Author Topic: EE Exclusive: Astromech 6 Pack  (Read 44142 times)

Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #45 on: July 20, 2016, 09:44 PM »
The teasing was not a good idea...  Not to **** on Adam over it, but IMHO just wasn't a smart thing to do given collectors and their generally ****** attitudes.  I'd have just revealed it and let the cards fall where they may.  Maybe forewarn the sites, put them under a gag order, let it happen like that and play out that way.  Selling repaints at today's prices is tough and I get that.  People have it in their heads that repaint should equate to cheaper, and that's just not reality.

The reality is that the costs are in the paint, the labor putting it together, etc.  These, sold via a small online retailer (Again, like above, this ain't Wall-Mart), and they're still chiming in at the current retail price/per on 3.75" figures of some quality.

So with all that said, this is about right...  From that perspective.  Labor stings in China.  If Hasbro moves its operations to India or Vietnam, like they've done with some of their lines (MLP, etc.), you may see things change back to lower prices and high quality combined.  But that's just not the environment they're working in currently.

And again, to each their own.  I say if you're out, you're out, and that's your choice.  I don't hold judgment on you.  Everyone has their threshold on this stuff.  There's a breaking point for everything, and it's different for everyone.  Perceived value is a HUGE factor, and it's one that varies from person to person depending on tons of issues Hasbro can't possibly gauge.  This was made "for us", and if it fails, it fails.  If it succeeds we'll see more I'd assume.
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Offline Diddly

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #46 on: July 20, 2016, 09:46 PM »
Yeah, this is even worse than I had envisioned. And I LIKE astromechs. Repainted droids =/= brand new SA figures. $80 saved I guess.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #47 on: July 20, 2016, 09:51 PM »
Think about this thought too though, and again I'm not trying to sell you on it if you don't want it, but this is about what a droid at WDW costs too.  $13.33 is about the price on those.  If you're buying those...  why are these suddenly bad ya know?  Just sayin'.

Then again I can see astromech overload for some people, hah.  Not me, but I'm weird with wanting just about anything.  I bought EU figures I had no clue who they were, I just thought they were nicely done.  So yeah, these aren't far off what a WDW BAD figure costs.  They're way over what a WDW BAD multi-pack costs though I guess.  Two ways to look at that I guess.
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #48 on: July 20, 2016, 09:51 PM »
I like droids, too.  And like I said, the price point stings.  But after almost NOTHING but 5 POA figures for the past year or so, even something like these droids begin to look pretty good.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2016, 09:52 PM by Nicklab »
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Offline Jeff

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #49 on: July 20, 2016, 10:46 PM »
Sadly, I'm so desperate for OT figures, I'd pay $80 for the two OT droids - TCW droids are a bonus.  :P

I had a bit of early notice from EE this morning (embargoed) and tried to remind people not to get too crazy in expectations.  Feel bad for those who thought that it was going to be 5 NEW sculpts.  Not the way of the world anymore it seems.

I'm pretty happy for the set, but I was one who always hoped EE would do another astromechs set.  Like Jesse and Nick said, price is what it is these days.  And sadly, I will pay $13 for them.  At least There are some accessories in there with two bar droids.  And at least it's not the mission series R2 sculpt. Could be worse.  I get it though if you're passing.  I can see that.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #50 on: July 20, 2016, 10:49 PM »
Yup, well said.  When you compare it with the WDW BAD figure prices...  hey, I've been buying droids like this for a few years now.  No sense stopping. :P

I still need to beg Phruby for some purple ones from the new BAD waves...  ugh, this is just a reminder.
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Offline Dave

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #51 on: July 20, 2016, 10:52 PM »
Not sure if I should pre-order and pay $13 shipping, or take my chances and order these in November and hope for free shipping.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #52 on: July 20, 2016, 10:54 PM »
shipping is free on these IIRC Dave.  ???
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Offline Ben

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #53 on: July 20, 2016, 11:32 PM »
I figured it would be all Droids, but I was hoping for something weird like R2-D2 done in Droids cartoon colors. Oh well.

I remember much of this same reaction to the Mandolorian sets EE offered years ago, and look at those now.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #54 on: July 20, 2016, 11:33 PM »
YEah that was one of the things I thought about...  And they had ****** stuff like stuck wrists and stuff.   You got a little more "new" I guess but everyone complained about those prices and figures too, yeah.  What's old is new again. :)

I can't wait till the bottom falls outta the market on these toys that are fetching a lot.  It'll happen, like it always does, and I'll gobble up army builders again.
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Offline Dave

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #55 on: July 20, 2016, 11:33 PM »
shipping is free on these IIRC Dave.  ???

That is what I had thought, but then I saw it was charging me shipping.  I should have looked closer as it then credited shipping.  ::)

Thanks.

I'll buy these, but agree that these should be more like $60 with their limited articulation.

I'm glad these are funky and different.  I was hoping for some different types of droids (power droid, protocol droids, etc.) mixed in, but this isn't too bad. 

I agree the packaging is cool.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2016, 11:36 PM by Dave »

Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #56 on: July 20, 2016, 11:35 PM »
That's EE's weird way of checking out.  The price of the toy drops to envelop the shipping...  No clue WHY it does that, but EVERY time I order there I get confused too, and I have like 8 semesters of accounting under my belt.  Makes zero sense to me but it must be their software is all.  I always wind up doing math to make sure something isn't going awry on me though too.
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #57 on: July 21, 2016, 12:54 AM »
Since I can never have enough Astromechs, I'm digging the designs. Part of me kinda wishes they had used the Hasbro Build-a-Droid sculpt (not the simpler recent Disney ones) so I could mix-and-match with the color combos, but the Vintage Collection baR2-D2 was a nice sculpt.

That sculpt is slightly smaller than the other Astromech sculpts so I'm kinda on the fence about that, I did like the TVC baR2-D2 just for the massive amount of features/details, but I'm sure things like the pop-up lightsaber/sensor-scope aren't going to be included with these, right? So maybe in that regard, that's what makes this sculpt "unique".

I pre-ordered two sets the other day - and while I typically get double openers of every astromech, I don't think I'm going to up my order to three of these, mostly due to the cost. I was able to get my baR2-D2s for I want to say $10.99, so if they set had been in the $60-$65 range, I would have been more inclined to maybe get a 3rd. The cost per astromech is $13.33 - $0.50 more than the $12.83 pricetag of the WalMart Black Series figures - and with that line at least we got 9 new figures and 4 repacks, using that logic and new-to-old ratio, to justify the $80 it should be four new sculpts and two old ones - definitely not six repaints of an existing sculpt.

I think out of all of them I'm most looking forward to Ziro the Hutt's Astromech to go with Ziro's Protocol Droid - now if I could just get a repaint of Jabba in Ziro's colors with some feathers tacked on, that would make for a pretty nice display.

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Offline Jesse James

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #58 on: July 21, 2016, 12:58 AM »
Well I think the sensor scope at least has to be included cuz that's the cover for the hole in his head.  The scomp link thing though...  if they're included cool but I'm not banking on that.  The Sensor scopes are in the picture though as that's what is needed for the dome to not have a gaping hole in it of course.  So there's that going for it.
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: EE Exclusive: Mystery 6 Figure Set
« Reply #59 on: July 21, 2016, 01:12 AM »
Well I think the sensor scope at least has to be included cuz that's the cover for the hole in his head.  The scomp link thing though...  if they're included cool but I'm not banking on that.  The Sensor scopes are in the picture though as that's what is needed for the dome to not have a gaping hole in it of course.  So there's that going for it.

Yeah - I thought about that, unless they just take the top part of the sensor scope sculpt and glue it in place at the factory....

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