The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[OdoWanKenobi]

Oh well, I'll get them one way or another.

The Mon Calamari pilot is really cool. Probably one my favorite figures in a while. Lando looks to be the same torso and head as the SAGA skiff guard figure, but different arms and legs. Also, he's loaded with accessories. Not bad for a figure that never actually appeared in the film.

 

[cooleddie74]

The only one of the five Deleted Scenes figures that sort of disapppoints is Colonel Cracken, because while he's very well sculpted and has a very detailed and nice head and face he quite honestly doesn't look all that much like the background actor in the movie. He actually looks more like TOS-era DeForest Kelley than he does Colonel Airen Cracken from JEDI. He's a great Rebel officer to be sure...one of the best. He's new except for the legs, which come from the 2009 Legacy Collection Major Panno, but that giant honking brown-colored cannon accessory that comes with him is so out of place and has no painted highlights or details whatsoever. It's like Hasbro took a G.I. JOE weapon and slapped it in the bubble with a STAR WARS figure.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I saw him at the store, but just couldn't bring myself to buy him. There's nothing visually interesting about him whatsoever and I have no attachment to the character, since he didn't even appear in the films. The Mon Calamari at least has the fact that he's a cool looking alien pilot going for him.

Also, it looks like I'm wrong about Lando. I dug up the old skiff guard figure and it confirms that Lando is completely new. Refreshing.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Actually, it was announced that Hasbro got the license to make toys for TREK 2013. I'm glad. Hasbro has proven much more commercially competent and successful than Playmates and others who have tackled the TREK action figure lines in the past...and with all due respect to some of those other companies, they weren't able to make most of their figures and dolls look like the actors and characters. Some of them quite frankly sucked the chrome off a trailer hitch and were kind of embarrassing.

Hasbro is good with poseability and making toys. They are just terrible in regards to actual distribution or actually releasing the product.

Can't argue with that. I've been collecting STAR WARS long enough to know that when Hasbro says a new wave of figures or vehicles is going to be on store shelves you need to add about, oh, one to three months to that estimation...and even then you'll be lucky if your local stores order more than a handful of cases.

Sometimes it's that your local stores will sit on a new shipment (or won't order one) until they sell what they've currently got in stock. They tend to make exceptions for stuff tied-in to upcoming movies because if the movie's a flop, they'll sell more before the film's released than afterward, IMO.

I also think you don't stand a chance if someone who works at the store is a toy collector, since they probably get the first crack at them and knows which sought-after figures to go after.

 

[teacake]

I wanted to get Wicket from the vintage line but every store around is stuffed to the gills with TPM figures.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Actually, it was announced that Hasbro got the license to make toys for TREK 2013. I'm glad. Hasbro has proven much more commercially competent and successful than Playmates and others who have tackled the TREK action figure lines in the past...and with all due respect to some of those other companies, they weren't able to make most of their figures and dolls look like the actors and characters. Some of them quite frankly sucked the chrome off a trailer hitch and were kind of embarrassing.

Hasbro is good with poseability and making toys. They are just terrible in regards to actual distribution or actually releasing the product.

Can't argue with that. I've been collecting STAR WARS long enough to know that when Hasbro says a new wave of figures or vehicles is going to be on store shelves you need to add about, oh, one to three months to that estimation...and even then you'll be lucky if your local stores order more than a handful of cases.

They just canceled a new line of Transformers BEFORE even releasing them in the US. The Canadians are apparently the only ones who got them.

 

[cooleddie74]

Here's two of the Vintage Collection figures in the next retail wave after Darth Malgus. These are supposed to be out by the end of May, but with Hasbro's asinine distribution and retailers sitting on product who knows when most of us will see these.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

We should just rename this thread the "Bitch about Hasbro's distribution" thread. My armless Terrax has plenty to say on the subject.

 

[cooleddie74]

One of the real tests of collecting in the past couple of years was, at least in my opinion, the Walmart exclusive Jabba's Throne set with the brand new Jabba figure, his throne/dais, a repainted Salacious Crumb and an all-new Oola dancing girl. This playset was notoriously hard to find at a lot of Walmarts and I saw just one at my local stores when it was out...and that happened to be a night I didn't have enough money on me to get it. Didn't see a single one after that, and I had to rely on my buddy at the local toy shop to score it. Fortunately I got it in an unopened, factory-sealed box with everything in it, but the Jabba's Throne is an example of both Hasbro not shipping and distributing adequately AND Walmart either sitting on product or not restocking. Both companies are to blame for that debacle, as well as the recent problems with the 3-D exclusive Royal Starship Droids and Mos Espa Arena Battle Packs.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I forgot to mention in my first post that the two figures that I'm really excited about getting is Big Time Spider-Man (that is if Tru Canada gets it in at all) and Future Foundation Spidey (which I think comes out later in the year). The Marvel Legends line has excited me. Also am planning on picking up the New 52 Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman when they come out, and of course the Dark Knight Rises figures

 

[Gepard]

We should just rename this thread the "Bitch about Hasbro's distribution" thread. My armless Terrax has plenty to say on the subject.

Stop by TFW2005 some time and listen to any of the posters on the subject of Bumblebee. Oh my God, the Bees.

 

[cooleddie74]

I don't collect comic book or superhero figures, but I have to admit the new Hasbro line of toys for the AVENGERS movie looks pretty great. I'm awfully tempted to plunk down the cash to pick up all those figures...that film looks like it might be the most awesome action movie of the entire year if it lives up to even half of the expectations generated by the trailers.

 

[Winterwind]

There's a similar thread in the Doctor Who forum for the DW toy line. I've bought a few. More than I should have. I've never collected anything previously (not counting toys I had as a child) so I'm actually slightly amused that I started collecting toys in my 30s.

My avatar is one of my Daleks actually, just done up with a couple PS tweaks.

 

[cooleddie74]

Here's the "BMF"* electronic vehicle for 2012 according to current Hasbro plans. It's scheduled to be released around September unless the company changes its mind or even cancels the thing because of concerns about the market. It will retail for roughly $140.00 - 150.00 and will supposedly be available at all major retailers after initial reports that it was a Target exclusive were shot down.

* Big Millennium Falcon or Big Mother F***er

When it comes to price, it's a doozy. But some collectors might be pleased to know that it will come with a whopping 20 Battle Droids...four with multiple points of articulation for posing and sixteen in preposed standing position to represent the droids being deployed on their motorized racks.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I forgot to mention in my first post that the two figures that I'm really excited about getting is Big Time Spider-Man (that is if Tru Canada gets it in at all) and Future Foundation Spidey (which I think comes out later in the year). The Marvel Legends line has excited me. Also am planning on picking up the New 52 Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman when they come out, and of course the Dark Knight Rises figures

I've got Future Foundation Spider-Man already. I haven't read any of the FF books, but this is a really cool look for Spidey:

 

[Admiral_Young]

Damn that looks awesome. Yeah I haven't seen it in Tru yet or Big Time, and Big Bad Toy Store is sold out of the pre-orders

 

[Saga]

haven't found FF Spidey yet but ML Bucky Cap is a great figure.

 

[captcalhoun]

some of my GI Joe collection.

 

[cooleddie74]

Awesome Joe collection! I have so few of my old Joes from the '80s. Most of them I played with until they fell apart or broke. Did you ever get the Refrigerator Perry figure from 1985 or 1986 that was part of the Joe line?

 

[Stephen!]