The Chronicles of a Star Wars Collector

I work part-time for an inflatable game company. I have actually worked for Extreme Inflatables for about 4 1/2 years. Sometimes full-time, sometimes part-time. I travel when I am working for Extreme. This last weekend I was in Hereford, Texas. How does this relate to collecting? The selection of toys varies between different Wal-Mart's, Target's, etc. When I have the extra time I stop at different stores along the trip. I preach patience and persistence when it comes to finding the new releases. It has paid off for me again. This past weekend I found several items that I have been looking for. As I mentioned in my previous post I was looking for the Episode 3 Chewbacca and Han Solo in Stormtrooper disguise Unleashed figures. I found a whole display of them. Instead of going straight to the Star Wars section then leaving, I wandered around the toy section a little bit. They had the Unleashed figures on the top shelf of a random endcap. On my journey I also found the Greatest Battles Shock Trooper times three. Even though it is not Star Wars, I found the three new Die Cast Battlestar Galactica ships: the Viper Mark 7, Raptor, and Colonial One.

Patience has again paid off. Actually, it saved me money. Their are 3 new regular sized Unleashed figures out. I do not collect or care for the 2" Unleashed Battle Packs that they put out now. I am talking about the 7" pieces of art. The new Unleashed figures were reported out weeks ago, maybe even months. It seemed no matter were I went, they had not been stocked. I even emailed Hasbro about it. I just got a stupid reply. Hasbro is not good at answering questions. It is too bad they own the action figure license until something like 2014. If collectors had their say, we would fire Hasbro. Moving on. I walked into a Wal-Mart in Tulsa the other day and low and behold, two Unleashed Shocktroopers were laying their on the shelf. I quickly swiped them up. They did not seem to even have a designated space in the shelving. They were just laying their waiting for me to take them home. I almost sold out and bought one of these on eBay the other day. With shipping it would have only been a few dollars more than retail. It was a good deal, for eBay. Patience. This has renewed my hope that I can still find the other two Unleashed figures, Han Solo in Stormtrooper disguise and Chewbacca Episode 3 version. Keep on the look out.




Update:

Never before this year, have I collected the current line of 3 3/4 inch figures with such completeness. Through all of the waves of figures for Episode 1, 2, and 3 I just picked up whatever whenever I could. Many of my Episode 1 and 2 figures came from KB Toys when they had them marked down half price. I bought several Episode 3 figures equaling maybe half of what they came out with. I set a goal to get every basic figure in this years Saga Collection. Just the basic figures, not all the exclusive and Ultimate Galactic Hunt (UGH!!!) figures. I did manage to get one UGH! figure off the self and bought the online exclusive Shadow Stormtrooper. On principle I did not go after the Heros and Villians set, because they were just repacks from the Episode 3 line. Yes, I understand that many of the Saga figures are repacks, but ALL the H&V are repacks. What's a repack? They re-use the mold from a previous line, to give you the same figures in the new line with different packaging. Their are some figures from the Greatest Battle set that I do want to pick up because they are cool and you can not have enough of them (Shocktrooper, 501st Clone Trooper, etc.). My goal was to pick up all 52 basic Saga Collection figures at RETAIL price. No after market eBay crap for figures that I should find in the stores right now. The name of the game is patience and persistence. I have managed to find the first 38 figures at retail. No Wal-Mart is the same. I would just keep checking out the selection when I happened to go by a Wal-Mart and had the time to look. Commander Cody has been a very popular and hard to find figure. I have four. I would just find one here and there. Only one Saga figure eluded me. Republic Commando Scorch. I ordered a box of the wave he came in from Entertainment Earth. Even after shipping each figure from EE is only about .50 cent more per figure than Wal-Mart. It is cheaper than Target. I bought a wave that included two of Scorch. I want to encourage you collectors out there to be patient with the new figures. Do not let your lust for the new figures make you head to eBay prematurely. I have 14 more figures to go in the Saga Basic Collection. I will get them the same as I did with the first 38. Happy hunting!

If you are missing some Saga Collection figures, let me know. I have some doubles that I would be willing to part with. And no, I will not scalp you.