Takara Transformers

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
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Mar 14, 2011
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I had no idea. I've never bought anything from overseas that required me to pay any kind of customs fees. I don't even know the US rules to be honest.

That sucks that your own gov't is scalping you.

I've heard many a fellas complaining about them...whereas other retailers try and do what they can to help customers skirt the customs revenue maker...

I think the price tag keeps kids away. Kids can get parents to shell out for a $40 video game (because dad can play it too!), but it's a tougher sell for a $100 robot that could break if you transform it twice.

But I too do not understand all the japanese trading card game/top-spinning nonsense. It doesn't even look fun, even if you understand wtf is happening.

I think WM and other retailers LOVE that crap because the margins have to be much better than other toys. Tops and trading cards that sell for $5 don't cost .25 to make, and WM buys them for .60 and makes big money on the margin. And if they have to clearance them, it's no big loss (literally). On the other hand, $$ TF's that might or might not sell and could cause a big loss if they have to clearance them are probably a retailer's nightmare.

So I understand the economics, but if I was a kid, I think I'd be revolted at the crap they try to push on me. Yeah, I bought garbage-pail-kids in elementary school too, but that was for kicks. I didn't get them instead of anything important (like SW, MOTU, Joe, etc) or treat them like a "real" toy...


I don't get it either...though I'm sure our parents thought that about some of our toys...but cards as toys, not collecting items, but toys?!...how, boring...

If I was a kid and got that as a gift, I'd be p!ssed!...I'd put on a happy grateful face, but I'd NEVER "play" with that garbage...

I collected GPK cards too, enjoyed the gum...but I didn't play with them...:rolleyes:
 

xxxx

Artist.In.Residence.
Apr 13, 2011
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So they deliver your package and a surprise bill for some custom tax with it?! Not cool...
yep,that's it...in fact,they send you the bill for the customs fee's first... to pay before they will even deliver the package.they truly are parasites.
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
Damn, that royally sucks. I think our customs people are too busy hunting for illegal drugs to worry about the toys I import from overseas. They're always marked "toys" on the slip, and no one seems to care.

Eddie, it's nuts, right? Those aren't real toys. A top with a japanese name is still a top. It spins. It's fun for about three minutes, and then... not so much. Funny thing is, if you got a room full of kids and told them you had an exciting new toy: a top and a deck of cards... they would look at you like there were snakes coming out of your head. But put some nonsensical asian-sounding name on it and call it a fighting game, and boom, instant hit.

I agree that some of hte crap we had as kids likely made little sense to our parents who, let's face it, had few toys, and they were shitty. Tin cars and stick horses... of course our toys were going to look weird. I think we must accept the fact that those of use who had our formative toy-years in the 80's were blessed with a golden age of plastic crack that will never be duplicated. It was the perfect storm of the new 3.75" scale, a gung-ho/cold war political climate, and the 1981 FCC deregulation of commercial children's television. Ahhh, the glory days!
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
I don't agree with this guy's politics, but it's a cool history lesson.

http://www.everything2.com/title/I+hate+Ronald+Reagan%2C+but+I+love+He-Man

I've noticed two common threads that run through many of my friends my age: a generally liberal outlook on government, especially increased regulation of corporations, and an undying secret love for the children's programming of their youth (He-Man, Thundercats, Transformers, and the like.) Surely one of the great villains of this political stance was the "free market" presidency of Ronald Reagan. Strangely, we would have probably looked at Reagan as a hero when we were kids, for without his hands-off policies regarding the FCC's regulation of children's programming, we never would have had the cartoons we loved so dearly.

Let's go all the way back to the year 1968. Television was filled with violence, not on its shows, but on its coverage of the real world. 1968 was the year of the Tet Offensive and increasingly violent coverage of the war in Vietnam, the riots at the Democratic National Convention, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. All of this coverage increased viewer's anxieties about violence in society, especially the way television might influence people. Soon an air of increased regulation spread in TV land, not only from the network standards and practices departments, but also from such groups as the Federal Communications Commission and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The clampdown was not limited only to violence, it also extended to how television was used to advertise to children. The NAB revised their guidelines and reduced the amount of advertising allowed in one hour of children's programming from sixteen minutes to nine and a half minutes. The FCC also kept their eye on the content of shows, even going to the point of demanding that the ABC cartoon Hot Wheels be cancelled because it amounted to nothing more than a program-length commercial. Five-second bumpers indicating the separation between programming and advertising were also made mandatory. The Federal Trade Commission also conducted a yearlong study on the effects of sugar advertising on children and even considered possibly outlawing advertising to children altogether.

This is not to say that the 1970s were some sort of haven for good television for children, or that shows like Scooby-Doo and Jabberjaw were actually educational. It's just that these shows weren't put together with an eye only for ready-made product tie-ins and selling children's toys like the shows that would follow in the 1980s.

It's time to move away from thinking of broadcasters as trustees and time to treat them the way that everyone else in this society does, that is, as a business. Television is just another appliance. It's a toaster with pictures.

FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, appointed in 1981.

As the Reagan administration moved into Washington, most of the regulatory controls implemented in the previous ten years were thrown out the window. The new FCC felt that the controls and policy statements implemented in the 70s were a violation of the broadcasters' and advertisers' First Amendment rights and argued that the "free market" (that is, the number of child viewers each show pulled in) would determine which shows were "quality." The NAB policy on advertising minutes disappeared, and President Reagan vetoed the Children's Television Act, which would have reinstated some of the restrictions.

What followed was an explosion in cartoons that were developed to advertise a new or preexisting line of toys. G.I. Joe, a toy that had existed since 1964, suddenly found himself the subject of a popular show. Toy company Mattel created the He-Man line of action figures and cheaply produced a show outlining their adventures. Thundercats, Transformers, Silverhawks, Super Mario Bros., Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, the list goes on and on. All of these shows featured the adventures of huge casts of characters, and each had an equivalent set of figures, vehicles, and bases that could be purchased in the real world by the child consumer masses. In 1977, 20% percent of all toys sold were licensed products from TV shows or movies. By 1987, this figure had jumped to 80%.

And the kids loved it! (I know I did). Everyone would get up early on Saturday mornings to watch the adventures of their favorite heroes (which would inevitably introduce new characters into the mix, complete with action figures of their own). Then would spend the rest of the afternoon making their own adventures with their licensed toys. Some of the shows still paid lip service to the idea that children's TV should be educational by adding little segments onto each show that supposedly taught life-lessons. The one thing everyone was taught was to be a good little consumer.

There are fewer product-based programs today then there were back in the mid-80s, but this is mostly due to the fragmentation of the child audience thanks to cable television. The Children's Television Act was eventually passed in 1990, but was largely toothless, as it did not outlaw product-based programs and allowed stations to declare almost any show to be "educational" ("The Jetsons fosters interest in new technology and may provide budding scientists with inspiration.").

Ronald Reagan's handing of the public airwaves over to corporate interests merely started a trend that continued with things like the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the DMCA. I gnash my teeth at the corporate-friendly media policies of the Reagan administration and those that followed, yet sometimes I still go down in my basement, pull out the dusty boxes, and see if the Joe team will ever succeed in assaulting Castle Grayskull.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
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Mar 14, 2011
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S.E. Mich :(
That was pretty good nacho...funny how we didn't even realize how awesome a thing it was for us as children back then to have the Government being bought and paid for...while now it seems downright evil...
 

Mandingo Rex

★★★★★
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Mar 14, 2011
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That sucks on the import tax thing, xxxx. So, nacho, you just make sure all your Japanese drugs are labeled as "toys" eh? :D

And xxxx, what is that girl wearing in that pic? Good lord, her ass is amazing.
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
Yeah.. toys... that's the ticket. ;)

Yeah Eddie, but I can't reconcile how the author thinks it was all that bad yet still looks back on it quite fondly.

I don't hold a grudge. I don't think were nearly as stupid as kids as they think. We KNEW those were just 30min commercials. We accepted it and welcomed it with open arms. I knew they were trying to sell me new toys. I couldn't wait for them to sell me new toys. I fail to see the evil part. My only regret is that my kids won't know the glory of saturday morning cartoons and afternoon blocks of toy commercials disguised as cartoons.
 
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Mandingo Rex

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Maybe it's just nostalgia setting in, but I agree with you. I'm sure our parents think it's sad we never got to play out in the yard with dirt clods and watch Howdy Doody (maybe KT remembers this? :D) in black and white, but I do think the 80s was a magical time to be a kid. The internet, as much as it's contributed, has done probably as much damage, too.

With gas prices what they are too, I think we'll one day be talking about action figures like old folks talk about going to see the talkies.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
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Mar 14, 2011
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NOOOOOOOO!!...dont do that to me!...I'm happy with my MP-04...I'm happy with my MP-04...I'm happy with my MP-04...

Seriously, I think I'd rather give my money to Keenan and get him to make me a 1:18th Prime...or get an igear TC
 

Mandingo Rex

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It's a really good mold though!

I think (read: really, really hope) you'll get a crack at the MP-10 mold if they ever do an Ultra Magnus, which would be a good smart reuse of the mold with a new trailer armor. Now that Soundwave is coming out (MOST ANTICIPATED FIGURE SINCE MP-05!!!), UM is REALLY on my wishlist above nearly everyone except for maybe a resized Megs.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
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Mar 14, 2011
43,432
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S.E. Mich :(
I'm kinda waiting on the new MP size...if they get five figures in and then change the scale again, that'll suck...so I'm gonna sit back and wait to see if they seriously commit to it...if they do start going balls out and making every G1 toon character in this scale, I'll get on board...gonna be crazy $$$$$$$$$ for me though :D
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
I think TK just realized that the line wasn't sustainable at the larger scale. The costs were going to make the figures prohibitively expensive. Thus, they just jumped down to the seeker scale because it was already too small for the other figures anyway. I'd be stunned if they changed scale again. MP's need to be larger than classics. Sideswipe already strikes me as a little on the small side. Quite frankly, if they scaled down again, I'd be out.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
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Mar 14, 2011
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S.E. Mich :(
another thing keeping me at bay is their constant need to go back and do new versions of the same character over and over again...or repaints of the same character over and over again...looking at you prime and seekers...yes, sometimes it makes sense, but if the only characters we get are the ones that can be reused somehow, it'll be forever (or never) until we see someone like Mirage for example...

It's promising that there are three new characters coming out so soon, but again, they can be (and already are) reused...
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
Any of them can be reused well enough. Soundwave is pretty much a loner. Of course they will do a "soundblaster" black repaint, and all seven fans of that character will buy it. But it's not like that one has a ton of repaint potential.

Most of the early characters have G2 paint schemes they can do (barf), shattered glass repaints (barf), and diaclone-or-whatever-series-the-original-toy-came-from colored repaints. So I would not assume that just because only one toy used a mold back in the day, that those guys will never see a MP figure. I figure they're just going for the low-hanging fruit because it's easy.
 

Mandingo Rex

★★★★★
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Does MP Soundwave still come with the mini Megatron? (Scaled down version of the pistol from MP-01?) Or did they scrap that yet?

I think this was a one-time scale switch, Eddie. All the MPs besides MP-01/2/4 and MP-05 are in scale to each other in bot mode, generally. I didn't even bother with MP-02 because a white Prime doesn't an Ultra Magnus make without armor. Megs was a tad awkward, although I was fine with him. Once they redo Megs, I don't think we'll see any others redone besides maybe Skywarp or some stupid repaint of the original Seekers. I won't be getting any HasTak coneheads as the iGear ones were amazing. The fix to Starscream was at least a good fix, and it was considerable retooling, personally.

Wanna buy my US Wal-Scream?! :D
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
Just ordered the Perfect Effect Arcee...been itching to get her for a while...

She's a really nice design, but stunningly small. I expected her to be deluxe sized or bigger. She's more like a Joe figure.

what do you guys think about the fall of cybertron shockwave?...i'm thinking of picking one up.

Not bad if you need a shockwave. I think his alt mode is atrocious, but the bot mode isn't bad. My biggest beef is the size. Shockwave is supposed to be large and imposing, and this deluxe figure gives me the same vibe as CHUG Galvatron. Way too small.

For a classics shockwave, I still like this one (energon shockblast) with a few minor mods and a paint job (not my work, just before and after pics I snagged off bing images):
 

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G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
43,432
428
83
S.E. Mich :(
She's a really nice design, but stunningly small. I expected her to be deluxe sized or bigger. She's more like a Joe figure.

What I like about her is that she's almost true 1:18th...she goes great with them!...she's Scarlett's bike for sure!
 

xxxx

Artist.In.Residence.
Apr 13, 2011
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She's a really nice design, but stunningly small. I expected her to be deluxe sized or bigger. She's more like a Joe figure.



Not bad if you need a shockwave. I think his alt mode is atrocious, but the bot mode isn't bad. My biggest beef is the size. Shockwave is supposed to be large and imposing, and this deluxe figure gives me the same vibe as CHUG Galvatron. Way too small.

For a classics shockwave, I still like this one (energon shockblast) with a few minor mods and a paint job (not my work, just before and after pics I snagged off bing images):
o.k....thanks nacho.i just bought one and the mech tech shockwave.i did spot a g1 shockwave....but got scared away by the price, 170 british pounds! too rich for my blood!
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
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xxxx

Artist.In.Residence.
Apr 13, 2011
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nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
I tend to buy my G1 KO's from ioffer just because you can usually haggle a better deal. Chimungmung's shipping is damn high. However, on certain third party items, especially things that BBTS doesn't carry (like Hegemon or ArtFeather Bumblebee), chimungmung is cheaper than robotkingdom or some other e-tailers, even with the high shipping from asia.

So it's all a big game to find the best deal on each one. But I've bought plenty of stuff from both those particular sellers, and my experience has been positive.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
43,432
428
83
S.E. Mich :(
You guys seen these?...look pretty good...check out the very last two pictures...





 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
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S.E. Mich :(
Lol...used to be called "Uranus" but they changed it to "Uranos"...lil better I guess...Think they were just keeping with the Greek god names...

I had the first two preordered the second they went up...but when info came out that it would be a six member team and that Silverbold would be changed to a SR71 (kibble city!) I backed out...I'm gonna wait to see their Superion completed...its not a combiner that i have to have...so while all the limbs are likely to look as awesome as Fireflight here, I'm afraid the torso may, be awkward... I'll also likely save money in the long run doing it that way...
 

K-Tiger

All solutions are final.
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Mar 14, 2011
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Lol...used to be called "Uranus" but they changed it to "Uranos"...lil better I guess...Think they were just keeping with the Greek god names...

I had the first two preordered the second they went up...but when info came out that it would be a six member team and that Silverbold would be changed to a SR71 (kibble city!) I backed out...I'm gonna wait to see their Superion completed...its not a combiner that i have to have...so while all the limbs are likely to look as awesome as Fireflight here, I'm afraid the torso may, be awkward... I'll also likely save money in the long run doing it that way...

Then use the Roman equivalency, "Caelus".
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
Personally, I like Silverbolt as a blackbird because a concord or whatever he was supposed to be just didn't scream "air superiority" to me.

It's not really a six-man team. The sixth-man is just the SR-71 drone or whatever that becomes a chest plate, right? It's not a sixth man in the devastator sense. I thought the 6th guy was more of an accessory with silverbolt still being larger and forming the whole torso (minus the accessory piece). Did I make that up? I'm pretty sure I read that.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
43,432
428
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S.E. Mich :(
No no, that's how its supposedly supposed to be...though the SR71 drone thing is an assumption...nothing official on that yet...but right now there's too much to speculate on for the torso...I'm not gonna gamble until I see what it looks like...

And while I agree that the SR71 makes more sense as its a military jet compared to a passenger jet, (and it's an awesome bomber in general) it's even worse from a kibble standpoint...the SR71 is much flatter than a Concorde leaving even less space to store robot parts...essentially there'll be a full plane on a robot back or a full robot on the bottom of a jet belly...


If they were gonna change Silverbolt to something else, an SR71 was the worst possible choice, it's a pancake!...they should've changed him to something that looks similar to a Concorde but with MORE space, not less...reading other suggestions, an XB70 woulda been PERFECT!...not only is it a white military plane like Silverbolt/Concord, it's a bomber, has a similar design as a Concorde AND has tons of space for robot parts so that Silverbolt won't be wearing a plane backpack...


Oh well...anyway, that's why I'm waiting :D
 

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
43,432
428
83
S.E. Mich :(
I guess I expected some improvement almost 30yrs later...I expected them to find a way to not make Silverbolt as sh!tty as ROF Jetfire...YUCK!...

And I agree about probably keeping them combined always, but looking at what a beautiful plane the first one turned out to be, I'd almost like to put them in alt mode occationally if the rest looked as good...


Anyway, just got my shipping notice for green Giant...WOOT!...you guys pick him up?...interested in pics when I get him?
 

Mandingo Rex

★★★★★
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Mar 14, 2011
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Gone Baby, Gone
Well I finally got around to opening both Thundercracker and Skywarp... It feels weird to have owned a toy for 3 years that I finally just got to open. And man, I have to say, next to Starscream and TC, Skywarp now looks so wonky.

I'm dumb enough to buy a Skywarp repaint of that new MP-11 mold, if they ever get around to it. The fixed legs/hip on the iGear one is close, but it's missing the Decepticon sigils, and it's still as different as the official Walmart one from the 2 new TC/SS molds.

As much as I love the Takara box art, I do think I'm going to either eBay or Craigslist them soon. I've got Skywarp, TC, and Greenscream, plus I'm likely going to ditch the Walmart Starscream with them, too. Those boxes are just so damn big and they take up so much space!

The only thing I'm considering keeping from the US Starscream is the stand and missiles. I really dislike that stupid cape/crown gimmick that came with the Takara one, and wish they'd just included the stand and missiles so they'd all be able to be displayed consistently with tampo'd names on their stands. And dammit, if the stand for Thundercracker doesn't say "THUNDER CRACKER".

I'm debating on whether or not I'm going to remove those silly tampo "tattoos" on TC. They're on the backside of his arms, so you don't really see them in bot mode, anyways.

Oh, and to answer my previous question about Soundwave coming with the mini Megs, yes, he does, and it's a resized one. So the second they announce a new MP Megatron, I'm going to sell off MP-04, too. (The mini-Megs was the only thing worth keeping from that anyways.)