Rereleased TMNT Figures Found

Whilst out shopping today I came across something that I wasn't expecting: Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles toys. I know what you're thinking; there have been new TMNT toys since the cartoon was started again a few years ago and the TMNT movie came out in 2006. Those are not the toys I am talking about. I mean the original toys... from 1984! Apparently they are being rereleased for the 25th anniversary! Don't believe me? Take a look...

Seven of the twelve rereleased TMNT figures. Not pictured: Splinter, Casey Jones, Slash, Shredder with Krang, and Foot Soldier.

Michelangelo rerelease figure.

Donatello rerelease figure.

Leonardo rerelease figure.

Raphael rerelease figure.

April O'Neil rerelease figure.

Bebop rerelease figure.

Rocksteady rerelease figure.

Full card back of rereleased figures.

Top zoom on card back.

Bottom zoom on card back.

Another shot of the seven rereleased TMNT figures.

Again, these were all found in the Target toy section on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009. Let the hunting begin!

Toy Fair 2009: Hasbro Presentation Highlights

I posted some images on Saturday from Rebel Scum. This time I am highlighting what interests me from the Hasbro presentation. These slides are from Jedi Temple Archives.

This new packaging will start in August and percolate through all Star Wars merchandise.

The Clone Wars - 2009 Wave 2

The Clone Wars - 2009 Wave 3.

The Clone Wars - 2009 Wave 4.

The Clone Wars - 2009 Wave 5.

The Clone Wars - Revamped "deluxe" line.

Turbo Tank Gunner Crew on-shelf date indicates that we should see the vehicle sometime between mid-August and mid-September.

The "starfighter" line will see some new vehicles this year, like the Republic Fighter Tank.

The ARC-170 makes another appearance, with yet another price hike. The vehicles to large for the "starfighter" line but too small to be a "big" vehicle will be in the new "deluxe" vehicle line.

There she is, the Turbo Tank! Expect to see this monster in time for Season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

New turrets!!!

With "Evolutions" set to go on hiatus this fall, the line falls to an exclusive label.

The highly coveted and hard-to-find The Force Unleashed Stormtrooper Commander figure will be rereleased as a shared exclusive at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con.

There are some images of what to expect out of Hasbro from now until early fall. A lot of good stuff like the Republic Fighter Tank and the Turbo Tank, in addition to the Geonosis Assault battle pack with two Episode II-style Clone Pilots and turrets! You'll notice I didn't mention anything about The Legacy Collection. It just so happens that there isn't a single figure shown at Toy Fair that I want. And I don't want to steal every image from Jedi Temple Archives. If you want to see the rest, go here.

It was also revealed that the Unleashed line will be ending and that Mighty Muggs will become Toys R Us exclusives.

After Thanksgiving Round-Up

Well things have been quite busy recently. Kelly and I made the trek from West Lafayette, IN to Eighty Four, PA on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The following day I made the last leg of my journey to be with my family and friends in Sinking Spring, PA. Thanksgiving was busy as usual and soon enough I was making the return trip. After watching my high school win the PIAA District III AAAA football championship, I left the stadium in Hershey, PA bound for Eighty Four to pick up Kelly. On Sunday we made the 7 hour drive back to Purdue University. It was a nice little reprieve (Kelly hadn't been to her house since January) and a great preview of things to come for the Christmas break.

I've done more than traveling over the last 10 days however. Recently a lot of things I preordered and paid for months ago started shipping. Among them were The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection on DVD from Time Life and the Airborne Trooper and Galactic Marine mini-busts from Gentle Giant.

Image from The Real Ghostbusters.

While I was home I was able to hit up Target and Toys R Us with Brent for some Star Wars goodies. I picked up the Shield Generator Assault battle pack and the Clone Trooper Officer (Yellow, Commander) figure from The Legacy Collection and the Toys R Us exclusive Clone Wars bust-ups, mentioned in the previous post (w00t! Christmas gifts!).

While I was home I was able to organize, sort, and store some of my collection. I can actually walk in my room now! There's still a slight mess but that should be fixed over Christmas. Some extra figures I had lying around I decided to open and create a diorama with one of my opened Republic Gunships. I didn't get to snap any pictures but the Gunship (with nose art from The Clone Wars collection) has 4 TCW Clone Pilots ("Odd Ball") flying the ship and manning the guns plus Captain Rex giving orders to 3 501st Legion Troopers (Wal-Mart exclusive) and 2 regular Clone Troopers. It looks pretty sweet!

In developing life stories, some big news was dropped on our family and friends recently. Kelly and I have decided to move to Sinking Spring, PA (my original hometown) once Kelly finishes her atmospheric science master's degree at Purdue! I will be working for my father with a future goal of succeeding him as owner & president of the sandwich shop. I'll be his apprentice for the next 10 or so years until he wants to partially retire.

My family and friends couldn't be happier; they are REALLY excited for us to return! And we can't wait...

Rookies

I am EXTREMELY excited for the new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars this Friday. Why? Because the episode has to do with clones. Period. That's it. Well I guess technically them and battle droids. The "main" characters (i.e. Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, etc.) will not be featured and may not appear at all. Not that I don't like them; that's not the case at all. But I'm a trooper man and this new episode, entitled "Rookies", looks promising. Here's some information from the online episode guide:

"The best confidence builder is experience."

Synopsis: Alone on a distant outpost, clone officers Rex and Cody must inspire their rookie unit to believe in themselves to stave off a Droid Commando invasion.

Director: Justin Ridge
Writer: Steve Melching
Key Characters: Clone Captain Rex; Clone Commander Cody
Key Locales: Rishi Moon
Notable: All clone / droid episode.

Niiiiiiiiiiicccceeee. I have been pleasantly surprised by the cartoon thus far. While I enjoyed the movie there were a few things I didn't like. However, the 30-minute show version has been awesome. The stories have been great, the animation is top-notch, and they tie into the universe well. I cannot wait for this new episode!

Other Star Wars Notes: If you missed out on the Target exculsive Commander Fox figure, you can get him online now at Target.com ... Also available now is the Target exclusive Clone Trooper Voice Changer Helmet (Seante Security deco) ... The plain white version is available too ... I can't find the sight that asked the question to Hasbro, but a clone evolutions set is planned for 2009.

The Star Wars Motherload

Today is the day. And things couldn't have gone any better than they did. I woke up at 7:25 in order to be a Target for their opening at 8am. Kelly and I pulled into the parking lot at about 7:50am. There were a few other customers waiting in cars in the parking lot. This made me a bit nervous. At about 7:56am Target opened their doors. Kelly and I walked backed to the toy section behind 2 people. This made me even more nervous. I turned the corner and saw 2 endcaps with Clone Wars goodies. One of the customers in front of me peeled off for the matchbox cars. Phew. However the other customer was going to the same area as me. Kelly and I go to one endcap and I started grabbing the figures I wanted. This endcap had a mixture of The Clone Wars and The Legacy Collection figures as well as some roleplaying items and a Millennium Falcon. I snatched that Falcon - the only one in the store - as well as the Target exclusive Commander Fox. After the endcaps Kelly and I rounded the corner into the aisles and continued to find the figures I was searching for. The bottom shelf had 2 AT-TEs and I grabbed one. Between the endcaps and the aisle I was able to locate 10 of the figures I wanted. From The Clone Wars: Target Exclusive Commander Fox, Obi-Wan Kenobi with Generals Armor, Obi-Wan Kenobi with Generals Armor (1st Day of Issue variant), Clone Trooper, Captain Rex, and Captain Rex (1st Day of Issue variant). From The Legacy Collection: Saga Legends Clone Trooper, Greatest Hits Commander Gree (1st Day of Issue variant), Greatest Hits Kashyyyk Trooper (1st Day of Issue variant), and a Greatest Hits Imperial EVO Trooper (1st Day of Issue variant). Sprinkled in with the figures and large vehicles were the Clone Trooper Voice Changer Helmet, Clone Trooper and Stormtrooper Blasters, and the $19.99 vehicles: AT-AP Walker, V-19 Torrent, V-wing Starfighter, all of which I picked up. After the Target haul there wasn't much left to get but I still planned to go to Wal-Mart and Toys R Us.


At Wal-Mart they had pallets of Millennium Falcons and AT-TEs. At least 10 of each. Back in the aisle I found the remaining figures and variants I wanted. From The Clone Wars: Clone Trooper (1st Day of Issue variant) and the Imperial Pilot Legacy Evolutions pack. From The Legacy Collection: Greatest Hits Commander Gree, Greatest Hits Kashyyyk Trooper, Greatest Hits Imperial EVO Trooper, Clone SCUBA Trooper, Clone Trooper with Quad Cannon, and an Obi-Wan Kenobi with Generals Armor. And that was everything I wanted!!!



But of course I went to Toys R Us anyway. Kelly and I pulled in their just a few minutes before 9am, when they opened. We entered the store and the front aisle was somewhat decorated for The Clone Wars. I say somewhat because the employees were still decorating and unpacking everything. They knew this was coming for close to 5 weeks and they weren't prepared. Fail. Luckily I had already purchased all that I wanted so it wasn't as big a deal. There was another gentleman there going through everything the employees put out as soon as it hit the pegs. Try Target and Wal-Mart, buddy! Overall it was a successful and spectacular morning.



In accordance with the new items I have updated my TCW and TLC pages. Check out all of my new stuff!!!

Target Prepares Their Shelves

Today is Thursday, which means I got off work early and went on a toy run. The pickings have been slim these last few weeks since the retail stores have not been restocking in anticipation for Saturday. Target has had their Star Wars items on clearance now for the past 2 weeks. Today when I went to Wal-Mart and Target, I noticed some changes to the toy aisles. At Wal-Mart, my first stop, they had removed a smaller section of Star Wars figures all together. Back at the larger area of Star Wars items there were absolutely no basic figures to be found. However, they had a bunch of comic packs that were spread out over 7 or 8 pegs. This is presumably to save the area for the new collections due out Saturday. I also noticed on the bottom shelf a Clone Wars item that was not supposed to be available until this weekend: the ultimate lightsaber kit. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture of it. It was the only item that breached the street date. You could tell Wal-Mart was getting ready to reload.

My next stop was at Target. I went back to the toy aisles and walked to the normal spot for Star Wars items and there was nothing! I quickly turned around and realized that the open space at the beginning of the aisle had a few Star Wars items such as transformers and The Force Unleashed lightsabers. But that didn't explain all the empty pegs and a bright red sign in the middle of the section. I walked over to it and noticed that all the pegs were labeled for the Clone Wars and Legacy Collection figures! The sign stated that the store was preparing for a new display. I snapped a few pictures for the world to see.

Target sign basically announcing that new stuff is coming!

Clone Wars basic figure price. Yuck. $7.99 is gettin' a wee bit expensive.

Sweeeeet! Come to my mouth ice cream!

Saturday morning is so close! New Star Wars things here I come!

2008 Target Exclusive Order 66 Figures Found

After a successful trip to my local Target on Friday, I returned on Sunday morning to see if they had put out the in stock Order 66 2-packs. A few registers down from the entrance I got my answer. They were sitting there...with a kid hovering around them! I could tell they had displayed a limited stock so getting one of each may prove difficult, especially with a young kid looking at them. I approached the checkout area with the 2-packs and realized the young kid was looking at the other Transformers stuff and not the Star Wars items. I noticed that they had placed 2 full sets out (presumably Saturday night for a Sunday debut) and that someone had already scarfed up half a set (why get half?). So there was one complete set left and then an extra Set 1 (Anakin and ARC Commander), Set 2 (Obi-Wan and ARC Trooper), and Set 4 (Emperor Palpatine and Commander Vill). Naturally I grabbed the last remaining full set. Feeling good about scoring these a week before the street date (April 13th), I ventured back to the toy section to see if anything new was there. They actually hadn't stocked anything at all since Friday. Oh well. I got what I came for.


Now that I have the new Order 66 2-packs the only items I'm looking for are the 2008 Saga Legends wave (a trooper collector's heaven - Commander Neyo, Utapau Shadow Trooper, Covert Ops Trooper, Shadow Stormtrooper). Since The Force Unleashed wave only debuted at my Target last week I'm going to assume that the Saga Legends won't be around for at least 2 weeks. That's a shame. It is an amazing wave. The 2008 Saga Legends will be the last retail items I purchase for a few months. Nothing new is set to debut until July 26th!

New Figures!

I stopped by Target after work yesterday and was able to grab a few figures I needed to add to my collection. They had parts of TAC 2007 Wave 7.5, 2008 Wave 1, and 2008 Wave 2 (The Force Unleashed). This is the first time I saw TFU wave at retial so I snatched the three I wanted: The Imperial Jumptrooper, the Imperial EVO Trooper, and the Shadow Guard. The rest of the wave was there minus Battle-Damaged Darth Vader. With the 2008 waves they are repacking some of the 2007 figures with stands instead of coins. I grabbed a 7th Legion Trooper with stand since he is a trooper variation. I used the DPCI numbers to check on the Target Exclusive 2008 Order 66 2-packs. They were in the stockroom! Unfortunately they weren't on the floor yet and I don't like asking employees to pull things from the back. I can wait. I'm heading back Sunday morning. I believe they stock shelves Saturday night and sometimes put out new items, like the Order 66 2-packs. The street date for the 2-packs isn't until next Sunday (April 13th) but my Target here in Indiana put out the Aayla Secura Starfighter and Battle of Kashyyyk Battle Pack more than 2 weeks early. Maybe the 2-packs will make an appearance tomorrow?