That date stamp alone kind of blows a lot of the talk that it "takes x ammount of time to get y figure to retail" ******** too I think... I guess some fibbing for public relations was needed?
I'd like both the green and white head variants just for diversity's sake, however I've seen neither at retail yet. I certainly hope one's not a total biznitch to find though, as I'd like a few of both.
How's that guy look on an RT? I got a #6 Clone on one and he looks as good (or better) than the pack-in figure does.
With regards to how long it takes, don't forget that there is design time, sculpting time, tooling time, etc...
Sure it may take only a month or two to go from pumping out the product from the molds, packaging it and then shipping it to WallyWorld, but the lead-in time before that was much longer.
This is the BIG reason why the final 12 ROTS figures are ALL repaints, sculpting exists, tooling exists, all they need to do is fire up the assembly lines and they're good to go to have those 12 figures on the shelves by October.
I also wouldn't be surprised if these were rush-shipped from the factory as well. If you recall, end of July, beginning of August was VERY dry SW-wise at a good majority of WalMart's across the country. WM may have told Hasbro "Get us your product NOW" and Hasbro jumped.
Oh - one more thing - the AT-RT Driver fits on the AT-RT vehicle PERFECTLY. I have been tempted to get rid of my pack-in drivers and get two more AT-RT Drivers to replace them since the sculpt and paint ops on the regular figure is of course far superior.
Now if Pilot Obi-Wan only had hip joints like VOTC Luke and the AT-TE Gunner - he would be a PERFECT replacement for the Obi-Wan w/Boga figure!