Hit a flurry of Walmarts (4) over lunch and found more remnants of TCW Wave 5. Picked up a minty carded Draa at one store and a slightly dinged Undead Geonosian who will serve well as an opener at another.

Once again, neither figure rang up at the register and I had to get overrides at both stores. I haven't been stonewalled yet though, so I don't mind the extra hassle.

At this point, if I could find a minty carded Quinlan Vos and an opener of Cato, I'd be completely set.

No sign of BARC Speeder w/Jesse yet either. Thinking this will be the next thing to show up...

Is there really only one more episode after last night? Eesh, hope not, this is severely addictive.

Five episodes in now, I think we've established that the best formula for the show is equal measures human interest/zombie killin'. They just need to work on the pacing a little to smooth this out on an episode by episode basis. We've now had 2 episodes that were mostly all talking and very little zombie action. That's a little slow and uneven, IMO. I prefer 30 minutes of the drama and 30 minutes of action, blended appropriately.

That said, even the less action packed episodes are pretty dang riveting, and always filled with at least 2-3 very memorable scenes. Loved the abused woman going to town on her dead husband's skull with the pick axe. Loved the last scene with Jim under the tree. Loved the hat-guy (maybe my favorite character in the show) totally busting Shane locking down on Rick in the woods. (Why the sudden heel turn though? I was just starting to like him again)

Liking the new angle with the CDC guy too. (Wish they had done better with the microscope close-up though, that seemed really cheesy somehow) I wonder if his lament over the lack of fresh tissue samples to study will lead them to try and retrieve Jim's body at some point. Figured dude would be at least a little happy to see other survivors though, guess not so much.

So what's Merle up to? Is he gonna find the note on the red car too?

While in Delaware for Thanksgiving, I snuck out to Walmart on Black Friday (I know, crazy) and surprisingly managed to score Clone Trooper Draa - no sign of Vos, Cato, etc.

When I got to the check-out, it would not ring up - Item Not Found. Luckily they let me have the thing anyway, for $6, no tax.

When we got back to Virginia today, I manged to steal away again for a few minutes to hit 2 more Walmarts and was stunned to find the exact 3 remaining figures I needed from Wave 5 - Vos, Cato, and the Undead Geonosian. What are the odds of THAT?

Funny thing was, the same thing happened at checkout - none of the figures would scan. They had to do a manual override. So anyway, I managed to knock out the whole wave for less than $25 and a minimum of hassle.  

At least 2 of the cards are sub-optimal though, so I will be keeping an eye out for mintier versions. I think that may be it for 2010, unless we see the HMP/TriFighter vehicle wave hit in the next month, or that Deluxe Vehicle set with Clone Trooper Jesse.

Woo hoo!

I've read through the Q&As and I must have missed it - was there an announcement about Bric?

Should I be concerned that I haven't sent away for him yet?

Sorry, wish I could link you directly to the Q&A. but the gist of it was that Hasbro came out and said they will not be doing any more TCW mailaway promotions going forward. Bric will be the last. Apparently the implication is that this promotion is not doing as well as the Vebb one. I just sent away for another one recently, and although it sounds as though they have plenty, I doubt they will commission another run if they should ever start getting low.

Yeah, it's a bummer. I really like Bric too, I only wish he came carded.

Not that I care about the animated figures but the CW mail away answer seemed to contradict itself. Nabar had to have a second run due to them not making enough, I even got a form and just received him 2 weeks ago. So it hardly seemed like a Frito Lay Spirit Obi-Wan promo. Sometime I choose to read between the lines and ignore their answers.

It is possible Bric is failing but they limited themselves to only including the form to CW figures. No Saga Legends come with a form for him.

I agree, the response did not make sense to me either in light of the successful Vebb promotion. The latest promotion I think was also hurt by the differing mailaway forms - one just for the Battle Mat and then one for Bric AND the battlemat. A plain old battlemat for some game I don't think anyone is even playing is not going to attract much interest.

it does suck for the adult collectors of the line

Yeah, that's all I'm sayin' really. I don't mean to imply that they're misguided, I'm just bemoaning the fact that the animated line does not seem to aspire to the level of engagement with the consumer that the TVC line does. (horses of a different color, I realize)

I guess when you have a hot commodity that is primarily targeted to kids, and supported by current entertainment, you just don't have to try as hard in that regard. I get that though.

Well, I'll say this: if you are an adult collector of the TCW line, Hasbro would like to pretend that you do not exist. I just read another Q&A response from GH where they slapped down the Duchess Satine figure while going out of their way to point out that it's only kids that collect this line. 

Nevermind Satine has had quadruple the screen time of Shaak Ti and she has been involved in way more action sequences. "Kids won't buy her"

As long as you keep repacking Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan in every wave, you should have plenty of wiggle room for non-iconic support characters.

I get the economics and demographic angles. I understand I am part of a minority here. But it is not an insignificant minority. I literally buy every single thing they put out in this line, often purchasing multiples for opening. I am hasbro's frigging wet dream of a consumer. Not asking them to bend over backwards or anything, but some acknowledgement would be nice. I don't doubt that there are more adults buying the animated stuff than they suspect.

Ha ha...fair enough, how bout some Grievous backstory then?

Heck, bring back Durge for another go around.

I just think there is so much out there that we don't need the filler we have gotten recently.