Countdown to Midnight Madness

I can't believe it's almost here!  We still know so little about The Force Awakens but tomorrow night will see the merchandise officially released in stores.

The road to "Force Friday" has been a bit of a rocky one for Disney/Lucasfilm.  I don't know who came up with the idea of trying to keep everything secret until today (the official unboxing begins on YouTube today) but I do feel it was the wrong call as they completely lost control of the reveal and fans were left unable to budget until the last minute - I sure know my buying plans changed when it was revealed that Sphero's BB-8 would be out this week!

Personally, my midnight madness plans are pretty limited. I'll be at Toys R Us, like I have been for every Midnight Madness since The Phantom Menace, but judging by the leaks I'll only be picking up the 5 Black Series figures.  After that I'll be heading to Currys/PC World first thing on Friday to try and score a Sphero BB-8!  Before the BB-8 reveal I was planning on picking up the new Ultimate Star Wars book (finally out in the UK this week) and some of the young reader "Journey to The Force Awakens" novels (for whatever hints and teases they could give towards the film) but with BB-8 coming I needed to re-consider how much I was spending!

Doesn't he look awesome?!

But what I'm really looking forward to is the camaraderie.  What I remember most from previous midnight launches isn't what I bought, its spending time just hanging out with other Star Wars fans for a few hours, talking with excitement about what the future had in store.  And now, here at the start of the final push towards Episode VII, that future has never been brighter.