Author Topic: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?  (Read 10898 times)

Offline Vator

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When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« on: July 23, 2005, 08:00 AM »
It seems the CW line has become a very expensive line on the secondary market. Even those (see: shelf-warming) Anakin's Star Fighters are going for about $50-60.

So what gives? Do new collectors want to get caught up on what they missed? Have people forgotten the abundance of that line (other than the Tail End Charlie's of course)?
- June 22, 2004 12:13 AM -

Offline Jesse James

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2005, 02:19 AM »
ROTS popularity...  I attribute it to that anyway.  Couple that with kids being tech savvy, finding out about these items they missed prior to their "interest", and I think they're more in-demand.

My gf's kids were just looking up stuff the other day on Ebay...  I didn't even realize they knew about Ebay.  They were looking up Legos and all kinds of random things and were looking for SW stuff.  I was impressed.
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Offline Nathan

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2005, 02:08 PM »
Good question.

It kind of sucks too. I never saw the majority at retail (before I had my driver's license thus my search pattern was much more limited), and I passed on some of the stuff I did see. But it really isn't cost-effective to get caught up right now, so I'll have to wait for prices to come down or for rereleases on some items (Geonosian Starfighter, for example). $60 for a boxed vehicle I'm going to open anyway is insane.
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Offline Diddly

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2005, 02:16 PM »
I think it's the rarity of the items.

Back when they were released, there was that giant drought, and around here, all of the 2003 figs didn't start showing up until the fall. Of course, the crappiest CW figures were released first - Anakin, Yoda, and the only Wave 1 winner, the ARC Trooper. I saw the ARC once, but the other two warmed pegs for months until the 04/HOF figs began showing up. This caused retail to not order any of the Wave 2 or 3 figures, which contained the figs everyone wanted. Many people never saw them, and now eBay is their last resort. Scalpers jack up the prices, and the people pay them to complete their collections.

The same could also be said for vehicles and deluxe, which very few found.

Then again, this is just my assumption, it's probably something completely different.
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Offline Nathan

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2005, 03:42 PM »
For me at least, finding the basics wasn't the problem (except for Durge, Asajj, and obviously the SA clone). I did see the second and third waves; and I even snagged a red ARC!

I guess it partly comes down to regionality, too. I've heard of even the clone 3-packs sitting in some places. It's always weird to read about pegwarmers in one area being impossible to find in another, and vice versa.

With the CW TV series coming in 2007, we can hope some of this stuff will get rereleased. You listening, Hasbro?

Like the Geonosian Starfighter, the Aqua Jedi Starfighter seems like a somewhat more logical rerelease since it's from the film (OK OK, DVD deleted scene).
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Offline Vator

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2005, 05:57 PM »
Back when they were released, there was that giant drought, and around here, all of the 2003 figs didn't start showing up until the fall.

Yeah, I recall you telling me about that Trav. But for most of the country it seems (even here) the CW showed up in abundance and pretty much ushered in the end of the 2003 drought.
I know in 2003, most every city I went to had the vehicles. Heck, San Fransisco TRUs had the JSF and builder packs in June. And by October, South Carolina was littered with them, along with the rest of the line up...and most of it sat until January.
As for waves II and III of the figures, yes those were fairly scare, but I recall most collectors at the time were able to find them...except for the clone.


- June 22, 2004 12:13 AM -

Offline TheBlackDog

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2005, 10:31 PM »
The Clone is one of my favorite collecting run stories. I was on my way to work, and a friend called saying that a local Wally had like 50 of the SA on the pegs. I went, and got my 2, and then called another friend who is a collector. He was an army builder so he wanted all the rest, but I said that all I could do was put 10 on layaway (which I did) in his and mine name. For awhile though he wanted me to put them all in a shopping cart until he could get there. I did that for about 10 minutes, and then said this is STUPID, and called him on his cell, saying I am not walking around with 40 Clones in a shopping cart. I put them back on the pegs and took my 2 up front to pay for them.
The army builder friend arrived, and I found out later he bought 30 of them, including the 10 on layaway, and left like 20 on the pegs. By the afternoon they were gone.
The funniest image was a 38 year old walking around Walmart with 40 clones in a shopping basket. An employee I knew asked me if the reason there were so many was because they were breeding. Nope, I said, cloning. It was also on that day though that I learned never to put more then 2 of any figure on layaway for anybody. If they want more, they can get there and be greedy.
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Offline SpudTrooper

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2005, 01:26 PM »
Clone Wars became hot to me is when i wondered where did Asajj Ventress come from. then i saw her animated figure in the Clone Wars Line and i ventured out to purchase the Clone Wars Animated Series. It became of interest to me since i sort of missed it as i went to college and took a break from collecting SW for 4 years. thats my story  8)

Offline evenflow

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2005, 09:31 AM »
I remember when the line first came out i saw the first wave everywhere. I picked up a few, wasnt too crazy about it. Then i never saw anything else. I had a hard time finding all the others I wanted, never saw a SA clone trooper.
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Offline dafoo

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #9 on: August 2, 2005, 10:22 PM »
All lines that don't tend to sell well end up serious collector's items later.

No one wanted it when it was on the shelves so no one has them, then five years later they are worth something. lol
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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #10 on: August 3, 2005, 03:47 AM »
Hah, yes, very true, Dafoo. Though I'm still waiting for my Chewie Snoova to really heat up on the secondary market.  ;)

I think the appeal of a Clone Wars line has only increased after ROTS. It's still the best EU-ish era to mine for characters and events. It's like a whole line in itself if they wanted it to be. Easy to understand people coming back and wanting what they probably missed from last year. Though 50 bucks for that BS Anakin Starfighter Batmobile thing is outrageous.

Personally, I didn't have any problems getting the SA Clones. I had several chances to get them on pegs, and left many behind. It was, I figure, just luck and obviously not the norm. I only saw the Red Arcs once, stacked in a pile by someone who apparently had second thoughts and abandoned them in Walmart.

The one great lesson Hasbro should have learned from the line was to have army builders up front, not at the back end of the line, and if you're going to do variations, distribute them evenly and early. Come ROTS, we get clone variants at the end of the basic line, in the last wave of the deluxe line, and not enough to go around.

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« Last Edit: August 3, 2005, 03:50 AM by Tydirium »

Offline Ben

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #11 on: August 4, 2005, 01:56 AM »
None of this line save the vehicles and wave 2 basic were easy to find here. The first wave was only available at WM with those extra Clones. Those sold out in (no ****) one day.

K-Mart got a load of wave 2 here, and that's when I got Asajj and Durge. Mace and Obi-Wan still hung around till the ROTS stuff hit.

Wave 3 only showed at one WM here, and I was lucky enough to get two SA Clones from that.

I found exactly one red ARC after work one night at Target at nearly 11 PM. I couldn't believe it was still there after an entire day of business.

I scored the vehicles for $13 during Target's reset clearance. There were quite a few there, too.
I don't know why this line is so popular now. Maybe it's finally catching that kid interest that they were trying for when they released the line.
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Offline DoctorPadawan

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #12 on: August 4, 2005, 09:48 AM »
The Clone Wars line in my area was actually distributed/stocked a whole hell of a lot better than the 2003 Saga stuff, even after the 2003 "drought" had ended (or at least subsided).  It still wasn't en masse, but it certainly wasn't like the dearth of new stuff that isn't on the shelves right now.

Wal-Mart was the first place that got anything, that being the Anakin, Yoda, and ARC two packs (with the bonus Clones) and those came and went within a day, and the second shipment lasted about that long too.  WM actually got all three waves of the basic figures in pretty good numbers (with the traditional "more of the first, less of the second, even less of the third" hierarchy that Hasbro and WM seem to be stuck in), and even the red ARC hung around for about a week or so before it disappeared.  I had no idea that one would be so hard to find or I would have picked another one or two up for some people (as it is, I did pick two up for other people).  The last wave showed up twice, and totalled about 8 cases worth.  I got two of the SA Clones and that was enough for me (one of which is still with me, another of which is off killin' droids in PA).  As it is, WM never got anything outside of the basic figures (and the role play lightsabers) for the line.

Target was the place to go for everything else, even though they decided to not put any of the deluxe stuff (Durge and Clone speeders, Clone 3 packs, Spider Droid) out until it was time for the spring reset in 2004 and it went immediately to the clearance aisle.  All of the vehicles were pretty easy to come by there, and the first two waves of figures were not that hard to get either.  The third wave, however, showed up a grand total of one time (two cases) and by the end of the day all of the SA Clones had disappeared.

K-Mart was, believe it or not, the best place to get the Deluxe stuff, and I ended up getting two of the Clone 3 packs and both of the Speeders there.  Basic figures were pretty much the first two waves, and up until about two months ago they still had a CW Obi-Wan hanging on the pegs.

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Though 50 bucks for that BS Anakin Starfighter Batmobile thing is outrageous.

While I agree on the price, I actually liked the toy (although I probably wouldn't had it not been in the cartoon).  The only problem I had was that here you had this fighter and you couldn't even fit the figure intended to pilot it in the cockpit due to the figure's stance (the same could be said for the Saesee Tiin in the teal JSF).  That, to me, was the only sore point with the toy.  Outside of, you know, not being able to find anything at retail most of the time, figures not fitting in the ships they're intended to pilot is my biggest pet peeve in the modern SW lines.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #13 on: August 4, 2005, 07:03 PM »
In Pitt the Clonewars line was weird...

We got Wave I like the rest of the country...  In droves.  The vehicles were all abundant, and even up to ROTS I recall seeing the odd Clonewars ship around (Geo fighters, which are GREAT items, still sat).

I nabbed all but the Gunship.

The figures were ok to me, even Frito Bandito Yoda...  If for no other reason than to see Yoda in a different outfit. :)

Anakin was the king pegwarmer... 

In my area though, Wave 2 was probably the tougher of them to find...  Obi-Wan was the easier to get, but Assajj and Durge were almost impossible to find.  I got Assajj who was the ONLY figure of her wave on the pegs,and there was only 1 of her there.  Very weird.  Durge I never did see aside from his vastly superior Deluxe figure.

In the Deluxe range the Clones became rather abundant, but I wouldn't say they were terrible pegwarmers.  I did see them on "sale" at Target AND TRU though at one point along with other Deluxe figures...  Saw the Spider Droid hit a clearance sale too.

The last wave, with Sae Sae Tiin and the SA Clone, actually hit my area en masse at one point and everywhere seemed to have it...  However, unless you got there first, the Clone was GONE.  I remember multiple WM stores got this wave in though, and the Clone would be the only one missing.  I even got to a WM that had just opened in our area, and they had just put out a TON of cases of the last wave from CW,and not one Clone was on the pegs but all his brethren were.  Call it army builders, call it scalpers, but it was disappointing.

Same store, I did find one solitary SA Clone at one point.  I'm assuming army builders beat me to the punch that day.  Such is life though...  It stings more when you see them for sale for $25 each at the Toy Show some months later though, so I'd rather they went to someone who wanted them for their own enjoyment.
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Offline alexandertrooper

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Re: When did the Clone Wars line become such a hot line?
« Reply #14 on: August 5, 2005, 08:18 PM »
personly besides one clone 3 pack that I'm still looking for I picked them all up as they came out.  But now I wish I grab more then one sa clone trooper.  But when I was buying those I wasn't into army building but now with revenge of the sith I am.  Oh well.