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Post by JeremyMarcGirard on Sept 26, 2005 10:55:16 GMT -5
Well, as my last thread stated, I caved in and bought Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I opened them last night and here are my thoughts:
First off, the figures look great. I am a big fan of the style that these are sculpted in, whether or not it borrows from Xevoz, it just looks cool! Although I liked the look of Spirt and Heavy Duty, I decided just to get the two ninja characters, since they were the ones I really wanted.
The packaging is insane and in my opinion it borders on stupid. It took forever to get the figures out of the packages and they are so big and involoved that I wonder how much the high price point on these ($15-$20) is due to the package. The idea of making the 'caps' of the package form a weapons case is kinda neat, but somewhat useless for me since I displayed the figures with most of their weapons on them anyway. Let me say that the boxes are indeed attractive, but I felt they were overkill that added cost to the figures.
The figures themselves are wonderful. Great sculpts and paint apps and excellent articulation. Weapons are a bit too large in my opinion, but not so ridiculous that they can't be used. One complaint is that while one of Storm Shadows sword sheaths fits on his back, his smaller sheath, as well as both of Snake Eyes sword sheaths, do not seem to attach anywhere? I love the way that Storm Shadows sword looks worn on his back, and just wished that I could've displayed all the swords this way.
One nice addition accessories wise is the sword rack for Storm Shadows blades. Nice touch.
I'm not a big fan of the mix of plastic and cloth costumes, but it is used minimally on these two figures and it works ok.
All in all I love the figures, yet I still think they are way overpriced. I paid $20 each at KB and after opening them I really can't figure out why the hell they are so pricey. I really feel they should be $9.99 each, MAYBE as high as $12.99 at some of the more expensive places (like KB), but $15 - $20 is a stretch for me that honestly will keep me from getting the whole line and instead just getting the few I really want.
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Post by misterd on Sept 26, 2005 23:34:45 GMT -5
Even without the packaging, I would say these have far more than any $9.99 toy I've seen, which I confess has mostly been Deluxe Transformers, and a handful of movie figures.
$20 is too much, and that is not what they are valued at - that's all KB markup (and that additional 33.3% is more than what I'm used to seeing from them). Most $20 toys I buy now are Mega transformers, and whether the S6 toys equal their value varies depending on the individual TF. However, given the high quality of S6, if I compare these to only the higher quality TFs, then I would say they would not justify $20.
At $12, I can only compare them to the deluxe Xevoz toys, and by and large I still think the S6 Commandos (the "deluxe" toys on the shelves now), probably have more value to them, especially with the packaging added in.
At $15, I can compare them to the Xevoz 2-packs. By and large I have to give the Xevoz toys the edge over the S6.
Therefore, I would say the toys would be undervalued at $10 or $12, but overvalued at $15 and especially $20. I guess I would price them at $14, which is close enough to retail price that I don't think what they are charging is unfair, just a nudge on the steep side.
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Post by Randy13 on Sept 27, 2005 0:24:06 GMT -5
The figures themselves are wonderful. Great sculpts and paint apps and excellent articulation. Weapons are a bit too large in my opinion, but not so ridiculous that they can't be used. One complaint is that while one of Storm Shadows sword sheaths fits on his back, his smaller sheath, as well as both of Snake Eyes sword sheaths, do not seem to attach anywhere? I love the way that Storm Shadows sword looks worn on his back, and just wished that I could've displayed all the swords this way. Those are the same guys I got. I loooooove them. An improvement in every way on the 3 inchers (except in terms of storage efficiency). Snake eyes scabbards will plug directly into his back--the little pegs on the scabbards go into any of the three holes on his back (look under the harness). Stormshadow, on the other hand, can only carry one sword on his back, and both of his Sais. But I like the look of the katana all by itself. Although the display rack is a real nice bonus! I also like that you can stick his wakizashi into his staff to make a naginata--that's the kind of thinking the kids will dig!! |
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Post by JeremyMarcGirard on Sept 27, 2005 20:26:37 GMT -5
Marvel Legends have more articulation and detail that S6 does, albeit a slightly smaller size, and those are like $6 each. Spawn figs have WAY more detail and about the same size, and those are $8 - $10 each. That is why I said $10 - $12 would be right for these. That was the basis of my pricing arguement.
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Post by misterd on Sept 28, 2005 16:07:57 GMT -5
I have never seen ML figures for $6 except on clearance, and I find the S6 figures far superior in quality to what I have gotten in either of those lines. The ML figures often have poor paint application and loose joints, and, at least in the past, the Spawn toys have little effective articulation. None of them come with the array of accessories.
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Post by JeremyMarcGirard on Sept 29, 2005 7:54:42 GMT -5
Yeah, I should've said $7 for ML figs, they are $6.88 at WalMart. And yes, some of those figs have issues, while others are amazing - Juggernaut, Hulkbuster Iron Man, etc. - the BIG figs are an amazing value for the price. Others, like Deadpool, are wonderfully articulated with a ton of accessories.
Spawn figs have little articulation usually, althought there are some that are heavily articulated, and have far less accessories than S6 for sure, but the sculpts are much more detailed and the paint apps much more intricate.
Whatever, I really like the S6 figs, but I will stand firm in my belief that at $15 they are overpriced. I could see if they were specialty market figures that would not be sold in major market stores (WalMart, TRU, KB, etc.), since those types of figures are always more expensive due to their somewhat lesser known properties, but this is GI Joe and these figs will be everwhere. I just really think they should've been priced cheaper.
Now granted I paid $20 for mine, so maybe if I paid $15 I would feel differently, who knows. I will say that I do not regret buying them - but I also again point out that the price point, whether it be $20 or $15, kept me from 'collecting them all'. If they had been $10 - $12 each, I would'be picked up Spirit and Heavy Duty for sure, and at that point I likely would've grabbed Duke just to have the full set, but I left those 3 and only got the ones I wanted most because of the price tag.
That's my 2 cents - the figs are great, but I don't think they are valued priced at all.
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Post by Your_Number1_Fan on Sept 29, 2005 11:14:52 GMT -5
I bought 4 of the figures at $20 each at KB Toys. i know i know, stamp "Sucker" on my head. I was/still am happy with the toys though, and the gas to drive to toys R us from that kb toys would be about 3-4 bucks... so semi justified lol.
I probably won't buy any more of the figures at $20 each becuase that is too much. the $10-$15 range these figures are going to be released in seems about right though.
I do have some quibbles with the quality though. My snake-eyes doesn't have the pegs on his sword cases. My Heavy Duty's legs are really loose, etc. But I expect it to be even better in the upcoming waves.
Glad you like them though.
Your Number1 Fan
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Post by JeremyMarcGirard on Sept 29, 2005 11:24:38 GMT -5
My Snake-Eyes scabbards have no pegs either! Everyone keeps talking about how easy it is to plug them in his back and for the life of me I can't figure out how! Maybe mine are defective like yours?
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Post by Quiller-Bee on Sept 29, 2005 17:15:21 GMT -5
From the sound of it, there seem to be some Snake Eyes figures in circulation that have NO pegs on the scabbards whatsoever. (Needless to say, that bites.) I count myself among the lucky, because my SE has the pegged scabbards.
I have no idea if it would have anything to do with the issue whatsoever, but I bought all of my S6 figures at Target. Where did you guys get yours?
Meanwhile, as cool as the S6 packaging looks, it does indeed drive the PP up a bit. And, as is always the case, the cost of producing great/unique packaging is ultimatelly passed along to the consumer. As for what percentage of the total price the S6 packaging accounts for, I have no idea. One thing that I can tell you is that producing the S6 packaging costs Hasbro a pretty penny more than what Playmates would spend for packaging their TMNT figures.
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Post by Your_Number1_Fan on Sept 29, 2005 19:47:29 GMT -5
I got my snake-eyes at Kb Toys. When i was there looking for the 3/4 figures (see my other thread) i looked at the snake eyes there, and I couldn't see pegs on him either.
I'll pull out the camera this weekend hopefully (Family member has it at the momment) and try to get a picture of how I have his swords set up right now. seems to work fairly well.
Anyways, yeah the packages while very cool (reminds me alot of the Japanese box style packaging) probably adds up to a buck or two on the retail price. I'm going to take a wild guess, becuase i have nothing to base this off of, that the $10 figures in wave 2+ won't have the gun case style packages. I'm thinking of a smaller more cylinder-ish shaped case for the $10 figures. (think of barbie(sp)... the big dolls come in the huge boxes, while the single doll figures come in smaller boxes 1/4 the size...)
Your Number1 Fan
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Post by JeremyMarcGirard on Sept 30, 2005 10:25:39 GMT -5
I got mine at KB as well. Saw some at WalMart today and they had pegs. I just contacted Hasbro about getting replacement scabbards. We'll see....
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Post by Jad on Sept 30, 2005 23:50:06 GMT -5
Ah so they are showing up at Walmart. Interesting. Were they noteably cheaper at all by like a buck or anything?
I picked up Duke today. I gotta say this is probably a figure that you wouldn't choose right off the bat, being that there are 2 stylish ninjas in the wave, but this is one awsome figure. I love his accessories. I think his cloth vest works the best of all the fabric clothing accessories that are included with figures.
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Post by miguel on Oct 1, 2005 12:35:40 GMT -5
i cant find som at walmart im going to try target or trs
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Post by JeremyMarcGirard on Oct 3, 2005 6:47:23 GMT -5
Walmart has them for $14.88
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Post by Jad on Oct 3, 2005 11:00:34 GMT -5
Walmart has them for $14.88 Yep, that's what I figured. They just go for the lowest price by doing the 88 cents thing. Still if you happen to be at walmart, it's not a bad thing to get them for the cheapest price. |
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