Pittsburgh, PA News and reviews on Toys and Collectibles!

Hi!!

I had a great time at the Toy Show, and thanks to Sal, I managed to buy a lot of nice stuff, like Ephant mon and silver R2, among other things. And it was really nice to meet you all.

Unfortunately, i couldn't get my holo yoda on sunday, i had (and still have) too much work to do. Do you think the next weekend I'll be able to find one?

On rebelscum there is a link for the m&m's and skittles checklist.

http://www.rebelscum.com/article.asp?i=91186

jose

 

Jose, from what I've gathered, TRU's have plenty of Yoda's to go around. I don't know about waiting until next weekend, but the two I've been too since Sunday have both said they have dozens.

If they still have them after the promotion they may either continue the promotion "until supplies last" OR sell them for $9.99 each as they did on 4/2 OR do both. So be on the lookout.

 

I'm surprised at what a difficult time I'm having finding children's t-shirts. Perhaps closer to the movie release date . . .

 

I saw exactly one style of youth shirt at TRU yesterday.
Picked up a Grievous Force Battler. I really like that size for a fig but I would gladly trade the action feature for posable legs so he could use that grapple to scale something. That and a cape!

Btw, my Best Buy has a Ep3 display in the front of store. Any Reward Zone members can get double points when buying anything on the display. They also have the Making of ROTS book at 30% off the $29.95 cover price.

 

New Force Battlers
Clone Trooper
This clone trooper is tricked out with an awesome multi-feature backpack. It really fires projectiles and has wings you deploy for aerial attacks.

Chewbacca
Not to be outdone, Chewie comes with a battlinâ?? backpack of his own. Squeeze it to blast streams of water at his enemies. Or squeeze Chewbaccaâ??s legs together for the awesome Wookiee battle attack.

Mace Windu
The coolest Jedi of all gets even cooler. He features a missile-firing gauntlet, cool lightsaber action attack, and a Force shield accessory.

 

Do anybody know what happen with the clonetrooper from target?? I never saw it.

And what about the Vader 500th figure, I didn't preorder it from amazon, do you know when and if it is going to be available at TRU later?

I finally opened almost all my figures and they are excellent, it's definitely better to open them. I really like all the jedi, the guards and the clones.

Has anybody seen already the tarkin collection? and the titanium series?

jose

 

Hi Hidai.

I can tell you that the Tarkin wave is just making
its first appearance this week at WALMARTs around
town. They have been spotted specifically at
the Delmont Walmart (eastside). This WM and
the new Greensburg Walmart are also sporting all 8 of
the TITANIUMS as of this morning. And they're
on MARKDOWN. $4.84 I think. I picked up a couple
for Sal. So, they're out there. Just stay
diligent. ;-)

-EBM

 

Thanks for the post Dave. I haven't updated anything here in awhile. Not too many collectors, and the couple that there are, are pretty much already in the know of what's coming out when and for how much.

But again thanks Dave. Any update is a welcome one.

 

Updates are always a good thing.

There are some neat 'activity' sets and 'art' sets out there. A Darth Vader head that looks like a smaller version of the old figure case that holds markers, stickers and some coloring book type pages. (9.99 at k-mart) I also found a much larger "Deluxe Activity Set" (19.99 at TRU) that also has a light up tracing desk, lots of stickers, a Vader light up pen, temp tattooos, memo pad, glue stick, etc. Rose Art has also put out those black velvet color in posters, although I haven't managed to find any yet . . .

The Burger King toys are neat looking, but since I was a bit cash short this month (paying off the last of the CIII expenses, especially the cell phone bill) I really didn't get there as often as I would have liked. I did get about half of them and most of the characters that I did want. Sadly, I didn't manage to get a Mace, Leia, Watto, Wicket or Boga. Ah well. There's always e-bay.

I did spot some of the SW fabrics at Jo-Anns, but just the flannel ones and they were all the flame styles. I'm thinking about ordering some of the Jedi or Yoda pattern material and seeing if my sister will make me some PJs out of them.

 

Does anybody know which is the titanium wave currently on stores? Because I can't find the X-wing, tie, millenium and the slave. Do you think I missed them?

I saw in amazon that the anakin and clone evolution packs would be available in june 10th but now they changed the date for july 1st. Do you know when are they going to be available?

jose

 

Does anybody know which is the titanium wave currently on stores? Because I can't find the X-wing, tie, millenium and the slave. Do you think I missed them?

Yes, you've missed them, but there may be a chance that they will be released again.

I saw in amazon that the anakin and clone evolution packs would be available in june 10th but now they changed the date for july 1st. Do you know when are they going to be available?

The date seems to keep changing. I know a few fellows who preordered these. None have received them yet.

 

That's too bad, I hope they receive another set.

I forgot another question, do you know when is going to be available the Vader 500th? And if it's going to be in stores? I was thinking in preordering it, since i'm not going to be here in july and part of august.

jose

 

That's probably a very safe call, Jose. With Vader's popularity right now, I can't see this warming the store shelves for to long. In fact I suspect that this will barely see retail distribution. I could be wrong, I'm guessing on this one. I know I'll be buying it the first time I see it though.

-Sal

 

LOL,, we've all seen the occasional STAR WARS Collectible that
makes us laugh. Well, here's the next one...

The STAR WARS BARFBAGs !

Brought to you from those hoopy-cool froods over at Virgin-Atlantic.

"Nice going Chewy! Always thinking with your stomache"

p.s. These are airline barfbags. They are designed by a company named ...(pausing for
suspense)... "HIJACK MEDIA" (I joke you not)

 

This weekend if you go and see ROTS you'll receive a FREE POSTER!!!



Does anybody know if Loews will be giving them?

 

Don't know, but if they are, cool! Anyone that might not want their's, I'd be happy to accept it. (Please)

 

I meant to post ealier about how funny those bags were. Especially the one about suggestions on seating Jedi and Sith on the same flight. I'd love to get a couple of those for my collection.

I came across a book that has been very informative for me, a realitive beginner in the collecting hobby. The Official Price Guide to Star Wars Memorabilia by Jeremy Beckett (its co-written by other Rebelscum.com folks, including Anne Neumann, who I assume is the same Anne that ran the autograph volunteers at CIII).

The first half of the book is an introduction to the how-to's of collecting. A history of SW memorabilia, grading, vocabulary, buying, selling, preservation, fakes/bootlegs, and displaying. Its been a very helpful reference.

I also picked up some neat things at Monroeville Target. A couple more of the Jedi Force figures from Playskool. I got the Yoda, who is extremely bright green and looks far more frog like than normal. But still cute in that distorted Playskool way. The other was the Mace figure, which is even odder looking than Yoda, because Mace is smiling. Cheerful Mace. Doesn't quite seem right, even for a children's toy . . .

Also at Target I found more of the cup with figure combos, although I walked off with all that they had on the shelf. Some went to live at my house, some went to live at my sisters' houses. (despite my youngest sister's protest her son is only 6 months old and will not be drinking from a cup for some time yet.) The cups themselves are a very heavy plastic and the graphics on the ones I got the kids several months ago (ANH Ben Kenobi and Darth Maul) have stayed sharp and clear, despite being often used by the kids and being run through the dishwasher several times. The figures themselves seem fairly standard. I picked up ROTS Obi-Wan, ANH Han Solo, and ESB Yoda (the only one that didn't get opened, since there was only one Yoda and I kept that for myself). Obi-Wan has an extra hand that can be switched out, the extra holding a lightsaber. Han has several points of articulation, including knees that bend. Yoda has 'real' hair, moves arms at the shoulder, and bends at the waist (legs are a solid piece and don't move seperately)

From the back of the packaging, there are also available Boba Fett ROTJ, General Grievous ROTS, and Red Clonetrooper ROTS.

Also at Target were several cans of 'Energy Beam String Refill Canisters' for a blaster toy. The cans have pics of different characters on the front. I bought one with Yoda on it.

I also ended up with a set of Galatic Heros sheets. It has several SW characters in the Galactic Heros figure style (those cute little ones that came out originally under Playskool and are now sold in two packs). A blue background with the droids, bearded Obi, Vader and Yoda shown in blocks of color. I ordered sets from that Evil Place (sigh, yeah, because the kids wanted them and that's where I found them, I broke down and bought from Walmart. Embarassing, horrible, but now its established what's most important to me . . . raising the kids fully in the faith ) At the Target website I found only the Comforter set, that included the sheets plus comforter. Nice looking, but a bit more than I wanted to spend for a total of 6 sets (mine and five kids). Also available was a 'Dark Force' Red with Sith logo and one that was Blue with the Jedi logo.

My sister came across the new SW flannel fabric at JoAnn's. She got the Yoda print (small lightsaber swinging Yodas with the word Yoda printed all over) and a pattern made up of blocks of colors and figures (Vader and clonetroopers, mostly). Similar to the cotton fabric with blocks of colors and figures, but without the Yoda blocks.

The Jedi Justice fabric we had gotten previously will end up as curtains in the boys' room. Some of the other fabric will end up as part of a set of PJs for me and the kids.

Off of ebay I've gotten a couple of odd things. From Britain, some fake money with SW folks on them (Mace, the droids, A

 

I just preordered the AT-AT Imperial Walker EpV Signature Edition from Master Replicas a couple of days ago! If you want to order it, it's going to cost you more than $1400. Here's a cool shot of it and the order page if anyone wants to get it, http://masterreplicas.com/customer/starwars/starwars_product_detail.php?pid=8432 It's an awesome sculpt and will look great on my mantle, if it fits.

 

Neat, but a bit out of my price range. I've bought cars for far less than that amount

Edit: Thought of a few more things to say

Genle Giant and Code 3 (which Jawa mentioned as stuff he also likes to collect) do have some awesome things. The Gentle Giant busts are just incredible. The 3D movie posters that Code 3 does really are unique looking (for those that went to CIII, you might have seen their booth. The ad for their 3D ESB poster has been all over Insider. I wonder about that, they were marketing that as a CIII exclusive, but I saw it for sale a few other places afterwards and they were auctioning off some. I wonder if it didn't sell as well as they thought it was going to)

What items do you have from them, Jawa? I have a few pieces and I know Zero has some of the Master Replica sabers (very spiffy looking they are, too) but as I said they are generally a little out of my price range. Perhaps if you ever get to a real world meeting you could bring along a few pieces for us to look at, those types of things are almost always much cooler in real life than their photos.

(end edit)

Some of the things that I ordered from Gen-Con arrived. The kids shirts were the yellow not blue (they said they were out of blue) and the Yoda Hoodies are going to take another 3 weeks to arrive (on top of the 2 months its already taken). They did offer to send some merchandise to me for the inconvience (most likely left over stuff they didn't manage to get rid of at CIII), which, if it arrives, I'll split up amoung the folks that ordered through me at CIII. I tell you, I am so unimpressed by the way Gen-Con ran things, if there is a CIV and Gen-Con is put in charge of selling the collectables and they don't majorily change how they run things, I think that I will find a way to live without buying any of their stuff.

 

Recently I've started a new approach to ebay. I type in Star Wars, go to page 2 or 3 (sometimes page 4) to find the auctions that have between 4 and 10 minutes left. I scroll down the page and at the end of it, just hit the refresh button. This puts up the next set of auctions ending in the next few minutes. I've found some nice deals this way. Although I want to make it clear that I am NOT sniping. If an item has a bid on it, I do NOT bid on it. That's just not nice. However, if no one has bid on it, some things can be got for a minimum cost.

ebay can be very addictive. Its also very interesting to watch the types of things that get put up for auction and the prices that people are willing (or not willing) to pay for them.

 

Hmm... is it not considered ethical to bid at the last minute on ebay? I have done that quite a few times for things just to make sure that nobody can out bid me at the last second. It doesn't always work though, because the other person might already have a higher bid in place.

 

From what I understand, what is unethical is sniping. Coming in at the last second and outbidding someone who has already placed a bid. That is why I will not, when checking out things the last 10 minutes of the auction, bid on anything that someone else is bidding on. That is sniping, and unethical. And not very nice.

However, I figure if its gone the entire auction and no one else has bid on it, then its fair game.

What do others think about this?

 

Yeah, but isn't "sniping" pretty much standard on eBay? I mean, it's an auction, and that's pretty much pare for the course.

That and a lot of people I know have their accounts set to "auto-bid".

I just did my first eBay transaction-I purchased a Burger King "Boga" toy, through "Buy It Now."
THAT feature I must say I like.

Does anyone know how scarce the Obi-Wan and Boga figures are getting? I searched EVERYWHERE until I finally found it on KB Toys site? (I ordered it and it should arrive within the next couple of weeks). Word is, it's very popular...and very rare now.

 

I have to admit, I never thought of sniping in that way before. I actually thought that that "sniping" was when people used third party software to make their bids for them at the last second.

I tend to use ebay for computer parts, and usually there are several bidders for an item within the last 10 minutes. If I make a reasonable offer with longer then 10 minutes to go, then it will almost always get outbid, and I don't want to make an offer that is too high when I can get the item I need for less. The way I see it is if someone doesn't want to get sniped then they will bid enough so that people don't outbid them.

For example, lets say the there is an item with the current high bid listed at $20. I am willing to pay $25 for the item, and say that there is now 1 minute left with a high big of $23. The $23 price is usually not the bidder's high bid, but the lowest price that will get him/her the item. They may have bid $30 and so, if I bid $25 at the last second then their bid will move up the next increment, maybe $25.50 and they still win the item. At least, I think that's how it works. I am willing to pay $25 and they are willing to pay $30. They don't have to be at their computer to win the item within their expected price range.

 

Greetings, blokes.

I have no remorse about auction sniping, as that seems to be the rule of the day at the "Bay of E." I much prefer using "Buy it Now" and usually won't bid on something that doesn't have it, but if I'm forced to bid, I generally only try at the very bitter end of the auction. If you throw in a reasonable (or reasonably low) price at the very beginning, I can guarantee you will not get the item.

Having said that, I rarely use eBay much at all. But if it's for something I definitely need, I babysit ruthlessly.

Not a nice guy,
Yours Truly

P.S. I actually made a comic about this eons ago.