Episode seven figures, and toys

I have fond memories for preview figures such as mail away Mace Windu for TPM, Zam Weesel for AOTC, Wookie Warrior and Tion Meadon for ROTS that
I snatched in my collection.

 

I've got the Zam - found it on sale at Forbidden Planet after the film had left the cinemas.

 

Yeah, I remember finding all four at Target in February I believe and being really jazzed about it. I wish they'd done something this time around for those of us who can't make it to ComicCon.

 

I'm on the fence about collecting any Episode VII figures, but I can tell you that if they're $12.99 each (like TBS figure are now), I'm probably out. A price increase of $3 in just several years is bad enough as a line is ending (TBS), but if it continues this way from now on this hobby will be too expensive for me to continue.....unless they come out with some nice never-before-made OT & PT figures

 

Two months from Saturday folks!

 

I can't believe I'm saying this. However, I've decided that after this summer, I'm done with SW collecting - at least for the forseeable future. I will not be collecting the TFA line whatsoever. I think the figures/characters look interesting, but I don't have the $, room, or time to collect an expansive & expensive line like this.

I may get some OT/PT figures if they're made in future lines - possibly. It will depend on the price, availability, etc. However, there aren't that many figures I want from those films, since even many of the obscure characters have been made. I would definitely get The Tonnika sisters if they're ever produced, but IMHO the possibility of these being made is slim to none.

My enthusiasm for SW toys has been waning in the last several years anyway; TVC was great, but the figures were almost impossible to find @ retail. And, while the TBS was OK, the packaging was terrible & the few figures I wanted were HTF as well.

 

I'm not sick of collecting, I don't have room for tiny figures and I long lost interest in driving all over to try to find figures. These days I get whatever I can find toy-wise at thrift shops or maybe in bigger lots I score online. I have been picking up Disney Vinylmation figures because they're just too darned cute. I'll probably get Ep 7 ones of those for characters I like, but I'm not going out of my way to get Ep 7 stuff. I might pick up some Rey stuff and Gwyndoline Christie's character just because I always like collecting the leading ladies. It will be cool having a female villain on screen (other than Zam.) BB-8 is adorbs too. It all depends though on what I think of the movie. I won't buy stuff just for the sake of "it's Star Wars." If the movie blows, I'm not blowing my money on merchandise.

Because Disney doesn't have relationships w/ fast food places other than Subway - no more barfing down kids meals to get toys. I really don't have room, as it is I need to cram in 3 more bookshelves into my office for display and if I was able to get my stuff out of storage - they'd all be full BEFORE I even got thinking about Ep 7 stuff. Doesn't mean I won't have fun checking out everyone's collections though. I'm sticking w/ higher end stuff from the original 6 films.

 

All good points. I have two large closets full of collectibles, and I'm actually trying to scale down (primarily by taking things out of packages, etc.). I honestly do not have room for another line. I do remember the Episode 1 food collectibles back in '99 - I'm glad I got the ones that I did (primarily have fond memories of the cup topper figures), but they do take up a lot of room.

 

Does this apply to USA only or other countries, too?

 

Blur - I have a feeling the days of mass over hype that we saw from TPM are long over. Thanks to kids not wanting as many toys as we wanted when we were young, people not having as much money as they did even when TPM came out, and an overall decline in the action figure market - I doubt the Ep 7 push will be on that scale. But who knows, the economy is better than it was a few years ago, the collecting/toy/frenzy could have a renaissance re-emergence.

I don't know.

 

Extremely true - I agree with this 200%. I definitely bought into (both literally & figuratively) the extreme hype we saw with TPM back in '99 - i.e., the Hasbro figures (both 3.75" & the 12"), vehicles, the plethora of fast food toys, the books, etc. I read somewhere that TPM was over-marketed because the powers that be were worried the film wouldn't do well (not sure why, it was the first SW film in 16 years!), so they spent a lot of money advertising the film. And, based on what I remember, even if you weren't a SW fan, back in Spring '99 you were definitely aware that a new SW movie was being released!

However, when Episode II rolled around in 2002 & Episode III in 2005, there were very few - if any - fast foot related collectibles. Though, there were a lot of toys for both films.

These days, I don't see kids playing with toys as much either. If anything, they'll spend money on their I-phones, video games, etc. As I've mentioned before in other threads, IMHO the heyday of toy collecting was when I was a kid in the '80's, and to a lesser extent the '90's (when POTF2 came out).

So, in general, I don't see kids buying a lot of TFA toys. Though, I speculate that a lot of adult collectors will...of course, I could be wrong about this - we'll see.

 

See, the problem is that It's not just the rise of electronics that has kids not playing with toys. It's the real LACK of toys to begin with. When Jurassic Park 3 came around, I was either six or seven. I had ALL the figures! We had tons of packs out. There were packs of one human and one dinosaur, with accessories! I played with those figures for years after the movie came out. Today, if you can even find Jurassic world toys, all they have are the dinosaurs. Not just that, but it's literally just four dinosaurs. It's the I-Rex, T-Rex, Raptor and Stego or something. Theres nothing for kids to play with. The marvel figures are awful as well. The legacy figures are way to expensive for kids, and the 3.75" scale line is just terrible. It's just a bunch of Iron man figures. I don't even think there WAS anything for Spider-man, especially compared to the Raimi films.

GI Joes seem to be gone. The only thing I've seen steadily released in stores has been the mcfarlane Walking Dead figures, and frankly those shouldn't be for kids to begin with.

 

Yes, I agree about the lack of good toys @ regular retail stores these days. That being said, there is a lot of cool stuff that is - or at least was - available online only , i.e. the newest Masters of the Universe line (Mattell), the new Power Lords figures (a re-imagined line, based on the '80's toys), a fantastic new Alien Queen toy by NECA that came out late 2014, etc. Unfortunately, I haven't collected many of these simply because it's simply not convenient to be ordering things online all of the time; plus, they are usually produced in low #'s, so that makes it even more difficult to find them for a reasonable price. In my case, if I can't just go into a store & buy a figure, I probably won't be getting it (with some exceptions).

Related side-note: Even in the last decade (2000-2010 - roughly), I remember seeing a lot more great toys @ retail, i.e. the G.I. Joe ARAH anniversary line, Marvel Universe small 3.75 figures, the larger DC Universe figures, etc. And, obviously, SW figures were easier to find in the last decade. To somewhat revise what I said in my last post, though the '80's & '90's may have been the heyday for toy collecting, in the 200X's there were fewer toys, but the ones out there were definitely sculpted better than those in the past...

 

The market declined because the economy tanked. Instead of buying new stuff, collectors had to sell off their collections to pay bills. Result - no one was getting toys. There isn't a lack of interest in kids wanting toys. Every thrift shop I go into EVERY kid who enters the store - of all ages - immediately races to the toys area.

People are feeling a little more financially sure, vintage collectors are confused as hell because vintage figure prices are skyrocketing to out of control prices. This, I firmly believe is because scalpers are duking it out w/ those people who had to sell off their collections and they're trying to get them back again now that they have $$.

I think Ep 7 could easily be the turnaround for the market. Parents who collected as kids - either vintage or SW in the 90s and grew up w/ the prequels (yes, they are reproducing now) they're going to want their kids to have toys from the new films. I know Rebels stuff is selling because I've already picked up a couple of Rebels things at thrift shops. I saw in an article somewhere where the blogger was talking to a guy who was the head of marketing over GI Joe at Hasbro and the blogger was bitching about how "no one" wanted those 5 POA 12" figures. The Hasbro guy replied, "No, its collectors who don't want them, they are a huge corner of our toy market right now and are selling like mad." IE - they're cheap, big toys that are hard for kids to destroy and lots are ending up in kids hands which is where they should be. I also watch a ton of FB SW collectors sites - lots of new, younger collectors pick them up. Hell I've got a bunch of them, they look fine on display.

Disney bought Lucasfilm precisely for the fact that they're the complete package - the SW films have a huge name brand that sells tickets and DVDs. AND even better, they're still the biggest merchandising giant out there other than Disney. I expect Ep 7 will be everywhere this fall and Christmas. With the promise that gas prices could be plummeting in fall - that will help to put more $$ in people's wallets to buy stuff. It could be a very big merchandizing season for Hasbro/Disney/Lucasfilm. My only concern is that they've kept such a tight cover on the merchandise, showing nothing for prototypes, etc and plan on springing everything in Sept - people haven't had the opportunity to start salivating for stuff and will be heading blind into the madness. That has a recipe for disaster written all over it.

 

You bring up a lot of good points as well. I.e., just because you can't find toys in retail stores that doesn't necessarily mean that kids aren't still into toys. I don't have any thrift shops that I know of around here - if I did, I'm sure I'd be spending a lot more money than I am on toys - since, these days, I can barely find anything new @ retail that I want.

 

Thrift store shopping is a big mystery. Sometimes you find stuff, sometimes you don't. There's always condition issues because they're toys that people are chucking - but every once in a while someone gets rid of a large collection of stuff, or donates something really awesome. I spent a lot of time in the 90's haunting antique stores for stuff - I now just l goto thrift shops because I have TONS of them between where I work and live. I could probably hit a different thrift shop every day for nearly 3 weeks if I wanted to.

 

I wish we had that here. My only options are 2 or 3 obscure specialty shops, large kids' stores in malls and eBay. Each time I order something from UK, postage is up to 10 pounds. USA goes from 6 to 30 bucks.

 

I don't pay much attention to the othef toy lines, but im pretty sure when September 4th roles around, i won't be the only adult or kid buying the figures. Specifically the "3.75. I hope to hear something soon on this first wave.

 

I enjoyed reading this thread throughout because it's now after Force Friday and I wanted to know what the expectations of that day were going to be. Some mentioned it could possibly been a disaster, other's less skeptical.

I have collected over 10 figures from the TFA line. The biggest problem is getting stores to restock because everything from the 3.75" line gets sold out very quickly. Very rarely does anyone see a Kylo Ren figure. Thankfully, I got him and 5 other figures on Force Friday.

 

Nice Jediterminator. I managed a few Kylo Rens and was lucky as well, getting to TRU early and getting 10 figures. Ended up getting some ships the next few days using Target coupon. Many collectors were upset at the stock of the toys. Even many stores i go to now are still not stocked on the 3.75 figures. My Force Friday was very memorable as i put the planning into it and it turned out great.

 

Glad you had a great Force Friday experience as I did, Bossk. I know a lot of people were angry getting into the stores hours later and hardly finding even 1 figure available. I browse through Walmart and TRU a couple times a week and they are still low on stock. Last week, TRU had no 3.75" figures whatsoever. Yesterday, me and my wife went to Target and I was baffled to find Kylo Ren and Rey available in multiples. I did not have a Rey yet, so I grabbed one.

I can't wait for Wave 2. I'm digging that Snowtrooper.

 

For me, I don't collect as much anymore not only due to money and room, but just the lack of quality merch. I even remember when TPM came out, I was a bit less than impressed although the I think the figures were better. I got a plastic 12 inch Qui Gon which really looks like Liam Neeson. I wish I got more from that line because they were reasonably priced as well as great looking. (I remember snagging a Shaak Ti online even though I ordered a different one from Target. I remember the SKU numbers were the same and people got angry. I can't remember who I ordered but I got Shaak Ti instead and she's just beautiful).

Now, I'm really not impressed with what's out there. The bigger figures are Kylo ren, storm stroopers, and Darth Vader from what I have seen. Just not that interested. The Target BB8 was a must but not really impressed. Hot Topic has some great wearables though and accessories. But figure wise, really not that jazzed about it. I'm waiting for the Art of Star Wars book to come out.

With kids, it's sad they don't play with toys really because there's really, imho, not any great toys out there anymore. Legos are all sets. I remember getting a bucket of legos and just building on my own. Creativity is not really encouraged anymore. Heck, I would take shoe boxes and old boxes and make apartments and homes for my toys. Now, either the toys are too darn expensive, just sets, or just not good quality. Maybe it's just me, but as an adult looking at the toy aisle and looking at my oooooold toys at home that I still have, I didn't realize how good I had it. My old 70s millennium falcon still works (though missing the dish and the legs aren't that great anymore. But it still buzzes!) It was well loved and played and won't give that up for a second.

Okay, I'll get off my high tauntaun.

 

Any idea if new figures are being released tomorrow in another "Force Friday" campaign?

 

This weekend apparently the toy companies all have booths at New York Comic Con some spoilery images are already popping up all over the place.

Sorry I'm at work and can't post them. But you can click on my FB link in my siggy - I've shared pics to my SW page there

 

Must. Have. New. Snowtrooper! Han looks great, too. Can't wait to pick these up.