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@ Megatron Wolf u don't even have Jazz or Tracks where u r @?

SE Wisconsin has been terrible. Racine Walmart just got Kup and Scourge in the last week. I've only seen Jazz in Walgreens. Tracks at Walgreens and Kohls. The K-marts here still have leader class Animated figures. A Kenosha K-Mart still has the red and white Ratchet repaint from the 2007 movie. Throw in all the Tuner Mudflaps clogging pegs at multiple stores...just a bad situation. Even went down to Gurnee, Illinois a few weeks ago and same situation. Only ever found the 2nd wave PCC commanders at Kohls around Christmas, with no sign of wave 4 anywhere.

It is really bad in Ireland, before Christmas, we got wave one of RTS and the first two waves of Generations. 4 months later and the shelves are full of Mindsets, Darkmounts and wave 2 of Power Core Combiners.

I could buy online (I want scourge) but the prices on Amazon plus delivery would mean I would pay double and I don't want to get ripped off

I was just at target earlier to do some TF hunting and the only 2 deluxe figures left were RTS Bumblebee and Hunt for the Decepticons Hailstorm! I wish I had taken a picture of it to show you guys. Seriously this is SAD.
I've had to result to ebay to get a hold of Kup and I am waiting and WANTING scout class "Demolition Rumble"!!!! (aka we all know it's Frenzy because he's blue )
Hasbro, you have so many loyal fans, please push the retailers to get these toys out!!!!! Listen to us!!!

So far, I haven't purchased any RTS or Generations stuff from Hasbro toy shop or at a local retailer. Everything I have purchased (Wheeljack, Jazz, Wreck-Gar, G2 Prime, Scourge, Cliffjumper, Blurr, Kup, tracks etc. etc. ect. ect.) has all been from TFsource and BBTS. They've been more instock with the new stuff than hasbro apparently has >.< ridiculous.

To be fair, I've seen one blurr and two cliffjumpers at a toys r us one time in the past 5 months lol............................ but even in all of THAT HUGE SHELF STOCKING never any RTS voyagers ...
and even everywhere I look online they're out of stock or for like $30 ... I will NEVER pay $30 for a voyager... ever in my life ... so I've been holding out ..

meh ..

I guess I'm the rare case of finding most of the new figures. BUT after I find them once, they are never to be found again.
The TRU by my house dosnt even have a spot for voyagers on there shelves.
The Wal-marts near my house have nothing but Skulgrins and Thunderwings.
The Targets have very few new RTS but mostly HFTD.
I pre-order EVERYTHING at BBTS and cancel if I find it at the store before it is in my POL. Even then I have 15 days to cancel it for store credit. Win Win.

For people in the US it probably works a little different but if you see/want something it doesn't mean it will be available.
Of course I want it to be like that as well but here in Europe it just doesn't work that way at all.

Many, many and even more than that Transformers that get released in the US will not end up in our toyshops. The best example is the Reveal the Shield and second half of Power Core Combiners figures.
Yes, they have cards with all the languages on them, even Dutch... But I have to buy them abroad + pay for shipping to get them here.
There are even more figures than that being released in the US and never even see the light of day in Europe. We end up getting these figures and paying even more shipping plus, when you are out of luck, import duties.

I also hear those sounds of high gas prices... Hold on tight: we have to pay 1.75 euro for every litre of fuel. This translates to a price of 6.62 euro for a gallon which translates to a price of 9.60 USD (at this time).

Of course I hate all this too... But that is the beauty of collecting. You never know when you will find the next piece for your collection and at what price...

We live in a profit based world.
If the retailers, shops and what not still have enough stock, do not have enough money to spend on sitting stock or simple do not want it, than it is all lost.
I miss those days of the 80s. Transformers would hit the streets and in a year time 25 to 40 figures would be released.
You would get some pocketmoney, save that up and buy a figure you really wanted to have.

Now I can work 50 hours a week and still not have enough to buy everything for my collection which results in us having to make choices... Which means (more or less), due to the huge amount of figures that are being released, each figure is sold less, in total it is more, but per figure would be less... and that means that the figures sold best (which are NOT the fan-figures but movie figures), are available and others are not.

To me importing from Japan is about the same as importing from the US. I just wish Takara and Hasbro would just release the same figure instead of different paint apps... It would make my (TF) world a whole lot easier...

It's crap... but it is the world we live in...

D@mn combination of a bad worldwide economy (thanks to the sub prime mortgage meltdown), overseas wars driving fuel prices up, the Japan earthquake (sure that is probably a contributing factor) and a lot poor decisions may have contributed to this.

Not all of Hasbro life revolves around TFs but yes if the other article is accurate, the TF line is one of their profitable but..............

Please confirm to me overseas Japan based members the first two statements

1.IIRC either Diem or Stormrider stated that TFs don't sell well in Japan.

2.A specialty shop online retailer friend of mine stated that TFs are a runaway hit China (go figure KO land), which is also suffering from their own economic problems like runaway food prices, so that now may not be as accurate as 2 years ago.

3.So if Encore products shelf warm, how come their latest "modern" incarnations in United all are but sold out online? (Except Straxus and Lugnut (no one seems to love them). Kudos for taking the risk Hasbro/Takara on the last two)

4.I can attest to some retail availability of RTS/Generations lines in SEA, why it doesn't reach the USA? Heck RTS Windcharger IIRC was given a limited release in my country sometime last November or December 2010 in a Hasbro event.So I'm in the same boat with most of you guys on looking for one.

Now the problem, as already stated by previous posters
what was Hasbro thinking with the PCC?!

All this freakin' repaint of the same molds? Aren't they diluting the value or the "I want" for them? In economics it's like putting out to much Rocky road Ice cream to the point that people get sick of it. Shouldn't they maximize their limited plastic based sources to a more 100% profitability release?

TF/Star Wars/Marvel cross overs? Puh leeeez!

Poseabilty is good and all but most of their latest designs, with the Bayformer line in particular is simply sucky in design. Breacher being an exception in the Neo G1 genre (at least in my opinion that is).

And now with DoTM coming,( how I wish this is over with ) more bad news.(for me I'd probably be getting just Shockwave)

Well, I'll tell you how it is here in WV. All the walmarts still have wave 1 and 2 of HFTD. And as for Generations, on at least ONE occasion the Walmart and the Target in Charleston got the wave which included one each of Kup and Scourge, but they were both bought by the same guy( who works early at Target every morning).
We have such a huge problem with hoarding new or desired figs here that for the longest time you couldn't even see a Blurr or Tomahawk on the shelf!!! Unbelievably, the two big retailers RESTOCKED wave 2 of the HFTD voyagers this month!!!!
This is exactly what happened at the end of the Universe line. When a movie is around the corner, Hasbro desides that only movie figs are going to sell and totally screws us on the last waves of classics figures.
Now, the online retailers are loving it, because we are paying 20 dollars or more a piece for the toys!! Or even that much for a scout!(Windcharger). In my town, there is a small time guy who sells on Ebay and Amazon who probably doesn't have a job, besause his van is in front of TRU and Target ALL THE TIME when they get trucks with his big sticker in the window, and people like that are probably the ones getting to any of these that are actually showing up.

As for Hasbrotoyshop, I had a while there where I checked twice a day for 3 WEEKS waiting for them to stock the new toys, and FINALLY one night they had Wreck Gar. As I was getting my credit card info ready they sold out...I turned away from them and their inferior shipping and stocking practices in disgust.

But like I said, this is a case of underproducing the classics to produce more movie plastic. And really, WHY do they always wait until a movie line is 2 months away to release the stuff we want?

It's been the same story in Europe SINCE THE 80s. Hasbro's distribution to a major landmass (Europe) is shockingly bad. Have they considered how much PROFIT they're missing out on by not sending all the waves of all the lines to Europe?

Well, I'll tell you how it is here in WV. All the walmarts still have wave 1 and 2 of HFTD. And as for Generations, on at least ONE occasion the Walmart and the Target in Charleston got the wave which included one each of Kup and Scourge, but they were both bought by the same guy( who works early at Target every morning).
We have such a huge problem with hoarding new or desired figs here that for the longest time you couldn't even see a Blurr or Tomahawk on the shelf!!! Unbelievably, the two big retailers RESTOCKED wave 2 of the HFTD voyagers this month!!!!
This is exactly what happened at the end of the Universe line. When a movie is around the corner, Hasbro desides that only movie figs are going to sell and totally screws us on the last waves of classics figures.
Now, the online retailers are loving it, because we are paying 20 dollars or more a piece for the toys!! Or even that much for a scout!(Windcharger). In my town, there is a small time guy who sells on Ebay and Amazon who probably doesn't have a job, besause his van is in front of TRU and Target ALL THE TIME when they get trucks with his big sticker in the window, and people like that are probably the ones getting to any of these that are actually showing up.

As for Hasbrotoyshop, I had a while there where I checked twice a day for 3 WEEKS waiting for them to stock the new toys, and FINALLY one night they had Wreck Gar. As I was getting my credit card info ready they sold out...I turned away from them and their inferior shipping and stocking practices in disgust.

But like I said, this is a case of underproducing the classics to produce more movie plastic. And really, WHY do they always wait until a movie line is 2 months away to release the stuff we want?

i really dont want to have to pay out the ass for a windcharger on ebay.

Reading this is welcome sigh of relief in a way. I was wondering what the heck was going on. I live in Eastern Canada, Newfoundland. I've managed to scope and pick the following:

- Wreckgar
- Blur
- Drift
- Preceptor

I have almost all of the classics from a few years ago and when I heard news that the generations/classics will be released in RTS and Generations I was so stoked!

When I went looking for them, the same figures where on the shelf, or next to nothing were left..

I thought maybe the shelf stockers at walnuts here where getting the Megatron, Soundwave, Kup, Wheeljack, Tracks and Jazz. I'm glad to know this is not so.

The "Kup" half full sort of dude! I SO WANT KUP!!!!

Anyways, ....One thing is for sure if these are all made and package, they have to start to trickle at some point? I know the DOTM is on the way...but the generations/classics is my passion...I'm done with TF's that just have bigger guns and things can plug into (ie. mechtech?)

Bring on the Generations and Classics please hasbro!

Till all are one!

I'm bummed about Perceptor. I've seen all his case-mates but not him. I found one Target store that did have him in stock but I missed out. I've called other stores for weeks with no luck.

I figure it's still early to be seeing Wheeljack and Thundercracker.

Every RtS/Generations figure I have was difficult to buy, and I have one Kmart, about 5 Toys R Us stores, and 6-8 Targets, and a bajillion Walmarts all within an hour drive. Interestingly, I don't think I've ever seen a single RtS or Generations figure at Toys R Us, though I have seen some Classics/Universe figures there. It just doesn't seem like it should be so hard to find these figures and that it would be in Hasbro's best interest to get them in stock since everyone's buying them.

As hard as the figures are to find, I'm still hesitant to spend twice as much to order through BBTS.

I was told by several local retail chains that they didn't order any new figures because of all the old ones that did not sell.

IE: Revenge of the Fallen toys. They are EVERYWHERE. The same toys have been sitting on pegs here since November or earlier.

Other stores

If Hasbro is aware of this issue, these toys SHOULD BE FULLY available on line at their toy shop, not this randomly sporadic, extremely limited supply BS. There wouldn't be a HUGE PROFIT LOSS if your customers could actually find ANY THING. Or, here's an idea, quit alienating your customers by forcing your movie toys on them. There has been numerous toy lines for Transformers selling together for years. Release the RTS and Generations toys with these movie toys.

Mkall wrote:All this further reinforces my reasonings for buying online.

That's the way I've gone lately too.

It is possible that these hard to find figures could show up after the summer - remarketed under a different line.

I'm in Rhode island. The only RTS figures I've seen are Mindset, Fallback, and a few legends. All of these were at a local Khol's. It's really stupid of Hasbro to wait 4 months to put new toys out after Christmas. Really stupid.

I live in Tampa Bay and have a hundred retail places to toy hunt around here.

I am a also lucky enough one to have a complete Deluxe RTS/Generations line.

I will tell you I just started collecting in February and have been looking at the figures since late November last year.

Target seems to be the store on top of the RTS/Generations line as most of my figures were purchased from there.

Kohls seems to be a good place to find the RTS Wave 1 with Jazz , Tracks , Fall Back and Mindset. Walgreens also has this as well and they pop up at every other Walgreens usually.

I have seen Tracks and Jazz at Target twice and at Walmart once so do not expect to find them at either really.

The Generations figures seem to be most prominent at Target just like the Reveal The Shield figures. I found only Kup from the newer wave at Target once.

Suprisingly enough the only figure I had issues finding from the older wave was Drift who I found a few times but with a card bent up enough to pass on.

I started ordering figures from BBTS because gas prices are going from the roof and driving around hunting is just not efficient anymore.

I ordered from BBTS Kup , Thundercracker , Wheel Jack , Scourge ,Drift and Warparth. If you cannot find the figure you want in store just order it. STOP WASTING MONEY ON GAS!

I go to Target and Walmart by my house a few times a week in hopes of picking up Grappel or maybe seeing a Windcharger in the USA but am starting to give my hopes up. If I cannot find either in the next few weeks I am going to just order cases from BBTS to split with my friends.

If hasbrotoyshop had either in I can tell you I would have ordered them the second I could!

With the DOTM movie due in the next month I am thinking that there will be no "Classics" style figures left on the shelves except for Thunderwing and Skullgrin!

I have yet to see RTS Legends , Scout or Voyager on a store shelf and I frequent every store in Brandon , Clearwater, Tampa , Carrolwood , and St Petersburg.

Just think figures like Chopsaw might be worth alot money one day only because they were short stocked to begin with.

Windcharger may become a holy grail only worth buying to collectors. These are the things that happen when a company mismanages supply and demand.

Here in North-East Scotland, it's gotten really bad. The majority of Transformers I've seen on the shelves in the only shops that sell TF's - Argos and Tescos - are ROTF Wheelie, the ROTF legends of Jetfire and Starscream and Powercore repaints.
It's been very rare to see anything else, I got lucky to get the new Jazz, I saw Tracks a couple of times, but very rarely.

I've ended up having to resort to buying online and that's expensive, retailers online are charging double the recommended retail costs for deluxes and more, Generations Blurr for example cost me £24 since no shops bothered to stock him.
I've ordered a four pack containing Kup, Wheeljack, Scourge and Thundercracker from Epic Heroes, but it's taking time for it to be dispatched. I'm hoping it will be dispatched in time for the 26th of this month - my birthday - so that I can have something to look forward to.

I've had to order Tracks, the remake of Laser Prime, Perceptor, Blurr, WFC Megatron, Prime, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Soundwave - who took months to find, Thrust, Dirge and Windcharger, as well as Skullgrin, Straxus/Darkmount and Thunderwing online. Windcharger cost me almost £20!
I'm hoping to be able to find Wreck Gar, Warpath, Grapple and Lugnut next month, maybe Wreck Gar on Tuesday if able. But I'm not happy at the extra cost online since no shop is stocking anything but ROTF stuff while waiting for DOTM stuff.

Hasbro says they're losing money, will hello, common sense needed. If you want our money then here's this wild new idea - release your products in full!
As for shops refusing to stock anything but movie stuff, they should stop this stupid behaviour because if something is shelf warming then it's pretty clear there's been a mistake somewhere, so stock things that will sell.

And then there's the whole distribution side of things, whoever manages the distribution of Transformers for Hasbro is, to be blunt, an idiot.
They churn out multiple repaints of movie Bumblebee, yet trying to find anything actually decent like Generations/RTS Wheeljack for example is near to impossible.

Generations/RTS has been the best Transformers line in, well, ever outside of Masterpiece and Alternators/Binal Tech. They've been the true example of how well engineered a toy can be, how they can be like mini works of art to play with and admire and that Transformers don't need some tacky gimmick like oversized weapons or heavy amounts of electronics in order to attract the kiddies, but that they can just be plain good fun to play with for any age and encourage the imagination instead of being lacking and sloppy like much of the movie bots have been - with the exceptions more often that not being the remarkable little scouts and non-screen bots like Seaspray, Breacher and Hubcap.

The over realiance on a movie to sell things is damaging when something that is worth buying comes out, like Generations/RTS. Given a choice between yet another movie Bumblebee repaint or the sheer cry in joy delights of the G1 remakes, I would rather spend my money on the G1 remakes.
Maybe when my neices are old enough that may be how I introduce them to Transformers, not via the terrible recent movies that insult the intellect and are more to do with some male teen's glands than the actual Transformers, but series like the original G1 while introducing them to the toys via the remarkable G1 remakes.

So please, Hasbro, not just from the old time fans, but for the sake of actually showing just what the Transformers line is capable of, release the Generation/RTS line in full.
Because those, in all honesty, have been and are your best products when it comes to the Transformers franchise. If the new versions of Jazz and Tracks can actually have me smiling and nearly weeping for joy at how remarkable they are, then in that area you're doing something right.

More Classics/Universe/Generations/RTS please, we have the money if you have the common sense to release them in full.

The latest wave of stuff I've seen is Generations Wave 5. And that was three months ago. We should have gotten Wave 6 by now. Haven't seen Kup or Scourge yet.

Well I have yet to see any preceptors, but i already found most of these figures.
I am not sure if my area is supposed to receive the newest wave yet ( wheel jack, Warpath, Etc )
It did take me about $100 bucks in gas to find most of the newer ones it was worth it though.
PLEASE let the new wave get at least 20 miles away from me because i hate waiting for orders

I count myself lucky to have pre-ordered Wheeljack and Scourge in the latest pre-order setup on HTS- they definitely went out of stock really fast. I also managed to order and receive Perceptor and Darkmount from HTS. They are sitting/standing on my bookshelf. I've not gone around any local retailers persistently lately but when I do they are always stocked with aforementioned PCC and HFTD. I do, however, check in on HTS consistently but no luck on Warpath, Windcharger, Wreck-Gar, and a few others that escape my mind at the moment. I suppose that can be a good thing given my unemployment situation.

To be honest I have to agree with what this article is saying, both original post and quoted article. It stands to reason that with the decline in value of the USD companies (not just toymakers like Hasbro) would send their products where the economy is perhaps stronger and the money has more value. The more value the money has the less you spend, the more you can make. It also stands to reason that retailers would want to reduce their 'dead weight' products- the shelf warmers, the discounted products that no one wants. I must admit I have have nothing new to add but the reasoning brought forth is very sound. What does not seem logical is this thought process where the least desired products are more available and the highly favored ones are found to be rare. The effect of this will increase the price tag for those rarer product, if not on the shelves in the retailers, than most certainly on ebay as that is where a good majority of them will end up (everyone wants a cut of the money).

They want us to help out by voicing our opinions eh? If it will help, I'll do so. So Hasbro, or whoever is in charge of Transformer toy shipments/deliveries/distribution: If you read these threads, listen up!

I couldn't care less about the movie toys. If you're trying to woo me with those weird looking bricks you call 'mech tech' weapons, you've failed. I'm not planning to buy ANY of the movie toys.

I am, however, VERY interested in the last toys of the RTS/Generations lines. Namely, I want Lugnut, Wheeljack, Thundercracker, Warpath, Rumble and Windcharger.

I will SPEND MONEY on those (the RTS/Generations figs - them - NOT any DOTM figs) I'd love to find them in stores, but if the above article is accurate, then these toys are being screwed over in favor of dumping this DOTM garbage on shelves instead of the RTS/Generations figures that I really want.

So Hasbro/whoever: Get off your duffs. You want to put all this DOTM junk in stores? Fine. But put the other figures I want in stores too. Or put MORE of them on hasbrotoystore.com so I can order them in one lump delivery.

Right now only ONE of the figures I want is listed on HTS.com. But the shipping fee is like $7 above and beyond the price of the figure. If the other figures 'trickle' into being available one by one, I don't want to have to pay $7 a pop for each one to be delivered seperately. I'll swallow the shipping fee if I can get the discount and have them all delivered at once.

Got that? There's money to be had, Hasbro - if you become up and doing!

HI everyone - I'm a long time reader, first time poster

This was an excellent article. Just from my own perspective, in Northern NJ, Walmart and Target shelves are still full of Tuner Mudflaps from ROTF. There have been a few shocks of new product - a local TRU had a giant end-of-aisle display of RTS Wave 1 & 2 (Tracks, Jazz, G2OP, WreckGar, Perceptor, and Bee) which sold out in less than a week.. however, now all the new product is gone and there are STILL giant piles of ROTF TRU exclusives and voyagers. At least they're starting to put them on markdown.. and they also have lots of TRU Rodimus Minors left, as well.

I work in distribution in the Fashion industry and I see a lot of the same trends that are described in Hasbro's annual report. Retail chains are carrying much lower inventories to remain lean, keep liability off the books, and react to trends; they expect suppliers to deliver goods on the turn of a dime. The main focus in Retail now is speeding up the supply chain to shorten turn time and get product from the factory to the selling floor FAST. Traditionally it took several seasons to plan "waves" and "floorsets", planning often began over a year in advance, but now the trend is to reduce lead time to weeks.

I honestly can't blame Hasbro for our Retail woes, I think much of the problem also rests in the hands of Retail chain inventory planners and buyers who over-order certain waves. I don't know lots about retail buying, but from what I know I'd imagine a savvy inventory planner for a retail chain would know their product well enough to stock appropriate levels of certain items. If an inventory manager doesn't know the difference between ROTF, Animated, HFTD, RTS, and Generations, they just order enough "Transformers" to keep the shelves stocked, regardless of the subline imprint. I also notice, at least in my area, that the big retail chains themselves try to push too much product through larger flagship stores. In my experience it's the smaller, lower volume stores that have newer product sooner, as they order much smaller volumes and sell through more quickly, than the giant flagships that seem to languish with the same product for ages. I often find new figures at a small Walmart in a tiny community in the tail end of South Jersey in the middle of winter MONTHS before I see any new product on the shelves of my local NNJ TRUs (5 min outside NYC). I found the Battle in Space 2-pack there on New Years Day, the same 2-pack JUST showed up at TRU here in NNJ 2 weeks ago.

I do agree and wish, however, that HTS would carry higher volumes of stock for later wave figures. They may be missing out on revenue here - the inventory that clogs up the retail chain is already paid for, Hasbro's made their money on that product, so if the big box stores won't buy later waves due to the fact their inventory levels are too high, why not push it through other online outlets? Depending on the cost, it may even be a good idea for them to issue free shipping as an incentive to people who don't normally order online. They can only make more money... I'm still holding out hope there are more Windchargers and Grappels on a vessel from Hong Kong making their way to the HTS distribution center right now. It may be just a matter of time... keep the faith!!

Although I need to take a spending break during DOTM, I recently found some solace by pre-ordering the last few Generations/RTS waves with TFSource or BBTS. I used to enjoy the hunt, but it started to become too nerve-racking and time-consuming to me. Ordering online is worth the extra $10 shipping for the peace-of-mind. I use the "Pile of Loot" feature to collect several waves, and I STILL get the figures long before they show up at retail. I have my Wheeljack and Thundercracker, but I don't quite know what I'm going to do about Warpath yet...

Anyway, that's my two cents. Thanks for listening!

r3devi7 wrote:Upstate Ny near Albany, lots of Hailstorm, Sidearm Sideswipe, Cybertron Optimus, and Cybertron Bumblebee. Even some of the twins left. Have yet to see any of the newer TFs here.

We don't even have THOSE in Central Indiana. Little trickles of the WfC guys, I may have seen Sides before, and I diddnab one Firetrap, but no Hailstorm, nothing. Newest PCC fig I've seen was 1 Leadfoot. Nothing in the combiners since Cranky, I have seen Skullgrin, latest I think beyond him was Blurr. But that's a small dripping of figures at best too. The only line that seems "On it" is Human Alliance, but that's finished for the moment until DOTM releases.