I bought it today, last one keft at CompUSA, judging from the box it had been either a store demo or a returned piece. There were already batteries in it.

The blade seems a little loose compared to my Vader one. It's not overly noticable, but I can feel the blade move around ever so slightly. It only feels loose side-to-side, not when I poke with it. I'm not too worried about it, but I want to make sure that the blade doesn't suddenly fly off when I'm, err, duelling with it.

Return it, get your money back and buy a brand new one.

There's the problem. Where? It was the last one in my hometown.

It's gonna suck to ebay this critter, but ah well.

Can't you order direct from the Master Replicas website????

http://masterreplicas.com/customer/index.php

I had a similar situation with a local Best Buy, put on purpose. Right before the ROTS premiere, they were selling the Force FX like mad. I was able to get the last two ESB Vader. I followed up and asked about the ROTS Anakin, they went in the back and came out with a few that were customer returns that still had batteries in them. They were in good condition and I found no problems with them - they were even willing to sell them to me at a discount so as to not have to deal with returning them to MR (I had just bought the two ESB Vader, and the Mrs. shot down me getting any more at that time )

But, it appears that places do get them back (for buyer's remorse or whatever other reasons) and do stick them back out on the floor for sale. If this was a MR authorized dealer, personally I'd call MR Customer Care (Heather seems to know more about what's going on than Kevin, Travis or Chad) and see what they can do.... or I'd go back to the retailers and chat with them. Since they cannot get anymore right this minute, maybe they'll do the right thing and offer to give you a partial refund.

I had the same problem with mine and it was brand new...plus it would always make this weird cracking sound when ever I swung it. What I did was return it to Best Buy and got the Vader one instead, it's a bit better built.