tru.com put the 1/4 GD back up online but it was not in stock when I saw it - here is the listing.  Maybe they are going to put more back online?

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=19790026&cp=&parentPage=search

Wow, great catch. I checked like 3-4 times at least yesterday so the listing must have just gone up overnight. As soon as that goes available I am pouncing on it!

I went back today to see if they had pulled any more of these out of the back room and they were totally cleaned out. They must have sold through 3-4 cases easily in the space of about 2 days.

By comparison, my local Targets have probably not sold that many TVC figures collectively in the past 3 months.

So the Malgus wave has been hitting again here, saw the wheelbarrow o' goodness today and picked up the following:
4 INC
1 each Malgus, hoth Luke and Sidious
6 TCW clone commander Fox (brings me to nine carded plus 1 loose I have altogether, do not ask me why, I cannot resist buying this figure whenever I see him)

Shae/star killer wave in 2014? 

I don't think these 1/4 scale figures really make it to brick and mortar stores - they take up too much shelf space and I don't think many stores are willing to dedicate that much space to them.  TRU stores did carry wave 1 of the 1/4 scale Predators but I think they stopped after that wave and then just started selling them exclusively on their website.

And also, for what it worth, I check TRU.com nearly every day for new NECA items they put up for sale.  I did see the 1/4 GD put up for one day and it was in stock and I debated getting it too.  The next day it was pulled from their site from what I can tell.

So yeah, one day only - thats pretty fast for it to sell out.

Oh man, I saw it too and had it up ALL DAY on my computer and when I finally went to pull the trigger it was already gone. I was SO mad about that! I could have gotten it with free shipping too! The cheapest one I can find on Amazon is $145, no thanks.

I did notice it said "Item is available in stores" so maybe it will turn up in a TRU Express or something. I'm not giving up hope yet, but I am gonna stalk TRU.com like a mutha for the next few weeks!

Can someone who's read through all that give me the cliff's notes version?  How was he caught, what is the evidence, has he said anything yet?

So this guy makes an offhand comment in the SWFUK forum about how back in the day a huge stash of unused vintage Palitoy cardbacks and bubbles were acquired by a well known dealer called "Toy Toni", somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000. (Supposedly TT also indicated to this guy at some point he had found a way to heat seal the bubbles onto cards like at the factory.)

People get curious and start asking more questions, it turns out a few other people recollect hearing this story as well, yet find it curious that none of these unused cardbacks ever turned up in any kind of quantity. TT comes one and denies any kind of wrongdoing, and claims to barely even know the person who supposedly sold them to him. (Who it turns out is now dead)

Then it comes out TT actually DID know this guy a lot better than he was letting on, had apparently started an internet business with him, etc. so doubt starts to creep in. This is further cemented when it is revealed that TT has a secondary ebay account he has been using over the years to buy up minty loose and U-graded figures.

At this point the eBay account is hidden from view, and it also comes out he has changed the name on this account over 30 times over the years. People start doing close examinations on carded figures they have brought from this guy and start noticing inconsistencies : blurs, smudges, triangular indentations in bubbles, and printing errors that seem unlikely to have been approved for production. Several of these same flaws are noted on other unused cardback samples from that era.

So this all leads people to conclude that this guy has worked out some method to reseal the vintage bubbles to the vintage cards, using actual vintage figures and then made a small fortune selling them as minty "warehouse finds" over the years. Many of these pieces have been AFA graded as 85-90's.

The original source has since produced a list of many of those unused cardbacks supposedly part of the original deal and they seem to match up with TT's sales history, etc etc. At least one person has confirmed selling loose figures to the suspect ebay account that again match figures which were later sold carded.

There has been some intermittent communication from the accused, an initial denial, but subsequent emails have been brief and somewhat evasive, certainly not what you would characterize as a vigorous self defense.

Whew, I think that is the highlights in a nutshell. It's a lot of people affected and a lot of money and potentially untold damage to the hobby in general. Stuff like that makes me sick, pure human greed.

LOL, I would not be advertising any vintage stuff as AFA graded right now. Not if I wanted to actually sell it.

Curious to hear what others here think about the Great Carded Palitoy Scandal of 2013.

I just finished the 38 page thread a few minutes ago. I couldn't even begin to dive into the bottomless threads at SWUK.

It is, at the very least, a fascinating yet disturbing read.