"Force Friday" - Now Discussing 2017 - Possible Spoilers!

You might be better off passing on Aftermath. XD

 

Heres my Force Friday story...

I went to my local TRU at 10:15 and was about the 23rd person in line (there were about 50 overall). When I got in there all but 3 of the 3.75in and all Black series were gone (I did get the 3 which were Poe Dameron, Resistance Soldier, and Tie Pilot). I also got a first order lego snowspeeder for my nephew. I went to 2 different Targets Friday afternoon but they were all out of figures (saw a lot of the micromachines which look lame).

 

I went to my local Target today, and they seemed to have participated in Force Friday last week. I'm so glad I didn't go. So many empty pegs, not a single actual action figure in sight. All the lightsabers were part of the crappy "Build-A-Saber" junk, and so they all have holes in the bottom of them. They had the Nerf Blasters, but they were SO much smaller than I thought they would be. Ugh, I'm so disappointed in all of it. The only thing I came away with that was of any value were the Micro-Machines, the titaniums, and the Hot Wheels, which was all I ended up getting:

 

Local Entertainer did have some new stuff when I was there earlier. I picked up the Boba Fett Hero Masher. They had some of the micro machines but I gave those a pass. I wanted the Titanium Slave I but all they had left was an X-Wing. They were still pretty well stocked but the sales guy said they had already sold quite a bit.

 

Here's a pic of my haul. I really don't know why Disney feels the need to have their name plastered all over the front of boxes. *Sigh

I like Rey's speeder box art, that box is going to get chopped apart and that will go on the back wall of my display whenever I get it together.

 

Great pics., Padme. I had no idea Hasbro was producing 12" TFA figures - they look interesting. I also like Rey's speeder (first seen in the first TFA Trailer) - very nice.

Hard as it may be to believe, I still haven't been to stores to look for TFA toys. I spent some time recently looking through my large collection of OT & PT SW toys & realized I don't have enough room to collect another line - unless I rent a storage facility....That being said, some of this stuff does look cool, especially the vehicles - I wonder if I can make room for these somewhere?!...

 

Blur The new 12" figures are kinda like jumbo figures - not a lot of articulation, all plastic - they are smaller versions of the bigger guys by Jakks Pacific but they're by Hasbro. They don't look too bad though, the face sculpts on the people are surprisingly nicely well done.

Eh I don't have a shelf for these things at the moment. After I come back from Europe in Nov I'm hitting IKEA and buying more shelves for my office. Thankfully I think I've got room for 2 largest width Billys and 2 medium width ones. I don't need lots of TFA stuff, but I do need a shelf or two. I also have tons of Clone Wars vehicles that I've picked up in the last couple of years at thrift shops that I want to get up on display.

I'm wondering since Jakku is supposed to sorta be a junkers paradise if I can create a display w/ all of my dead ships and ship parts for a TFA display?


FYI I wrote up some commentary on Force Friday - you can click on the link in my siggy to read it.

 

Great analysis of Force Friday - Thanks for the write-up. I agree with all of this.

I'm glad I didn't look for TFA toys last week, since I had no interest in standing outside @ Midnight in the extreme heat either, and I also strongly dislike having to compete with fanboys for these toys....

I agree that retailers got burned big-time back in '99 when Episode 1 figures rotted on shelves for years afterwards, so since then I've noticed they haven't ordered a ton of product for the SW movie lines, i.e. AOTC Saga figures in 2002, or ROTS in 2005. And, TCW film got a push back in Summer 2008, but even then there wasn't a ton of product on the shelves, either.

I probably won't get much TFA product, unless possibly the exclusive 3.75 TBS Wal-mart Kylo Ren & First Order Stormtrooper - we'll see...

 

I definitely think this is a case of retailers and Hasbro not wanting to repeat mistakes of the past. But the curious thing is that the hype was, if anything, louder this time around. They even branded it ("Force Friday"). It was akin to someone hyping up their Thanksgiving spread, and then when you arrive they give you one slice of turkey and a small dollop of mashed potatoes.

But, as frustrating as this was for collectors and kids, it seems to have worked. Instead of us going there and getting bloated, we left hungry for more. They're parceling it out this time. Same with the info (pics, trailers etc.). If you tease and deny long enough, whatever you give people will be hungrily gobbled up.

 

I think it could've also been a very calculated marketing ploy on both Disney and Hasbro's behalf. Think about it big hype, launch w/ enough merchandise to immediately all be purchased, then sit back gauge social media and fan boards and see how much demand is actually out there and how much more they can safely ship and sell. They want to be smarter than in the past and not oversaturate the market. The films are definitely a window though for letting in life into a stale market.

 

My haul from Force Friday

 

Rad shirts !

I came across Rey's speeder today. Didn't get it, but it looks pretty nifty.

 

Awesome! I just got 6" Kylo Ren and Finn today from Target!

 

Congrats! He's a tough find. One of the best 6" Black Series figures thus far too IMO.

 

OK, I just went to Target today - this is the first time I've been @ a retail store since before 9/04 (I'm not collecting any of TFA toys) and for the heck of it, went to the toy aisle....Just, wow. There were literally almost no TFA toys on the shelf - very few vehicles, and only one lone 3.75 figure on the pegs. This is the biggest sell-through of SW toys I've ever seen for a SW movie line. Unbelievable. Either there weren't a lot of figures to begin with, or this line was a huge seller, or a little of both. Obviously more toys will be produced, but still...

Hasbro/Disney is making $ hand over fist with this line. This makes me doubly glad I'm not collecting these - even if I wanted them, I wouldn't be able to find them...granted, I didn't go to other stores to look to see what stock they had, either...

 

That seems to be the story just about everywhere, however a friend and fellow collector told me I should hit up Kohl's. He said they had merch everywhere, including the somewhat elusive Tie Fighter. It's not the first place collectors think of, but I had success there when I was collecting the ROTS line.

 

From what I've seen, the new Star Wars products and displays are very underwhelming. Not much creativity or anything to excite the imagination with what was released. Kind of reminds me of the stylistic differences between the Republic and the Empire as shown in the movies in a way. Things have gone from highly amazing and interesting (with TPM, ATOC, ROTS) to bare and sparse, (Disney's TFA). I don't think it is my bias toward to prequel trilogy either. Looking online at products from the last decade, there was much more then to catch a fan's interest than what was released this past week.

Then, it seemed like Star Wars didn't have any shame in its own brand, and celebrated the rich world that was created within the movies. Now, it seems like Star Wars is about "following the crowd" and afraid to celebrate the creativity which made it so great. Makes for a bland fantasy world, when rather than celebrating its own strengths and making something original, it instead is insecure in its own worth, and is trying to please people who largely don't even like Star Wars by giving them what it thinks they are requesting.

 

To anyone who got the Legos, I have one thing to say to you:

 

I half agree but mostly disagree. The film is not even out yet. The packaging is mostly simple but effective. The figures packaging do look good. Remember this is the shape of things to come and only the first bout of mechandise released. As to imagination, we have to wait till the film is out.

 

Agree with this 200%. The vehicles & character designs for TFA are, IMHO, bland. Conversely, I really liked the PT vehicles & characters. I think a lot of this is that TFA designs seem to be a re-hash of what we saw in the OT - makes sense, since the film takes place 30 years after the OT & presumably a lot of similar vehicles/outfits are being used - plus, TFA is supposed to remind everyone of the OT.

That being said, I strongly preferred the PT designs, especially TPM's - the Sith Speeder, Pod Racers, yellow Naboo starfighter, Darth Maul's spaceship, etc. were all excellent & original vehicles, and did not remind me of the OT vehicles in any way.

However, I'm not complaining. I'm not collecting TFA line, and so I'm glad I don't want any of these toys....if I did, I would be very frustrated right now.

 

A bit late for Force Friday but I hit the motherlode today. Found the Titanium Slave I and Armor Up Boba Fett at the local Entertainer and a bunch of books at the local Waterstones: SW Aftermath, Weapon of a Jedi, Smugglers Run, and Moving Target.

 

Finally got everything for my haul in the mail! Time to get it all wrangled up and take some pics!

 

Force Friday was nothing special where I live when I arrived at Toys R Us at midnight but I ended up getting a bunch of items at hot topic and the Disney store later in the day and BB8 from Best Buy. I did not see the black series giant tie fighter so I guess it will be out at some point in the coming months.

 

I recently saw (but didn't get) the 3.75 Tie Fighter and found it a very overpriced, underwhelming toy for $40 retail. It didn't look much different than the Tie Fighters that have been released by Hasbro over the years from the OT; and, I read somewhere that the plastic used for the wings is quite cheap & sub-par...