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Toy Maniac: Open the Exclusive Figure?

Several weeks ago I attended a baseball game and was handed a limited edition bobble head figurine as I entered the gate. Everyone in attendance was guaranteed a bobble head that night and the attendance was well over 45,000. Many people collect bobble heads and sell them on eBay to other collectors. Other people open them up and display them. Bobble heads do not make great toys for children. They are retro throwbacks to a simpler era and are more bar paraphernalia than anything else. Little Timmy can’t really put his baseball bobble head in a toy truck and have him deliver sand to his sand box. He could, but it would be pretty lame (even to a little kid). So, outside of the bar owners and the baseball enthusiasts, would you open one? Would you open it, put it with three other identical ones in a backpack and then unknowingly throw away his bat? I know that I am preaching to the choir here but that is exactly what I saw on bobble head night.

Immediately I was reminded of the special edition release of Star Wars Return of the Jedi.  If you went to the first screening that day they were supposed to hand out an exclusive figure (Jedi Luke Skywalker, see picture) to the first thirty people in attendance. I got to the theater early that day and made sure I was close to the front of the line to buy my ticket and get a figure. When I picked up my ticket, I received no figure. Figuring there were none in my rural town I went to the restroom, got my popcorn and sat down. Then, right in front of me were these young kids opening the exclusive figure. I asked where they got them and they told me they were handed them as they went into the theater. Extremely upset and mad I thought about asking the manager if there were any more. Then this guy approached the kids and asked them if they would sell him their figures for $40 a piece. It took all of ten minutes and the price was already set. 

What I want to ask you Maniacs is, are other people naïve to their value? Are we crazy for not opening these exclusive figures? Does the value increase because people open theirs and treat them like common toys? Has that whole generation of mothers who threw away the baseball cards and toys really doomed us to a life of excitement contained behind cardboard and clear plastic?  

I struggle with this a lot and there are times when I do want to open these figures up and set them out. Perhaps, I might even give one to my nephew. Then I read that LEGO handed out a limited edition Han Solo and Indiana Jones Lego 2-Pack at the International Toy Fair which are now selling for $500 online. I just shake my head in disbelief and wonder who is paying that much for a few ounces of plastic?

DC Direct is releasing a Batman and a Joker (see picture) figure to commemorate their 10^th anniversary. Packaged and sold separately in a clamshell book package, these figures will retail for $20.00 at the SDCC. They will be available in limited quantities and will be the figures to pick up at the SDCC if The Dark Knight is as great as it looks. They will be sold at the Graphitti Designs booth (#2315) which is next to the DC Comics area. The Batman figure is pretty standard, which is why I didn’t include a picture. The Joker figure stands out with his straight jacket and bare white feet; making him reminiscent of the Joker as seen in Batman Dead End.  

Would I open the Joker? No. Besides looking incredibly cool and creepy, the Joker in a straight jacket does not do much. He can look just as cool in his plastic clamshell box.

The Star Wars saga characters have almost been picked clean by the good people at Hasbro and there are not many aliens or side characters left. Zev Senesca (Rogue Two), the heroic rebel pilot who found a stranded Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, finally has been given the action figure treatment. The likeness of Christopher Malcolm is well done considering the sculptors were going off of old video/ DVD footage to get him right. The artist rendering of Zev on the package is practically iconic. Denis Lawson (Wedge Antilles) never had such a rendering. Zev’s character profile is probably the saddest of all Star Wars action figures. Under characteristics it simply states that he was killed during the battle of Hoth, making the Zev action figure a bit of a downer and really not a great figure for a kid to pick up. “Which one do you want Billy, another Stormtrooper or Zev the dead rebel pilot?” For this collector Zev will receive his own snow speeder and a place of honor in the collection. He’ll go right next to Wuher (the bartender) from the Mos Eisley cantina.

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