My target shelves in MN have been effectively naked since fall.

I’m getting those figures, but I’ll feel a little dirty paying that much for them if my Walmarts and TRU also go up on their 3.75″ Black Series prices after they restock with the new wave assortment (if Walmart even bothers to restock).

Mosep and Boushh Leia are the two i’m sad to leave behind.
13+ figures they better be awesome and interesting like yakface but i have a strong feeling we wont see him for a while now

No, they’re not. Not even close. It’s a grab for more money and profit at the expense of loyal shoppers who may have nowhere else to go to find certain figures.

One thing is certain, 5POA are not worth $9.99 that’s for dang sure!

Which always runs the opposite of basic common sense, because if something’s not selling then the most logical thing to do, naturally, is to make it more expensive to buy and even less likely to sell. ;0)

I’m not certain. I think it’s a supply and demand issue. Both are low. Time on pegs costs money, and these things tend to hang around a while. The slower things move, the more they cost. Other toys, like TMNT, turn over like crazy.

Repacks would of course be the main problem, but if they were repainted repacks, that could be different. Hasbro could do a lot with repainting existing molds if they wanted to. But they don’t. The other problem is price gouging. I remember the first wave of Walmart Droid Factory two packs were like $10 each, but the second wave available just a year later were $18 each. Even though they would save a fortune on packaging costs, they (Hasbro and/or retailers) still would set the price point to be double what a basic carded figure goes for.

I think the real problem is that Hasbro has no incentive to be competitive, innovative, or aggressive in their marketing. They’ve virtually got a monopoly on popular movie figures (Jurassic World, Avengers, Marvel, Star Wars), and they make more money with crappy TV/movie spinoffs than making cool toys. There’s no incentive for them to compete with themselves by releasing new Star Wars toys during the Avengers roll out. And since action figure fans are going to buy Hasbro stuff regardless of the license, there’s no incentive for them to make their figures cheaper or to deliver something different to the action figure market. Plus, with popular licenses, there’s little incentive to advertise their toys. Star Wars toy commercials were ubiquitous in the 80s, but I can’t think of the last time I saw one in the modern era. They just ride the coattails of movie publicity.

Disney needs to give the license to some other company.

Stumble upon a figure at Target? Are you kidding me?! Does that really happen anymore? 😉

I hear ya though. It’s being a smart consumer to shop around and support the retailer with the better price.