I had a successful Force Friday. Got everything I wanted, but it took longer than I expected. I had to visit a lot more stores than I had intended.
First I went to the GS that's on the way to Walmart soon after they opened to get DJ. They had 4 that I saw. I got the one that looked the best. Near flawless paint and box. They had a decent size selection of commons too. While I was there I chatted with the employee about the Pops, SW, and DJ. It was nice to get my most wanted exclusive out of the way right off the bat. A great start to my hunt.
After that I went to Walmart with the intent to get everything else I wanted, but it didn't go as well. The Pops were about 50% gone already. Same time last year there was nothing sold yet. I was able to get my Rey 3.75" action figure, BB-9E, and Walmart exclusive BB Unit, but not my other two wants, BB-8 and Rey. Rey ended up being the hardest one to get. They had one Rey left, but she had a bad paint job and a bad box. There was what looked like a makeup smear and a grease spot the size of a fingerprint. I had to pass on it. They had a lot of BB-8s left, but every single one of them had terrible paint. The main issue was major bleeding of the silver paint that goes around the bottom of his head. They all had that issue. There were only two BB Units left. Neither had the greatest paint, but were significantly better than the BB-8s. I got the best of the two. It was acceptable enough. It looks cool in-person. No Leia. They had a lot more 3.75" figures left than they did two years ago, but a lot were sold too. I'd say about 50% as well. While I was there, there were two employees finishing up restocking the toy section, and I overheard them talking about something very interesting. One employee was wondering why there wasn't as much to put out as she thought there would be, and the other employee said it was because the overnight toy manager resells a lot of the stuff they get. Ugh... I've been wondering why at some point earlier this year that store went from having almost every Walmart exclusive to almost none of them. Very bad news.
I had planned to just go to GS and Walmart, but with two Pops still on my want list, including my top want, Rey, I had to continue the hunt. On to Target. I walked back to the toy section... and no TLJ Pops. Next I checked the Funko Shop in the back... still nothing. Disheartened, I headed back to the front of the store to leave, when lo and behold there it was, the new display for the TLJ Pops, right by the checkouts. I had passed it on my way in without noticing it.
It was somewhat picked over. No Rey. They did have some BB-8, and one actually had a great paint job! No bleeding silver paint. I was happy to acquire at least one of my final two wants. No Target exclusive Porg.
At that point I was at a crossroads with Rey. Do I pay extra at the mall, or do I wait for a restock at Walmart that would likely take a couple months? Then I remembered that I had just received an email from HT two days ago that I had earned another $5 reward. Off to the mall! HT had a TON of TLJ Pops. By far the most of any store. They had a separate display for them, which was completely full. It appeared that I was the first person to look through them. I can't be certain, but that's the impression it left. It looked untouched. They had three of each Pop (including Rey!), with the exception of the flocked Porg. They had a ton of them, but no chase. They had a Rey right in front that had a near flawless paint job! I was extremely happy to finally acquire my final and most wanted TLJ Pop, and with the $5 reward, I managed to get it for less than I would have paid at Walmart! I also looked around B&N, FYE, and GS at the mall as well just for the heck of it. B&N had TLJ Pops mixed into the regular Pop display, but only a small selection, mostly the villains. No Rey. FYE had a separate display for TLJ, with 90% of the Pops being of just the exclusive flocked Chewie. They had a TON of them. If you have a FYE near you, you should have no problem finding that exclusive. The most plentiful one of all. They had a small selection of commons as well. No Rey. GS at the mall had a significantly smaller section than the one I went to earlier. Just two DJs, and no Rey.
I found myself asking the same question this year that I asked two years ago, "where's Rey?"
She got a very small selection of merch again, especially for being the main character. If you had no idea what SW was and you walked into most of these stores, you would swear Porgs were the focus of the movie. Overall I had a fun and successful hunt, just with a few hiccups in-between. The common Pops I saw the most of were BB-8 and Porgs. They don't seem to be selling very well, at least not around here. BB-8 is obvious because it's so similar to what has come before. Perhaps everyone else around here is as sick of Porgs as I am, or they don't know what it is and don't care to buy one because of that. Despite seeing a ton of Porgs, I did not see a single chase. It's obvious no one hunting at Walmart did, thanks to the overnight toy manager. Now I know not to get my hopes up about any future Walmart exclusives. I'm lucky there was a BB Unit left for me. One interesting thing I noticed is that none of the stores had the repacks of Phasma and the troopers. Thank goodness.
My haul
Sorry for the blurry pic. Also sorry for the long post.
