— December 1, 2007
If you have seen the store recently, you may notice some big changes. As soon as Hero Hunt closed, it has been re-opened. Only now, the listings will be pulled from somewhere else. Can you guess where? Well, Ebay, of course! If you can’t beat them, you may as well join them.
As for the changes, the first thing you should notice is that Gentle Giant products are being displayed exclusively on the first page. From the side navigation, you can browse the categories listed there which are action figures, comics, Harry Potter collectibles, Lord of the Rings collectibles and science fiction collectibles. You can also search these results from this web site from the search bar located at the top.
I hope that you will still find the site valuable, even though you are no longer buying directly from me. On the plus side, buying from eBay, you should be able to save money on newer products. You might also be able to find older items that you missed the first time around to add to your collection.
You may be asking why would I browse eBay from your site instead of eBay directly. Well, that is up to you to decide. I think it offers a lot of value in that it narrows your searches by excluding a lot of other categories and only showing action figures, comics and collectibles. So why not give it a try and see what you think? Let us know as always. Thanks.
— November 29, 2007
To anyone who visits this site:
You may have noticed the lack of updates to this site in about six months. There is a reason. Unfortunately, the store part of Hero Hunt is closing ASAP. Now that most of my inventory is gone and all pre-orders have been taken care of, I have no reason to keep the store open. Thus the decision to shut it down. The site will be sticking around though. This blog will also continue. I will be launching something else here soon, so stay tuned. I hope you will like it.
Why I am Closing my Store
I feel I need to talk about closing my store here, and this is the place to do it. I have been wanting to talk about the ins and outs of the business for a long time, but it never felt appropriate, mainly because I didn’t want to bite the hand that feeds, i.e. Diamond Comics. I think the need for a series of blog posts detailing my different business experiences with Hero Hunt is necessary. Probably more to come on that. For now, I’ll stick to why I am closing the store.
The main reason is simply competition. There is too much competition online right now in the collectibles business. There are many established online stores selling the same items I was, and more are cropping up everyday. And the 600 pound gorilla in the room in this business is eBay. It was not profitable for me to operate an online store, therefore it was not worth my time. So about six months ago, I stopped accepting pre-orders through the site. After that I began trying to unload my inventory through various outlets, mostly through eBay, at less than wholesale prices. More on this also later.
There are other reasons besides competition that it was not profitable for me to run an online store. Competition is just the main reason, I feel. One of these other reasons is Diamond Comics, which is also a huge part of the problem of competition. I have very strong feelings for Diamond Comics, most of which are negative. Diamond deserves a whole post in itself, so that is about all I will say right now.
Other contributing problems were e-commerce, as a whole, and the collectible industry in general. I have more to say on all these subjects. So I don’t think I am finished yet. If you want to know more about this, stay tuned. Thanks.
— November 14, 2007
According to Rebelscum, the 30th Anniversary wave 8 Star Wars figures are now being found at retail stores. They are starting to show up on eBay as well. Here is a list of the figures in this wave. Click on the links to find them on eBay.
Clone Trooper (Training Fatigues)
Padmé Amidala
Jango Fett
Voolvif Monn
Destroyer Droid
McQuarrie Concept Rebel Trooper
Stormtrooper
I think there is some confusion because these were supposed to be in wave 9 according to Hasbro. According to the report, the outside case lists these as wave 8. Here are the pictures. Click on each one for a larger image.
— November 14, 2007
Gentle Giant recently announced that the Royal Guard and Senate Guard mini busts are now shipping to retailers near you. Retail is $50 on each. The edition size is 10,000, but the ratio for Royal Guards to Senate Guards is 2 to 1. Here is the numbers breakdown on each.
- Edition size of 10,000 pieces total
- 6667 - Royal Guard
- 3333 - Senate Guard
They are also starting to show up on eBay. You can find the Royal Guard bust here and the Senate Guard bust here.
— November 5, 2007
Gentle Giant e-mailed the Premiere Guild members to let us know that the raffle for the Clone Commander 5 Pack will start this Thursday, November 8th.
Update - 11/8/07: The premiere guild member raffle for the Clone Commander 5 pack is now live. Click here to enter. You have to be logged in for the link to work. Here are the details.
- Edition size: 500
- Price: $250
- All 5 of the Clone Commanders will have the same edition number
- Raffle will start today (11/8/07) and run for six(6) days, ending on November 13, 2007 at 11:59pm Pacific
- Open to all Premiere Guild Members worldwide
They have also included an important note this time about damage to any of the busts. Here it is the full text taken from the blog post.
Because of the limited quantities of this item and the fact that all pieces are numbered with the same edition number in each pack, our return policy for damage items is slightly different. If one or more of the 5 commanders is damage we will take it on a case by case basis as our damage replacement allocation for each of the commanders is close to being depleted as these items have already been out on the market for a while and we have already replaced some of the individual damaged items. Please be aware that we will not be able to replace the piece with the same edition number.
To recap, Gentle Giant announced their World Tour Exclusives this year would be 5 Clone Commander busts. Part of these would be available at 5 shows held at different times around the world, and part of the them would be raffled off after the shows to the premiere guild members. It was also announced at the end of the year 500 of each bust would be raffled off as a 5 pack to the premiere guild members. Here is the list of where each Clone Commander was available and the edition size of each.
- Commander Gree mini bust – 2500 - Star Wars Celebration IV
- Commander Neyo mini bust – 1500 - Gentle Giant @ Blister Event Tokyo
- Commander Bly mini bust – 2000 - Gentle Giant @ Forbidden Planet Event UK
- Commander Cody mini bust – 3500 - San Diego Comic-Con 2007
- Commander Bacara mini bust – 2000 - Baltimore Comic-Con
Here is an image I created with all five Clone Commander busts. Click on the link for a desktop background sized image at 1024×768.
Watch this post for updates.
— November 2, 2007
Gentle Giant has announced that the Senate Guard statue will only be available online. Premiere Guild members can order a week in advance starting tonight. It will not be available to the Collectors Club members until next Friday, November 9th. Click here to order the Senate Guard statue or check out the image below. The link only works if you are logged into your account.
The price is $165. The Senate Guard statue is limited to 1500, so get yours soon. You don’t want to end up paying high prices for it on eBay!
— October 30, 2007
As of this writing, all the new Marvel Legends are in stock at HasbroToyShop.com. This includes the Brood Queen Series and the Fantastic Four Ronan the Accuser Series. Both of the series contain eight figures each for a total of 16, and all of them are in stock now. Here is the link to get them. Hurry, because they won’t last long!
— October 29, 2007
Doing a little research, I came across several figures in the new G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary series of figures that have variants. Most of these are in series 3 and the only other ones I know of are in the first series. I haven’t found any variants in series 2. Here is the list with the variation listed.
Shipwreck - Series 3 - The variant of this figure has an anchor tattoo on the right arm. The common figure has a shark tattoo on the right arm.
Zartan - Series 3 - Zartan has a packaging variant. One version has the logo that says “color changing face” on the packaging. The other version is missing this logo. Apparently, the one without this logo is more rare.
Stalker - Series 3 - The Stalker variant was a color correction by Hasbro. The rare version has yellow camouflage, and the corrected version has green camouflage.
Snake Eyes - Series 1 - The variant version of Snake Eyes has a black timber wolf. The common version has a gray wolf.
Cobra Commander - Series 1 - Not sure about this one, but some eBay sellers are saying there is a Cobra Commander variant. The variant is apparently that one has gold buckles on the leg and one has black buckles. This may be a running change by Hasbro, and I’m not sure which is more rare.
I’m not sure if there are any others out there, but if you find any, let us know. Thanks.
— October 27, 2007
This bust was unveiled at San Diego this year from Gentle Giant. It looked amazing, I must say. The Sauron bust will stand 11 1/2″ tall and retail for $60. It is scheduled for release in May 2008.
— October 24, 2007
Snaga, a scout in the band of Orcs that captured Merry and Pippen at Amon Hen, was the only surviving subordinate of Shagrat after the battle in the tower of Cirith Ungol. Scheduled for release in May 2008.
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