Q and A of the Day: Day 55

Welcome to our next Q and A of the Day post! This column will be published daily, weekly, monthly, or just based on how many questions I get emailed – but no more than one a day. Feel free to send in your questions and I will put them in the queue. Click through for Q and A of the Day: Day 55. Topic: The Black Series 6" Stormtrooper that most of us missed at HTS today

Q: Paul - I am not writing to complain about missing out on this morning's limited pre-order of The Black Series 6 inch Stormtrooper on HasbroToyShop.com. I checked the site on my lunch break around Noon and "Stormie BS6N" was long gone by then. But I do have a question. Is Hasbro really that clueless? Do they really have no idea that this is a red hot item, highly in demand amongst both collectors and toy scalpers?

Apparently some folks were able to order as many as 8 or 10 of these guys on a single order today. No wonder "BS6N" sold out in around 30 minutes.

Hasbro did limit orders of both The Black Series Six Inch Boba Fett and 3 3/4 inch Darth Plagueis figures to two per customer late last year. I had assumed that would be the case for the 6 Inch Stormtrooper. Apparently not.

I hope your luck was better than mine and you have a half dozen (or more) of these guys on the way. If not I spoke with a Hasbro Customer Service Rep and she said these would be back in stock sometime in the future. (Michael W.)

A: JTA, as well as the rest of the fan sites who attended Toy Fair, addressed concern for the Stormtrooper's insatiable popularity and Hasbro did say they would look into ways to get him out into the line to meet demand. I personally found it ridiculous that people were allowed to buy a maximum of 10 6" Stormtroopers today. What's crazy is that I missed ordering 2 of them three (3) separate instances of it appearing in stock while trying to order it today. Every time I hit enter to submit my order it would tell me the ones in my cart were out of stock. If Hasbro is smart, they need to look at today's ordering trends alone and see how many leftover Luke Bespins, Obi-Wan Kenobis and Han Solos they have and see how they need to forecast the Stormtrooper in the future. I really pray they investigate this carefully.

I think limiting quantities should be done temporarily so that everyone who wants one can get one or two. The army builders should have to wait a bit. (Sorry if you disagree with that sentiment.) But this is where pre-ordering should be allowed until all that have them ordered are happy. Then and only then will Hasbro have a good gauge on how many units to produce. Rumor has it that this WILL BE available for pre-order again shortly, so keep that page refreshed. I personally can't keep refreshing that order page. I have a job and a life, and I would love to one day wake up in a world where I can go at my leisure and to a site that just has these stupid things in stock for the normal MSRP. I know. It's a fantasy.

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