How many people went to your Toys R Us for Midnight Madness?

[Tycho]

As promised, we are about to dedicate a certain segment of our poll topics to discussing each of our own experiences at acquiring all the brand new toys.

This past Tuesday, on April 23 at 12 o'clock am the doors flew open to thousands of collectors who clamored to get up to 27 different action figures, 3 not previously-released-vehicles, 3 more 12" Action Collection figures, 4 Deluxe Characters, role play toys including 3 electronic lightsabers, and a Beast collection creature!

For most, it would be difficult collecting it all without spending upwards of $450.00 (at least!).

We're going to start looking at Midnight Madness by asking "How many collectors showed up at your chosen Toys R Us store for its special Midnight opening on the 23rd?"

Then let's discuss how long you waited.

Were there people in costume?

Was the media there reporting?

What were people doing to entertain themselves?

How was the weather?

Any hecklers?

How kind or competative were the crowds before the doors flew open?

What kinds of people did you see waiting for toys? (collectors, those your own age, moms, dads, and kids, suspicious characters, known dealers and scalpers? Who was there?)

[Tycho]

In San Diego, California, at the Grossmont Center Toys R Us, there were about 41 people the last time I left the line to count them.

The local Fox News affiliate came down to film everyone (and most of us ran and hid to stay off camera).

Once it hit the air and people were reminded that the toys went on sale that night, more and more began to arrive.

I still don't think there was more than 60 initially. Much smaller than the amount of people I witnessed at Midnight Madness in Denver, Colorado at the time of Celebration 1 (about 350).

However, by the beach, Toys R Us Morena Blvd. was reported to have over 300 collectors present, including a small squad of the 501st Soldiers of the Empire in their stormtrooper armor.

But back at Grossmont, fans at my store clamored to look through the windows to watch the employees busily unpacking the stuff and set up a shopping buffet!

In line, they played Star Wars Stratego, read Rogue Planet, the ATOC's comic and novelization, The Approaching Storm, and various figure lists obtained from the internet. Jedi Go-gurts were passed around, as well as Force-fully Fruity FruitRolls.

A 24 hour grocery store next door furnished food and the bathrooms.

Overall, the crowd was made up of almost exclusively young adult collectors, and some young parents. A few older folks were obviously shopping for children, maybe there were 3 people there that had the "Swap Meet Mugger's" look about them, but they caused no troubles and seemed to enjoy the company in the line.

How was it waiting out at your store?

I arrived at 8 pm and was the 15th in line, BTW.

[bigbarada]

The only TRU near me that had a MM was almost a two hour drive away, and when my brother called they said they weren't participating. Which was a lie, if you're going to open up at midnight to sell toys, then wouldn't you want as many to know about it as possible?

Thus I went to Wal-Mart which turned out to be fortuitous, as they didn't begin laying out toys until 3:30 AM and I was the only person patient enough to wait that long. Thus I got first choice of everything! Nobody else showed up until 5:15 AM so I had plenty of time to go through all the figures. I only spent around $35; but it was nice being able to look at all the stuff and pick and choose before it went on the shelf. In fact the two guys stocking the shelves wouldn't put up a particular case until I said I was done with it. Very cool!

[SQueek]

I got to Wallmart at about 11, there was one other guy there, he said they took down all the paper covering the toys and we could go through it but now purchase it untill 12. By 12oclock there was less than 10 people there, we were all oderly fashioned and helping each other find stuff.

in 1999 however, i went to TRU and there was over 100 people there and there was almost a riot. Also i was interviewed and got into the paper.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

My TRU wasn't open at midnight, but I did go the a WM Supercenter. Eventually, about 30 people showed up and as soon as they lowered the police tape it was pure mayhem. I didn't get four of the figures nor the TIE/B. I was told that at another WM down the freeway a few miles only had about 10 people there and the Dookus were plentiful, along with the TIEs.

I had a lot of fun and didn't get to bed until about 3:30 that same morning from being so hopped up, so I would definitely do it again.

[JediTricks]

I got to Monrovia TRU around 10:30 and there were only 20-30 people before me, but by midnight, everybody and his brother knew someone up there or just cut, there were maybe 70 people ahead of me! So frustrating.

[plo kloon]

My local toysrus didn't open at midnight but at 6:00am.I was pretty lucky.There was only about ten of us there.So the selection was really good.I spent about $100.00.Then I went to Kay Bee the next day and found the figures that toysrus didn't have.

[sith_killer_99]

My local TRU did not have a Midnight Madness sale.

I went to Wal-Mart, where the prices are cheaper.

The employees were GREAT!!!

They helped the 8-10 of us that were there find EVERYTHING we were looking for.

I managed to get all 27 figures!

WOW, I mean, I was already a big fan of Wal-Mart. Ever since the SW section at TRU started getting smaller and smaller, and prices got higher and higher. Wal-Mart is where I bought 90% of my POTJ collection. It is where I found my Clean Scout Trooper. And they have the best prices.

[Eternal Padawan]

My experience mirrors SK99's almost to the letter. I showed up to Wal Mart around 11:30 and the half dozen or so customers were helping the employees put the figures up on the pegs. We would find a new one nobody had seen and pass it around until everybody got what we wanted/needed. We even split up the TIE bomber/Snowspeeder case civil. A pleasant experience and I paid less than the TRU guys to boot!

[Turbowars]

Ok, Here's my story. I drove over to my local TRU in Burbank CA at about 5:30 and saw that there were some die hard collectors sitting in chairs already, so I went into the store and found 1 set of the Teebo wave that I have been looking for for some time now. I came out and asked if anyone was from SirSteves and everyone looked at me like I was an @SS. I noticed there was some old guy handing out business cards and when he left, the collectors said he was a reporter from some action figure mag or what ever and was bad mouthing Sirsteves. Anyways, it turns out that a few were from Sirsteves, CrunchyNug and Wonderboy and I was happy to meet them and to put a face to their posts. Their two great guys and I also met some other collectors that I referred them to Sirsteves and Hope they post and find this site enjoyable. I waited with them from 6 to 12 and I had a blast! How ever there's a dark side of the story. The manager of TRU told us that there would be a limit to one figure of each charactor per collector and we would have 15 mintues to get what we wanted and then we HAD to leave. Well That changed and It became a free for all and people grabbed multiples of figures and guess what, some of us didn't leave with what we thought we would get, because some bought more than their share. There was this guy that came in the door that didn't have a # so there were 16 collectors instead of 15 allowed and he tried to get his hands on every Clone trooper and Zam in the store. I happen to have 2 clones in my hand and he tried to grabe it out of my hands I told him, give me a Zam and I'll give him a Clone., he said no, so I gave it to a some other guy that didn't have one. I ended up with 17 figures, so I guess that's not too bad. All in all it was fun and I'd do it again. Oh and there was only about 100 or so people out there that night.