By: Dominic Jones
Triple Force Friday, the official launch of merchandise relating to Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and Jedi: Fallen Order, is just ten days away and the details of what will (and what won't) be happening are starting to come out. Earlier today, we learned that Lucasfilm will be hosting a special live stream event on Thursday September 26th to unveil the products that will be available on October 4th (aka Triple Force Friday). However, we have also learned today that the retailer Target will not be hosting "Midnight Madness" events for fans who want to buy their collectibles the minute the clock strikes 12:01am on Triple Force Friday.
The news was confirmed on Twitter by the @AskTarget account, which responded to a question about Triple Force Friday from @DarthChuckMC, saying, "All of our stores will be opening up at their regular scheduled hours." You can see the Twitter exchange for yourself below,
All of our stores will be opening up at their regular scheduled hours. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. Thank you.— AskTarget (@AskTarget) September 24, 2019
"Midnight Madness" has become something of a tradition for Star Wars product launches, dating back to the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999 and continuing through The Last Jedi in 2017. However, with Toys R Us going out of business in 2018 in the US, the number of retailers able to host such events has decreased significantly. Now, with Target opting not to host them as they had in previous years (including 2017), it seems Wal Mart remains most fans best hope for Triple Force Friday "Midnight Madness" events.
As it stands now, there are only two confirmed "Midnight Madness" events taking place this year, with the Disney Parks Blog announcing that the Disney Stores in Disney Springs in Orlando, Florida, and in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California will be open at 12:01am on October 4th for fans wishing to buy the new Star Wars merchandise.
With over a week until Triple Force Friday, there is still time for Lucasfilm to announce plans for more events, besides the ones in Anaheim and Orlando. Possibly Disney Stores may pick up the slack from the other retailers and host events at all their locations. However, Disney Stores can be few and far between in certain places which means more fans than usual might get shut out from "Midnight Madness" if one of the major chains doesn't pick up the slack. Ironically, it was announced at D23 this year that Target would be trying to fix this problem by having mini-Disney Stores within their locations.
(For my Canadian readers, we still have hope that Toys R Us Canada might have events but so far there have been no announcements either way).
Whatever the situation winds up being with "Midnight Madness", I just hope that Lucasfilm has made sure the retailers are well aware that the new Star Wars toys are supposed to be out October 4th. When Solo: A Star Wars Story was released last year, new merchandise was slated to be on shelves on April 13th. However, when fans went to the stores that day, many discovered that their stores had missed the memo and the Solo toys were nowhere to be found--yes, I'm speaking from personal experience here (and they wonder why that movie disappointed at the box office).
Hopefully, there will be more "Midnight Madness" events. One of the great things about the events for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was getting to spend time with a bunch of other Star Wars fans who were all excited about something. That, to me, is when Star Wars fandom is at its best, when people are brought together by shared passion and excitement. And in 2019, it sure would be nice to do that again.
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be released on November 15th, and The Mandalorian will debut on November 12th on Disney+. Triple Force Friday takes place on October 4th.
Follow The Star Wars Underworld on Twitter @TheSWU for more updates about this story and other breaking Star Wars news.
-vert.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment