Wal-Mart Droid Factory Sets

[CorranHorn]

Another annoying thing, the Corran uses the Luke X-wing body, complete with lightsaber.  

The use of the Luke X-Wing body is actually pretty accurate - Luke and Corran are described to be roughly the same height, so using the shorter body for Corran is not an issue to me. My biggest problem with the figure is that Hasbro chose not to color the uniform green as depicted in the comics and described in the novels.

Why is it an issue for Corran to have the same hilt as Luke?  The Luke saber is from ANH & ESB, right?  The one that was Anakin's, right?  Corran was also a Jedi, in one of the books he found what was his grandfather's (IIRC) saber in a jedi museum, or was it some sort of trophy room that Palpatine had...  In any case, Corran's saber could have been a similar vintage to Luke's so its no inconceivable that they would have similar designs, is it?  Now that's an long justification, for sure, but I can't recall too many visuals of Corran and his saber, so I'm willing to give Hasbro a pass on that.

The cover of I, Jedi does show that Corran (in disguise as Keiran Halcyon) does have a different lightsaber hilt compared to Luke/Anakin. However, I don't think it's a big deal here that he got the wrong saber since we can always give him another saber from our many spares (assuming you're like me and have a ton of extra sabers). Most likely the factory is the cause of the wrong saber as they probably just threw it in when they put together the order to produce the figure since the saber hilt comes with Luke X-Wing body - this could have been done regardless if Hasbro designed a new saber or perhaps had not even indicated a saber should be included. That would be interesting to hear on Hasbro's part...

Oh yeah almost forgot to mention, the price for these sets sucks! Like everyone else has stated the inflation on the costs of these 2 packs is absurd compared to previous years regardless if the per/figure cost breaks down to current retail. When compared to other existing 2-packs, namely the comic packs, we're still being asked to pay $4-5 more than we should be. I'll still be buying 2 Corran Horn sets, though the rest of the sets aren't happening even though I'd love to build the Darktrooper.

[Jayson]

In the packaging shot, the lightsaber that is included has the black activation band and black emitter shroud so technically this isn't any canonical version of Anakin's lightsaber (and definitely not Luke's as the EIV/EV saber didn't have a shroud). So, considering this is an EU character, this particular lightsaber design is fine by me.

[Brian]

Glad to hear these are starting to hit, although the price is really disappointing.  Like it was mentioned, this year's batch seems a little less stellar than last year's as well - even just looking at the pics online.  They seemed to make the non-droid figures really "worth it" last year - and provide some sort of "ultimate" version of a character or at least a new deco on a nice figure.  They could have gone a long way to improving these sets by including Evolutions Maul, TLC Grievous, and the Evolutions Fett.  Even so, $17 is a bit steep for these.  That being said, I'll likely get one of each if/when I can find them.  I like the droids, and the Dark Trooper looks really spiffy.

[Adam_Pawlus]

While a lot of them aren't *perfect,* they're pretty good if you can get past the Grievous set.  (The Astromech is basically the same deco as the exclusive R2-M5, but on the VOTC R2-D2 body.)   The Boba Fett was a little disappointing because I was at the very least expecting a redeco rather than Figure A with Figure B's gun.

Since I'm not particularly picky about lightsaber accuracy, I dug Corran Horn as a new pilot, Whistler is a nice looking robot, BL-17 was pretty cool, the Darktrooper is freaking huge, Darth Maul is nothing special but his droid is pretty fun to mess with, Anakin is completely disposable (seemingly the same as the comic pack release), and his Super Battle Droid variant, while new and different, really isn't all that fantastic.  But it is distinct and new enough.

But that Grievous set?  Oy.  That's a stretch.

[jedi_master_sal]

I'm going to buy these and hope they go on clearance, but a set on clearance them take them right back with my earlier receipt. I just don't want to take the chance that I won't see them once they hit clearance if they even do.

[Diddly]

Think I'm just gonna pass on all of these now. I was interested in the Corran Horn but I'll just wait for a rerelease. I MIGHT break down and buy him when I finally see him in person, I don't know. But I'm not too enthusiastic about these.

[CHEWIE]

Too over priced... with the cost of these sets, you could cover TRU's $79.99 price tag on the "new" ARC-170... oh wait.   

[Pete_Fett]

I think I'm going to have to cut back from three sets of these (1 to keep MIB and two to open) to just two sets (1 to keep MIB and 1 to open). If each set had been $50 plus tax as opposed to $85 plux tax, picking up three sets to me would have been no big deal, but since the price is almost double that, it's just not worth it since Hasbro has shown us time and again that items do indeed get re-released.

So I'm going to be happy with my lone Dark Trooper and one day, I'm sure this sculpt will see the light of day when Hasbro re-releases it in a B-A-D box set or a Comic 2-pack or whatever...

[ruiner]

Don't buy them if you don't want them - supporting **** like this only guarantees more overpriced exclusives in the future.

A 70% price increase is completely absurd and insulting.

At the very least TRY and save some cost and put these guys on a blister card or something.  At least SHOOT for $12.99 or $14.99.

Increase the price gradually if you have to but not all at once.

[JediJman]

$17?  Ouch.  That is a big price increase.  I guess you're getting two figs for $8.50 each, but they're generally two crappy figs.  Lets face it, most people want this for the DT.   

[Darth_Anton]

Don't buy them if you don't want them - supporting **** like this only guarantees more overpriced exclusives in the future.

A 70% price increase is completely absurd and insulting.

At the very least TRY and save some cost and put these guys on a blister card or something.  At least SHOOT for $12.99 or $14.99.

Increase the price gradually if you have to but not all at once.

Sadly, cost of production has little to do with MSRP. The production cost might have increased a penny per unit over the last year, even with the DT tooling and certainly doesn't justify a $70 increase. It's all about knowing that WM can get away with charging an arm and a leg.

[CHEWIE]

I think it's more to do with the price Hasbro is charging Wal-Mart, I'd assume their markup is similar to what their markup was with the sets from last year.

[Darth_Anton]

Wal-Mart tells Hasbro what they'll pay, not the other way around. My wife's father knows this for fact.

[Keonobi]

So it sounds like a lot of people are disappointed with the pricing on these Walmart sets.  To the point that they'll either be skipping these all together, cutting down on the number of complete set they'll buy, or only picking up certain ones from the set.  Of those in the last group, only buying some, which sets are a must?

If I only get the Corran and Whistler set I think I'll be ok.  So I'll buy that one when I see it, and then keep my eyes peeled for the others on clearance or Rollback ( ), at which point I'll get the price corrected.  What sets are the only ones you are going to get, or which sets do you think will be hardest to find.

(I'm think the Corran set will be the most popular given that its a pilot and an astromech, both fairly popular figure types)

[Darby]

I wasn't up for these to begin with, but the price is just outrageous.  Across the board there is a serious disconnect with pricing and these toys - these exclusives, the deluxe range, the ARC-170/Y-Wing - it just don't make sense, no matter what reasoning you use, that repacked toys have gone up in price upwards of 70%.  It's a surefire way to move people out of the hobby.  I pretty much only collect figures, which is a good thing, I guess.  If I wanted anything else, I'd be eating the cardboard they come in.  At least there would be a lot of that.