In our esteemed (er, steamed) Galactic Hunter forums, there’s a comment stating that Sideshow Collectibles gave various sites free 12" figures at Toy Fair, and, naturally, encouraging us to give said figure(s) to our readers.

I’m here to tell you that if Sideshow Collectibles gave anything away, I sure as heck didn’t receive it. As a matter of fact, and to be perfectly frank, Sideshow didn’t even have the time to give me a proper tour. (The same thing happened with Corgi/Master Replicas.) I’d like to state for the record that I pay 100% the exact same price for Sideshow Collectibles products that you pay.

Heck, my exclusive/inclusive Jabba The Hutt figure even arrived with a broken glass (which I’m steaming mad about).

Just to be clear, we received a gorgeous coin in its presentation box from Hasbro, which you’d have to pry out of my cold, dead hands. Why? Because I spent a lot of money to fly up to New York, rent a hotel room for five days, and schlep all over. (Cabs ain’t cheap.) None of this came from sponsor money, or anything other than my own pocket.

The last freebie that we (the site) received from Hasbro was a box of The Saga Collection posters. I gave them away to Blogger readers, and I mailed out hundreds of them at a cost (to me) of $.25 per poster tube, and whatever the postage was (less than $1 each). Again, the cost came out of my pocket. However, I felt very thankful that Hasbro would give us a way to give something to you readers and collectors. Even a token, a simple gesture, it makes someone, somewhere smile.

While at Toy Fair I admit that I will take any freebie anyone is handing out. Gentle Giant didn’t give away anything this year (and I even begged for their help in finding a Blue Snaggletooth Bust-Up to no avail). DC Direct had a freebie Green Lantern Mini-Mate, but I don’t think that was exclusive in any way, just a bagged sample. I have it with my Batman Mini-Mates. Diamond Distribution had a party with an open bar, and I did have a few beers on their dime. Corgi/Master Replicas had their commemorative sets, but I never did get the press kit that I needed.

Gentle Giant has never sent me a Christmas bust either, for the record. Perhaps they don’t like me, or perhaps they know that I don’t collect busts. Either way, I’ve never received one. Personally, since I don’t collect busts, I’d make sure that it found a good home, and it wouldn’t wind up on an auction site. (I admit, the logistics of contests is just maddening.)

OK, so the point to all of this… I don’t go to Toy Fair expecting to be lavished with swag. It’s great when it happens, but it’s not exactly standard practice. When I can get my hands on promotional stuff (like the posters referenced above) I go out of my way to make sure readers get them. I go to Toy Fair to try to bring back news for our readers.

Now, while I’m being cranky on a cold Monday, I’d like to thank the handful of readers who sent in supportive notes about myself, my partner, etc. I received a few hate mails, but at least they took the time to write. If I took the time to write about all of the things that annoyed me, I’d have hands bowed up from carpal tunnel. The reason that I write Galactic Blogger is to give readers a more personal view of things in the crazy world of Star Wars collectible obsession (in addition to the funky one-off featurettes that I like to do). So you’re welcome to read whatever crazy I spew. Sometimes it will be informative. Sometimes it will be opinionated. Sometimes you may just hate me for being me. So what?

As long as you don’t think I’m Adam Pawlus, all is good.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 7:46 am and is filed under Daily Blog, Personality Crisis, Toy Fair 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.