If you went to Hasbro Pulse today, or are on their e-mail list (or missed both of these but had someone clue you in), you may have caught a teaser for the upcoming Mando Monday event.
The news buzzing around this particular event was the newest wave of Star Wars Retro Collection action figures, seven of them, which would all be based on the highly popular Disney+ streaming network show, The Mandalorian.
However, if you were like me, and I know of one other person who was, you clicked refresh immediately at 4:00 PM, and as the figures became available one by one, you added them all to your cart. Then when you went to check out, you were greeted by red letters under each item proclaiming, "SOLD OUT". Mind you, this was in the span of less than two minutes.
Wow, really Hasbro Pulse? Again with this nonsense?
After grumbling about it with George of G.I. Jigsaw and finding out that they were available at sites such as Amazon, Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store, my pain was at least a little relieved. That is until I saw that the scalper sites were charging a mark-up. While you could have gotten them at Pulse (and Amazon) for $9.99, EE and BBTS were charging a mark up of $11.99! I also found out that Target was selling these, but as per usual with them, they were already sold out to the bots.
Fortunately, and ultimately, for whatever reason, being sold out appears to have been a glitch in Pulse's system. After trying back around 4:20 PM, I found I was not only able to get all seven of the figures back into my cart, but also complete the purchase.
I'm not sure what happened the first time around. Perhaps their system just got too bogged down. However, I will say that this is not a good impression from Hasbro. How many people came back to try again after walking away angry? First impressions are all you get, and when things like this happen, the damage is already done, regardless of whether or not you fix it.
Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.
Even though it was a crazy hassle, these figures look pretty damn AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. I hope Hasbro keeps the Retro Collection going. I just hope that they don't bombard it with stuff like this, and certainly not the Sequel Trilogy. I'd really like to see them release the OT figures we didn't have back in the day before getting far off course with this into Prequels, Sequels and spin offs.
DeleteI hate buying toys this way... I know that in these cases its probably the only way to get them at a decent price. I guess I am just too old but I am just not tempted by this online ordering... but let me see a toy on a peg in a store and I'll probably end up getting it!
ReplyDeleteBrick and mortar stores died out a long time ago for me. They just became too much of a waste of time and energy to continuously come up empty handed. I'd much rather just buy it online and call it a day. However, I still think there is room for improvement in this process.
DeleteI guess I'm just an impulse buyer... I do want to get all the MOTU Origins figures of the original 8... All I am missing are Mer-Man, Stratos, and Zodac. I will not be getting the new Castle Grayskull playset, I don't dig it at all. My old one is going to get out and refurbished! I plan to give it a complete custom paint job!
DeleteI think I'm over He-Man at this point. As I look at my shelf of all the figures I have, I think it's time to find them a new home.
DeleteWould like to see photos on your site of your renovated Castle Grayskull.
Yeah - what a bunch of chaos that was. I had two of each in my cart. Then when I wanted to check out, some went down to one, then I re-added a second, then they had a red x for "sold out". All within the first two minutes. Then I saw on Rebelscum.com they were being sold on BigBadToyStore and Amazon. The nice thing about BBTS is you could buy it as a set instead of adding all seven to the cart individually. So I purchased two sets. Then I purchased two each on Amazon, and then Toybox said HasbroPulse had them "in stock" again so bought two sets there. What am I going to do with six sets. Cancel several of them depending on who ships them first. Or sell a set or two. Either way, I love these things. Been a long time since I felt that joy that I am getting a vintage Kenner figure. I really enjoyed what Super7 did with their ReAction line. Also liked that Hasbro made that retro Tarkin. So loving this. But yes, will have to cancel a few of those orders, but dang it, I was getting a set....or two. Or six. Will keep two - one to open. One to keep packaged. Hoping Hasbro does more of these for the OTC.
ReplyDeleteI pre-ordered the set, but as I think about it, I don't know if I will keep the order in place. I really don't have much space left for action figures in my house, and I'd much rather have vintage style OT figures I don't have. I think what really sunk it for me was the fifty dollar Stormtrooper that you have to buy a Monopoly game to get.
Delete