Well as everyone knows #ForceFriday has come and gone. Let the scalping begin. I am not one to judge others for their ways of making money, but as a collector it simply aggravates me to no end to walk into my local Toys "R" Us, Walmart, etc, during an event like #ForceFriday and see all the scalpers. I went to my local Toys "R" Us, and living in my small town, I know who the scalpers are. As I walked up there was a massive line 2 rows deep full of scalpers waiting to clean the shelves.
As I walked up to the doors they started yelling at me to get in line. All I could do is laugh considering I wasn’t there to buy Star Wars stuff, I was there for Transformers. So as I walked in and started looking around the shelves were stocked and ready for this sale. I can say that it was a pretty impressive sight. Sadly though, once they started letting people in for the event, it wasn’t long before the shelves were empty. I watched in horror/amazement as to how little the scalpers gave two craps about anyone else, filling their carts up to the brim with everything they could get their hands on. Some came with extra people to grab items while one group had a 3rd wheel listing on Ebay from his phone as the others continued filling their carts. Being a collector, it really upset me. I feel if it had been on the shelves for more than a few weeks then go for it, others have had enough time to go get one, but to not give anyone a chance to even go and get one, that’s sad.
With all that said, Disney did a good job promoting the new toy line. I feel it was a great success as far as the promotions go. The displays where nicely designed and laid out, there were even some stores who had employees in costumes to help promote the event.
In the midst of this horror show though I did get to examine some of the interesting toys that were released, including the remote controlled android. The Sphero BB-8 is a very impressive "toy". You control it from your Android or iPhone and it does all sorts of neat things. You can drive it around, send it out on scouting missions, the works.
A few downsides I have seen so far from it are the following:
The range isn’t very great due to being on a Bluetooth connection. It does suffer from signal loss with walls, and battery time isn’t very long.
Charging time takes quite a few hours for only an hours worth of play time.
Other issues I have seen and heard of are bugs in the program, and a few people have reported the heads falling off.
The price tag on this interesting toy is right around $150.00 USD.
I wasn’t impressed with any of the 3.75" figures though because they are lacking horribly in articulation for the price. I feel Hasbro could have done so much better with the quality. But I think a lot of better versions are sure to come.
Thanks for checking out my article and please come back for more news on all the latest, and greatest toys, collectables, and more from here in the US and Japan as we continue on into the holiday seasons.
What was YOUR Force Friday like? Let us know!