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« on: July 7, 2006, 12:15 PM »
Midnight Madness 2005 was a ball. Suncoast was the first place I went, picking up a gunship. They had put there stuff out early Friday morning. Determined to get all the exclusives, I assembled my 'posse' which consisted of 2 nephews and 2 nieces of high school age (It was easy, they just wanted to get out of the house). After loading up the truck with snacks and drinks we hit Toys R Us Lancaster at 9 PM, there was already 4 people there ahead of us. A short time later the manager came out and informed us they only had one case of Holo Yodas, so I started calling my buddies to get their butts over there but only one showed up before the line got too long. Toys R Us got pretty crazy that night, employees brought out a ton of cases and were soon letting us open them and fill the bins.
After picking up 4 Holo Yodas and other figures, we proceded to Wal-Mart at J & 20th. They seemed to have better figures like clone commander and such. On the way to the toy area I passed a couple of guys with a basket full of the miniature booster packs, it seems Wal-Mart had mispriced them at 3 bucks and change, and those guys took them all.
After dropping off the girls we camped out in front of Palmdale Target. About an hour later, as I suspected, the out-of-towners started showing up. Like a train of cars they showed up, one after the other into the driveway and parking side by side. The guys were pretty cool though, everybody was all jazzed about what they had found, and one guy was even playing around with a quick-draw clonetrooper. At about 4:30 the manager came out and gave us our Lava Vader tickets, which was very considerate of him.
After this we headed to Lancaster Target, hoping we'd get the same treatment, but no luck. The manager there is apparently anti-collector and probably had a good laugh watching us freeze our butts off. When we finally got in the boys were able to help me pick up the higher priorty product (exclusives, heroes, villains, clones, possible hot items). After getting those artery hardening breakfast sandwiches at BK, we headed back to Palmdale to get our second round of Lava Vaders. I ended up buying 6 in all.
I went to the Eastside Wal-Marts again putting low priority stuff on layaway. By then the boys were wiped out so I took them home.
The last place I went to was Kay-Bee to pick up Chewy. I wasn't at all worried about getting him, but the employees there are pretty cool and nice to talk too.
All in all it was a satisfying experence. Goals were accomplished and a plan well executed. I got to hang out with my buddies and met some cool people, as well as a whiny guy or two. I believe I spent enough money to put George Lucas' boy through college.
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