It could've worked...the Bears should be Ewoks, not Imperials..! 49ers are droids (but Chargers are Power Droids!) and the Falcons are obvious...

at least Green Bay Luke is wearing his Hoth gear.

("Green Bay Luke"...better not say that too loud or take this much further, Hasbro will show up with their easy repaint philosophy and give us a bunch of nonsensical figures for $5 more than regular retail.)

Thanks!  I'm now looking for 3.75" action figures that look like tourists!

I used a bunch of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World figures (plus Elliott and Gertie) for my Batuu Droid Depot display...

The Tonnika sisters aren't happening. It doesn't matter which was going to be the worst issue--likeness rights, the galaxy's oldest profession, what have you--Hasbro has absolutely no incentive to even open that can of worms.

Not when there are hundreds of characters waiting in the "to be made" line with absolutely nothing standing in the way except the drip-drip-drip supply line. They will never run out of other issue-free options to make, so the one with potential issues isn't ever going to even have the conversation of whether they should or not.

Don't stop there at Death Star Hallways... 

Did you ever see the sketches Mike Rex (speedermike when he used to post here) did for some Jabba's Palace Adventure Set-inspired playset concepts last year?

I'd buy 'em all!

Did they mention what goes for sale today at noon central?

Just Clone Wars Ahsoka and Maul for TVC today. Not exclusives.

The livestream was enlightening. They opened with Patrick acknowledging that the ball was dropped on some preorders recently, without calling out any retailers or items. He said they will reevaluate how early they offer preorders on some items from now on. Not long after, they revealed three new ROTJ TVC figures that will be exclusive to WalMart, and said preorders will be posted later. So if you take that all into consideration, they are aware that the preorder experience at WalMart was hurting the brand, and are attempting to correct it.

I came to the conclusion that Hasbro and I had different intentions for the Star Wars line around 2007...it was the Pax Bonkik repaint figure that broke me of my "I want them all!" habit for good. At that point I decided the only complete collection I wanted was a master list unique to me, so I went about making that list and I've been gratified over the last decade+ to get 20 or so figures off that list. No mistake--there have been figures I never thought of that I have bought because they were cool or neat (this was pre-Disney, after all) but for the most part I have approached everything from the beginning of the Vintage Collection until now as "gravy."

The change at Hasbro seems obvious over the years. It used to be an attitude of "new figures sell well, we need to make new figures." Today, there must be a formula that they crank things through. "The line will be most profitable if we maximize mold usage and minimize new tooling development. Individual waves can only support 18% new tooling at the current MSRP." It definitely changes how the old idea of the "Parking Lot" of potential figures will be approached. And part and parcel with this comes a much lower product run than what they used to make.

It's sad, because for that window between 2013-2018 they tried to adhere to the "new figures" paradigm by cutting costs with the 5POA line. But the new media (and more importantly, the unwillingness of Disney/LFL to share resources for said media in a timely and robust fashion) led to a glut of poor character choices that made the line flop with kids and collectors.

The worst part is, even with the TVC line getting drowned in it's necessary repack percentages, I can see the supposedly popular Black Series slowly but surely becoming more reliant on repaints, rereleases, and kitbashes to maintain its profit margin. That 8-year old line line has a lot less depth than the TVC does at this point, so the prospects there are scary and could strangle it to death if left unchecked.

Yeah, they switched me over to direct payments at the end of August. It has been pretty seemless as far as impact to my financials.

The upside was no more PayPal fees.

They do daily deposits Mon-Fri straight to my bank account, the funds show up in 24hrs. Sales from over the weekend are usually in my bank account on Wednesday morning.

Downside seems to be when a buyer has an issue that they report, eBay automatically puts those funds on hold (there have been a lot of delayed shipments since the beginning of December thanks to the USPS, and buyers have taken it up with eBay even though they have a tracking number.)

I still think one of my projects this year will be to set up a dedicated webstore and ween myself off of eBay as my primary storefront. It is great for exposure and I will still use it to advertise new stuff, but the fees still add up and I could get a wider selection out for sale without having to worry about listing thresholds and other fees.

My replacement order (placed yesterday 8am) did indeed show up today at 3pm.

It's a good sized box, but I'm waiting until this evening to open it up (so I can do an "unboxing video" for Instagram  )