Alts were 4 to a case. When BBTS was selling them by the freshpacked case, I started making a little spreadsheet to track what chars showed up in what cases and how often. Swindle was packed once or twice in about 3-4 assortments, and significantly more than any of the other characters, Autobot or Decepticon.

Ahhh, Swindle. My old nemesis. He actually showed up in six different assortments.

 

Redbox era Alt assortments

 

Oct 2004: 2xTracks, 2xMeister

Dec 2004:

1xSwindle

, 2xGrimlock, 1xMeister

Jan 2005: 1xWindcharger,

1xSwindle

, 1xGrimlock, 1xMeister

Feb 2005: 1xBattleRavage, 1xWindcharger,

1xSwindle

, 1xGrimlock

Mar 2005: 1xShockblast, 1xBattleRavage, 1xWindcharger,

1xSwindle

May 2005: 1xWheeljack, 1xShockblast, 1xBattleRavage, 1xWindcharger

Jul 2005: 1xSwerve,

1xSwindle

, 2xGrimlock

Aug 2005: 1xDecepticharge, 1xWheeljack, 1xShockblast, 1xBattleRavage

Sept 2005: 1xProwl, 1xDecepticharge, 1xWheeljack,

1xSwindle

Ahh, your list looks more complete. Though Grimlock seems to have appeared a few times. I'd have to dig for my spreadsheet but I faintly recall one of the assortments even having a 2xSwindle.

Ahh, your list looks more complete. Though Grimlock seems to have appeared a few times. I'd have to dig for my spreadsheet but I faintly recall one of the assortments even having a 2xSwindle.

I don't recall ever seeing a 2x Swindle assortment, but there may have been an assortment revision I missed.

 

At 1x he was frequent enough, and I called him my nemesis, because if you saw him on the shelves while hunting, it meant you'd just missed for what you had been looking.

While I was digging up that list it occured to me that the "redbox era" really was the halcyon days of Alternators, there was a new guy every month or two, and I don't think anyone could complain about the distribution. It's intersting that the wheels came off the wagon at about the same time that Takara decided to abandon BT (at the end of '05). Really, no one complains about "distribution" until the time of Mirage and Camshaft, which is pretty much when only WalMart and Target carried Alts (TRU stopped after the first bubblebox wave) - and at best they'd only put out a case every week or so.

Usually, I saw Swindles as far as the eye could see. Occasionally, there were some of the not-so-rare-but-still-kinda-rare-enough buddies of his from the same cases.

 

Yeah, what got me was when I was hunting for a specific char, knew what was in the case, and saw the exact 3 other characters from the assortment.

I'm glad that the classics line is returning.... and Thank the gods that Galvatron won't be a repaint of Classics Megatron... here's hoping this remains true!

 

Damn, I was hoping for a fully articulated power master Optimus Prime with trailer...*sarcasm*

It's arrogant to LYFAO and tell Hasbro they're ignorant of a customer base and doing a sloppy job of running their buisness, unless you happen to run a multi-millon dollar, worldwide toy company yourself.

Thanks man. Once again, you've done a fantastic job of telling me how "wrong" my opinions are. Keep up the great work! :thumb

 

I may not own a multi-million dollar company, but I have worked for multi-million dollar companies in the customer service, business, and marketing sectors for over 15 years. Ultimately, when you sell a product, you better damn well be sure that the consumer has easy access and availability to purchase your product. To throw the blame on the vendors and consumers is crap. It is the companies responsibility, through their relationship with the vendors, to ensure that their product gets out there. Why should I, as a run of the mill average joe with money in his pocket, have to travel to six or more local stores just for the slight chance that one of those stores might have the figure I'm looking for. That right there is the example of poor distribution at work. To make matters worse, even Hasbro's online store does not carry some of their own product. While the Classics line is definately a nice nod toward the adult collectors, what else is there? The MP line is cool but it is not a typical line with regular releases.

I wonder though - a year from today: is anyone even going to care about Classics?

I really want "Alt-quality" Movie figures. lets put all that ingenuity into some 1:24 scale figures damnit!

 

And Hobbes - i have to say i agree with the complaints on distribution. That sucked.

I'm right there with you. I'll probably only buy US MP SS, alt rod from hasbro in the next year and sell of a bunch of my collection since. Oh well, that's more money to spend on other things. With the new movie etc, hasbro doesn't need my money anyway.

 

Pasquale

Ending Titaniums is not something I'll regret. The majority of those figures held very little interest to me and the few that did interest me were dissapointing. So no loss for me there.

 

 

Alts...is a completely different story. Sorry to hear this line is definitely ended, although I am not surprised and was expecting this.. Alternators definitely were my favorite line and I think with the end of Alts the amount of TF's I'll buy will shrink to almost non-existent. In the end I think the line was killed by lack of variety (all cars), overkill on repaints (three of the same mold is too many, even though I thoroughly enjoyed all of them...even Rollbar) and lack of size classes (all voyager). Plus the absence of promo material in the shape of a cartoon or even comic.

 

I think the issue here is that alts target a different consumer than the other TF lines (other than Masterpiece) and the isn't addressed by any other US TF line currently.

 

TFs are going to have a huge year, this year and the loss of alt customers will easily be made up for with the movie toys alone, but they are leaving money on the tabel.

 

As for distribution, they suck and to say "if it could be done better they would be doing it" is rediculous. I'm not saying it's eassy or I could do better, but if companies excuted so well the world would be a far different place than it is. When you have willing customers who can't buy your products, you need to look in mirror hard. Here is the most obvious example: To sell alts, a store had to carry the main line of TF toys as well. This really limited their ability to reach folks like me who never would have gone to the toy ailse ever. The only reason I know what an alt is is because I say a BT at a hobby shop in Rokyo Japan. I'v sinse bought every reissue, alt, BT and MP figure avaialable a few others. If they had made the line available to collectable stores, hobby stores and stores like the sharper image, it would have done much better. That would have put the product in front of people more likely to embrace it.

 

Pasquale

While I was digging up that list it occured to me that the "redbox era" really was the halcyon days of Alternators, there was a new guy every month or two, and I don't think anyone could complain about the distribution. It's intersting that the wheels came off the wagon at about the same time that Takara decided to abandon BT (at the end of '05). Really, no one complains about "distribution" until the time of Mirage and Camshaft, which is pretty much when only WalMart and Target carried Alts (TRU stopped after the first bubblebox wave) - and at best they'd only put out a case every week or so.

 

Swerve and Decepticharge were both really hard to find for some folks. I know I only saw a few DC's in the wild. But the swindle fiasco is really clear...