Author Topic: TVC will fail...  (Read 21283 times)

Offline speedermike

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TVC will fail...
« on: September 28, 2010, 09:01 AM »
I have to say this...I'm very worried that TVC is going to tank at retail.  In the ROTS wave, I am only going to buying 4 (Palpatine, Magna Guard, Anikin Sith Eyes and Greivous) and skipping the other four, because I have them from other lines (or close enough...)

The thing is, I'm a hardcore collector and I've been buying this stuff since the early bird kit in 1977.  I have one of every individually carded figure they have made.  I'm the sort of loyal, dedicated costumer that every company wants...but even I am only buying 50% of the product.

If Hasbro can't keep someone like me interested and engaged, how does the casual fan feel?

On the other hand, I will buy all of the Jedi wave....

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Offline Scockery

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2010, 09:06 AM »
I think a potential failure of TVC collection will be of stores stupidly pricing the figures differently. I saw parents and kids looking at Vintage cards at TRU, possibly not realizing they weren't part of the sale or not pay attention to the $10 price tag.

That's not gonna help clear out, say Cloud Car Pilot or 4-LOM. or other slow sellers.

Offline JACKOFTRADZE

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2010, 10:28 AM »
My main concern for the TVC is the extremely slow pace of basic figure releases to keep everyone engaged. As it stands right now, we are only getting 1-2 more waves for the rest of the year. Going into next year it sound like we will get 1-2 waves before the long hiatus until the following fall. This pace really stinks and when Hasbro says they want to release a new wave every 6 weeks who are they kidding. They cannot even confirm the AOTC wave will hit before Christmas.

I am ready for new waves and supposedly the ROTJ wave is being released next month, yet no etailer has them up for preorder yet. I find that very concerning. I am not worried about the slow sellers as we head in the Christmas season, many will be cleared out. I am more concerned about whats in the pipeline to fill the the long waits in between. It's way too slow for my tastes, from what I can tell this really hurt interest as there is not much to be engaged in.
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2010, 10:52 AM »
I don't think it's going to fail, but I will say the first two waves really weren't all that exciting.  However, Waves 3 and 4 look outstanding, and I think those are going to really ignite interest in TVC, and the overall line in general.

Offline Brian

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2010, 12:18 PM »
I don't know that it will necessarily "fail" or not either, but time will tell more on that.  It is still very early in the line, so we'll have to see.  I will say, that this may be the most I've seen "new" figures hang out on the pegs for a new line in quite some time though - at least for the most part.  Sure, Fett (and in some cases Dack, etc.) disappear quicker - but I've seen decent numbers of both the ESB and ROTS waves at retail.  There will always be some that hang around for each wave, but I can remember a time when you would barely know if a new wave hit because it would be snatched up so quickly.  The first batches of "vintage" figures (VOTC/VTSC) in particular seemed to fly off the pegs, at least initially, even at the higher prices.

I'll agree though, although I really liked the ESB wave - and the figures in the ROTS wave are nicely done as well - they maybe weren't the most exciting.  The ROTJ wave looks to be the best so far, and the one I'm really anticipating as well.  I do hope the line does well though.  I've said it before, but really if we got a good (well planned out) 2-3 year run of TVC, I think they could handle most to all of the needed resculpts and some fan requested figures that haven't been done as well.  Time will tell.  The combination of very well done figures and the spiffy packaging makes this one of my favorite lines yet (or maybe overall favorite, next to the previous "vintage" incarnations).  As mentioned, the huge gaps in releases doesn't help drive collector interest any either.  I do sort of wonder - aside from collector/fans' kids - if kiddos really care about this line at all, but you never know.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2010, 12:24 PM by Brian »

Offline McMetal

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2010, 12:19 PM »
I have one of every individually carded figure they have made. 

Really? Where do you store them? That seems like it would take up an enormous amount of space.

I've often wondered if there were any collectors out there who literally bought EVERYTHING in the 3&3/4" line. I mean a straight-up, 100% completist, including all variants, re-packs, etc.

I bet no one at Habsro can even make that claim.
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Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2010, 12:38 PM »
I did that up until 30AV. It's insane. I stopped because I did run out of space.

As for failing, based on the fact that wave 2 has not hit Target yet, I have to wonder.
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Offline iFett

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2010, 12:46 PM »
Ya I have a 10x20 storage unit and I'm running out of space there.   :-\  I seriously have 0 excitement with the first two waves (first time for me since I started back in 01).  Hopefully things will pick up after Jedi though...
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Offline Brian

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2010, 02:07 PM »
I did that up until 30AV. It's insane. I stopped because I did run out of space.

As for failing, based on the fact that wave 2 has not hit Target yet, I have to wonder.

I did actually see the ROTS wave at Target this morning for the first time, so maybe they'll start hitting a bit more now.  I thought they might miss it completely, but with the ROTJ wave not even available to preorder online yet, maybe it will be a little while before we see that.

Offline iFett

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2010, 03:15 PM »
I did actually see the ROTS wave at Target this morning for the first time

Same here...even though I only browse 1 Target store.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2010, 03:53 PM »
I've seen ROTS wave at Target now as well...  I don't believe it was returns either, but actual remnants of it.

TRU's not a good gauge of anything for sales either...  THey tend to stock a lot more in general, and their prices have to be turning people off some.  I see things moving really brisk at Wal-Mart and Target since August.  It seems to be going ok so far...  We'll see how things are after Christmas.

I personally bought a good bit from the first two waves...  I've bought multiples of Dak, AT-AT Commander, Sandtrooper, Magna Guard, and even 2 of the ROTS Clone since it's unique.  Out of wave 2 I only really skipped Obi-Wan all together.  Out of wave 1 I skipped 3PO, Vader, and 4-LOM though if a sale hit I'd likely buy 2 of those figures also.  I'd also like to nab an extra Han at some point I think, for the accessories.

I don't think it's going badly right now though, but if things logjam I think it'll hurt the line, as it always seems to.
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Offline speedermike

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2010, 09:12 PM »

Really? Where do you store them? That seems like it would take up an enormous amount of space.

I've often wondered if there were any collectors out there who literally bought EVERYTHING in the 3&3/4" line. I mean a straight-up, 100% completist, including all variants, re-packs, etc.

I bet no one at Habsro can even make that claim.

Actually, if you open the figures it doesn't take up much room at all.  In fact, lets say Hasbro released 60 NEW figures in a year, once they are open, you can just about get them in a big shoe-box.

The thing is, I only buy new product.  I don't buy repacks, and I only buy repaints if they are different and better, such as the McQuarrie Stormtrooper's second release.

I have one glass/wood dispaly case from Ikea that holds about 250-300 figures on plastic spice racks.  I also have a shelf that was made to display figures that holds close to 100.  So that's aboyt 350 figures that I have on display...the others are packed away in a few small plastic storage boxes.

For a long time, the ships didn't take up much room. Again, I only buy something once, so I don't have each TIE release, or whatever.  But lately, with the BMF, Turbo Tank and BAT-AT, I do need to put some stuff in the attic.




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Offline Greedo The Green Menace

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #12 on: September 28, 2010, 09:46 PM »
I can sort of see this line tanking for a number of reasons. Wave 1 being somewhat uninteresting being one. It's a great wave, but not a great one to start with. The first waves always end up clogging the pegs because retailers order too much of the initial waves. Hasbro should always have a strong first wave full of highly sought after A listers, troop builders that people want multiples of and maybe some cool looking B listers. The problem with wave 1 is 4-Lom, not sure what they were thinking on that one. they should have gone with a Snowtrooper instead. I also find the Cloud Car pilot and Dak are pretty common, also not the most interesting of figures really. I think if they'd started off with the ROTJ lineup instead, we'd see a lot more success.

The next problem is the fairly obvious one of cross contamination between lines. Look at ROTS as a good example. here we have another Obi Wan in TVC, we've also got one in Legends and TCW. Thats 3 of the same character all hanging around at the same time. Why do they feel thats necessary. It's the same thing for Grievous, Anakin and countless others.

The third problem is that I think they're counting on carded collectors a bit too much, which is thee only logic I can see behind putting out the 3 aforementioned characters out in TVC on top of Legends. Obi Wan in the ROTS wave seems like it's just to get a prequel Obi on a vintage card.


Offline Nicklab

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #13 on: September 29, 2010, 01:28 AM »
The whole Bounty Hunt Foil promotion reeks of desperation.  EVERY figure in the ROTS wave has a Bounty Hunt Foil variant.  Hasbro appears to be very clearly trying to lure people back into buying multiples of each figure through this variant promotion.  I think that they designed this promotion to get back collectors who have completely moved away from collecting both carded and loose figures.  Will collectors see through this?  That remains to be seen.
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Offline jono

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Re: TVC will fail...
« Reply #14 on: September 29, 2010, 04:19 AM »
The sith wave is lacklustre -and yet to hit the uk.

If all markets get to The Superb Jedi wave by early Nov -if think we'll be ok. I can't see a problem with the mixed waves -something for everyone!