Quote from: Jayson on October 25, 2009, 09:33 AM

The rumor is false.

Just thought I'd second that statement. A buddy at another site found this wave at a TRU in upstate NY, so they are in the US and in B&M stores.

Greg, awesome post - thanks a ton for that info. That makes 1 new fig wave, 1 new BP, and 2 new Deluxe Vehicle Fig sets for TCW line spotted at a TRU today. (I assume you buddy's find was recent?)

Yep, I picked a great week to bitch and moan about the lack of new product. 

Thanks, I am in total agreement with you on the Ugnaught. I actually had the purple version from back in the day, so I look forward to comparing side by side.

MODS!! BREAKING NEWS FOR THE FRONT PAGE!!!!

The new TCW Deluxe Vehicle/Fig Sets have been spotted at retail!!!

I just bought the Count Dooku w/Speeder Bike & Obi-Wan w/Freeco Speeder at the local TRU!

First reported sighting (I think) ANYWHERE ONLINE!

Jedi Defender Exclusive!

I didn't have any issues until the second or third week - legs just started falling off due to the body's own weight.  Perhaps they fixed that with the latter releases?  Tubing worked great.

LOL, you just know 10 years from now someone is going to be selling AT-TE's on eBay listed as "Rare, unfixed leg variant!" and charge an exorbitant price to some poor geek.

I'm kicking myself for paying too much, but I finally picked up Brown Snake Yoda. Green snake isn't likely to come cheap either.

I'm pleased to at least be making a dent in the Vintage List. I think I'm down to 10 POTF figures, 1 replacement Luke, and about a dozen or so variants. (That variant total shifts though, as I continue to stumble across worthy additions)

Looking forward to rounding out the vehicles and playsets next.

Here is what they read:

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Got Matchstick, Clone Tank Gunner and Ziro's Assasain Droid from TRU Leeds today, they had plenty of them along with the rest of TCW waves. They had no Padmés however.

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Got Luminara, Matchstick, Padme, Clone Tank Gunner, Ziro's IG Droid from TRU. Shame they never had Clone Commander Thire and AAT Driver Battle Droid.

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Picked up Matchstick, Zero IG-86, Clone Gunner and Cad Bane from Tesco this morning.

Granted these are collectors in the UK, but they have made it to retail "somewhere".

Also, RS doesn't post store reports on their front page. They're cool like that.

Fair enough, but plenty of other sites like JTA and Galactic Hunter DO do this and it's mega helpful. (A simple blurb saying "Hey this was spotted in AZ by one of our eagle-eyed forum members", maybe with a photo, is really cool)

I guess I should have qualified my remark with "IN THIS COUNTRY" but honestly I figured that went without saying. I'm sure we could jet over to Malaysia to pick up a few new toys too, but I'm really just venting about the situation in the US. I can't speak to the foreign markets because that is a whole different animal.

Adam, thanks for the informed insight, I get what you are saying but I just have a different take on the whole "street date" thing. I think it helps a lot to make new releases an "event" based on firm dates because it allows you to build a targeted marketing and production push at a national level. If Hasbro had any control over when their product hits the shelves, it would really enhance their ability to accurately forecast sales projections over the course of the year, so they can refine the release dates over time and optimize their strategy.

The way things are right now, it must be a nightmare trying to coordinate all these moving pieces and data mine for any kind of useful analysis that could actually help grow the business. From a business standpoint, it just seems like any success is in spite of the current system, not because of it.

Given all that, I think it's pretty difficult to offer accurate street dates every time (they are usually pretty close in most cases) and completely unrealistic to think that all retailers are getting the same product within a week or two timeline.  The only time that seems to happen is when there is a brand new line coming out and that usually comes along with an official "do not release until..." street date.

Fair enough. But the very thing you are describing as "completely unrealistic" is EXACTLY what they do with DVD's.

Transformers 2 has a street date.

On that street date, I can walk into ANY Walmart, Target, etc in the country and buy that DVD. Regardless of how may "older" DVD's they have sitting on the pegs. Somehow they ALWAYS find a place for the new releases.

I don't have to drive to six different Walmarts to find the DVD I want.

I don't have to worry that the studio only packed 1 copy per case, so if some random ahole gets there before me I am out of luck.

And somehow magically, the retail outlets are able to cycle through older inventory without having to sacrifice ordering the new stuff.

Now THAT's an oversimplification. But it's also a great illustration of how Hasbro has a crappy business model.

I don't want to derail the whole thread with this rant, my only point is that the whole business paradigm for toys in this country is seriously messed up. If you tried to sell another product like that (music industry comes to mind) you would fail miserably.

Please don't flame me...I'm just throwing out an opinion - there are probably a lot of other frustrated collectors out there that would agree.