Topic: TVC Star Wars The Clone Wars Microseries Announcement

[RC-1136]

https://www.starwars.com/news/clone-wars-2d-micro-series-figures

[Darth More]

Thanks for sharing the link! It was great to look at the wave in high-res. The cardbacks look great! And I know some fans aren't happy with the simple re-issue of the Jedi figures included. I think Hasbro made a solid choice for this wave and who knows if a second wave is planned. I'm pretty sure Hasbro waits how this microseries performs. General Grievous, Mace Windu, Durge, Asajj Ventress and a Super Battle Droid are in need here. I also read some other good suggestions on YakFace: This would be a perfect chance to bring back Shaak Ti and Ki-Adi Mundi back into the line.

Since I'm not a carded collector I'm perfectly fine with this wave. These Jedi are quite expensive on ebay not even mentioning that Fordo is at $100 loose. I'm happy with all of them and to me TVC is all about realistic style. But calling Hasbro lazy is also fair and I can understand fans who wish for animated style figures that actually match the card art.

I'm definitely going to get Luminara Unduli because I really like the brown skirt variation. But the biggest question to me is: Why didn't they choose alternative images for all their re-issues? The Gamorrean Guard and Royal Guard come to mind. It would be nice to see these Jedi on altenate AOTC/ROTS as well.

The Battle Droid is also a nice choice, but feels like a lazy repack. I bet Hasbro would even argue that less paint apps on the antennas makes it more accurate to the movie. Cutting cost here again, but the Blaster comes with some new paint app now, which is awesome! I wonder if mighty TungHori will get them...
It's hard to believe that we still haven't gotten an updated version of the OOM-series Security and Pilot Droid in 8-14 years!

The stars of the wave are of course the ARC Troopers and I'm thrilled about these. The new helmet looks nice and perfect compared to the source. But the blue ARC without the long blaster rifle is the biggest miss to me here.

I can understand everyone who is disappointed of the choice of figures here, but maybe these 6 "lazy repaints" make the way for a second and third wave with retools or even newly sculpted figures...

[Tamer]

Don't forget that wal-mart has their exclusive event at 10AM today

https://www.walmart.com/cp/collectibles/5967908

I find it interesting that they will do animated packaging, but not an animated line of figures? I know I prefer the realistic style of figures anyhow, but think this is just pretty much a print a new cardback and reissue sort of thing. I mean the Blue ARC doesn't even come with the rifle pictured in the cardback? So far I am not too impressed, but its good for some of those hard to find Jedis to be rereleased.

[RC-1136]

Sold out within seconds.

[JDeck]

  I got the jedi figures. Female alien types are few and far between i can use them for customs.  I was hoping tunghori was going to restock these, especially,Barris Offee. From what it looks like, she has a different face sculpt altogether, not just the photoreal. I don't know If Tunghori will get these. He hasn't gotten the 50th walmart endor wave and evidently that wave has released.  Yeah those clones were gone in 60 seconds. I skip clones personally, but me skipping clones isn't spelling doom for tvc.

[Darth More]

It must be a nightmare trying to pre-order these exclusives at the big box stores. If you missed them you can still pre-order them from the UK at StarActionFigures and Zavvi (not affiliate):

In Demand Toys

Star Action Figures

Zavvi


Best of luck to you! I haven't pre-ordered them yet. My budget for the hobby is already spent for the coming weeks.

JDeck: Yeah, don't know what's up with TungHori. He seems to have difficulties to get new figures in stock. Maybe the security policies in the factories have changed or the latest waves are produced somewhere else. But his high prices don't make it attractive to buy from him anymore. I can rather buy the figures new and actually unbox them! It's cheaper! But this hobby is getting too expensive for me anyway. lol

[JDeck]

   They're not releasing until March, that's a long time from now. I've preordered so many figures I don't even know what's released yet. I think the Ahsoka/Maul wave is releasing now, but I won't be getting them until September. No sign of them from TungHori. Sometimes I can get figures from him before my preorders arrive. They might be making them in Vietnam, i dunno. I was hoping he would get some gaming greats in too. Sometimes I preorder a couple of figures just to get the order in on time, but then later regret not getting extras. That's why I buy from TungHori.

[RC-1136]

Managed to pre-order 2 blue arc troopers. No telling if they will cancel on me tho.

[Darth More]

JDeck: I think it's funny how Hasbro managed to flip the coin. It's not waiting for clearance anymore. It's paying full price just to wait for your product to arrive 6-10 months later. HasLab is one thing, but the MRSP has constantly gone up since their pre-order or go to hell on feebay policy. Let's hope Hasbro will at least meet demand and stop that artificial limitation like all the shoe brands do for sneakers. This hobby has become crazy since Di$ney is in charge. At least Amazon got enough power so that they get more of those TVC Clone Trooper 4-Packs when they want to.


RC-1136:That's fantastic news! I keep my fingers crossed for you that you'll actually receive them. In good condition.
Meanwhile IDToys has risen the price for the wave from 79 GBP to 96 GBP, but when I checked this morning, it's back to 79 GBP - is this Wall Street or what?

[JDeck]

  I don't know what it is about the human mind, but scarcity creates demand. I really wasn't planning to buy anything, but I was like well this will be my only chance, so I ended up dropping over a hundred dollars on repacks. The opposite with Snoke, I never bought him because he was everywhere.  It reminds me of the diamond industry. They want you to think diamonds are super rare, but they're pretty much worthless. Try to sell a diamond to a pawn shop, they'll  laugh you out of the store.


Walmart did restock like an hour after the initial sell out. But I still don't see why preorders sell out in the first place especially with exclusives. People pretty much break the website trying to order everything within the first five minutes. It's crazy. I hate the preorder rat race.

[Darth More]

I agree, I'm not a psychologist or expert on marketing, but it seems to work. People get mad or want to flip some bucks by reselling limited stuff.
With over 330 million potential customers in the U.S. the market must be of high interest for companies. However pre-order windows tend to last much longer in the UK. For example the Black Series 50th Clone Wars Wave to celebrate TCW is still available for pre-order while single figures like Obi-Wan and Echo are sold out already. But Wayne from StarActionFigures often shares that Hasbro tend to cut quantities so that he cannot re-order more cases if demand is higher than expected.

[JDeck]

   Yeah ask any scalper people will pay anything for these figures. I don't think there's as much demand per capita in Europe as the US. I could be wrong. I've seen the pictures you post on tvc/tbs store shelves and it's like it was here during potf2/TPM. Maybe Europeans are more into lego. In my short time there, all I ever saw was Star Wars lego. It's like Japan is more into model kits. But bandai and lego they don't do this artificial scarcity thing like hasbro is doing here. You almost have to beg hasbro to sell you something star wars.

[Tamer]

I find it still interesting that we haven't seen images of the new 6" Figures. I know it is wrong to hope they do some of these in the animated style right? I have told myself that about the only way I will get new 6" Figures now is to wait for them to be released on vintage cardbacks down the road, but I might bite on these three, especially if they are released in animated new styles.

BTW, the Target Exclusive Carbonite Figure links are on the front pages if anyone is interested in a new Shore Trooper, Scout Trooper, and Paz Vizsla.

[Darth More]

So I just pre-ordered all 6 figures at a local Comic Store here in Germany for 20,49€ (~$23 USD) each! I think Hasbro's new pre-order or go to hellbay and pay scalper prices is appalling. I mean we have to pay 8-12 months in advance and in the case of the Black Series figures, we don't even know what we're getting! It's a shot in the dark!

What's interesting here is that the seller told me that he can order all 6 figures separately so they don't come in a case of 6. I think it's the same in the UK. And I hope Hasbro will see where demand is at. Both ARC Troopers are of course sold out on Zavvi already. I would've bought them there because I'm an opener anyway, so a crushed card wouldn't bother.

StarActionFigures don't ship to continental Europe anymore because they have issues with DPD and customs since BREXIT. Who wanted that BREXIT again?! In Demand Toys cannot decide whether they take 80 or 95 Pounds for the case. It's back up at 95 and with the strong GBP I decided to support sellers here in Germany. I would never thought that I'd pay over 20€ for a Star Wars 3.75" figure some day. This wave is supposed to ship at the end of March 2022 here and who know if the Comic Store gets out of business 'til then?

Rising prices and taking these high stakes pushes me more and more to quitting this hobby and just focus on used stuff, making customs, building dioramas and enjoy what I already got. Hasbro are killing it.

[Darth More]

By the way Volker from StarWarsFiguren shared high-res images of the back of the cards, which reveal their VC numbers 212-217:

http://forum.starwars-figuren.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2319