2009: Worst Distribution Year Ever?

[Jesse James]

Nah those aren't out.  Pics of them surfaced just recently from overseas so I think there's a little time on those yet.  I saw remnants of the wave tonight again including Luke/Lumiya for the first time, but none of the other sets.  I'm still on the hunt for extra Katarn sets so I can do a nifty update for a Dark Forces and Jedi Knight Katarn duo I'm hoping... 

We're clogged to the brim with lots of Marvel sets and not a ton else.

[Jabba the Slug]

I'm REALLY surprised because the new red product is hitting hard, and my local Targets are doing pretty well with TLC (except a few leftover white/blue Saesee Tiins. Yarna's all gone now, THANK YOU!  ) The only thing missing is the new red-carded CPs. The only CPs here are the Xizor and Thrawn sets. I'm starting to worry that the Krayt/Katarn/Lumiya sets won't EVER hit by my neck of the woods. 

[efranks]

Over the weekend my Walmart sold through all of the comic packs on the shelf except for the Leia/Xizor pack (2 or 3 left).  That set may be the single worst fiasco Hasbro has ever come up with.  Worse than the late 90's Nien Nunb.  Worse than Yarna/Bail/Breha combined.

I could, right now, walk out of work and buy at least 6 of those comic packs within 5 minutes.  Give me a half hour and I could buy another dozen (Elmira).  Another half hour after that, two dozen more (Binghamton).  That's all based on what I saw over the last 2 weeks when I went shopping.

Now, tell me again how collectors screwed this line?     We didn't pick that pack.  I don't remember anyone asking for a new Xizor either...and we certainly weren't asking for that Leia.

Not even the Christmas toy rush is moving that pack here.  The $6 price at Walmart has really cleared the pegs, however, even of the CW figs.  We may actually get a restock here.  I can only hope we get the ROTJ revision case.

Target, on the other hand, I don't see them selling all of the Bail/Breha/Stass figures they have.  They couldn't sell them the first 10 months of the year so I don't have any reason to believe they'll move for Christmas.

   E...

[Jesse James]

We've still yet to see a lot of the ESB wave locally I guess, unlike other areas.  I'm a little disappointed.  Hopefully I find them soon, as I'd like to be "caught up" again for a while.

Leia/Xixor is definately the suck.  Would it have done badly had Luke been packaged instead of Leia?

[Jeff]

Would it have done badly had Luke been packaged instead of Leia?

Luke, or Dash, or Guri, or ANYONE would have been better than Cankles Leia. 

That to me is one of the biggest mysteries of the Comic Pack line - WTF were there so many Leias in there?  Vader I get (trying to cross sell to kids) but what was with all the EU Leias - Hoth, Endor Sniper, SotE, etc? 

All the time they tell us that Leia/Padme don't do well, then they stick a bunch of Leias in the Comic Pack line.  Strange.   

[efranks]

Would it have done badly had Luke been packaged instead of Leia?

Luke, or Dash, or Guri, or ANYONE would have been better than Cankles Leia. 

That to me is one of the biggest mysteries of the Comic Pack line - WTF were there so many Leias in there?  Vader I get (trying to cross sell to kids) but what was with all the EU Leias - Hoth, Endor Sniper, SotE, etc? 

All the time they tell us that Leia/Padme don't do well, then they stick a bunch of Leias in the Comic Pack line.  Strange.   

I don't think Luke would have sold that pack better.  I think Guri would have.  Kids may have picked the set for Luke, but collectors, the comic pack target audience, probably wouldn't have.  There's been a bigger call for Guri for the last 10 years than another Xizor or pretty much anyone else from SotE.

Not only does Hasbro tell us that Leia/Padme don't sell, it's a well known fact that female action figures don't sell well in general.  That's one of the reasons why the 2008 Wave 4 case is such a terrible assortment; two female characers (Stass and Breha) plus a collector targeted figure we weren't asking for (Bail) and some troop builders.  Making matters worse, there were 2 revision cases for that wave, both of which included Stass/Breha/Bail, but only the first case and first revision had FX-6 which is was a excellent figure. 

The theme here is how badly Hasbro ****** 2008 and we paid for it through the entire year 2009.  I could write a thesis on how Hasbro screwed up over the last year but all I really want to do is punch the entire Star Wars team in the mouth and swear at them for an hour.

   E...

[Darby]

I think the missteps (all of which I agree with) of 2008 were magnified by the downturn in the economy.  Had the market gone on like nothing happened, I think they would have gotten through the Yarna/Comic Pack Leia mess fine.  They seem to be doing fine this year - obviously sales are down, but you wouldn't know it by what's happening on the shelves right now.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

I don't remember anyone asking for a new Xizor either...and we certainly weren't asking for that Leia.

I actually really like that figure and glad they made him. I would have like the rest of the SOTE crew updated and really hope Dash, Guri and Snoova get resculpted/made one day. I do like the Leia but the cankles are bad they should have put the articulation in the knees. Was she a wise choice hells no! And yes this set was a slow seller like the Thrawn pack. Even the Green Mandos out sold these sets. You have to laugh a little bit that the curse of Xizor lives again.

At least the Rancor Keeper this time around is not clogging pegs. He is not the fastest seller but he redeemed himself in my opinion.

[efranks]

Well, unfortunately the local Walmart got a pallet display either Monday or Tuesday.  The TLC section, which was all ROTS wave, was pretty decimated when I found it.  The CW and SL sections were barely touched.   Only one or two vehicles had sold.

I was hoping that my store would skip this because the Saga Legends will most likely choke off this store for months.  The only hope is that the $6 price moves them out, but I'm not holding out much hope.

Back to the comic packs for a sec; I like the Xizor figure also.  I bought him loose off eBay cause I didn't want to pay for that comic pack.  Still, whether it's a good figure or not, there wasn't a huge fan call for him.  And the Leia was pretty bad. 

While I do agree that the downturn in the economy had an effect, I don't agree that it was the only reason this pack didn't sell.  Plenty of other comic packs that shipped with the Leia/Xizor pack sold.  Even the Marvel painted repacks from the most recent wave are selling, but not this one pack. 

Those three figs from the 2008 wave 4 cas I keep mentioning, other figs from that case are selling but those three are dogs.  Terrible choices.  And locally, those three were soley responsible for my Target not getting a shipment of 2009 figures until October.

Part of the reason I'm so pissed about this is the fact that Hasbro continues to blame collectors for the problems in the line and I don't buy.  And I hate it when people won't own up to **** like that.

   E...

[jedi_master_sal]

They blame us for not buying. Okay, to a point I'll agree with that. However it's the reasons WHY we're not buying that are in question.

Poor choice of characters, HIGH price points, those are two of the biggest reasons I keep seeing from the collecting community.

Hasbro wants to choke us with unwanted product AND pay a premium for it. Sorry Pawtucket, not buying it. Blame us or not, but the real problem stems from you FIRST. Give us characters we want and at much more reasonable prices and we'll buy.

I am SO glad I chose to reduce my budget over the last few years. It's made it extremely easy to pass up on stuff. But Hasbro decision on which characters are made and their ever increasing prices have made it even that much easier to slow down on buying.

[Keonobi]

The thing that slowed my spending the most, by drastically reducing impulse buys, was the multitude of figure lines.  I think I've bought four Clone Wars figures and I picked up a couple Saga Legends.  I certainly haven't bought every Legacy figure, but I probably bought most.  That said, most times I walked into a store all they had were Legends figures and a few pegwarmers from the other two lines.  If there had been one, or maybe two, lines there wouldn't have been nearly the same frequency of stinker figures.

Whether that's simply a failure at the distribution and retail level, not having the line I'm interested on the shelf, at all, makes it very difficult for me to buy anything.