So you’ve decided to start collecting one of the coolest Star Wars action figure lines produced by Kenner or Hasbro. Great! Welcome to the community! Let’s talk about how you can make the most of your collector experience by ensuring that you can get your hands on almost all of the figures you want.
So where are you going to go to pick up some of the latest wave of figures? The toy aisle at Walmart, right?
Wrong.
Buying your figures in-store.
One idea that we need to do away with right off the bat is the idea that the best way to get the figures you want is to go hunting store-to-store. If you grew up in the 90s, and early 2000s, during the Power of the Force era and the subsequent Prequels release era, you doubtless have memories of going to your local Walmart, K-Mart, or Ames and picking out all the figures you want and having most of the releases be freely in stock for weeks or months at a time.
This era is gone.
Let me say it one more time for the veteran collectors in the back who can’t let this idea go.
This era is gone.
Star Wars toys have gone from being marketed exclusively towards children to being marketed more toward adult and young adult collectors. Lines like The Black Series stopped being just for kids a long time ago; the amount of people with disposable income looking to get their hands on all of these figures is much higher than it used to be.
Most of the time, stores like Walmart and Target will only get in a few cases of each release. A case is (usually) made up of eight different figures. Therefore, a major retail store will have three or four instances of a figure at most. Considering the sheer volume of people that shop at those stores, it should be no surprise at all that you probably won’t be able to get everything you want at a traditional brick-and-mortar.
Yes, that feeling is great when you stumble on a figure you want in the wild. Yes, it’s disheartening when you see someone post a picture of an entire wave they picked up at Target. Yes, we all wish we could just run to the store and get what we want. But those aren’t the times we live in any more.
So where do I buy from then?
Online! There are multiple retail websites (ones that are often referred to as ‘fan channels’) that make getting the action figures you want as easy as clicking a mouse. These different sites all have their own unique qualities, as well as their upsides and downsides, and I’m going to detail all of those below. But the biggest reason to use fan channels is simple ease. Pick what you want and have it delivered right to your door!
So let’s break down the different fan channels and learn the differences between them.
Let’s buy right from the source! Directly from Hasbro themselves. Prices are not marked up, but they never get discounted either. I haven’t ordered enough from them to get a good read on their shipping policy and their rates aren’t listed on their website are available right here. At the time I’m writing this, they have a lot of their Black Series items listed with “free shipping on this item”. As these items come right from Hasbro, they’ll come in good condition and they’ll ship quicker than any other site. The downside is that their stock seems to be fairly limited and figures sell out rather quickly.
These guys are a pretty old and well respected company who have been in the collecting game since the mid 90s. They don’t mark up the cost of their figures. Shipping scales depending on how much money you put into an order, the more you buy the higher shipping will be. But, they do often have some kind of shipping deal going on.
Currently, it’s spend $49 get free shipping. The last time I placed an order from them, it was spend $79 get free shipping. I’ve never had an issue with them, whether it’s an in-stock order or a pre-order.
Often abbreviated as BBTS, they are another good site to use to get your figures. The upside? $4 shipping on any order you place. Whether you buy a single stormtrooper or a platoon of 38 stormtroopers, shipping will be the same. The downside? You’re going to pay a couple bucks more per figure with them than any other retailer.
Even back when most Black Series figures sold for $20, BBTS had a $25 price tag. Now that most basic figures retail for $23, BBTS has kept their normal price of $25, which make it not quite as bad I suppose. They do offer a service called “Pile of Loot”. This allows you to store up purchases for up to 90 days and have them all shipped at once. Considering that any shipment from them is $4, it’s a pretty great feature if you are fine with waiting for your stuff. Personally, I’ve never had an issue with these guys, but I’ve only ordered a couple things from them.
These guys are company that you don’t walk away from without really strong feelings. They have some fantastic upsides, but also some high risks. Biggest upsides are shipping and sales tax. Shipping is $6 for orders under $99 and free shipping for anything above. And sales tax? They don’t charge any, which really can make a difference when you have a large order. The downsides I mentioned? They seem to get their product in much later than all the other fan channels. Months later.
And if you buy in bulk, there’s a risk that they’ll take your placed order of eight clone troopers and only ship you two of them. This will be done without notifying you or consulting with you. You’ll find out when your shipment arrives. Rather than limit initial sales (although I have seen them do this as well), they’ll try to stretch out their supply by cutting down on numbers from orders that have already been placed. My personal recommendation, do not pre-order or troop build from Dorkside, but feel free to buy as much of their in-stock inventory as you want. Your cheapest option by far.
Probably my least favorite. Their website is a little unintuitive, there isn’t a way to see all the Black Series figures without using the search bar. They have $5 flat rate shipping, but prices are inflated much like (or more than) BBTS. Personally, I’ve had a bad experience with their customer service. Recently I was issued a new credit card with a new expiration date, so I went to change any pre-orders I had pending over to the new card.
Zavvi wouldn’t change my payment info when all of the other fan channels made it very simple to do. I ended being forced to cancel a $300 order from Zavvi that I had made back when figures were $20 apiece and that I had a 15% off coupon code applied to. Zavvi’s customer service basically told me “lol that sucks”. 0/10 customer service experience. Do not recommend.
This is another decent source for figures. I’ve only ordered a few things from their Gaming Greats exclusive line, but they’ll have some general release figures, not all of them. Free shipping on orders over $35 though, so if they have a few things you want, it’s not a bad deal at all. Like BBTS, the only way to narrow down their stuff to just The Black Series is by using the search bar.
One of the benefits of buying from EE or Dorkside is that they’ll significantly discount certain figures if those figures aren’t selling well or are unpopular characters. Check them around any major holidays, oftentimes they’ll have special sales running. I know that I’ve gotten to bulk up on some of my Imperial forces at a discount around the holidays!
What if I don’t live in the United States of America?
I’m an American, so obviously my knowledge of the collecting process in other countries is entirely nonexistent. u/DGOJG pointed me toward most of these foreign resources. If anyone has any input about these specific retailers, I’ll happily include it in the body of the post. For my part, I’m just going to list them by country and add any relevant info that people in the comments think it’s important to include.
Canada
Info from u/saddhukhan, I have only changed formatting.
‘Canadians get access to much of the US content, and we even occasionally get shipments of figures earlier than the US. I have noticed product arriving early from the Montreal port, as one example. However, for exclusives, it is very challenging. Stores often don’t post preorder links at all or if they do, they post them at random times, sometimes alongside the US release but most of the time in the middle of the night.’
Toysnowman. Good, reliable, gets product early oftentimes, has a points club system.
eCollectibles. Great selection. Access to hard to find exclusives and kick starters. Owner is a collector who is active in the community!
Redshift7. Nothing but good experiences with them but they’re based in western Canada.
Gamestop. Formerly EB Games. Gets preorders for exclusives but often posts them at arbitrary times. Gets Gaming Greats exclusives generally, as well as Walgreens exclusives and in some cases Hasbro Pulse exclusives, but the latter case is new and not necessarily a guarantee.
Amazon. (CA) Sometimes gets preorders for exclusives but uses code names and posts arbitrarily. Very frustrating preorder experience.
Walmart. (CA) Sometimes gets preorders for exclusives but they’re posted at random times and hard to find. They also cancel them randomly.
Hasbropulse. Also available to Canadians but listed in USD and shipping is quite pricey at $24.99.
Toys R Us Toys R Us gets almost all Target exclusives but they appear on shelves often without a preorder opportunity. Preorders occassionally take place on the site, but more often then not they simply arrive on shelves.
NMC. Formerly Northman Collectibles. Great selection but very strange experiences with them. Customers either have no issues whatsoever, or they end up in a conflict with the owner for a variety of reasons. Seems to get product in stock well, well after everyone else in many cases. People are still waiting on Deluxe Boba from April, for example. Owner’s social media posts are often combative and belittling. Refund requests are often not processed for months if at all. Tread with caution. When they’re good, they’re good. When they’re not good, oh boy you’re in for a wild ride.
Great Britain
StarActionFigures – Kapow Toys – Comics and Cocktails – Forbidden Planet – Props and Replicas
Hasbro Pulse also ships to the UK, I believe.
Australia
Popcultcha – ZiNG – Mr Toys Toystore
Germany
Zavvi – Time 4 Action Toys – Toy-Palace – Comic Cave – Actionfiguren24 – Elive Shop
Southeast Asia
Europe
Sweden
If anyone has any other resources for any specific countries, include them in the comments and I’ll update the post accordingly.
Knowing what’s available.
Now that you know where you can buy from, how do you know what’s going to be available? And when it will be for sale?
The easiest way to keep tabs on what’s coming out soon is right here on r/starwarsblackseries. It tends to be a fantastic hub of information sprinkled with usually credible rumors. It’s the largest gathering of Black Series fans online, hands down.
When it comes to official announcements, Hasbro Pulse hosts periodic livestreams where a group of their designers show off the latest Black Series figures while angry fans yell at them in the comment section. Yakface is the best source for leaks and rumors. They’ve been a great, reliable source of information in the past.
So what’s the deal with pre-orders?
Pre-orders are simple. Reserve now, and your figure will ship when the retailer gets them in stock. The process is pretty perfect, and while horror stories certainly exist about collectors not getting their orders for months or outright having pre-orders cancelled, this is not the experience for 99.99% of people.
Hasbro Pulse is your best bet for quick pre-orders, since it ships directly from the manufacturer (not from China itself, but from Hasbro’s distribution warehouse). Pre-orders from Hasbro Pulse tend to sell out quickly, and they arrive soonest. Entertainment Earth and BBTS tend to ship pre-orders around the same time. I can’t speak to Zavvi, although I’ve never heard any complaints. Dorkside… well… Dorkside ships pre-orders eventually. They always seem to be months behind all the other retailers. That’s not just my experience; they’ve earned that reputation. Although some have pointed out that this has only been since the Covid supply chain issues began, currently this issue exists.
Personally, like I mentioned before, I’ve had problems with Dorkside cutting down on my pre-orders the past. Only when I buy in bulk though. Cutting an order down from eight figures to two.
What are exclusives and why you should hate them.
Exclusive figures are ones that are only available through a single retailer. Usually exclusives go through Walmart, Target, Gamestop, Walgreens (weirdly), and occasionally some fan channels and Hasbro Pulse.
Gamestop exclusives are usually easy to get. They have their own “Gaming Greats” line that features characters from popular video games. A lot of these tend to be repaints and repacks that are slightly different than the original release, but some of these are solid new figures. I’ve never heard of anyone having a hard time getting these, and Gamestop’s website usually has pre-orders available for quite a while before selling out.
Walgreens exclusives tend to be a little harder to track down because their inventory isn’t very high and there aren’t nearly as many Walgreens stores as there are Walmarts and Targets. I’ve wanted two figures that were Walgreens exclusive. General Veers and the Clone Lt. Veers I found in-store once they rolled out and the Clone Lt. I was able to order online as soon as they went live. Your results may vary.
Walmart and Target is where things get sticky. These two stores care about one thing: selling as many items as they can. Their websites sell out preorders literally within minutes. Scalpers (we’ll talk about them later) swarm all over these releases and the more devious use multiple accounts to buy as many pre-orders as possible. For a while, Walmart and Target didn’t limit pre-orders very strongly per transaction, and that certainly didn’t help with matters. Recently, Target started limiting pre-orders to one per order which slows things down a little. I’ve been able to get a few Target exclusives, but I’ve never gotten any from Walmart.
Complicating matters further, Hasbro tends to release some incredibly sought after figures through Walmart. Supply is incredibly limited and between zealous collectors and scalpers, you probably aren’t going to get a Walmart exclusive figure at retail.
This is a problem in the hobby that’s almost universally acknowledged by all of us. Hasbro has never responded to any criticism (and there’s a lot of it) to this practice.
What are scalpers and why are they bad?
Scalpers are people who buy up new releases and resell them on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace. They view Black Series figures as an investment or a way to make a quick buck. Obviously, this practice dries up the supply for all of us who buy Black Series purely for the sake of collecting. Lots of people theorize that Walmart/Target employees are either in on it or are in fact the ones perpetrating it. They’ll hide the cases of figures without giving them a chance to hit the shelves, purchase them themselves, and throw them on eBay. This is especially problematic when it comes to retail exclusives.
The one benefit to them is that you can buy from them. The median price for out-of-print figures on eBay runs from $30-$40 usually. More sought after ones (#59 Rex comes to mind.) can go for upwards of $100 and less popular characters (Rey and Finn) can be had for as little as $10. We all hate paying double the retail price for a figure, but sometimes you just have to do it.
They’re an evil that we just have to put up with.
So what are army builders and should I hate them too?
Army builders (also called troop builders) are collectors who buy multiple iterations of the same figure to display them of in a squad or a platoon. Although troop building is much more common in less expensive lines like The Vintage Collection and other 3.75″ lines, some collectors do it with The Black Series as well, although the price point of The Black Series makes TBS troop building rather rare. Troop builders tend to focus on soldier figures like clones and stormtroopers.
Some collectors like to demonize troop builders and put them in the same category as scalpers, blaming them for not being able to find clones and stormtroopers at their local stores. Most of those sought after by troop builders are basic figures that are available for months at a time. Troop builders have just as much trouble buying exclusives as regular collectors.
Bottom line, demonizing your fellow collectors is toxic behavior and is bad for the hobby.
Should I open the boxes?
Up to you. If you’re ever planning on selling off your collection or parts of it, keep them in boxes. If you want to display them more dynamically, open them up.
Personally, I’m a box opener.
What if I want figures that are out of production?
For older figures, you only really have a a few choices. eBay is the most obvious, of course. When you’re using it, you just have to remember to be patient and do some preliminary research. eBay has a feature (in either the sidebar on desktop or in the ‘filter’ function on mobile) that lets you see how much an item meeting your search criteria has sold for. Using this will give you an idea as to what the figure has been selling for over the last few days/weeks/months. Use that info to make sure you aren’t overpaying for secondhand purchases. Other than that, sorting by ‘lowest price plus shipping’ will give you the cheapest option currently on the site. Personally, I’m not a fan of bidding on items (I always forget that auctions are ending, or I’m busy when the countdown ends), but you can absolutely get some steals that way if you happen to not have any serious competition. If you’re an out-of-box collector, always look for loose figures first. You should be able to save a few bucks that way.
As far as collectables stores, comic stores, and conventions go…. in my experience you aren’t going to get a good deal. Ever. The upside is that the buying process is “hey, they have this old figure I want in stock!” and then you buy it. The downside is you’re going to pay $10-$20 more than the figure is worth, at least. There’s one collectables store near me that I frequent, and I’ve never once bought a Black Series figure from them. PotF carded figures yes, but those rarely have a high markup anywhere you go. It’s great to support a small, local business -especially one that loves the hobby like we do- but I’ve got my limits. Your call.
Another wildcard option is Craigslist. People selling off parts of, or the entirety of, their collection is not uncommon. Searching for “Star Wars”, you tend to see big piles of loose figures for sale (with or without accessories), but occasionally you’ll find a gold mine where someone is selling off a big batch of boxed figures. I actually met a collector on Craigslist one state over who had an entire basement full of new in box Star Wars toys. Stuff from the early 90s to the most recent Black Series wave. It took us four hours to go through his entire collection. I bought a few things, but we had a blast spending the day taking about collecting. Like any other Craigslist experience, be careful. If you meetup with someone, I recommend doing it in the parking lot of your local police station or somewhere equally safe.
So now that I know all the basics, how do I ensure I get the figures I want?
The easiest way to get pretty much any figure you want is to just learn about what’s coming out when. Use r/starwarsblackseries to stay on top of what’s releasing soon, down to the minute pre-orders are going live for purchase. If there’s a figure you want, either pre-order it or order online when they become in-stock. Forget buying from Walmart or in any brick-and-mortar store. Basic figures (and even some exclusives) tend to be available for pre-order and subsequently in-stock for months at a time. If you miss out on a general release figure, it’s on you. The opportunity is there, don’t hesitate! You’ll never know what will be in stock tomorrow.
TL;DR: Forget Walmart/Target. Buy online in a timely manner and you’ll have no problem getting what you want!