Happy Force Friday everyone! Today all of the new merchandise that Disney/Lucasfilm unveiled during its #ForceFriday live stream unboxing event went on sale. Did you line up to get your new Star Wars merchandise? Did you make a detour to the toy aisle just to see what all the brouhaha was all about? Use the comment section below to share your thoughts on this big merchandising event.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
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I was out very late and at multiple stores. Picked up a 6″ Kylo Ren and LEGO Kylo Ren ship. Honestly, not much is impressive, especially for fans of 3.75″ figures. They have extremely limited articulation and there has been backlash online, especially concerning the $50 X-Wing. It was, if anything for sharing the company with the people I was with.
With the release of latest and sadly, perhaps the last part of my all time favorite video game series, Metal Gear Solid V this Tuesday, I blew all my money for Collector’s Edition, Snake action figure and stuff so I’m doing only window shopping for a while.
Sorry about the rant that’s upcoming, I mostly need to vent.
I went to Toys R Us for the midnight release of the toys for the Phantom Menace and I worked at a Target store for this release. What is jarring this time around is how little there is for the 3.75″ figures both in terms of selection and available quantities.
For Episode 1, I remember (possibly incorrectly) there being nearly 30 basic figures, and the Toys R Us I went to had not only a couple of aisle sections full of them but several bins full on top of that. They had a whole assortment of vehicles and had lots of them. Nearly everyone walked out with everything they wanted.
Last night there were maybe a dozen different basic figures and they’re being sent out in extremely limited quantities–where I work we got exactly 24 of the basic figures. Not 24 of each character or 24 of each selection, 24 total. We had maybe the same number of deluxe figures that came with some form of backpack (most of which were the same characters that were in the basic line), maybe 20 total figures that came with a small vehicle (again, same characters from the basic line), and at most 10 large scale vehicles, of which there were only like 2 varieties. Two or three people got the vast majority of the product (even with us restricting quantities) and everyone else was left with dregs. And even the dregs were gone within the first half hour.
I couldn’t buy anything because I was working and had to go to 9 different stores today before I was able to track down the single figure I actually wanted–Captain Phasma–and I don’t think that figure is any rarer than any of the other ones. Found her at a Kohl’s because no one thinks to go to a clothing store for Star Wars Toys–I did, but it was a last ditch effort. I went to at least two each of Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart, and at best all any of them had were leftovers. There’s nothing available, and most of what is available most likely went to scalpers rather than people who actually want the toys. The larger scale figure lines were similar.
Now, the Lego sets are really nice but expensive. We had small quantities of them but they are somewhat pricey so they didn’t sell out as quickly as the figures did, and they were available at most of the stores I visited. I could have gotten all of them had I wished. Well, I do wish actually but I don’t have the money, so all I got was a Millenium Falcon.
I also managed to pick up a Target Exclusive BB-8 droid–not from my Target but from one of the other ones I visited. It’s half the price of the Sphero version and it’s a bit wonky but it’s still pretty sweet.
All in all, the release was really a let-down based on what I experienced back in ’99. I was expecting people to be able to go out and buy toys, but most people probably ended up going out and being disappointed. There are a couple of really nice things but if you want them you probably needed to already have gone out and got them, or else buy them from resellers at huge markups.
No need to apologize, James! Thanks for sharing your experience! I hope more Spoilerites are open like you!