The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[cooleddie74]

That's pretty cool. I have yet to see a single Hot Wheels Star Trek ship at any retail store in this area. I no longer pay much attention to the die-cast car pegs when I hit a local store. The film premiered in theaters more than four months ago and if they were going to surface it probably would have happened by now - or if they did show up, they sold out fast and they didn't restock any adequate quantities for others to find the ships.

 

[Saga]

That's pretty cool. I have yet to see a single Hot Wheels Star Trek ship at any retail store in this area. I no longer pay much attention to the die-cast car pegs when I hit a local store. The film premiered in theaters more than four months ago and if they were going to surface it probably would have happened by now - or if they did show up, they sold out fast and they didn't restock any adequate quantities for others to find the ships.

i had to get the Vengeance off Amazon. i'll end up getting the others from that line eventually. it just disappoints me cause i enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

the only Hot Wheels stuff i pay attention to is movie/tv related stuff. i always thought the hard core Hot Wheels collectors where an...odd bunch.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I'm inclined to think that the Hot Wheels Star Trek line is essentially dead in the sense that it will continue with additional waves. I think Mattel planned on their Trek ships being in U.S. retail stores and retailers said no like they did with Playmates (IIRC, you can find Hot Wheels Trek ships in retail stores outside of the U.S.).

 

[cooleddie74]

A similar thing in some respects happened with the 2013 green Yoda-packaged lines of Clone Wars and Movie Heroes action figures. The 2012 Phantom Menace 3-D retail train wreck and fiasco made the American toy retailers nauseous of more Prequel-era/themed Star Wars figures in similar packaging jamming their pegs for another year or more so they and Hasbro decided to say no to carrying them here in the United States.

They became European, Canadian, Mexican and other international exclusives and not one has ever been shipped to an American retail store.The chains and Hasbro looked at what happened in 2012 and decided they weren't going to take the risk of unpopular product that doesn't sell taking up their peg wall space, not with the recent toy buying habits and complaints of American customers.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I was wondering where those green Yoda-packaged figures went (I did see a Slave-1 with that packaging at my local Toys R Us once, but nothing else and even that was gone the next time I went there).

 

[cooleddie74]

American retail got some smaller-scale ships like the Slave I (Jango Fett/AOTC), some figure-ship sets like a Yoda Attack Starfighter and a small line of reduced-quality 12" figures in the green Yoda packaging, but otherwise Hasbro and the disgruntled American retail chains decided to say no to distributing 2013 Yoda-themed figures in the United States.

Canada got them. Europe. East Asia. Mexico. But not America, and now they're only available for inflated prices online or through trades with overseas collectors. A shame, really. Some of the green-carded Clone Wars and Movie Heroes figures weren't very impressive, but others were and would be welcome additions to many collections. Hasbro and the retailers thought otherwise.

 

[C.E. Evans]

After 2012, I really can't blame the big U.S. retailers from wanting to take a time out. It sucks for U.S. collectors, but it was in response to having so much product already on their shelves, IIRC?

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I saw some of the Thor: The Dark World figures at TRU, but didn't pick them up. They're certainly a step up over the Iron Man 3 debacle, in that they have more then five points of articulation. They're more on par with the Avengers figures. Every single figure I saw had very thick and gloppy paint that completely killed the look of the figures, though.

 

[cooleddie74]

After 2012, I really can't blame the big U.S. retailers from wanting to take a time out. It sucks for U.S. collectors, but it was in response to having so much product already on their shelves, IIRC?

Largely, but all that product was mostly the fault of Hasbro and Lucasfilm pushing it all on retailers in a promotional blitz for a 3-D Prequel release that didn't exactly set the box office ablaze with record ticket sales. Add to that the carry forwards and additional shipments of figures that weren't selling well in the first place and you had a logjam of unwanted product that ground much of Star Wars distribution and collecting to a halt last year and the aftereffects are still being felt.

There are several culprits to blame for what happened to be sure.

 

[Saga]

just got this in the mail. SH Figuarts Ryuuranger.

 

[cooleddie74]

Wave 2 of the Black Series (3.75") is shipping to people who ordered the new wave assortment online. It's being randomly spotted at overseas retail. It's just a matter of time before the first American store reports of Mara Jade and the gang showing up on domestic pegs.

 

[Chris3123]

Went to Target again today and this time they had the Black Series 6-inch figures, all four of the first wave. I can only really afford to get one at the moment, so I chose Luke.

When I went back to Target yesterday, they had all four back in stock, so I picked up the Sandtrooper.

 

[cooleddie74]

I have two 6" Sandtroopers. I've seen just three or four the entire time that the first wave of 6" figures has been out, and he's the hardest of the first four characters to find in this area. Luke and Artoo seem to be the easiest to spot of the four and the ones that tend to linger on the shelf the longest.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

The Avengers are getting ready for Halloween:

 

[cooleddie74]

I love you.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I know.

 

[cooleddie74]

I knew you were going to say that, you old fool.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Come on, the setup was too good.

 

[cooleddie74]

The brand new Toys "R" Us-exclusive multipack sets are beginning to hit.

Seems as if the shelf price for each of these is going to be $39.99, roughly the same as the Ewok and Yavin Pilot multipacks from a while back.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Tony probably had to explain to Steve what "Star Wars" was lol. That was awesome though.