Galactic Connexions: Collectible Trading Discs and Game
Topps, long known for collectible cards, has been a huge part of the marketing campaign for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Anyone who hadn’t heard of them before certainly did after Disney used their classic card design to announce the names of our new heroes. Now Walmart.com offers you a chance to bring home the gold with their new game, Galactic Connexions!
I happened to be out running errands near my local Walmart on Force Friday, so I couldn’t resist sticking my head in to check out the new toys. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw one of the employees passing out these little black foil packets to the kids, and with a little chagrin I walked over and asked if I could have one, too. What she was passing out was free limited edition two pack of game discs for Galactic Connexions, a new Star Wars game from Topps and available exclusively from Walmart.com. My partner saw some more of the foil packs on the table, and… well.. 6 of them made their way back to my house.
The first thing I want to say is that I was impressed with the quality of the game pieces. Hexagonal in shape, they are about the size of a poker chip, but they have some weight to them and each one has a picture of a Star Wars character on it. The official rules that came with each pack say that there are 75 different pieces you can collect, but the official Topps website has been updated to say there are now 86 characters in the full set of discs with hundreds of variations. Each piece is also color coded, with the color denoting the rarity of the piece (with the more rare pieces giving additional points if played against another piece they have a “connexion” with)
Variations include:
- Common Gray discs with standard, holographic foil, and pattern holographic foil.
- Black Uncommon discs with standard, holographic foil, and pattern holographic foil.
- Rare Clear discs with standard, holographic foil, and pattern holographic foil.
- Ultra Rare Jabba Slime Green translucent discs.
- Ultra Rare Lightsaber Red translucent discs.
- Ultra Rare Death Star Silver shiny metallic discs.
- Ultra Rare C-3PO Gold shiny metallic discs.
- Ultra Rare limited printed Battle Damaged discs featuring Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
- Ultra Rare limited printed Slave-1 discs featuring Han Solo and Boba Fett.
- Ultra Rare limited printed Imperial Red shiny metallic discs featuring The Emperor.
With 6 free packs, and 2 pieces per pack, I was happy to find that I didn’t have any duplicates. I spent a little time sharing them with my partner, who knows absolutely nothing about Star Wars (and could care less, though she tried to show interest in my excitement) and then I packed them away. They have taken a place on my desk where I occasionally pick them up and fiddle with them while files transfer or I worry out some piece of code.
Fast forward to this weekend. I stopped by my favorite comic/game store to see if there were any new issues of the new Marvel Star Wars line, and nestled between the Magic: The Gathering players was a small group tossing familiar looking hex shaped pieces on the table. Much to my surprise, the game is taking hold. Gameplay is pretty simple, the sides of the game pieces having values with players getting points for matching sides up against weaker edged pieces already in play. Like dominos, the mechanics of the game are simple but skill and strategy do count as more pieces come into play. I did a little research, and tournaments are popping up all across the country. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the gaming tables at conventions in the months to come.
For now, Walmart.com is the exclusive outlet for the game. In addition to the free promotional packs they gave away on Force Friday, you can buy the Starter Pack, which comes with 14 game pieces, along with 5 piece Booster Packs. In addition to the regular game pieces, if you are one of the lucky few who find a special white token you can redeem it for a real 14k gold game piece emblazoned with Princess Leia in all her slave girl glory. Needless to say, in game play, the gold game piece is the ultimate rarity. Along with the actual gold game piece, finders of the white token will win a cool toy collection from Walmart.com and a designer room makeover courtesy of famed designers Cortney and Robert Novagratz.
To purchase the gold discs click here: bit.ly/GalaticConnexions
To learn more about the contest: bit.ly/StarWarsRoomMakeover
Oh Boy — umm- Trading .. erm, disks!!..
Collect these pieces of plastic with pictures on them. They are uh um Rare. Yes! Very rare and valuable. That’s it!
Yup, that’s as far as they got on their marketing pitch 🙂
Yup, Di$ney’s sure running the ship now.
I always knew Pogs would come back around sooner or later. Now if I can just get my hands on a Death Star slammer… 😉
Exactly my thoughts. “You sold my soul for pogs?!”
Star Wars The Force Awakens Movie Trailers, T-Shirts, Toys & Accessories: http://moviestartees.com/star-wars-vii-the-force-awakens-movie-trailer/