So, who's excited to be getting another one of these suckers in the Final 12? Boy, I sure am, 'cause the first one's been an absolute bitch to find so far...
Matt, you know what they would have told you at San Diego if you said that...
"Well, you whiny collectors asked for army builders, so that's why we shipped so many."
To which I say, a character who stands in one position and does not move for the duration of his two seconds of screen time and of which there are only two of does not an army builder make. When Nute Gunray, Rune Haako, and Lott Dod, all of whom have lines and (in the case of the former) have prominent roles and abundant screentime in all three prequels, don't sell as action figures, Hasbro should have the common sense (HA!) to realize Captain Statue of the Bug People isn't going to move past the collectors.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen happened today while I was out of town on business. I had heard of people rearranging the pegs at stores so each peg had one character on them, but I'd never seen it. Well, a Wal-Mart on my trip had fallen victim to this. And the grand champion?
The Neimoidian Warrior, who took up four entire pegs with 31 figures. The Wookiee Warriors and Clone Pilots each rang in with 22 each, and the only other figures represented were Tarfull, Palpatine (35), Grievous' Bodyguard, and the Super Battle Droid, all of whom had one entire peg to themselves. Bail Organa was the "winner" in this competition with only two figures on one peg, but I laughed for a good ten minutes at the absurdity of it all.
Three of the biggest pegwarmers out there (Neimoidian, Clone Pilot, and Wookiee) and Hasbro is trotting all three of them out again at a really late stage in the game to further clog pegs nationwide. Brilliant.