Author Topic: Your 7/26 Experience/Haul  (Read 12751 times)

Offline evenflow

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Re: Your 7/26 Experience/Haul
« Reply #15 on: August 4, 2008, 11:14 AM »
So as some of you know i was away at SDCC when the Star Wars items went on sale so i wasn't able to go out. I got home on Saturday night to find my girlfriend had gone out and bought up pretty much everything i wanted  ;D She found Legacy wave 1, the B-Wing, Galactic Heroes, exclusives, and evolutions. So all went well  :) she's the best!
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Offline Jabba the Slug

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Re: Your 7/26 Experience/Haul
« Reply #16 on: June 27, 2010, 04:21 PM »
Ok ok, I know it's been a WHILE(!) since 2008's MM, but I joined the forums in late '09, and I attended MM. I REALLY want to document my experience! Sooo...

I went with my dad, who wanted to check out what was going on, and I was, sadly, limited to a $60 budget. We arrived half an hour beforehand, which was pretty swell, because the line was already pretty long. Before you know it, a Toys R Us employee came out to greet us and explain the rules. HOWEVER, he also mentioned that there were only 60 Holo Grievous figures (which were free to everyone who went) available. So they start handing out the figures as everyone goes inside the store at midnight - when family groups went in, I noticed that the employees even gave figures to little girls, moms, and other people who just looked at the figure like, "What the heck is this?" So, by the time I got into the store, they were out. They had given their last figure to a person in line only a few people ahead of me. I was sorely disappointed - hey, I had even set aside a spot on my shelf to put my carded Holo Grievous!

So everyone's absolutely crazy to be inside, and an elderly woman with a cart totally pushes me aside and in the process knocks over a stand of Clone Trooper helmets. I lose my dad, and I notice that he somehow got to the very front of the basic figures. He starts shouting at me asking which figures I want, and he practically tosses them at me. I was disappointed once when a nice man, who seemed like he was there by himself, started randomly handing figures out to the back of the hoard. I asked him if he could pass me a General's Armor Obi-Wan, and he even got it, but he accidentally passed it to the wrong person. By the time I had 5 or 6 figures (which would put me at my budget's limit), I sorted through what I wanted and didnt want. I had wanted a Captain Rex, but he was the first one gone. But a dad with a small boy passed me up, and when he heard me ask my dad if he saw a Rex around, the man handed me a Rex he had grabbed, but wasn't going to buy.

Overall, I scored mostly the 1st wave of TCW, minus R2-D2 and Battle Droid. I also got Illum Padme, and, for some reason, SL Plo Koon (which I hadn't gotten back in 2005 during the ROTS line). I would have gotten another figure (Battle droid, I think), but I was short only a few cents! I was disappointed. But overall, I was surprised how friendly and nice my fellow Star Wars collectors were. It's what makes the hobby so fun.
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Offline Diddly

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Re: Your 7/26 Experience/Haul
« Reply #17 on: June 28, 2010, 08:43 PM »
Hmm, I never posted my story either. Might as well.

Anyway, I had maybe $500 cash (!!) on me, mainly because I had no idea what I was going to find. My main goal was to pick up the BMF and at least a few Legacy figures (I had no interest in the Clone Wars line at the time, same with the AT-TE although I'm kind of kicking myself for passing on it now). Only one of the TRUs in Austin was doing a Midnight Madness event and that was all the way on the other side of town from me, and I wasn't about to drive an hour so Wal-Mart was the only option for me. I had to work late that night, so I was all set to hit up Wal-Mart immediately after work.

My first stop was a Wal-Mart right across the highway from where I worked. I got there at around 11:30 and saw no toys being prepared to be stocked, and no employees anywhere near the toy section. I decided to bail and hit up Wal-Mart number 2, which was a few miles down the highway from where I was. I've always had good "late night" luck at this Wal-Mart, as they always stock shelves between midnight and 1 a.m. I knew I would at least have a chance to score there. I got there about 10 til midnight and saw no cases, but there were employees everywhere making room so I knew a bunch of stuff was coming. I walked around the toy section for a minute and eventually started talking to another collector. I had tried to avoid him initially since he had a bunch of anime characters tattooed on his arms but he ended up being an alright guy. We talked about toy lines and a few local comic stores, and I was clearly out-nerded by this guy. I think he was more of a casual collector though, as he only wanted the AT-TE and a few various figures.

Anyway, about 4 other collectors show up and we're standing around waiting for a little longer. The employees notice us and basically tell us to stay patient as they wanted to get other stuff stocked before bringing out the Star Wars stuff. They throw us an early bone by unloading one of those 4 sided displays, two sides with the BMF and the other two with the AT-TE. I only wanted the BMF so I went back to the front to get a cart, got my BMF and continued to play the waiting game.

Around 1 a.m. they suddenly dropped off two crates of 4 sided displays, one with Legacy figures and the other with Clone Wars figures. There were only 6 of us there, so we went to work. I had no interest in the CW figs and immediately hit up the Legacy crate. It was still kind of crowded since they unloaded the crates in the smaller Barbie aisle for some reason. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves, although if anyone was looking for a specific figure we would try to help each other out if there were extras. There was one of your stereotypical scalpers there (older guy in a tight white, stained t-shirt) who was screaming about a Yoda figure and asking where it was. We pointed out to him the Animated Yoda (the only one there) and he said that wasn't it. I asked if it was the Yoda/Kybuck (which wasn't there; this WM put out zero Legends figures) but he said that wasn't it either. Considering these were the only two Yodas out at that time I gave up since I didn't know what he was looking for. I later caught the dude eyeballing my cart after I went back to the crates to look for anything that might not have been picked up. Had I returned to my cart a few seconds later, I'd probably have had my Wave 2 figures taken. In the end I was able to snag all of Legacy Wave 1 (minus the Jabba Drummer dude, who I had no interest in), the TFU Vader repack, and a few Wave 2 figs (I was able to snag Clone Armor Obi-Wan, IG Lancer and a Scuba Trooper).

I was disappointed that there were no Battle Packs or Evolution sets put out but I had what I wanted and decided to leave. Total cash spent was about $250. A dude behind me in line saw the BMF and started talking about how he had the Vintage Falcon as a kid. After leaving I decided I would hit up another Wal-Mart (#3) close to my house, but they had only put out the vehicles and Wave 1 figures. The following Monday I was able to score more Wave 2 remnants and the Evolutions sets from Target. The local TRU put out a whopping zero Legacy figures, focusing only on Clone Wars and Legends.

Overall it was a positive experience, mainly because I didn't really have to "fight" anyone.
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Offline iFett

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Re: Your 7/26 Experience/Haul
« Reply #18 on: June 28, 2010, 10:30 PM »
Wow...that sounds like a complete headache unless I've already posted this years ago.  I had total free-roam of one of my local WM's that actually went with the plan so I had free rain of the entire toy section for at least the first hour and found everything I was looking for except for the Ewok(s).  Bumped into a local when I hit the store at opening, but he's a Kubrick junkie so I had no competition whatsoever outside of some BP i think.
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Offline efranks

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Re: Your 7/26 Experience/Haul
« Reply #19 on: July 25, 2010, 05:26 PM »
It's funny how there are such wildly different experiences depending on where you live.  I never posted my trip for this but I went to Toys-R-Us in Horseheads, NY for MM.  There were probably 30-40 people there IIRC, and it was very laid back.  The holo Grievous was easy to pick up at that store and they had most stuff out from basic figures to battle packs, vehicles and the BMF and AT-TE.

I'd have to look to see how much I spent, but I got a handful of figures that I wanted the most. I believe I only saw one person going for all the 1st Day of Issue figures. 

I stopped at a Walmart on my way out of town but they hadn't put anything out and didn't look like they had any plans to do so.  Overall it was an easy and fun trip, but there wasn't as much excitement as I'd seen at some previous MM events.  At the same time, I've never had a bad experience at any of the events either.  I did EP1 MM in York, PA at TRU and Walmart, AOTC in Binghamton, NY Walmart and Clone Wars, as I mentioned, in Horseheads, NY.  I think the only one I didn't do was for ROTS but did the early morning Target (Ithaca, NY) and Walmart Tent (Auburn, NY) events.

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