Well (prepare - long read), Cincinnati is an interesting place to be sure. And downtown's suck no matter where you are, or at least that's been my experience.
First day I arrived I wandered out of the hotel after checking a map, an address and a direction. Piece of cake right? Walk down 8th until it turns into Glenway, then up to around the 5500 block of Glenway. Ya, shoor. Some two hours of walking later
I finally stumble into a Target. Cool. I love Target.
Proceed to cereal section: No Frankenberry
Proceed to toy section. Hmm, Star Wars
But.... I now completely understand what the talk was all about with peg warming clone wars figs (Anakin, Yoda and ARC). Lots and lots of those guys on the pegs. All four screen scenes were there, but Scott is already sending those to me, so no need. Droid rollers everywhere
with not a clone 3 pack or Jedi 3 pack to be found
Found the spiderman series Daredevil, but it had the single worst paint job I have ever seen! The paint on the face was awful, the mask dotting and dragging onto the skin. Pass. Also found a Kraven, but like the Morbius figure that I have passed on several times, it didn't do much for me. Pity that.
Wander out of Target depressed and over to nearby Walmart. Blech, what a horrible store and it's apparently only been open for a couple of months. Looked like the dragged all the crap from the surrounding area stores to it that wouldn't sell. Walk out and start walking back "home". Rain starts, me wet. Get on bus. Wet. Get off bus. Still wet. Go watch
White Oleander on HBO. Go to bed depressed.
Next shopping trip is down to Florence, KY. Lots of promise there - TRU, Kmart, KB, Target, Walmart, Meijer. And by the way, toy hunting without a car? PITA. One hour bus ride to get to Florence from downtown Cincy. Get off the bus, totally optimistic, check my wallet - crap! Left my credit card in the hotel room. I've got $60 cash and that is it. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
Anyway,
TRU - squat. Had the Homer thing in the chair that I wanted but passed, thinking hey, it'll be at the next TRU I visit.
No THOH4, no new figs, only series 12. Droid rollers out the ying-yang and lots of 12" but nothing cool or new. Only stuff like Zuckuss, IO, etc.
KB - whoo-hoo! Finally some success, but moderate at best. I find two bonus packs, both with ARC and regular clone, snag both. Hey, for a buck more than the single carded ARC, why not, right? Check the spidey pegs to see what's there - Green Goblin! Very cool. $21 and change later I leave KB. Check the rest of the mall, see lots of cool things at the movie place that sells toys, can't remember name, but not enough money to worry about.
K-mart, Walmart and Target are all blow outs - lots of regular Clone figs and droid rollers - nada else. The Luke and Vader light sabers were at Wally for $19.99 but too hard to bring back. They look cool, but identical to the old versions that I already have.
Meijer stores are huge. Now, I've never been in a super Walmart, but these things kick the crap out of a regular Walmart. Wow. Same here for SW - crap. But I did find a blue Leafs three pack. Very cool. So I hid it, owing to the CC situation.
Next day shopping was similar. Crap, crap, crap. Only place that was positive was Meijer. Red Red Wings 3 pack
Scooooooooooooooooore!
All totaled, this is what I brought home:
Red Red Wings 3 pack (one to nicklab)
Blue TML 3 pack (one to nicklab)
Green Goblin (to OCB?)
two value packs w/ARC
Basically a big bust, save for the variant 3 packs. Dissappointing but still fun. Probably spent $50 on cabs and bus fare. Missed my Homer thing. Good meeting too. Got to stare into the window of earthtoymall (closed when I was near).
Can't argue with getting McFarlane variant stuff without shipping though.
