For the past few years, Hasbro released a series of high-end "vintage" style Star Wars figures. These use the latest in toy development technology to update vintage Star Wars action figures using replicas of the original cardbacks, encased in nice, see-through clamshells to protect them, yadda yadda yadda.
This year, the line-up consisted of five figures from The Empire Strikes Back (Snowtrooper, IG-88, Bossk, Luke in Bespin Fatigues, and Han in Hoth gear) and one from Return of the Jedi (Leia in Endor gear). The thing with this line-up is, they cost more than the basic figures and don't offer much to make up for the price hike. Sure, they're all super-articulated, but a lot of the basic figures are these days and some of the previous Vintage figures have been reissued at the basic price point, Boba Fett from 2004 for example. So, if you're an opener, there's not a lot of reason to pay the inflated cost since most of that is incurred from the packaging.
This year, buying any six vintage figures gets you seven collector coins in a special case by sending in $4.95 for shipping and a sticker from each figure. It's not a great deal like last year's George Lucas in Stormtrooper armor, but it's something. But, I digress...
Enter the retail chain Target. They charged $11.99 a pop for this line for the past 2 years. That's 2 dollars more than Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Fred Meyer, etc. So, they tended to linger there with the exception of the Snowtrooper. Now, Target likes to go clearance happy any time they get close to resetting their toy department and since they decided not to carry the Vintage figures in the newest setup, they went clearance... and sat on clearance for a long time at $8 and some change. That's not great since it was only a dollar or so off competitor's retail price. Then one day they all disappeared. Seems Target likes to forget the second mark down of 50% (they typically mark items down at 30%, then 50%, then 75%). So, I figured (no pun intended) I lost my chance to get some cheap figures.
Yesterday, I went to a Target I don't usually frequent, looking for Concept Camaro Bumblebee (with no luck I might add - I don't think this toy really exists), when I happened upon Bossk, Luke, and Leia sitting in a small clearance section. All were marked at $8.38. So, I took Bossk to the price scanner and he looked up at $2.98! I went back and grabbed the other two and was about to leave when something made me turn back. On the bottom shelf was Han. So, I lucked out after all as I got four figures for the price of one. Well, the price of 1 1/3 if you go by the $9.99 price. A nice fellow from a Star Wars forum is sending me an extra sticker for the coins so all I have to do is find either IG-88 or a Snowtrooper. I'll probably find IG-88 first though and that's fine with me as I'm not big on troopers.
