I pretty much retired from collecting after the Prime Trilogy, unless they did Beast Wars and well then Kingdom happened, now I've cut my buying back down to new characters, IDW inspired or JG1 since they don't make many of those three categories.
I'm pretty close to ZacWilliam1's approach in mainly prioritizing G1 stuff; it's just what tugs at my heartstrings the most. However, I have grown along with the brand and there's a lot that I like that came afterward.
These days, I try to limit my purchases outside of G1-referencing toys/characters to just those that I absolutely love. Or unique, one-off kinds of releases that are so outstanding that I can't pass them up. These are often - but not always - HasLab, Selects, or con-exclusive figures.
These days, I try to limit my purchases outside of G1-referencing toys/characters to just those that I absolutely love. Or unique, one-off kinds of releases that are so outstanding that I can't pass them up. These are often - but not always - HasLab, Selects, or con-exclusive figures.
Same, and I like to think that, after all these years, I’ve kind of been able to peg the general “sales trend” for these kinds of items. Then again, I don’t recall Motormaster ever getting a big “sale”, but Rodimus Prime ended up hitting some impressive lows.
I’ve scaled back like everyone. Something has to REALLY intrigue me to drop a preorder or really hit a nostalgia note. And it’s turning out to be the weird international stuff or deep cuts. Though, I’m not immune to a good nostalgia hit (like Dirge and Shrapnel, among the few “TV characters” I actually had as a kid). Still sad we ended up with Tigatron rather than Polar Claw in Kingdom…
Though, I’ll be damned if, after 20 frickin’ years, I’m actually feeling nostalgia for Armada, of all things!
Yeah, Motormaster never getting a big sale is the reason I still don't have one.
That, plus the fact that he kinda sold out everywhere at full price (which is obviously why he didn't get a sale, so grrrrr).
I only ever saw Motormaster at brick and mortar retail one time in my neck of the woods.
I haven't seen a commander class toy at retail in years......
Like seriously, If it weren't for BBTS, Pulse, and TF Source, I would have bought like 4 Transformers in the past three years.....
Rodimus and Skylynx are the only ones I ever saw at retail.
I actually ran across a Motormaster in store. I grabbed him and cancelled my preorder. But that was probably the only time I've ever seen anything larger than a Leader at retail since Toys 'BackwardsR Us closed down.
Sky Lynx is the only Commander class toy I ever saw at brick-and-mortar retail.
That's not surprising. 'Twas kinda hard to find a 2002-2003 toy at retail stores during 2011-2014.
The only time I've seen any Commander class toys is at my comic book and toy store, not at any regular retailers.
I saw Sky Lynx at Target once, but naturally that was after he hit my pile of loot at BBTS. Never saw any others at normal retail.
Unusual sightings:
My Walmart finally restocked Legacy Leaders…with Transmetal Megatron. The packaging from LAST year. Hard to tell if stuff is still in the inventory channel…or my Walmart finally worked through the several tractor trailers of inventory over the spring and finally got to stuff that should have gone out last year.
Also saw a a multi case refill of Studio Series Core…with wave 2. The Spike wave that was difficult to find last year. Now, my store has a full peg of him. Again, given how empty pegs were over the holidays, it’s hard to tell if this is indicative of anything besides my local store did a crap job managing their inventory had stuff sitting in the back (or in trailers) for months. Seeing the Spikes are nice, but NOBODY really wanted to see more BBM Shockwave and Ravage. Store had FINALLY gotten rid of them over the holidays…just to get a pile more.
My Walmart finally restocked Legacy Leaders…with Transmetal Megatron. The packaging from LAST year. Hard to tell if stuff is still in the inventory channel…or my Walmart finally worked through the several tractor trailers of inventory over the spring and finally got to stuff that should have gone out last year.
Also saw a a multi case refill of Studio Series Core…with wave 2. The Spike wave that was difficult to find last year. Now, my store has a full peg of him. Again, given how empty pegs were over the holidays, it’s hard to tell if this is indicative of anything besides my local store did a crap job managing their inventory had stuff sitting in the back (or in trailers) for months. Seeing the Spikes are nice, but NOBODY really wanted to see more BBM Shockwave and Ravage. Store had FINALLY gotten rid of them over the holidays…just to get a pile more.
One of my walmart's just stocked a bunch of SS Spike's as well.
Likely your miss inerpreting it, but then it might be certain stores not going to stock legacy and focus on Rise of the Beasts because they want to gamble on that!