I still need alt wheeljack!

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Here you go. Not including shipping it's retail price..........unless of course you're not a member. In which case, forget all about this. http://www.transformersclub.com/shop/index...l&productid=800

I am somewhat concerned about the fate of Bt/Alts, but still think that it's not a lack of good ideas so much as marketing and other "real world" issues that are getting in the way of the good toys coming out.  I personally think Hasbro should get with Takara in embracing this line as a G1 for 2005 instead of just another TF line.  Why pull from other TF lines besides G1??  There are plenty of characters to utilize in G1, and the core novelty of the concept is in seeing classic characters reborn w/ the latest in toy technology.  All the characters from subsequent lines have had that technology available when they first came out.

I just literally cannot IMAGINE devoting the time and money to engineering/producing such a sophisticated product line as the Alternators and then not making your product available to ANYONE, ANYWHERE.  That makes zero business sense.  Does Hasbro just not want us to buy their products or what?  Seriously, I'm not even being sarcastic here. 

 

WTF is wrong with their distribution that they can deliver thousands upon thousands of Sledgehammers and Bruticus limbs to every retail outlet on earth, yet they can't manage to get one lousy Wheeljack/Swerve/Prowl/ANYTHING ELSE to any store in the Western Hemisphere?

 

I wonder sometimes, how many of these things do they even sell when they're not being SOLD anywhere?  A couple thousand, maybe, to only the most hardcore collectors who're willing to pay scalper prices?  How can Hasbro possibly stand to profit from such an arrangement?  Do they get kickbacks from Ebay or what?

I just literally cannot IMAGINE devoting the time and money to engineering/producing such a sophisticated product line as the Alternators and then not making your product available to ANYONE, ANYWHERE.  That makes zero business sense.  Does Hasbro just not want us to buy their products or what?  Seriously, I'm not even being sarcastic here. 

 

WTF is wrong with their distribution that they can deliver thousands upon thousands of Sledgehammers and Bruticus limbs to every retail outlet on earth, yet they can't manage to get one lousy Wheeljack/Swerve/Prowl/ANYTHING ELSE to any store in the Western Hemisphere?

 

I wonder sometimes, how many of these things do they even sell when they're not being SOLD anywhere?  A couple thousand, maybe, to only the most hardcore collectors who're willing to pay scalper prices?  How can Hasbro possibly stand to profit from such an arrangement?  Do they get kickbacks from Ebay or what?

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Bruticus limbs nothing! You mean about 4.2 billion of Brut's torso, and the torso and HALF the limbs for the rest, and thats delivered to a Wallycron in a town of 4000 people, then like one Alt Tracks and Jazz then nothing untill they beat Grimmy and Swindle into the ground by overstocking those like they did on Smokes and Swipe.  Hell, I live in Memphis which is a major city, and one TRU in one of the nicer 'burbs just put a minty fresh case of Grim and Swindle.  Ugh....

Hell, I live in Memphis which is a major city, and one TRU in one of the nicer 'burbs just put a minty fresh case of Grim and Swindle.  Ugh....

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Swerve was in that case with them.  Releasing more Grimlocks I can understand, but Swindle is a huge  :wtf  .

I guess I should feel lucky... with the exceptions of Dead End and Tracks (who I missed completely becasue of total financial meltdown when they were out), I've been able to find every alt released up to Prowl (who I haven't looked for yet).  I don't know what I would have done had they not been available locally, especially with the funky case assortments.  For everyone else's sake, I hope Hasbro pulls their head out of their ass in time for the relaunch/new packaging.

Does the news about new stuff in the pipeline but no consistent way to acquire them get you down?

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yes.

These items are here to stay and we should all be grateful to the internets existence otherwise a lot of us would ahve pretty sucky collections ;)

 

The BT line is doing great in Japan, as indeed alternators are doing here in the west (BTW Alt Decepticharge goes for about $100 on yahoo japan ;)).  The designers states that they couldnt have forsaw the high demand that they have for them and they also wanted to aim the product higher in the marketplace but mold sharing with Hasbro meant that couldnt happen. They also wanted to make the products more complex with more inovation and better tollerances but Hasbros insistance on a $20 price point put paid to that.

 

This information comes direct from the designers from the interview that is in the Japanese Binaltech book of which I have had the priveledge of reading a translated version, thanks Nevermore ;)

I really fail to see how they could make them a whole lot better, short of going Masterpiece quality or giving them working headlights/motors.

 

One more thing: I find it sickeningly ironic that Swerve was treated like a patch for the multitudes who weren't lucky enough to find Alt Tracks, because from what I can tell, Swerve ended up being just (or almost) as rare.  How worthless :(

These items are here to stay and we should all be grateful to the internets existence otherwise a lot of us would ahve pretty sucky collections ;)

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I've found all my alts in stores except for Dead End :D

 

still need a swerve, though :redface