399 replies to this topic

[Tortle]

Rise from your grave!


I thought I'd resurrect this thread to see what the state of Star Wars collecting is like on the board. Personally, the only figure I've bought in a long time (maybe the past year) is Battle Damaged Darth Vader. But the figure is pretty rocking... not cool enough to get me back into collecting full-swing, but certainly cool enough to make me consider buying more of this wave.

I've heard about the new Millenium Falcon. It's all kinds of cool, but I've heard that it will have a projected price tag of $180! Who has that kind of money to blow on Star Wars?

The one toy I'll be saving up for is the Battle Rancor. It looks fantastic, and it will have plenty more articulation than the previous Rancor. I'm betting it will be about $50, though.

[Ghost Lion]

I usually buy any Jedi figure, and Sith figure, any character from the Mos Eisley Cantina scene, and any clone trooper. I did buy all the concept figures last year.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

The newest figs I've bought were the Boba Fett's, I'm sad cause I can't find the Boba/Jango/Mandalore box set anywhere. Another pack for scalpers. I really just want the Mandalore fig, cause I don't like Jango, and I think the Boba is the same as the 30th Saga boba.

I don't like that Battle Rancor. Looks like a simple repaint. The Battle Rancors that are supposed to be in the new game are suppose to look AMAZING!!!

This past year has been hit and miss, with many useless character figs that aren't remotely interesting, and then just mindless repaints of Clone/Storm Troopers. Only about a Third of the figures were cool enough to consider buying, and then only about half of those are ones I wanted to buy. The packaging and new articulations are quite nice though. In many cases the back cards were more interesting than the figures that were stuck to them.

[Safeatsecond]

I think what did it in, for me at least, is they lost touch with what made the toys popular years ago.

Today they are hyper detailed plastic sculptures that they have targeted towards the rabid fan that doesn't seem to care what they spend.

I don't like 'em. The toys that is, I have nothing against the fan what buys 'em. To each their own I say.

I agree with General Veers, give me the old 80's, under detailed, under articulated action figures and vehicles that were affordable, anyday. These new ones don't belong in toy stores. They belong in the over-priced exclusive comic stores.

There is no action in these new figures, no playability. They lost the big part of their market... the kids.

I'll shut up now...

[BaltanII]

I just find it interesting the lengths Hasbro's been going lately to keep fans interested, while the relatively simpler Lego Star Wars stuff consistently appears to do well these days.

[Scumdogg]

The new Millennium Falcon toy is nearly $200? Sweet fancy jesus.

What did they sell that huge Royal Starship thing from Episode 1 for? Like $100? I remember buying it (this was back in my completionist Star Wars days...man, who DIDN'T go through that phase...), but i don't remember exactly how much it was. All i know is that not too much later i saw it clearanced for like $30, and was bitter. Real bitter.

It's not surprising though, Hasbro's bread and butter is figuring out how to sell you a new version of something you've bought 3 or 4 times already, doubling the cost each time. They're incredibly good at it too, ya gotta give 'em credit for that. Between Marvel, Transformers, and Star Wars, they've nailed the three segments of collectors most likely to have rehab-worthy collecting habits.

[Garatron75]

I wish I could stop beating this dead horse, but look at this...

http://www.rebelscum...troopercomp.jpg

It is the 3 "versions" of the Rebel Fleet Trooper. 3 VERSIONS?! How about this for an idea Hasbro.

1 = White Guy
2 = Black Guy
3 = Alien

To me that is 3 versions, just changing the hair color doesn't cut it. Although I did like the clean shave/beard versions of the Endor Rebel Trooper.

Yuck! What the bag of steaming turds is that all about? The Rebel Troops look all the same. They could have at least gave each of those three Rebel dudes a unique color variety to who's who.

[Tortle]

Wow... it's a blast from the past reading some of my posts. I was predicting the demise of the Hasbro SW line by 2010, which doesn't seem likely now, especially with the upcoming TV shows. But we'll see what the state of the hobby is by then. The TV shows could tank and the fans could move on to something else. A couple of other things:

1) I've heard rumors of a price increase for SW figures up to $7.99! Holy crap, that's nuts! I'm not sure I could ever justify buying a SW figure for that price.

2) My most recent SW purchase was the Battle Rancor. It's actually pretty awesome, and way better than the POTF2 Rancor, which had major proportion problems. The articulation is fantastic (it even has munching jaws) and the sculpt is dead-on. The rider is just okay though (Expanded Universe stuff is never as cool as movie stuff), and the riding saddle is kind of precarious looking. The rancor is much cooler without it, frankly. The set was $40 which wasn't that bad a price... until I saw it on sale for $20. D'oh!

3) Note to Hasbro: enough with the Stormtroopers/Clonetroopers already. Ten years ago, I never would have thought I'd say that because Troopers were so hard to come by, but they're totally clogging the shelves nowadays. Aren't there more interesting characters to do that haven't been over-done? Maybe not. But I'm sick of seeing Troopers.

[Scumdogg]

This thread smells like dead things, but i'll still throw in my two cents.

I saw a poster up at Toys R Us recently advertising a release event for the new Clone Wars toys, and i couldn't shake the depression off as i browsed the action figure aisles. Space is so limited, with even beautiful lines that should be high-profile like Mattel's DC Universe Classics not getting a fair shake, confined to an ever-shifting endcap or one peg in the lower corner. Hell, Wal-Mart doesn't even carry them.

With the massive glut of Star Wars stuff already taking up half the action figure space at any given store, i shudder to think of the dozen more pegs that will have to be freed up for Clone Wars toys. What will die so Star Wars can lumber on for another year?

Can Star Wars really be this popular, or are they basically riding on the backs of people that still can't shake the habit they picked up back in 1995? It's got to be that, because i take note of what i see parents looking at with their kids in stores, and i couldn't tell you the last time it was Star Wars.

Edited by Scumdogg, 17 July 2008 - 10:30 AM.

[Tortle]

Can Star Wars really be this popular, or are they basically riding on the backs of people that still can't shake the habit they picked up back in 1995?

It's definitely collector-exclusive now. But I think many of the old timers who have been around since the old POTF2 days have grown weary and moved on to something else (like me). Maybe I'm wrong... I'm sure there are still plenty of die-hards, as well as collectors who have invested so much in SW collecting up till now that they don't want to start from scratch collecting something else.

It seems like you continually get less and less from SW, while prices continue to increase. And I understand there are new sculpts and vehicles, but there doesn’t seem to be any advancement. It has been basically the same thing since, what, POTJ?

I slightly disagree with this. I think the product now is the best it's ever been, with great advances in sculpting and articulation. But in the end, I agree that they all seem to be essentially the same. Even though the recent Darth Vader figures are better than ever, they're still Darth Vader, a character who only has one costume. We just seem to be getting endless variations of the same crap. Which I suppose was inevitable, since there have been reportedly over 1400 figures since POTF2.

I think another part of my dislike is that so much of the new stuff just pisses on the original trilogy. All the colored clones and their attitudes and awesome abilities seem in stark contrast to the all-white Stormtroopers that can’t shoot shizznit and get beat up by being flung into a tree.

How true. I feel very much the same way about Yoda, who has been degraded into a goofy hopping frog Jedi in the prequels. Yoda's the main reason I don't want to see the new cartoon.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Well, I had some of the vintage figs when I was a kid, so it was always a dream of mine "so to speak" to own a mint vintage set. But the HUGE plummet in collector prices for the POTF2 series pulled me in, and although many of the sculpts in that set are crap compared to the vintage line, or even the modern stuff, it still has been fun to collect. I have made a pretty solid effort, with some occasional slip-ups, to avoid buying any SW figs made past 2000. So Power of the Jedi will be as far as I go right now...and that is actually a very nice series in it's own right.

So only Boba Fetts for me as far as new goes. And I will not pay 8 bucks for any either. 6 was pushing it, and if cool factor wasn't an issue, I wouldn't have paid that either.

I don't think Hasbro will be dropping the SW's line for a while, although I'm sure they will start taking up less peg space from here on out, I'm sure they will milk it till at least 2011 before that happens though. What ever happened to the good ole days when every toy line was so good that they all took up the same amount of shelf space?

I so wish I could have taken pictures of the toys aisle I walked through as a kid.

[Ghost Lion]

I disagree that SW is an adult collector line. I've taught 4th and 5th grade for the last 10 years and EVERY year the boys (and a few girls) heavily collect the line. (They bring them in for show and tell and what not) When I weeded through my collection and put the figures I didn't want any more in my "treasure chest" the kids went nuts to try and earn them. Transformers, however, last year had a stronger presence in the students' collection.

Now $7.99 is stupid even with the build a druid feature... And Joes at Target are $7.99.

[scythemantis]

I've always loved the Jabba's Palace environment, so I've decided to buy all of Jabba's minions. But I have also set up limits: 1) No SE crap (meaning no Jabba's dancers, and I'll use the vintage Sy Snoodles), 2) only Jabba's Courtroom denzions (which excludes skiff guards, droids, and the Rancor Keeper, but I'll make an exception now and then for cool guys like Pote Snitkin), and 3) nothing scene-specific (no Boushh, Han-just-removed-from-carbonite, etc). The limits make collecting for the diorama managable. Otherwise, I would need to get Skiffs, Rappertunie, 8D8, Luke Hologram... the list would seem endless.

Same here, on all accounts. I think I'm a bigger fan of Jabba's underlings than the rest of the Star Wars universe put together, as they had a much bigger impact on my childhood in various odd ways, and are so much more bizarre and horrific than anything else in the franchise. I similarly only use the vintage snootles, and didn't bother with the skiff or droid-dungeon guys.

Hermi Odle is all I'm missing right now.

I do have frozen Han and Slave leia though, and am considering the slime-crusted threepio. My logic is that "my" Jabba remembered to close the Rancor's door, Luke was devoured and nobody escaped. Vader detonated Endor to test the new Death Star and everyone lived miserably ever after.

[Garatron75]

Statistical Difference between Star Trek and Star Wars franchises:

Star Trek 1966-2006 = 40 years
10 films + 30 seasons of TV = 815 hours
815 hours divided by 40 years = 20 hours 23 minutes per year
Star Wars 1977-2006 = 29 years
6 films + 5 seasons & 3 telefilms of TV = 45 hours
45 hours divided by 29 years = 93 minutes per year
20 hours 23 minutes divided by 93 minutes = Star Trek is 13 times
more productive than Star Wars

Historical Difference between Star Trek and Star Wars franchises:

Star Trek - 3 seasons, Network cancels based on Non-Demographic ratings
system, fanbase brings back franchise. Creator Gene Roddenberry stays
with franchise till death.
Star Wars - 3 films, well recieved, followed by flop smattering of TV offerings,
followed by death of toyline. 3 new films, not well recieved, to be followed
by TV offerings and toyline marketed to an already bored fanbase. Creator
George Lucas leaves franchise to be handled by others for TV offerings.

I think this shows the Star Wars franchise is very unlikely to become like the
Star Trek franchise.

I agree with you Star Trek is 13 times more productive than Star Wars and is one of the strongest toppers ever. However, I personally think that George Lucas has apparentally shifted his focuses towards Indiana Jones and that's the reason there's four movies instead of three and I'm hoping to see them all on DVD.

Similarly, Star Wars should be euthanized right now. Like Voyager, the prequels were entertaining, but light on interesting concepts. But George has to milk SW until it's dry, so he's going to try his television ideas. Unfortunately, every single interesting concept about Star Wars has already been explored so the TV shows will just be rehashed crap... much like Enterprise and Star Trek 9 and 10.

Because certain Star Wars nuts are suckers who'll settle for tasteless rehashed crap, because they don't know how to tell which is which when a certain amount of guys look all the same when they really should be different colors. I'd also blame the fact that there's only a certain year window where fans even WANT Star Wars anymore. After that, it's on to Gormiti or something like that. I'm not trying to be a ripoff, but that's why I'm trying to explain why certain Star Wars nuts don't know any better than to buy the same guys over and over and over again, just to start an endless cycle that sticks with them.

I do have frozen Han and Slave leia though, and am considering the slime-crusted threepio. My logic is that "my" Jabba remembered to close the Rancor's door, Luke was devoured and nobody escaped. Vader detonated Endor to test the new Death Star and everyone lived miserably ever after.

That's an interesting ending there, scythemantis. If that ending ever did come true, Star Wars would end up becoming more and more different that it is now. You remember me, right?

Edited by Garatron75, 04 August 2008 - 08:24 AM.

[Scumdogg]

So i saw the giant new $170 Millenium Falcon over the weekend. Ironically, the same weekend i sold my mint condition '95 version for $10 at a garage sale because i couldn't have moved it on ebay if i'd been charging negative money and delivering it in person.

A $170 Star Wars toy in a giant shelf-clogging box seems like a really awesome plan in the wake of that $40 Battle Rancor that sold about a dozen units and was unceremoniously halved in price two weeks later.

In the meantime it looks like my local Target has ceased carrying all Marvel Toylines. All their pegs are gone now to make room for the Clone Wars stuff. Way to chew your own leg off, Hasbro!

[Garatron75]

In the meantime it looks like my local Target has ceased carrying all Marvel Toylines. All their pegs are gone now to make room for the Clone Wars stuff. Way to chew your own leg off, Hasbro!

Wow, Marvel must have bit the dust in your local Target, huh? Well, I'm not sure if your local Target's got an Anti-Marvel thing, but when you see Marvel district stuff cease to appear in a store, let that set the tone for a Marvel-less Target or something like that.

I've seen Zizzlingers at my local K-Mart, but I haven't bought any yet. I'd probably go for the Disney Princess ones, because I like princesses, Dinosaurs, Dragon and Monsters.

That quote about Hasbro eating their own legs is very original and it looks like you've brought something new to the table there, Scumdogg. I admire your quote and it shows a perfect case study in what not to do when Hasbro sells stuff. This makes me feel that Sunsoft chewed their own leg off in America, just so that only Japan could see their newest things. Way to go.

I don't dive into Clone Wars stuff that much, because the guys are too big to fit into an Ice Breaker tin. The weapons they come with are cool, but why would I want to fit one of those into an Ice Breaker tin when the little guys I put in can go with me wherever I want to go?

This means that smaller guys are better off with me, because I offer a home away from home type of experience for them by putting blankets into Ice Breaker tins to keep them nice and cozy. Sometimes I swap tops and bottoms to make cool color combinations.

I guess it makes me feel safe bringing a bunch of little guys around with me wherever I go. I feel that the little guys really love me, even if there's Dino Magic Dinosaur and Dragon Magic Dragon heads in the mix.

I guess that taught me that if I can't take a whole person with me in my Ice Breaker tin cruiser, I could take his head with me wherever I go when the time comes.

[Tortle]

And who is the market for this? Any parent with half a brain will be picking one up from Craigslist, eBay, or a garage sale for $10.

I'd say that the market for this is the high-end collector. People who buy stuff like Sideshow toys, busts, prop replicas, etc. would eat this up. I'm not sure if this market is large enough for mass-produced Hasbro toys, though.

I can't imagine that this Falcon is marketed towards kids because as a whole, they don't give a crap about playsets and vehicles (at least, relative to us as kids). This is probably because playsets and vehicles are so expensive that they compete with video games. In the case of this Falcon, $170 can go a long way in buying either a whole mess of games or a whole game system.

[Tortle]

And as for kids not liking playsets, I totally disagree.

Maybe, but if kids like playsets, then why does Hasbro always pull the "playsets never sell" card when asked about new playsets? Also, it seems like there are relatively fewer playsets and vehicles in toy lines these days. Maybe it's just me, but didn't it seem like there were more of them when we were kids? Especially with lines like Ninja Turtles and GI-Joe. The Power Rangers line seems to have a few vehicles, but they're pretty much limited to the Zords and I can't remember ever seeing any playsets.

Then again, The Dark Knight has a few playsets (which look pretty sweet, by the way). And there are smaller lines that have plenty of vehicles/playsets, like those cartoony Ninja Turtles. But they seem like small fries compared to something like He-Man.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Well, playsets and vehicles are kind of space takers today, you can only use them when you play with them. When you think about a vintage line like Heman, the playsets, such as the castles, could easily double as a figure case. I always shuved my MOTU figs into Snake Mountain or Greyskull when I wasn't playing with them. Could you do that with the new Falcon? And really what parent is gonna go to walmart to spend $200 bucks on their kids for the holidays, and say I'll get him the falcon! When they know their kids would rather have like 20 action figures!