I was checking these out because I've always been a fan of the Taun Taun, and Hoth Han and Luke, but holy moly I didn't know these were up that high now.  The only figures I have from this line are the Bespin Han and Tatooine Han (and the New Hope Leia I picked up for our daughter on discount at BBTS), but I don't think I paid more than $60 or $80 for any of them (and Leia was $40), prices have really gone up!

I see Amazon now has the entire first wave (including Sandtrooper) for $13 and change.  Just a heads up for anyone wanting more Sandies, not a bad price.

Yeah, it is hard to say about Wave 1.  It doesn't seem like any of them are particularly tough to find - at all really - but I will say that our local Target was stuffed with Wave 1 (two full rows on the shelf), and they slowly sold down a bit and then our store got a case of Wave 2 in - and those disappeared quickly and took most of the Wave 1 figures along with them (just a Sandtrooper and Luke remained).  I don't know if it was someone holding off and decided to buy in when Wave 2 hit, or what, but our store is down to just two figures now.  Wal-Mart here doesn't carry them, and TRU has had the same one case on the pegs for a bit now.

It will be interesting to see how the one carry forward figure is managed for each wave from now on.  I love the Han figure, so I don't mind seeing it out there again, but I could also see choosing Boba since he seems to be the one tougher for most to get.  As far as this wave, it seems obvious the Stormtrooper should be the carry forward into whatever Wave 4 is.  Looking at the rumor lists, we could probably figure out the best choice for each wave going forward.  I do have the suspicion we'll be seeing plenty of ROTS Obi-Wan on the shelves/pegs in 2014.

I stopped in at TRU today and noticed a full shelf of the 5 packs, and a full peg of the 6" stuff as well.  I also noticed that the 3 3/4" had been restocked fully, with last year's product, so we'll see how that does.

I'm still holding out hope that we'll see the rest of that stuff shown at SDCC eventually, but you just never know.  If not, I'm happy with what I have as well, just wish we could have finished out the dwarves.  Honestly, if anything, I was hoping it would do well enough to justify a LOTR line in this scale .

It really is an interesting time for movie tie-in lines.  Like it has been mentioned, Star Wars really has been the exception to the rule.  Maybe we just aren't judging it right, but it sure seems like the majority of these lines sit - a lot - no matter how well their movies do.  It did seem like Avengers did a little better than most, but even those weren't flying away after a bit either.

A lot of it has to do with having so much of this stuff hitting in any given year, whereas Star Wars basically had the aisle to itself and was such a phenomenon that we just won't really experience again with all the competition in the theaters these days.  Plus, as we've talked about before, kids just aren't as engaged with action figures (or at least not as long) as we were as kids.  I think in the 70s/80s, you maybe started in by age 3 and that carried through maybe to 12, 13, 14 (or even into adulthood like many of us).  That doesn't really happen anymore, at least for the most part.

A good measure of what is working is TMNT. This is no doubt the hottest toy line out there right now. It has a weekly TV show, expansive product tie-ins, a legacy brand, and it moves. When Rebels shows up, and the new movies, SW will be fine. It won't be what it was, because it won't be for anyone. But whatever the future of toys is, SW will be a big part of it.

Darby makes a good point about TMNT as well.  Our daughter has been way into the new show (which is really pretty good), and toys (also good), so I can tell you - at least in our area - these things move off the pegs pretty consistently.  They are good toys, with some nice variety with villains, etc. - a big playset, vehicles of various sizes, not to mention the role play stuff.  I was reading some info from the presentation at SDCC from Playmates, and they mentioned that in the 1988-1990 timeframe when Turtles began and started airing the cartoon that the toys represented 50% of the action figure market.  Crazy.

I wonder if we'll continue to see more conservative approaches with some movie tie ins.  I look at the new Thor movie, and there are only five figures and they've only been at TRU (at least locally).  It seems possible that will be all there is for that line.  Now I'm sure Star Wars will be way more expansive a line, but it will be interesting to see what kind of line it will be by then.  2015 (if the release holds) will be another huge action figure tie-in year with Avengers 2, Batman/Superman, Jurassic Park (I think?), Fantastic Four reboot, Ant Man, and probably others I'm forgetting off hand.

Interesting read....they mention the dropoff in action figure sales - despite the blockbuster movies - is just that there is so much out there these days, which I can see.  One thing that really helped Star Wars was that it stayed in the theaters half the year, and for the most part, it was the only game in town in those days.  Most of the "big" movies from our childhoods (Star Wars, Indy, E.T., Back to the Future, Karate Kid, Goonies, etc.) were movies without toylines (or very small ones).  Star Wars really dominated the movie-franchised stuff back then, and even into the 90s, whereas now there are 3-5 movie supported lines each year from Hasbro alone.  Different world.  It does make me wonder where action figures are headed in another 5-10 years though.

2007 was the TAC collection, and was pretty well received if I remember correctly.  Nice figures, nice accessories, and coins.  I remember that year being a pretty "fun" year to collect.  Like Jesse, I appreciate a more scaled back approach to Star Wars.  I don't need to be tracking down 60-80 figures a year, especially at these prices, and it gets to be burnout at this point.  Plus, although I know it won't happen, I really wish there was one, unified line.  Find that happy medium between the $6 Legends and the $10 Black Series and get a $7 or $8 figure, with 35-40 figures/year.  Easier to keep up with, and I'm sure we'd see more stuff on a movie year.  Of course, if Disney's plans hold, every year will be a movie year once Episode VII hits.  Collecting could really change for us again then, because if we do get a yearly movie, I wonder how much room there will be for OT stuff (or PT stuff for that matter).

They had a topic about this on Yakface the other day as well, about what we'd like to see when the big Episode VII push begins.  I know we'll likely never hit the glory days of ROTS and its $4.99 figures (and pretty nicely done figures even at that), but if we could get back in the $7 or $8 range, and have quality along that TAC collection lines, I think I'd be pretty happy.  It honestly seems like Hasbro is treading water (with 3 3/4" in particular) until the movie(s) start up, or at least Rebels.  Don't get me wrong, there is some neat stuff on the way with that Empire themed wave, but it doesn't seem like those lines - the Black Series in particular - are a top priority right now.

Saw a set of Wave 2 at our local Target today as well, so they are filtering out there.  Hopefully availability won't become an issue with this line as it has with the 3 3/4" stuff over the past few years.