If I'm a buyer at Target, Walmart or TRU, I'm frantically dialing my Hasbro sales rep demanding information and some type of discounts on this.  There's no way this doesn't cost Hasbro huge money in one way or another.

I can see it resulting in big discounts or loss of future shelf space or even no support on other movie properties that Hasbro is producing toys for.

Besides Avengers, GI Joe was really the only other huge toy movie due this year so you have to believe that TRU and Target, at least, had some plan in the works for a featured front end (TRU) or end cap (Target) to push the movie toys. 

GI Joe is still GI Joe, it has a fan base and will sell even without a movie, but I can't believe for a second that even IF Hasbro ships waves 2 and up that retail would be willing to carry much of it.  Walmart hasn't had Joe figures since the first of the year, Target is currently clearancing the leftover Renegades/30th figures and TRU, well, TRU will sit on all sorts of stuff for years...  But can we expect a store like Target to carry stuff advertising a movie that wasn't released?

Hasbro has had so many problems for the last 6 - 10 months getting any of their product in stores this CAN'T be a good thing for them.  They had down numbers in their last quarter, they laid off a bunch of people (including in the MU team and that's the ONLY line that's actually making it to retail) and I have a hard time believing that The Phantom Menace helped their bottom line that well seeing as they put out all the Buy 1 Get 1 and other discount coupons back in Feb/March.

This is such a complete cluster **** for Hasbro is so many more ways than just having a film delayed 9 months.  Other than Avengers, they haven't had a hit movie line in years, and none of them have been managed well at retail. 

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You're exactly right on that, Jesse.  Lego's model is working pretty well.  Measured releases two times a year with a few special releases in between and then the occasional release for a licensed product.  They have frequent sales, you can almost always find something marked down on a rotating basis, and product ships to retail usually for at least a year.

Plus you have all the promos to take advantage of on Shop.Lego.com or in the Lego stores; free minifigures, posters, free shipping, bonus VIP points, etc.  They've built an extremely loyal customer base worldwide and nearly all system sets from the various themes not only maintain value, but quite often increase over time. 

I can't think of any other toy line that really has going for it what Lego does.  The only downside is the buy-in price on some sets.  No matter how cool it is, it's hard to drop $400 on a set like the Death Star or Super Star Destroyer.  When it comes specifically to SW, I'm at least satisfied that over the last couple of years they've made sure to have some offerings in the $10 - $25 range.  There were a couple of years where their entry level was something like $29.99...not their best two years.

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Thanks to user Slizer at Rebelscum we now know this will be a TRU exclusive.  See linky for proof:

http://www.facebook.com/ToysRUsCanada/app_332786446780483

click exclusives in the lower right hand corner and it will show a pic

Your link is kinda messed up, try this one: TRU Exclusive

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I see we have a delayed newsletter again...  Although the Club threw their printer under the bus over it, we've never had an issue before and it has to be more than coincidence that it's happend twice now while they were dealing with all the system problems. 

Maybe it really was the printer, but I'm skeptical of anything they put out right now.  I've been firmly in the Club's camp on pretty much everything, even during the "not our problem" part of the CC hack and reveal, but I'm starting lose some faith.

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Saw these today at TRU.  I really wanted to buy a set but was kinda pissed at the markup.  I'll wait for Walmart to get them.  I'll definitely get the Shelob and Gandalf sets.  I really like the looks of the rest and even though I said earlier that I was probably in on this line, I don't know if I'll actually buy that many.  SW and GI Joe are way too expensive this year, with several huge purchases for both coming up, and they take priority over the LOTR sets.

Still, I'm psyched to see what they do with the LOTR sets, especially, and then the Hobbit.

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I thought the only thing the new store had was the registrations for Club membership and the people that were hit before probably wouldn't be using the new store for anything?

Do you have a link to a thread?

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I stopped in one DG on Friday also and didn't find anything.  Should have stopped on my way back through Saturday but didn't.  My closest store is about 12 miles away and I really don't want to have to drive up and back every day looking for these things.

I'm hoping either something like Family Dollar also carries them or they start popping up other places like drug stores or grocery stores.  If they're still in the $6 range I'll be happy to get one of each and maybe even try to army build a few of the Cobra Soldiers and the Duke figure (for some head swaps).

It would be really nice if Hasbro actually officially announced these!

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$345-*******-dollars for the Oktober Guard set?!  Holy ****.  Another $210 for the loose set.  That's a $40 bump on last year's set (and $25 on the bagged set).

Don't get me wrong, the Club is doing two really nice sets this year, but if you aren't going to the convention, the price is getting a little too much.  Since you miss out on so many benefits by not going, at these prices, buying the non-attendee package really isn't affordable any more.

I'm also not sure about the OG now.  The final two members are Horror Show and a new member, General Iron Bear.  That means we're not even getting the classic 6 members which we could infer as meaning that Dragonsky will probably be a show exclusive.  Crap.  Now I'm almost more interested in buying last year's 12" set and then this year's.  Argh.  If the OG wasn't really the only special team from the vintage era that I wanted in the updated format I'd just be done with it.

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