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« on: April 2, 2005, 03:32 AM »
I normally just lurk here at JD, but I thought I'd share.
Okay . . . . here's my long MM story. Prepare for a long read.
So I leave my house about 10:45, and arrive at TRU at 11:00. There's probably about fifteen people waiting in the little area just inside, but the doors are still locked to get into the main building. I stand there and wait, but while I do I meet this kid and his dad who seem pretty cool and very interested in Star Wars. The kid said all he wanted was the basic figure General Grievous, so I make a mental note to get one for him if I see it. We also talk about Celebration III, and I even get them to go Saturday-Sunday, I think. So that's quite nice, just meeting and talking to fans.
About 11:58, this group of maybe ten people come. We're all like, cool, I guess the more the merrier. We continue to anxiously wait until the doors open at 12:01.
We rush in, and see the display. It is a beauty, I must say, with the fog effects and everything coming out and such. The problem was, there were about three displays in the middle of the floor showcasing LEGO, lightsabers, and vehicles that really got in the way, and only allowed for the first few people to get to the actual figure pegs. By 12:04, EVERY SINGLE FIGURE IS GONE OFF THE PEGS.
The manager then pulls out cases of figures on each side of the store and starts throwing them into carts for people to get to them. It's pretty maddening; knowing what is currently being thrown in what cart at which side and what not.
Now before I go on, let me say I really only came to TRU to get a few things, as I will be picking up all of my figures tomorrow at Target in the morning. I was basically looking for the Red and Blue Royal Guards, and the Holo Yoda if it was available (also the two Deluxe Anakin variants).
So as we are scouring the bins (myself with just a Red Royal Guard figure in hand), I notice someone with a Holo Yoda. I was extremely surprised, and go right up to the counter to ask if they have any more. They say no, they only could put out 12, and they were put on the very top of the display. I then find out that ONE GUY got ALL 12 of them. EVERY SINGLE ONE. He was even saying, ' Boy, this holo yoda which doesn't have a lightsaber will go for a lot on eBay!'. AHHH, the nerve of HIM! I am extremely pissed off by this time, and continue wading through the figures looking for my Red Royal Guard.
As I am doing this, I see the kid I was talking to in line find a General Grievous. He turns around to call to his dad that he finds one, and this guy just takes it RIGHT OUT OF HIS HANDS. RIGHT OUT OF HIS HANDS . The guy WILL NOT give it back, and there is nothing the employees can do.
So anyway, just as I am about to purcahse the ONE FIGURE, I see a Blue Royal Guard just sitting on the pegs which pretty much only had the Luminaria Undulis and Aayla Securas left. I hastily grab it, happy about my find.
But I am more concerned about this kid and his Grievous for some reason, so we keep searching through the carts. Apparently, my TRU got WAYYY too much Collection 2 and only a few cases of Collection 1.
So we don't find a Grievous, unfortunately, but I did find a cool Battle Droid whose head was actually at the bottom of the package. I thought it was pretty funny, so I bought it.
Anyway, so the boy's dad says, 'Hey, Meijers is open 24/7, why don't we check there? I heard they were doing something for this promotion!'. I am thinking that this'll be cool, because the kid will get his Grievous and I was going to go anyway.
So we both go to Meijers, and the kid and his dad get there before me a bit. As I am walking towards the action figure aisle, the dad comes back from it and says 'They got nothing.'
I check just in case, and notice that it looks EXACTLY like it did the day before; I checked because my mom was getting groceries there.
So I begin to think that they haven't even released them, and share this with the dad. He's pretty excited about it, too, and as we continue talking, this guy just walks through the aisle kind of curious.
He asks me what I am talking about when I proclaim, 'Well, I hope we get them!'. I tell him the Star Wars Episode III Figures, and to his bewilderment he thought they came out TOMORROW at midnight, and he had just been at Meijers after work to get some bolts.
He's a pretty cool guy, he shows us his Star Wars tatoos (I think he had like four of them), and this is all fine and dandy but I am wandering about the figures. So I have to search the store for ANYONE to ask about this, which ended up being an elderly lady who said that the guys from the toy department are just getting back from break.
So as they walk down the aisle, I ask them where their Star Wars stuff is. They said they were just getting ready to put it out; and I was REALLY stoked. I thought they were just going to put it on the pegs, but when they came rolling this HUGE DISPLAY down the aisle and fill in a gap in the open area around toys, I am even more excited.
So, as they do, we start to sift through the figures. The boy, thankfully, gets his Grievous, and the other guy we met with the tatoos is happily getting some Unleashed and the other cool figures (good for him, since he thought they were coming out tomorrow!).
As we continue to talk and look at the merchandise, the tatoo guy starts to talk about his Star Wars fandom and such. He even brings up the fact that he plays STAR WARS GALAXIES, and I am like WOW. So he asks me what server I am on, and I tell him Starsider. To my bewilderment, he replies he plays on Starsider as well (and this is kind of a bit thing, because I know Starsider is one of the lesser populated SWG servers). I ask him his character name (Laen-Ki), and he tells me. I then react, because I have GROUPED with this guy before in the game. Cool stuff, eh?
So as the boy is holidng onto his Grievous, I am holding onto a Darth Vader/Anakin Deluxe figure (trying to get both variants), and the tatoo guy is getting his stuff. It's all turning out good . . .
. . . then the TRU guy who scalped comes in. He's talking to his wife/girlfriend about how Wal-Mart had absolutely nothing he could resell, but that he'd check here. Luckily, he didn't get anything here either, because we had the stuff that he probably wanted.
So I check out, and come home and start typing this story, anxious for tomorrow when I will get my Lava Vader and the rest of the figures. I am also anxious about getting my Holo Yoda on 4/10 (I saved the ARC Fighter for then) for FREE, while that scalper had to pay $120 just for the Yodas. Hehe.
It's been a good night.
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