Why were some 1990's POTF2 Modern Star Wars toys particularly hard to find? A modern analysis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.พ. 2023
- Scott Toy Guru Neitlich from Spector Creative looks into the behind the scenes reasons why some POTF2 Star Wars figures from Kenner wound up being hard to find while most are still in discount bins.
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I loved that these figures were nice and sturdy too. Paint always stayed on as well.
In the earlier years of the POTF2 era you could have found whatever figure you wanted (if it wasn't for scalpers) but towards the later seasons nobody wanted that are now in comic book shops.I prefer this line than the newer stuff.
Sadly, even today, retail stores don't particularly care about putting things in the right places or on the right pegs unless they are setting the planogram for the first time or maybe while doing inventory...but even that is iffy. I've long wished I could go around my local area and tell the stores they need to get rid of these pegwarmers and get some new stock in and generally keep up with things for them since they have no capability to do it themselves.
I'm remember finding this wave at a Walmart when I was in college.. One of the few times I have been able to find a good box of unopened figures waiting to be opened.
Very few figures seem to hold their value any more. Even modern ones. My Earthrise Ironhide for instance used to go for $150 on ebay just a year ago. As soon as SS86 Ironhide was announced? Prices crashed to nothing. As soon as new vintage collection star wars figures come out, their PoTF variant crashed hard.
It's easy to be a toy-snob about it now, but back then it was fun as hell collecting it. Of course all the adult collectors over-collecting it to where there's still tons in perfect MOC/MISB condition is the main reason why it's largely worthless, but it was still fun. Also the removeable helmet isn't the only thing going for Vader with removable helmet. It's also the first time Vader was depicted correctly with that second half-cape around his waist, which previous versions always managed to leave off.
I remember there was a variant Leia also. Something about the design of the belt and the easiest way to tell was the number on the back of the card ended in .00 rather than .01 or vice versa. I remember searching for her at the time and finding some, but it's been so long ago now I don't remember the specifics of the variation.
Yeah, the "three lines" vs. "two lines" belt variants. I managed to find the 3-lines version, and as soon as a better Leia figure came along, I used the Monkey-Face Leia for custom fodder.
Im a huge Ree Yees fan. That was THE fig I was going to find back in the day. I would travel to the US (from Vancouver) so I could get it month or 2 earlier. and it WAS hard to find. I dont even remember seeing it in Canada. Now, years later I can find it (and the other from that wave), but, as you said, not as widely seen as all the others.
Love the original 1983 KENNER Ree-Yees action-figure. I was surprised to hear it wasn't a popular figure with collectors. It's an interesting creature design and nicely detailed sculpt.
@@cyrusq5999 me too! I'm currently building a Ree Yees costume with a blaster that looks like the original gold-bronze 1983 blaster from the figure. Check out my vlog if interested
We didn't see them anywhere in the stores in our area of Ohio; we had to order that wave from the official magazine / catalog. And then they re-released the mould a couple more times over the years, anway.
A key component to these waves from 1998 getting such limited release that wasn't mentioned here was the glut caused by the rerelease of all the figures from the previous two years worth of waves so that they could come with the new "freeze frame" gimmick. Even new figures early in the year like Biggs, Lak Sivrak, and the Ewoks 2-pack were much harder to find at retail because they shared cases with figures everyone already had. By the later waves, things were completely jammed up.
I have every figure you mention here. I had no trouble finding Ree-Yees, or the Death Star Trooper; here, in the UK, you could get them from Toys 'R' Us, which is from where I got mine. I gave up buying these figures when Hasbro started releasing multiple, and overlapping waves. Here, they were not cheap - £9 - £11 each, so when you have got, say, 25 new figures, and then, a few weeks later, on a trip to a comic shop, you see a wall of new figures you never knew existed, it's disheartening, and it gets to where you think:
'F**k you, Hasbro, enough is enough!'
They're like a dealer feeding the cravings of addicts.
I walked away. The last Star Wars figure I bought, was Bo'Shek, but only because the figure's face sculpt bore an uncanny resemblence to that of a family friend.
I remember walking into a small independent toy store in Torquay back in 2002, wen AOTC and 200X MOTU were still going strong, and asking if they'd be able to order stuff for me, and the owner said "Yes," and she handed me the catalogues for Mattel and Hasbro . . . with half the products labelled as "NOT AVAILABLE OUTSIDE THE U.S.A."
Enh, at least we got a bunch of end-of-the-line rarities out of those lines.
6:59: Even Kenner had distribution issues. The Darth Vader (Removable Helmet) figure is one of my favourite POTF2 figures and I mentioned the rarity of it compared to most POTF2 figures previously on thus channel.
Regarding how waves ship: I’ve noticed that Marvel Legends are starting to show up on pegs less as assortments and more as what seem to be full case packs of single characters (it seems to have started with the Age of Apocalypse wave?), and now even retailers like BigBadToyStore make you buy full Legends waves a la carte. Can you speak a little to this change? Do you think Hasbro has fundamentally changed the way they SKU Legends?
Cool video! Thank you! Heh. I used to live in NE Ohio, which was an absolute GOLDMINE for collecting in the 1980s and 1990s. The only things I think we didn't get in our area was the Ree-Yees / Death Star Trooper wave. We had to get those through the official magazine / catalogue.
Oh, man, the stories! The one I like telling best is bagging the entire brand-new "Expanded Universe" wave for half-price at TRU during their pre-Christmas clearance, then going across the street to Target and seeing stacks and stacks of Action Fleet E-Wings & TIE Defenders . . . then leaving them there, because we didn't collect Action Fleet. Scalpers snapped them all up in less than 48 hours.
Great video Scott! I remember in the first wave of POTF2 that monkey face Leia was short packed and initially very hard to find. I remember going into a comic shop and seeing her with a $70 price tag...I pity the person who shelled out $70 for that thing 🙁
Same here, excpet she was $50. And then I found one at retail for one-tenth that amount. And hacked it up in a failed customising attempt.
There still figures I think about getting from that collection as they seem pretty nice. Luke in the Strom Trooper gear or things like that. Once Lucas sold its clear they wont be making certain figures ever again haha. That is funny how them doing the colors for the boards ended up shafting the line. I know recently I saw were still selling the Leia I got from Jabba Palace on card for like twenty on Amazon. I had no idea about the Bobba Fett having the thing on his hand as circle or semi circle. I mostly have original figures so I don't even think I knew this line existed until The Phantom Menace line. I graduated HS in 90s so its like was well beyond collecting in ways. Yet was doing Comic Shows as Dealer so still did know or collect :).
How many thousands of POTF2 figures I stocked in the late 90s? And how many "good" figures I passed on grabbing, one will never know.
The power of the force figures are a good line. They made jawas with vinyl capes, Luke and Vader and obi with lightsaber longer than the figures. Lots of other figures that were better articulated than the 77- toys. Nice pod cast
I to pay more for the bartender of the cantina and Darth Bane. Most others have been 3 to 10$.
The original release was crazy Because Princess Leias figure was only 1 per box and everything else was 2 and one had 3 per box of 24 . So immediately she was worth like 25 cash at flea market and they sold them for 50
The AT-AT and AT-ST in STAR WARS was made made because of the popularity of giant robots in Japan and was inspired by the OLIPHAUNTS in LORD OF THE RINGS.
I have that Ree-Yees wave man!! If I'm not mistaken, I was working at a Toys R Us in WV at the time when it came in!! 🤘🐀
Wasn't the one in Parkersburg by chance?
@@crispyblacon1Barboursville actually, near the Huntington Mall! 😜🤘🐀
@LabRatWarfare ah okay! I know that one too but I think had only ended up there once or twice. I grew up close to WV so tripped over fairly often back in the day haha
@LabRatWarfare Also that's some really sick content on your channel, gonna listen to some!
@@crispyblacon1So cool, such a small world sometimes! Haha I really miss TRU!! Best store ever!! 😁
Spector Creative Binge Day Episode 15
Omg the POF figures were so bad.
People in the collector community seem to get confused about economic ideas, buying something that doesn't have an intrinsic material value (an action figure or a pokemon card is technically a lump of plastic or a piece of cardboard as opposed to a silver coin which will always be worth at least the silver value) in the hopes that you will be able to sell it later for more then you initially paid is speculation. An investment is generally something that creates an ongoing profit, such as rent collected on a rental property investment or dividends paid on shares. If you go to any financial adviser they are not going to recommend putting your savings in action figures or having your pension fund diversify into lego sets.
Particularly in relation to Star Wars, the action figures are probably going to eventually become worth less and less for the simple reason very few people born in the last 30 years particularly care about Star Wars. The somewhat confronting truth is your average Star Wars fan is around about 45 to 55 years old. In forty years very few people will be interested in mint on card original Kenner figures little own packaging variations of later figures.
You're right. Stuff from the 50s and 60s already passed peak value like 15- 20 years ago because of it. But on the happy optimist side 20+ years from now those of us Gen-X toy collectors that are still around will be able to pick up vintage stuff at good prices. 😁
Speaking from my own experience, I think many collectors fool themselves into thinking they're buying something as an investment whereas really they're just buying them because they like them (or have some kind of compulsion). I sold off most of my toy collection and it was often the things I hadn't purposefully collected that sold for most. A lot of the "collectibles" I just ended up giving away and donating. Now I have a very 'minimal' collection of SW toys - I don't care about keeping boxes, variants or any of that stuff. I know they won't make money so I just enjoy them for what they are.
Why didn't kenner/hasbro ever recard the farm boy luke on a green card? They recarded everyone else.