Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Transformers mini figures are in Singapore!

Front view

It was a delightful surprise to find this box set of Transformers mini figures over the weekend in Singapore. They are supposedly exclusive to the TRU here. There was even a special signage put up near the toys saying "no traders allowed, each customer is limited to 2 boxes only".

These mini figures also came out in the stores as single packs in Singapore in June/July 2007 to coincide with the much hyped-up Transformers movie. We heard that the toys were initially ignored in the first few weeks of being in the stores but when the movie came out in July, local collectors and speculative toy traders rushed to wipe out almost every main character off the racks and shelves. The poor kids in Singapore hardly get to lay their hands on the main cartoon or movie heroes whose toylines happen to be coveted by the toys collectors here. It has been like this for around the past 10 years.

Back view

Since July 2007, the most popular Transformers toys to appear in the weekly second hand toy market here have been the deluxe versions of Bumblebee, Barricade, Razz, Optimus Prime, Blackout, plus the exclusive giant Bumblebee figure. These movie figures have in fact flooded the sub-sale toy market here. Bumblebee is the most popular and sought after figure. It is easily priced at twice its retail value and more, though it is not known how many transactions went through at those exorbitant prices.

The local TRU limited the purchase of the giant Bumblebee figure to only 1 per TRU member before releasing the whatever remaining stocks to the non-members. The malls here must had figured that Transformers toys are 'cash cows' so they put up signs to state that these toys are not on discount, even if there is a storewide sale going on.

The mini figures were not that sought after compared to their deluxe counterparts. Nonetheless, it was impossible to spot a mini Bumblebee figure in any store! This box set of 6 mini figures is slightly much more expensive to purchase than individually. However considering the price of acquiring mini Bumblebee from the local second market, it all adds up to be around the same.

Today, only mini Megatron and mini Starscream can still be found in the local stores. Megatron especially is practically everywhere and no one wants him!

Looking at all the mini figures in the series, mini Barricade is the most attractive in both vehicle and robot form. Mini Bumblebee has 2 odd 'projections' near the front doors, spoiling the look of its vehicle form!

Collecting the Transformers mini figures takes up much lesser precious shelf space in a collector's home. The mini fugures may not be as detailed as their deluxe counterparts but they are cheaper and much easier to 'transform', minimising the risk of accidentally breaking the parts. The mini figures also display very well next to Matchbox and Takara-sized toy cars.

Hence Kudos to the creators for doing their best to replicate the transforming process and modes of the deluxe versions on the mini ones, and for making these toys more affordable to kids and collectors!

Ratings for Transformers mini figures - 3.5 out of 5 stars!

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