US Fans are Posting Images of Well Stocked Target Shelves this Holiday Season

william-james88 wrote:How are your local shelves? Are you seeing lots of stock too? If so, share a pic!

My local Targets look nothing like this. Must be nice.

Haven’t checked out Target yet, but I will say my Walmart has better TF stock than I’ve seen all year. So everyone can keep their eyes out for that too.

My Target is full to the brim with everything EXCEPT Studio Series Voyagers. They've had Origin Bee in stock for at least a month, and have even restocked the Worlds Collide set multiple times. The last one (at the moment) sold just a few days ago.

Bounti76 wrote:My Target is full to the brim with everything EXCEPT Studio Series Voyagers. They've had Origin Bee in stock for at least a month, and have even restocked the Worlds Collide set multiple times. The last one (at the moment) sold just a few days ago.

Same, except one of the Targets near me got stocked in the summer with at least 15 Thrusts all at once. There are still 7-8 left.

Not sure about Target, but the Walmart near my realm is packed with Kingdom Beast Megatron figures. There's lots of figures on the shelf that I don't want, and very few that I do .

Seeing all those leader Slag figures is a welcome sight, to be sure. Just a couple months ago, you couldn't find any.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:How are your local shelves? Are you seeing lots of stock too? If so, share a pic!

My local Targets look nothing like this. Must be nice.

Some are complaining that this stock is "old" even though it's respectively the latest waves of leaders. Pretty nuts to complain about that when I know that people like you, and others, are not seeing the same thing. I would much rather there be lots of stock then there be no stock at all.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:How are your local shelves? Are you seeing lots of stock too? If so, share a pic!

My local Targets look nothing like this. Must be nice.

Not sure if it helps, but seek out a Super Target (full grocery store and typically longer hours) if there is one around you. I have 3 Targets close to me house and another 3 close to my work. Of the 6, only 1 is a Super Target and that is the one that had the endcap and that level of stock.

I'm not sure if such a thing exists near me. There are certainly stores that are Larger than others, but none of them are advertised as "Super", (A few were Target Supercenter, but that was 15+ years ago, they have long since dropped that branding). All the 20 or so stores in my area have a full grocery section. Oddly though, I've noticed that several are remodeling, and they are changing their logo from Red font capital "Target", to white font lower case "target". Again, this is happening with larger stores, and smaller ones, so I am not sure what the reasoning is.

Still, despite all of this, I may get your meaning. There are a couple of really large outlying stores, I may check them out this weekend.

o.supreme wrote:I'm not sure if such a thing exists near me. There are certainly stores that are Larger than others, but none of them are advertised as "Super", (A few were Target Supercenter, but that was 15+ years ago, they have long since dropped that branding). All the 20 or so stores in my area have a full grocery section. Oddly though, I've noticed that several are remodeling, and they are changing their logo from Red font capital "Target", to white font lower case "target". Again, this is happening with larger stores, and smaller ones, so I am not sure what the reasoning is.

Still, despite all of this, I may get your meaning. There are a couple of really large outlying stores, I may check them out this weekend.

I should also add that by full grocery store, I mean real, full produce, bakery and deli sections, not just a small selection of baked goods and produce crammed in by the dairy cases (all 5 other Targets near me are like this). I think the Super Target near me is a relic of times past. I think they used to be called Target Greatland ages ago, then Super Target. I don't think any new stores built within the past 5 years have used the "Super" part of the past really big Targets, but yeah, those are the ones you will most likely find an endcap.

I think shelves have been empty for so long that fans don't remember what it looks like to have a fully stocked Transformers section. Never has it ever meant that it's only the product that just came out. Never. You get some boxes of new product, it gets snatched up right away, you get more and more as the months go to eventually end up with a diversified shelf of the left overs for whoever wants a Transformer toy at the moment (for a birthday or whatever). With online, people can guarantee getting the toy when it comes out, even if they aren't the first to get it. So I really don't get why someone would complain about going to their Walmart and seeing a shelf that looks like this (which is what people are complaining about right now on TFW).



In many cases above, what we are seeing are the latest wave of figures (Kingdom and SS plus exclusives) that were expected to be found in Q4. I think it looks great and I figured this is what people have been asking to see this whole year when posting their empty shelves.

I went to 2 TRUs in Ontario in a recent trip to Toronto. These were stops along the way as the Tesla charged. In Belleville and in Brampton. Brampton had a really cool display of random figures fighting eachother. Belleville had a middle aisle display filled with TFs.

Keep forgetting to post this. From my local Augusta, Maine Walmart on 12/9.




No Leaders, but four full pegs of Studio Series Deluxe (more on the top shelf, FIVE pegs of Kingdom Deluxe, it's hard to tell but there's actually 4 SS Sweeps between two shelves for whatever reason. Three Rhinoxes so they probably had a bunch of Tigatrons as well. So packed full of Beast Wars reissues they're filling the top shelf. They've got so many of those big Cyberverse Bees that they had to put more of them off in the aisle where they keep the bigger ticket toys for Christmas. Don't tell me Cyberverse doesn't sell well!

Haven't been back since, I hope it's been decimated, I want these to sell well and I'm not hunting for anything at the moment.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:They've got so many of those big Cyberverse Bees that they had to put more of them off in the aisle where they keep the bigger ticket toys for Christmas. Don't tell me Cyberverse doesn't sell well!

Haven't been back since, I hope it's been decimated, I want these to sell well and I'm not hunting for anything at the moment.

Emerje

Cyberverse sells very well, it's just that it adheres to the business model of old where the bulk of sales will be for birthdays and christmas rather than also have collectors hunting down the latest release. We know more of that line is produced and there is more product available and yet every year all the Optimus Primes from that line vanish by Christmas.

I went to a couple of the larger Targets in outlying areas this weekend. None of them had those larger endcap displays with all the Leaders, but curiously, one Target looks like they got a single case of deluxe wave 3 in...which is a bit odd, but its my first time seeing it at retail, so a small victory I guess, considering Wave 4 has pretty much saturated all the Walmarts and Targets in my area.

I'd love to see wave 5 in a store near me before the end of the year, but somehow I doubt that will happen. I got my Slammer on pre-order with Amazon, and whatever happens; happens.

Sure didn't expect this at Walmart today.



That entire section to the left is supposed to be Jurassic Park stuff, but they must have decided they wouldn't get enough new stuff in and didn't want people walking into an empty toy aisle so they filled the shelfs with all the Transformers they had, completely wiped out the overhead shelf to do so. I've never seen this much Transformers allotted space at Walmart outside of a movie launch. They didn't simply move the Transformers to the JP area as overflow, they changed all of the shelf tags as well. Aside from the empty peg space (that's still JP) and a couple Ghostbusters items, everything in this shot is currently the Transformers section, all the way up to the Core figures on the far right.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Sure didn't expect this at Walmart today.

20211219_190734.jpg

That entire section to the left is supposed to be Jurassic Park stuff, but they must have decided they wouldn't get enough new stuff in and didn't want people walking into an empty toy aisle so they filled the shelfs with all the Transformers they had, completely wiped out the overhead shelf to do so. I've never seen this much Transformers allotted space at Walmart outside of a movie launch. They didn't simply move the Transformers to the JP area as overflow, they changed all of the shelf tags as well. Aside from the empty peg space (that's still JP) and a couple Ghostbusters items, everything in this shot is currently the Transformers section, all the way up to the Core figures on the far right.

Emerje

This seems to go against what our friend was saying about Walmart always sticking to their planograms

o.supreme wrote:I went to a couple of the larger Targets in outlying areas this weekend. None of them had those larger endcap displays with all the Leaders, but curiously, one Target looks like they got a single case of deluxe wave 3 in...which is a bit odd, but its my first time seeing it at retail, so a small victory I guess, considering Wave 4 has pretty much saturated all the Walmarts and Targets in my area.

I'd love to see wave 5 in a store near me before the end of the year, but somehow I doubt that will happen. I got my Slammer on pre-order with Amazon, and whatever happens; happens.

I am not expecting to see wave 5 at my local stores until 2022

william-james88 wrote:This seems to go against what our friend was saying about Walmart always sticking to their planograms

Don't think that thought didn't cross my mind when I saw the aisle like that, especially when it was said after I posted that picture of my other local Walmart where they just threw whatever figure they could on any peg that happened to say "Transformers" on it regardless of line or price point. Neither case was customers putting stuff back in the wrong place, that's for sure!

Emerje

Just to follow up on Toysrus opening their 1 store in the US (again), any collector hoping to get TFs would have been dissapointed. They mostly had stuff aimed just for kids. The only thing that collectors may have wanted (years ago) are some Siege Micromasters

Man, I seem to have juuuust missed Slammer and Pipes after a post-Christmas restock.

December 9


December 26


January 1


For those that don't know Wave 5 is 2 each of Slammer, Pipes, Airrazor and Blackarachnia, the later two being all that's left of what seems to be 3 cases.

The hunt continues.

Emerje

Probably scalpers unfortunately. I went to 2 of the larger Targets in my area yesterday. They had no Kingdom product, just tons of Cyberverse and Buzzworthy. Walmarts continue to have tons of classic BW. They are going to have to make the in store prices match the online ones ( being 50 % off or more) to get all that to move.

SS BB Soundwave is the only New thing I saw Friday morning, and was just 2 of them at one location. But now that I know Kingdom wave 5 seems to be at Walmart rather than Target, that is where I'll focus my search.

My Amazon order got delayed yet again to January 15, I just want Slammer so I can be done with the line.

My sections, despite the holidays, are still clogged with Kups, Blurrs, and now Sweeps and Wreck Gars. No sign of BB Soundwave here, nor signs of new Kingdom deluxes. I did secure amazon preorders for them though, so I am secure there

Went to 3 Walmarts. Most still have wave 4 Deluxes, and tons of Kingdom Leader Megatron. The small Walmart near me did get a new case of Deluxes this morning...but it was Kingdom wave 3...

Local Target for some reason seemed to get a huge repack of Kingdom beast Megs, Cyclonus, Rhinox, and Origin Bee. So much so that they have an endcap dedicated to them. Only new stuff has been core Ravage and Shockwave at Walmart. Tons of studio series Blurr, Kup, and Sweeps shelfwarming as well. Yikes!

Starseeker wrote:Local Target for some reason seemed to get a huge repack of Kingdom beast Megs, Cyclonus, Rhinox, and Origin Bee. So much so that they have an endcap dedicated to them. Only new stuff has been core Ravage and Shockwave at Walmart. Tons of studio series Blurr, Kup, and Sweeps shelfwarming as well. Yikes!

Blur and kup are repacks, so I wouldn't call it shelfwarming. Your lucky to have such plentiful shelves, many used to complain about empty shelves for years

So I go into Wal-Mart last night. There's 1 Kingdom Blaster on the shelf along with 1 Tigatron. Gleefully I grab Blaster and with my groceries I head for the checkout. Blaster doesnt ring up. The attendant checks him and says he's not in the system because he's not supposed to be on the floor yet. WHAT?! So I offer to get another item from the same slot (Tigatron) to scan in place of Blaster. She refuses that and doesn't even give me Blaster back. It was after work and I was too tired to argue so I just left. I'm going back today and hopefully Blaster will still be there (it was the only one I spotted in my entire town, so I doubt it) if they put him back out and this time I'm bringing him and Tigatron to check out just in case. Stupid shit like this just aggravates me.

I went through that a few years back at Walmart, with one of the wave of Titan masters. They didn't ring up and the cashier was going to deny me them because he thought they were a "choking hazard" .... Not your call to make dude...

I argued and said I'd take them straight to customer service. The CS Rep ended up just entering some random code, and entered the price manually. I understand sometimes if you are tired it's just not worth it. But if I have something in hand, I am determined.

Since then, if I even suspect I'm going to have an issue like that, I'll take another same-price toy and just do self checkout and leave the older toy behind. They say it "throws off their inventory", but lets be honest, their inventory isn't really that accurate to begin with, and between loss prevention, and returns, damaged goods etc... it's not going to make a big difference.

One of the biggest Walmarts in my area is ALL self-check now. Most other stores are at lest 50% self check. I can't remember the last time I actually had a cashier at Walmart run my groceries. Of course I only shop in store once a week for my mom, we get home delivery for my household.

Well when she went to check for the reason it didn't ring up, she took the box with her. So I couldn't get the figure back unless I physically tried to pry it from her. I asked about the substitution and she rejected it so I assumed she wouldn't give me Blaster back either. She put it behind the counter and I just thought screw it, I'm going home. I'll try tonight if the big boy is still there. I was just amped up because distribution in my area has been ridiculous for a year now, and it's the 1st time I saw this figure after looking for it for a couple of months.

Rodimus Prime wrote:So I go into Wal-Mart last night. There's 1 Kingdom Blaster on the shelf along with 1 Tigatron. Gleefully I grab Blaster and with my groceries I head for the checkout. Blaster doesnt ring up. The attendant checks him and says he's not in the system because he's not supposed to be on the floor yet. WHAT?! So I offer to get another item from the same slot (Tigatron) to scan in place of Blaster. She refuses that and doesn't even give me Blaster back. It was after work and I was too tired to argue so I just left. I'm going back today and hopefully Blaster will still be there (it was the only one I spotted in my entire town, so I doubt it) if they put him back out and this time I'm bringing him and Tigatron to check out just in case. Stupid **** like this just aggravates me.

Ah man, that SUCKS! This happens to me at self checkout sometimes (I only do self checkout as it's always been faster for me) and when it does I just take whatever I have and put it back in my cart and go back into the shopping area to get another toy that I know will ring up (along with the one i want of course). I then go back, ring that toy instead and give it to the attendant at the end saying I don't want it anymore.

I'm like OSupreme, very determined. It has happened enough times that a toy I want I only ever saw once (Earthrise Sunstreaker is a good example, as is Black Series Mandalorian) that if I see a toy in the store I want for the first time, it will come home with me.

I tried, but she never even gave it back to me after I asked for a swap.

william-james88 wrote:I then go back, ring that toy instead and give it to the attendant at the end saying I don't want it anymore.

I wonder if Canadian Walmart self checkouts are dumber than the US ones? I feel like doing something like this would definitely bring things to a stop and call over an attendant on me. Often times I'll scan something, put it down, reorganize my bag (Maine has a plastic bag ban so you either make the best of what you brought or buy a new reusable bag), pick it back up and put it in my bag which triggers the alert. It plays back an overhead clip showing me moving stuff around. I was told this was done specifically to keep people from scanning one thing and putting something different (presumably more expensive) in their bag instead so I feel like it would notice if I scanned one figure and put a different one in my bag.

Dumbest thing I've ever been denied a sale on was a bag of chips, I was told they don't sell that specific flavor and would have to pull them all off the shelf.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:I wonder if Canadian Walmart self checkouts are dumber than the US ones? I feel like doing something like this would definitely bring things to a stop and call over an attendant on me.

I'd say the opposite of anything. Emerje-, Sounds like your Walmarts have that small town "we can get away with anything" overreaching authority mentality. I experience it more with outlying Walmarts.

Whereas in the larger cities, the self check employees have this apathetic, "don't give darn" mentality, as folks basically loot the place running out with big ticket items, alarms blazing, and not much they feel their minimum-wage position can do about it.

I see stuff left behind by other people all the time, it usually just ends up in a basket to go back to the shelves, unless it's damaged. Sometimes I feel like I have prying eyes watching my every move. Other times...Twice I've actually walked out and accidentally forgot to scan items under my cart. I do the right thing and go back and pay for them and get a look of shock.

So no...legit paying for an item that wont ring up, by scanning another of equal description/value shouldn't get you in any trouble at all.

All the Walmart's around me suck @$$ and have so for a long time. I broke down today and got me a Kingdom Rodimus on eBay because he was one I got fed up waiting for to hit shelves.


You know where the pickin's are next to nil for me? Places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx... .

Nemesis Destron wrote:You know where the pickin's are next to nil for me? Places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx... .

They suck for most of us. But that's because they are dependent on other stores not selling their product. Shelves were empty after christmas, so there was a ton of space for walmart and target to put all their stock, so no reason to offload it for pennies on the dollar to TJMaxx.

Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and Ross were great for many of the Kreo sets that never made it to U.S. retail for some reason, not much else to speak of however beyond that.

IMHO it was during the Combiner Wars run that I last saw figures in discount retail stores.

Nemesis Destron wrote:IMHO it was during the Combiner Wars run that I last saw figures in discount retail stores.

In my case it was after Siege that Generations died out there. Other lines like Rescue Bots and Cyberverse still find a place there.

Ollie's still has them coming in now and again, but that chain is limited to certain states.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Nemesis Destron wrote:IMHO it was during the Combiner Wars run that I last saw figures in discount retail stores.

In my case it was after Siege that Generations died out there. Other lines like Rescue Bots and Cyberverse still find a place there.

Ollie's still has them coming in now and again, but that chain is limited to certain states.

My local salvage shop, Marden's, is pretty swamped with BotBots right now and for some reason some Siege Micromasters.





Emerje

The siege micromasters are everywhere. They were at my discount shop too. And when they had that TRU reopening in a Jersey mall at Christmas, they were the only Transformers product from any Generations line.

I still need to get the shuttle micromasters

Anyone seeing anything in their area? It's April 1st and there's been nothing new other than core class Ravage and Shockwave for the last two months. Two Walmarts and a Target in my area and nada. I'd hope to see the Bee movie deluxes at least. Not a trace of Legacy either. Kingdom Blaster never made it to my area either.

Starseeker wrote:Anyone seeing anything in their area? It's April 1st and there's been nothing new other than core class Ravage and Shockwave for the last two months. Two Walmarts and a Target in my area and nada. I'd hope to see the Bee movie deluxes at least. Not a trace of Legacy either. Kingdom Blaster never made it to my area either.

I've never seen Blaster as well. The only new stuff in stores I see is the Selects stuff. Nothing new mainline. No Legacy, no kingdom wave 5, no SS 2022 wave 1 aside from the core figures.

I don't feel like it's "brag-worthy", but finally, it seems that newer figures are making their way to my area.
For the rest of the week I'll probably be stopping by Target and Walmart to see if I can find Legacy Kickback and Dragstrip.
I was able to snag the last Legacy Blaster and 1 of 4 Silverstreaks this afternoon from my Target.

My local Target had Legacy Wave 1, Kingdom Wave 4, and a few stray Blackarachnias.

Not really bragging, just an observation that I find so damn odd. One of my Walmarts has turned the action figure aisle into a hodge podge of different lines. They did get a whole bunch more Cyberverse product and instead of figuring out how to make coherent space, they just mixed it all in there. And it's not people messing it up, the tags are all there. So you'll have Batman or Sersi from Eternals right between transformers.
This really does not help me believe that the modules are followed to the T (I called BS on that when it was first mentioned and I keep my stance, that shelf map is not followed to the letter)



Also, I wanted to just post this video, just for one line at the begining. o.Supreme intriduced me to Scott's channel where he talks of toys from the point of view of an industry professional and I found it pretty cool that when he evaluated the toy section at target, he was highlighting the transformers brand as being one of the bigger and more proven sellers, being placed next to Batman and Jurassic park which both have a bigger push now since it's a movie year. The video is not about that, but I found that quick fact fun since I don't see much movement in my shelves when it isn't the holiday season (as is typical of any toyshelf).

I did appreciate that, but I even responded in the Video, that despite his positive comment, the TF section still looked quite empty.

Now I know it's YMMV. Some Targets in my area are just now finally starting to get a decent amount of stock of Generations both SS and Legacy, after months of nothing but Cyberverse and Buzzworthy. I know the world still isn't back to normal, but I hope the shipping backlog is closer to being over.

Sort of way OT, not sure how this would be done, but I was wondering if someone at Seibertron would reach out to Scott for an interview? He seems quite accessible, and while he is no Transformers expert, I'd like to know if he had any personal affinity for the brand as a kid ( what his history is if any) and where he thinks it could possibly go in the future?

Scott has actually said that he'd like to do more Transformers videos to help diversify the channel, I think he'd be game.

(edit) Realized I didn't actually finish my thought. What I meant to say was that I think for us it would be interesting to get his perspective on what is happening with Transformers these days while we might give him some ideas for his own TF video content. Since he likes to name drop sites it might lead to a bit of free advertising for us. Win win.

Incidentally after I watched that video the other day I checked Target and, yeah, the only Marvel Legends figures I could find were the Doctor Strange ones on an endcap.

Emerje

The Kingdom waves were not properly distributed locally, with an overabundance of wave 2, and you can still see it on the shelves 1 year later mixed in with wave 4 which we got in abundance as well. Those toys are now relegated to the back display where they put the other toys that don't sell well on slight clearance. Oddly enough though, Wheeljack sold out. Every version of that earthrise Wheeljack mold sold out rather quickly.

Really weird, I have not seen anything wave 2 since last summer. They didn't stick around too long.

New Core Class SS Ravage Stealth variant (see below)


On a more serious note however. I did get my first Kickback sighting at a larger Walmart that obviously just got a new Legacy Deluxe case in. 1 Kickback, 1 Skids, and 2 Arcee's left on the pegs. I have yet to see a Dragstrip in the wild.

Just form my own observations, which is a very small sample of the population I admit, it appears that the popularity of Legacy wave 1 is:

Core - I have no idea which of the 3 is the most popular, I'd guess Skywarp if going out on a limb. I've seen fair amounts of all of them, which is nice considering I never saw Rodimus in Kingdom Packaging.

Deluxe- With 2 per case, distribution is even, but I'd have to say the popularity goes: 1. Dragstrip, 2. Kickback, 3 Skids, and 4. Arcee

Voyager I never saw Blaster in Kingdom Packaging, but to date, I've only seen Legacy Blaster one time. I know the case ratio is 2 Bulkhead to 1 Blaster, but man, when you see 4 or 5 Bulkheads at every store now, you wonder what happened to all the Blasters? (well I know, but you get what I mean)

Leader Galvatron and G2 Laser Prime come 1 per Case each. It would make sense for a number of reasons for Laser Prime to sell much better, and quicker. Admittedly, I've seen more Galvatron on the shelves, but surprisingly its not like multiples them, its usually just 1 Galvatron, or the store has no Legacy Leaders at all.