Oh, I could have grabbed one... of course, I'd have to run out of the mall and try not to get caught by the police. In other words I didn't have any money. Had I known it was the only one I'd ever see, I would have asked them to hold a set or order another set for me to purchase.
A couple things...
One, I'm sure there's another "Monsters VS Aliens" situation where it's a limited set and greedy e-Bay scalpers grabbed every set they could to sell it on e-Bay for top dollar.
Two, I really want to say Pixar is trying to become elitists and saying their movies are too good to make merchandise of, and therefore they limited their option of Up stuff. Not even having a kid's meal toy was inexcusable.
Three, Toy Robots and toy cars sell better than toy old men.
and four, I want to add this... the picture link provided does NOT look like the actual set I've seen. Which says that the set I saw was most likely a mistaken test run or prototype figurine set. It had a cardboard box shaped like the house instead of the standard PVC figure casing. So, even if I had the money, II wonder if they were going to sell it for me.
Really.. I saw it once and only once and never saw it again. I was kinda hoping that they were going to release it after Christmas (during the next 2 quarters) and they just got an early set by mistake.
I noticed all the pvc sets at Disneystore are $12.50, not bad. I woulda paypal'd ya the dough
But that is weird, that you noticed a different package. Were they the same sculpts? On ebay theres a number of Up figures, including expensive vinyl figures and German pvcs.
So I went to the local Disneystore tonight, and the manager said they only got one Up pvc set. Literally, one. They have countless Manny, Power Rangers, Princess and the Frog, Cars, and other sets...but they only got *one* in. Googling online, it seems each store only got one each, if they even got any at all.
The manager said Disney wont allow them to specifically order any items as well.
So yeah, a large portions of these seem to be bought up by ebay scalpers.
It was so maddening seeing all the Monsters Vs Aliens stuff not just exclusive to Toys R Us, but instantly bought up and hawked on ebay. Half of it they werent even able to sell at the prices they wanted.
So it makes no sense to me. The best films Dreamworks and Pixar release ever in my view, and they keep a lid on merchandise. Meanwhile, from Wall E and Cars to Shrek and Kung Fu Panda; to this day stores are still crammed with that stuff. They made so many Wall E figures and toys they cant even sell em all at discount prices.
Pixar and Disney are doing of course whats called artificial scarcity, similar to the chase variant figure angle but without the coolness. And reading the UP blog back in may, it appears Disney reps canceled the fast food toy, the action figure line, etc.
Up to me is the best Pixar film Ive ever seen, and its a shame they made no real merch, where usually Disney floods the market to the point of vomit for each film. (I finally got a Kevin plush, but it was a mail away)