The show continues! This blog has been running for 13 years. Oct 9th is the birthday for TF Matrix. I’m 2 days late in writing this.

TF Matrix scored just over 11,000 hits for the year. A bit of a drop from last year, but can’t say I’m surprised considering I’m not devoting as much energy into this blog as I would like. Part of this is due to personal reasons. I changed jobs right after the 12th year anniversary. And I’ve been busy moving the last few months. I only moved 2 blocks away, but don’t let that fool you. When you have as many TFs as I do, there’s no such thing as a easy move. But the good news here is that I have tons more space at the new place. I don’t even need my storage unit anymore for all my TFs, and the new house still has enough space for more.

For this anniversary, the only point I wanted to touch on is the crazy prices that we’ve been seeing from Hasbro. Currently, a standard deluxe cost $24.99. When I got back into collecting TFs in 2004, they were $9.99. I remember buying a lot of deluxe TFs in 2006, and they were still $9.99. So I’m going to use 2006 as a benchmark. Accounting for inflation using this inflation calculator, a deluxe today should be only $14.68! Hasbro keeps saying all this price increase is mostly from inflation. Inflation my boron compressor!

It’s clear Hasbro just wants to make more money by increasing profit margins. I’m not against anyone trying to make money. But the price hikes have just been ridiculous. Not to mention that the figures are getting smaller and the packaging has been more minimal. There’s news that it may increase to $27.49 sometime soon for a deluxe. We as TransFans need to stand firm and not accept these inflated prices. I’m not calling for a boycott, but buy in moderation. Send Hasbro a clear message that this is not OK.

But I don’t want to end on a negative note. I’m happy that this blog is still running after 13 years. And will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. Transform and Roll Out!