[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShiShiLeo

Well then I'll hold out hope I'll be able to secure him somehow. He was very cool in the show indeed.

I keep checking out Transformers because they are just so dang prolific among toy circles. But there are so many lines and releases and exclusives to keep track of, it can be off-putting to someone just watching from the outside. I imagine this is what new Toku collectors feel when they first get into the hobby, though possibly worse because of importing and the dreaded "P-Bandai" concept.

I dunno, as someone who spent the last ten years buying Transformers, and the last year buying Toku, I think Transformers might be a little worse?

It's the unreliability of releases that really gets frustrating. Figuarts have a set time that preorders open, and a set day they release. Same for FRS, same for SO-DO, I assume the same for role-play stuff. P-Bandai and importing fees suck, but even with that you get the positive of a very wide window in which to secure an order.

With Transformers, who the hell knows. You can reserve some stuff at BBTS or Hasbro Pulse, but everything gets released whenever. BBTS might get it first for one release, and three months later for another release. Store exclusives are like a worse version of Figuarts retail releases: a highly sought-after figure that goes on sale with no warning, local shops that may or may not even stock it, and scalpers that descend on servers at a rate that even HLJ and AmiAmi would weep at. (Look over at HissTank for the raw seething rage the word "Target" evokes.)

It's a gigantic pain in the ass to be a Transformers collector, is what I'm getting at.