Force Friday and onwards stories

ok, here's mine.....

Was never going to do midnight madness as (so I thought!) the nearest store to me was about 3 1/2hrs drive and I had work the next day. So, midnight the next day I was out in my car and had to go to Tesco (actually I didn't have to it could have waited until the morning but I was curious). Anyway, went to the TFA display, full of mashups, lego, hot wheels and some 3.75 figures. An employee (who clearly is only allowed out at night and probably only for a few hours; think of an American janitor in a horror movie) came over and said it was last night when the craziest happened at the stock went. Apparently there were 250 people outside of Smyths (which is odd as it is about 5 miles away from Tesco but you can never tell what strange powers these janitors have) and they cleaned the stock out first then came to Tesco. He asked which one I wanted (Phasma and Ren) and they weren't there. I got Poe and TFP. There were Vader and Luke (pegwarmers?) captain something or other, first order trooper, ray and finn. There was 1 Fett with armour but I don't want to pay an extra £6 for little benefit. However, there were boxes everywhere and this employee wouldn't let me go until he opened all of the boxes (which clearly said hot wheels, mashups...... on the side.... but hey he had a knife and was creepy so I obliged). So I left £20 worse off.
Woke up in the morning and thought... right off to stores again to find the two I want.
Tried....
ASDA 1 - same as Tesco
ASDA 2 - nothing but cups, cuddly things and ****.
Sainsburys 1 - a couple of TFP, Vader and Luke (still my favourite for pegwarmers). Picked up 4 or so Black Series they were selling off
Argos - what a **** system. No way was I going to ask for them to bring them out for me to inspect. I did get a 15" Fett for £15, sabine in a two pack, a 31 page TFA catalogue with some discount vouchers and a free Kylo Ren poster
Smyths - mashups, lego and Finn
ASDA living - I gave in and bought 1st order ST and the flametrooper. Had Vader and Luke (still think they're pegwarmers) and possibly Finn
Argos 2 - nothing on display so I left
Sainsburys 2 - Disney infinity and nothing else. FF doesn't happen in Sainsburys2. They're whole Toy aisle is only about 8 ft wide

In most of these stores were guys who looked unwashed, awake for 3 days, and were hunting SW items. I really hoped I didn't look like that.

So, I'm now £100 or so worse off. Did I enjoy it. Overall yes. Yes there are criticisms of the product but I'll be tearing the ****ers open when I can display all (24 according to Argos catalogue) of them. What I don't like is I've found out the Fett is the same as the one in the mission series. How many have/will just be repacks? If I spent £16 on the Fett at Tesco I'd be well pissed.
Was it nice seeing SW FS? Yes it was. Would have preferred more items, and it didn't match the photos I see online of the early 80s (remember we were so poor I only went to a toy store once so have no memory of them really). However, the biggest buzz I got was a reminder that the new film is only 100 or so days away. If that was the purpose of the toys then it did it for me.

The thrill of the hunt eh? i saw a fair few scalpers out while looking for my stuff, i have a spare kylo ren if you want it at cost ?

Cheers Grinchy I'll take it. pm me your paypal and price.

Part 1: Drove to London with a mate for the so called 'big event' at Brent Cross TOYSRUS, got there at 10pm. Jedinews were there and had promised big things. Only about 150 people there, the whole 'first 75 get something' was nonsense, there were plenty of freebies to go round but we got our queue raffle tickets. These were badly managed as you would have thought a bloke could have shouted out "numbers 1-25' like at the airport.

Score: Imperial gunner LEGO keyring, T-Shirt (too small for a behemoth like me) and very glossy poster of Kylo REN.

Everyone queued patiently and I met a fellow who had been to Anaheim for celebration, we traded stories. And then I met another guy in a BOBA FETT hoodie who had also been to Anaheim, more stories traded.. as we approached the toys, we noticed a man with a shopping trolley full to the brim. SOJ and Stu Skinner who had been in the top ten of the queue had already left. When me and my friend got there (we were 33 and 34 in the queue, but the people in front were 50 and 75!!!!), there were zero 3&3/4 figs. "restock!!" remarked some disgruntled fans to the boss.. the boss looked annoyed people were being choosey..(did he think we wanted mash-ups?) then about 4 more figures arrived. I got the Rey I had been seeking. I was hoping for the Rey Jakku speeder, but settled for the LEGO version. I also got an Electronic Chewbacca mask which I thought I might wait for, but it was there and I wanted to justify my trip. We then saw a smaller display with more figures on as we left, why weren't the 8 staff pointing people to these items? Most of the things were blade builders or mash ups. If they'd been working with Jedinews, surely they would have told them to fill with figures.. no?

Score: Rey Jakku Speeder LEGO, Rey Starkiller base 3&3/4, Electronic Chewbacca mask.

The whole thing was disappointing. I wish I'd gone to the Disney store like Spanish Dan and hung out with Daisy Ridley and Boyega. They had a better selection of stuff, but it did feel like HASBRO who have been heavily criticised by modern collectors over the past 5-10 years had again failed to deliver.

I have seen some cool star wars things which have impressed.

The BB8 from sphero
The thinkway electronic at at (thread on modern about it)
the Millenium Falcon AirHogs Quadcopter, the XWING is cool too..
The Black Series Kylo Ren Lightsaber.. about £200.. but looks cool.

I think those will be the ones going for silly cash

I quietly popped over to the local Argos on Force Friday and picked up a 3.75 Constable Zuvio (randomly picked). The staff all had star wars T shirts and we received a free Kylo Ren poster. Then sauntered down some distance on the Saturday to Toys r us who had a good display of most items, and choose a Finn 3.75 figure. Maybe I'm in the minority but I like the new 3.75 FA figures, the 5 POA harken back to the old days and I think that is a good thing. Packaging is a bit naff though, shame there are no list of figures to collect on the back.

I haven't bought anything yet and to be fair the only thing that has really piqued my interest is the 6" scale TIE but for those on the hunt this site seems reasonable and avoids the potential of an Evil Bay pants off special

http://www.staractionfigures.co.uk/epvii/page/0/

Did a tour of central London on Saturday. Looks like the podcast boys really missed out in Brent Cross on the Thursday night. All the stock, stars and crack at Disney Oxford Street. Spanish Dan got pics with Rey and Finn!

Here's my pics from Saturday:-

https://www.facebook.com/mr.jason.smith/media_set?set=a.10153545598885149.1073741906.652110148&type=3&pnref=story

And video of Disney's cylinder TV:-

https://www.facebook.com/mr.jason.smith/videos/10153545648235149/?pnref=story

Couldn't get a BB8. All the online places were wiped out by Monday apart from firebox, so I ordered one from there.



Jason

Blah.

Richard_H said:

Cheers Grinchy I'll take it. pm me your paypal and price

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Sent you a PM Richard

Grant_C said:

Blah.

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Dont you mean 'baaa' ...' like the sheep Grant :lol:

Well, seeing as i'm a fat lazy bastard and a grumpy 1 at that, i ****ed all the force Friday stuff off. Thne suddenly, on Wednesday, this strange feeling came over me. Why havent i bothered to get a Kylo Ren or Captain Phasma? The 2 coolest looking mutha ****as will be all but a distant memory by now i thought to myself. Anyways. living in a shitty little craphole like Grimsby i didnt fancy my chances but off i popped. Smyths nope, Tescos 1 nope, Sainsburys nope, Tescos 2 nope, Ramsdens toy store did not even have any force awakens merch then finally Asda, out of about 100 figs that i dived head 1st into, I FOUND MYSELF THE ONLY 1 BASTARD BASIC 3.75 KYLO REN IN GRIMSBY!!! Wahoo, that is all........ PPS Pick that out Tim :mrgreen:

naughtyjedi said:

Score: Imperial gunner LEGO keyring, T-Shirt (too small for a behemoth like me) and very glossy poster of Kylo REN.

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Hey Pete! I'll take that T-shirt off your hands if you like if it's a medium/large. Fancy swapping it for some Leia gubbins? :lol:

I have no force friday or Force Awakens toys stories other than what I posted in the other thread. Went in Tescos to just have a look at them and they didn't have any on the shelves.