I've seen SO much of this crap since 30AC, when I used to never see it at all. But most of the time it's just figures ripped open with the damaged packaging left there, as can be seen in these pictures I snapped from last year:





And the sad part is that these opened packages stayed on the pegs for WEEKS.

And off the top of my head, I've seen the following swaps:

-- Target Exclusive Wedge w/ X-Wing: SA Wedge swapped with the POTF2 carrying case Wedge
-- 30AC Tantive IV Battle Pack: RFTs and Stormtroopers swapped with POTF2 Yavin Ceremony Lukes (I still have a pic of this on my old RAZR phone)
-- Legacy Obi-Wan's Hut Battle Pack: New Luke swapped with a POTF2 ANH Luke
-- Various Iron Man 2 figures with "Try Me!" packaging: Limbs missing from some, others the entire figure is gone as seen above
-- Various BAD pieces stolen
-- A BAD figure with a Battle Droid arm instead of the BAD part

And I too have tried to tell customer service what's going on and am met with the same apathy. Eventually I stole an idea from someone on here, I want to say CHEWIE, where if you notice a swap, damage the hell out of the packaging so no casual mom/kid will buy it.

Used an expiring LEGO Store coupon to snag the new (last year) Y-Wing today. Was gonna snag the X-Wing too but they didn't have any. Guess I'll have o grab it next time I hit Target or WM.

I say again, why quit?  3.75" hasn't been cancelled yet...  6" is just another "thing" that will be there...  like Unleashed, mini unleashed, Might Muggs, Mini Mighty Muggs, 12", ****** 2013 12", Beans, Transformers crossovers, and so forth.

This isn't yet the ONLY future of the line.

I think the reasoning is that Hasbro seems to want to shift collector focus to this larger scale line despite most collectors having sunk thousands of dollars into the 3.75" line and having no space nor desire for a new scale. They basically want us to rebuy everything at $20 a pop, and I know I'm not up for that.

I'll go:

- Darth Vader (ANH)
- Bespin Han (ESB)
- Chewbacca (ROTJ)
- Jango Fett (AOTC)

Terrible casting choices for the villains so far

Yeah, good stuff... and I agree that they should have ditched that terrible Void/Garcon (whatever his name is, I don't care enough to look it up) arc and given this arc a few more episodes. I feel like that Maul/Vizla duel should have come after like 3 episodes of those two plotting behind each other's backs and trying to one-up the other.

There may be room for separate "premium" collector lines (Marvel still seems to have Legends for around $15 each), but all signs show a push towards the $6 price point for the basic figure lines (with "basic" being the key word).  Looks like they borrowed a LOT from Mattel's very well selling $5 Dark Knight 5POA figures.

Wait, do we have any sales data for those TDKR figures? Because all of the stores near me were clogged with those things, and I'm pretty sure exactly zero figures were sold. Even local grocery stores got in awful yellow/green/orange Batman repaints that were priced at $3, and they have four pegs clogged with them.

Back to Star Wars, sorry, but I'm out if articulation goes back to 5 POA. I could tolerate a bare minimum level of articulation ala the 2006 Saga Collection. Figures that had about 9-11 POA (ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivel elbows, swivel hips, ball jointed knees, swivel wrists) were genuinely well received, as long as they were sculpted in a neutral position. I think we've all agreed that the AT-AT Driver and the Death Star Gunner are two of the best figures from that line, and they both had this minimum standard of articulation. And I think I could live with that for $7-ish.

But 5 POA? Just no... not in this day and age. Sure that was okay back in the 90's and early 2000's but things have changed, stuff evolves... I feel it would be like Microsoft announcing that their next Xbox is going to be standard definition, no DVD/Blu-Ray player, and no wireless connectivity. A step backwards. I don't even think I would buy new characters from the new trilogy at 5 POA because they wouldn't fit in with the figures I have now. Yeah they might look good but you can't play with them pose them on shelves very well.

I spotted yet another variant of the Fantastic Four 3-pack at TRU the other day, this time with an "invisible" Invisible Woman. This is probably old news, but it's the first three pack I've seen in forever that isn't Guardians of the Galaxy.