Frank's Blog

Well, I tried. I figured the day after Chirstmas could be a good time to go on the hunt. The Wal-Mart at 6am, then Target at 7am, but had no luck. I was fortunate enough that a collector friend found the entire wave one of the Saga collection! I did find out from the Asst. Manager at Wally that the release date for the Saga line is January 14th. Or so he says, as the boxes are marked with a street date. Click the links to view the individual figures for wave 1 of the Saga collection.

• Liea
• Solo
• Bib
• Barada
• Chewbacca
• Boba Fett
  

A collector friend left a message this morning that the new line of Star Wars figures was spotted at a local Wal-Mart. After getting this message I made adjustments to my work schedule, allowing me to take the day after Christmas off to look for the new figures. Below is a link to the first wave of the new figures. The card presentation looks much nicer than the Revenge of the Sith line. What makes this series attractive is that it will span specific battles, movie climaxes over all six films. There are 8 waves of figues scheduled. For someone like me, who has never collected before, this will give me an opportunity to get the earlier figures and possibly vehicles that I never bought when I was a kid.
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/sagawave1.jpg

Yesterday I met an out of town Star Wars collector/friend on his lunch break, at a Toys R Us near where he works. I had especially wanted to check the kick plates at this store, as the store was very old and the odds on finding stuff should be good. While we did find some stuff, the store had new carpet toward the back and left side, which provided a reason why there wasn't as much stuff hidden as I thought there would be. Here is a list of what was found:

• Hot Wheels (multiple, too many to list)
• Johnny Lightning (multiple, too many to list)
• Star Wars AOTC Mace Windu 12" (.01¢)
• Star Wars 2004 Anniversary Silver Darth Vader ($4.99) x 2
• Simpsons Kubix (sp?) lego block looking figure pack (.01¢)
• Simpsons 2-figure pack w/Homer and another (.01¢)
• LOR black dead guy on w/o horse chasing Froto for ring (Strider chased them away)
• LOR the bad guy who had his finger chopped off (the main bad guy in physical form)
• some stupide robot clock (.01¢)
• Emitt Smith Arizona Cardinals Mc Farlands figures (didn't scan)
• other varius items that I forgot...
  

*** I regret that I forgot to scan and take the LOR characters, as I have a friend, Kris, who will kill me for not grabbing them, especially since they were probably one penny each!

http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/silvervader.jpg

The above is a picture of the basic figures, not everything that I have collected. For a closer look at the basic figure collection from EPIII Revenge of the Sith, click...
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/collection2.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/collection3.jpg

Yesterday a local collector friend, Less, brought over the 14th figure in the EP3 collection. One of two I've been looking for, and the one I'd been passing on in an attempt to find it in mint condition. The local Target had once had many of this figure, then suddenly they were all gone. Thanks for grabbing it for me!

Last night I then turned to eBay and won an auction for the 4th figure, the Super Battle Droid. I had passed on this figure before deciding to collect them all, then found myself in a spot where I couldn't find it. I thought about waiting a little longer and trying to find it in the store before turning to eBay. On-line I read that this early wave of figures, which this one is a part of, was showing up in stores again. And, one web site was actually selling the entire case of which it was a part of. This morning I arrived at an out of town Target at opening and was surprised when I found 4! I grabbed them all, and some extra figures along with them.
Below are links to the two final figures.

http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/04sbd.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/14palpatine.jpg

On a side note I visited one out of town Toys R Us and found some interesting figures that others have hidden under the displays kickplates. I found Neo from the Matrix action figure line, and the large spider from Harry Potter action figure line. Both were only .o1¢ each! In addition I found Boba Fett, Luke and Secura figures each a couple years old also under the kickplates, and they were $2.49 each!
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/oldfigures.jpg

Been bottom feeding lately and today I found the entire second wave of the Titanium vehicles and an Unleashed Stormtrooper under the kickplates at the local Wal-Mart and Target. All in very good condition. The Unleashed Stormtrooper figure is from 2004, and is as sought after as it is difficult to find. Click on the receipt link to see how little I paid for this Star Wars figure. I also found a few Johnny Lightning Star Trek ships and random Star Wars figures. Gotta know where to look, those scalpers and dishonest store employees aren't safe when I start looking! I also found a Snickers candy plastic football that opens into a candy dish, with a bag of mini Snickers, under a kickplate in the Barbie section. Even though it was discounted to $1, that candy was old and nasty so I passed!

Now's the time to start checking the kickplates under the displays! Death to the scalpers and store employees who stash the toys from us!

Gotta get some toys!

Click on the links to see what I found.
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/titaniumships.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/unleashed.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/receipt.jpg

Tuesday morning at midnight, I picked up the exclusive Clone Wars commemorative figure packs. Click the links to view the packs!

I borrowed the image on the left from one of the Clone Wars figure packs to make an animated gif avatar that I use in Star Wars forums.



http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/clonewars1.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/clonewars2.jpg

Ok, so based on my finding hundreds of toys hidden under the kickplates at the local TRU, I decided to see how big of a problem this is elsewhere, and as you can guess by the title of this Blog entry it is common. I started the morning at the local Target and filled 1/2 a shopping cart with Star Wars, Hot Wheels and such. I then drove to 3 other Target stores and 2 Toys R Us stores. The Target stores were minimal as I guessed, due to the Employees generally doing a better job patrolling and seem to be more organized. Both Toys R Us stores had toys under the kickplates, and I feel that one had a substantial amount, similar to the TRU I checked last night. When I found the toys that collectors and store staff had hidden, I met with a store management figure and gave them the info on what to look for.

One of the Target stores actually secured their kickplates, preventing people from accessing them. This was good. One TRU I was able to almost fill a shopping cart from having checked under only a few plates. Mostly wrestling figures and Hot Wheels. I spoke to the Director at this TRU and came away from our conversation wondering about his involvement and to what extent he allows the local collectors and store staff to partake in this shading stashing of product. When I brought it to his attention he explained that he doesn't want me to look under the kickplates for obvious reasons. I told him that I had know interest in getting hurt, and only wished to demonstrate that the local collectors and probably his staff are cheating customers and his store of product. His response was that he's been in retail for many years and he is aware of stuff like this, and then he began telling me, repeatedly, that he doesn't want me looking under any more kickplates, and seemed very uncomfortable. The thought did come across my mind that he knew, allowed this, and partakes in it. Oh well. So, now knowing how bad the stashing of collectible toys is, I've developed a saying when shopping for Star Wars; "If it isn't in the store, then it's under the store!"

So, yesterday the director at the local TRU asked me about some fellow collectors and employees at his store; whether or not they schemed and would hide merchandise, etc.. I told him that the local Hot Wheel collectors have shown me that they place items under the display bases. He replied, "the kick plates!?" He didn't believe me so I made a friendly bet and told him that if we were to look in his store we would be sure to find merchandise. Last night we went down through the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, McFarlands, and some of the Hot Wheels areas in the store and filled up a cart and part of another cart full of toys that had been hidden by collectors or store employees. The Director told me he would do inventory and then call me and my friends and give us first crack at the toys before he returned them to the pegs. The majority of the merchandise was Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Hot Wheels, Fantastic 4 and other Marvel figures.

Today my friends and I returned and began filling up another shopping cart full of toys. When the evening of was over, looking under just about every kick-plate in the stores, we filled up 5 more shopping carts full of the same toys mentioned above. Below are some cool finds that I bought.
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/mcfar.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/starwars.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/fantastic4.jpg

Collectors Code!
Now some people may claim that there is some unwritten rule or code between collectors where they help one another out, but I feel that extremes such as hidding large numbers of popular figures from the public is wrong. Today and yesterday I would say I found hundreds of figures. If I were to guess, maybe 200 in all. Figuring 40 figures per shopping basket, multiplied by 5 or 6 shopping baskets full. Some of the figures that I found were those that I had come to this store looking for, for some time. These figures I ended up buying elsewhere, apparently because they were stashed in remote locations inside the store.

Sad news. This is the last week of the Star Wars toys at Burger King. I never thought that $1 toys could be so cool! While I'm sure many will continue to have some of the toys in stock after this week and will probably continue to put them in kids meals until they run out, this is the last week that new toys will be released. This second wave of Burger King toys was limited in number when compared to the first wave that was released when Revenge of the Sith debuted in the theaters in late May. The first wave ran 6 weeks. Each week had 6 different toys, whereas this release of BK Star Wars toys ran only 4 weeks, with 4 toys, and 3 weeks of 2 watches.

This current wave of BK Star Wars toys had my favorite style of toys, the fortune teller. Each week one toy figure contained a die with answers printed on it, visible while looking at it from the bottom. The fortune telling worked similar to the Magic 8 Ball toy. Ask a question, shake the figure, turn him upside down and read the answer. I'd like to thank my SW buds Jose and Kris for grabbing a set of the final week of BK Star Wars toys for me. Below is a picture of the entire second wave of BK Star Wars toys that was released to commemorate the release of Revenge of the Sith on DCD. I drew a circle around the 4th week of Star Wars toys.

http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/BKcompletewave2.jpg