I'd be more annoyed if the mini was actually something new with new stats. Limited edition convention re-issues of common things is normal. Loads of minis companies do this.

The way Lego does their con exclusive minifigs is just a big present to scalpers. But this, or the limited edition Heroscape repaints, or the Games Day minis, or the tons of free Reaper Bones I got at Pax, is just normal con stuff to me. Though I don't know maybe GW does awful things with Games Day minis nowadays.

I wish I could go. Any chance someone could get 2 and sell me one?

13 minutes ago, Jabby said:

I wish I could go. Any chance someone could get 2 and sell me one?

Probably, but for like 300% of what they bought it for lol

7 hours ago, Alan Noir said:

Incredible mini. Absolutely no hope for me though living in Ireland. Not pissed off in the slightest, exclusive items aren't the end of the world. The first thing I actually got excited for was seeing alternate sculpts are going to be a thing, even if they aren't widely available.

Why would you be excited for alternate sculpts, or exclusive ones, if you aren’t going to be able to have/use them?

23 minutes ago, Derrault said:

Why would you be excited for alternate sculpts, or exclusive ones, if you aren’t going to be able to have/use them?

Because it's possible to be excited and happy for other people. Also maybe he will get a chance to buy one someday at a future con.

2 minutes ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

Because it's possible to be excited and happy for other people. Also maybe he will get a chance to buy one someday at a future con.

The pure joy for others argument seems pretty lifeless when it comes to a product.

1 hour ago, Derrault said:

Why would you be excited for alternate sculpts, or exclusive ones, if you aren’t going to be able to have/use them?

Who knows what will be made available in the future and in what circumstances? I'm just glad to see a greater variety in circulation than not, even if some may be hard to come by for me.

42 minutes ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

Because it's possible to be excited and happy for other people. Also maybe he will get a chance to buy one someday at a future con.

We live in hope. But exclusives dont have to be con linked. Limited run minis maybe? I could forsee a few different scenarios.

40 minutes ago, Derrault said:

The pure joy for others argument seems pretty lifeless when it comes to a product.

Wouldnt call it pure joy mate. Just pleased.

10 hours ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

"The only way to get the character I want in the game is to buy the thing that lets me play the game in the first place."

So for those that just want to play Imperial...tough luck.

For those who want to do some conversion on the Vader mini....tough luck.

Awesome mini, would have been really nice if they were going to sell it online like a quite a number of companies do with their GenCon Exclusives.

Ah well I keep a look on ebay for a reasonable priced one.

6 hours ago, Derrault said:

Why would you be excited for alternate sculpts, or exclusive ones, if you aren’t going to be able to have/use them?

Because one of the most important lessons I'm trying to learn is that I can enjoy things without owning things.

18 hours ago, Gridloc said:

So did FFG deliberately wait till ticket sales were sold out before putting up article of exclusive model? I mean, I had not heard of event and then was willing to maybe go to check out all the fun SW stuff. Oh well guess not this year.

That's the thing, if I knew about this, I would have gotten tickets and gone. But they waited until it was sold out.

Based on the general responses here and in other forums/social media platforms, it seems pretty clear that a portion of the player base doesn't like being shown new product that they are then not allowed to buy. Hopefully FFG will learn from this and either stop making exclusive sculpts OR make them available to a wider audience. The fact that the con in question was sold out for the first four of its five days makes this particularly egregious. I think many wouldn't be nearly as angry if the sculpt was going to be available at future cons or as a direct order thing.

Lots of other companies do direct order only exclusives. Games Workshop, the biggest player in the tabletop war-gaming business, frequently does direct only models. They also periodically put old/rare sculpts up for "limited time preorder", take the preorders, do a single production run to cover the purchases and then send out the orders. It's a very effective way to make sure that everyone who wants one can get one. The only limiting factor is placing the order in time.

5 minutes ago, KrisWall said:

I think many wouldn't be nearly as angry if the sculpt was going to be available at future cons or as a direct order thing.

It might be. A lot of "con exclusives" or "boxed army exclusives" end up being re-released down the road. If they really do a clone wars starter, this might be the sculpt that gets released, in plastic, as the Vader expansion.

1 minute ago, TauntaunScout said:

It might be. A lot of "con exclusives" or "boxed army exclusives" end up being re-released down the road. If they really do a clone wars starter, this might be the sculpt that gets released, in plastic, as the Vader expansion.

FFG pretty consistently DOESN'T re-release things down the road when they are explicitly marked as event exclusive. I'd be shocked if this is ever re-released as a plastic model.

Side note: I'm actually expecting some "wtf is this thing made of? the lightsaber snapped off" comments when people start working on the models.

6 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

It might be. A lot of "con exclusives" or "boxed army exclusives" end up being re-released down the road. If they really do a clone wars starter, this might be the sculpt that gets released, in plastic, as the Vader expansion.

Vader wasn't part of the Clone Wars. He was still Anakin back then. It would make no sense to release a "Clone Wars Vader". Assuming we get a proper Clone Wars Era release, I'd expect Anakin Skywalker as part of the Clone Army/Republic faction.

2 minutes ago, KrisWall said:

Vader wasn't part of the Clone Wars. He was still Anakin back then. It would make no sense to release a "Clone Wars Vader". Assuming we get a proper Clone Wars Era release, I'd expect Anakin Skywalker as part of the Clone Army/Republic faction.

No I meant, if the only Legion starter set becomes clone wars (unlikely) this would be how new imperial players would buy Vader. Or maybe even if they had both kinds of starter games, just to allow CW players who choose to start an imperial faction without buying the other core set.

I have a proposition:

If anyone take a vader for me i can (of course pay it) make an art piece for that person. Perhaps something personal (like a portrait) or a custom fanart (i want me being choked by vader).

It is a serious offer. You can see my works here to see i'm not joking https://www.artstation.com/naitsirk117

PM me if you will go to celebration

I have to admit, I was baffled by the negative reaction of "fans" on Facebook when it was announced. I'm even more battled about it now. FFG is supporting the game with an event exclusive. How is that a bad thing? It doesn't change the game, and may help get attendees interested in the game. If you're the ultimate collector that has to have everything, wait til the event is over, and buy one on Ebay. Yes, it'll be massively inflated, but that's the price you pay for 1. being a collector, and 2. not attending the event.

As a side note: I'd love to compare the people who are complaining about this's political beliefs and opinions on economic systems, as it definitely smacks of a few ideologies about "fairness" "equality" and "distribution," but this isn't the place for that.

Haters gonna hate. I am very happy that FFG has announced AlterVader when the tickets were sold. This way the people attending to the convention are people interested in the convention and not "investors" looking for "ebay prizes"

9 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

I have to admit, I was baffled by the negative reaction of "fans" on Facebook when it was announced. I'm even more battled about it now. FFG is supporting the game with an event exclusive. How is that a bad thing? It doesn't change the game, and may help get attendees interested in the game. If you're the ultimate collector that has to have everything, wait til the event is over, and buy one on Ebay. Yes, it'll be massively inflated, but that's the price you pay for 1. being a collector, and 2. not attending the event.

As a side note: I'd love to compare the people who are complaining about this's political beliefs and opinions on economic systems, as it definitely smacks of a few ideologies about "fairness" "equality" and "distribution," but this isn't the place for that.

At least for me, I'm bothered because it does actually change the game. I use a bunch of the Battlefield in a box desert terrain. The desert escarpments is the exact same height as the core set Vader. It does block LOS to him while he's behind it. Since this new Vader is taller because he's standing on rocks, LOS would not be blocked because his head and probably chest would be exposed. My issue is that FFG decided to release a expansion of an already released character with a different 3d footprint, in a game where that kinda thing is important, as a Con exclusive. In this case it makes it worse for me, but it's the precedent that it sets that bothers me.

10 minutes ago, jcmonson said:

At least for me, I'm bothered because it does actually change the game. I use a bunch of the Battlefield in a box desert terrain. The desert escarpments is the exact same height as the core set Vader. It does block LOS to him while he's behind it. Since this new Vader is taller because he's standing on rocks, LOS would not be blocked because his head and probably chest would be exposed. My issue is that FFG decided to release a expansion of an already released character with a different 3d footprint, in a game where that kinda thing is important, as a Con exclusive. In this case it makes it worse for me, but it's the precedent that it sets that bothers me.

House rule the terrain. It’s like Boba’s flying stand.

10 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

House rule the terrain. It’s like Boba’s flying stand.

I don't think you read all the way to the end of my post. The first part was just demonstrating that the Con exclusive Vader does actually have a gameplay impact. The last two are my point. It also is not at all like Bobas flying stand since there is only one sculpt of Boba Fett. The rules that govern his usage applies to everyone because everyone's Boba Fett is the same. As I have said, its not that the new sculpt offers any advantages, for me it doesn't. Its that FFG is willing to start to release Con exclusive sculpts that have gameplay effects. <-This is what bothers me about it.

1 hour ago, Alpha17 said:

I have to admit, I was baffled by the negative reaction of "fans" on Facebook when it was announced. I'm even more battled about it now. FFG is supporting the game with an event exclusive. How is that a bad thing? It doesn't change the game, and may help get attendees interested in the game. If you're the ultimate collector that has to have everything, wait til the event is over, and buy one on Ebay. Yes, it'll be massively inflated, but that's the price you pay for 1. being a collector, and 2. not attending the event.

As a side note: I'd love to compare the people who are complaining about this's political beliefs and opinions on economic systems, as it definitely smacks of a few ideologies about "fairness" "equality" and "distribution," but this isn't the place for that.

I don't think economic or political opinions play into this. I think it's more that releasing an article that effectively says "We made a cool new thing that you'll definitely want and we're going to sell it... but we're not going to sell it to you." is going to generate some negative responses from your target audience if your goal is to sell them things and keep them happy.. This is more of a marketing issue, I think. FFG announced this using the same general format and method as they would any other new product announcement, except that this isn't a new product. So, a Legion player starts reading, gets excited, keeps reading and then realizes this isn't actually something he or she will reasonably be able to acquire (excepting from a scalper at what is almost certainly going to be a crazy markup). Some people will think "I'm bummed, but mostly happy for the people who'll get this". Others will just stop at "I'm bummed".

Also, to be clear... reading the article and then choosing to attend the event to acquire the event exclusive was never an option. When the article went live, the first four of five days had already sold out. Event exclusives tend to run out in the first day or two of these sorts of events. It would be unreasonable to expect to get a Monday only ticket and still have all of the event exclusives available after four full days of being available for sale.

In a game that already allows customization, this does not bother me at all. While I would love to have, I see it as a good way of promoting the game. As long as they stay away from alternate rules, I have no problem with this kind of thing. The timing is off, but I wouldn't have been able to go regardless. At least I now know that FFG will have a presence at Star Wars Celebration. More incentive to go next year!

9 minutes ago, KrisWall said:

I don't think economic or political opinions play into this. I think it's more that releasing an article that effectively says "We made a cool new thing that you'll definitely want and we're going to sell it... but we're not going to sell it to you." is going to generate some negative responses from your target audience if your goal is to sell them things and keep them happy.. This is more of a marketing issue, I think. FFG announced this using the same general format and method as they would any other new product announcement, except that this isn't a new product. So, a Legion player starts reading, gets excited, keeps reading and then realizes this isn't actually something he or she will reasonably be able to acquire (excepting from a scalper at what is almost certainly going to be a crazy markup). Some people will think "I'm bummed, but mostly happy for the people who'll get this". Others will just stop at "I'm bummed".

We literally had the same conversation with our disappointed daughter (2nd grade) yesterday when a few of her friends won a drawing at school yesterday when she didn't win. "Do you remember how you felt earlier in the year when you won a drawing? How do you think your friends feel now? I know you are disappointed, but aren't you glad for them that they can feel how you did before?"

Not having this figure doesn't change my experience with this game that I love. I'm looking forward to seeing that Scarif board and hope that it is an indicator of some upcoming Shoretroopers and K2-SO.