Anything New In Australia!!!

[Greejo]

Personally went through LTC for my Yakface and Klaatu......have not heard when they anticipate them to come into stock though.

 

[Jedipearse]

Hello there. Long time viewer, first time posting.

I, too, have ordered Yakface and Klaatu from LTC. I actually have quite a bit of Black Series ordered with them, too. Over the past couple of months I have emailed them, filled the online form out and emailed again, but they are not responding. I am starting to get a little nervous about things as this feels very similar to the PC situation.

Has anyone had any recent communication with LTC?

 

[Greejo]

Hey Jedipearse welcome aboard...

...the last contact I had with LTC was in mid March and they responded fairly slowly. Had to e-mail and fill out their online form, then it took about a week or so for them to reply. But a couple of months with no reply is a bit much. I can only suggest e-mailing them again or try the online form again....unless someone has a contact phone number for them.

 

[Jedipearse]

Thanks, Greejo. I have been using LTC for years and I know they are a little slow to communicate. I actually ordered an in-stock item back on the 30th of March and, besides the automated reply, haven't heard or received anything. I think I've emailed somewhere in the vicinity of 6 times since then and filled the online form out as many times as that (if not more). It's getting a little concerning.

Hopefully it will all work out and they are spending their time updating their inventory with waves of black series, vintage collection, skiffs and throne room playsets...

 

[Greejo]

I found it weird that they have not put up any Black Series preorders since Grievous. No Mace wave and no Dr Aphra/Obi Wan wave. It seemed to all go to pot when they Upgraded the site.

Still I hope you hear from them soon.....I was thinking of contacting them re Grievous but don't think I'll bother for now.

 

[Greejo]

Hopefully it will all work out and they are spending their time updating their inventory with waves of black series, vintage collection, skiffs and throne room playsets...

Oooohh yes please.

 

[Jedipearse]

I saw a Black Series Grevious in the wild on Friday at my local Zing: but I have it preordered through LTC...

 

[Greejo]

This Zing place is coming up more and more often during my travels through the inter webs...

...I think it's time someone opened a franchise up here

 

[GNT]

I saw a Black Series Grevious in the wild on Friday at my local Zing: but I have it preordered through LTC...

Yeah I saw one there a week back for $58 I believe but passed since it's still cheaper buying from overseas. Zing is just part of EB Games.

 

[Greejo]

Can someone explain to me how this is not gouging.......

As for the Zing thing, yeah I realised they were linked to EBGames when they asked for my EB login details when I ordered the Escape from Death Star board game from them.

 

[Jedipearse]

Those prices are ridiculous. We are already getting priced out of the hobby down here without that kind of nefarious profiteering!!

Thanks for the Escape from Death Star info. Just ordered mine. Does anybody know if and where we are going to get the rest of the Retro Collection??

 

[Greejo]

No worries on the Escape from Death Star/Tarkin set info.....hope you enjoy it as much as I have. I actually still have my original 78(ish) set still complete after all these years, though a little beat up.

As for the Retro Collection, though not on their site, I believe Zing are stocking these. My info (Adam) has said that each store has only received one case thus far so they may be difficult to track down unless another retailer/etailer stocks them.

 

[GNT]

Would be nice to see new items on the shelves somewhere lol I haven't bought anything in ages.

 

[Greejo]

Can't remember my last off the peg, bricks and mortar purchase....I order everything online now.

The pegs in my area have been bare for what seems like years. If anything does show up there is like one case put out.

 

[Jedipearse]

I also haven’t made a bricks and mortar purchase for a long time.

My issue isn’t so much empty pegs - it’s stock dating back to the Force Awakens/Rogue One era still hanging off pegs....

 

[Greejo]

The local Toyworld went belly up 18months or so ago and till their last day had a single Ody Mandrell hanging on the pegs and that was their entire StarWars stock.

 

[Jedipearse]

On holidays in Melbourne and saw (and picked up) the vintage Throne Room playset from Zing at Chadstone. There was only one there. It wasn’t cheap but I was so shocked to see it I couldn’t resist.

 

[Greejo]

Do you mean the Jabba's Palace playset?

If so it is a beautiful set, I'm considering buying a second set to keep boxed.

 

[Jedipearse]

That’s the one I meant, yeah...

I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet - I’m an opener, but I haven’t made it home yet. I actually picked up a lot of the black series and vintage I’d pre-ordered from LTC while in Melbourne, too. I had been quite concerned about LTC but was pleasantly surprised by the pick up experience.

 

[Greejo]

I think we're all concerned about LTC(right Adam) but I am glad you had a good experience with them. I'm currently just waiting on a couple of VC figures from them(Yakface and Klaatu) and that's all the figures I have had preordered with them.

 

[Jedipearse]

Hey Greejo, who are you purchasing through with the lack of items on LTC? There just doesn't seem to be a local option that I can find at the moment...

 

[Greejo]

Dorkside for Black Series, PopCultcha for Hot Toys....I have recently tried BulletproofVillain, Just a small order to test the waters as it will. PopCultcha and BPV are both Australian based Dorkside is in the states but their shipping rates are starting to get reasonable

 

[Jedipearse]

Thanks for that. I’ve used Dorkside before, but the last time was a few years ago now. I’ve also used Popcultcha, but haven’t heard of BPV. I looked into BBTS, too, but the shipping and poor Aussie dollar makes it a bit over the top $$$$

 

[Greejo]

Yeah the dollar exchange rate can be a killer As I said Dorkside have been getting better on shipping rates though

 

[Jedipearse]

I went and looked at Dorkside. I would have been happy to pay the shipping (it was quite reasonable)...but I’ve left it too late: they don’t have complete waves of the two recent BS anymore - must have sold out.

 

[Greejo]

Keep an eye on them. They quite often get more stock in as time goes by

 

[Jedipearse]

Has anyone heard any indication that Triple Force Friday will exist in Oz?

 

[GNT]

Haven't heard a peep but I would suspect the boxes would be the same as the US and have street dates on them so I'd expect to see new stuff around the proper release date.

 

[wesker]

Pretty sad how uneventful Force Friday has become here in Australia. The only new product I saw anywhere was the new Lego sets. EB Games/Zing had a separate display area at the front of the store away from the main Star Wars shelf but it was mostly the same T-shirts and coffee mugs that have been out for a while now. I was a bit surprised to see them also selling the new Lego sets as that's never really been a product they've sold until now.

There was absolutely nothing new on Hasbro's end. EBs has the same Black Series Archive figures and everywhere else is still struggling to get rid of the Snoke/Jyn/Rey/Rose pegwarmers. I haven't collected Hasbro figures in years but it was still disappointing to see considering they used to be the leading toy brand whenever a new Star Wars movie was released.

 

[Jedipearse]

Very sad state of affairs. My son and I went on an old fashioned toy run yesterday morning, checking four different shopping centres with an assortment of stores (Toyworld, Target, BigW, Kmart, David Jones, Zing, etc.). Besides over-priced merch at Zing, there was absolutely nothing at 3 of the centres, until at the fourth Target had a lone wave of Black Series and the Galaxy of Adventures figures. BS were $40 each, so I left them (especially as they weren’t even the white boxed version). All in all, three hours of absolute disappointment!

 

[GNT]

Kmart has the Black series 6" for $30 each, Big W has them for $35. Not sure about anywhere else

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Hey folks, it's been ages since I've connected with the community here, hope everyone's well.

Just wondering, I've read a little bit here & there & it seems we here in AUS have been royally screwed in terms of what the brick & motar stores are offering these days - i.e; no Vintage Collection figures other than that first infamous wave with Snoke that's still rotting on our shelves. Mostly Disney stuff that isn't selling etc, & a general sense that the big chains have all but abandoned our beloved SW because the vibe out there has significantly diminished since 2015.

What's the story, is this now what we should be expecting with Hasbro etc going forward?

Pretty bleak.

 

[GNT]

The only toys released lately is the 6" wave for the new film, some 5" cartoon looking figures but not much else to get excited about. The only way to get stuff is from overseas.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Yeah, thought so.

Cheers GNT.

 

[JudgeJedi]

I think we’re doing pretty good for a change. We might not have every single item released in the U.S. of late but we’re getting most of them, and what’s even better is you can pick up all the recent releases in local stores.
Zing has had both new waves of Vintage Collection figures – the Leia Yavin wave showed up last week at the same time as it was hitting Target shelves in the U.S. Zing have had Jabba’s Palace and the Skiff (still available). And both of the new X-Wings (albeit expensive, but only 15% more than the U.S price).
Myer has the first new wave of Vintage Collection figures and surprisingly they have just put out the Cave of Evil 3 pack, which isn’t even out in the U.S. yet.
Big-W had wave 2 of the Skywalker Saga gold 2 packs before Walmart even started taking pre-orders online last week.
I don’t collect the Black Series but I’ve seen plenty of the Mandalorian wave around at our big box stores, and $30 at K-Mart is a great price. Zing has Jedi Luke, and the first edition versions too.
At this point in time I’m a happy collector for a change. I‘ll enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Yeah, it seems there's a tad more seeping in now.

I've been to that Zing joint on & off during my shopping trips over the last wehenever, & they at least have a few decent things if you think their prices are fair. What about all the previous Vintage Collection waves though, that's the real kicker. I saw those gold figure sets at Big W, not my thing.

I sold 90% of my 'hoard' over the last few years, & the one that hurt the most was my Hot Toys Bespin Luke. Bottom line, other life focuses & I needed the cash. Wish I kept my BMF, big AT-AT etc, oh well.

I've still got my Tamashii C-3PO, my VC Luke's Landspeeder, & some loose OT/PT figures as well. Also still have all my EP1 figures that Hasbro released for TVC & a couple vehicles like the big N1 starfighter, & the old Flashspeeder from the EP1 line.

I've got an itch to get back a few of the things I used to have, so I'll have to reach out to some forum members for an assist there possibly.

No rush.

 

[GNT]

Kmart has the 2nd wave of new Black Series in, just saw Luke Yavin and the ROS Clone (not what sure what his called)

 

[Jedipearse]

Target Australia has the exclusive ROS C3P0/Babu Frik 6 inch figure (only available online, though)

 

[Mike_S]

ZING, Kmart and Myer seem to be the go to places for SW at the moment. Target are too pricey for TBS6 - $39
Big W only have Wave #1

 

[GNT]

$40 for a normal figure just isn't worth it, I still order in bulk from BBTS. At least it works out having multiple waves etc shipped in one go every 90 days or so.