Bombad’, the time in early April when I’d been in-store on one of those rare occasions when a Hasbro rep herself was unboxing and putting product on the shelves, she said, “everything’s been stuck in California; I just put out 6 boxes of these.” I told myself, “calm yourself and thumb through all these and pluck out the six troops.” That’s when it became clear there were actually eight cases — great score and I felt almost “dirty” grabbing them all — I haven’t even painted those yet. On Star Wars Day, there were remnants of probably six cases in that Kenosha, WI store. I ran into a fellow collector there too, and told him about the Target “bust” last month (i.e., “18 new figures” [sic]), then they played the Star Wars main theme over the Wal-Mart P.A. system and I told him that “was an affront to my dignity, because nothing new was set out” (upon which he looked at me as if I had seven heads), and then explained to him about Dr. Cardbender (upon which he looked at me as if I had nine heads!). A fools’ errand, to be sure, and my trip to Once Upon A Toy last week, just as much so!

OK, fair enough. I get it. You and your friends would rather stick to your higher standards and I would rather just enjoy the figure. My budget is not unlimited, but neither do I have to pick and choose between which figures I can buy. For the collector super-articulated 3.75″ series (TBS), I’m all in (except repacks). If however I was on a more limited budget, I can understand having to be more choosy. I also understand that the other Poe outfit saw far more screen time than the pilot suit, so I get why you would want that one in your collection. But I’ve always been a fan of the Rebel pilots, now the Resistance, and the orange suit just stands out to me as something being really cool and more eye-catching than the brown trousers and jacket. I’ll wager this is why Hasbro also put more emphasis on this outfit with their various releases. You say you only collect definitive versions of the figures. Well with how shallow the TBS 3.75″ line is these days, I honestly don’t believe we will be seeing a remake of this figure. If you only collect select favorites and can live without an X-Wing Pilot Poe, I can respect that. For me, he wasn’t a “meh, I guess I’ll buy it”, he was a must have.

Drag queen eyebrows? To me it just looks like one eyebrow is cocked, giving him an expression. Out of all the mishaps with Hasbro figures in recent years (drag queen Mara Jade, old lady Toryn Farr, robo-armed Dagobah Luke) this Poe doesn’t even enter my radar as screw up.

Your post opened with “I don’t know why every collector wouldn’t want one…” and I succinctly explained why.

The orange flight suit is situation-ally specific making the figure out of place in almost any scene other than a tie cockpit. Add to that the unappealing face. This is typical of the paint app on this figure. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/STAR-WARS-the-black-series-POE-DAMERON-the-Force-Awakens-epVII-3-75-TBS-Walmart-/371629944521?hash=item5686deeec9:g:3LIAAOSwaA5WiB2f). Note the drag queen eyebrows.

From the sounds of it, you are far more liberal with your spending on Star Wars merchandise than I am. When I purchase I don’t just purchase for the sake of it. It has to be something I ultimately want; and if it’s a figure, I only collect the “definitive” versions of any figure I’m buying.

We likely have very different quality standards.

Hey Chad, congrats! Still no sign of the new wave here in OR, but I keep checking. BTW, are you passing on TFA Han and Leia or just waiting to [hopefully] find better paint apps?

“This fools’ errand”, LOL! What a perfect description.

Wow! You’ve seen 8 (or is it now 14?) cases of TBS 3.75? I can barely imagine such a sight! I’m glad to hear you were able to snag some troopers. To date, I have exactly 1 S/A 3.75″ FO Stormtrooper.

Well there you go, mystery solved. You and your friends all agree, so that must be the answer. Personally I much prefer the orange flight-suited Poe (I own 4; 6″, 3.75″ BAW, 3.75″ with X-Wing and TBS 3.75″). I haven’t bought either the 5-POA Armor Up or TBS 6″ Target 2-pk with Poe in his Resistance jacket. I’m honestly not seeing any issues with the paint apps on his face.

Now if they were to do a regular (Resistance Outfit) Poe in TBS 3.75″, I’d be on board to purchase.

Chad & Bombad’, I ended up in Chad’s scenario taking the day off (though not with the express purpose of going on this fool’s errand), and no signs of life. This one made you want to say, “Wal-Mart does not like Star Wars!”. I ventured to the Kenosha, WI Wal-Mart that had (probably in past couple days or so) put out ~6 cases of wave 3 TBS3-3/4″ ( a few Kylos & Rens left, no troops). At least when I’d seen eight cases I was lucky to be able to pluck the troops out. Oddly, another area WM got some tbs6 Kanans.

Hopefully it’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Same here Chad. No day off for me, but I still hit a few stores when I had the chance. Star Wars Day was a non-event as far as brick and mortar retailers were concerned.

I too found the Takodana set. Not at Walmart, but at Target. They didn’t have a spot for them and I almost missed them, as they (2 sets) were laying over in the Finding Dory section.