1/6 Hot Toys - MMS647 - Episode II: Attack of The Clones - Shiny Clone Trooper

Of all the figures they’ve overproduced lately, the shiny clone seems like the dumbest choice for attempting to course-correct by underproducing.

HT relies on these easy, armoured, sculpt-less, barely painted, zero tailoring, 90% reuse figures to fund the unique tooling.
I guess, in creating all this scarcity and fomo, they’ll ensure everyone is guaranteed to PO the next trooper.

Chopper Face said:

I guess, in creating all this scarcity and fomo, they’ll ensure everyone is guaranteed to PO the next trooper.

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Was thinking this too. Assuming the 212th is the next army builder, those are going to have record day one pre-orders.

I got one for now so I am happy. If they do hit stock and become more reasonable in price, then perhaps I'll do a small squad build. If not, no big deal.

MyenShi said:

Maybe you can put a picture of the Clone Trooper in the box and throw it on a shelf for a neat display.

And named Clones and battalion colors are really cool, but there's also something undeniably special about the base all white Clone Trooper. It's just classic.

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@MyenShi yeah that would be cool, I have never done boxes with figs before. I am suffering from the same problem as some here of packing in an area with too many figures. I definitely need more shelves!

Here's the box in all its glory--just really well done on the retro-aspect of it. Dang this "reg" is just too cool.

MyenShi said:

You both reminded me of the guy I saw in some comments section who was acting smarter than everyone because he was going to wait for these to go on sale in a year.

I wonder how he’s doing.

I have nothing but sympathy for anyone that genuinely tried and missed out but if you choose to bury your head in the sand then that’s on you.

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After some thought, I will say this:

I expect some stuff to be pretty limited. Or sorta limited. Cobb Vanth. He strikes me as a guy who might have pretty low numbers. If he waitlisted would not be surprised.

BoBF Boba: been waitlisted. Theres probably less demand for him given the unpopularity of the show. 1/4 is WL too.

Kuill with blurrg and Mando with blurrg: would not be surprised if those numbers are pretty limited.

Lifesize Grogu: evidently they made a ton of those figures.

All the Inquisitors from Kenobi i bet will have pretty small numbers. They might WL anytime.

They made 200,000 plus a million more 501sts. The galaxy teems with the 501st's finest. Made a zillion Captain Rexes.

But a BASIC CLONE??!!!!! A BASIC CLONE, that could go anywhere and spans the entire breadth of the Clone Wars, they make fifty of those. Its truly a headscratcher. so yes, missing him is on us but this is a pretty new situation.

This situation is why I have every one of TBB preordered. My trust is broken, HT has started playing games with us.

I want my regs, to quote Tom Petty...... "The waiting is the hardest part."

Ramatuelle said:

This situation is why I have every one of TBB preordered. My trust is broken, HT has started playing games with us.

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Certainly understandable why you’d feel that way. But don’t think it’s a game per se so I wouldn’t worry in that regard; just business is all. Perfect storm of bad decisions and conditions came together to make this happen.

It’s also not just on Hot Toys. They produce figures based on expected demand but also on what’s ordered. And it seems like this was initially under ordered by distributors, retailers, and individuals (especially Sideshow) so it was under produced as a result.

It’s only really an issue because it’s an army builder. But they can’t be expected to make an abundance of units after sitting on so many trooper figures even if this would be more popular than most.

More preorders could’ve meant more units produced, but I expect a lot of people were taking the wait and see approach. Safe in the memory that even the 501st stuck around for about a year. No one could’ve predicted an early sell out at the time. Although I did have a feeling availability would be more limited so I urged people to order while they could.

It all also does play into shrinking down production numbers and trying to get people to preorder and commit ahead of time to better get a sense of the market. And it has worked to some degree.

Things will even out over time. It always tends to be cyclical in a way.

Still waiting for mine.

"Final orders before Geonosis"

I think I need another one- I am a big fan of the first helmet, where they were the "good guys."

Ramatuelle said:

[...]

They made 200,000 plus a million more 501sts. The galaxy teems with the 501st's finest. Made a zillion Captain Rexes.

But a BASIC CLONE??!!!!! A BASIC CLONE, that could go anywhere and spans the entire breadth of the Clone Wars, they make fifty of those. Its truly a headscratcher. so yes, missing him is on us but this is a pretty new situation.

[...]

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Potatos, that setup is a thing of beauty. Perfect.

I tried one with the helmet off and the Jango sculpt. I could imagine them checking gear and weapons before they left for Geonosis. I know he's uber plain but if you can get your hands on one, please try.

There's that Sideshow flexed foot again, I want HT to include those SO BAD. I think this pic is even better.

Ramatuelle said:

There's that Sideshow flexed foot again, I want HT to include those SO BAD. I think this pic is even better.

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It's actually from the Kotobukiya Clone pvc fig. His pose is so cool and he is almost precisely to scale with HT figures. I do wish we had toe-flexion on a lot of figures.

He is super cool!! Now I want one lol

i don’t think they intentionally made this specific figure limited, i think it just happens to be the first to release in this “new norm” of limited figures.

jesse went up a while ago, and will probably be in stock for a year. this clone went up more recently during the limited stock / waitlist scares, but they were able to crank it out faster because of how simple it is.

I think this potential cash cow army builder of a clone is proof that all these recent waitlist / low stock warnings arent bluffs. anakin and padme, kenobi vader, I really think the production numbers are going to be down for a while on figures that went up for preorder after a certain date.

would it have been smart to make an exception for a clone like this? of course. but I do think this is a bigger sign of things to come, rather than them just limiting this guy specifically.

a lot of people were expecting tons of these to pop up at release and thought that sideshow was just creating fomo… but if theyre not pulling that for this guy, then you can be damn sure they arent pulling that with watilisted morbius and grand inquisitor etc.

freeze320 said:

i don’t think they intentionally made this specific figure limited, i think it just happens to be the first to release in this “new norm” of limited figures.

jesse went up a while ago, and will probably be in stock for a year. this clone went up more recently during the limited stock / waitlist scares, but they were able to crank it out faster because of how simple it is.

I think this potential cash cow army builder of a clone is proof that all these recent waitlist / low stock warnings arent bluffs. anakin and padme, kenobi vader, I really think the production numbers are going to be down for a while on figures that went up for preorder after a certain date.

would it have been smart to make an exception for a clone like this? of course. but I do think this is a bigger sign of things to come, rather than them just limiting this guy specifically.

a lot of people were expecting tons of these to pop up at release and thought that sideshow was just creating fomo… but if theyre not pulling that for this guy, then you can be damn sure they arent pulling that with watilisted morbius and grand inquisitor etc.

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Yep, exactly. This figure is a victim of a series of unfortunate events more than anything else.

Wouldn’t have happened this way if they just hadn’t made such a ridiculous amount of figures that retailers are currently stuck with. Which includes far too many niche trooper variants.

Ramatuelle said:

He is super cool!! Now I want one lol

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So this was actually the first toy that my girlfriend (now wife of 14 years) bought for me long ago. I was super into the "rocketeer" type helmet and all my other SW friends hated it and were flaming me for liking it. It comes with a reddish/brown base with foot pegs, but he looks so good in the shelf until I can get my second trooper from Popcultcha.

potatoes212 said:

So this was actually the first toy that my girlfriend (now wife of 14 years) bought for me long ago.

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Awesome! Collectibles are always even better with a great story/memory attached.

potatoes212 said:

I was super into the "rocketeer" type helmet and all my other SW friends hated it and were flaming me for liking it.

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Well we do know that SS hasn’t shipped a “second batch” and non of their affiliates have shipped this yet, correct? That gives us a little hope that there may be a chance, right? If all else fails, I’m willing to pay the iron price for it. My bro and I were trying to take a quick breather from the 2022 onslaught and time just ran out. Even did an interview at sdcc telling SS how many thousands of dollars we had in our order queue, but alas, time wasn’t on our sides. Managed to get most of what we wanted tho feverishly placing orders everywhere as a stop gap.
This looks even better with envious eyes!