Its amazing how quickly these seem to sell out though, particularly the Target sets. They are gone literally in a couple of days here.
One day after the reset, and all I found at our Target #2 was a lonely Mustafar. I'm under the vague impression that Targets always stock their exclusives at least once... but if it weren't for that, I'd be pretty suspicious that Target #1 isn't going to stock these things at all. Pretty annoying that I have to jump through hoops for the privelege of paying $20 for 2 new GH figures.
Hasbro gave a Q&A response to one of the other sites about the Cinema Scenes this week. It was mumbo jumbo, but they suggested they have been doing enough to the other (non-new) figures to, they feel, keep the full sets interesting to collectors. I maintain there's no way they believe that. They are deliberately presenting collectors with a stupid choice, and that's that.
1. I'm sure doing it that way meets several business aims (some good some bad)
2. I think Hasbro AND collectors have benefitted in the past when they've opened up about tough marketing decisions
3. I wish they would be open about this. I wish it because I believe they are truly handling this wrong (and I think I can say that from a relatively non-naive place). I think open communication MIGHT present better solutions for 2009/2010 before it's too late. But whatever.
Also, once again, I am fully convinced the new figures in these sets are getting noticably worse paint applications. I have no good theory why this is, and I'm actually not even all that put out about it... but after several releases lately, I'm pretty sure I'm right.
