2015 SDCC 6" First Order Stormtrooper

[Nicklab]

Are you seriously ******* kidding?  It's already out of stock?!?!?!  WTF?!?!?!

[Rob]

Well that was fun... I must have been close... I was able to tell it to add one to my cart, but after it spun for 3 minutes it took me to a page that said there was nothing in my cart, then it was gone.

[Jeff]

TEN minutes.  They lasted TEN minutes.  Actually, less than ten by some counts. 

[P-Siddy]

I guess this is the time where we have to keep checking since they usually add more in the next few days.

[Jeff]

There are usually two more order windows that will open in the coming days - one for cancelled orders and then a second for the credit card declines.  But both will have incredibly small numbers available.

[Phrubruh]

I miss the old days when you could get an exclusive from SDCC both at the show and online the next day and it would stay up for a few days. Hasbro would actually have enough stock to sell for anyone that wanted one. The Hot Wheels guys have completely destroyed this hobby.

[Rob]

It's almost like they're not interested in moving product. 

[JediJman]

Did anyone get one?  I got the Ant-Man Box set and Transformers Kreo, but missed this and the Book of Vishanti set.  Bummer.  Also, I thought it was free shipping over $50?  I spent $10 on tax and another $10 on shipping.  I found a code for Comic2015, but it did not discount the price at all.   

[Jeff]

Also, I thought it was free shipping over $50?

The HTS free shipping isn't an 'always' thing.  Certain times (like this week), they take it down.  I noticed that they disabled the "free ship on $50 or more" thing on Monday in preparation for today. 

Same thing with the coupon codes - those are disabled for the exclusives.  They've gotten smarter about those kinds of thing over the years, especially on shipping the large/oversized con stuff. 

[JediJman]

Well at least they are watching out for the consumer.  Sure, you can't typically get the exclusives you want on line, but for those that do, at least you are secure in the knowledge that you have paid the absolute highest price possible.

[DoctorPadawan]

I kept HTS up in the background all morning and hit F5 when I was near my computer, only to have the Stormtrooper go up for preorder when I left for lunch, and wound up missing out completely.  Oh well, I've come to expect this from HTS to be honest.  Even in the rare cases that I actually get an SDCC exclusive (such as last year's Jabba's Throne Room set), the actual delivery turns out to be such an ordeal/cluster****, what with all the FedEx signature requirements and misroutings that you wonder if it was even worth the hassle to begin with. 

A coworker/fellow collector asked me if these were going to show up in stores and I answered "Yes" (complete with quotation marks in the text message).  She asked me why I used quotes, and I said it was because I haven't really trusted anything that has come out of Hasbro's mouths as it relates to the Star Wars line in the last three or four years, so I'll believe this will be in stores in any kind of box when I actually see it in stores with my own eyes.  I realize that there's a new movie coming and all, and that will/should change the dynamics of SW toys at retail, but given that I haven't purchased a single 3.75" or 6" SW figure at a brick and mortar retail location (outside of extras, the Speeder Bike/Scout, and Proto Fett) since wave 1 of the 6" Black Series, I'm not holding out a whole lot of hope for Hasbro getting anything past the initial blitz into a store this year.

So yeah, I'm not concerned about missing out on the exclusive version, but kind of dubious on when I'll actually find the non-exclusive version, too.  I suppose I'd feel better about the latter if we were actually allowed to know something about what to expect from this toy line, even in vague terms, but that would just be silly, crazy, nutso-talk.   

[Rob]

Half of me is super annoyed by this and gets where all of you are coming from, and the other half of me thinks to hell with it... it's a COMIC CON exclusive, and if we couldn't get one from our desks a few days later, what grievance to we really have here?

It's not like this figure isn't going to be available in droves when the movie launches, the only real reason to want this is for the packaging.

[P-Siddy]

Half of me is super annoyed by this and gets where all of you are coming from, and the other half of me thinks to hell with it... it's a COMIC CON exclusive, and if we couldn't get one from our desks a few days later, what grievance to we really have here?

It's not like this figure isn't going to be available in droves when the movie launches, the only real reason to want this is for the packaging.

True, but we haven't seen the likes of 6" Han in Carbonite or Salacious Crumb at retail yet.  It'd be nice if Hasbro would release such exclusives as long as they're in different packaging like how this FO Stormtrooper is at least getting a wide-scale release.  Some other companies do it with their exclusives. 

[McMetal]

sigh.

I hate come off as the bitter, angry fan, but I am so that's how it comes out. 

I spent ALL morning waiting for them to put these ******* up until I literally could not do it anymore and was forced to reintegrate myself into the family for a fun outing. Crazy huh? How dare I take my eyes off their stupid website and attempt to have a normal life for thirty minutes. Of course I missed it, even though there are plenty of their other crappy exclusives left like that gi joe thing, goddamit.

The only people profiting from this asinine arrangement are ******* scalpers. I really am now of the opinion that they should outright cancel any more exclusives like this in the future. It only serves to piss off their most diehard fans. And Hasbro has their head up their ass because they could have sold a **** ton more of these if they had bothered to crank out more then whatever that feeble initial order was. Lose lose, geniuses.

Yes, the packaging means that much time me because I am a capital C Completist and now I have to shell out 3 or 4 times what this POS is worth because they couldn't be bothered to make enough to even remotely meet the demand. and it was more like 3 minutes that it sold out in, not even ten.

Apologies for all the bile, but I had to get that out of my system. I realize it is just a stupid toy, and I understand the concept behind convention variants, but there are much, much better ways to handle this. I will give 2 examples:

Funko had several ReAction figure exclusives at sdcc this year. Among them were unmasked Flash and Green Arrow, and the hole in head T-1000. After sdcc the first two were available at Barnes and Noble and the latter at Toys R Us. They made enough so that everyone had a crack at them for a fair price and in turn this helped keep the Secondary market prices down across the board.

Neca had several sdcc exclusives too, but they were kind enough to pre-advertise both the date AND time that their online flash sale would begin and I had NO trouble logging in and buying the stuff I wanted. I was able to plan ahead and be ready. What a novel concept.

Anyways rant over.

**** you, Hasbro.

[Darby]

Sorry for those I really wanted this and spent a lot of time trying to get it. As the first ST toy there's enormous interest in it and I'd like one myself. I didn't attempt to try today knowing the outcome and also more importantly this figure will be available on 9/4. I know the packaging and uniqueness of it won't be but hopefully those who just want the figure will be ok with that.