5-27-2006

The new Unleashed figures hit at Wal-Mart today.  They had a huge endcap full of all three figures (Han Stormtrooper, Clone Trooper, Chewbacca).  I never did like the Chewy and the Clone Trooper kind of sucks...the helmet sculpt is terrible.

Han is the best of the lot but still not into them.  This line could have stayed dead for all I care.

Nothing else new at WM or Target this week.

5-24-2006

Found something odd at Target on Monday, two sets of the 1st series of Wal-Mart exclusive Titanium vehicles.  They were all there, Slave I, TIE Fighter, X-Wing and Millennium Falcon. They were still in the first release packaging and looked to be pretty mint.

Not sure where they came from.  Someone could have returned them or a case got shipped to them.  It would be odd to find that a case got shipped to them because that would mean Hasbro sent it to Target's distribution center.  I'm leaning towards it being someone that picked them up at Wal-Mart and returned them.  That's kind of tough at Target but I haven't paid close enough attention to the receipts for Titaniums.  It could be possible that they use a generic name on the receipt and someone returned these on a receipt for 4 (or 8) newer purchases.

Anyway, still odd.  I should have picked them up to see if I could flip them on eBay but didn't feel like spending $20 to do it.  Instead I picked up another Utapau Clone Trooper to go with my army.  I thought I was going to stop with 10 but I'm jumped to 12 now and I may add a couple more...20 wouldn't be out of hand would it? Ha!

New Saga Waves

The new Tatooine wave of figures has been found.  This is the wave that includes the new R5-D4 (looks awesome!) and a Momaw Nadon figure that's rumored to be good enough to make a Roron Corrob custom figure out of.

Can't wait.

DCSWCC Charity Pin

The new 2006 charity pin from the DC Collector's Club is shipping.  It's really cool with Chewbacca hanging off the Washington Monument a-la King Kong.  Looks good and it's for a good cause.

Now I wish I'd bought their first pin, Yoda.

Wizard World Philly

Philly is just over a week away.  Tickets are squared away for Friday and it should be fun.  I think I'm going to be looking out for some Takara Microman Predator figures as well as these new Not Toys snap kits.  Other than that WW doesn't have a lot of stuff to offer this year for the Star Wars fans.

Oh, Gentle Giant will be there with their con exclusive Bust Up Vader.  Still, should be a good time.

5-16-2006

Had a really fun weekend.  Headed to Scranton, PA on Friday to hang with my buddy Joe K. and his wife.  Talked Star Wars and hung out before he hosted the PSWCS meeting on Saturday.

There was a really great turnout for the meeting which was good.  There were a lot of cool things for show and tell but I really liked Brad's grappling hook, Phil's Clone Trooper plate and Doc's Kubrick Indiana Jones.

Making the weekend even better, when I got home Saturday night the mail had delivered my StarWarsShop.com Lucas family set, I received the last two Medalionz coins that I'd won on eBay and my DSL modem arrived from Verizon. So now I'm posting in high-speed DSL goodness.

Also had Monday off from work and took the free time to run down to Elmira to Toys-R-Us to see if I could find the new exclusive Gunship.  They had one on the shelf which I quickly snapped up.  I also grabbed a VTSC Biker Scout to open so that made the trip down worthwhile.

They had a pretty good selection of the various items that are out now but none of their new exclusive Battle Pack.

The Wal-Mart in Elmira and Ithaca were both a bust for new items, not that I was really expecting much.  I still want to finish getting a second set of VTSC figures to open but I'll work on that over the next couple of weeks.

5-12-2006

Saw the VTSC figures at Target again tonight as well as some Heroes and Villains wave figures.  Plenty of stock on 3" Titanium vehicles and the newly Saga Collection boxed vehicles.

Target actually moved all of the figures to the opposite end of the toy section from where they'd been up till now.  That reset went on in about a day which floored me.  I don't know why they didn't do it back on 4/30 to go with the new shelf layout.

I was happy to score a Tusken Raider to finish my set and get an extra Scout for a trade that I finally have to complete.

Leaving later today for PA for a PSWCS meeting this weekend.  Plenty of shopping in Bingo and Scranton so hopefully I'll find the new TRU exclusive Gunship since it appears that my pre-order isn't going to get filled.

5-10-2006

Stopped in Wal-Mart after work last night and they didn't have any VTSC figures but they did have a restock on the Geonosis, Coruscant and Utapau figures.  Found two Scorch a Cody and misc. other figures including Foul Moudama, Anakin and Obi-Wan and the Firespeeder Pilot.

WM also got in the new exclusive Marvel Legends figures including the variants of Sentinel and Wolverine.  They looked nice and got wiped out pretty quickly.

I saw some in the Auburn WM Saturday night along with the famous covers line, 2-packs and  horror figures.

Target didn't have any new figures but did have a restock on Titanium vehicles including a Clone Wars Gunship, metal Slave I and the Battlestar Galactica vehicles. 

Target also had some Force Battlers that I hadn't seen in a while like Chewy and Jango Fett.  Still some Demise of Grievous figures hanging out as well.  Not selling for the price and I don't blame people for not paying it.

5-9-2006

Scored two more VTSC figures on Saturday night at the Auburn Wal-Mart.  The figures were buried in a back aisle away from the rest of the Star Wars figures so it took a while to find them.  They also had 3 display boxes of the new Titanium gift packs with the silver Death Star.

Picked up Han and Greedo for $9.96 each.  There were three of each on the shelf along with 3 Luke X-Wing.  No Scout figures and no Tusken Raider which shocked me.

The best score, though, was the two Early Bird packages for $5 each.  Sent in the coupons yesterday so hopefully that offer really is extended till the end of 2006.  Then I'll have a couple more sets of figures.

The Wal-Mart also had some of Geonosis figures but nothing of much note.  Standard stuff, really.

Ithaca Wal-Mart received a shipment of the Heroes and Villains wave last week but I passed them up including the #41 Clone Trooper repack.  Three waves of H&V figures are announced now and one wave includes Shock Troopers so I'll be sure to look for those.

5-4-2006

Big news last night on StarWars.com, the original trilogy will be coming out on DVD this fall and will include the original theatrical releases as well as the 2004 special editions.  I'm totally psyched about this!  I have LaserDisk copies but it'll be cool to have these as well.  Can't wait.

VTSC

The VTSC figures hit today for the first time as far as I know.  Two of each character in heat sealed clam shells were at Target for $11.99.  I bought a Scout Trooper and Luke X-Wing Pilot.  I plan on opening the clam shells to get the proof of purchase sticker and coupon for the Lucastrooper.

I'll wait to get the other three characters at Wal-Mart which is supposed to carry them for $9.99.  I'll probably end up with two sets so I can mail away for two figures and also open a set to have them loose. 

Target also restocked on the regular 3.75" figures.  There were Utapau Clone Troopers, Obi-Wan, Anakin and some other Geo figures.  I didn't notice any UGH figures, Scorch or Cody so I didn't look very hard.  Demise of Grievous was still present and they may have actually added some to the shelf.  Pass.

Character Keys

My two Padme Character Keys arrived from StarWarsShop.com today.  Numbers 288 and 289 of 750.  I added 289 to the collection and I'll probably trade or sell off the other one.

This Key looks really nice but it has a white border where all the rest have a dark/black border.  It'll look a little off, I think, when displayed with the others but we'll see. 

Originally this was going to be limited to 8 with Padme being #5, ARC #6 and the rumored SDCC exclusive Anakin #7.  Today, however, Acme Archive reps posted on the RebelScum forums that as long as they can make them they probably will.  That bodes well for some of my favorite Animated Clone Wars characters like Shaak Ti, Foul Moudama, Barriss Offee and Luminara Unduli.  Hell, I love them all so bring them on!

5-3-2006

The next Acme Archives Character Key went up for presale today and it's the red ARC Commander.  It's a RazorsEdgeCollectibles.com exclusive and limited to 750 pieces.  I ordered up two of them and they should be here in June according to the web site.

Ironically I'd just ordered from Razor's Edge for the first time last week when I finally picked up a couple of the Internet exclusive OTC Wedge figures.  They came in Monday night and are nice looking figures.  Opened one and the other will go into the carded collection.

I also scored the last two Medalionz gold coins I needed.  Got them on auction from eBay and they should be on their way.  Hopefully I'll be taking them to the May PSWCS meeting to show off.

5-2-2006

Wal-Mart still hasn't put out VTSC figures or any of the newest Titanium vehicles.  Since they have a huge number of exclusive wave 2 and 3 vehicles I don't see them getting new stuff in again any time soon.

I also stopped in Target and Demise of Grievous was still on the pegs but the Battle Packs were sold out.  New stock on 3" Titanium vehicles but no new figures or Ultra ships.

5-1-2006

Stopped in Target in the morning and found the action figure aisle in the middle of their reset.  I didn't look for figures but could tell that there were no regular 3.75" figures or VOTC so I decided to stop after work.

Stopped in WM in Cortland and found UGH versions of Carkoon Han, Hoth Vader, Snowtrooper and Obi-Wan (or Anakin, I forget).  Left them on the shelf.  They also had Geonosis wave figures like Cody, Utapau Clone Trooper, Lushros Dofine, Firespeeder Pilot and others.  I think everything was there except Scorch.  Still had a couple Ultra X-Wing and Gunship Titanium vehicles.  Nothing else of note, no VTSC or Titanium figures, no 3" Titanium ships that I saw.

On the way home from work I found UGH Demise of Grievous exclusive ($12.99) as well as the Skirmish in the Senate Battle Packs ($19.99).  Picked up two of the Battle Packs but Grievous didn't really interest me.  No restock on the regular figures but they did condense some things down.