2022 Droid Factory - Mystery Crate - Blind Buy Droids

[Dave]

Has anyone figured out how to identify which box has which droid, or is totally random and you're at the mercy of luck and buying a bunch of extras?

[Nicklab]

Of the 5 I’ve gotten on eBay, 4 were already open.  The 5th was sealed.  It’s truly a blind box situation. 

[JediJman]

Well, I got my package of these from my Disney connection today.  He was able to snag 8 of them, so I was hoping for at least 4 different ones.  Out of the eight, I only nabbed 3 different versions. Kind of a bummer, but these are still really cool.  Anyone looking to trade doubles on these?  Here's what I have:

2x B5-SL (Blue BB)
2x C1-4B (Chopper)
4x S3-R9 (Grey Astromech)

Looking for:

CH-83 (Yellow BB)
G4-S8 (Green Astromech)
JB-9 (Yellow BB)

[Nicklab]

I've got all of these except for C1-4B.  From what I can tell it seems to be the most scarce of the bunch, at least on eBay.  As for the droids I have?  They're nice - the paint deco on S3-R9 and JB-9 are fantastic!  But with the BB droids there is all of one point of articulation and the weeble-wobbling action feature.  I don't know that collectors are getting tremendous value here, aside from the whole Disney playing on the whole blind box phenomenon that's hot in the toy business right now.

[JediJman]

I've got all of these except for C1-4B.  From what I can tell it seems to be the most scarce of the bunch, at least on eBay.  As for the droids I have?  They're nice - the paint deco on S3-R9 and JB-9 are fantastic!  But with the BB droids there is all of one point of articulation and the weeble-wobbling action feature.  I don't know that collectors are getting tremendous value here, aside from the whole Disney playing on the whole blind box phenomenon that's hot in the toy business right now.

Do you have any extras to trade?  I'm hoping to score some more of these, but sounds like they're currently out of stock.

$15 is a little steep for these droids, I'll admit.  The droid itself should probably be more like $6-7 with today's prices.  I'm willing to bump that up to $10 with the crate it comes in - those are almost as appealing as the droid for me.  Add in that the bases connect and they double as a figure stand and have a sticker - I'll bite for a few more bucks.  So if these were $12ish at retail, I'd expect to pay the Disney Park markup of $15 for them.  I think the build-a-droid figures were $13 or 2 for $20, so not too far off the mark from those either. 

For me, $90 retail or a little further over $100 to get a set of 6 with crates is tolerable.  If these were a set of 12 and I was looking at $200 just for 12 random crates that could contain doubles, then I'm probably out, but I'm still in the game for now.

[Rob]

$15 is a little steep for these droids, I'll admit.

At this point I'd happily pay $15 each.  Seems like the only way to get them if you can't get to the park is to pay $30 to $45 each. 

I'm also concerned that this is going to be regular occurrence.  New waves every 6 or 12 months... 

[JediJman]

$15 is a little steep for these droids, I'll admit.

At this point I'd happily pay $15 each.  Seems like the only way to get them if you can't get to the park is to pay $30 to $45 each. 

I'm also concerned that this is going to be regular occurrence.  New waves every 6 or 12 months...

I have a contact that buys Disney stuff and resells for a 20% mark up.  So my droids came to about $21 each with shipping (I bought 8 of them).  A bit more steep than the $15 tag, but a lot cheaper than Ebay or flying to the park myself.  I just hope they're in ample supply so I can get the full set.  I do think we'll see more - I thought I saw a post somewhere about another wave of them coming out in little sandcrawler crates.

[Jeff]

I thought I saw a post somewhere about another wave of them coming out in little sandcrawler crates.

Disney did a Sandcrawler blind-box series of mini-droids a couple years back.  They were way smaller than 3.75" scale, so I skipped them.  I guess I could see them recycling the Sandcrawler idea again if they do go back to this well.

[JediJman]

I thought I saw a post somewhere about another wave of them coming out in little sandcrawler crates.

Disney did a Sandcrawler blind-box series of mini-droids a couple years back.  They were way smaller than 3.75" scale, so I skipped them.  I guess I could see them recycling the Sandcrawler idea again if they do go back to this well.

That must be what I saw.  Glad its not something new as I was hoping these mystery crates would be around for a while!

[Rob]

I have a contact that buys Disney stuff and resells for a 20% mark up.  So my droids came to about $21 each with shipping (I bought 8 of them).  A bit more steep than the $15 tag, but a lot cheaper than Ebay or flying to the park myself.  I just hope they're in ample supply so I can get the full set.  I do think we'll see more - I thought I saw a post somewhere about another wave of them coming out in little sandcrawler crates.

Oh yeah, at that small a mark up I'd do it and be done as well. 

Are these available at any Disney stores in Orlando that don't require theme park tickets?  I'll be near Orlando in February, but am not going to Disney...

[Nicklab]

I've got all of these except for C1-4B.  From what I can tell it seems to be the most scarce of the bunch, at least on eBay.  As for the droids I have?  They're nice - the paint deco on S3-R9 and JB-9 are fantastic!  But with the BB droids there is all of one point of articulation and the weeble-wobbling action feature.  I don't know that collectors are getting tremendous value here, aside from the whole Disney playing on the whole blind box phenomenon that's hot in the toy business right now.

Do you have any extras to trade?  I'm hoping to score some more of these, but sounds like they're currently out of stock.

Sorry, no extras at this time.  Of the five that I've purchased only one came truly blind boxed.  And thankfully that was one of the two that I did not yet have.  Still trying to track down the C1 droid now.

[JediJman]

I have a contact that buys Disney stuff and resells for a 20% mark up.  So my droids came to about $21 each with shipping (I bought 8 of them).  A bit more steep than the $15 tag, but a lot cheaper than Ebay or flying to the park myself.  I just hope they're in ample supply so I can get the full set.  I do think we'll see more - I thought I saw a post somewhere about another wave of them coming out in little sandcrawler crates.

Oh yeah, at that small a mark up I'd do it and be done as well. 

Are these available at any Disney stores in Orlando that don't require theme park tickets?  I'll be near Orlando in February, but am not going to Disney...

Are they sold at the Galactic Outpost in Disney Springs?  Or just limited to Galaxy's Edge stores?  I'll try to find out.

[Nicklab]

I saw reports of them being sold at the Emporium Shop in the Magic Kingdom park.  That's the shop that's close to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom that everyone winds up stopping at on their way out of the park.  Gotta love how they planned that!

There are actually TWO Star Wars themed shops at Disney Springs - the Galactic Outpost and the Star Wars Trading Post.  I liked the Star Wars Trading Post a bit more when I was there, but that was in late 2017, and you could still do the Build-A-Droid thing there.  It doesn't seem like a terribly Covid friendly thing to do now.  But I also remember seeing the big Disney Sandcrawler there, too.

[Jesse James]

Last I’d heard they’re sold out at wdw, but not dl

[Mikey D]

Last I’d heard they’re sold out at wdw, but not dl

I'm pretty sure this is true.  I've been at DW all week and I didn't see these anywhere in parks or Disney Springs.