I myself don’t think so, but maybe I am biased as a collector of FT only TFs.
Lukas Foster-Bevan did a great comments on this thought on Facebook and he kindly let me use it here:
“Ok, here’s my RANT about FT prices, which I’ve been saving for a rainy day…
It’s mainly a comparison of FT vs Takara prices.
Fans Toys are not too expensive.
I’ve seen what Takara charge for the bots that share shelf space with the Fans Toys figures in my collection.
TT quality/price levels are entirely separate from the FT quality/price levels, and I’m glad that’s the case… If these companies ever got together and objectively tried to level out their prices, factoring in materials and build quality, there’d have to be some serious shake ups to the prices of our figures.
When comparing releases across these two companies for similar figures/characters it becomes clear that FT prices are actually much lower than prices for broadly similar TT figures. Not just in terms of value for money either (which is tricky to quantify); FT figures are just cheaper.
It’s not easy to find recent directly comparable releases for TT vs FT, but here are a few examples of recent-ish similar-ish character releases.
Jeep thing!: TT Hound £130 /vs/ FT Hunk £75
Big Truck!: TT Optimus Prime £375 /vs/ FT Roadking £150
Jet!: TT MP-52 Starscream £190 /vs/ FT Goose £90
I know these are not directly comparable figures, but they illustrate the point I’m making. Looking at comparisons like this, you can see that FT prices are a lot lower for broadly comparable figures.
So why do people still think Fans Toys are expensive?
If comparing materials, build quality and engineering, even the most die hard of TT fans would have to concede that FT had the edge.
Using TT’s pricing as the benchmark and increasing FT prices in comparison, you’d maybe be looking at Hunk costing £100+, Roadking being priced at £350+, and Goose at around £200+… Or using FT’s pricing as your benchmark TT prices would need to drop.
But ultimately FT prices and TT prices have nothing to do with one another, and comparing prices between these two companies will never make sense.
But people do need to stop saying that FT figures are too expensive!
Disclaimers
I’ve not included Soundwave vs Acoustic Wave, cos TT haven’t released a Soundwave for a long time. Likewise, Willis was last released ages ago (2016), which was why I used Hunk vs Hound (Hunk might be a Minibot but he’s only slightly smaller than Hound).
I’m ignoring the argument that TT load their releases with accessories, but even if you factor that in I don’t think it covers the significant price differences. If you want to consider accessories, then maybe also consider that TT produce a much higher volume of figures, so should have significantly lower costs per figure than FT.
I’m not including the bullsh*t £100 grey paint bug tax in this argument. That was unacceptable shenanigans on the part of FT. They were clearly just cashing in on the aftermarket. I do think £100 per bug was a decent price though.
I’m aware that I’m only comparing FT vs TT. What about other companies?
I’m ignoring FT vs XTB because I think the price differences here make sense. XTB are generally cheaper than Fans Toys, and are generally lower quality.
I’m ignoring other companies vs FT because I can’t think of any other currently active companies who make a wide range of comparable G1 MP style figures.”
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