I dig the Republic deco on the AT-AP.  Very much like the deco on the AT-TE.  And this battle pack will save me on getting the $20 AAT repaint.

I wish it could save me $20.  It's just different enough that I'm gonna want both tanks.  Which, combined with the 3 different ones I already have, is going to put the AAT mold in the running for the most repainted vehicle since the Jedi Starfighters.

I'm thinking this is the second UBP for Target.  You have seven figures plus two $20 ships.  That would be a decent deal at $60 retail.

*DING DING*

I believe you are correct sir.  The assortment on the box is also the same assortment which Hasbro identified for the Carkoon set from Comic-Con.  (And wasn't it a $50 retail last year?)  To me, that's a dead giveaway.

But you really cannot compare the Bantha pack with this crappy set.  The Bantha pack had, well, a Bantha.  The Bantha is BIG.  The Bantha initially had a $30 price point (with the POTF2 line) and came with one figure.  How can you compare the Bantha to a crappy, significantly smaller piece of desert igloo?  And c'mon, we all know that the main appeal of this upcoming set isn't the crappy POTF2 repacks (or, to be PC, the "less attractive molds" pack-in).  It's the playset piece, which is certainly NOT worth anything close to $50.         

Can't you?  The appeal of the Bantha pack wasn't the Tuskens either-- extra figures packed in are an excuse to raise the price.  And what you have with the Bantha pack was a $30 toy with new fur (less the $5 for the missing POTF2 Tusken), a $5 Tusken Female from 2002, another $5 Tusken with Massiff from 2002, and a $10 (let's be generous) VTSC Tusken.

The Bantha was a barely modified version of an existing mold.  And it isn't really all that big.   The desert igloo is an entirely new mold, which required new development costs.  Also, the Womp Rat isn't free.  So the Lars Homestead set has new molds in it, and the Bantha doesn't.  Considering Hasbro's products have had one (and are about to have a second) across-the-board price increase soon, well, it doesn't seem quite as outlandish.

I'm not saying the Lars Homestead set is as fun as a Bantha, or as neat as a Bantha, or as interesting to me personally as a Bantha.  But as the sets go as a sum-of-the-parts, they're somewhat comparable.   It's not as fun, of course, but I'd be curious to know the actual development costs against that of, say, a Hoth Turret.   (And having a few dealings with Hasbro exclusives, I can say it's not always possible to get newly molded figures.)

...I'll give you "crappy" for the figures they picked.  That's totally fair.   But still, crappy costs money, and even POTF2 figures have to cost something.  It's not like they'd be $5 if Hasbro put 'em out on Legacy cards today.  But still... $50... gah.   What would you guys think the Lars homestead piece by itself should cost, anyway?  $20-$25?  (That'd be my estimate.  Even if it isn't quite as exciting as a vehicle.)

<snip>

First off, why not include one of those six in the first wave and ditch the Anakin?

Second, why in cases of EIGHT do they not make the waves in counts of 2 or 4? Two of these sets should have been with Wave 1 and then that would mean that once you throw out the repack Anakin set, you'd have two waves of FOUR packs each and in each case 2x of each pack.

There's a variety of reasons to roll them out this way, which aren't necessarily what I want as a collector (everything now, first, and new.)   Even case packs are great for online stores and mail order catalogs (we love them!), but for retail stores, not so much.  I can't believe (for example) Grand Moff Trachta and a repack Darth Vader is going to be an enormous seller to a general audience unless a kid wants a Vader and that's the only option on the pegs.   It's the whole thing about certain characters always outselling others-- they do this because they believe (and are generally right) that certain characters are going to be more popular and therefore need to ship in greater numbers.

...which makes sense, as Thrawn is pretty popular.  Xizor, uh, well, whatever.  Can't say I get that one being a two-per-case given what happened in 1996... and 1997... and in some regions, 1998.  (Although it's a nice figure.)  Repacking Anakin is an easy sale (a bunch of new buyers are in the line with the big PR push from the movie and toy launch, and it's all new to them) and the set sold really well last time, so keeping it in circulation is good for the bottom line.

As long as figures aren't hanging around too long, Hasbro (and its retail partners) are pretty happy.  Since it seems (from what I've been told by people on all sides of this line) fans aren't buying the entire comic packs range, but tend to be pick-and-choosers, I can see where they're coming from.  I guess at least wave 2 was evenly packed, but that's more of an anamolly these days.   I'm glad I *don't* have the job of determining the casepacks because the last thing I'd want are angry Wal-Mart and Target employees wondering just why the heck Luke's great-great-great-grandson was heavily packed because I thought he was cool.

It looks to me that they packed the trooper in backwards to make it appear as if he was approaching them. It looks like crap but that appears to me to be what they were trying to accomplish.

I agree.  With the looking like crap part, I mean.  Who the heck packages a set with the most recognizable toy in the box with its backpack facing the buyer?     There's no reason he couldn't approach from the side, for example.

It's neat to see the spare moisture vaporator, but where's the Womp Rat?

It had looked like Cade had some articulation around his armor is this what you're refering to?

Yup.  Darth Talon's waist joint is under her top, Tol Skorr's is under his pecs, SOTE Leia's is also under her chest,  so this seems to be more common on these guys.

Just got a bunch of new ones, haven't opened them all yet.  Here are some first impressions you can ignore.

DURGE & ANAKIN
Seems like Evo Anakin with new deco, maybe new head.  Durge is a mix of the 2003 Deluxe figure with retooled bits.  Overall: Meh.
ASAJJ & TOL SKORR
Asajj seems to be the 2003 carded version with new legs, soft goods, and new deco.  Her saber isn't painted correctly.  Her little droid is nice, though.  Tol Skorr seems like a waste of plastic except for the fact that it's a fine figure with 14 points of articulation and some of the best paint I've seen this year.  Why such a forgettable character gets the deluxe treatment is beyond me.
ANTARES DRACO & GANNER KRIEG
Both share the same super-articulated body.  Great paint, awesome sculpting, wonderful deco.  Soft goods "skirt" and "cape."  Cape is not removable and attached cloth hood hangs on head strangely, just like all Jedi robes.  Antares' head alone is worth buying this set to see.  He reminds me of someone and I can't put my finger on it.  Ganner reminds me of someone from a ren faire trying to be Legolas, but it's still an excellent sculpt and is true to the character.  Get this set.
CADE & DARTH TALON
The packaging for Cade has a slot for a lightsaber in it.  Hasbro has confirmed, months ago, that the figure will not include a lightsaber.  Way to go, Hasbro Packaging Department.   Cade looks more like his mother due to the bubbly hair and eyeliner.  The body of the figure, though, is one of Hasbro's finest with tons of articulation and a great holster.  I love this figure, I just wish the head was a little bit better in terms of deco and it'd be perfect.   Darth Talon has no elbow joints, but is otherwise super articulated.  She looks better than the early prototypes.  Also, her saber hilt is very bend-friendly so be careful.  This is a great set, I'd say get it but consider holding off on it until you see a few Cade's face in person a few times, to see if they're all this way.  (I think they are.)
THRAWN & TALON KARRDE
Thrawn's ankles bother me.  Around the joint is unpainted white plastic which you can see from the front-- it's all very distracting. He also doesn't have a gun, but he does have one of his Ysalamiri buddies.  Super articulated, but the skirt prevents all hip movement.   Karrde is great-- working holster, super articulated, etc.  His arms and jacket are the same color, which is a little off-putting.  But it's a very nice figure.   This set seems like it could do very well with customizers for many different reasons, I really like it.  I wonder if we'll end up getting more of the various grand admirals.

XIZOR & LEIA
VADER & SNIPER LEIA
VADER & TRACHTA
Haven't opened it yet.

MISC
- Super-articulated seems the norm for most new Comic Pack figures
- The figures are, on average, as good as or better than individual figures
- Waist articulation more similar to GI Joe or Clones on a lot of figures-- the belt is not necessarily the waist joint any more.

Okay, help me with this math:

$8 per fig - Basic Fig
$4 per fig - Clone Wars 5 Fig BP

We know profit margins on these items are high - Hasbro makes a profit on what they sell to retail and retail makes a profit off of us.  Lets be conservative at 60% markup for Retailers and 66%.  That means Hasbro's cost structure per figure is as follows:

Basic Figs:  $8 Retail     $5 Selling Price       $3 Hasbro Cost
BP Figs:      $5 Retail     $3.13 Selling Price   $1.87 Hasbro Cost

Its not like the BP packaging is free, so let's assume the figure itself costs $1.  That would mean basic figure packaging costs $2 and the BP packaging costs $.87 per figure for a total of $3.48.

Your numbers are a smidge off, I'm not at liberty to disclose exact numbers but from what I've seen at places that are NOT my employer, I can tell you the wholesale prices of a Hasbro figure are actually higher than that.   And there's also issues of landed costs, which vary from chain to chain depending on what gets delivered where, distribution systems, etc.  It isn't free to ship a figure from the Toys "R" Us warehouse to a store, for example.

There are a bunch of other factors that can change the price as well-- and yes, a lot of the time, it's the whims of the store.  If they want it to be a loss leader, they can lower their price to increase foot traffic.  (It makes sense for Wal-Mart to charge less for SW if it causes kids and collectors to come in and also buy toilet paper.  And yes, they have analysis software to determine such things.) With Toys "R" Us, it's not like Target where they can take a hit on toys because they're going to make it up on light bulbs, sodas, diapers, and other goods you could just as soon have bought elsewhere.  Toys "R" Us (and stores that are a bit more specialized) really do benefit from the extra $1, or $5, you pay for on some items. 

"Cost of prodcut" is very hard to nail down-- in my experience it's not $X for the package and $Y for the figure, but it tends to be a quote on the entire "thing"-- the packaged figure.   If it sounds like I'm talking crazy, that means I'm explaining it more or less correctly.

This would follow Adam's logic that packaging adds quite a bit to the cost, but additional figures would only cost $1.  Certainly doesn't seem like rational to raise the retail price an additional $5 for adding one figure. 

Of course, TRU raises their prices by $5 for no reason at all...

Toys "R" Us has very good reasons-- as does Target.  They have a business to run, goals to meet, employees to pay, and a marketplace where kids grow up earlier every year.   Wal-Mart has screamingly efficient delivery systems (or so I am told), and I've heard very little about Toys "R" Us-- but from peeking in their systems, it doesn't exactly seem to be supremely advanced (again, from what little I gather, someone can probably provide better light on this than I can.)

KB has charged more for years, and Toys "R" Us-- who is also struggling-- will need to do so as well.  (Target's $7.99 Joes just seems to be a grab for the extra buck because the product is so hot they have no reason NOT to do it.)   It really isn't as simple as one figure adding $5 to the price, but lots of creeping factors causing the entire packaged product's cost to go up-- paint, transportation, prototyping, salaries, all that junk.  (It also wouldn't surprise me if the Target packs were nailed down before Hasbro decided they had to do the adjustments in pricing vs. product.)

Another fun example-- DC Infinite Heroes from Mattel.  1 individual figure is $4.99 at Target or $7.99 at Toys "R" Us. (There's a gap.)   The 3-pack boxed set?  $9.99 at Target.  Unless this is some sort of mistake, it really does prove that you can apparently save a bundle by selling figures IN a bundle.

As depressing as it is, we're probably not all that far off from a $9.99 basic figure.   It'd probably make a lot more sense (in a "let's keep costs down" way) for Hasbro to do more in the way of Battle Packs and Comic Packs, but that individually carded figure is such a popular format that we'll probably never see that happen.  Personally, I'd like to see more sensible (read: not with a figure I already bought) multi-packs just to keep packaging manufacturing down, to reduce transportation costs, and to get me more figures at once.  I think the Joe 2-packs of the 2000s were a step in the right direction, *except* for all the repacks and the lack of putting troops in 2-packs for those who were so inclined.  I bet a lot of money could be saved and made if the 3 3/4-inch industry focused solely on boxed sets.