2005 Red Metallic Darth Vader @ Target

[Jesse James]

My understanding is that Target plans to hand out the tickets for the Lava Vader at 6:30, then open at 8.

Good luck!   

This is, word for word, what happened at my Target and what they were supposed to do, so I lucked out.  I was 2nd in line, got my ticket at 6:30, went to have coffee/breakfast (by myself too, which there's nothing sadder than some guy sitting alone in a booth at Denny's, but I digress), and then went back at 8...  I nabbed my Vader (there was a larger line there now at 20 till 7 to get in for the toys).

People were irate at missing out on Vader.  Several said they'd called the day before and were told the tickets were going out at 8, not 6:30...  The manager said that was not true, whoever told them, and that their orders were to give the tickets away so people didn't have to wait in line for basically nothing.

I'm sad that they did have to tell people "Don't push, act civil, and have fun".  How pathetic of a statement on SW collectors (or whoever it was running into the store) is that? 

Another sad thing...  When I went to the service desk with others to wait in line, there were a good 10 people saying how they were going to sell theirs...  One guy even so bold as to say, "I ought to sell mine right outside, I bet that'd make the most $".  What a dick...  Because there WERE people upset they didn't get one.

Another sad statement...  Target didn't have a huge section of figures really, so I found very few small windows to sneak in and look for figures because people were standing in front of the pegs (broad shouldered as could be), rifling through, dropping stuff off pegs, to find what they wanted...  BTW people seem to have it in their head that Royal/Senate guards will be impossible to find so I saw several guys running out of stores today with 6, 7, 8 of them in hand like they're crack feinds who just found a vile on the floor...

Anyway, I snuck in finally, and started looking for what I wanted.  I was wanting a Senate Guard myself (Or RG...  or both).  I figured I'd get a Clone, etc...  So I get in, and I found a Clone, a Mace, a Tarful, and Dooku.  I figured I'd get these...  A little boy (4, maybe 5) and his mother (who was too small/short to fight her way in) were TRYING to get in and get figures.  He wanted Chewbacca I heard.

Target had 0 Chewie's, But they had at least 1 Tarful...  I gave the little boy the one I'd nabbed and asked if he'd like him instead because I knew Chewbacca was a lost cause for him at this store.  His eyes lit up and he went nuts.  He loved it.  His mom was appreciative and thanked me, which I told her we'd all have a chance at a Tarful in a month so he deserved his now...  Yeah, I'm gloating, but it made me feel good today that a little guy was going ape**** over a wookiee figure.

And I was repaid for my good fortune.  On the higher pegs there were 2 more Tarful figs and I think that was it of him so I nabbed one.

Left, listened to people chew the manager out over the Vader deal...  I was sad at the low numbers of figures Target had as well, there's some that I still wasn't sure if they were even out.  Target had a very limited supply and mostly Collection 1 only.

I got my 4 figs and Vader and went to Wal-Mart then...

Got 2 blue Senate Guards there, and an "evil eye" from some guy there who was yelling at what I assume were his parents because he was rifling through the figures again claiming to them in a whiney farmboy Luke voice, "I want the royal guards...  There's a blue and a red one, and they're the ones I can sell!"...

Needless to say I didn't offer him my extra one I got.  I opened both when I got home too!    Great figure, but ****** gun.

I got a Deluxe Greivous at WM too...  Dunno why, but I guess I wanted to see how well his feature works.  It's neat actually...  I'd like one SA Greivous with a split-open arm feature that you can hide as a 2-arm feature too, but this'll suit me for now.

And since my mother wanted to go to Wal-Mart I drove her up to our nearer one up home, and of course breezed by their selection.  They had a couple more Collection 2 Jedi the other one didnt' have so I grabbed Alya, Luminara, and Ki-Adi Mundi.

All great figures too.  Fan-frickin'-tastic. 

I didn't get, but wanted:

-Clone Commander
-AT-TE Gunner
-Clone Pilot
-Red Guard (I swear if you saw the guys RUNNING for a checkout in Target with these, you'd have thought they had the friggin' antidote on them that everyone needed)
-Turbo Tank Commander guy

I don't even know what actually was at stores of that though...  Or what other things I maybe would've bought first day that who knows if it was out or not.

Anyway, that was my day that started at Target.

To say I'm ashamed of some people right now is an understatement.

[JesseVader08]

To say I'm ashamed of some people right now is an understatement.

My only hope is that all of the Lava Vaders and Royal/Senate Guards that flood eBay are going to go for less than cost and cause these scalper pricks to lose money.

That was pretty cool giving that kid the wookiee.  Hopefully that feeling will outlive the disgust towards the other idiots.

[SGT. Flint]

I was able to secure my Vader this morning and I was first in line and the 2 good parts.... I got to keep the coupin (enter pun here) and the Vader was only $7.99 due to pricing error

[Morgbug]

Target had 0 Chewie's, But they had at least 1 Tarful...  I gave the little boy the one I'd nabbed and asked if he'd like him instead because I knew Chewbacca was a lost cause for him at this store.  His eyes lit up and he went nuts.  He loved it.  His mom was appreciative and thanked me, which I told her we'd all have a chance at a Tarful in a month so he deserved his now...  Yeah, I'm gloating, but it made me feel good today that a little guy was going ape**** over a wookiee figure.

Nice work Jesse.

There was lots of stuff at TRU up here, though they were pretty much cleaned out of the clones of all sorts.  I actually felt I lucked into a medical droid and Mas Amedda.  Only bought four figures.  Most will be there and I can find them cheaper at places other than TRU. 

Funny/sad to see folks so intent on scalping.  I've heard a few stories locally as well with respect to the less common clone figures.  Have people not realized this is a movie year?  There'll be more of these than you could possibly want this year. 

Also odd to see some retailers sort of opting out.  TRU made a killing, I guarantee it.  They'd restocked the small figures twice by the time I got there (talked to the manager to see how the day went, bit loony at the start).  Walmart up here put out nothing

Obviously no Target, but thanks to DBK I'll have a Lava Vader

[Jesse James]

After reading my quote, I don't mean to sound like I was gloating that I gave that kid the Tarful either, as it really was the more generally right thing to do...  Sorry I sounded that way (I need to proofread).  I just thought it was actually funny...  Didn't want a pat on the back though.

If you'd have heard his, "Oh man!  Yeah!!!" after his mother asked if he would want "this guy that is like a Wookiee" that I handed to him/her...  it was funny as hell really. 

I'm hearing lots of other figures out...  Lotta guys said TRU had some higher # figs like Mas Ameda and that around here as well, but Target and WM really seemed to drop the ball on getting those other figs.  They had like the first 24 or so mostly.

[Nathan]

I saw labelled pegs at Target, so I'm assuming they sold them on the pegs. Sold out, of course, but its okay since I didn't want one anyway.

Ditto here.

[JesseVader08]

I just thought it was actually funny...  Didn't want a pat on the back though.

He was pumped, you got a kick out of it.

It's all good.

[Darth Broem]

Well I got there at 6:10am and there were only a few other cars there.  I went to the WM down the street for a little bit.  Came back and there were a few more cars.  About 7:15pm the coffee finally went through me and went to McDonald's to pee.  Came back at 7:30am and the line started to form.  I saw a guy I knew who collects SW and began talking to him.  Now I am going with him to C3 which is nice.  Anyway a lady gave us the tickets at 7:45am.  Went in at 8am and got the figure. 

No problems thank heavens.  I knew we were in the clear because one of the guys in line is married to a lady who works an Target.  She said everything would be under control. 

By the way the figure itself is very nice.  I am sorry I griped about it initially.  It almost makes me want to bid on a Toy Fair Vader. 

[Paul]

Jesse, you deserve a pat on the back for it.  Because sadly the impression that Mom was going to get otherwise that all those other ravenous Fan-Boys and "E-bay Donald Trumps" were indicative of the people in our hobby.  Even though I tend to think the latter are not part of our hobby, but merely an unfortunate side effect.

[Darth Kenobi]

For anyone who still needs this fiugre:
Target.com has them on order.  Get them while there still time. 

Edit: THey sold out.

[aka DaBigKahuna]

Just curious, how long were they available for?

DBK

For anyone who still needs this fiugre:
Target.com has them on order.  Get them while there still time. 

Edit: THey sold out.

[Darth Kenobi]

Just curious, how long were they available for?

DBK

For anyone who still needs this fiugre:
Target.com has them on order.  Get them while there still time. 

Edit: THey sold out.

I'm not sure.  I checked just before I post that and then I tried to buy one and it came up as sorry sold out. 

[DoctorPadawan]

In typical DP fashion, it's all about my own hypocrisy. 

After a SWM, who despite statements on the WM site, the Hasbro site, in emails from both, and so on, forgot to stock the new stuff at midnight (I kid you not), I ended up driving to another nearby WM where I was able to get the majority of the new stuff without any hassle.  But that's neither here nor there.

I figured I would get up and go see what was happening at Target, maybe pick up some ships, see if they had what I was missing from the night prior, and get everything done early so I could come home and sleep.  I pulled into Target at about 10 til 8 and there were only three cars there.  About five more showed up in the next five minutes, and at the time we went inside, there were about 15 people at the door.  Everyone was cordial and one guy even offered to let me go in front of him.  So thank you unidentified guy!

They were giving the actual figure out at the Guest Services counter, one per customer, no ticket or anything like that.  I figured, "Oh well, I'm here, I'm near, I'm used to it" and went ahead and got one.  Everyone who was in line got one, I did not hear anyone saying anything about reselling it, and when I left the store about 15 minutes later, they still had some left, as the woman who just came through the door had one in her hands. 

It wasn't too big of a mess, but since everyone else was making a beeline for the toy section, I was able to walk around and found an endcap of figures near the front of the store registers, and got the Blue Senate Guard I had missed out on the night before.  Target hadn't put the books out, which I found weird, but I figure they'll have them out before too long anyway. 

Everyone in the toy aisle was very well behaved and polite.  I was able to calmly walk over, grab the Boga, BARC, and ARC-170, the robed Anakin, and a deluxe Grievous, put them in my handbasket and walk away without losing any limbs.  The store manager stopped me and said, "I hate to do this, but you can only buy one of those."  I asked one of what, as I was a little confused, and she said, "The Darth Vader figure."  Once I explained to her that I only had one of them, she said, "OH, okay, I'm sorry."  Then she walked over to the only cashier open at the time (team meeting elsewhere) and explained to her that under no circumstances was anyone to walk out of there with more than one of those Vaders.  And she manually pulled out the $1.00 off tag from under the counter and took a buck off of everything I bought, vehicles and all. 

All in all, the thing went perfectly and seemingly in direct contrast to what so many others experienced.  Oh, and the Vader itself isn't bad.  Told you I was a hypocrite.   

[JediMAC]

Forgive me if this has already been pointed out, but I wanted to mention that about 90% or more of the Lava Vaders we saw yesterday were in no way shape or form anywhere close to mint.  Totally thrashed, in fact.  The two little "stand" portions of the bottom of the clamshell were so flimsy that most of them were smashed in or at least dinged pretty badly.

But the far worse problem was the fact that the clamshell wasn't big enough for this card, resulting in a folded hangtag portion on almost every single one.  And I mean FOLDED.  Either forward, or backward.  I only came across two out of about 40 that were still straight somehow (the ones that Jared and I wound up with).  So basically, most MOMC collectors are gonna be thoroughly pissed on this particular piece.

Very poor planning on the packaging for this thing.  Very poor...   

[bobafett14]

My Target was very organized (we did have mixed reports on wehat time to show up, but not really a big deal) The yhanded out the tickets shortly before opening the door, you wnt to the toy section, handed the ticet, got the Vader, and thats it, that easy.  Some people who did come later missed it, but not too much complaining.

The figs w/glasses seemed to go extremely fast, and 2 of us asked to see a case, they went in the back and got (supposedly) the only other case of figs w/cups, so we got those, and that was about it.  All the stores I hi9t TRU, Wal-mart, Target were very busy (even Target in the eve. was still packed.  NONE of the Wal-marts in our area had the early bird offer, but I did get it Fri eve. online.

Ebay update (I was so curious to see what ebay was going to be like)on the Vaders/holo yoda-Vaders were going for about $40-$75 yesterday (one oddball auction was a t something like $145.  Today seems to have calmed for the moment at about $20-$40.

Yoda was $20-$30, same today.

Fun times this weekend.