"Waiting in Line for Cheap Crap"

Waiting in Line for Cheap Crap From China And Mexico
by Dick Algire

The remote control for my Time Warner cable box went bad again. This was the third time this year. And then right after it broke the cable box ­ let me be precise- the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 DRV receiver also crapped out within a couple of days.

So I had to drive to the local Time Warner service center (located "conveniently" in Sears) to wait in line and trade in both of these defective items. Take a number and sit there for 20 minutes. The actual transaction doesn't take long, once you have waited in line. The people behind the counter don't even ask what's wrong. They just take the defective Mexican or Chinese electronic item and hand you a new one. They do it all day long.

While I sat there waiting in line I watched five people, including me, exchange defective boxes. It was like we were all in the same club, sitting there with a small paper number in one hand and a defective Time Warner cable box on our laps, waiting our turn. And we all traded them in for new cheap boxes. When my number was finally called the ladies behind the counter were stacking the defective boxes on shelves, while a guy was unloading new ones from a cart.

I said, "These must be made in China."

He replied, "No, Mexico."

Oh, my apologies to China. The defective Time Warner "Atlanta Explorer 8300" cable boxes were not made in China. They were shoddily constructed in Mexico. It was the defective Time Warner remote controls that were made in China. Mine were both bad and I traded each of them in.

I said to the folks behind the desk. "You know, I would rather pay a bit more and have quality electronics built in America." They all nodded in agreement. I felt sorry for them. It must be a boring job, having to sit there all day and deal with angry people trading in their defective Time Warner cable boxes from Mexico and broken remote controls from China.

I said to the guy stacking the defective cable receivers built so poorly in Mexico, "You must have a warehouse full of these."

"We bring 'em in on pallets," he answered.

Before long I was on my way home with a brand new poorly constructed Made in Mexico Atlanta Explorer 8300 cable box, and a soon to fail Made in China remote control. Yippee! My high def TV is working again, and the programming is every bit as good as the cable box and the remote control.

But I know I'll be back in line again at Sears pretty soon.
dallgire@kitv.com

Collectible Anime Toys: Price vs. Perceived Value

A while back Hillsy made a connection(1) that I wanted to follow up on. Now, I agree with what he said about our hobbies: during times like these they act as an (albeit temporary) means of escape. Fact is many of us have been laid-off over the past eighteen months due to outsourcing or an unpredictable global economic ‘adjustment’ (or both), but suffice it to say that these are dark days to lose a job, much less be addicted to expensive, niche-market hobbies.

Hillsy pointed to the price of classic toys and toy lines -especially those familiar to fans of old-school anime- and some of the prices on these items are being adjusted to reflect the current economic market -- from my own observation prices on items produced by Takatoku Toys seem to have dropped significantly in the past six months.

To my mind there will always be the issue of value when it comes to collectibles, and in some cases older toys are literally pound for pound a better value for the money.

As just one example let’s take a look at the Mugen Caliber. To many American collectors-cum-anime fans this toy is better known as Autobot character Roadbuster from Hasbro’s first generation Transformers toy line, but in Japan the series from which “Roadbuster” hails (Special Armored Battalion Dorvack) has a rich history among certain old-school fans. Andrew of CollectionDX cites this as one factor in his video review (2) for the recently-released CMs rendition of the Mugen Caliber, the Mokei version. Whereas the Mokei, as deluxe as it is, easily pushes USD $200, the original (and by due to its age I'd think more collectible) Takatoku version of this toy can presently be found for somewhere around that same price.

Nowadays there are countless such examples of value vs. perceived value to choose from, but the timeliness of its release instantly brought the Mugen Caliber to mind.

Notes:
1. Speaking of buyouts...;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PsychommuSlamFest/message/17587

2. Price and product comparisons
CMs’ Mugen Caliber Mokei version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK5q7RjGTwo&feature=video_response

Takatoku’s Mugen Caliber:
http://cgi.ebay.com/TAKATOKU-CALIBUR-ROADBUSTER-MUGEN-MIB-POPY_W0QQitemZ11042435\
7800QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b5cdfba8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m\
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