The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

Thanks

 

Don't mention it! My useless, encyclopedic knowledge of these figures has to be good for something. Glad I could help. If there are any others you can't identify please feel free to take pics of them and let me take a look for you.

 

Late this morning I made two more brand-new scores at my buddy's local shop. He just got these out of the shipping box with some other figures as I arrived and he gave me first crack at whatever I wanted out of the shipment. I didn't want anything else but these two. They're not even officially out yet and might not be for a little while longer given the current craptastic distribution.

Thanks again, my friend! You and your shop help make this hobby so much easier sometimes!

 

Going to complain about another annoyance: Scale.
Mattel put out a few Batman two-packs this past year. One of them was a Batman and Gordon two pack. Now, I don't have a Gordon and was pretty excited. Then I found at that these are considered part of the "Movie Masters" line which for some reason is at a shorter scale than DC Universe. So I now have a Gordon, that looks like a shrimp next to any non movie Batman. Then things gets worse. The same line included Arkham City figures, which are all taller than a normal DCUC. Nightwing and Harley Quinn should not tower over Batman. What the hell Mattel? Why would you make your lines incompatible like this? I can't put this First Night Batman that came with Gordon with my other Batman figures, because he looks puny. The only Commissioner Gordon that you've ever made is just as shrimpy.

 

I personally would kill for a decent, widely-available line of Final Fantasy IV and VI action figures, or even statues with integral decorative bases. The Square Enix official merchandise shop is absolutely horrendous in terms of layout, and they only have merch from VII up anyways. Although the Play Arts Kai Adam Jensen looks ridiculously awesome.

 

Now the mail-in orders for the Prototype Boba Fett action figure(Vintage Collection) have been put on hold for another two months or so. People who recently sent in their order forms to get their Proto Bobas just received postcards from Hasbro saying that due to the high demand for the mail-in figure all shipments are being delayed until at least July 20th if not later. Good thing I've got my two Proto Bobas already...sending in the forms and the money early has its advantages, but people who waited until the last minute or close to it are gonna have to wait another two months or longer for their figures to even ship.

 

Just found this on one of the collecting sites. There's a template of this sign that you can print out and use at your own local stores if their selection of action figures sucks donkey gonads(which, let's face it, is more than likely the case). This appears to be one of the first uses of the new sign...let's hope it helps motivate at least some positive changes at retail!

 

Walmart's terrible for collecting. I was looking at the MLP selection in our local store, and it consisted of a 2 foot wide, 3 foot high shelf with a couple of different brushable ponies, one nightmarish Pinkie Pie baby plush, and a Canterlot set that was missing one of it's figures.

 

agreed. that ROTJ Unleashed Luke is one of the few SW things i'll never get rid of.

 

I always wanted the Unleashed Darth Vader with the removable helmet, but it was scarcer than hen's teeth when it was first out and now it just costs way too much on eBay to justify getting it online. The RH Vader always seems to make collectors' Top Five lists of Unleashed and even occupies the top spot on many occasions. There was a second Unleashed Vader as well where you couldn't take the helmet off, but he was almost as hard for most people to find. A couple of the Unleashed waves were notoriously hard to track down, the most notable being the ones that contained Han in the Stormtrooper Disguise, any bounty hunter or Darth Vader.

I am not surprised in the least. STAR WARS collectors fare only somewhat better most of the time. The MLP selection at pretty much all national retailers is just abysmal. I'm not joking, man, I think I've seen a better and more varied choice of FiM merchandise on the toy aisle shelves of CVS Pharmacies than I've spotted at the giant retail stores. At least I can actually find a Rainbow Dash there!

 

Consider yourself lucky, literally the only thing I've seen in a store here is the original My Pretty Pony magasine from the parent franchise, where you could win a Rarity poster. That's it.

I have to get on a train and travel 70 miles to any retailer that might have stuff, lol.

 

Dang. I suddenly feel bad about complaining about our MLP selection.

Have you been able to find anything good and new? Or is it just a wasteland, even at the stores 70 miles away?

 

Assuming they only sell in the EU, the Republic of Ireland is just over the border a few miles from here, I suppose I could stop in Dundalk only around 15-20 miles away but haven't been there before.

Amazon UK has the stuff so infrequently and I haven't had the time and money to nab stuff when it's there. I will eventually.

 

Hope for some store pegs? A Yakface.com photo of a Toys 'R' Us that has actually gotten brand new product in(as opposed to most American TRU outlets which have been sitting on the same Episode I product since January with little or no change).

If you're into the hobby I guess it's time to grit your teeth and check TRU again. Meh...you never know.

 

I checked mine today. Plus two Wal-Marts and a Target. Still nothing but Episode I crap.

 

That's not good news is history repeating itself?

On a different note has anyone seen the new Darth Malgus fig? I heard he was supposed to be very rare is that true?

 

^
I have a mint-on-card Darth Malgus, but I had to get him from my friend's toy shop and not a retail store. However, tonight at Walmart when I made a quick trip to grab some stuff I had totally forgotten earlier today I made a CLONE WARS action figure score. This Walmart had bucked the trend of other local Wally Worlds and had restocked its CW pegs if nothing else(the rest were TPM and Movie Heroes pegwarmers dating back to January) and there were some figures from the newer, much harder to find waves 2 and 3! I picked up:

2 x Obi-Wan Kenobi(new sculpt)
1 x Captain Rex(new sculpt)
1 x Aayla Secura
1 x Super Battle Droid(Training Droid)

They didn't have the Clone Commando Boss, Ahsoka in Scuba Gear or Clone Commander Wolffe.

 

Yeesh. It's no wonder retail stores lose business. I can go online and find a massive selection, but sometimes I would just like to walk into a store, see a figure I want, and just buy it right there. There's a nice, warm feeling I get when I can do that.

 

I feel your pain, brother. I feel your pain.

These days, most toy collectors do.

 

Here's my big CLONE WARS score from Walmart last night. These are four of the seven new CW figures in Waves 2 and 3. These are the first new CLONE WARS characters I've seen at local retail since the mad merchandising rush of January 30th. Up until now the most exciting CW figure I've seen on pegs has been the random Savage Opress(shirtless).