I've done every Midnight Madness since The Phantom Menance (things were a lot cheaper when I could just ask mum to buy me a Darth Maul!) but nothing could have prepared me for Thursday night. My plan was to do Midnight Madness at Toys R Us in Warrington, pick up the first wave of the Black Series, then head to Disney Store the next morning to get Sphero's BB-8 then go home and relax. Yeah, that didn't happen!
I got to Toys R Us around 19:30 on Thursday. I figured I'd just be sat at home clock watching so I may as well be waiting there. With hindsight it's a good job I did! I was 5th in line when I arrived and it was a great group of guys. We passed the hours chatting about Star Wars and collecting and just generally having a laugh. They had Ray managing the line who I know and is a huge Star Wars fan so that was nice. Thinking back he did tell us that everything they had was going out, that probably should have set off some alarm bells but I was near the front and I'd never walked away from any of the previous midnight openings without being able to get everything I wanted so it didn't worry me.
The 501st arrived with a Stormtrooper and two Sandtroopers and we all posed from photos (sorry, my old iPhone doesn't have the best camera);
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| Guess I shouldn't have said I was here for the Black Series! |
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| The lightsabers were a lot of fun! |
A bit later a local news crew arrived to cover the opening and interviewed a few of us (I told a Sandtrooper to move along when he said he'd bought all the Kylo Rens, hopefully it sounded as funny out loud as it did in my head!)
By the time midnight arrived the line had grown to over 200 people! We'd even seen people drive into the car park, take one look at the line and turn around!
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| You can see how much the line grew in the last hour between these two pictures! |
At midnight they led us into the store and gave us our free posters and t-shirts, along with a Lego keyring (we didn't get the exclusive brick that was given out in America). Then we were led to the front of store display. Ray had told me they weren't expecting this in until the weekend so they were really glad it arrived in time for the event. The display looked amazing;
This is when the alarm bells started ringing. As they let in the first four people I scanned the shelves from where I was and couldn't even see the Black Series. One of the guys turned to me and said they only had 2 of each of Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren and Chewbacca and no Stormtroopers at all! Luckily for me not everyone in the first four was after the Black Series so I was able to grab the last Finn and a Chewie. I imagine the final Chewie went to someone in my group. No way anyone after the 6th or 7th person was getting anything from the Black Series.
I'll be honest, I was disappointed. Everyone in my group was, even the guys who were are the front of the line due to the lack of any Black Series Stormtroopers. Given previous events where everything had been plentiful we'd all expected to be able to get everything we wanted and with reports online countries that some people had found wave 2 we were all hoping that we might get lucky and score a Poe and Phasma. Not of us expected we wouldn't even be able to complete wave 1!
I can see now why they were only letting 4-5 people up at a time, previous events generally let 10-15 up at once but given the limited quantities of some products it would have been chaos. This way people had a chance to actually look at what they were getting and meant there was no pushing or shoving. It meant the line moved slowly but it was a better experience when you were at the display. I didn't spend much time looking at the rest of the range. I had what I came for so I moved on to help keep the line moving. But I did get a photo with their special Force Friday display;
We probably ended up leaving around 12:45. Whilst it was a little disappointing to not complete the first wave at Midnight Madness it was a great night. I got to spend a few hours talking Star Wars with a great bunch of fans who were as excited (and spoiler free) as me for the new film. I knew these figures would be everywhere in the next few days/weeks so I certainly wasn't going to let it ruin my night. After all, looking back on previous events, I remember some of what I bought but it's the social build up and camaraderie that I remember most and I'm sure this time won't be any different.
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| Toys R Us Midnight Madness Giveaways |
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| This has to be my cheapest ever Midnight Madness! |
Force Friday itself we was up an out by 6:30 (I think I had about 4 hours sleep). On the way to the Trafford Centre we called in at a 24 hour Asda just to check. The shelves had been completely raided. There was an Armour Series Poe and a few OT repacks and that was it. We got to Trafford about 7am and were first in line. We could even see them setting up behind the shutters!
Whilst we were waiting I got to talk to one of the staff who came out (I'm guessing on his break or finishing a night shift) and he confirmed that they did have the Sphero BB-8 and told me to go straight to the tills when they opened as they were behind the counter. By the time the store opened at 9am there was only about 5 of us waiting. A much calmer experience than the night before! When they opened we all went straight to the tills for BB-8, I guess everyone loves that little droid!!
We bought BB-8 along with Disney Store's Star Wars bag and my wife and I both received a free pin badge. BB-8 secured we decided to check out the rest of the store;
Sadly there was no Black Series to be had. In fact, apart from the basic line and Sphero's BB-8 everything they offered looked to be Disney Store exclusive. The Elite Series looked great but I can't afford to start a new line (though I may be tempted to pick up a Jedi Master Luke if they do one). Jane picked up a plush BB-8 and a BB-8 cup. It was all about the droid for us at Disney Store.
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| Disney Store's Force Friday Pin |
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| Went a bit BB-8 crazy at the Disney Store |
Since it was half nine I decided to wait for the rest of the Trafford Centre to open at ten rather than head straight into Manchester. I figured all the big stores there would have been hit at opening so another half hour wouldn't make any real difference.
Hamleys had plenty of Lego and some of the basic line but surprisingly no Black Series (they also had an awesome guy in a Jedi cloak getting kids to use the Force to raise the shutters when the store opened!) and John Lewis was even worse. Trafford Centre done we headed into Manchester.
The Entertainer had even less than Hamleys and no space on their shelves for anything else. Jane loved the Bop-It R2-D2 but didn't pick it up as we'd just bought BB-8 between us. The Disney Store was the same as the one in Trafford (they'd already sold out of Sphero's BB-8!) but Jane did manage to grab a Chewie hoodie in her size so it was worth the visit. I really wish they'd do that Resistance jacket in adult size!
We headed to Forbidden Planet and they had nothing but the Funko Pop figures! I knew the smaller independent comic/specialty stores could only order from Friday but I'll admit I thought Forbidden Planet would have been big enough to get some stock direct from Hasbro for Force Friday! Manchester's Toys R Us hadn't had a midnight opening so they still had a reasonable selection of the basic line (including the Mission Series 3-Pack with BB-8 that really tempted me) but any Black Series figures were long gone.
On the way home we called at Salford's Sainsburys (no Black Series) and then Argos. I never thought that Argos would be my Star Wars saviour! Kind of fitting since I got my first ever Star Wars figure from them way back in 1997 (a Jedi Luke that I still have!). We walked in and on the shelves sat Kylo Ren, Rey and 2 Finns. I left the Rey as she had a bad paint job (her eyebrow touched her eye) and grabbed Kylo Ren and even got a free poster with my purchase!
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| Free poster from Argos |
I can't believe I got the Force Friday giveaways from 3 different stores!
We did a store check and saw that Argos had stock in both Birchwood and Warrington. We called at Birchwood first but they were out of stock when we arrived. We checked Asda whilst we were there but they were sold out to (but they at least had space for the Black Series on their shelves). Off to Argos Warrington they had the same figures as Salford. I grabbed Rey and headed for the checkout then got told I couldn't buy her as someone had reserved all four figures online. It was like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Since we were in Warrington we called at Tesco (nothing, they said they were expecting a new end display on Monday) before heading up to Toys R Us again (wow those shelves were bare!) and the nearby Asda which had been cleared out at midnight, no doubt by the people who drove away from Toys R Us after seeing the queue.
We decided to do one final stop at Argos in Leigh. The website said in stock but reservations were for collection the next day. In store was the same so they must have been getting their figures from another store. We called at another super market on the way home but by this point my heart wasn't in it anymore. We were both tired, our feet ached and it was gone four at this point. My wife did one last check of Argos stock and said a few local stores had one or two but I said no, they were probably just Finn anyway. Then should found that the Ashton-Under-Lyne store had five. It was an hour round trip but I was willing to gamble that they'd at least have a Rey so we reserved all five and set off one last time. I was so glad that we did! Not only did they have Rey but they had a Stormtrooper as well! After Midnight Madness I never thought I'd see one of those on Friday!
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| Argos saves the day! |
We finally got home around 17:30, eleven hours after we'd set off that morning! But I'd managed to complete wave 1 of the Black Series and we'd got BB-8 (who's amazing!). Force Friday definitely didn't go the way I planned but I'm happy we the end result. It also proved that I have the best, most patient, wife in the world! To quote Darth Vader "This will be a day long remembered!"
The Black Series figures look fantastic together (even if I did have to "borrow" Luke's lightsaber to complete Finn);
And BB-8 is quite simply the best Star Wars toy EVER!!
