Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Burn wrote:

monstergrotusque wrote:Isn't it possible to remove the stickers from existing figures for scanning?

You'll have a hard time trying to remove stickers that have been in place for 25 odd years in one piece.

Ain't that the truth!

JackStraw wrote:However, with all due respect, I do feel that it is valid to question a business paying a paltry $10 for something that they are going to turn into a product that they can then turn around and sell infinitely. They are still a business and are trying to turn a profit not some kind of not for profit charity organization.

Yes, they're a business. And they're paying for assistance

.

Some feel not enough. In 2011 $10 isnt much, I think it may have looked better if they offered a whole bunch of free product instead of $10 - even if the cost to them was less than $10. When I told my wife about this she had the EXACT same reaction as one of the first posters: "Wow, ten whole dollars!?"

I think the great misconception here is that Reprolabels are going to make a lot of money out of this. I don't see that happening. For each sticker sheet scanned, I really couldn't see them selling more than $1000 worth.

Is anyone privy to Reprolabels financials? No? Thought not.

I think that would be very interesting. I'm sure gross or net revenue isnt very high, but I bet the profit margins are through the roof, to the point they would never want anyone to see.

As someone said earlier, $10 for five minutes of scanning. $120/hr ... does that really sound poultry to anyone? Really?

Indeed it does (paltry), as this is what a lot of this discussion seems to revolve around.

I strongly believe in "if you dont have anything nice to say dont say it", but being this is a discussion forum I dont think anyone's opinions here are out of line. My only reason for getting involved was not to bust Repro's chops, but I felt the first few posters who made comments about the paltry $10 had their chops busted a little bit, and wanted to say that whether you agree like I do, or not, these opinions are not crazy.
Peace

JackStraw wrote:
I strongly believe in "if you dont have anything nice to say dont say it", but being this is a discussion forum I dont think anyone's opinions here are out of line. My only reason for getting involved was not to bust Repro's chops, but I felt the first few posters who made comments about the paltry $10 had their chops busted a little bit, and wanted to say that whether you agree like I do, or not, these opinions are not crazy.
Peace

What would you say a fair price is then? Or anyone who doesn't think this is a good deal.

JackStraw wrote:However, with all due respect, I do feel that it is valid to question a business paying a paltry $10 for something that they are going to turn into a product that they can then turn around and sell infinitely. They are still a business and are trying to turn a profit not some kind of not for profit charity organization.

How is them paying us $10 for less than 5 minutes of work wrong? For that matter, how is them paying you to help them with their business any different than you guys actively participating on Seibertron.com and/or supporting the advertisers on this website (which in turn supports my business), or other websites for that matter, any different? You're not paying Seibertron.com to participate ... the advertisers on this site take care of this because you support them. Content about Transformers (whether it's the news, my galleries, the forums, etc) is the currency with which all of you receive by participating on Seibertron.com. ReproLabels doesn't have that luxury.

They could have not offered the $10 and just asked for help, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion. I told them to keep their $10 for my Quickswitch sticker scan and Metalhawk sticker scan. Hopefully they'll make a Sixknight sticker sheet out of Quickswitch so that I can do galleries of Sixknight, Greatshot, Quickswitch, and Sixshot at long last.

For those of you bitching about Reprolabels, your comments are very tellling that you either are not a G1 collector or are naive about how businesses like ReproLabels operate. Do yourself a favor and go out and buy some old school Transformers toys and spruce them up with some stickers.

As for Reprolabels ... I bet most of you couldn't even tell which G1 figures in my galleries have used Reprolabels and which ones have not. Most of them use a combination of Reprolabels or eBay reproduction stickers or original stickers. I prefer to use the original stickers when possible, but some times the other stickers actually have been cuts or improved colors that photograph better.

I have no idea, I would need to see the financials...or at least some stats on how much they sell, profit margins etc... $10 just sounds really low for a business to pay for something that they will turn into a product that they could sell without end.

Like I said - and not knowing the financials, it may have looked better had they offered $25 worth of merch which could cost them less than $10 - but maybe not.

I'm not saying they are bad. I think their hearts are in the right place and offering actual money is very cool. If they offered store credit a lot of folks would complain they should pay money.

My sole point is just that the people who complained about it are entitled to their opinion. I'm sure this site which I love and respect probably has a relationship with them, but the folks who find the $10 offer a little...cheep or whatever shouldn't be flamed or scolded.

monstergrotusque wrote:I'm sure it would be next to damn near impossible to get untouched sticker sheets for these guys.

I'm thinkin if the cattle call for these stickers was posted for a number of weeks so that more people could see that Reprolabels are looking for help. That would offer the request for help enough time to be seen by more folks who may have these sheets.

It's not impossible at all. These show up on eBay from time-to-time. I have a whole huge ziplock gallon freezer bag full of original G1 stickers and reprolabels, not to mention some of the G1 and G2 figures that I own that have never had their stickers applied before.

Aaron (owner of ReproLabels.com) let me know earlier this afternoon that they already received high-res scans for Ruckus, Repugnus and Snarler. I sent them Quickswitch and Metalhawk so that's 5 they didn't have this morning. Hopefully someone comes out of the woodwork with Crosshairs, Misfire and Slugslinger so that I can finally do galleries of those guys at long last.

JackStraw wrote:My sole point is just that the people who complained about it are entitled to their opinion. I'm sure this site which I love and respect probably has a relationship with them, but the folks who find the $10 offer a little...cheep or whatever shouldn't be flamed or scolded.

I disagree. They're being naive, rude and ungrateful. They could've easily left their comments out of this post.

Life lesson, opinions CAN be wrong.

Seibertron wrote:Hopefully someone comes out of the woodwork with Crosshairs, Misfire and Slugslinger so that I can finally do galleries of those guys at long last.

Mmmmm.... Slugslinger

I don't really see why people are so selfish, I don't really collect G1 unless necessary, but these guys at reprolabels were very helpful for getting me stickers for my Pretender Bumblebee and my Classics Hound. Of course they're not making a ton of money, it's mostly a labor of love from fans for the fans. Heck, I understand that and I'm a "Classics" guy.
Oh, and the sticker sheets DO cost money to make. As I said, doing it for the fans.

Geekee1 wrote:

HighPrime wrote:Applied stickers are not hard to remove.

In fact, they are easy as pie. I will pass on to you what I learned from Heroic_Decepticon. All you need is Zippo lighter fluid... yes.. you read that right.. Zippo lighter fluid.

Read on here:

http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.com/20 ... -from.html

I've done this a few times already and works like magic. If you want to be extra careful, remove with an old G1 tech spec decolder. It is super thin, and will slide under the sticker without damaging it. (my tip )

Interesting, although that solution is still not 100%

I agree. The first couple of figures I tried it on, I felt like I was using magic. It was amazing. But the honeymoon feeling ended very abruptly when a sticker ripped right in half on the very next figure. I had difficulty with all of the stickers on that figure. Perhaps I used too much of the lighter fluid so the paper had become so saturated that it easily tore apart when I tried peeling it off? I haven't figured out what the magical time frame is for waiting for the stickers to become loose to how much lighter fluid to use.

As for boxes, lighter fluid is your absolute best friend for removing stickers. Power Core Combiners Over-Run is once again SPASTIC thanks to some lighter fluid. I took pictures of his box with and without the Over-Run stickers on the box for the Seibertron.com gallery.

Geekee1 wrote:

JackStraw wrote:Also, I for one have a very very hard time putting reprolabels created off of a scan on a vintage G1 figure that I paid a lot of money for. It's like putting new after market parts on a vintage car. It can be neat, but it's no longer so much vintage. Even if they looked exactly the same, it's still not right...and they don't look exactly the same.

This is not really true though. The overwhelming majority of collectors that I have seen do not even take into consideration whether or not the stickers are original or repros, in fact they put repros on their figs. I have yet to see an incidence where that is the case, although you may certainly be the first.

I definitely prefer original stickers to reprolabels, but some times it's just not possible. I've been searching for stickers for Crosshairs and Misfire for years. Their stickers just never show up on eBay. Reprolabels will be my only chance to get stickers for these guys at this point. Doesn't mean that I'll stop searching for those stickers even if I apply future Reprolabels on them. I can always apply the "real" stickers later if I so desire.

Geekee1 wrote:Life lesson, opinions CAN be wrong.

Seibertron wrote:I definitely prefer original stickers to reprolabels, but some times it's just not possible. I've been searching for stickers for Crosshairs and Misfire for years. Their stickers just never show up on eBay. Reprolabels will be my only chance to get stickers for these guys at this point. Doesn't mean that I'll stop searching for those stickers even if I apply future Reprolabels on them. I can always apply the "real" stickers later if I so desire.

Absolutely. My point is that it has never stopped you from using repros, or thinking that your figures are devalued.

Seibertron wrote:

JackStraw wrote:My sole point is just that the people who complained about it are entitled to their opinion. I'm sure this site which I love and respect probably has a relationship with them, but the folks who find the $10 offer a little...cheep or whatever shouldn't be flamed or scolded.

I disagree. They're being naive, rude and ungrateful. They could've easily left their comments out of this post.

Yeah...I hear ya... but so is a lot of the stuff coming from the other side like this

Geekee1 wrote:Life lesson, opinions CAN be wrong.

:

As for not telling the difference between repro and original labels; back to my vintage/classic car analogy: If a vintage car seller rebuilds a car and uses new parts or parts from different cars and no one notices, isnt the integrity of the "vintage" distinction still compromised?
I consider myself a purist when it comes to collecting and I sincerely hope we can agree to disagree on some of this stuff.

JackStraw wrote:As for not telling the difference between repro and original labels; back to my vintage/classic car analogy: If a vintage car seller rebuilds a car and uses new parts or parts from different cars and no one notices, isnt the integrity of the "vintage" distinction still compromised?
I consider myself a purist when it comes to collecting and I sincerely hope we can agree to disagree on some of this stuff.

That's why is said that it isn't really true. Although I see what you're getting at, the vintage car community is quite different from the transformers community. Car collectors prefer original. In my experience this does not apply to TF's. Reprolabels are not frowned upon at all in this community, with very few exceptions. Not arguing your preference which I very much appreciate, just saying your comparing apples to oranges.

Geekee1 wrote:

JackStraw wrote:As for not telling the difference between repro and original labels; back to my vintage/classic car analogy: If a vintage car seller rebuilds a car and uses new parts or parts from different cars and no one notices, isnt the integrity of the "vintage" distinction still compromised?
I consider myself a purist when it comes to collecting and I sincerely hope we can agree to disagree on some of this stuff.

That's why is said that it isn't really true. Although I see what you're getting at, the vintage car community is quite different from the transformers community. Car collectors prefer original. In my experience this does not apply to TF's. Reprolabels are not frowned upon at all in this community, with very few exceptions. Not arguing your preference which I very much appreciate, just saying your comparing apples to oranges.

Makes sense. I guess i'm in the minority on that.

Geekee1 wrote:

JackStraw wrote:As for not telling the difference between repro and original labels; back to my vintage/classic car analogy: If a vintage car seller rebuilds a car and uses new parts or parts from different cars and no one notices, isnt the integrity of the "vintage" distinction still compromised?
I consider myself a purist when it comes to collecting and I sincerely hope we can agree to disagree on some of this stuff.

That's why is said that it isn't really true. Although I see what you're getting at, the vintage car community is quite different from the transformers community. Car collectors prefer original. In my experience this does not apply to TF's. Reprolabels are not frowned upon at all in this community, with very few exceptions. Not arguing your preference which I very much appreciate, just saying your comparing apples to oranges.

I get what JackStraw is saying about car collectors. As a pretty die-hard Transformers collector who owns just about everything Hasbro's dished out over the past 27 years and loves his G1 Transformers very much, I'm not a purist in the sense that I have to have the original G1 Smokescreen as well as the reissue Smokescreen. The reissue was fine for me, and in many/several cases the reissues are better than the originals (such as reissue Star Convoy for example which had several improvements over the original, not to mention all of the reissues that have working springs in their weapons whereas the original US versions do not). I prefer original stickers, but repro stickers aren't a deal breaker.

Now if someone is a "true purist" and must have original everything, that's awesome, and a different type of collector than I am (doesn't make any of us right or wrong or anyone's collection better than someone else's). I'd be just as impressed checking out their collection (and very envious of the TLC that went into such a collection) as many of you would be at the sheer volume of a collection that some of the super collectors here on this site have.

Seibertron wrote:I get what JackStraw is saying about car collectors. As a pretty die-hard Transformers collector who owns just about everything Hasbro's dished out over the past 27 years and loves his G1 Transformers very much, I'm not a purist in the sense that I have to have the original G1 Smokescreen as well as the reissue Smokescreen. The reissue was fine for me, and in many/several cases the reissues are better than the originals (such as reissue Star Convoy for example which had several improvements over the original, not to mention all of the reissues that have working springs in their weapons whereas the original US versions do not). I prefer original stickers, but repro stickers aren't a deal breaker.

Exactly!

Geekee1 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I get what JackStraw is saying about car collectors. As a pretty die-hard Transformers collector who owns just about everything Hasbro's dished out over the past 27 years and loves his G1 Transformers very much, I'm not a purist in the sense that I have to have the original G1 Smokescreen as well as the reissue Smokescreen. The reissue was fine for me, and in many/several cases the reissues are better than the originals (such as reissue Star Convoy for example which had several improvements over the original, not to mention all of the reissues that have working springs in their weapons whereas the original US versions do not). I prefer original stickers, but repro stickers aren't a deal breaker.

Exactly!

AGREED!

JackStraw wrote:

Geekee1 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I get what JackStraw is saying about car collectors. As a pretty die-hard Transformers collector who owns just about everything Hasbro's dished out over the past 27 years and loves his G1 Transformers very much, I'm not a purist in the sense that I have to have the original G1 Smokescreen as well as the reissue Smokescreen. The reissue was fine for me, and in many/several cases the reissues are better than the originals (such as reissue Star Convoy for example which had several improvements over the original, not to mention all of the reissues that have working springs in their weapons whereas the original US versions do not). I prefer original stickers, but repro stickers aren't a deal breaker.

Exactly!

AGREED!

Civil discussions FTW! Hot damn.

Seibertron wrote:

Geekee1 wrote:

HighPrime wrote:Applied stickers are not hard to remove.

In fact, they are easy as pie. I will pass on to you what I learned from Heroic_Decepticon. All you need is Zippo lighter fluid... yes.. you read that right.. Zippo lighter fluid.

Read on here:

http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.com/20 ... -from.html

I've done this a few times already and works like magic. If you want to be extra careful, remove with an old G1 tech spec decolder. It is super thin, and will slide under the sticker without damaging it. (my tip )

Interesting, although that solution is still not 100%

I agree. The first couple of figures I tried it on, I felt like I was using magic. It was amazing. But the honeymoon feeling ended very abruptly when a sticker ripped right in half on the very next figure. I had difficulty with all of the stickers on that figure. Perhaps I used too much of the lighter fluid so the paper had become so saturated that it easily tore apart when I tried peeling it off? I haven't figured out what the magical time frame is for waiting for the stickers to become loose to how much lighter fluid to use.

I've used lighter fluid to remove stickers from a few of my TFs, and it's worked a charm every time.

I discard the old stickers and buy new sets from Reprolabels - my recently acquired G1 Hardhead is the latest to be restored.

I only wish i had the means to help them out with a few scans as a way of saying 'thank you' for the excellent service they provide.

Seibertron wrote:

JackStraw wrote:

Geekee1 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I get what JackStraw is saying about car collectors. As a pretty die-hard Transformers collector who owns just about everything Hasbro's dished out over the past 27 years and loves his G1 Transformers very much, I'm not a purist in the sense that I have to have the original G1 Smokescreen as well as the reissue Smokescreen. The reissue was fine for me, and in many/several cases the reissues are better than the originals (such as reissue Star Convoy for example which had several improvements over the original, not to mention all of the reissues that have working springs in their weapons whereas the original US versions do not). I prefer original stickers, but repro stickers aren't a deal breaker.

Exactly!

AGREED!

Civil discussions FTW! Hot damn.

Hal7300 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Geekee1 wrote:

HighPrime wrote:Applied stickers are not hard to remove.

In fact, they are easy as pie. I will pass on to you what I learned from Heroic_Decepticon. All you need is Zippo lighter fluid... yes.. you read that right.. Zippo lighter fluid.

Read on here:

http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.com/20 ... -from.html

I've done this a few times already and works like magic. If you want to be extra careful, remove with an old G1 tech spec decolder. It is super thin, and will slide under the sticker without damaging it. (my tip )

Interesting, although that solution is still not 100%

I agree. The first couple of figures I tried it on, I felt like I was using magic. It was amazing. But the honeymoon feeling ended very abruptly when a sticker ripped right in half on the very next figure. I had difficulty with all of the stickers on that figure. Perhaps I used too much of the lighter fluid so the paper had become so saturated that it easily tore apart when I tried peeling it off? I haven't figured out what the magical time frame is for waiting for the stickers to become loose to how much lighter fluid to use.

I've used lighter fluid to remove stickers from a few of my TFs, and it's worked a charm every time.

I discard the old stickers and buy new sets from Reprolabels - my recently acquired G1 Hardhead is the latest to be restored.

I only wish i had the means to help them out with a few scans as a way of saying 'thank you' for the excellent service they provide.

Lighter fluid removes the stickers ... but if you're careful enough, you can actually remove the full sticker, intact, and reapply it. The lighter fluid dries quickly and the sticker retains its adhesiveness. I used this technique to transfer a sticker from one G2 Dreadwing to another.

Wow before I went to work this thread had about 5 comments and when I return it has like a zillion !!!

I must say this, I love reprolabels and have spent around 300 bucks on them so far mostly for G1 figures. I was sold when I had bought some at Botcon in Orlando. One was deffective and I contacted the company who was selling them on reprolabel's behalf at Botcon. That company hooked me up with their e-mail and I sent them a pic of the defective set. A nice lady by the name of April answered back and sent me a new set, no questions asked. Ive been buying ever since.

Now I admit, some of the sets are a little overpriced (like G1 Trypticon and Octane) but I bought them anyways. I mean, how many of yall got a complete G1 Trypticon and Octane ??? I had to pimp them out and even bought the Full Tilt upgrade. I wish I had the time to apply the Trypticon labels, I been so busy.




Now I do feel that for the larger sets they should find a standard price instead of all these odd and even numbers which differ by character even though the size of the sticker sheets are the same. I also feel maybe it wouldnt hurt to bump the price they pay per scan to maybe 25 bucks since it is highly unlikely any one person is gonna have more than 1 or 2 on their want list.

But Whatever I think about the prices, their quality is great. And I really love their upgrades for 3rd party figures.





In my last order , I had asked about a set for G1 Slugslinger. So It's good to see they are trying to get them. So I gotta show love to reprolabels and I highly recommend them to anyone who is a skeptic.

Botch the Crab wrote:

monstergrotusque wrote:Agreed that it is not the easiest solution to the problem but it's certainly not rocket surgery either.

Removing a sticker from a figure is possible and could be a viable solution if these sets don't show up.

Spoken like someone who has never tried to remove stickers from his G1 toys, much less removed them in a condition where they are scannable. I can tell you from much experience that your G1 stickers will not come off easily or nicely, much less in a useful form.

Yeah i've had a couple come off with relative ease and others have fallen to pieces and turned to crumpled shreads. Nevertheless.....the small success i've had is were my logic originated from that maybe it could be a viable solution. EXCUUUUUSE ME!!

I don't know that this was such a touchy subject with some folks. I'm all for Reprolabels and have given them a good chunk of my change to spruce up my G1 collection.

I was just throwin out an idea.