That's the gangrene variant you got there Dusty.

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Ha.....yeah he is starting the zombification process.

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I'll say one thing about the GI Joe brand, everyday at SDCC, the 'Danger at the Docks' set was the first one to sell-out every morning at the Entertainment Earth booth. And given the choice between buying at the Hasbro booth vs EE, EE was the better booth. Hasbro is simply making it too hard to buy their merchandise at the show. I talked to more than a few folks who were camping out spots outside the con as early as 3AM to get tickets to purchase the Hasbro exclusives. Add this to the fact that Hasbro has been slowly raising the prices on their SDCC exclusives and I'm not sure why people even go through the hassle. At some point, it just makes sense to enjoy the show and buy from other vendors who'll be much more grateful for your business. I've personally never had any issues with Hasbro booth personnel, but I have seen a few workers being less than friendly to con-goers over the years. One thing I noticed this year is the increasing use of exclusives at many booths, compared to 5 years ago, con exclusives are everywhere. And it's starting to suck the fun out of the show. It's almost like people are buying for artificial scarcity and flipping them on eBay. Everytime I'm in-line to chat up a guy, almost on queue, all they ever talk about is how much the item is worth and when pressed further, it is of no personal interest to them.

Just to share my experience from the week, I couldn't get anything on Preview Night. It was utter chaos, as soon as the doors flew open, Mattel, Lego, EE, and Hasbro already had their lines capped. Lots of exhibiters and the like were already in line, so regular folks missed out. I was in the process of checking-out when TRU.com ran out of the Joe set Thurs morning and by the time I drove to convention center, the days stock of the Joe set sold-out. By Friday, I pretty much gave up, since I was missing out on autograph opportunities (because once again, popular authors and artists also need tickets for their signings) and had nothing to show for my troubles. By Sat, my luck turned around, as a booth worker recognized from the previous days and told me to get in line and they'd sell me a set. So it all worked out in the end, but it ride getting there was awfully bumpy

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Here's the thing about most of these exclusives. We walked the convention floor a lot every day of the show. On Sunday I got right in line at the Tamashii Nations Bluefin Distribution booth with only a couple people in front of me (they had a line along the back wall all weekend) and got the SH Figuarts Armored Black Ranger that everyone was lining up for all weekend. Mattel didn't have more than 20 or 30 people in line by the afternoon Saturday and Sunday. Hasbro opened their line to everyone Saturday afternoon, no line ticket needed, and had all of their exclusives still available on mid-day Sunday, including the SWBlack Jabba set and the Infinity Gauntlet set (both sold out later). If I had wanted them I could have gotten in line and had both in hand in probably 30 minutes (I didn't because we had other things we wanted to do). My point is that those people who were camping out for hours to get line tickets then standing in line for hours at the booth could have been doing other things in that time and still been able to get their toys.

And most of these items will be available in their respective online stores after the show. So show exclusives, while still hard to get, aren't as exclusive as they used to be. With a little patience and possibly a few extra dollars you can get whatever you want.

I will say that the companies offering preorder pickup at the show (Action Figure Express, Mattel) were the easiest booths to get in and out of all weekend. I walked right up to AFX's booth and got my preorder and another item that Amanda decided she wanted with no issues at all. The Mattel pick up room is in the Marriott hotel next door, and while they had issues (not having all their Treasure Chest Imps) their pick up process was about as smooth as you could ask for. Hasbro could learn a thing or two from their competitor and make their customer experience a lot more pleasant.

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When are the SDCC exclusives suppose to start hitting HTS?

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The Joe exclusive has already sold out via TRUs site. Haven't heard anything on when the other Hasbro items will hit HTS, but I imagine it'll be soon.

I don't think the Danger At The Docks set will hit HTS since it's an SDCC exclusive from TRU and not from Hasbro.

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I need that Dinobot set, or to buy the cardboard base from someone. I really don't care about the figures. I hope they put out word when they will put up the exclusives on HTS. Matty's is Tuesday with an early access on Monday.

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Is it just am assumption that they WILL hit HTS, or was it stated somewhere that they would?

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Well right now they only Joe stuff on HTS is sold out. TRU still has the SDCC set up to mock us.

The Danger at the Docks set will not be hitting HTS.

What made you change your tune?

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I never said it would. The other Hasbro exclusives will be up there sooner than later, but Danger was TRU and they sold out last week.

how much was the danger set BTW?

The SDCC set from the TRU website was 29.99 and ended up being just under $40 with shipping for me.

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