More Masterpiece news for you now. Online retailer AmiAmi.com has relisted Masterpiece 23 Exhaust. The figure ended up being quite popular from a design stance, as Takara took Marlboro Wheeljack and turned him into a very fun Decepticon. On top of that, there was quite the controversy about the figures release as retailers were issued cease and desist notices from Phillip-Morris. Which made him extra sought after. Exhaust is listed for an October rerelease.
Miss out on Exhaust the first time? Keep watching this space as we get more information.
Lbsammills51
I have an official Wheeljack & Exhaust (first "run") and have no issues with the backpack. No looseness on either version.
Higgs79
Thanks for posting. I really like my official Exhaust but that backpack drooping does annoy me. I guess I'll just have to chance a KO (for parts) and hope for the best. Does anyone else have anything to add?
BenjaminXavier
I have a normal WJ, KO WJ, and normal Exhaust. The backpack is loose on my normal WJ and not the other two.
I think its hit or miss either way (KO or otherwise)
Higgs79
I have a question for those of you who own a KO Exhaust. Is the backpack hinge on the KO tight? The hinge on the official release is as loose as it gets. Cheers guys.
therealdriverx
I received Exhaust from HLJ last week, and it's missing the factory stamp on the bottom of the box. Did anyone have the same experience? I'm assuming it was just missed at the factory as I can't see them selling KOs.
Johntimus Prime
Try calling PayPal and filing a chargeback, and see if they can contact the seller to get the item refunded/returned. You should also call your bank and see if they can help.
Floodedshelf
Hey guys. I received exhaust from anime export last week. Quick shipping and delivery. However there is a missing metal pin on the left door, so during transformation the door falls off. I have emailed anime 3 times since and haven't heard a response. What the best course of action to take, I paid through PayPal. Thanks in advance.
Johntimus Prime
Yes, I did EMS. So I should get him this week.
ex dtw2003
I'd say up to 3 weeks with SAL depending on your luck and customs.
WinstoBot
Yeah, I do both. Good times.
No, MP Exhaust is what you see. Everything else is a custom .
If you paid for shipping by EMS, it's 3 or 4 days. If you go by SAL, up to two weeks.
Johntimus Prime
So I ordered him from Amiami. Came out to around $60 after yen conversion. How fast is their shipping, usually?
Chucez
Was Exhaust ever sold with the all the fancy Marlboro logos included right out of the box?
Will we find one of those without having to rely on stickers or custom pain jobs?
Exodus
Especially if you had to pick between Generations or MP's, they're both putting out some greatness right now.
WinstoBot
Thanks for the info on AmiAmi, I've not used them before but maybe I'll try. I'm more familiar with AE and HLJ. I was so impressed with HLJ's packaging the first time: the tape on the outer box was so PERFECT, all the corners were covered with tape going at 45 degree creases. It was like an anal retentive ninja master had taped it. The inside had no paper or bubble wrap though. The time after that, the taping was crappy so they must have only one really skilled person on tape details. At least AE bubble wraps.
Totally agree about the next few months being crazy for new bots. They're coming quick and we're running out of space. My Generations bots only get about 3 months out in the open until I box them up. MPs get more time but everyone eventually get boxed up. Not only for space limitations , I live in a dusty house so storing them keeps them in better shape. It's the best time to be a TF fan
Napjr
Got mine from amiami yesterday (a friend did too)
Amazing figure! im glad i didnt bought the KO! (wich is no problem really, but i really love the deco!)
divinecomedy
Darn, I barely noticed this yesterday (probably because I was super tired), but is his color supposed to be pure white? Because mine is off white.
divinecomedy
Sorry for the late reply, but yeah it's not the fancy scheme.
gamewiz1
Mine was also A1915. Let me go check the other. Yeah, that's the same for both figures, one from Anime Express and the other Amiami. I wonder why they would say it was a reissue, does that say an etirely different meaning, as if to say subliminally, "Why yes, this figure was an immediate success and we would now be pleased to offer you a second chance at redemption for having missed the first run!". lol If it's the same stock, yeah, it's ok to admit that the situation where Marlboro was forced to give that stop and desist order, due to the lawsuit against them by the feds, we all understand that you don't want to lose a few more billion dollars in Fines lol Seriously though, It would be so nice if the US would start looking at these issues on a one to one basis.
The Marlboro issue makes total sense. The US government sued all the cigarette manufacturers for having known for their entire century of business that they were selling poison. So yeah, they weren't allowed to sell cigarettes without a warning label and were no longer allowed to advertise cigs in the same way anymore. After all, I still remember when I was a little kid, when you walked into the neighborhood gas station, the Cigarette ads were literally all at eye level. It was discovered during the lawsuit that it was a well known business tactic to place those ads at eye level for children, so that they could catch them while their young. Same practice with religion. Start them early, you'll have business for life.
But the situation with toys, at least in my eyes, borders on insanity. I mean, look at it this way. The US government allows for new bills to be shoved through congress with tacked on smaller bills, so you may see a proposal to "Clean the environment", but with the smaller rider mentioning that the cleanup will be provided with a diesel engine propelled ship. If those riders can be ignorantly contradicting to the original bill, why then is it so hard for these same people to understand that this type of figure is not intended to target kids? I mean sure, you can easily say that whether or not it's intended, it will eventually happen, but that's like saying the pistol that I own will eventually go off, therefore its illegal because a round may fire.
In that manner of thinking, sure, this Redeco of Exhaust is nothing more than a ticking time bomb to lure kids back to big tobacco, but before that happens, some adult has to make the purchase, on the internet, with a credit card, perhaps a PayPal account, all of which are nowhere near in the average possession of some ten year old boy or girl. Those items can only be purchased by adults, so why not treat it that way? Imagine, all they would need to do is put a damn stamp on it.
When I was a kid, me and my parents would often go to Texas to visit friends and family. On occasion, we would head south so that we could cross into Mexico, to shop. There would always be good things to buy in Mexico. We could buy knives that weren't legally sellable here like switchblades, we could get ultra cheap jewelry. I had a gigantic silver and turquoise ring through most of middle school through high school, with other nice items like necklaces or bracelets. But the one thing that was completely different from all other items was Alcohol. You could buy any medicine you wanted, without ever having a prescription, but alcohol, not a chance. For that, you were given a limit. You could get something like 2 average sized bottles of Whisky or one very large bottle, per person. If I'm correct, that included myself, even at an early age, because what mattered to the border patrol office there was that you paid a "Tax", a nice little stamp that they would charge like 1 to maybe 5 dollars, if you were buying insanely high quality stuff. I'm sure it was never five dollars, but I'm just giving some wiggle room. So, if you could get that alcohol across the border with nothing more than a little stamp with a fee, what is preventing something like the obvious sale of this Figure, even if it were fully dressed up as a Marlboro advertisement?
The failure is the same as with those nice neodymium magnets I desperately want, the "NanoDots". Those things are so freaking amazing, when I watch video's on YouTube where people are building these awesome hexagonal figures, tetra bla bla bla figures, I get so angry, because even though I'm a few months shy of turning 40, I'm being told by the government mind you, "No, these things are simply too dangerous to sell within the United States!" All the while, I'm sitting here within two feet of a wonderful 10mm Glock, the single most powerful Glock you can buy, and I'm also within I'd say, ten to fifteen feet away from my Colt AR 15, with three 30 round magazines, yet at my age, I simply cannot and will not be trusted with magnetic BB's, or my Transformer Figure that resembles a pack of cigarettes.
Honestly, I totally understand when people become frustrated and angry, on this forum, because to make this figure illegal to sell or buy within the US is simply stupid. In the same way that not selling alcohol or cigarettes to a minor is illegal, yet people do it anyway, what is that extra small hurdle of purchasing this figure only to give it to your kid anyway, if your so inclined? Go with the stamp tax, it was quick and easy at the Border crossing office. Hell, you could even place a machine with a conveyer belt that gives each box the stamp, and place the collection of the stamp on the little slip they leave in your mail, with instructions to come to the post office to pickup your package and pay the fee.
To me, its simply mind numbing as to the levels of ignorance that a World Leading Government can manifest in such idiotic ways. I live in AL, trust me, I see enough teenagers walking around, smoking their cigarettes without ever worrying about the cops standing right next to them, because unless they look 10, the cop is simply never going to bother asking them for ID. On top of the stupidity of that whole issue though, is the fact that they could use the stamp as a new source of income. Hell, if I had to pay ten, maybe twenty dollars to get what I want, like a true deco of this figure, or those nanodots, I would pay it in a heartbeat, because I want what I want. Instead though, we have to be all covert and order these type of things from foreign stores, where they make no money at all off of the transaction. No sales tax, nothing.
Oddly enough though, while we can buy this figure overseas, I've never managed to find a single source of those Nanodots anywhere. Are those simply harder to get through customers since they give off the magnetic forces? I'd wonder if there won't some way of packaging those things in something that shielded them from allowing the pull to occur, but not by blocking it off with lead or something, which they'd have to open to inspect.
Either way, I'm left wondering, what do you guys have planned for Exhaust? Have most of you purchased two of them so that you can have one for yourself, and the other as an investment, in hoping that ten or twenty years down the road, we can sell this baby on Future Ebay for a nice sum of cash? Hopefully in the thousands by that time, due to the nature of this figure and the controversy involved? I'm still sitting here with the damaged boxed figure of Exhaust, with the pristine one sitting in my bedroom where it avoids people and daylight. How have you rationalized opening the second figure?lol Is it best to leave in the box, even if that box is slightly dinged up? After all, when I ordered King Grimlock with the nice collectors box, he was immediately opened with a giant sob while doing it, since I knew it would never be truly valuable, since it's not MISB. Do the potential benefits of MISB overrule the desire to plop Exhaust on your collections many openings simply an urge that's too great?
GPTF01
my original has A1215
gamewiz1
Thanks, I find it's always best to keep at least one friendly target master around Never quite know when the Decepticons might show up to ruin a party, especially one so wild as the one we have here in the US lol
Joking aside though, lol, The Package sent by Amiami was 13.34, so just a bit lower than what I paid through Anime Express. Theirs was a bit over fourteen, I'm thinking it was 1600 JPY where amiami was 1500. What I found strange though was how well Anime X was packaged, It was wrapped up so well in bubble wrap, and it fit perfectly inside the box that they sent, I was sure I had a pristine box. Nope, hehe, its the damaged one. Amiami's box has packaging paper throughout it, surely it wasn't as well protected, but I was wrong, the box was great.
What I am sure of those is a tiny difference in price between the two stores. Anime X came in at 38 and change, where Amiami was a tad over 40. So even at those slight differences in price, they were both nearly dead on. I wouldn't trash either though, I'm very excited to have used these stores, because I'm a very distrustful person by nature, at least in the way of online shopping. I use Ebay and Amazon regularly, but smaller business's here in the US are not in my shoppers list, so I was fairly worried that something would go wrong, but it never did. So of course, now its great to have a good source of the plastic crack we've all grown so fond of
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my next major headache is going to be on where I begin to put my figures. I wonder if I'll just need to move the Generations figures to another room to preserve space, because while the past few months have been fairly slow, it seems like this Christmas and for the better part of the first half of next year, were going to be flooded with new figures Its a very good time to be a Transformers fan!
One off topic question though, have you guys seen the new Diaclone figure that releases next year? Are any of you guys buying it, there are now two versions, and I'm not sure if they fit in this set. They say that they are masterpiece sized, but they seem to be a poor fit. As if they were some Godzilla Jet Jaguar figure. Anyone have any info on them? Thanks