In the 3 walmarts that I have found wave 7 in, only one had Wild Bill, Spirit, and Duke left.
One walmart only had 2 vipers left and the Walmart I hit last night only had 2 vipers and a hiss driver left. I thought this was pretty odd considering the way people like to troop build.
I got my 5 vipers (one to keep unopened and 4 to open) and 2 Hiss drivers for the same reason. So anyone have any ideas as to why troop builders are peg warming so to speak?

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Man, you've actually seen new figures near you??

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Yeah, seriously, my Target still has the perpetual three Buzzers and nothing else. How is everyone else like five waves ahead of us?

Meanwhile, as to the question at hand, I think a lot of people are unhappy with the Vipers and have decided not to army build them (especially with so many versions of the v1 mold available, including the Viper Pit not that long ago).

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Well considering I live in an area where you are either a Jock or a Cowboy/redneck theres no real demand for toys, so I usually dont have much of a problem finding new figures. I did however have a problem finding wave 6, only saw one case at one walmart and that was a month or more after I had already gotten them from BBTS.

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The only thing I've been able to find since February are Hawk/Scarlet comic packs and Duke/CC comic packs. It's more than a little frustrating since I never got Torpedo when I was a kid, and it's looking like I've missed him again this time around.




Carver

Because Hasbro is short shipping them to keep demand up and keep Ebayers buying them to put up online. Ebayers buy sets to put up and Hasbro is actually shipping the troop builders 2 to a pack in most cases.When a store actually gets more than 1 case, you end up with 2 of the single pack figures (Spirit, Duke, Wild Billd, etc.) and 4 of the troops. It adds up more and more from there.

From what I gather, initial shipments sell out due to us buying and scalpers. Once the initial ones sell, any more that comes in sell like normal items will sell.

Odd numbers of certain figures at different stores usually is due to people finding certain ones at 1 store then finding the rest at another. What ever is left over is what we end up finding. Plus sometimes there's not enough room to put all the figures out so store will only put half the case out then restock later after there's room so you end up seeing the rest of the case.

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I'm done army building. I've done it for three different lines, multiple times, multiple sculpts and it adds nothing. For dios you need two of any troop. Two to guard a door, or one to guard and one to do something. Anything else is wasteful in my opinion. I wound up with three CGs and I think that's one too many.

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That's all I've ever bothered to do is 2. I get my 1 to leave in the pack and then I get the 2 extra to open. Sometimes I end up with more than 2 due to whatever reason, but not usually. Even then those extras end up in the custom pile. I might get extra HISS drivers though just incase I decide to get more than 2 HISS tanks.

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I've no idea why toop builders are being left behind. If I were to build a toop, what would I do with it since I don't know what one is?

I'll still army build if the figure's worth it. I've got about 20-odd of the Trooper mold in various paintjobs, 4 total of the CGs, and I expect I'll get a couple more HISSers than the 1 I got a couple days ago.

But the Viper is just so totally fubared it's not worth building at $7 a pop. With the jacked-up hands, the loose-fitting vest, the too-long proportions of both the torso and calves, the goggles that fall off and the lack of a bare head underneath to put them on anyway, and that MFing horrid GD elbow flange that does NOT ONE SINGLE SOLITARY DAMNED THING BUT LOOK LIKE STEAMING ASS that's set on the friggin' side of the right arm; this fig needs to be redone from scratch. Too bad Hasbro will never do it again unless there happens to be a 50A line in 2032.

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Well, this is the 25th Anniversary, so it's Tom the Viper, Bob the Hiss Driver, ....

Oh, that's the GIJCC answer according to Brian Savage.

I also think it's probably just the number of army builders already on the market. I've never been a *big* army builder (maybe 10 or so of a fig), but I know that I'm running out of space to keep doing that.

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I think part of it is due to to Hasbro putting out too much stuff. If you just collect Joes it's not too bad although it does seem like waves hit too fast some times. If you are into more than just Joes then your collecting budget is really hurting with all the Transformers, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and everything else Hasbro is putting out.

Part of it might have to do with collectors having to chose between food and gas or army building. I love the figures but if it comes down to it I'm going pick food since I really love food.

Could also have to do with waves coming too fast. If you have a limited hobby budget then it can be a hard choice of do I get a few more troopers or do I hold on to my money for now in case the new wave comes in and I have to buy them before they can get gone and you have to pay e-Bay prices for it.

With places like Toys-R-Us getting troop builder waves it might also be a case of people holding off to see if Toys-R-Us will get a new army builder pack so you don't have to run to 4 or 5 stores just for a squad of Vipers.

It well be five years after the fact. Then one day you will find a website with 100's of troop builders on it Then everyone will be on e-bay buyin toys that cost $7 for $25.

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I have been able to easily get my 8 of each builder (1 MOC & 7 to dispaly loose). Only other troop builder's I've seen sitting was 2 Cobra Troopers at TRU.

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I think it's the economy, in the past years, it was easy to army build, buy a 2-pack for $5, one to army build, one to customize(at least for most of us here), then after that, the prices went up a tad, but it was still pretty cheap, and the multipacks were only $10-20 too(comic and 6-packs). Now, we have $7 single packed figures, $10 two pack figures and $25 5-pack figures.

To me, it's the price of things going up, like someone said above, I like food more too, so I'm going to cut the thing I really don't need, and that's a $7 army man. I'm happy with one or two.

I have a hard enough time affording my custom fodder now-a-days, not to mention with it being a little over $50 to fill up my little car for the week, somethings gotta give

I'm pretty sure, I'm not the only one like that, and I'm pretty sure that's pretty much the reason, but I could be wrong.

I'm part of the Leave no Viper behind movement!

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