Target Vintage Collection 9-Figure Box Set

[Pete_Fett]

I'm too lazy to dig it up, but they mentioned in one of the QnA's from last week that this is a very limited set and that we all need to go out and buy it or something like that...

Oh yeah - they CLAIM its extremely limited and sure, maybe we're talking that normally Target buys 75,000 units of any exclusive and for these, they only made 40,000 (or whatever the minimum order quantity is).

But the cynic in me says that the extra "message from DePriest" that accompanied all of the recent Q&A answers was a marketing ploy to get as many people as possible to jump at this set.

If you think about it - there has been past precedents where a big box store will have the first wave of an exclusive and then cancel on the second wave due to poor sales of the first wave. WalMart did it with the cantina sets. Target did it to Playmates ages ago with the Star Trek transporter figures.

So net-net is that the message was an attempt to get collectors, scalpers, etc... to run out and grab this 9-pack under the guise of it being "more limited" than the other exclusives (heck, make 1 less than the others and you can still claim it's more limited, you're just not saying by how much) and thus solidify the agreement between Hasbro and Target to have two more waves of 3-packs.

I think having this as a 9-pack was a huge mistake, they should have shipped the 3-packs individually, like they are doing in the next two waves and like Chewie says, they should have made little tweaks like given us another way of getting the Rebel w/Scarf and in the Bespin set, throw in the moustached Bespin Guard - I mean really, how hard could it be to come up with a new head. The Imperial Set stinks, but that's the configuration of the old Kenner set, so the only thing they could have done to make that set stand on its own would be to introduce an new updated TIE Pilot, which would have been fine.

I just hope that if they still go through with six more sets of them, there is something "new" (even if it's a 'new hat' to borrow from the Simpsons) that makes them worth buying.

[Greg]

It's mind boggling that people complain about sets/BPs with only one or two "new" figures, but when one with all repacks comes along other folks start pointing out how it should've included one or two "new" figures. 

I thought part of the genius of this set was that it was something loose collectors would not "have" to buy. This is clearly something intended for the folks collecting the vintage figures in package, and based on the timing, parents looking for a holiday gift set.

 

[Jesse James]

^ Seconded...

I'd prefer either we get battlepacks with NEW figures (and by "new" I'm saying repainted army builders, kitbashed "new" figures, or the odd truly new items snuck in), or nothing new and just repacks aimed at kids and a specific play pattern like they've said in the past.

The Endor sets weren't terrible, for example.

I'm sure if this pack of 9 figures had something new in it, I'd be frustrated.  I honestly don't want the set, so I'm passing on it because it's a packaging fans wet dream, and that's cool to me.  Besides the TIE Pilot and Hoth Rebel, there's not much there I want more of that I don't already have enough, or more than enough of. 

I feel the same way with vehicles, especially if they're anywhere above $25.  If the new AT-AT had included a retooled Veers figure in some fashion, that would've been incredibly annoying to me.

Anything that comes in under $17-ish I'm a little more lenient on those feelings.  If you can get a 2-pack for $12 or so, and one figure's a repack or something, and another's something new you want...  It just stings a little less.

[Jabba the Slug]

Apparently Hasbro is actually telling the truth this time and these are limited...

What makes you say that?

This article from JTA. Sorry, I had meant to include it in my previous post, but I got lazy...

I've been hearing similar reports from other collecting sites that these are a smidgen hard to come across. But it's also true that when Hasbro gives these items "limited" runs, it just seems to be a marketing ploy, because they're really not that hard too find. Even the "EXTREMELY limited" SDCC CPs (Darth Maul/Owen, Camie/Fixer) are still available at Hasbro Toy Shop.

[Jesse James]

Limited though, is very relative beyond just saying, "well we made 40,000 instead of 50,000".  Limited could mean they made the bare minimum production run required to sell them.  Some limited items have also seemed "unlimited", but reality is that they probably were rather short production, and just didn't sell well.

There's a lot of if's with the term.  I think Hasbro's generally honest with it though, that something got a shorter production run.  The EU wave for instance, the latest EE Comic packs...  These things do seem somewhat limited.  I think, at the same time though, that the Wal-Mart A-Wing was a limited item...  I didn't see it at many WM stores.  It just didn't sell well even at the ones it wound up at.

[Pete_Fett]

It's mind boggling that people complain about sets/BPs with only one or two "new" figures, but when one with all repacks comes along other folks start pointing out how it should've included one or two "new" figures. 

I thought part of the genius of this set was that it was something loose collectors would not "have" to buy. This is clearly something intended for the folks collecting the vintage figures in package, and based on the timing, parents looking for a holiday gift set.

Even as a packaged collector who also buys most everything else again to open, I find very little "genius" behind any release that features 100% repacked product.

This is why I said two things should have been different with this release - the three packs should have been individually sold, and within reason, it would have been nice if there was something unique about at least one figure in each 3-pack.

And by different, I'm talking about a new paint application or including a figure that you can only get in a bigger package (like the Hoth Rebel w/ scarf).

For the next two waves, I'd love to see them do stuff like was in that Rebelscum April Fool's joke - if you're gonna do the ANH set with the Death Squad Commander, then pack in the Death Star Trooper we already have and give him the Kenner paint app.

Then, from a marketing/sales perspective the real genius is that a completist packaged collector will still buy it. A parent might still buy it. But now, a loose collector might also buy it to add that one unique figure to their collection.

[Jeff]

It's mind boggling that people complain about sets/BPs with only one or two "new" figures, but when one with all repacks comes along other folks start pointing out how it should've included one or two "new" figures. 

^ Seconded...

I agree with you guys.  It's the classic 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' for Hasbro.

[Matt]

But the cynic in me says that the extra "message from DePriest" that accompanied all of the recent Q&A answers was a marketing ploy to get as many people as possible to jump at this set.

A-ha!  So the toy company wants us to buy up every last toy they make, do they?  We're onto you, Hasbro.  We're so onto you.

[Pete_Fett]

But the cynic in me says that the extra "message from DePriest" that accompanied all of the recent Q&A answers was a marketing ploy to get as many people as possible to jump at this set.

A-ha!  So the toy company wants us to buy up every last toy they make, do they?  We're onto you, Hasbro.  We're so onto you.

How incredibly witty. I'm sorry that I didn't spell it out fully, but it's no secret that the scalpers just don't target the Star Wars line like they used to.

To think that a press release type statement goes out like that and doesn't have the motive of educating not just collectors but also the eBay scalpers looking to scalp a "rare" item, is incredibly naïve.

[Matt]

How incredibly witty.

Thank you very little.

[speedermike]

"It's mind boggling that people complain about sets/BPs with only one or two "new" figures, but when one with all repacks comes along other folks start pointing out how it should've included one or two "new" figures.  "


Actually, I'm very happy that there are no new figures in this set.  It's easy to pass up.

[Jesse James]

I don't disagree with breaking them up into just individual 3-packs, though you're going to run into the same issue all assortments like this have where one set outsells all others and you're left with pegwarmers I'm afraid.  That's not new of course, but it's pretty inevitable.

I don't agree with the whole, "slip a unique figure in" thing though, really.  Buying 3 things to get 1 I want just sucks, unless the price is incredibly reasonable.  In this case, if they're broken down to just individual 3-packs, one could assume Hasbro will raise the price some and that you're looking at possibly $17-ish for a set.  $17 sucks for one figure.

Considering a Death Squad Commander would be in demand by many, and multiples to a number of people, I think that concept stinks even more, personally.    Especially if it's more than just a repaint of the 30th AC figure.

[Jabba the Slug]

I don't disagree with breaking them up into just individual 3-packs, though you're going to run into the same issue all assortments like this have where one set outsells all others and you're left with pegwarmers I'm afraid.  That's not new of course, but it's pretty inevitable.

To little kids, though, especially since they're the only customers Hasbro seems to be trying to please these days, these sets would be an automatic buy if there was a lightsaber-wielding character included in each one. Little kids aren't too into the blaster-wielders (take Han Solo, for instance), they want to get the cool-looking dude with the glowing sword. If the 9-pack was divided into just 3 individual packs, the Luke set would probably be the best seller, because a parent's first reaction would be to get the set with the lightsaber.

[Adam_Pawlus]

To little kids, though, especially since they're the only customers Hasbro seems to be trying to please these days, these sets would be an automatic buy if there was a lightsaber-wielding character included in each one. Little kids aren't too into the blaster-wielders (take Han Solo, for instance), they want to get the cool-looking dude with the glowing sword. If the 9-pack was divided into just 3 individual packs, the Luke set would probably be the best seller, because a parent's first reaction would be to get the set with the lightsaber.

I gotta jump in to defend poor ol' Han-- I don't know if kids don't want Han or they don't want *those* Han figures.  Bespin hasn't been on the market for a while, and I don't count a torture rack as something any parent would jump on for their kids.  Every Han since 2006 (save for the pricey vintage ones and the 2006 Cantina one) have had some weird embellishment or otherwise less-than-normal feature, and it seems the Saga Legends ones all are doing just fine, more or less.

Today's parents are more Star Wars literate than 10 years ago-- your 25-35 year old adult today was a child of the toy orgy that was the 1980s.  The toy industry knows this and is marketing to them/us because mommy and daddy love to live vicariously through the kid's toy purchases, hence Strawberry Shortcake and, to some extent, Transformers' post-beast revival. (But not He-Man, because everybody hates him. Even Skeletor.)

...that and if you're going full-on Vintage, you're gonna run out of lightsaber-friendly characters for these sets real quick.  The Vintage line had, what, seven Lukes, Obi-Wan, and Vader?  And of those Lukes, several never had a lightsaber packed with them in the old days, or in the case of Stormtrooper Luke, at all?  I'm curious how strict the 3-packs will be to the vintage figure selections... because if it's all repacks I'm going to have a ton of things to not buy in 2011.  And bless them for it, I could stand to skip a few figures.

[Darth_Anton]

Saw this set in person for the first time. Big. That's the first adjective that jumped to mind. Cool looking set. I'm sure I'll pick one up.