preordered... well as soon as i can anyway :redface

Of course, whether due to greed or not, TRU seems to have failed to really deliver when it came to the Commemoratives.  So perhaps online sales directly from Hasbro are best.

I agree with your comments regarding TRU - people don't realize the basic economics in trying to carry such a low volume line.

 

The failure of the re-issues wasn't so much the cost, but that it wasn't a sustainable line.  Aside from Prime, Starscream, Jazz (maybe Sideswipe) and (the unavailble to the US) Megs and Soundwave, there simply wasn't enough interest in the "general population" to make it a viable enough for TRU to carry at any price - it still would have failed even if they were all priced at $20-25.

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whats the big deal with Jazz.

Oh dammit, not these crap colors again.  I guess it was too much to expect accuracy from their final bow out.

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I actually like the Japanese colors... you see many more black locomotives than purple ones, and many more white space shuttles than purple ones.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the original Astrotrain too... I just like that this version was the regular release, and not another E-hobby exclusive.  The only thing that would have been better was if they had made the E-hobby anime colors version the Hasbro reissue.  :thumb

 

But, I don't see a reason to hate on the "realistic" color scheme, either.  At least there's still one G1 that will hold a little value after being reissued...  :tflaugh

The failure of the re-issues wasn't so much the cost, but that it wasn't a sustainable line.  Aside from Prime, Starscream, Jazz (maybe Sideswipe) and (the unavailble to the US) Megs and Soundwave, there simply wasn't enough interest in the "general population" to make it a viable enough for TRU to carry at any price - it still would have failed even if they were all priced at $20-25.

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whats the big deal with Jazz.

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I'd say that after Prime and Starscream, Jazz was the most iconic "standard" Autobot character.  He was a flashy car of a widely recognized automobile style.  His transformation was fairly accurate and arguably one of the least "sucky".  He was a character who stood out (in a way where he was generally favorable to the fans).  Along the same lines, Sideswipe was pretty iconic, had an accurate transform and colors, and the red Countach was not only one of the most recognized symbols of that decade but of all automobile history.  When people who don't know anything about cars think of a Lamborghini, they think of the Countach.

 

So of all the characters that were reissued, these were the ones the G1 fans probably wished they had all had when they were younger but couldn't get or get all of.  Not surprising that those were all the first ones to disappear.  I personally had Megatron, a chinese or asian bootleg Starscream, a bootleg Shockwave, and various cassettes.  I never got around to getting Prime (you kinda assume that they aren't about to stop producing the heroic leader of the good guys, y'know?) or really many of the Autobots.

 

trench: The Megatron issue I know and have the takara reissue, but what's the story about Soundwave being unavailable here?

The failure of the re-issues wasn't so much the cost, but that it wasn't a sustainable line.  Aside from Prime, Starscream, Jazz (maybe Sideswipe) and (the unavailble to the US) Megs and Soundwave, there simply wasn't enough interest in the "general population" to make it a viable enough for TRU to carry at any price - it still would have failed even if they were all priced at $20-25.

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whats the big deal with Jazz.

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I'd say that after Prime and Starscream, Jazz was the most iconic "standard" Autobot character.  He was a flashy car of a widely recognized automobile style.  His transformation was fairly accurate and arguably one of the least "sucky".  He was a character who stood out (in a way where he was generally favorable to the fans).  Along the same lines, Sideswipe was pretty iconic, had an accurate transform and colors, and the red Countach was not only one of the most recognized symbols of that decade but of all automobile history.  When people who don't know anything about cars think of a Lamborghini, they think of the Countach.

 

So of all the characters that were reissued, these were the ones the G1 fans probably wished they had all had when they were younger but couldn't get or get all of.  Not surprising that those were all the first ones to disappear.  I personally had Megatron, a chinese or asian bootleg Starscream, a bootleg Shockwave, and various cassettes.  I never got around to getting Prime (you kinda assume that they aren't about to stop producing the heroic leader of the good guys, y'know?) or really many of the Autobots.

 

trench: The Megatron issue I know and have the takara reissue, but what's the story about Soundwave being unavailable here?

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Thanks for fielding the Jazz question, that's exactly how I would have answered.

 

If I'm remembering correctly, Soundwave failed the "drop test" - a US toy safety test that requires dropping the toy from a particular height - the resulting broken pieces can not form either a dangerously sharp edge or be of a size that could potentially choke a child.

 

I believe that Soundwave broke into pieces that could cause choking - Fort Max (who was to be reissued in RiD) failed the same test, but in his case the broken parts formed sharp edges.