Unclechopchop
Super Freak
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2010
- Messages
- 2,187
- Reaction score
- 7
Absolutely nothing in California......
I'd recommend going to Timewalker and checking out all the cool Hot Toys and Sideshow statues but I don't think they allow walk in's anymore. Call them and find out.
Boy did I have a strange day. I spent most of the day helping clean out my great grandmother?s house as she?s needing to move to nursing care center. Everything from spackling nail holes in the wall, to moving couches and everything in between. The house is about 3 hours from home so when we?re done for the day I check to see if any not so close to home Targets have any Joes. One showed they had 7 Cobra Troopers. Score I thought! When I get there, an employee is literally on the phone with someone asking about them. She looks at the shelf tag and confirms this second location didn?t have any either and the stock number must be an error. So no chance of them looking in the back. Also confirms again they are stocking these in both the regular figure aisle and a special collectors end cap.
So I drive home empty handed and look up my local targets and find out they were busy today and had of course stocked them the day I?m out of town. A couple show 1 or 2 left in stock. I jump back in the car and start hitting them. No luck at the first. At the second, there?s an employee stocking the aisle. No cobras unfortunately but she was able to see another store did have them. I rush over there as they close in 20 minutes. When I get there I hear the 10 minute warning. I had checked out this target yesterday without luck but had an employee show me both stocking locations so I check them both. No luck. I?m getting ready to look for an employee to see if they might help one last customer before the end of the day.
As I look down the end of the figure aisle, across the way there is a stocking cart parked. I practically saw the rays from heaven shining down on them. There they were just sitting there. It was a surreal moment after so many strike outs. I rush over and clap the lot of them between my hand and beelined it to the self check out feeling that surely an employee would try and stop me or even tackle me to prevent me from getting them at long last. I make it to the checkout with so much as an actual look from a single employee and check out without any issues. I even took a few extra seconds and applied a circle coupon for $10 off $50 and left the store with not one but two employees thanking me for coming in and wishing me a good night.
It felt like I pulled off an Ocean?s 11 style heist without raising the alarm. What a rush! Such a sad story for such an amazing feeling. These highs almost make up for the countless lows of empty handed disappointment. I haven?t had that feeling for a while as I?ve largely given up on finding figures at retail and just preorder everything online. I would have LOVED to have done that with this wave but we all know how that went. I guess I?ll appreciate these figures so much more than I probably would have had they been easily orderable. But toys just should not be this hard to get. I?m glad I can finally rest easy now until Baroness hits. I like to think I built up some good karma helping family out for the majority of the day but I sure didn?t just blindly luck into them either.
The one true blessing in all of this fiasco of a wave is that each figure has their own unique DPCI number and that has at least made the hunting more strategic and calculated and less blind bumbling luck. I can only hope more figures get that unique treatment and make them easier to track them instead of having one product number for the line in general.
Marauders series#2 1/12 weapons just went live on the site for some Classied Joe weapons replacements.
https://www.marauderinc.com/category-s/2088.htm
Boy did I have a strange day. I spent most of the day helping clean out my great grandmother’s house as she’s needing to move to nursing care center. Everything from spackling nail holes in the wall, to moving couches and everything in between. The house is about 3 hours from home so when we’re done for the day I check to see if any not so close to home Targets have any Joes. One showed they had 7 Cobra Troopers. Score I thought! When I get there, an employee is literally on the phone with someone asking about them. She looks at the shelf tag and confirms this second location didn’t have any either and the stock number must be an error. So no chance of them looking in the back. Also confirms again they are stocking these in both the regular figure aisle and a special collectors end cap.
So I drive home empty handed and look up my local targets and find out they were busy today and had of course stocked them the day I’m out of town. A couple show 1 or 2 left in stock. I jump back in the car and start hitting them. No luck at the first. At the second, there’s an employee stocking the aisle. No cobras unfortunately but she was able to see another store did have them. I rush over there as they close in 20 minutes. When I get there I hear the 10 minute warning. I had checked out this target yesterday without luck but had an employee show me both stocking locations so I check them both. No luck. I’m getting ready to look for an employee to see if they might help one last customer before the end of the day.
As I look down the end of the figure aisle, across the way there is a stocking cart parked. I practically saw the rays from heaven shining down on them. There they were just sitting there. It was a surreal moment after so many strike outs. I rush over and clap the lot of them between my hand and beelined it to the self check out feeling that surely an employee would try and stop me or even tackle me to prevent me from getting them at long last. I make it to the checkout with so much as an actual look from a single employee and check out without any issues. I even took a few extra seconds and applied a circle coupon for $10 off $50 and left the store with not one but two employees thanking me for coming in and wishing me a good night.
It felt like I pulled off an Ocean’s 11 style heist without raising the alarm. What a rush! Such a sad story for such an amazing feeling. These highs almost make up for the countless lows of empty handed disappointment. I haven’t had that feeling for a while as I’ve largely given up on finding figures at retail and just preorder everything online. I would have LOVED to have done that with this wave but we all know how that went. I guess I’ll appreciate these figures so much more than I probably would have had they been easily orderable. But toys just should not be this hard to get. I’m glad I can finally rest easy now until Baroness hits. I like to think I built up some good karma helping family out for the majority of the day but I sure didn’t just blindly luck into them either.
The one true blessing in all of this fiasco of a wave is that each figure has their own unique DPCI number and that has at least made the hunting more strategic and calculated and less blind bumbling luck. I can only hope more figures get that unique treatment and make them easier to track them instead of having one product number for the line in general.
No and I really haven’t heard of anyone finding her yet. I’ll be surprised if she’s available anywhere by the 14th (at least in any decent numbers). I don’t think she’ll be as hard to find based on how the ML Legendary Riders sell. She’s going to be more desirable than most of those, but she’s not exact an army builder either so that helps.
It appears to be completely random if stores are sticking to the street date or not. The registers have zero problem selling them so the challenge is just getting them in your hands. Once you can achieve that, you’re golden. I’ve read that having them call the guest services number will confirm the street date has been lifted and that can help convince them if they are sticking to the street date. When asking for help be nothing but kind and patient and they will be so much more willing to help you. Playing a little helpless and dumb has also worked for me. The two stocking locations is a great opener. The scanners will list the locations and the figure isle is easy enough to read but the end caps aren’t marked as well. Asking about where that second location is your ticket to get them to check the back once they realize they’ve got two empty shelf locations. They only have the street date excuse to fall back on then and then it’s 50/50 if they’ll budge. Luckily the one time I got them to pull a Beachhead from the back they knew the street date was a mistake and chalked it up to a COVID mistake that someone didn’t get around to fixing. Funny how some take it so seriously and some realize the absurdity of it. I was sure to leave that employee a shout out on the receipt survey. It always helps to return the favor.
I managed to get both Destros by accident similarly. I found the circle Destro at Walmart and got the non circle version from an order with GameStop. I haven’t heard of the trooper variant, although it sounds more like an error.
This might sound crazy, and I apologize ahead of time if it's been brought up, but with the success of this line do you think there is a chance they might try to produce the USS Flagg playset as part of their kickstarterish Haslab division?
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