YN reader Jace reports in:

Hey team Yodasnews, Love you guys! Been visiting the website for as long as I can remember.

I wanted to share a couple recent experiences I’ve had in the northwest suburbs area of Chicago while hunting down the new Target exclusive 6″ Chewbacca. I haven’t seen much news on people’s luck finding (or not) this figure, so I thought I’d share in the hopes of helping avoid fellow collector’s frustration. On two separate occasions, in two different Target stores, I visited the toy area looking the the exclusive Chewbacca. The shelves were somewhat lacking and no Chewie to be found. However, before I left either store, I looked them up on Brickseek quick. Both stores were listed to have the figures. So on a hunch I called from the parking lot of one of the stores and politely asked the employee in toys to check, explaining that it was a Target exclusive, etc. When he returned, he informed me that he had an entire case in the back I told him I would be over shortly and he said they would be at the electronics counter. Turns out, he didn’t put any of them out, just kept the whole case at electronics.

I took my one Chewie and happily purchased it, and went back to work ( I was on my lunch break). After work, I stopped back to that store on the way home to see if he had put the rest of the case out. It was still sitting behind the electronics counter. Interesting…maybe he had just not gotten around to it. Then, I decided to stop by a different Target on the way home, also listed on Brickseek to have the figure. I visited the Star Wars aisle, and no Chewies. I found and asked an employee in the store, provided the dcpi number and she said her inventory showed a full case. After going to look for it, she couldn’t find it in its correct location in the back. I didn’t press the issue and thanked her for checking. I hung around the electronics area oogling over the huge 4k TVs for a couple minutes when she came back over to me and handed me a Chewie. She found the entire case sitting behind the electronics counter! Seemed like an interesting coincidence.

So it seems that some of the stores may be keeping the cases of figures behind the electronics counter. I don’t know if this is a Target internal communication, or employees are purposely not stocking the shelves to thwart scalpers, or some other reason. But let our fellow hunters know to politely check with the Target employees to see if they have the figures at the electronics counter if they don’t see them on the shelves. I had admittedly gotten out of the habit of asking employees to check for a while (and still in some cases) because we are oftem met with the stigma of ‘adult collector/scalper’ along with an eyeroll and unwillingness to help. I myself have still not seen these figures on a peg and I regularly visit various Target stores figure aisles. Have the DCPI number handy as it makes it much easier for the employees to check for stock.

Happy hunting! -Jace