Here’s to the end of another long week in a year that’s felt like nothing BUT a long week. At least we can celebrate with a FIGURE FRIDAY!
One of my hands down, all time favorite video games is Journey.
Like most things I get into I discovered it incredibly late since the game was produced for the PS3 (a system I never owned) and I played it on PS4 (a system that was old by the time I got it). Playing the game was an incredibly moving experience which was new for me since I had largely sat out the previous console generation when games had started to evolve into legitimate works of art. Journey was a game that I played in one sitting and afterwards I wanted to purchase a much tie-in merchandise as I could.
What that amounted to was an art book that was out of print the last time I checked and the game’s soundtrack which I purchased digitally and on a neat-o vinyl picture disc. There just wasn’t a lot of merch out there for a game that came out in 2012.
Like any good toy collector, I get my weekly promotional emails from a couple of the larger online toy retailers and I was surprised to see The Traveler character hidden in a collage of Avengers figures and Transformers statues. Check it out:
The next character to join the POP UP PARADE series is The Traveler from the indie adventure game, Journey. The Traveler has been recreated down to the iconic patternwork of the scart and robes as they walk through the desert.
POP UP PARADE is a new series of figures that are easy to collect with affordable prices and releases planned just four months after preorders begin! Each figure typically stands around 17-18cm in height and the series features a vast selection of characters from popular anime and game series, with many more to be added soon!
It should go without saying that I mashed that preorder button like there was no tomorrow and set to clearing off some shelf space for this fantastic piece.
Star Wars: The Vintage Collection The Mandalorian
Here’s your occasional reminder that shopping local is always better and that you should support your Local Comic Shop whenever possible. Several times over the last couple of years I’ve been able to cancel preorders and save on ridiculous shipping costs by purchasing through my local shop. I’ve also had a few preorders get canceled on me or delayed indefinitely.
That’s what happened with the Star Wars: The Vintage Collection: The Mandalorian. I can’t for the life of me remember when I placed a preorder for this figure but what I DO know is that every time I checked the estimated shipping date it kept getting pushed out by another month.
The 3.75-inch Vintage Collection figures are almost impossible to find at retail over the last few years since Hasbro’s focus has shifted to the 6-inch scale Black Series figures. Like me, there’s still a large subset of collectors that are ride-or-die for the Star Wars figures there are the same size as the ones that were produced when we were kids. Toss in the fact the the boxes mimic the design aesthetic of the classic Kenner figures and…that’s a guaranteed sale.
When you have a figure that’s as popular as The Mandalorian it’s increasingly rare that you’ll find one of these warming the pegs at your local Target or Walmart. Also, factor in that there’s STILL a pandemic and I spend most of my time at home, going to a store to figure hunt is pretty far down on my list at the moment. It was a major relief that my LCS got some of these figures in and I was able to snag one AND cancel my perpetual preorder all in one fell swoop!
Local shops are where it’s at! I’ve had nothing but good experiences when ordering through the place I go through and if your local shop deals in collectibles, chances are they won’t have a problem ordering something for you…just as long as you don’t try and haggle on the price and if you say “Amazon is cheaper” they are legally able to vault over their counter and drop kick you out of their store.
