I bet you a nickel it's 12 new Target exclusive Clone Troopers that will be released one per month, every month, for the next year.  They will be limited to three per store, and will cost 24.99.  These sculpts will also be based on the POTJ Sneak Preview Clone Trooper, since Hasbro is obviously losing money on those super articulated bodies at this point.

Can you tell how irritated I'm getting with all this exclusive crap, especially now that we've reached the realm of non-holo/silver commemorative figures?   

Seriously, I'm sure it's probably something either really amazing or really underwhelming.  The kid in me wants to see an AT-TE or (at the very least) a Sith Infiltrator.  The cynical cranky adult in me expects to see a Millennium Falcon repaint or a box set of Epic Force figures.  Or, since RS is the only site that seems to be mentioning it at all, it's probably a Hasbro shrine to Lord Philip.   

Comedy Edit:  It's Gwyneth Paltrow's head. 

There are two Wal-Marts within fifteen minutes of one another in my area (which is depressing in and of itself, but I digress) and both of them have sections for these that are literally packed to the limit.  There are at least 50 and possibly more at each store and since moving them into an aisle from the tent sale, I have yet to see a single one change positions. 

People are not buying these because, as I said when this was first announced, the reason the EB promotion was so successful in the 1970s was that at that time, there were no SW action figures to buy as an alternative.  To get them, you HAD to buy the EB package.  Even today the EB package is looked back on as being a really audacious promotion that succeeded in spite of logic and an abundance of what is often referred to as "testicular fortitude."

Now, you've got the same promotion for a different age, but the difference is that there is not as much demand for SW toys as there was back in 1977 (relatively speaking), since there are at least 1000 different things being sold alongside this new EB kit which require absolutely no waiting for 6-8 weeks (or more) and are infinitely cheaper.  And to be honest, I'm right there with mosnab in thinking that the average non-collector doesn't know what the hell this thing is; all they see is an envelope with dated artwork for a ridiculously high price.  Why pay 30 dollars for this when you can go three feet down the aisle and get 6 figures right now for the same cost?

This exclusive was poorly planned, poorly executed, and is selling equally poor.  Even K-Mart, the raging bastion of Chapter 11 that it is, got an exclusive that you can actually tangibly touch in their establishments (the ones that are still open, of course).  Target gets two figures that create a whole lot of buzz and attention and actually promoted these items (well, they did with Vader; who knows what cluster**** awaits with the Clone), TRU gets a Yoda that was equally promoted and had a lot of buzz, and WM sits on announcing theirs until a few days before it goes on sale, Hasbro doesn't actually reveal the figures until after it goes on sale, and in the end, all they got was a crappy (yes, I said it) envelope that nobody but die-hard collectors are going to buy.

Oh, and the other WM exclusive items (the Titanium series) are just flying off the shelves here too.  There have to be at least 400 of the various things hanging around collecting dust. 

And you know, the conspiracy side of my personality makes me think that this Early Bird disaster (and regardless of what you think of the figures or the coolness/lameness of the item itself, it is, on a retail level, a disaster) could end up being a really bad harbinger of the future of the SW line as a whole after ROTS has run its course.  Keep in mind that WM is the number one toy retailer in the country (this sickens me, but still...), and if you want to see what kind of effects WM can have on any company, just Google "WalMart Predatory Business Practices" or something like that.

I'm not saying that WM will drive Hasbro into bankruptcy, but when WM sees how poorly this EB stuff has done, I have a feeling it's going to take a whole lot of placating on the part of Hasbro to get them to carry SW toys in the next few years.

My modus operandi with the lightsabers was that I wanted one of every color and then I would be done.  So, I got the Episode I Maul and Qui-Gon sabers, the Episode II Anakin saber in the Clone Wars packaging, and that was pretty much it for me.

The more I thought about it though, the more I figured I should get a regular red lightsaber, so I picked up the ROTS Dooku saber a week or so ago at Wal-Mart.  It's actually different than the AOTC version, since this one has this motion activated lightsaber "WOM!" (that's my sad attempt at typing the typical lightsaber "whoosh" noise) that annoys the piss out of me every time I move it a fraction of an inch.  Still, it's a red saber, and the handle is cool, so unless they do a Mace Windu with an accurate handle (since photos make it look like they're still using that pseudo-Maul handle that he had in TPM photography), I'm finished with the role play stuff.

The movie, without a doubt.  The toys/merchandise doesn't even come close.  If this was some bizarre parallel world where SW toys were never released, it would not bother me a bit.  The movies are what I love, first and foremost, and they are all that matters to me.  If I lost it all tomorrow, I'd be sad, but knowing that I could go out and buy the DVDs of the five films, I would be fine in the long-run.

That said, if they do a good, large, plush Yoda along the lines of the Applause one from a few years back (that I never got), I would be a very happy panda. 

the other day at Wal Mart a kid was pointing to the vader voice changer and asked if he could get it . The mom said no and then she went on to say " besides you can hear that noise at any old hospital" .  I have yet to hear that noise at a hospital

  Someone give this woman the "Mother of the Year" award. 

Seriously, this wins for the most disturbing comment I've ever heard of being uttered in a toy aisle from a parent to a child.  Contest over.  I hate humanity. 

Despite my belief that this line is going to flop bigger than Rosie O'Donnell on a Miami beach, I picked up the Vader at a local WM yesterday.  It has its good points (it's Vader and it's kind of neat looking, I suppose), but it also has its bad points (that shield and some very strange articulation choices between the arms).

Quick review (I guess):

-THE GOOD:  The sculpt is nice, very anime and stylized.  He stands on his own reasonably well and that's always a plus.  He can hold his lightsaber with both hands, and the shield can be taken off and thrown into a box, never to see the light of day again.  There is some really interesting articulation that you can't really see in the package on his arms.  Basically, if this makes sense, he has two cut joints in his lower arm: one is the usual at the elbow, and the next is less than a half inch away where his gloves meet the forearms.  He's also got cut wrist articulation, so that's three points on each arm from the elbow down, which I hadn't seen before.  The lightsaber is nice, and is more along the lines of the 12" dolls in terms of appearance and quality, if a bit smaller.

-THE BAD:  The cloth cape (the outer one) doesn't have the same care and quality in its stitching that other Vaders at this scale or smaller (Jedi Force Vader and the GH Vader) have had over the past few years.  Why they chose to do a plastic inner cape and a cloth outer cape is beyond me, but it's there.  There is no articulation in his right leg at all (other than the squeeze thing), and his left leg only has a hip joint (but this is good since he can stand on his own). 

-THE WTF?:  The shield is ridiculous.  The action feature is silly, and pointless (although I guess that's the point of these figures).  The biggest WTF? moment is the lack of a ball jointed shoulder on the left arm while the right arm has a ball joint.  I can't figure this one out at all, especially since the Jedi Force Vader had this on both shoulders.  Plus there's the overall pointless nature of these figures ever being made, so there you go.

Overall, it's a fairly cool piece as far as just looking at it and saying, "Hey, that's an interesting looking Vader" on your shelf, but as far as "This makes me want to collect this whole line, how awesome!", it scores a big fat zero.  If you've got 10 bucks to burn and you like Vader, go ahead and pick it up.  If you're wavering, go to the next aisle and pick up the Jedi Force Vader, which is a much cooler toy overall and a lot more fun.  Just be sure to buy it before clearances, because I doubt this one will be sticking around in the mess of Obi-Wans, Grievii, and Anakins (I had to dig through eight pegs to find one Vader).

As incoherent and Burroughs-esque as this post has been, it's my thoughts on this figure. 

 

The same thing happened to me, mosnab.  I added all three of the wave to my cart and everything was fine up until I got to the final confirmation page, where I got the "Estimated Ship Date: June 15, 2005" message.  So, I went ahead and cancelled the order, as I've had many similar situations on Amazon/TRU where I get the email in about two months time saying something along the lines of, "We apologize for the inconvenience, but the item(s) you ordered are no longer available from our distributor."

All three of the figures (at least when I was looking around) are no longer listed on the main ROTS/SW store pages either.  I was only able to find the Vader/Palp-Yoda through the links you provided, and Ventress only through clicking a "People who bought the items in your cart" link on one of those pages. 

On a completely unrelated note, I'd just like to tell everyone again how great the Unleashed Obi-Wan and Anakin figures are when you put them together.  Even if you're not a regular Unleashed collector, these two figures make one of the nicest displays you could ever hope for in your SW collection.  The Grievous is great too, but for me to see so many of the Anakins and Bens hanging around on pegs is disappointing, as they are, taken together, the nicest and coolest Unleashed figures that have been done in the line, period.  I'm not trying to "thin out the pegs" for future waves (if I did that, I would have to beg people to buy Securas/Bossks/Tuskens), but I'm just wanting to let people know that there are two really cool toys on the pegs right now that I think a lot of people are overlooking.