Battle of Carkoon Wave

[Brian]

It looks like Rebelscum has gotten a hold of the Carkoon wave, with a Photo Archive update of Leia in Disguise, as well as a group shot of the whole wave.  I'm looking forward to this figure, and the wave/line overall.  Finally some OT goodness is back .

[Reid]

RS says the price for the basic figs are $6.99. I hope its a geuss. 

[Darby]

It's going to be a lean year for Darb if that's true.   

[Darth_Anton]

RS says the price for the basic figs are $6.99. I hope its a geuss. 

That was the MSRP for the ROTS figures as well. Wal-Mart will most likely force the price down to $5.99 if not lower.

You have to give credit where credit is due and RS does do very nice photospreads for the figures (not to disregard Jared's talent.) The Leia is looking real sharp and will be a most welcome addition.

But, I still think the helmet is too big.

[Jesse James]

In regards to MSRP, I was reading some comical thoughts on this around the net...  Some people are so in love with the big H that they even seem to think that we SHOULD pay more for these figures because apparantly some are under the belief that retail takes a loss on Star Wars figures paying $5 or more per figure.

I agree with you Anton, as the ROTS line was MSRP $6.99.  I think what we may see is an early attempt to jack the price up and test the waters...  But either things will bog down quickly and cause them to tip their hands, or retail will get into the competition fights and WM/Target will normalize prices on their own with TRU following suit and KB/KM saying screw you all.

I'm not wild about $6.99 figures, and I don't believe that the line's worth that at its current status either, but I do think there's some overreaction going on around the net right now...  And for those who think retail actually takes a loss on Star Wars, the best way to figure out if they are is to look at what they're willing to cut prices down to on a sale.  K-Mart's black Friday sale was $3.50 per figure (BOGO), and I know they didn't take a loss on that, they just moved product at a lower profit margin...  WM and Target supposedly do better financially for Hasbro and with the line in general and I'd imagine they may even get things for cheaper than KM.  I can't believe anyone would have a hard-on for Star Wars toys to the point that they'd accept $6.99 prices under the delusion that retail takes a loss on Star Wars.  That just makes so little sense to me.

[Darby]

I expect it will be $5.99 or $5.88 or whatever at WM, and I guess that will be okay, since I'll be buying less next year.  Hasbro has to realize though that one reason the line moves the way it does is the price; casual collectors/kids/parents start balking at anything over five bucks (so I've noticed).

[Jesse James]

Kinda like vehicles...  You can make it as nice as you want but when you break $30 you are in sketchy territory for sales. 

I dont' like it much myself but the ARC isn't a bad toy at all for $30, same with the gunship, and while the ARC's not hot this year (I'm amazed), the Gunship wasn't hot in the past when kiddies weren't around even really...  CW, Saga...  Gunships were a dime a dozen.

ROTS they're not so, but they also didn't ship much and have a "rare" mystique about them so people are buying them to hoard, scalp, or as trade bait on top of kiddies actually being there...  So I'm willing to look at that with a grain of salt as being positive.  If the ARC Fighter isn't selling well then to me $30's just a pricepoint people don't want to go to.

$20 JSF's moved fairly well though and some areas never saw AT-RT's and stuff.  Price can make or break specific areas of the line and I agree that it can be a deciding factor for figures too.

I think $5.88-ish is sufficient, that was what a lot of ROTS was costing as I recall.  $4.77 is really nice though, I'd like it to stay in that $4.99 range because I really felt a lot more value out of the majority of figures.  The higher price gets though, the more Cat Minn or Passel Argente start to look like a real ass reaming where you get just a chunk of painted plastic, and not much of anything else.

$6.99 and everyone's got super articulation or close though?  I'm in on that.   But last I looked Carkoon Fett's lacking quite a bit, as were some of the Hoth figures...  So I ain't counting on a massive quality increase (decrease seemed more like it to me).

[Brian]

I agree with what Jesse is saying.  The $4.99ish pricepoint is great to me too, and I think it appeals more to casual buyers as well.  I also think that we'll see the $5.88-$5.99 pricepoint to start off the new line next year, and it might fluctuate down from that to our current pricepoint, or it might not.  I don't think (and hope) we will see $6.99, but I guess you never know.  I remember paying about $8 for some figures during the Phantom Menace line, which seems insane to me know.  Like Jesse mentioned, if we were getting figure quality on the level of much of the VOTC, or like the ROTS Obi-Wan Pilot figure, I'd pay $6.99 each.  I'd rather pay $5, but the figures would seem more worthy of the higher price if they were all of that quality.  Outside of that, figures like Passel Argente and Caat Miin can stay on the pegs at those high prices.

The vehicles pricepoint is another good point.  I've been trying to keep an eye on the ROTS vehicles this year, and they seemed to have sold pretty well in my area.  The $30 pricepoint really seems to be the "absolute top dollar" for a vehicle/playset, especially among casual customers.  There are a lot of collectors that will end up paying even more if it is something we haven't seen before, but I know many of us even scoff at pricepoints now.  Exclusives are of course higher, and almost always above $30 anymore, and that might be one of the main avenues that we're able to see vehicles from here on out without movie support.  Also, with the ARC fighter, I thought that was a real nice toy for $30 and I can't understand why they would sit anywhere.  They can't be found around here, but I know that's not necessarily true elsewhere.  Its too bad, I know if I was a kid I'd be thrilled to have a SW toy like that waiting under the tree at Christmas .

[Darth_Anton]

As a side note, isn't it amazing that the price of basic figures has always hovered around $5 at it's lowest point over the last 10 years - and Gas has gone up over a buck a gallon.

[Darth Slothus]

for you maybe...but when I consider 10 years ago I was paying 88 cents a gallon-I realize gas has gone up alot more. Strange how the SW prices seem to hover around that price Anthony...kinda defies inflation laws doesn't it? Especially when you consider we havn't experienced this "mini-recession" for 10 years.

[Darth Tedious]

I managed to score the Carkoon Wave at TRU yesterday (as seen in the TSC Recent Purchases Thread).

I am really pleased with the overall quality of the figures. I told myself I wouldn't be buying Fett or Barada, but after seeing them, I couldn't resist.

The paint app on these guys is top notch. Rather than basic or super articulation across the board, they have a more character specific articulation. Bib, for example, has a movable head and lower arms and that's it. His lack of articulation, however, is more than made up for with a beautifully detailed sculpt.

He is my second fave in the wave after Boussh. Plenty of articulation here to go with a great sculpting job. Really cool accessories top it all off. The figure is in perfect scale. She is SMALL! Coming up to just over Chewbacca's waist and up to Han's shoulder.

In the new sculpts I can see several areas where Hasbro could have cut corners in the sculpts or paint apps and they didn't. If I have 1 gripe about this wave, it would be that I would liked to have seen a VOTC Fett instead of the action feature Carkoon Fett.

But overall, I am really pleased with these figures. I am really excited about what else Saga 2006 has in store!URLNameftp://http://

[ruiner]

Did everyone see the post over at RS showing Boba Fett wtih all 12 holograms?  I wonder if all of the OCD collectors (JediMac) will feel the need to buy all of these variations?   

[Jayson]

There are only 6

[Clone Commander]

So...when will they be released?

[Jeff]

So...when will they be released?

Look a few posts up...

I managed to score the Carkoon Wave at TRU yesterday (as seen in the TSC Recent Purchases Thread).

A few folks in Canada have already found them at local TRU stores... should be in the USA very soon!