Wish I had read this thread before posting her:

Part 14 of my rant on the stupid exclusives

Short answer... Hasbro has me reconsidering this whole hobby for two exclusive figures.  A month and a half ago I was more excited than ever.  I have been dutifuly ordering cases at EE as soon as they're up for preorder, as figures on shelves are unheard of in my area.  Now I am within an inch of canceling them all.

Strange how much can change in a month and a half based on two boneheaded decisions.

The article says the coins are VENUE exclusive, so maybe the figure isn't.  Better not be.  Grr.

Oops, looks like Spuffy beat me to it.

I don't understand why Hasbro doesn't just clear this up and explain what the real deal is.

If Hasbro does not announce general availability of both the Luke and 3PO/R2 figures soon they can simply kiss my $1,000+ per year collecting their lines goodbye.

These figures are pivotal to the collection of McQuarrie figures and I am going to be right pissed if they don't make these available (on single cards to match the other Concept figs and in reasonable quantities, no single day availability on a website that barely works and then is immediately sold out) to people who cannot attend C4.

I feel extremely misled by Hasbro with these... I had planned on having an AFA certified collection of the concept figs as well as loose ones to display.  But these figs could easily top $80+ if they are not available elsewhere.

I absolutely abhor the Gentle Giant/Sideshow "unattainable product makes all our product seem more valuable and hotter" attitude.  I am a collector and I like to be able to complete my collection.  I have no desire to feel empowered by possessing action figures that are only valuable to me because others cannot have them.  It's just sickening.

So... I am new to collecting anything other than the Hasbro 3.75" line.

I've been enjoying these animated OT maquettes.  So far I have all through Luke Pilot.

Now I see that the Yoda and R2 is an exclusive to the cons, and will only be an edition size of 2500.  Have to say, this pretty much completely kills the enthusiasm I had for this line.  I had hoped they wouldn't be pulling this exclusive crap with this line.

I don't understand why they think it's a good idea to make pieces that many people will not be able to obtain (without paying large amounts of moeny to third parties).  The only possible benefit I can see is if it makes the line appear "hotter" and that attracts people?  As I said, I have the exact opposite reaction.  Just makes me know that I will never have the whole collection so what's the point of buying any of the weaker statues?

Am I strange?  Does it not have this effect on other people?  Or do people just have enough money that they will buy it on eBay?

Any guesses as to what one of these will be worth on eBay?  I don't think I will be at any of the cons...

I really just wish they would make merchandise to sell it to fans, rather than pandering to people looking for an investment, or buying things just because they are rare and not eveyone can have it. 

Can someone explain this to me?

I'm thinking of cancelling the Stortrooper and only ordering the ones that jump out at me as very cool in the future.  Screw Gentle Giant.

Quote from: poddie on December  7, 2006, 01:40 PM

There seems to be no appreciation that collectors are not the only market, and that the kids are keeping the line afloat as much as the collectors are (if not more).

I agree that collectors are not the only market, however, if I'm reading this correctly, you are actually insinuating kids play a larger role in keeping the line afloat? Then I feel you are mostly wrong and somewhat right about this ..depending on a POV.

I feel like the 'kids market' is larger(but maybe equal to collectors market) in/around movie years. All those years after the movies when in the mid-90's the Hasbro SW line was supported mostly by collectors IMO(which is harder to swallow considering today's improved quality). The sheer amount of store exclusives increasing in number every year coupled with the rather distinguishable presence of kids in conventions' QA sessions could also be used as a guage to support this argument for a pro-collector friendly argument. I'd say mostly..in non- movie years the SW basic line is about 60-40 or maybe even 65-35 collectors versus kids. In a movie year it gets closer to even with every year near Christmas being probably in favor of kids..or parents buying them for gifts for the market buying the product.

From a collector standpoint, of course I feel alot of the rerelease stuff is crap. Is it really crap though, since I did already buy it once and didn't feel it was crap at THAT time? When you see it over and over again it becomes crap. When I see the same figures (rereleases..Greatest hits,battles HandV ect) on the shelves and you visit the store often enough to know they're not selling,rather sitting, preventing newer stuff from landing at the store, I tend to feel their crap -and believe me kids aren't buying it either .

Where you could be correct, and-only if you look at it the following way is that if you'd realize many, MANY of us are just big kids who have to have our toys still...and, like many a kid nowadays in public schools speaks,can identify wordage of when something 'sucks' or is 'crap' too. If this were the case, though, you really had no peaceful reason to place an argument here in this thread segregating the kid from the adult collector and insulting many members here at the same time.


" I am appalled of the mud slinging and ignorance being thrown about here.  It truly makes me ashamed to be associated with other "collectors". "

Again,look at the thread title..you could call it a 'feeling' thread...there's absolutley nothing wrong with folks coming in and saying how they feel about the current figure situation.
If, you are actually appalled of words like 'crap' (I can think of far worse), than I think it demonstrates your naivety of the real world's workings. It's a forum, man, not a place where you think how the world should be.

DS

I have no idea what the actual breakdown is, but I do believe that without one or the other (collectors/kids) the line would be in trouble, or at the least nowhere near as profitable for Hasbro as it is.  I'm just saying I think people have to realize that they are marketing to two distinct groups who have differant tastes and they do the best they can.  But everything is a compromise...

Wow.  I have to say, I'm absolutely ashamed by the poor support of the line in this thread.  Many of the posts are downright mean-spirited.  I hope to God that the good folks at Hasbro don't monitor this board and read threads like this.  No wonder they have such a hard time responding to collector desires sometimes, if people acted like this when asking me for something I sure wouldn't be very inspired to make them happy either.

Here are some FACTS that seem to be completely overlooked by many of the contributors to this thread:

(1) This is a TOY line.  The main target for these toys is KIDS.  This means that not every release is aimed at providing maximum enjoyment to collectors.  This is how the line survives, by remaining popular to kids who want main characters over and over and don't mind a repaint much because they only have 5% of what has been released.

(2) Hasbro does NOT force you guys to buy EVERY figure.  This is absolutely your own silly idea.  Why you think Hasbro should not release product that will sell to the mass market in a new package just because you don't want to shell out for it again I will never understand.  Here's what you have to do... try to follow along now... DON'T BUY IT A SECOND TIME.  And don't then come in here saying "You know what?  I'm not falling for this trap to get me to buy this CRAP again!!!!  Hasbro SUX!!!"  There is NO TRAP.  They are making a product that is aimed at a different audience and that will help support the line and provide them with the funds they need to make more stuff we DO want to have.  This is a win for everybody.

(3) Just because a toy has been released before does not mean that when it is released again it is suddenly CRAP.  Please reference number 1.  The kids out there do not own every figure that has been released... either because they couldn't find it or they couldn't afford it or they didn't know it existed.  Hasbro can cheaply produce more of these figures and sell boatloads of them to kids that will truly appreciate them.  WHY DOES THIS MAKE HASBRO EVIL???

(4) Has anybody in here even SEEN the 2007 line??? Hasn't it occurred to anyone that the reason the last 27 (or whatever) figures this year are repaints is because they are gearing up to give us a MASSIVE line of incredible sculpts that specifically cater to us next year???

Hasbro is not anywhere near perfect... they often make questionable decisions.  And I have no problem with people voicing what those issues are.  But this is not an exact science.  They are trying to balance the needs of two very differant markets, and excite both of them.  I don't think the line can succeed without both of those markets.  They obviously are doing what they can to please as many people as possible, while still making enough money to continue making the line profitable.  People need to give them some credit, and remain somewhat polite to the people who obviously enjoy these toys as much as we do, but have certain priorities that have to be met.

I am appalled of the mud slinging and ignorance being thrown about here.  It truly makes me ashamed to be associated with other "collectors".

I had ordered 40 of these prior to receiving my Shadow Stormtroopers.  Looked like they were an improvement over Star Cases, as they fit all types of cards (including Clone Wars!!).

After receiving my Shadow Stormtroopers, I got worried because they arrived in their Hasbro cases and the two top angle cut corners were bent.  The cases didn't seem to fit quite right.

Well, today I received the 40 cases I ordered and they are essentially the same deal.  I was hoping to use these for TSC and animated Clone Wars figures, but they don't quite fit right for either one.

The TSC cards get bent on the two angle corners at the top, and the Clone Wars cards get bent on the lower-right sharp corner.  If these things were 2 milimenters bigger in all directions they would be absolutely perfect, and by far the best "universal" fit.  Unfortuneately, it seems that Hasbro does not have any of their own figures to try out as a test case and designed these to be too small.

Not sure what to do now... I have 40 nearly useless cases.  I don't really feel like paying return shipping to Hasbro and getting soaked on shipping twice (the high shipping was the reason I finally decided to order 4 sets of ten).  I also don't feel like selling them on eBay where I won't even likely get what I paid for them.

I'm sure they would fit vintage and POTF2 designs fine but I already have plenty of regular Star Cases for those.  What I need are cases that fit the newer designs.

What is the point of cases to protect figures if the cases themselves damage the figures???  Couldn't someone at Hasbro figure this out??  This is just really disappointing, and I certainly feel like I got screwed here.

I guess I could wait for the 30th anniversary cards and hope they will fit... I heard Hasbro mention this to be the case (ha ha) on Star Wars Action News ComiCon episode.  But then again... Hasbro seems to think their current figures fit too. 

I just can't comprehend how people think ICMG is a good idea.

The market for this figure is so small that it can't possibly do anything but fail.  It seems like people want this guy just to prove a point, that Hasbro should do the fan's bidding.

Who in their right mind would pick this figure up other than completests and people who are doing it just for the kick of "hey, Hasbro made a stupid figure because we demanded it"?

I just don't get it... and you guys take it so seriously.  I really don't intend to offend, but it just seems like the crusade for this figure has been a big joke from day 1.  I'm sure that's what Hasbro was thinking...

Yarma (or whatever her name is) is at least a little more interesting, but still very bottom of the barrel.  She was at least a lot more memorable and someone people might recognize.  But a nameless, normal looking human running down a hallway never to be seen again?  Why SHOULD Hasbro make this guy???

As I said, sorry to offend, but I have been lurking quite a while and have always been madly curious about how anyone thinks this figure could work...