Pittsburgh, PA News and reviews on Toys and Collectibles!

The way I see it, it's an auction, and as long as it's not closed, it's fair game to bid. It's not moral, or immoral-it's amoral. It's like in live auctions, when they yell, "Going once, going twice-" then someone bids.

 

I've been reluctant to post about this since I see both sides of the argument. Guinastasia, there is a flaw in your point however. In real-life auctions if someone bids at the "going twice" stage then the auction is given more time and the previous high bidder gets a chance to bid again. There's no such chance on eBay. Don't get me wrong, I've sniped before. Not much though, I'm not that much of an eBayer to begin with. My take on this is, techinically it's allowed by eBay so it's okay, but fairness should allow the auction to continue by giving more time to the auction. The seller would be for this since they have the potential to make more money. Buyers should be for this since they wouldn't have the fear of being sniped. I would gladly give up sniping if it meant fairness for all buyers. The only monkey wrench in this is, some buyers would then elevate bids on some things to ridiculous levels. That might result in an appearance of an item being worth more than what it really is.

 

I just got word that there is a Wedge Antilles figure coming out. I don't usually buy thing anymore but this I can make an exception for. If anyone sees one for sale could they pick it up for me? I don't get to the stores much and I bet they go fast.

 

Is it one of the 3 3/4" figures? I'll keep an eye out for it . . .

Or is it this Wedge figure which is available at the star wars shop?

 

It's the one you linked to. I guess I can just order it off of there to make things easier.

 

Hot Topics. A fantastic store to find SW merchandise. There are several new t-shirts to be had. Including 'Duct tape is like the force', a spiffy Mandalore skull symbol, one with the ANH movie poster, a Vader helmet with the words 'Sith Happens' underneath, and a very disturbing t-shirt that has only the words 'Execute order sixty-six' on it.

Also at Hot Topics, a messenger bag with the ANH movie poster and a CD case that looks like Vader's helmet. As always, the various stickers and pins available.

At K-Mart, there was a beach towel poncho thing for kids that was designed to look like Vader's costume.

Other random stuff seen about town . . .

New "Force Battlers": Mace, Chewie, clonetrooper. The "Force Battlers" are the 12" figures that look like WWE guys. The sculpt doesn't really look that much like Mace, but then really none of the sculpts do. (except for Chewie and the trooper)

Some new action figures, including "Exploding Action Stass Allie" that comes with the figure and "BARC speeder changes into 'battle damage' mode." A bit twisted, I think. You'll remember that Stass Allie was the Jedi that was killed when the Clones blasted her speederbike.

The party favor items are also on shelves. Its almost all Vader themed, with a few Yoda images mixed in.

On a non-Star Wars note, I'm looking for the Ducard action figure from the Batman Beyond movie. On the back of one of the Batman figures its shown with a release date of "Summer 2005." I can't find the figure on ebay or the toys r us sites either. Anyone know anything about it?

 

I've heard that Ducard isn't out yet. Did anyone order the Wedge and holographic Leia that were on shopstarwars.com? The Wedge is a turd of a figure. It's an old sculpt from years ago. IIRC, it came with teh Falcon carrying case. I did get the Leai for the hell of it. She's about the right scale for the remote control R2 that came out a few years ago.

 

I was terribly disappointed to learn that they weren't making the Padme paperdolls for the third movie (perhaps they didn't think anyone wanted her with maternity clothes?), and that no fashion dolls were made for the second or third movie. It just wasn't right.

 

yeah, a few new female figures in the 'barbie doll' style would be nice. My niece has the 'hidden majesty' Padme and Princess Leia dressed as a bounty hunter. It would have been cool to be able to give a some new dolls.

Does it seem to anyone else that Lucas & Co. are still have trouble with the idea that there is a sizable number of female fans out there? Yeah, topless Hayden does balance out Slave Leia somewhat, but when it comes to merchandise, there are alot more skimpy female figures (Like all the possible Leia & Padme costumes and what do we get for the Unleashed figures?? Slave Leia and Arena Padme. Sigh.)

I would have liked a holographic Leia, but they were sold out by the time I looked. I may eventually go on ebay, but I'm not really a hard core Leia collector.

 

Got paid so went out shopping

Starting to see some new stuff on the shelves. Must be getting ready for the Christmas Season and the release of ROTS on DVD . . .

I found the "Make your own Lightsaber" kit. $35. It looks very neat, with several pieces to make a variety of hilts, a clear plastic blade with a colored disk and light so that the blade can look green, blue or purple, a red plastic blade for those inclined to the Dark Side. I didn't get it, but it was tempting. Nice for someone looking to make a custom saber but not wanting to get into the power tool versions.

I came across (and bought) one of the "Battle Packs" sets. The sets contain five action figures. I picked up the "Jedi V. Sith" $25. It has Yoda, Asajj Ventress, General Grievous, Anakin (in torn up clothes, similar looking to his Clone Wars Cartoon battle with Asajj) and Obi-Wan. The really neat thing about this pack (and the reason I bought it) was that it comes with Obi-Wan's clonetrooper armor (again, like the Cartoon, although these are the normal looking action figures) According to the back their are two other packs, "Rebels V. Empire" and "Jedi V. Separatists"

A very neat one was the "Evolutions" that contain three figures (and various accessories) showing how the character (or type of character) has changed over the Saga. I found the Anakin Skywalker set, with him as a young Padawan (EPII) a Knight during the Clone Wars, and finally as Darth Vader. This will be one of the few pieces of mine that won't get openned. It just looks so neat having those three stages of Ani's life next to each other. The other sets are "Clone Trooper to Stormtrooper" and "The Sith" which contains Maul, Dooku and the Emperor.

Unleashed figure with Yoda fighting Sid. Very cool looking.

The Chocolate Mpire figures! I love the M&M characters dressed up as SW characters (although Orange has the stupidest expression on his face as Luke) The four sets are "Count Dooku and Darth Maul", "Queen Amidala, C-3PO, and R2-D2", "Han Solo and Boba Fett" and "Luke and Leia." Just the funniest things! There are also available on the internet through both the M&M website and the Star Wars shop website, ornaments, t-shrits, and magnets.

Finally, off of ebay, I picked up some Pepsi bottle caps from Japan. These blue pop bottle caps have SW figures on top of them (there are a total of 60, from all of the movies). I got the Qui-Gon (of course) the Obi-Wan, and the Obi-Wan bust. Japan gets the weirdest promo items, I'm so jealous.

In another fandom, I continue my hunt for a Batman Begins Ducard figure. I've had no luck at all, not even on the internet. If anyone sees this figure, pick it up for me and I'll gladly pay you back.

So how goes the hunt for everyone else?

 

Stpoed in at Wal-mart after work tonight and found several new figs. I got the new R2-d2,Anakin w/cripspy anakin,mustafar sentry,a clone commander and regular clone among a few others I can't think of right now.

 

Take a look at these two incredible new figures! Baby Luke and Baby Leia!

www.starwars.com/collecting/news/hasbro/news20051010.html

Oh, these would be neat to have! So sad. I want. But, even sadder, they are Wal-mart exclusives and I don't do Wal-mart Sigh.

 

Sucks to be you. ;p

 

In this case, yep it does. Sigh.


On the other hand, one of this year's b-day gifts was Darth Tater. We opened it up and played with it. Lots of fun! Now he's sitting, in all his glory, on top on my computer in that classic Vader 'Join me' pose.

 

From TFN:

Master Replicas 2006 Sneak Peek

Posted By Philip on December 2, 2005
While there are no specific items listed, you can get a flavor for what's coming.

From Master Replicas:

Sneak Peek For 2006

We?ve been eager to announce our exciting new products for 2006, but we keep coming up with more great ideas! Details are still being finalized and are waiting for approval, but here?s a list of some of the characters we?re focusing on for 2006:

Star Wars

Luke Skywalker
Qui-Gon Jinn
Darth Maul
Darth Vader
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Anakin Skywalker
Han Solo
Boba Fett
Stormtrooper

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jack Sparrow
Davy Jones
Will Turner
Elizabeth Swann

Classic Disney

Mickey Mouse
Tinkerbell
Donald Duck
Winnie the Poo

The Muppets

Kermit the Frog
Animal

Some of these characters may not make it to the final cut and others may pop up later. Regardless, stay tuned and we?ll let you know what we?re making in the next month or so!

 

Several new MPire items have been released recently. For those of you how don't know, the MPire are the M&M characters dressed up as SW characters.

The lots of plush have been released. They are about 6" tall and include Vader, Emperor Palpy, Padme (addressing the Senate TPM), Luke, Dooku, Obi, Anakin (Jedi, blue blade), and Maul.

I recently got the M&M company catalog, which has several of the MPire items, include a couple of shirts. Light Side (Luke, Leia, and the Droids) and Dark Side (Maul, Palpy, Vader and Dooku) There is also a little girl's shirt with Leia and an adult sized shirt that has the real Vader and Orange as Luke, with the line "Join me and together we can rule the MPire."

I love this MPire stuff, its just so cute.

Target has (or at least had, when I was there) a line of Christmas ornaments that is cool. They are back with the Christmas decorations. There are glass ornaments of Yoda, Vader, Boba, and C-3P0.

 

Star Wars Christmas ornaments seem to be everywhere

At several places I saw the glass figures (Media Play, Suncoast, Target). Also at Media Play were characters ornaments in plastic. At the Science Center were these really neat ornaments. They look like tiny snow globes, with character heads suspended in them. There was also one with the Falcon.

The Science Center had a large selection of SW items. Mini Snow globes (not the ornaments) with Yoda, the droids, and Vader. A large snow globe with Yoda fighting Palpy. Yoda Masks. Tons of key chains (pewter). Shot glasses. Mugs. Just really neat stuff.

At Toys R Us, I found MPire Christmas ornaments. Also two different styles of Christmas stockings. One style had a plush head of either Yoda or Vader on top of the stocking. The other style had an iron on type figure of Yoda or Vader on the stocking itself.

 

Although this isn't directly about toys and collectables, it is a related topic.

Click here to find out important imformation about Phishing.


Seriously, it seems that every couple of weeks, a Phishing attempt is made to my yahoo email account, most of them have been by imitating Paypal. Since one way of finding our toys and collectables is over the internet, especially ebay, I thought a little reminder about phishing would be a good thing.

I seem to get two main types of fake PayPal emails. Both look very authentic, exactly like what real PayPal emails look like. The first says another email has been added to my account, the other is a 'confirmation' of payment through my account. Both include a link to allow me to 'dispute' the addition or payment.

Instead of following this link, go to your PayPal account the 'long way.' You can then check to see if any additions or payments have been made. You can also forward the phish email to PayPal, so they can work on shutting it down from that end.

Remember, a little paranoia on the internet is a good thing.

 

Does anyone have an extra Hasbro blaster for sale/trade?

 

Couple of neat things I found on the shelves . . .

One is Star Wars "Customs" which are SW figures (large, about 7") on motorcycles (which if you pull back, go forward under their own power) So far I've seen Luke in his X-wing orange flightsuit holding a lightsaber, Darth Vader, and Boba Fett.

A very cool item I just found this evening. Star Wars Transformers. Seriously. As in 'Robots in Disguise' Transformers. Ships turn into SW figures. A Jedi Starfighter turns into Obi-Wan. A tie-fighter turns into Darth Vader. The wheel thing Grievous rides turns into Grievous. How hot is that????

 

I haven't been out shopping lately. Just too busy. But here's a link to info on some new stuff.

Glactic Heros wave 3 is hitting the stores soon. It includes a Wedge figure!

Exciting that the www.reviewstarwars.com folks are hosting the Comicon panel.

 

Ok folks I am depending on you in the great unknown to help me find a plush Chewbacca doll for when my child is born. I had one as a kid and took iteverywhere. If I have a boy I would really like to get one. Trouble is I don't think that they are made anymore.

 

They have the little 'Buddy' Chewie . . .

 

So, anyone have anything new or interesting on the toy/collectable front?

 

Well, Ill say that Hasbro is trying to cross-polinate the STARWARS line
and the TRANSFORMERS line even more.

The new HAN and CHEWBACCA transformers are out. They each transform (when]
combined together) nto the millennium falcon.

Also, there is now a STARWARS-vs-TRANSFORMERS attactix package for sale.

Both are found at Walmarts.

-Dave

And if you're interested, I can detail a really wierd little bootleg line
I recently acquired from japan. Star Wash figurines. They're a little
freaky.