Posted this in the ROTS thread as well, but thought it pertained to the OTC as well. This post is from SSG forum member Jaff, who apparently is a Wal-Mart manager (toy dept?), and has provided a fair amount of Wally World related info over in those forums from what I understand. Anyways, here's what he found out recently, and shared over there:
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Do I have a post for you folks Today!
First off I was wondering why after 4 weeks of ordering that I had not gotten one single case of SW figures. I was seriously annoyed that nothing new has been coming into my store. So I called our buyer and he was stumped, so he sent me to the actual Hasbro rep. I used this phone number gratefully and asked her what has happened with my new stuff. Here's what she said:
The OTC cases are now out in the warehouses, and we are not going to produce any more. Since Hasbro has raised the prices on their cases a new toy mod will be down in December. 58,000 cases have shipped from the orient this week to Wal-Mart stores, and these cases represent the Episode I post OTC wave. The OTC wave is cancelled. You read that last sentance right. I also wanted to know from the horse's mouth if the VOTC line is cancelled next month. She said YES. I asked her what were we going to get new until episode III. She said there is another case (Filterpern) that will ship in December/January, and on 2/1/05 the Episode III preview figures will hit the shelves. She did give me the exact date. She said that the preview figures will be the last case until the release of the Episode III figures were released. She told me when they would be released too.
The release date for the Episode III figs will be 4/2/05!
Start counting the days! This date is final, and I assure you authentic.
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Interesting to see that the "other" OTC case might be cancelled? I assume that is the Han/Chewie/Yoda/various Troopers case. The other cases (prequel and Cantina) seem to be mentioned there. Preview figs on 2/1, ROTS on 4/2. Anyways, thought it was some interesting info. Might be a cheap few months for basic Star Wars collecting, which is good I guess so we can save up for the ROTS bonanza.
