Ok, first the news:
http://www.starwars.com/vault/collecting/20081125.html
OK OK OK we know we can get Finemolds in SOME hobby shops and at most of the shows via vendors, plus there is the ever present mail order and such.
But the key is that TARGET has latched onto the goods now and will be a US chain based distributor. Taking a look at the hobby market in the last five years we have seen the changes. Walmart, never the bastion of kitdom, has reduced thier stock in the last three years from a limited array, which I call the Revellogram program kits- usually the same five or six kits in each Walmart and hardly any varation among them--to nothing, with the complete removal of the model line last year. Kmart did the same, as did Target. I used to be able to get Gundam and Gundam SD kits at Target...no more.
Now Target has taken the spearhead to reintroduce not only a model line but a HIGH END model line such as Finemolds. This has more to do with marketing and cashing in on the current clone wars series line than anything, but at least now I can drive to Target and pick up a kit--an option that did not exist.
Prices on these jewels? Considering they are FM brand, and must pay import duties (that the Chinese seem not to pay) ,we can expect to see these at near retail. I'm just glad to see a chain carrying a model for once, and not the same old thing that WM offered in the past. In additoin there are some other cool USB items. I want the R2 USB four port hub.
Build to please yourself, and don't worry about what others think!
TI 4019 Jolly Roger Squadron, 501st Legion