When I read that title I actually expected a bigger crap storm in this thread then is here...so far. It is kinda a dick move on BOA part though. Hope that the only limited and exclusive to SDCC thing about this is the 24kt plating.

Yeah, I really don't expect BOA to use precious time, money, and resources to make the molds for Tribal, Green Ranger, and White Ranger coins just to have them be very limited exclusives.

Someway, somehow, they're going to find another way to get their mileage out of those molds.

No notice that bandai ant using the silver stripe helmet

what makes this worse is ONLY 1000 avaliable.Now bandai should know fans will buy this like hot cakes but making only so little is just stupid cause all the scalpers will just be buyin em and making it rain $$$ on ebay.

http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/...psb9e952de.gif


I bet some people pay their rent for the summer off SDCC exclusive profits.

I just wanted to chime in that I also think this decision on Bandai's part is absolute bull$#*!. None of their exclusives will be produced in anywhere near the quantity to meet demand. Each of these is going to go for outrageous amounts on eBay. I know it sounds cliche and melodramatic, but when companies do this to fans who have been supporting their efforts, it really is a slap in the face. We've been buying their product to gets products like these, and are then told that only a few lucky winners will get one. It's rude and a well-run company should know better.

I'm calling it now, these things will at least hit $500 on the aftermarket. People who give in to scalper prices or get into bidding wars, while the wiser ones go for cheaper aftermarket custom/repro parts.

Anyone else bothered by how the Green Ranger coin is on the side with the White Ranger picture and vice versa?

:P

I can appreciate the novelty of the White Coin. That alone seems cool since it's an entirely US original thing. But I mean come on, only 1000? Yeah I'm not paying the scalper prices for this one.

I really agree with you. No, we are not owed these things but they could make money and throw us a bone at the same time. I remember when Con exclusives were an incentive to get people to come to your show or even your booth and hope they will buy other things or promote your brand. Now Con exclusives are a big money business for ebay sellers and online stores. I know it's not as much about the fans any more when dealers on the show floor are getting mountains of exclusives from booths before open without waiting in line. Comic-Con sells out months in advance these days and many companies seem to favor stores that will regularly buy their products when it comes to getting the product into the hands of fans who attend as opposed to resellers who will mark it up to high heavens. What really bugs me is that whatever price the resellers set (double, triple, etc) that becomes the default secondary market price for no reason other than "they said" and it usually only goes up from there if a item is truly limited.



TLDR - Most companies offering Comic-Con exclusives really aren't doing it for the fans anymore.

I've never heard of Comic-Con exclusives being for the fans ever.

It's who has the cash and is willing to spend it, in that point in time.

No they aren't, and that's why I hate comic-con exclusives.

If I ever operated a toy company, conventions exclusives would be nothing more than early bird sales of upcoming products (like what Kenner did with Star Wars). People would come to the con because they could get something new first and then show it off to their friends or just enjoy it early. The last thing I'd want to do is make it difficult for potential customers to obtain the goods my company produced, making them being to loathe me.

The only good thing about limited con exclusives is that you're likely to sell out or be left with very little remaining stock, which you can then sell online to the rest of the world.

its a big BS thing for bandai to do it.i mean if they announced it and didnt say there was a limited edition of 1000 I would be happy but they pulled this crap it makes me mad.some of us just want it cause its nice and completes the morpher since we never got a gold one.SDCC always sells out months in advance.

mother of all that is holy I need this

I willo never actually own it but my god do I need it

*sigh* I don't care what it takes, what I have to do, or how much the up charge will be I WILL OWN THIS. Tommy is my ALL time favorite Ranger and I buy most all merch of tommies this will be no different. This has now made it on my list of MUST own SDCC exclusives for this year!

VERY nice, but ridiculous that there's only going to be 1000. As much as I'd love it, its not going to be worth the gigantic aftermarket costs.

I'd hope this was just an early bird release, but if it was I'm sure they'd have mentioned it.

I will ask at the show if there's any future release planned for these.

But just some thoughts because I know a lot of people are throwing Bandai of America under the bus hardcore for this...

I've been to plenty of conventions where there's exclusive products offered that people bitch about how it should be a wide-release. Sometimes it just doesn't fit in to the marketing plan of the company, and sometimes it's because no one wants to carry it. Who is to say that TRU wasn't offered this as part of a Holiday exclusive and rejected because it only caters to one/two Rangers, or because it may confuse consumers as they had the rights to the first one? Who is to say that WalMart and Target didn't reject the offer of this being an exclusive? Who is to say this is THE ONLY WAY they could release this out and because they're selling it directly as opposed to mass distribution, could only afford to make xx amount?

No one except those involved know, and we can ask those questions to Bandai at the show but until then it's pretty much a crap-shoot as to what the reasoning behind it was.

I doubt Bandai of America execs sat in an ivory tower thinking of ways to fuck over the Power Rangers community. While those who can't attend SDCC and think they have no way of getting this without paying probably close to $500 ... I feel for you. Been there, done that, hounded TRU websites to get exclusives in the past.

I wish I had happy honest "things will work out!" messages for you but I don't. Bandai wants to make a splash at SDCC this year, and Power Rangers 20 is a huge promotion, I think even JDF stated he's going to be at SDCC this year to promote the Green Ranger Legacy Morpher (unless I read his Facebook wrong), so they are pulling out all the stops. This is the year they want to bring in the nostalgia.

I promise, I will get as many of these as I physically can. And I will not sell them on Ebay or to members. I will give them away - for free - to our loyal users, fans, and readers through fun contests and such to promote Power Rangers. Until then let's cross our fingers that these will still see a limited release at retail.

That's how the whole concept started. Offering something fans couldn't get anywhere else to get them to come and check you out, hopefully buying more in the process. Stuff to attract fans.

Yeah, but it's never been about mass availability regarding said items.

No, but it also wasn't about creating secondary market value for resellers and it definitely is now for the most part.

That is amazing...Yet so sad that it's limited...I hope it becomes available in the future for all fans to buy.

That's awfully understanding of you, but honestly, any retailer would jump at the chance to have as their exclusive an item that fans have been begging for for the past 20 years. Everyone loves the 6th rangers - especially Green and White (Tommy). There's also no good reason Bandai couldn't have shipped the morphers in a case of 3:1 ratio of silver to gold, like any other case assortment any company has ever done. Frankly, I haven't seen the silver morpher on the shelves at my TRU even once yet. I don't think TRU would have any problem ordering or selling more - even a special gold version.

The morpher is probably too expensive an exclusive for places like Walmart or Target who, if anything, seem to be cutting back on the size and scale of their toy aisles, but Toys R Us who loves $290 Millennium Falcon exclusives, or other online retailers? There is no way they would turn this down. The sales of an item like this are just guaranteed. At least half of the people who buy the silver morpher would buy the gold one as well. Then there are others who would only really care about the gold one!

Bandai did this only to get attention, even if it is at the cost of disappointing and offending their loyal customers. Even if Bandai were planning on releasing some lower quality version of these exclusives later on, this is such a rude an inconsiderate way to announce this to fans - without any further information or insight. If people think Mattel is bad with customer relations and SDCC decisions, they should check out Bandai. The show has reached a new low.

You talk as though retailers acknowledge fan and collector demand. Which they do not. That's not even close to a factor when they choose toy lines and or the exclusives from them to carry. If the line sells poorly then they don't carry the exclusive. It's simple math for the big corporations, they literally do not care about how many people love those characters.

Walmart/Target/ToysRus/etc cater to children first and foremost. If they feel there is a dedicated demand based on sales numbers to carry a particular product or line then they will. But if the numbers don't indicate it then they won't. It's just a simple truth that collectors do not make up as significant a portion of the toy market as we often like to think.

Retailers don't acknowledge fan or collector demand? Are you kidding?

Certain retailers, Toys R Us especially, absolutely acknowledge fan/collector demand. Why else would they bother producing an exclusive or carrying a certain product or line? Because it will sell, because there is demand, from kids and moms, sure, but also from collectors - often, mainly from collectors.

Do you think Walmart ordered an exclusive Movie Masters Jim Gordon from Dark Knight Rises so a mom and her kids could by a guy with a mustache in a trench coat? Or that K-Mart included "blueprints" with its own exclusive Movie Masters Batman? Or that Target would order a whole wave of Marvel Legends exclusive to its stores? These are all collector-aimed lines. The manufacturer acknowledges that, so why wouldn't the retailer? They may sell to kids, too, sure, but there is a clear line between collector products and kid products, and to say that retailers don't acknowledge fan or collector demand is just ignorant.

Do you think Toys R Us expects to sell many $60 legacy morphers to mothers and their children? No. Or how about a $60 Megazord that is currently being featured on air? Please. Who in there right mind, aside from a collector, is likely to pay $60 for a legacy morpher? For mothers and kids, Bandai makes and Toys R Us sells some affordable $8 figures of the current, main characters. The legacy morpher, and items of that nature, cater to collectors. The retailers know/"acknowledge" that. Mothers and kids might also buy these products, but retailers do not sell them primarily for that audience.

Does Toys R Us carry Freddy Kruger or Prometheus or Mortal Kombat figures for mom and kid consumption? Please. Those are for collectors - almost exclusively, because the figures will sell, because there is collector demand, which the retailer is acknowledging by carrying and selling the product.

Retailers don't run their whole toy departments or stores for collectors, but they absolutely acknowledge them, cater to them, and include them in their business model.

So, what's your point? That the sales of the legacy morpher wouldn't justify a gold version? Or that Bandai couldn't sell Toys R Us on the idea, especially after the regular release and other 20th exclusives that have been flying off the shelves and selling out online? Give me a break.

My point is that we can argue over this all day, I don't care. But that's simply NOT how retail works. It's a numbers game based on purchases by mass consumers, not what a community of collectors buys.

If TRU didn't think they could move an exclusive in enough quantity to justify as small of a production run as exclusives normally get, then they wouldn't carry it. This is just like how Transformer collectors demand retailers carry this or that in larger quantities. Because exclusives are "too hard" to get. They think they dictate the market and they most certainly do not. Mass consumers do, not the thin sliver of collectors that rabidly buy these things. They acknowledge some demand, but not in the numbers you're suggesting.

Retailers don't order exclusives because "obviously collectors will buy this". They order them based on incentive from the manufacturers that consumers will come to them to purchase it because no other retail chain will be able to carry it. It's the very nature of an exclusive. You get customers for it because you're the only one carrying it. Again it has nothing to do with appealing to a collector oriented fan base. It just has to do with sales numbers. If you're the only game in town on a product, if you monopolize it, then you have good sales.

In special cases, yes a place like ToysRUs will carry high end items like that but just look now. Once the initial waves of collectors got their Legacy Megazords, Morphers, and Shinken Oh's they've begun to shelf warm. There are 20 Legacy Megazords at my local TRU alone! I'm sorry but retailers acknowledge pretty thin portions of the collector market. You're using TRU as an example and outside of it and or comic/speciality shops the big box retailers DO NOT carry collector themed toy product. Exclusive does not always = collector oriented.

...Ok... :rolleyes

Well, with the ability to buy and sell on the internet, that's changed of course, but there's always been an issue of supply versus demand which has added more coin to the "scalper's pockets." It's just that during the recent years, it's become much more noticeable.

No, Den-O is right. You're examples are, as Den-O said, one offs. The best example is if your argument was correct, why isn't Mattel putting those MOTU figures, or the Ghostbuster line in stores?

The toy manufacturers give retailers a chance to sell an "exclusive" items, but those toy manufacturers give those retailers an incentive to do so, making it, a numbers and dollar signs game.

The fact that retailers sell "exclusive" or "limited edition" items from lines doesn't equate to "hey, we care about the collectors market" it's that they got paid by the manufacturer enough to cover any losses that come up because they take a chance on such items for "shelf warming."

Shinken-Red and Gold, are a prime example of this.

Yeah, and I guess the whole collector-oriented aisle in every Toys R Us store isn't for collectors. Toys R Us just figures that moms are going to buy nightmarish statues of horror movie characters for their kids. What are you guys smoking?

I don't think you read what I said. TRU doesn't care about the collector, they get their money either way, if it shelf warms or otherwise.

Of course, everything at TRU is ridiculously priced, and that's a large part of the reason.

TRU gets the lion's share of the "collector's market" because it's a niche store. There's a Walmart or a Kmart nearly everywhere, but TRUs are few and far between. It doesn't mean TRU actually gives a damn.

Also, last time I went to TRU, there was no such aisle. Are you positive every TRU has a "collectors aisle?" Even if they did, it's essentially the "aisle that if we don't sell the items and they shelf warm, we're still getting our money for, regardless."

Why are you fighting this so hard? We're even conceding that ToysRus 2 precious aisles worth of "collector" toys exist. They included 2 year old unsold Captain Actions, NECA figures, minimates, and some DCUC, among the various other unsold unclearanced Bioshock toys and other back log junk. If that's the definition of collector oriented then I must be buying babies play things with my Chogokins and SHF's.

Do you know how many ToyRus there are in my state? 4. Versus how many numerous Walmarts, Targets, Meijiers, and other big box retailers? ToysRus is NOT INDICATIVE OF THE MARKET AS A WHOLE. They carry a selection of "higher end" collectibles, not all of which are exclusives, not all of which are collector oriented. Again exclusive does NOT equal meant for collectors. You're trying to make up factors that the market supposedly relies on when it doesn't. One chain of stores does not support your theory.

Your TRU must be on a different planogram or something because I've never seen all that stuff together. Usually spread out on end caps and random aisles. They also don't group the old or clearance stuff (when something actually goes on clearance) in any noticeable way.

Yeah, I don't know if anyone's been to the TRU collector's aisle in a while, but mine still has the same stuff stocked 2+ years ago. The same is true of every big box store and major retailer in my area. They all still carry some Samurai and 2010 MMPR because it just isn't selling. Power Rangers has a deeply devoted fandom (myself included) but it's a very small fandom compared to the toy lines you see covering half of your local toy aisles. Saban and Bandai are pulling out all the stops to put Power Rangers back on the map this year with the anniversary and it seems to be going very well, but it's not the unstoppable merchandising force it was back in 93.

I for one am grabbing one for myself even if it means scalpers prices. As far as everyone expecting $500, unless this thing gets a toned down wide release, you're looking at the next 14k Gold Galaxy Megazord. While Galaxy may be incredibly limited, what is essentially a 20-year-overdue BoA official Dragon Buckler has infinitely more demand. Even if it does get a wide release, it will never be as hot as a 24k gold plated one, just saying...

Who cares how many Toys R Us stores you have in your state? My original point was that the gold legacy morpher was not planned for Toys R Us and rejected by them per Kickback's postulation. Rather, it would not surprise me if Toys R Us would have jumped at the opportunity to have such a coveted item as an exclusive - as it did for the regular legacy morpher - because it would sell well to collectors - just like the regular version they are already carrying - and which keeps going out of stock.

But, you know? You guys are right!

Toys R Us doesn't acknowledge the fan or collector demographic. Neither does any other retailer for that matter. That's why even mainstream toy lines carried by retailers like Target, Walmart, etc. often contain chase figures. You know, for the kids. Stores don't care about creating more foot traffic by acknowledging that collectors will come to their store more often if they can't find what they're looking for the first time. For the same reason, retailers hate collector-oriented lines like Marvel Legends, DC Universe, Star Wars 6" Black Series, etc. and never have exclusive waves or figures, because collectors just don't care about those. Only kids do. You know, with all the money kids make from their lucrative careers as kids.

And, of course, the Legacy Morpher is aimed primarily at kids, as well. Toys R Us is only selling it because they think this $60 item from a 20-year-old show will appeal mostly to kids and moms. They didn't give fans or collectors a second thought when they decided to carry it, because there's clearly no valuable market in an existing fan base, they wouldn't sell, and Toys R Us wouldn't make any money. And because the legacy morpher is currently shelf warming and not selling out online either, there's no way Toys R Us would be interested in selling the same, unsuccessful item in gold - not when the silver version has been doing so poorly.

And there's no way Bandai could convince Toys R Us to sell a gold version of such a wildly unsuccessful item that Toys R Us is losing so much money on - not even in a smaller quantity! So, it's perfectly reasonable that Bandai's only other option was to release just 1,000 for SDCC. They had no other choice!

Yup. Toys R Us doesn't care about collectors or selling to them or anything - neither does any other store for that matter. All exclusives and higher end items are meant primarily for kids and moms to tirelessly hunt down in all their free time and spend premium prices on with their endless budgets. The vast majority of retailers would prefer not to make any more money from collectors than they already get from regular, kid-oriented items. That's why Mattel doesn't make 6"-scale figures with more detail and articulation in addition to 4"-scale figures with virtually no articulation. That's why Hasbro hasn't bothered to follow suit with its own 6" Star Wars figures. That's also why no retailer carries these 6" figures, because no one - no one at all - acknowledges fans or collectors enough to want to get their money from them.

We're just a forgotten bunch that no one cares about or appreciates. :cry

They wouldn't care if there wasn't some sort of "dust collector bonus."

TRU would only jump on that "opportunity" if there was something that made it worthwhile to them in the end.

It's not like TRU or any retailer for that matter is interested in pandering to the small, niche market of the adult neckbeard collector.

Again, your examples are hit and miss. Most "exclusive" or "collector" items shelf-warm. It is quite possible to have that diamond in the rough (Power Morpher for example) but most of it collects dust.

True, and would a profit not be worthwhile to them? Do you really think, after the sales performance of the legacy morpher, that TRU wouldn't think they would profit from selling a gold legacy morpher? Afterall, TRU fell for Mattel's MOTUC-DCU 2-packs.

Of course. That's why retailers avoid exclusive figures or waves in collector lines. They hate pandering. That's especially why there are so few Star Wars exclusives. After all, there are no Star Wars collectors to make money from.

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove, but each and every one of my examples hit precisely to counter the absurd assertion that I was originally refuting, which is that retailers don't "acknowledge" fans or collectors. Clearly, by their conduct, demonstrated by my examples, they do. Just because collector stuff might shelf-warm sometimes, doesn't mean that retailers don't keep trying to capture that lightning in a bottle and profit by selling to collectors what collectors want.

http://media.heavy.com/media/2013/05/damn.jpg

The amount of arguing in this post.

They only "care" about the collectors if there is money behind it.

And those Batman figures you're talking about? Shelf warming at my local Walmart. Star Wars figures? Shelf warming.

You know how I know all this? I work at Walmart. In Toys.

Retailers don't go out of their way to recognize what is "collectable" or otherwise. They get told that by toy manufacturers. There's no research to be done, because retailers are just told what will be profitable for them based on the manufacturer's research.

It'd hardly call it arguing. But hey, thanks for contributing to the discussion with a flame-baiting meme.

Definitely wasn't my intention to annoy anyone. Was just trying to lighten the mood. It seems that people were getting a bit heated over something so simple.

I'm being sincere when I say that I appreciated your efforts.

Anyway, I would find it incredibly ironic if Jason David Frank somehow manages to miss out on this thing. In the meantime, I need to find myself a regular Legacy Power Morpher. I'll be fudged if I don't sock a mugger in the face with that thing while yelling, "Triceratops!"

I was hoping that with the release of this the price of the regular one would go down but they are still like fifty quid on Amazon and that is the US one so I'd have to pour money on top for shipping and customs and I'm just not hardcore enough a collector to pay near a hundred pound for a piece of plastic and a few coins, which is all it really is at the end of the day.