As someone who's considering, -considering- buying this figure, I feel most of the people who've posted comments here are unaware of the VERY limited availability of the First Edition line in the United States. While it's true that some figures (Arcee, Bumblebee & Starscream mainly) did show up on Toys 'R Us shelves in the U.S. at around $15 each, they were very limited & weren't restocked more than a few times. Target never carried them, Walmart never carried them, only TRU stores and whatever specialty/comic stores that ordered them did. And Toys 'R Us didn't order many of them, because the current Robots In Disguise line features all the same characters. Hasbro has CANCELLED U.S. distribution of the line, presumably because retailers want the new RID line. So basically, if you didn't regularly visit Toys 'R Us or ordered online from Hasbro during the Christmas season, you missed your chance.
So that leaves 2 buying options: (1) find a friend in Canada or Japan who's willing to find this figure on their store shelves & ship it to you at cost (incidentally, Japanese Deluxe Class figures generally retail for $25 - $30 in stores) plus shipping, or (2) buy it on Amazon or eBay. Unless this line somehow shows up at Ross or TJ Maxx next year, these figures aren't going to get cheaper. This is a rare case where the prices aren't being arbitrarily inflated by scalpers, there's a legitimate scarcity of these toys whose production run has ended.
Personally, I'm still on the fence about paying $60. Cliffjumper's a great figure, and if I found him for $40 I'd buy him in a heartbeat. But I thought maybe it'd be helpful to spell out the situation for people whose knee-jerk reaction is to balk at the price without considering the reasoning behind it.
Review By. G. LeBaron
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