wal-Mart, they will not price match internet prices, you could possibly use the suggested retail price to argue with. Third, what makes these companies think this will work for them with this poor global economy? I'm willing to bet they will find more figures stolen, or bought then returned with incorrect merchandise in the package like I say at a Kmart the other day to the Cyber Verse Optimus Maximus base figure.

I mean, IDK what we can do beyond contacting the manufacturer to put pressure on the retailers to cut their prices. I mean we live in an age where Wal-Mart won't even price match their OWN WEB SITE PRICES. And their Idea of "Clearance" pricing still has 60%profit margin. What happened to the basic economic Idea that you pay for shelf space, and having product not move loses you money. That once the item has been around for a long time, deeply discount it to get it out of the store to get new product in.

It was a while ago, before Prime figures came out that My local Wal-Mart and a section of pegs, 6 wide my 5 tall, pegs holding about 5 figures, all had the DOTM Deluxe Optimus, and the repaint. That is 150 OF THE SAME FIGURES THAT AREN'T selling. This is why we have only seen some figures like Reveal the Shields at the second hand and discount chains like Marshall's and Ollie's. Someone up higher need to take basic economics classes again and learn how to sell product.

Prices are rising because gas is more expensive. These figures have to physically be shipped to stores all over the world, and it gets more expensive every day to do so. Also, the rising cost of gasoline causes the prices of raw materials, paper, plastics, printing inks, etc to become more expensive which also adds to the increasing cost of the finished product.

I agree with many people that the price of a deluxe class figure should stay below $10. However the truth is that it is likely Hasbro needs to charge these prices, or else stop manufacturing Transformers toys. I don't think this is simply an instance of Hasbro "getting greedy."

here in California we don't have this issue. usually though i wait for them to end up at Ross or TJ Maxx. That's how i got most of the reveal the shield line and a leader class movie starscream for $22.

plus some tf prime deluxe class figures have been packaged with a dvd of the episode loose cannons, that's why some of them are almost boarding $20. so far the ones i've seen with this is:

knock out
kup
bumblebee
cliffjumper
wheeljack
soundwave
vehiclcon

other than that, deluxe figures have a decent price tag here. not sure why FOC figures have a high price in other places.

Hey all, long-time lurker, first time poster.

Yeah, I don't quite get the "charge 'em more for smaller toys" idea either. Some of the WFC TFs figures are pretty bad@$$ but they're not even as big as any of the other lines deluxe toys. Heck, are they even as big as the TF: Prime figures?

I've been surprised by Wal-Mart's recent climb in price because that's where I usually find them the cheapest. Here in California, it hasn't hit 17 bucks yet but I have seen 15 not including tax.

Surprisingly, TRU had the cheapest price by comparison. Even still, I think it's strictly online/ebay/Amazon/other time where I can find deals. 15-17 bucks for deluxes (and not hard to find deluxes, just regular deluxe TFs even) is more than overpriced. May as well just get the Voyagers (which, if they would make all the major characters in the current lines would not be an issue).

Thankfully, my collection is nearing completion and I only have 1 figure left to buy at retail. I know your thinking "yeah right" but I set a goal for myself years ago and I have about 7-8 figures to go and I'm done. The others will come from Ebay, which is also high priced, but what can you do. I'm not going to stop being a fan by any means. Transformers forever! Fan of Hasbro...not so much. Hasbro, you need to fix this problem before you lose a majority of your customer base. Oil prices and labor cost will soon seem like the least of your problems. If the problem lies in retail, you had better put your foot down on the situation. Thanks.

PPL !!! Let's BOYCOTT WALMART !!!!

YEAHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!

That'd work about as well as it did in Family Guy.

Glad I bought Knock Out today for $15. $17 is ridiculous for the Deluxe-scale. If its going to be like this in the future, I think the Combaticons and several upcoming Classics figures will be the last Deluxes I'll buy in a while.

I know that with the increase in price and the decrease in size of the toys, I'm starting to be more selective with what character I buy rather than attempt to get a whole wave of a series. Stuff like Marvel Universe, forget about it, $11+ is way to much for toys of that size.

I'd be more upset about this if I could actually find any figures I want. I haven't bought a single Transformer in over 2 months.

So there are quite a few things to think out here.

1. The cost of plastic and what not. That's already been discussed in earlier posts.

2. The cost of manufacturing the toys. Also already discussed in previous posts.

3. No one seems to want to talk about the fact that the 3rd party toys might actually be a part of the price increase. And no, I'm not saying that 3rd party TFs are a problem. If Hasbro is looking at the collecting community and seeing us buying all these expensive 3rd party toys, which are pretty expensive, and sometimes about the same size as the toys they are trying to sell now, they probably haven't actually purchased those 3rd party offerings and seen the difference in quality. If you saw a competitive manufacturer selling similar products at higher price points, and selling more of them than you are, you either up your prices to match, in an attempt to make your own product not seem so cheap, or you stop manufacturing your product. Simple business economics.

Now I realize I'm about to get a whole hell of a lot of flak for that little paragraph, and please let me explain, I wish I could afford all of those 3rd party toys. They are better quality. They are more fun to transform. They are usually made of better material, though that may just be the few 3rd party pieces I actually own. I just can't afford to get the current crop of Hasbro offerings, let alone the toys I really want in my collection.

I'm not trying to persuade anyone to not buy any certain thing. I just thought it might be food for thought...

I can confirm these prices in san antonio texas.

Deluxes get smaller, Prices get bigger...seems legit...




*note sarcasm...

Well, third parties win, at least for me. A price increase would be fine if we weren't paying almost $20 for a shitty, unpainted, scout-sized bundle of regret. I pay a LOT for the amazing figures that third parties offer, and have yet to regret one single purchase (and I have a lot of them). I have sworn off game-related figures after acquiring and selling my SDCC Bruticus, Prime, and Jazz. I am also VERY close to being done with collecting Prime. I just don't get any satisfaction paying over $15 for a figure like Knockout, and then paying more to get the pretty much necessary reprolabels. Hasbro needs to up their game. If it weren't for the new direction of the masterpiece line, they wouldn't be getting my money for a loooong time.

LordBludgeon wrote:Hmm... I was just at Wal-Mart yesterday and for me they are still listed at 12.99. Hopefully they don't get increased too much in my neck of the woods.

Your location is Cybertron. You're on another planet. Here on Earth, prices are truly outrageous!

ARCTrooperAlpha wrote:PPL !!! Let's BOYCOTT WALMART !!!!

YEAHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!

NAAHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!

LiKwid wrote:Deluxes get smaller, Prices get bigger...seems legit...




*note sarcasm...

So, Hasbro thinks it's a smart idea to continue to raise prices and lower the quality. -_- This is why I haven't bought a single damn thing in months. Except for Weaponizers Optimus of course.

I was gonna say "Welcome To Canada!!" but actually, that's $1 more than we've been paying ever since I started collecting some 10 years ago. So I guess you guys have a reason to start complaining now.

...I'm only pretending to be a dick about it, price increases do suck. It's just that we've been paying 25% more than you guys up here forever, so I didn't feel much sympathy until now. However, this combined with the decreased sizes and complexity and terrible lack of paint apps...yeah, things are getting pretty bad.

Walmarts in the Springfield, MO area are actually getting stuff. The prices have remained pretty consistent here from store to store. TRU is the same price as Target and Walmart.

Tag prices have gone up but that doesn't necessarily mean you're paying more. I buy on sale only except when I see little chance of finding a sale.

In any case, a couple years ago I dug up scans and pics of U.S. ads and price tags from the '80s and found Starscream was $12.95 at TRU--about the same as a modern Deluxe--and sale prices for deluxe equivalents were around $7 to $8. Keep in mind that's not factoring in inflation. Each dollar was worth more back then.

Just wait for the holiday sales. You'll be able to get Deluxes for $8 to $10 when all is said and done.

amtm wrote:Just wait for the holiday sales. You'll be able to get Deluxes for $8 to $10 when all is said and done.

But what Deluxes will we see? If they do it right with the holiday reset, we're good.

We just need more shipments. We know how fast Dreadwing, Rumble, Vehicon, Dead End, and others will fly off shelves.

For what it's worth:

usinflationcalculator.com wrote:If in 1996 [Beast Wars Deluxe] I purchased an item for: $10
then in 2012 [Prime/FoC Deluxe] that same item would cost: $14.68

That is, $15 Deluxes isn't so much price gauging as it is just adjusting for inflation, and that's exactly where the MSRP (Hasbro's suggested price) is set, implying anything above that is purely on the retailers.

Of course, Hasbro has been noticeably cutting corners with a brand that's been doing phenomenally well lately, which is certainly strange. I could understand if they were made to keep the prices down, but that obviously hasn't happened.

The only way I'll $20 or more for a deluxe is if it's an imported figure. Hasbro, you can kiss my f*ck!ng a$$ if you want me to buy your stuff.

Plus, a majority of figure nowadays aren't even worth the high price. This is why my lego collection outnumbers the bots and cons. The prices stay the same and only increase with the size of a set, the bigger it is, the more it costs. Not, the samller it is.

HASBRO! GET WITH DAMN PROGRAM!

Those prices are disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
Buuut, the fandom have proven time and again that they're more than prepared to fork out huge sums of cash for very little, or shoddily-assembled plastic. So I guess we're partly to blame. You can buy an "exclusive" pink Prime from BBTS for seventy bucks. That thing is as exclusive as a McDonald's cheeseburger, but you can be sure that a healthy portion of the fandom will fork out for it.

Ultimately though the market is our responsibility. It's up to us to vote with our wallets, so if we're really not happy about the situation we know what to do.
As for me, I'm definitely going to be more selective about what I buy. The odd MP here and there. My favourite characters as/when they show up. The most I've ever paid for a TF is about $120 and I'll never pay more than that.

Almost $20 for a deluxe is the point where I have to seriously think about the importance of having another plastic robot on my shelf.

I doubt we'll be seeing a price drop unless hasblow decides to cancel their $hit toylines such as MLP and the like. Then they can use all that wasted plastic to actually give us some decent robots. But until then, my Lego collection will always be first priority.

I'll buy bots too, but the only ones I want are Magnus, Thundertron, and the FE figures.

Take a breather guys...


MSRP is still the MSRP, the retail chains can change prices as much as they want. This isn't Hasbro's fault. Hasbro made the figures smaller, with less paint apps, and articulation to keep the figures at the MSRP level.

Which If I believe right is supposed to be 12.99$


You want to throw fire, cast it towards the retail tyranny of Walmart and target. They are the only main retail competition, TRU has got their own game and is usually more expensive which doesn't seem to hurt them.


Also, unless ton's of reports start flooding in with this price point.
it could just be a bad Dept manager who is raising prices trying to impress the MOD.


I'd calm down... and go transform something.