TBH, it’s a relatively small premium over the regular releases. Of course, this is on top of the price hike going into Legacy but less than I expected given previous exclusives
I think I see what you mean (as in regular retail Deluxe vs US store-exclusive Deluxe) but we're at a (price) point where it's somewhat cold comfort.
It's the "on top of the price hike for Legacy" that gets me. That local price hike was already enough to cement my decision to be much pickier with Legacy, and another handful of bucks on top of THAT (for a subline where more of the releases interest me, frustratingly) takes it to the very edge of what I can talk myself into.
I guess I'm still pining for the time when the price on Transformers here somehow stayed mostly the same for the better part of two decades: P800 - P1,000 for a Deluxe, P1,500 for a Voyager, etc., even as their prices in the US slowly rose to match (like how Deluxes went from $10 to $20).
All of this is a moot point for now, anyways; I saw a lone Override at TRU last Sunday, the only one of the Speedia collection I actually want... and I decided not to get her. She just doesn't look worth the cost anymore - FYI for non-Philippines residents, the Speedia Voyagers are being sold for P2,700, which is a whopping
$50 when converted with current exchange rates. I went and got one of those Micro Machines Transformers blind boxes instead. =P
Apologies for venting in a thread not really meant for that, but this feels like one of the things I've been dreading come to life: being priced out of Transformers, the 'main' collection of my hoard for the past two decades. =( The massive price increase across the board, along with Hasbro's current obsession with slavish recreations and exclusives/limited runs, is seriously making me consider stopping buying Transformers altogether - or at the very least, cutting my TF purchases down to the bare minimum. I know that can be a good thing in terms of saving money, but there's still something sad about possibly not being able to enjoy anymore the aspect of this franchise that I fell in love with: the creativity of the toy designs. T_T