4-27-2006

C4 Confirmed?

Seems that it's pretty well confirmed for LA in 2007 with rumors coming out of the Pittsburgh Comic-Con last weekend and reports of people calling the LA convention center about it.

Shit.

Sideshow

Preorders for the SDCC exclusive Darth Vader Anakin figure are on for today for attendees and Friday for non-attendees.  I think I'll pass on this one.

New Titaniums

Found some new Titaniums at Target last night including the first of the Battlestar Galactica.  There was one Galactica and one Viper and two Cylon Raiders.  Pretty cool looking ships but I didn't pick them up yet.  I think I'll probably end up with a Viper and Raider at least but I may hold out for the Ultra Galactica because the detail ought to be a lot nicer on that version.

Also scored the only Scorch at Wal-Mart.  One Utapau Clone Trooper and some other misc. Geonosis figures were stocked.  No VOTC anywhere yet.  I guess I'll pin my hopes on Target for Sunday but I'd much rather save the $2 each and get them at WM.

Superman

Found the new Superman movie figures at WM this week.  Some of them don't look that bad and they appear to have plenty of articulation.  A couple of them even come with cloth outfits to convert your Superman into Clark Kent.

4-25-2006

Exclusives Announced

San Diego Comic-Con is coming up in July and the lists of exclusives are starting to be finalized.

Gentle Giant is selling a Shock Trooper mini bust that includes a Shock Trooper Bust Up.  They also have their 2006 Con exclusive Vader in flames Bust Up.

SideShow Toys has ROTS Darth Vader which is basically a repaint of the Anakin Skywalker figure.  They will also be importing a Medicom Super Deformed 501st Clone Trooper for the show.

Hasbro will be selling a 501st Stormtrooper in special packaging in honor of the 501st costuming club.

StarWarsShop.com was originally rumored to be selling the Shadow Stormtrooper but word has come in that they will not have that figure there and it's only available on their web site.

No word from Acme Archives or Master Replicas yet that I've heard.  MR will probably offer a scaled replica but I don't know about AA. 

Hunt for Grievous

Pictures showed up of the TRU exclusive Hunt for Grievous Battle Pack.  It'll have some re-done Clone Wars and ROTS figures in it.  Looks cool and the packaging is similar to the Coruscant Attack Battle Pack from Target last year.

Rumors

4-inches.com put out a list of rumored figures including new VTSC, TSC, ships and 7" Unleashed figures.  The list was reposted on Rebelscum.com here.

Collectorfest 42

What a waste of time, gas and 5 hours.  Since CNY Promotions did away with their toy shows and supposedly combined them with Collectorfest it's been downhill.  But, some of the Collectorfest shows have held a few surprises over the last year or so.

Usually I can score a new Star Wars themed NASCAR die-cast or an odd figure or something.  Back in February I scored most of the second wave of the Burger King toys.  Not yesterday though.  It was almost 100% sports cards.  Not even all the NASCAR guys were there.  I would have come home empty handed but I ended up buying a box of trading card protector sheets because the price was good.

I may email CNY to find out if they ever plan on courting the toy collector market again.

Toy Run

I didn't even buy anything at retail while I was out.  Stopped in WM in Syracuse but they had zilch.  WM Cortland had some series 1 Ultra die-cast vehicles and that was it.  K-Mart, also in Cortland had the Jedi Temple Assault Battle Pack but I still couldn't bring myself to shell out $30 on an opener.

WM and Target were a bust in Ithaca as well.  Guess I'll have to hold out till next weekend for the VTSC and Target exclusive Senate Battle Pack.

4-20-2006

Target again beats WM on the restocking front.  Found the pegs pretty full today of the Geonosis wave.  Multiple Utapau Clone Troopers, Yoda, Sora Bulq and C-3PO with both head variants.  Jango was stocked and I even found one Scorch which I picked up.  Poggle and Sun Fac rounded it out.

No UGH figures in the lot.

Shadow Stormtooper

StarWarsShop.com put their new Shadow Stormtrooper up for pre-order today around 3:00.  It's a "worldwide exclusive" but originally was rumored to be an SDCC exclusive.  They'll probably have them at the show, however.

Surprise news, though, is the report of a Hasbro exclusive 501st Stormtrooper at SDCC.  No word on production size or availability outside the show but it's cool as heck.  Definitely be looking to score one if possible.  Looks like RS.com scooped it.

The circle is complete

Or, at least, a circle of floor.  I finally broke down and ordered scenes 3 and 4 of the Jedi Council from Amazon and they showed up today.  I was waiting for a sale but decided to get them before they disappeared for good.  Probably could have gotten them cheaper on eBay but, eh.

Now I can finally put together the full council, floor and all.  I may even pull out some of the cool ROTS Jedi figures because we now have an actual Agen Kolar figure to put in instead of a barely repainted Eeth Koth.  I think the ROTS Shaak Ti is probably an upgrade as well.

Collectorfest

Collectorfest 42 this weekend in Syracuse.  I don't think I have anything else going on this weekend so I may spin up for this.  Maybe I'll be able to score some cool swag...or at least get some Dinosaur for the ride home.

4-17-2006

Titanium vehicles have been restocked again at Target as have the Galactic Heroes and they've mostly sold through.  These things keep selling out almost immediately.  Unfortunately for WM, however, they're stuck with probably 200 of last year's exclusives up to the Gunship wave. 

I was sick on Friday and left work early so I didn't hit WM.  Too bad, I missed out on the UGH figures that were stocked in the new prepacked shelf displays.  They did still have Utapau Clones, Foul Moudama, holo Ki-Adi-Mundi, Firespeeder Pilot, Lushros, Anakin and Grievous. 

I picked up 4 new Utapau Clone Troopers bringing my total to 10 so I'm done with them now.  And, actually, I'm all caught up on the Saga figures I'm going to buy from the waves out now.

Finally broke down this weekend and ordered up the last two Jedi Council scenes I needed from TRU.  Decided to get them before they disappeared.  Probably could have gotten them off eBay for cheaper than retail price but I didn't feel like waiting.

4-9-2006

Found the new wave of Titanium vehicles at Target the other night and bought an AAT and Sith Infiltrator.  The AAT has an incredible update in paint over the EP1 version.  The Sith Infiltrator isn't bad and I figured it was time to finally have a representation of this vehicle in my collection somewhere.

I just missed some figures the other day as well.  There was new stock at Target on Geonosis figures including Yoda, C-3PO and Grievous and I saw a Jango in a guy's hand.  No Scorch or other figures, however.

Saturday (yesterday) was a huge day, though.  I walked into Target about 7:00pm and hit the toy aisle not really expecting anything but was surprised.  They had nearly all of the Coruscant figures including multiples of Cody, Anakin, Utapau Clone Trooper, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Foul Moudama.  There weren't any Firespeeder Pilots, Obi-Wan or Grievous figures.  Lushros Dofine was on the shelf but I don't recall if there was more than one.

There were also several Poggle the Lesser, Yoda and Sun Fac figures.  I finally picked up Sun Fac to open and it's a great figure.  Much nicer than any previous Geonosis figures (not counting Poggle who's pretty good).  There were some other Geonosis figures including C-3PO and Yoda.  I don't recall now if I saw Jango or Sora Bulq but I have spotted Sora there in the last week, I just don't remember what day.

Surprisingly, there were no Scorch or Firespeeder Pilots but there were two each Vader and Han Carbonite UGH figures.  Vader came with either Maul or Dooku silver holo figures but I didn't look at Han.  Still think these silver holos are great and I hope Hasbro finds a way to release them so we can buy them without tracking down 12 different UGH figures.

I picked up another Utapau Clone along with Sun Fac.  He had a Stormtrooper holo which was the last loose one I needed plus it brings my count of Clones up to 6.  I want to score 4 more for an even 10 to go with Cody.  This is the first Clone I've bought this many of but it's one of the nicer looking figures and will look great on a shelf with Cody and an Obi-Wan figure.  Even though Obi-Wan is a repack I may buy him just for the cloth robe.  I love me some soft goods.

So far, out of all the figures I've picked up in the last two weeks, I've been surprised by what figures I like and which ones I don't.

As I mentioned, I really like the Utapau Clone but he's just a repaint of the #41 Clone from last year.  Great figure but the paint job takes it up a notch.  Scorch, on the other hand, is a new figure and looks great, top 3 so far this year.  I'd like to get a couple more even though the paint apps vary in the game...it's just that nice of a figure.  Wasn't sure about it till I saw it but now I realize why there was so much hype.  Maybe I'll even play the video game now.

Sun Fac is also a surprise.  He has a bunch of articulation and isn't as thin as the previous Geonosis figures.  He's solid and has great detail.  The paint applications on my figure are just about perfect and quite intricate.  Also one of my top 3 figures this year so far.

Foul Moudama just misses being in the top 3 of the year but makes it in the top 5.  It's a simple re-paint of the POTF2 Muftak figure with a nice robe and boots making him look very close to the "Clone Wars" cartoon version without actually being animated style.  The hands are a little big for the lightsaber and Hasbro could have fixed that by using a saber with a peg on the handle (and removable blade) and adding a hole in his hand.  Or, if they got really forward thinking, they could gave gone with a metal lightsaber and magnet in the hand.  One of the clear rubber bands (from any SW figure) makes for an easy fix to holding his saber though.

FYI, my other top 3 figure is the AT-AT Driver. 

I expected to like Cody but have to admit he doesn't measure up.  Because of the added features on the arms and the jet pack I can see why Hasbro decided to do an entirely new sculpt and not try to modify the #41 mold.  The most requested figure of 2005, however, falls way short...literally.  The goofy leg stance and lack of ankle articulation does the figure a disservice.  The smaller head sculpt, making for a smaller removable helmet, isn't that bad but honestly, I haven't found any other removable helmet clone to be that bad.  The smaller head, though, allows them to use sturdier plastic in the helmet and that's always a plus.  Because of the stance and the lack of ankle articulation Cody appears shorter than the other Utapau Clones and that's just wrong.  Including two blasters was nice, but I'd have liked to have seen a peg hole on his belt and had Obi-Wan's lightsaber hilt.  Even just a peg hole wouldn't have been bad and we could have used an extra accessory from an Obi-Wan if we had to.

I can't really say as I dislike any of the repack figures because I'm not buying ones I already have.  Some are good (Yoda, Obi-Wan), some aren't bad (Jango, Poggle) and some kind of suck (Anakin, Grievous).  I'm happy to see them all if it means Hasbro can put out Scorch, Foul and the Firespeeder Pilot.  Can't wait for the next wave.

4-3-2006

Luke Skywalker from Sideshow came on Friday and looks pretty good.  The Accessories are nice but the bone from the Rancor pit is kind of an oddity.  I still can't decide 100% if I'm going to keep the figure though. 

We'll see.

Thursday night (3/30) I was through Binghamton and stopped at TRU, WM and Target.

TRU had a handful of Hoth and Carkoon wave figures all at $6.99.  They had misc. other stuff but I'm mostly concentrating on 3.75" figures and Titanium for this report.  They had a ton of the new wave of Titanium including 3 or 4 silver Slave I ships, AAT tanks and Maul's Sith Infiltrator.  I was back in that store on Sunday afternoon and found most of the Titanium ships still there but they had sold a couple of the Slave I chase ships.  They had also stocked some Geonosis figures but had sold out of Scorch.  Yoda and Jango were left as was an Utapau Clone.

Wal-Mart had absolutely NO figures on the shelf on Thursday night but the shelf tags still said $4.54.  They also had some Titanium ships but they were from the Clone Swampspeeder wave.  Friday morning I was back in there about 11:00am and they had stocked at least 3 cases which included figures from the Hoth, Carkoon and Geonosis waves and at least 1 full case of Coruscant.  They were sold out of Cody, Firespeeder Pilot and Scorch but all the rest were there and they were indeed selling for $4.54 as I bought Foul Moudama and Lushros Dofine.  Sunday afternoon they had 2 figures left.  They sold out of everything including the Derlin and Rieekan figures...I think there was a Chewy left and I forget what the other one was.

Target on Thursday night had several Utapau Clones and one Holo Ki-Adi-Mundi which I bought for $6.64.  The rest were peg-warmers from the Hoth and Carkoon waves.  Friday morning I walked into a huge score: Geonosis and Coruscant waves as well as some UGH figures.  I got Cody, Foul Moudama, Firespeeder Pilot and a UGH Scorch.  There was one other UGH figure there, General Grievous.  There was also a fresh stock of Titanium including the chase Slave I, Sith Infiltrator and others.  By Sunday night they were cleared out of new figures and were back down to the Hoth and Coruscant peg warmers.  Surprisingly they still had several Utapau Clones.  The Titaniums, although not cleaned out, were down to the basics, no Silver Slave I or Sith Infiltrator which are hot from this wave.

 Thursday night at the Ithaca Target they had the same Hoth figures they've had for a week and on Sunday night they were all still there plus a few new figures including extra AT-AT Drivers and two Geonosis wave figures (Jango and Yoda).  I'm guessing that was the refresh case.  On Sunday there was also 1 lone Titanium Sith Infiltrator along with the Vulture Droid and Death Star that have been there for a month (damaged packaging).  So, between Friday and Sunday Target stocked the new Titanium wave and had it almost sell out.

Now, for some observations: 3.75" Star Wars figures are still very hot and $5 is the selling price for figures.  WM Binghamton sold out in about 2 business days on 3+ cases of 3.75" figures including the peg warmers!  That's pretty impressive.  Even at $6.99 the hot figures and new releases will sell through but even good figures like the Clones can sit by the second or third showing at retail which makes me think that collectors are buying more than kids now.  Vader also doesn't seem to be selling now although the first couple of times the Hoth wave showed up he did move pretty fast.

Having now seen the UGH figures I just have to shrug.  As soon as they told us that the UGH figures wouldn't actually be different I stopped worrying about it.  Although, I have to admit, those silver "holo" pack-in figures are very cool.  I'd like to be able to buy just a set of those and hang the rest of the UGH plan.

Titanium 3" vehicles also seem to be a huge hit.  New waves seem to sell through almost instantly the first 2 times they show up.  After that they tend to sit for a couple days but eventually sell.  The Ultimate line, on the other hand, doesn't.  I saw plenty of them including the new Slave I this weekend and I also saw quite a few of both versions of the Titanium figures.

Although they've been pretty hot in Ithaca, the SW Transformers were all over Binghamton including Fett and Maul which have been hard to find here.

Obviously figures are going to sell better at a cheaper price but if the Binghamton Wal-Mart is any indication, $6.99 is not a good price.  If a store can sell through multiple cases in 2 days, including Rieekan, Derlin and Bib, at $4.54 then I have to hope Hasbro will try to get back to a sub-$6 price tag at some point.