Well, I saw the Masterpiece Starscream (x eight) at the local Wal-Mart this morning. I picked it up twice and carried it around the store, debating on whether or not I should buy it, but ended up passing on it. It was quite a bit smaller than I expected for that price, although I know I shouldn't be complaining given how the vast majority of the Masterpiece figures cost at least double that when they're imported from Japan. Maybe if they stick around until payday/the end of this week I might be able to justify it, but not right now.
TF stuff is drying up again, which is nice to see (in that people are still interested in the line), but it seems to be restocked on a more regular/frequent basis than during the drought following the release of the film. The only problem is that, as with Swindle this past summer, Payload, Longarm, and Dropkick are the only things you can actually find. I've seen several Leader Class Primes the last few days as well, which I'm sure a lot of folks are happy about given their relative scarcity as of late. Still tons of extraneous **** like the voice changer helmets, TECH gear, and the WM exclusive Prime blaster, but no Robot Heroes are to be seen at Wal-Mart or Target, and even the Real Gear stuff is drying up most places.
And in case nobody's seen it yet, a photo was posted on TFW2005 of the upcoming "Deep Space Starscream" Target exclusive toy. The photo was really small, but it appears as if it's another film-accurate repaint of the Voyager Class SS along the lines of the Best Buy Megatron and (to a lesser extent) Ratchet. While I'm thrilled to get one of these, I have to be a little irritated at the fact that we're having to deal with the actual film-accurate toys as late-release exclusives and not as mass market items.
On a final note, does anyone have a list of the upcoming "All Spark Power" assortments/toys that identifies which are actual new toys (Stockade, etc) and which are pointless day-glo repaints that would make 1990's-era Batman figures say, "Damn, that's overdoing it?"
