It would be an excellent opportunity to get people excited about not only the new movie but also Star Wars toys and collectibles, and that doesn’t happen much these days and certainly not on the level of a brand new film’s launch merchandise!

It’s funny you should mention that. I was just talking to the guy down at TRU about whether they would be doing a Midnight Madness event for the TFA toy launch. I think it would be a great opportunity to stoke up the excitement.

Thicker in the middle and thinner on top has been my trend and personal motto for years. =0)

A bit thicker in the middle and thinner on top. 😉

Ready for the new wave of excitement that will be TFA and the Sequel Trilogy! Toys or no toys.

Hanging in there! =0) You?

Some good points there. Thanks for that.

Hey Darth Eddie, how ya been? 🙂

Yeah, some of my best memories of action figure hunting over the years have been at Target. Living on the West Coast, Target was always a major player, with Walmart not showing up till later on. Target is still my most frequent stop even today. But I honestly believe that they are far less committed to the line now than they have been in the past. Regardless of the “unknown mysteries” that swirl around distribution, it is solely Target corporate that has decided on planograms with only one peg for TBS 3.75″ and one peg for SL. That and their decision to switch to distributing 1 or 2 “eaches” from a case per store rather than sending out a full case.

Is it just Target? No, the state of the pegs at my local Walmarts has been just as dismal for the past 2 years. TRU is slightly better, getting in a full case which they’ll restock once or twice before things stagnate again and the wait begins for another 4-6 months before a new case appears.

Is it because Hasbro can’t ship product out consistantly? Well, I won’t say they are the best in the business, but surely if retailers as big as Walmart and Target really wanted the product bad enough, we would have seen it stocked by now. I just think everyone has scaled back. From what the retailers planogram to what they order and stock to what Hasbro produces. Is this a sign of playing it conservative until the tsunami of product for Ep. VII or is this a refection of an overall drop in interest in action figures (among both 4-13 year-old boys to 30-60 year-old fanboys)? Could it be that pop-culture is so pervasive in today’s society that there are just too many lines to choose from, too many distractions? It seems as though Star Wars has never had as much competition for attention as it has now. I know, little solace to its most die hard fans.

I hope Target isn’t getting cold feet about the brand. It’s not their fault distribution and even product quality have been all over the map and often mediocre the past couple of years. They’ve been in the Star Wars game for almost 20 years now and it’d be a real shame if they stopped carrying certain items just because the current stuff isn’t selling like hotcakes.

Given the continued commitment of the other retail chains to the brand even at the low points since 2012 I’m hoping Target stays in the game for the new movie and sells whatever super articulated product gets made.

Didn’t we hear from SDCC Q&As that TBS 3.75″ was going on hiatus until after Ep. VII? I though I remembered reading that. Now I didn’t take that as concreted proof that there would be no S/A 3.75″. I thought there was still a chance we might see a S/A 3.75″ line with a different name and asst. SKU for TFA, just no characters from the PT, OT, TCW, EU while they concentrated on the new movie.

Yep, that’s how I read it as well. That $7.99 = 5POA. I’m not counting out S/A just yet, but it is a bit disconcerting. Is it possible that Target is just loosing interest in that category?