@theknightdamien I'll never be able to figure it out short of them releasing an itemized cost list on the thing or something. This is NECA, the company that will pay to tool and paint some weird, one-off, item for a figure that won't move 20k units and still maintain a reasonable price, but then will tool a diorama for their hottest property and charge the hell out of it. It's almost like they don't really want to get into doing dioramas and priced it to fail.
When you can still buy their street diorama, which is the same width & depth, and three times higher (hence more plastic), also subject to "inflation" (but seemingly immune to it?), shipped for more than half of the living room before shipping, any excuses anyone else keeps trying to use are simply invalid.
@tenime only difference is the street dio is more of an all purpose item, where as this is a TMNT lair and has little appeal outside of that role. Is that specialty worth double the cost? Certainly not to me. There doesn't appear to be any uptick in quality either when it comes to materials. The walls on this thing are only finished on one side just like the street dio and I assume the feel is more or less the same. Only now instead of a cardboard backdrop you get a piece of foamboard with a street printed on it.
Despite all the bad comments towards the sewer diorama, I am really looking forward to mine coming! It's going to really enhance my collection!
Has anyone gotten a definitive answer yet from NECA about whether the top street piece for the Sewer Lair is included?
The impression given at SDCC was it would be included. However, it's not in the product breakout shots, and only seen in one image -- as foam core.
@bricknator I saw a reply on Twitter from Blaine indicating that it is included. They really should update the listing to include it.
https://twitter.com/BlainerThings/status/1692618371345330198
Releasing the Ultimate versions of the Turtle brothers would be a good chance to release belts for Michelangelo and Raphael that allow proper weapon storage similar to what Leonardo and Donatello have. However I don't think they will.
Also it would be a good opportunity for NECA to fix the uneven shell pattern on the backs of the standard turtle buck. I don't think this will be changed either however, it just looks like a re-release of the exact same turtle bodies that we got with the Turtles In Disguise box.
@bricknator I saw a reply on Twitter from Blaine indicating that it is included. They really should update the listing to include it.
https://twitter.com/BlainerThings/status/1692618371345330198/p >
Thanks @Misfit! Wow, their listing definitely needs an update to make that clear. Or they're intentionally not calling it out.
The foam core route to keep costs down isn't ideal. I would have preferred adding a plastic one to a toon street bio rerelease.
I can see someone coming up with a 3D file for a plastic topper. Maybe even with an opening sewer cap.
I'm wondering if maybe the Ultimate Turtle single-packs are going to be offered during Fall Geek-Out. They did say "coming soon" at the con...
One aspect regarding the building diorama vs the living room is the building has had two versions whereas the living room lair likely only has one release/version.
I hate the Sewer Lair price like everyone else.
But it's also indicative of prices just about everywhere, and there's risk in the way they're selling these.
I'm in for one since it's the piece I've wanted the most, and it's going to look great on display.
I would have gotten two if it were cheaper.
What happened to the guy from Belgium who had the well curated wall-based shelf display for TMNT stuff? Did he make the jump to lightspeed or is he still around?
Fingers crossed that the Ultimate Turtles release is followed by some toy color turtles. Not sure if that's something NECA is allowed to do, but if they can, making them to sell after people bought "Ultimate" versions of the Toon-deco turtles would be the sensible economic choice.
But it's also indicative of prices just about everywhere, and there's risk in the way they're selling these.
I meeeeeeeeaaaan... no. I don't agree with any of this. There's no risk here, unless you count the risk that they priced it too high for their own customers. But for just the item itself? It's a slam dunk. Turtles has been one of, if not THE most successful property NECA has ever worked on. The cartoon line has gone crazy deep on character selection and easily overcame even line-damaging problems like a total lack of availability, early breakages/stuck joints, etc. The NECA 'Toon line is practically bulletproof. There's virtually no risk at all in this item at this stage in the line's history.
And it's also not really indicative of prices everywhere. The combined retail cost of MOTU-Origins Castle Grayskull AND Snake Mountain is less than 200 dollars. Very different lines, but I SCOFF at the idea that this plastic shell dio piece has more paint, accessories, development costs, tooling, and plastic as BOTH of those playsets combined. Not only as much as two playsets combined, but like.. 33% MORE than both combined. Ludicrous.
What this is indicative of is greed. It's how companies get more greedy when they get more confident that you are -going- to buy something. Look at S7 raising prices as they lower quality. Customers proved they're going to keep buying no matter what, so the company just ratchets up the price and prepares to count the extra profit.
Not saying don't buy the sewer set. Not saying you're wrong or bad if you do. Not even saying it's not going to look awesome on display and be a wonderful addition to the collection. I -am- saying that there's no way on earth they can actually justify that price, even in today's toy market, without just outright saying 'we wanted to make a bigger profit margin on this.' They're allowed. They can do what they want. But it's silly to make excuses for them.
What happened to the guy from Belgium who had the well curated wall-based shelf display for TMNT stuff? Did he make the jump to lightspeed or is he still around?
Created this account just to ask this: you talkin' to me? 😆
If so, I was having some issues with creating a new account. I kept getting re-directed to the create account page after using 'Freditor' as my username. Tried different browsers but nothing would work so I eventually gave up. Just tried it without the capital letter and boom... it worked.
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