dank the stank's toy hunting trip de jour
#1
Posted 17 July 2009 - 12:49 PM
the first stop didn't bode well for the day. i was set upon by a horde of unwanted toys. the likes of ronin and the hand ninjas attacked me in wave after wave of un-coolness. it's almost like they asked for cases of just those two figures with black panther as a chase or something because there were a couple of him as well.
my second stop proved to be much better. first off, i scored a bullseye for my buddy and picked up a thing for myself. i know he's not hard to find, but i finally talked myself into getting him. black boots version of course.
while scouring their aisles for toy goodness i stumbled upon the dc version of super hero squad for batman the brave and the bold. let me just say this. they are cool figures. i really liked them. i spent a few minutes examining them. they were packaged as a toys r us exclusive. eight figures. i very nearly bought them. then i looked at the price and nearly shouted HOLY shizznit!!! at the top of my lungs. fortunately i only said it loud enough to offend six virgin ears on the aisle instead of the whole store. the asking price for these guys was $24. outrageous! they were great, but i wouldn't spend half that price on them. their size is about 75% the size of super hero squad. the plastic looks very similar and paint apps on the three packages were all of equal high quality. but there is no way they should be $24. i hope these hit the clearance aisle someday.
i also ran across the mega bloks halo kits. these were also over priced, but not as grossly as the dc brave and bold buddies or whatever they were called. can't remember now. anyway, the halo sets look really cool. i checked out the ghost, hornet, scorpion and pelican sets. the block models are top notch and are so well designed that you'd be able to compare them to the actual toys. as for the figures, these are what really caught my eye. so far i've only seen elites, grunts and spartans. but every single one of them look amazing. if you could buy figure sets separate from the vehicles i would buy up a bunch of them. i'm still considering collecting this line, but the only thing stopping me is the price. it's higher than it should be. $12 for small vehicles, $20 (i think) for mid sized vehicles and $40 for the biggies. if you're a die hard halo fan, which i'm not, you really should check these out.
well, back to the hunt. my next stop was starting to look as bad as the first. i couldn't find any universe figs initially. luckily i was hunting for a comic deadpool and started digging through their infinite selection of origin and xmen figures. at the very bottom on the left peg in the very back were three universe figures. one of which was daredevil. one of the three my friend wanted. two down and one to go, i was doing pretty good for him but had yet to find a red or gray hulk for myself.
i stopped a couple of other places only to come up empty handed then hit the freeway. i had a few more stops on my itinerary. needless to say all but the last stop proved eventful. i rounded up the very last plasma dragon i had been searching for. sawskreech is now mine and i am left only with two precursors to obtain before i have everything.
so, how hot was it? well, the 20 minute car ride was long enough that my king size kitkat i bought at the last stop was completely liquefied by the time i got home. that's too damn hot. i had it in the shade no less. well, that's my story. hope you enjoyed it as much as i'm going to enjoy playing with my new toys.
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#2
Posted 17 July 2009 - 12:58 PM
Off to update my needs list in the Marvel Universe thread!
Oh hey i forgot to ask, how were those Brave and the Bold figures packed? For $24 was there at least a lot of figures? When i was at TRU the other day i saw two things from the line. One was Batman, Gentleman Ghost, and some sort of ghost/skeleton horse. The other was Batman with a breathing apparatus and a Batboat. Those were $12.99 each. There were pics of the other figures on the back, but with no clue as to how they'd be packaged.
EDIT: Never mind, i fail at reading comprehension. $24 seems excessive for a single pack sure, but if you break it down by figure they're as cheap or cheaper than Superhero Squad. Those things are like $7 now for 2 figures.
Edited by Scumdogg, 17 July 2009 - 01:07 PM.
#4
Posted 17 July 2009 - 01:47 PM
#5
Posted 17 July 2009 - 02:32 PM
urs: no miracles here. utah is a collector wasteland. we'll get a couple of waves of a cool line, and then when the stinkers don't sell and sit around forever they don't bother to order the later waves with the really cool figs in them.
mjb: message received.
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#6
Posted 17 July 2009 - 03:45 PM
#7
Posted 17 July 2009 - 04:43 PM
also, forgot to mention the new joe toys i didn't notice before. they've got new combat heroes for the movie. of the ones i saw, snake eyes is the only looker in the bunch. the rest are pretty forgettable. may still get snake eyes, but will pass on the rest. also, after a much closer inspection of the new regular joe figs i've decided they're not as great as i first thought. i do think this is because of the flawed new character designs for the movie. the zartan figure has to be the biggest disappointment. i was going to consider redboxing this movie eventually, now i think i'll avoid it like the plague completely. just like the chun li movie. ugh.
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#8
Posted 18 July 2009 - 03:35 AM
yeah, i was hoping too. i think by my third stop i quit looking though. i may have glossed right over them in all honesty. although i think the toys r us would have been the first place to get them out here and i was still on full alert at that time. i did end up seeing more of those marvel/transformer cross over toys today. still don't like them. don't even like the concept really. some things don't go well together. like vanilla ice cream and diarrhea.
also, forgot to mention the new joe toys i didn't notice before. they've got new combat heroes for the movie. of the ones i saw, snake eyes is the only looker in the bunch. the rest are pretty forgettable. may still get snake eyes, but will pass on the rest. also, after a much closer inspection of the new regular joe figs i've decided they're not as great as i first thought. i do think this is because of the flawed new character designs for the movie. the zartan figure has to be the biggest disappointment. i was going to consider redboxing this movie eventually, now i think i'll avoid it like the plague completely. just like the chun li movie. ugh.
I didn't see chun li either.
I'll probably end up watching the new GI JOE, but more as just checking out a new action flick, less of trying to connect with anything from my childhood. The GI JOE I new as a kid just isn't represented very well in the movie, as far as I can tell without seeing it.
#9
Posted 18 July 2009 - 04:50 AM
#10
Posted 18 July 2009 - 06:43 AM
Nice hunt story by the way.. didn't mean to hijack your thread; I just wanted to complain a little about the furnace waiting for me outside my front door
#11
Posted 18 July 2009 - 07:43 AM
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#12
Posted 19 July 2009 - 12:17 PM
They are *really* cool though. Plastic Man was a standout for me, along with Aquaman and Red Tornado. Seemed like basically everything had a Batman figure in with it though, so even more reason to pass on them. Maybe if there's ever a sale....
#13
Posted 19 July 2009 - 01:50 PM
Baltan II's LRG Want List - Hunting for my final MUSCLE, Red 131 Ukon, Gormiti, Jagun Fighters, and more!
My Sale/Trade Thread! Needs updating! | My Feedback
#14
Posted 19 July 2009 - 02:35 PM
#15
Posted 19 July 2009 - 05:08 PM
Edited by dankingery, 19 July 2009 - 05:08 PM.
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#16
Posted 24 July 2009 - 03:07 PM
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#17
Posted 24 July 2009 - 04:32 PM
#18
Posted 31 July 2009 - 01:18 PM
back to the adventure. i swung down to the toys r us that's right close to that target. bare in mind that this is officially the world's worst toys r us. i'm not kidding. the only way it could get any worse is if you caught small pox or respiratory anthrax every time you entered the store. my hopes weren't high, so they weren't dashed when i got to the marvel universe section and found that they hadn't sold any figures since my last visit a week ago. nor had they restocked anything. and why should they, those ronins and hand ninjas look so good on the pegs with their cobweb accessories. they did have some secret saturdays toys next the the batman brave and the bold minis. unfortunately they were the large action figures and not the minis i'm looking for. when my disgust level reached it's peak (looked at the wwe aisle and saw red because of the waste of space that is that aisle) i stormed out and didn't even bother to see if the mega bloks halo shizznit was on sale.
here's how crappy this toy run was, the doctor's appointment i had today afterwords was more fun.
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#19
Posted 31 July 2009 - 03:38 PM
#21
Posted 31 July 2009 - 03:48 PM
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#22
Posted 31 July 2009 - 03:55 PM
Somehow you made that sad trip sound exciting. Target Nipples and doctor visits.. The only way I figure the doctors visit was more fun for you than the toy hunting is that the nurses were well endowed and playing with action figures while you were in the waiting room.
i wish!!!
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.
#23
Posted 31 July 2009 - 03:57 PM
Man... glad I'm not the only one who's disgusted with the love shown to the WWE by TRU! Does anyone actually buy those toys?
On the plus side, Jakk's is done making WWE toys and the license has been picked up by Mattel. So in theory, all you should see in the future for wrestling figures is four empty pegs.
#24
Posted 31 July 2009 - 07:33 PM
Sorry to disappoint my friend, but wrestling toys do indeed sell, Dan. Somehow. I have a feeling their popularity is in part due to my geographic location. As a matter of fact, the only known toy collector I've met locally (has since moved) collected the things both for himself and his sons. He redeemed himself by also collecting Transformers.
The only toys that I've noticed shelfwarm were those overpriced MUSCLE-sized abominations you mentioned, and some bizarre deformed things that looked like Stretch Armstrong, but worse. Others only seem to stay around, but it's because the topless musclebound men and garish purple-and-white packaging fade into a blur of I-don't-give-a-eff.
Baltan II's LRG Want List - Hunting for my final MUSCLE, Red 131 Ukon, Gormiti, Jagun Fighters, and more!
My Sale/Trade Thread! Needs updating! | My Feedback
#25
Posted 09 August 2009 - 01:20 PM
they changed their action figure section entirely. not just one aisle now but two. sadly half of one of those is all toy story. i didn't even know they were still making toy story toys. isn't that movie like a million years old now? they had one row split for star wars & gormiti/bakugan/secret saturdays (which by the way are too expensive. they must be taking a page from the bakugan book of marketing) and one row split with gi joe and transformers. the other aisle was half toy story, half comic properties and then a small section of animal replicas. the last row was dedicated to playskool's action figure-like toys.
i did a quick scan through the marvel universe and was almost nauseous when i realized that after a week they still had all the same figs as before. why can't they ever get anything new? i was about to spit on the aisle in disgust when something below the marvel universe pegs caught my eye. SECRET WARS!!! i can't believe it. there in a heap as if the minimum wage zombie who put them there was completely oblivious to how much respect these packs deserve. i quickly rifled through the six packs they had. hmmmm... how is it that they only have sets 1 & 3. where the eff is 2? that kind of pissed me off. they had three of each. i did my usual paint app comparison and picked out the best of each. after a final judgement i decided the ones i was holding were good enough to buy. however they aren't top of the line, just above average. they were of course head and shoulders above the other packs they had. both cap/klaw packs were awful. neither one of them had actually painted the flesh color around caps eyes, so they were basically just blue with black lines to define the eyes. and klaw, well, have you ever seen someone get hit by a train and then try to paint an action figure? that's about how good he looked. shameful really. the thunderball/spidey sets weren't as bad. they mostly suffered from heavy washes. the worst of the three made it look like spidey's new symbol was just a giant black splotch in the middle of his chest. i picked the one that had a great looking thunderball and a spidey who's, if anything, under-washed. he's missing some of the lines from the web detail on his costume. i'll just fill that in with one of my micron pens. no biggie.
all in all, it could have gone worse, but it should have been better. what i don't get is how they only had secret wars 1 & 3. and not just one of each but three of each and still no set 2. i wonder if target distribution cracks open the cases and repackages them in quantities the store managers ask for. some targets you go to have almost no figures and others you go to have too many. maybe they order on apparent demand. and the store i went to just got the short end of the stick. just a theory. i think it's unlikely because that's just extra effort for something that can easily be solved by just having a clearance sale. i have a doctors appointment tomorrow for a hopefully small/uneventful procedure. i'm hoping afterward i can trick my ride/the wife into taking me to another target to check shizznit out. fingers crossed.
Edited by dankingery, 09 August 2009 - 01:24 PM.
if i encounter the demons in hell, i will kill them all..
vi veri veniversum vivus vici.