TVC Gaming Greats Line

[Matt_Fury]

My review of the Purge Trooper.

I'm also working on a Gaming greats wish list type of video.

[P-Siddy]

I got the Shadow Trooper and Battle Droid on Saturday.  Surprisingly, they both rode together in the same box!

[GrandMoffNick]

I got a shipping notice from EE for my Purge Trooper back in April.   

Looks like its going via a combo of DHL and USPS.  Hopefully this will be more efficient and transparent than their SmartPost and other shipping methods that have taken 2-3 weeks.

Holy Snokes!  My EE package (shipped via DHL and USPS) arrived in six days!?!?!  And this was via their cheapest "super saver" option. 

I sure hope this is the model going forward.  I might actually consider buying figures from EE again if that is the case.

Took words from my mouth. I only ordered this from EE as it was only choice that day. If this is their new shipping I'm back as a customer.

[Jesse James]

Got my purge troopers.  Kinda neat...  two makes a nice team.  The scouts are more cool to me, for some reason, but these are neat too.  If only we had the guy the game is about. 🤷‍♂️

[Jedi Idej]

I wound up pre-ordering all 4 and a few other figs from Old Republic Collectibles because of my snit with EE for not combining pre-orders to determine shipping. (Something like $30 for 6 figures!? And I think I know why they do that, but they can offer an option similar to BBTS' pile of loot.)

But I started to have doubts about ordering from ORC when even HasbroPulse, notorious for coming to the party late, started shipping out (minus the EE exclusive) and I hadn't heard a peep. But ORC pulled through. I got the notification on Sunday and the figures yesterday.

This was a good week for my toy world.

[Matt_Fury]

Just got a notification from Hasbro Pulse that they are shipping me a Scout Trooper.

[Rob]

I haven’t gotten an email, but I do have a pending charge for $15.99, which is almost definitely that.

Why is this figure $16??!?

[Jedi Idej]

$14.99 and difference should be the tax.

[Rob]

Yeah, but all this other stuff is $12.99 plus tax… they floated a few at $13.99 which seems like a normal, maybe permanent price change…

Then there’s this guy, $14.99 plus tax direct from Hasbro.

The Gamorrean Guard at $14.99 I kind of get… What’s special about the Scout Trooper?

[Jeff]

What’s special about the Scout Trooper?

$13.99 is the new retail price; $15.99 will probably be the new fan channel price going forward.  A bit higher price thanks to the lower manufacturing run numbers.

If you look at pulse, you should see these new prices reflected on most of the figures there.

[Jedi Idej]

My backup pre-order for the Gaming Greats from HasbroPulse came to $16.45 for each of the 3 they carry. Now that retail moved up to $15.99 -- in line with the $15.99 EE was charging for the Purge Trooper -- I'm looking at $17.55 w/ tax for future Fan Channel figs. 

On top of the lower prod numbers, some of the price increases are tied to the added costs of importing because of the congestion at China and US ports, and I expect hope we'll see prices go down a bit when dock operations normalize.

I found this article a few days ago about the backlog in the US.

https://californianewstimes.com/record-breaking-44-container-ships-are-anchored-off-the-coast-of-california/505698/

[Jeff]

On top of the lower prod numbers, some of the price increases are tied to the added costs of importing

Yeah, lower production number explains the price difference between retail and fan-channel items.  Shipping is definitely the big culprit for the recent $1 hike in the MSRP for TVC and the hikes in Black Series too.

[Jeff]

Revealed at today's "Bring Home the Bounty" - three new Gaming Greats ARC Trooper repaints from Battlefront II.

Pre-order tomorrow, 12/22, at 10am PT / 1pm ET.  Sounds like these are "Fan Channel" exclusives (EE, BBTS, Dorkside, etc). $15.99

[Nicklab]

There's an ARC Trooper in Pittsburgh Steelers colors?

[Rob]

 

I mean, I guess this is a pretty good use of repainting and repacking.   But it would be nice if something from this Gaming Greats line wasn’t a rehash / repaint / kit-bash at a 15% markup. 

Like, sprinkle in Cal Kestis or something…