The Toys Are Back In Town

I haven't done a toy post in a while. Mostly because nothing has been on clearance or at Ross that I wanted. There was a brief golden age where I found something I wanted pretty much every time I went to the store, but those days are gone, and I've grown loathe to even go to the store, because it's just a waste of my time.

The other day, however, I was at Walmart for other things, and I found that they had created a whole new aisle filled with clearance toys. They had several things that I would like on clearance, but mostly, they were barely marked down. A figure that was usually $12 was now selling for the rock bottom price of $9. One figure that I'm pretty sure retailed at $22.95 was now selling for the bargain basement price of $22.00.

They did have one thing I was willing to pay for, however. I did buy this one:

I'm pretty sure they wanted $14.99 for these at regular retail price, so it was half off. It's not bad, but it's not really a legit Star Wars vehicle.

Kenner made these things up back in 1979 or so. 

They had basically used up everything that was actually in the film, but the demand for the toys was so high, that they wanted to keep the money train chugging, so they invented some stuff of their own.

It always sat in that strange realm of Star Wars toys that weren't actually from Star Wars, until recently, the Mandalorian included it in an episode, and canonized it. The Mandalorian had a thing for doing that. They did the same thing for Constable Zuvio earlier in the season. He was a figure from The Force Awakens whose scene was cut from the movie, but he was an early release, so the toy came out before the movie did.

Tons of people bought the figure without even knowing who it was, then later regretted it when it was, in fact, no one. Those figures became massive peg warmers, and inspired my favorite Toy Galaxy video of all time.

I've gotten a little off track here. We're talking the Imperial Troop Transport that I got. It's a tiny scale, the figures are one inch tall, so things can only be so detailed. The figures in particular tend to be low on detail.

They're supposed to look like Stormtroopers, but they look more like klansmen wearing sunglasses or something.

I suspect that they might look better if I got a magnifying glass and painted in some detail, maybe did a black wash on them as well. I'll probably do that someday. They'll look better in pictures if I do that...although they're so small that I can't get a decent focus on any of the pictures I'm taking.

It only comes with two figures, but there are six slotson the sides to fill. I have no idea how you're supposed to deal with that. I guess buy more transports and use the figures from them? One of the figures comes with a gun in his hand and the other doesn't, so I assume he's supposed to be the driver I guess.

The top opens on the front to give you access to the driver's seat, and in the back to give you access to the troop compartment.

And the little side doors open for the troops to run out. 

Seems like the back ought to open as well, but it doesn't want to, so I guess not.

All in all, it's fine. I like having some 1/72 scale stormtroopers, and the ship will look good in the 1/72 Ankletown Station someday. If they stick around and get marked down even further, I may even buy a few more of them, but not unless they're cheaper. They're not worth having multiples if they're not super cheap.