I just got an email from Marauder that they're going to offer two additional accessory sets even though they didn't get unlocked during the run.

Four things with the Marauder Kickstarter; the G.I. Joe guys are a mixed bag of the cheapest collectors and those that don't seem to have an upper limit on expenditures.  Star Wars can be like that but it always seemed more extreme to me with the Joe guys.  The guys that'll buy at top dollar, those are the guys funding this.  The funding level works out to an average of $204 per backer.  While there are SW guys that'll pony up, I don't think a SW kickstarter would get a $200+ average.  Besides, all those accessories and extra figs in different decos increased the desire to pay more to unlock stretch goals, the Death Star didn't have any stretch goals and the Ewok Space trees had a $50 price before you got anything while Marauder gave you a figure w/ accessories at a $19 donation.

Second, and probably the most important thing, Marauder has a legit manufacturing company lined up to do these figures plus they were designed by pros, Boss Fight Studios, who have worked on Hasbro products and do work for the Joe Club.  Marauder already manufactures accessories with a known quality to them.  The Star Wars dios that I think you're talking about, Jesse, are being 3D printed by guys "in their basement."  Meaning, not professional manufacturing.  I'm not inclined to offer money to someone that's not in manufacturing and probably doesn't really get what all goes into it.  My impression, Marauder is doing retail quality manufactured toys while the SW dios are garage kits.

Kickstarter is the third thing.  Marauder has been there before and Kickstarter is the popular site for this type of thing.  The SW dios got funded but they used Indiegogo...I'd never heard of that site until Yakface started advertising the sets.  I don't know what their reach is, but that may have had something to do with it.

Finally, dios.  There is a segment of SW collectors that want dios, but I've always said that it's not as big as some people think.  I've had that argument with Chewie a couple times, especially on the playset vs dio angle.  Marauder is making generic military action figures that fit in with G.I. Joe collections and are playable toys.  A 3D printed dio may look good on a shelf but it won't interact with your existing fleet of vehicles and they're specific to displaying, usually, a certain type of figure.  Generic figures?  They go anywhere in a collection you want to put them.

I can't think of anything Star Wars related that could hit Kickstarter or the Indiegogo site that I'd back.  If Hasbro ever went the way Mattel did to get Castle Greyskull funded by offering pre-orders, and they were doing an amazing Death Star playset (not dio) or maybe Sandcrawler, I might be in.  But 3d printed?  No thanks.

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My Target put out a shelf hanger full of these either today or late Thursday.  There were a lot of them there but there were some scattered around so someone had been going through them.  I didn't bother to pick any up, I'm not really a Simpsons fan.

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I'm pretty happy with about 8 of them, better than FSS2.  I'm really psyched for Alpine, Bombstrike and I can't wait to see Vypra.  I hope they keep that steady-gun with Repeater that they used in last year's Con set, the one that originally came with the POC IG figures. 

I'm pretty much sold on the set, I just don't know how to pay for it.  I'm debating going for the whole thing or picking and choosing.  Ultimately if I get Alpine, Bombstrike and Repeater (hinging on accessories) I could probably live without the rest if I had to. 

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Dang, Jesse.  I passed up a Lady Jaye fig at TRU last weekend.  I won't be back to that store anytime soon though.  HTS still has her in stock also and there was that 20% off w/ free shipping code but I think it expired Monday.

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Anyone from JD going to the Con this year?  I'm not going to be there and didn't buy either of the sets.  I don't care for the Zombie stuff and didn't feel the value was there on the 12" set for what's included. 

Without Hasbro attending the Con, it's not looking like we'll get any new reveals or see any samples of the 50th stuff coming to TRU later this year.  While there may be some good, informative panels, I think the most I could hope for at this point info on the FSS 3.0, if the Club is doing one.  Maybe hear some plans for their future 12" product since they basically cleaned out the store with that latest sale they had.

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The membership figures and accessories went up for pre-order on the Club website today (Thursday).  They're a little more expensive than I thought they would be.

I picked the 12" figure as my sub freebie so I ponied up for the accessory set and box for him ($40), Cross Country (carded $30) and the H.A.V.O.C. ($42).  Over $126 shipped.  I wasn't really pleased with that total.

I didn't really want a carded Cross Country but there was no option for a bagged figure so I don't know if I offered to trade him to someone getting the free version that's a carded collector would work or not.  I don't think the $42 for the vehicle is actually that terrible.  It's a limited run on a decent sized toy that was $20 or $25 at retail the first time around...Same price as the Eagle Hawk is now.

I expected $40 on the 12" set mostly because of the box.  It's the only 12" Joe stuff out there so I feel like I needed to support it.

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I never looked, I wonder if the 5 per limit was available from the start or if they upped it after limiting it further at the start?  I know that when FSS 1.0 figs hit the store they mostly sold out in a couple of days, with only a couple exceptions. 

Or, I wonder if they have more this time around because they ordered based on FSS 1.0 numbers and didn't get as many takers on the full sub?  I wonder if some of the info on that will be talked about during the Club's panel at the Con next month?  I'm sure if they're planning on doing a 3.0 sub we'll probably hear about the figures at that show, they announced 2.0 at last year's con.

Although, who knows if you'll be able to register for this year's Con?  Technical problems have kept it from going online so far.  I'm not going and I won't be ordering either set although I do like the 12" set this year.  Just looking at it, though, I don't think the value is there.  And I've seen it reported that other than the freebie for attending, there isn't an add-on set for the 12" release this year, but I'm not sure that's a 100% yet.

I'm still in for the Havok and Cross Country and the accessory set for the 12" figure, which I have picked as my free fig this year.

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