Transformers Collectors' Club Late Summer Sale: Armada Skywarp, Ramjet and More

You can only order these if you're a member of the Club, but I just checked on the site and you can't buy a membership anymore. So basically, if I haven't payed for a Club membership already, I'm screwed. I know the Club is being shut down, but they could bother to still have memberships for sale. No reason to cut off that stream of revenue early.

Man, Skywarp has been one of my most anticipated figures this year, but $70 plus another $15 to ship just isn't in my budget this month. Hopefully they'll be around still at the end of the month, but I feel like this is going to be one of those 'gone by the end of the week' type of things.

Emerje

Very excited to get mine.

I wrote the bio and the comic included.

Randy

Powered Convoy wrote:Very excited to get mine.

I wrote the bio and the comic included.

Randy

I see the comic says "Volume 5", does that mean it's a 'does whatever it wants to' thing like the other toy pack-in comics? Or is it intended to be in either the cartoon or Dreamwave comic universe?

Give me the hard sell on this. It's so expensive ;_;

ScottyP wrote:

Powered Convoy wrote:Very excited to get mine.

I wrote the bio and the comic included.

Randy

I see the comic says "Volume 5", does that mean it's a 'does whatever it wants to' thing like the other toy pack-in comics? Or is it intended to be in either the cartoon or Dreamwave comic universe?

Give me the hard sell on this. It's so expensive ;_;

I think it's Volume 5 of the Armada pack in comics...

ScottyP wrote:

Powered Convoy wrote:Very excited to get mine.

I wrote the bio and the comic included.

Randy

I see the comic says "Volume 5", does that mean it's a 'does whatever it wants to' thing like the other toy pack-in comics? Or is it intended to be in either the cartoon or Dreamwave comic universe?

Give me the hard sell on this. It's so expensive ;_;

Yes, it is set in the pack-in comic universe that does whatever it wants to.

Since I've already paid in full for TFSS5, this will most likely be the last money I ever give to The Club. It's kinda bittersweet.

ScottyP wrote:

Powered Convoy wrote:Very excited to get mine.

I wrote the bio and the comic included.

Randy

I see the comic says "Volume 5", does that mean it's a 'does whatever it wants to' thing like the other toy pack-in comics? Or is it intended to be in either the cartoon or Dreamwave comic universe?

Give me the hard sell on this. It's so expensive ;_;

As others have mentioned it follows the toys / other minicomics and the Dreamwave bios for continuity and character traits.

So the blue Seeker guy is Thundercracker and not Starscream Super Mode.

It's a fun little story (I think) and tries to promote the Skywarp figure while telling a short story of what happened after volume 4 of the Armada minicomic and before the 1st Energon minicomic.

Randy

Predictably, this little dude makes my heart sing, but even if I were a member (which I'm not even sure was possible from the UK), $70 +international shipping for a deluxe is too high no matter how much I'm in love with it...
Such a limited run makes it unlikely to ever see a reasonable price on the aftermarket too Fair play to all those of you who do get it though, looks like you're in for a fantastic figure

Powered Convoy wrote:It's a fun little story (I think) and tries to promote the Skywarp figure while telling a short story of what happened after volume 4 of the Armada minicomic and before the 1st Energon minicomic.

Wait, the minicomic as in the incredibly peculiar little multilingual pack-in comics that featured overload and rollout talking to each other and subsequently giving anyone trying to make sense of their relationship a total headache? That's golden

This was my #1 MUST HAVE figure of the year. I've been waiting & waiting & searching for info on it's release date. Only to find out that I can't order 1 because I'm not a member. And being limited to only 1000 pieces, I'll never be able to pay the scalpers for one.

I'm so pissed right now I'm about to completely stop collecting & never buy another TF figure again. If this is the way they're gonna treat their fans then I don't want any part of it.

I could buy a Ramjet & repaint it into Skywarp but the clear purple parts make that impossible.

Spider 001 wrote:This was my #1 MUST HAVE figure of the year. I've been waiting & waiting & searching for info on it's release date. Only to find out that I can't order 1 because I'm not a member. And being limited to only 1000 pieces, I'll never be able to pay the scalpers for one.

I'm so pissed right now I'm about to completely stop collecting & never buy another TF figure again. If this is the way they're gonna treat their fans then I don't want any part of it.

I could buy a Ramjet & repaint it into Skywarp but the clear purple parts make that impossible.

It's not like they didn't ever tell us the buying situation for the Club Store beforehand.

Sabrblade wrote:

Spider 001 wrote:This was my #1 MUST HAVE figure of the year. I've been waiting & waiting & searching for info on it's release date. Only to find out that I can't order 1 because I'm not a member. And being limited to only 1000 pieces, I'll never be able to pay the scalpers for one.

I'm so pissed right now I'm about to completely stop collecting & never buy another TF figure again. If this is the way they're gonna treat their fans then I don't want any part of it.

I could buy a Ramjet & repaint it into Skywarp but the clear purple parts make that impossible.

It's not like they didn't ever tell us the buying situation for the Club Store beforehand.

Yeah, plus, the Collector's Club is closing down, and we don't know if Hasbro is going to start up anything similar in the future, so this level of exclusivity might not exist anymore for Transformers.

Spider 001 wrote:I've been waiting & waiting & searching for info on it's release date.

Then how did you not know about its exclusivity and membership requirements? It would have only taken a little research at any time to know that. Not to be mean, but you really only have yourself alone to blame.

My complaints come from it being inflated to $10 more than Nova Prime's $59 price tag last year. And why, for a mini comic? We're already paying a premium for these exclusives, why bloat the price even more on what for many of us will be our final club purchase (because that G.I.Joe set is pretty underwhelming, I only want Ratbat).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Spider 001 wrote:I've been waiting & waiting & searching for info on it's release date.

Then how did you not know about its exclusivity and membership requirements? It would have only taken a little research at any time to know that. Not to be mean, but you really only have yourself alone to blame.



Emerje

I thought members get a lower price & non members have to pay a little more or buy a membership. Isn't that how they did it in the past? I've never wanted to buy a club figure before. This is the first time because Skywarp was my very first Transformer & I always buy every version of Skywarp. I would have bought a membership if I had known this was going to happen but I thought non-members could buy it too. I thought it was exclusive to the club meaning that's the only place you can buy it, just like a Target exclusive can only be purchased at Target. I didn't know it was strictly members only.

#1. This character is a very popular main character.

#2. Limiting him to 1000 out of millions of Transformers collectors worldwide?

#3. Universe Ramjet would have been a better choice to limit. If they did it the opposite, the more mainstream popular character would be flooded on ebay right now for $30 & everything would be all around better.

#4. Skywarp completes a set. We need Skywarp to complete the 3 seekers. Universe Ramjet is more of a stand alone character so he should have been the members only, limited to 1000, figure.

#5. Not all of us Transformers fans are rich. I can afford to pay the club an inflated price but I'm not going to be able to afford the inflated aftermarket price on top of the already inflated price.

#6. I only wanted this 1 figure. I have no use for any other part of the club.

#7. Now that I didn't buy a membership when I had the chance. Because I didn't know it was absolutely 100% necessary, WTF am I supposed to do? It's too late, no going back now. 1 strike & you're out!

This is just another horrible experience in a hobby that I'm supposed to enjoy & is supposed to bring me happiness. Been getting more bad experiences than good lately. Back in the 80's I enjoyed going to the store & buying Transformers. It was very basic & simple. 3 steps, go to store, choose figure, purchase figure. VERY ENJOYABLE! And the reason most of us got into it. But look what it has become. An constant exercise in frustration.

Spider 001 wrote:I thought members get a lower price & non members have to pay a little more or buy a membership. Isn't that how they did it in the past?

I don't think it's been that way since they upgraded the store a few years ago. At one time non-members would automatically have the price of a membership included in the cost of the figure, but then that was changed to them having to buy a membership separate from the figure. That was fine until this year when the memberships ended leaving no way for non-members to get the 2016 exclusives.

It was said above by TF_JW that he's "...working on getting an answer about memberships..." so you never know, they might bend a little. However, when they did widen the availability of Subscription Service 5.0 it was only for previous members from the last few years so don't expect miracles.

Emerje

The BotCon registration fees were more expensive for non-members. I don't seem to recall them allowing non-members to purchase their club exclusives, just the BotCon registration packages.

Granted they did open up the TFSS 5.0 to previous members from 2010 on.

Randy

Honestly, the comic and catalog are the only only things making the price point on this figure kind of justifiable.

I know how excited Robby was to do the art for it and I love the throwback to Armada, so...I'm in for this whole package.

Very difficult to justify the price on an existing tooling of this mold otherwise...

Unfortunately while limited to Club Members, the Skywarp (and Ramjet) orders share the same expanded member roster as the TFSS 5.0 pre-orders. If you've been a member at any point during the last four years, you will be able to purchase one of the figures.

Counterpunch wrote:Honestly, the comic and catalog are the only only things making the price point on this figure kind of justifiable.

I know how excited Robby was to do the art for it and I love the throwback to Armada, so...I'm in for this whole package.

Very difficult to justify the price on an existing tooling of this mold otherwise...

Robby's work in this comic is amazing. Even though it was going to be at a smaller scale, he was super detailed and filled the pages up with all these little bits here and there. I was amazed at not only how superb his work was but also how quickly he did it.

Just simply amazing!

Randy

Spider 001 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Spider 001 wrote:I've been waiting & waiting & searching for info on it's release date.

I thought members get a lower price & non members have to pay a little more or buy a membership. Isn't that how they did it in the past? I've never wanted to buy a club figure before. This is the first time because Skywarp was my very first Transformer & I always buy every version of Skywarp. I would have bought a membership if I had known this was going to happen but I thought non-members could buy it too. I thought it was exclusive to the club meaning that's the only place you can buy it, just like a Target exclusive can only be purchased at Target. I didn't know it was strictly members only.

#1. This character is a very popular main character.

#2. Limiting him to 1000 out of millions of Transformers collectors worldwide?

#3. Universe Ramjet would have been a better choice to limit. If they did it the opposite, the more mainstream popular character would be flooded on ebay right now for $30 & everything would be all around better.

#4. Skywarp completes a set. We need Skywarp to complete the 3 seekers. Universe Ramjet is more of a stand alone character so he should have been the members only, limited to 1000, figure.

#5. Not all of us Transformers fans are rich. I can afford to pay the club an inflated price but I'm not going to be able to afford the inflated aftermarket price on top of the already inflated price.

#6. I only wanted this 1 figure. I have no use for any other part of the club.

#7. Now that I didn't buy a membership when I had the chance. Because I didn't know it was absolutely 100% necessary, WTF am I supposed to do? It's too late, no going back now. 1 strike & you're out!

This is just another horrible experience in a hobby that I'm supposed to enjoy & is supposed to bring me happiness. Been getting more bad experiences than good lately. Back in the 80's I enjoyed going to the store & buying Transformers. It was very basic & simple. 3 steps, go to store, choose figure, purchase figure. VERY ENJOYABLE! And the reason most of us got into it. But look what it has become. An constant exercise in frustration.

You have a PM, Spider 001.

Spider 001 wrote:
I thought members get a lower price & non members have to pay a little more or buy a membership. Isn't that how they did it in the past?

Some of this has already been answered, but one part needs emphasizing.

At no point in the past were there true non-member prices for most figures. At one point, the language said so, but the reality was that this was simply the cost of a membership added on to the figure. There was a never a "non members have to pay a little more" option.

Ever.