JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Other Toy Lines => Well of the Souls => Topic started by: speedermike on May 3, 2008, 08:55 PM
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I was wondering if, as collectors, are we spoiled by Star Wars? I was out again doing some errands and stopped to look for the few Indy fgiures I couldn't find on thursday. Target had nothing. Couldn't find them at all. 2 Kay Bees had nothing but some Lego. TRU was cleaned out, they had only 6 basic figures and 3 deluxes left. If this was SW, there's no way that 3 days after launch stores would either not yet have the stuff, or be out of it already.
I really hope this line continues, but I have my doubts. I would definitly pay a premium to get more obscure stuff if Entertainment Eart or some other web retailer stepped in.
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I hear what you're saying. I guess it's because Indy toys haven't been at retail since the early 80's and stores don't know what to expect at this point. They probably just ordered enough to fill the pegs initially and know they can get more if they need it. It's actually not as bad as the GI Joe 25th line has been. The new waves always sell out quickly and then are not seen for weeks. I don't know why stores aren't keeping those in stock. I guess it's probably better than having things warm the pegs like the last Masters of the Universe line did, but that IMO was on Mattel for moronic case assortments. Somewhere in between would be ideal but probably hard to do.
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I just hope it lasts long enough to get the Flying Wing made and some other figs like Toht, Bellog white shirt, Marion with white dress and Nepal bar, Leo Che, etc. I think we all know there is not enough interesting looking background characters and vehicles in the Indy films like Star Wars had to sustain a 10 year plus run.
They have made a pretty good launch of Indy products this year. Obviously it is not going to last a long time. Especially with the economy in the dump, rising gas prices, etc. Money is not going to be poured into buying Indy action figures. These retailers know that. It will go over about as well as other movie line which is fairly short lived unless it's Cars or Star Wars which have both managed to stick around for more than a couple years.
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I have said it all along that this line is really not destined to last much longer than the ToD wave this fall. There's 29 individually carded figures and we already have 17 of them released. That should be telling us something right there.
Ever since I was a kid and my parents got me almost the entire Kenner RotLA line (they got me everything except the Truck) - I have always wished they had made 3.75" figures for ToD and LC. I think the next two waves have me the most excited.
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I have said it all along that this line is really not destined to last much longer than the ToD wave this fall. There's 29 individually carded figures and we already have 17 of them released. That should be telling us something right there.
Ever since I was a kid and my parents got me almost the entire Kenner RotLA line (they got me everything except the Truck) - I have always wished they had made 3.75" figures for ToD and LC. I think the next two waves have me the most excited.
I tend to agree. I dont see this line lasting more than this year and next. I just hope it lasts long enough for Toht.
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This thread is crushing my spirits. Thanks guys. :'(
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I tend to agree. I dont see this line lasting more than this year and next. I just hope it lasts long enough for Toht.
Totally - I'm hoping that the fifth wave will be another Raiders themed wave and will include new versions of the other five vintage Raiders figures from back in the 80s: Toht, Rene Belloq, Indy in German Soldier Disguise, German Mechanic and Marion in White Dress.
As long as they remake the entire Kenner Raiders line, I will be content with the modern line and view any other figures that come out as a bonus.
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I'm hoping that the fifth wave will be another Raiders themed wave and will include new versions of the other five vintage Raiders figures from back in the 80s: Toht, Rene Belloq, Indy in German Soldier Disguise, German Mechanic and Marion in White Dress.
It really seems like that was the way it was designed to play out... they left some "iconic" versions from the Kenner days for that next RotLA wave.
I really want to have faith in Hasbro to keep this thing running into next year, but I really don't know if it will pan out the way that so many collectors seem to be "hating" on this line - paint aps, sculpts, boring characters, etc, etc, etc. :-\
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I think the future of this line depends on how kids like the new movie. When the only figures available are unknown folks from an unreleased summer blockbuster or a film that is way before most kid's time, it's hard to gauge the interest of young people with this line. Why would you want this Jones character when you can get Darth Vader instead?
At the moment, the line seems to have two major problems that will make or break it: price and quality.
Quality: The heads on most figures are horrendous, as previously stated by many a poster. Hasbro needs to rectify this so Indy actually looks like the character that is in the films and not some googly eyed bastard with a gun. The Lego figures have better likenesses...
Price: This is the weirdest piece of the Indy line. Why should I buy 1 poorly painted figure for $8.00 (Don't correct me, that's what I was charged at Target) when I get get a $10.00 figure that looks decent and comes with a motorcycle or another nice figure? Kind of perplexing, but at least those $5 off $25 coupons help the wallet a bit.
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To me, the biggest problem I see with the figures is the eye paint...everything else is OK. I just don't know why its so bad, but it is, the likenesses and articulation is on par with SW and GI Joe, the accessories and the playsets/vehicles are too. It is just how they are painting the eyes. Poor QC I guess. I will agree we are very spoiled by the SW line, the breadth of charcters, the broad support at retail and the retailer support of the line is now much more obvious to me (more than ever).
The problems exist with the Star Wars line too IMO...look at the crap we got with Bespin Luke and the Luke w/ Vaporator. They look nothing like Luke and the face sculpts and eye paint are terrible, but the rest of the figure is great.
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It really seems like that was the way it was designed to play out... they left some "iconic" versions from the Kenner days for that next RotLA wave.
I really hope that turns out to be true - it would be a shame if the modern Indy line didn't see at least a Toht and regular version of Belloq. Heck if you go over to the wishlist thread, I think they should also include the highest ranking German officer too just to complete the trio of bad-guys who opened the Ark and paid the price with their lives. The German Mechanic seems like a no-brainer too just simply because that fight scene is so iconic. The German Soldier disguise Indy figure should be easy to make - they just need to put a fedora-less Indy head on the German Soldier figure body. I could see them skipping on the Marion in White Dress figure, but hopefully they won't.
I really want to have faith in Hasbro to keep this thing running into next year, but I really don't know if it will pan out the way that so many collectors seem to be "hating" on this line - paint aps, sculpts, boring characters, etc, etc, etc. :-\
I really don't understand all of the hatred. Granted I had to really dig through all of the figures on the pegs to find a set of the figures I was happy with, but once I got them home and opened them up, I no longer questioned whether or not I should even be collecting this line. I don't think the character choices have been particularly "boring" - I just think that some of the choices could have been a bit better. For me one simple change that would have made a HUGE difference would have been to release the German Mechanic figure in Wave 1 and just have the German Soldiers only available as the Deluxe 2-pack.
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I really don't understand all of the hatred. Granted I had to really dig through all of the figures on the pegs to find a set of the figures I was happy with, but once I got them home and opened them up, I no longer questioned whether or not I should even be collecting this line.
I agree. I found a Target with a nice supply of figures and had no trouble finding samples of what I wanted with nice eye paint (while there were some really bad eyes out there, there were plenty of good ones to be found). I also maximized the Target coupon and my Hasbro Rewards rebates, so even the $7.50 Target price didn't bother me since I was saving so much via the coupons/rebates anyway...
Maybe I'm just really easy to please when it comes to my toys, but I'm digging this line so far (and I don't even have the KotCS stuff yet).
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I have all but one of the KotCS figures - I like them all just as much as I like the RotLA wave. I think I'll appreciate them even more after I've seen the movie.
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I guess I'm one that's been "hating" but it's been frustrating with the paint apps. As everyone knows, the eyes are the worst, but I've come across a number, notably Indy's, where the facial paint is brutal too. The scruffy, unshaven look is offset over the mouth? C'mon. The lips are dark but there's a mouth beside or slightly below in terms of paint? Yikes. Were this not a collector geared line, I'd be more accepting but for me, with less retailers and my retailers carrying less plus a higher price point, I'm pretty frustrated and I was up for this line from the beginning. No waffling, I was/am buying. Just shouldn't be this hard though. :-\
And the crappy paint apps end up costing me money in the long run. I'm too scared to order these online now because who knows what the eyes will be like, plus the facial paint apps. Oh woe is me, I know. But I'm paying $11+ per single fig and $18+ per deluxe after taxes. Were these well painted, I could go to HTS.com and save $3 per basic fig and $$8 per deluxe. Wouldn't that be nice? And no, I can't just order them and swap them out when I receive them, because the SKU numbers on US products are not identical to the Canadian product. Grrr. And I've got no coupons or Hasbro Rewards programs to help me out with any of it. On top of that, I'm tired of burdening my US friends with requests to find me crap.
Some of the figures are stellar though. The Monkey Man is great, as is the Indy that comes with the Ark - just wow. And lots of the other stuff is really, really nice too. Much of the deluxe line is fantastic and really well selected and frankly a really good deal (in the US).
But as Scott pointed out, some of the issues from Star Wars carry over here. Did Germans really have heads that much larger than everyone else? I dunno.
Overall I'm really, really happy this line is being made. Honest, I am. The character selection is fine by me as I expected it to carry through to ToD and a second wave of ROTLA. I'm just not sure those waves are going to make it to fruition now. I don't mind digging for a great paint job but at the same time, I shouldn't be digging just to find something acceptable. It should be a choice between acceptable (Star Wars standard) and exceptional. Not acceptable and utter crap as has been the case for the Indy figures in the basic line (haven't seen KOTCS locally yet).
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I just opened all of my KotCS figures and I think I don't have a problem with any of them paint wise, really the only figure that sticks out like a sore thumb is Temple Indy
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I'm digging it completely and other than eyes I'm not really disappointed...
Well, I take that back. I see a lot of figures lacking articulation where I think it's warranted (monkey man/Marion's knees, etc.), but at the end of the day I think the figures are pretty on-par with Star Wars. Then again, contrary to Scott I actually though Bespin Luke's likeness was alright... maybe I'm easier to please in that regard though. :-\
I'm digging what I've seen so far though, and like Jeff I've seen enough Indy's to get one with a good paintjob. The other figures I don't think look quite so bad overall, it's Indy I'm seeing has the worst eye paint.
Actually I don't even see many KotCS Indy's. Go figure. I see more Raiders Indy's around actually... Maybe the line has some legs to it? My WM's sold through what was on the pegs 3 times now and restocked. That's since Friday when I got down there to check... That's not bad really by my account. Target doesn't have their vehicles out for me to try maximizing the coupons like Jeff did (yet), but when they do I fully plan to stock up on them, as well as the Deluxe figures (German on bike especially, and German 2-packs). The coupon is gonna ease the financial pain this line's kicking in with the launch.
Overall though, I'm happy... I'll be disappointed if certain characters aren't ever made though for sure, like Toht, Donovan, Brody, a TLC Sallah, ToD stuff, etc. I hope in a year's time they at least can get us a number of those items. Oh and Col. Dietrich needs a figure too.
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Like others have said, its mainly the eyes that have been the issue on the figures I've seen - and even then, its mainly on the ROTLA Indy figures. Overall, the figures look pretty nice - even if you do have to dig a little bit to find decent versions of everyone. I'm really happy that we're getting this line, even if its only for a year or so. Beyond that, they'd probably be scraping for new characters anyways. I always just hoped we would get a Star Wars-esque (VOTC quality) Indy figure, so all the rest are gravy. Overall though, I've picked up all of the first two waves (ROTLA and KOTCS), aside from the Marion and German soldiers (got the two packs instead), and the only figure I really had a problem with was the jacketed ROTLA Indy. I got the best I could find, but the eyes are still a bit wonky. Other than that, its a pretty nice figure though. The only other "figure" problem I've had is keeping Irina Spalko standing up. That figure (or at least the one I picked up), its a bit wobbly.
After picking this stuff up on Thursday, we were back out on Sunday and things did seem to have sold through pretty well. Our Target doesn't have them out yet (as of Saturday I guess), and didn't have a section for them yet or anything either. Wal-Mart and TRU had both sold out of all deluxe figures, and there were a few basic figures left on the pegs. I never did see the basic carded Marion, and Spalko seemed short packed as well. I'm still curious to see what kind of legs this line will have. Like others, I hope they get to some of the other ROTLA characters, but beyond a few other waves next year, I think we'd have a pretty complete lineup by then.
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It seems to me the big push on movie toys seems to be Speed Racer. Ironman, Hulk, Batman and Indy seem to be playing second fiddle to this movie. Personally I'm going to avoid Speed Racer like the plaque but maybe the kids will like it.