The Energon Pub

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Emerje wrote:There IS a new endcap display, but that was pretty empty. No pictures of that since I don't like taking photos when people are around, but it had two Kingdom Cheetors, a Paleotrex, a Blackarachnia, three Optimus Primals, an MPM VW Bumblebee, and a SS Hot Rod. Not sure why they needed an endcap for that, surely it would have made more sense to fill the actual aisle first? At least there's sign of stuff being stocked for a change.

Emerje

Endcaps are for attention like "This is on sale" or "This is new", or just for impulse without the need to go to the regular aisle. Faster turnarounds are prioritised it seems.

I haven't seen one at mine, but it too was plucked practically bare. Same with my Walmart's Earthrise pegs.

I should have mentioned this was a backside endcap facing the puzzles and board games where they usually stick overstock and clearance stuff, not one of the feature endcaps in the main aisle across from electronics. That's why I didn't understand not just cleaning up the aisle and sticking them there. Maybe it's just somewhere to put stuff until they do the reset (which should be soon, they've set up a clearance aisle since last weekend).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:I should have mentioned this was a backside endcap facing the puzzles and board games where they usually stick overstock and clearance stuff, not one of the feature endcaps in the main aisle across from electronics. That's why I didn't understand not just cleaning up the aisle and sticking them there. Maybe it's just somewhere to put stuff until they do the reset (which should be soon, they've set up a clearance aisle since last weekend).

Emerje

I was about to post something about this in a couple other threads... I just randomly found the endcap display at my Target this morning, which is where I found Hot Rod and Scourge (and some of the Kingdom figures).
It really did seem like a weird spot for them and there wasn't any sort of real display... Literally just tags on shelves and pegs.
And there was plenty of space in the TF's section of the aisle. Which was really pretty bare.

Basically I've had visual sightings of all of Kingdom wave 1 and SS86 wave 1. As far as exclusives, I've seen all of Walmart Netflix wave 2 (except Soundwave). I've only seen a single Headmaster Chromedome (apparently wave 2 is starting to show up, and I've barely seen any wave 1). I've also seen a single Cheetor RED figure.

I don't follow Cyberverse, but they are always hanging around in droves, also...Buzzworthy Bumblebee...which leads me to my complaint...

Despite seeing most of the stuff I'm interested in, it appears after a few initial early sightings, this past weekend, several Targets were severely in drought of any SS or Kingdom, it was pretty much overflowing with BB stuff, that nobody asked for.

Walmart has almost NOTHING at all. the same Cyberverse toys that have been on the pegs for months, but of course the hot items (Kingdom, and SS), they are not keeping in stock. Also I don't know if the Headmasters are extremely popular, or just haven't shown up in my area yet. Still it's very frustrating, this Bumblebee line is a huge misstep for Target, and I have no idea what Walmart is doing.

o.supreme wrote:Basically I've had visual sightings of all of Kingdom wave 1 and SS86 wave 1. As far as exclusives, I've seen all of Walmart Netflix wave 2 (except Soundwave). I've only seen a single Headmaster Chromedome (apparently wave 2 is starting to show up, and I've barely seen any wave 1). I've also seen a single Cheetor RED figure.

I don't follow Cyberverse, but they are always hanging around in droves, also...Buzzworthy Bumblebee...which leads me to my complaint...

Despite seeing most of the stuff I'm interested in, it appears after a few initial early sightings, this past weekend, several Targets were severely in drought of any SS or Kingdom, it was pretty much overflowing with BB stuff, that nobody asked for.

Walmart has almost NOTHING at all. the same Cyberverse toys that have been on the pegs for months, but of course the hot items (Kingdom, and SS), they are not keeping in stock. Also I don't know if the Headmasters are extremely popular, or just haven't shown up in my area yet. Still it's very frustrating, this Bumblebee line is a huge misstep for Target, and I have no idea what Walmart is doing.

Yeah o.supreme is spot on how shelves have looked as of late Walmart being the worst. Distribution has really sucked and I hope it picks up soon!

Well, here we are at the tail end of April, and not much has changed. I am seeing the Netflix wave 3 deluxe at Walmarts pretty regularly, but that's about it. I must be wrong, because in the past, I would think that if an items sells relatively quickly, store inventory would be quick to want to restock it. But maybe because they way over ordered on Siege, things are way different now.

Instead of seeing 10 Leader Shockwaves on shelves for months. Now they order one or two cases of Kingdom leaders. These sell very quickly, and that's it No attempt tp restock. Same with Voyagers. My closest walmart must have got 3 cases of wave 2 because I saw (Gasp) 6 Dinobots, that's the most voyagers Id seen at once since kingdom started (The Infernos must have already sold because I didn't see any), then a little over a week later, they were all gone, and nothing has been restocked since, that was almost 3 weeks ago...

Target in my area just got wave 2 deluxes, which sold quickly. The latest wave of SS deluxes I've seen pretty frequently as well. But again, NO Kingdom Voyagers or Leaders at Target at all, or occasionally I may see 1-2, which sell quickly. Buzzworthy clutters those shelves with little movement unfortunately.

In the past I could rely on brickseek to help, because while I have many stores I can drive to, I don't want to waste time/gas. Unfortunately it appears there search parameters for the newer Kingdom toys haven't been updated, so its of no use currently.

o.supreme wrote:Well, here we are at the tail end of April, and not much has changed. I am seeing the Netflix wave 3 deluxe at Walmarts pretty regularly, but that's about it. I must be wrong, because in the past, I would think that if an items sells relatively quickly, store inventory would be quick to want to restock it. But maybe because they way over ordered on Siege, things are way different now.

Instead of seeing 10 Leader Shockwaves on shelves for months. Now they order one or two cases of Kingdom leaders. These sell very quickly, and that's it No attempt tp restock. Same with Voyagers. My closest walmart must have got 3 cases of wave 2 because I saw (Gasp) 6 Dinobots, that's the most voyagers Id seen at once since kingdom started (The Infernos must have already sold because I didn't see any), then a little over a week later, they were all gone, and nothing has been restocked since, that was almost 3 weeks ago...

Target in my area just got wave 2 deluxes, which sold quickly. The latest wave of SS deluxes I've seen pretty frequently as well. But again, NO Kingdom Voyagers or Leaders at Target at all, or occasionally I may see 1-2, which sell quickly. Buzzworthy clutters those shelves with little movement unfortunately.

In the past I could rely on brickseek to help, because while I have many stores I can drive to, I don't want to waste time/gas. Unfortunately it appears there search parameters for the newer Kingdom toys haven't been updated, so its of no use currently.

Did all your kingdom leader optimus toys sell? I keep seeing him in my stores, but just him

I've seen a single Kingdom Leader Megatron on 2 occasions. Oddly enough, I've never seen Optimus Prime in Kingdom packaging. I too thought it would shelfwarm hard, but I've never seen one.

o.supreme wrote:I've seen a single Kingdom Leader Megatron on 2 occasions. Oddly enough, I've never seen Optimus Prime in Kingdom packaging. I too thought it would shelfwarm hard, but I've never seen one.

How about Kingdom Arcee, people said that would shelfwarm as well.

For a certainty, Of all of the wave 2 Kingdom deluxes Arcee is definitely the one that sticks around the longest. I saw 2 of them today at 2 different Walmarts. But they will sell, almost guaranteed they won't be there in a week. I have reservations about Wheeljack in wave 3, since it's not only the same as ER,but also the 3rd release of that toy.


Oh and I actually did see something new today. A single SS BB Starscream. So I guess that's something. I'm not a SS collector, but I'll probably never see it again. I've still never seen Kingdom Inferno. Also the last time I saw any leader class at a Walmart or Target was about a month ago.

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:I've seen a single Kingdom Leader Megatron on 2 occasions. Oddly enough, I've never seen Optimus Prime in Kingdom packaging. I too thought it would shelfwarm hard, but I've never seen one.

How about Kingdom Arcee, people said that would shelfwarm as well.

She is the only Wave 2 figure I've seen besides the Ractonite I actually bought

Just trying to do some more analysis. So, there are almost 1900 Target Stores in the United States, and over 300 in California alone. Just FYI, I have at least 10 that are within relatively short driving distance.

https://www.scrapehero.com/target-com-a ... s-the-u-s/

There are (shockingly) Almost 3600 Walmart Supercenters in the United States. Again, I can attest that there are at least 20 that are within a relatively short driving distance from me.

Then I watched this video:

https://youtu.be/dJohpUyh_CE

Now while it is not the most articulate commentary, there are some points I agree with, and Disagree with, as we all try to navigate the reasons for the empty shelves, which is now without a doubt a nation-wide problem, not just a local one:

1. COVID Is not to Blame -Agreed. As the rest of the Toy department is seemingly well stocked at all times in most stores, also as we've seen stores in Canada, don't seem to have issue keeping items in stock

2. Kids aren't buying Action Figures anymore -Mostly Agree.

3. Purchasing Action Figures is moving to a more online purchase format - Agreed (unfortunately)

4. Scalpers aren't as big a problem as it seems -Disagree . All you have to do is look online and there are vast quantities of product on eBay and other aftermarket auction and non-auction sites, for insane markups. Unfortunately I don't have time to go to stores when they first open, but on the *rare* occasion I have taken a day off of work and done such, I've always seen multiple scalpers.

5. Toy Companies purchase shelf space, so they don't care that it is empty -Hard Disagree - This may have been true in the past, but certainly not anymore. It is my understanding that the Toy Companies (i.e. Hasbro) gets paid based on how much a distributor orders. They are certainly ordering less it seems because they don't want to lose money on discounting/clearancing items.

6. Unsold Toys go back to the factory -Disagree -I'm pretty sure we all know that any unsold toys go to secondary stores (Ross/Marsahalls/ Ollies etc...) to be sold at deep discount. Toy companies *might* send product to these secondary stores directly, but it's only because it was not initially ordered by the larger distributors first.

Of course if I am way off base in my understanding, please let me know, I'm just trying to figure this all out based on my own observations. The sad fact is, yes, I know online is pretty much the way to go. I've got pretty much everything for the foreseeable future as pre-ordered through multiple sellers, btu as we've come to see, nto even online pre-orders are a guaranty anymore. It just stinks that the system we've known pretty mch our whole lives is changing. Going into a toy store and actually *seeing* the thing you want before you get it is always advantageous IMHO.

Did kids buy action figures before? With what money?

william-james88 wrote:Did kids buy action figures before? With what money?

The first time I remember buying my own toys with own money, I was probably 10. I bought 2 Motu figures for $10, and was so proud of myself.... But I think it is implied more or less it is what kids ask their parents to buy ( which evidently isn't action figures so much anymore)

Although I can't tell you how many times I've heard parents explaining to their kids in the toy section what they can/ cannot afford to purchase with their own money received from. ( Insert holiday here)

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Did kids buy action figures before? With what money?

The first time I remember buying my own toys with own money, I was probably 10. I bought 2 Motu figures for $10, and was so proud of myself.... But I think it is implied more or less it is what kids ask their parents to buy ( which evidently isn't action figures so much anymore)

Although I can't tell you how many times I've heard parents explaining to their kids in the toy section what they can/ cannot afford to purchase with their own money received from. ( Insert holiday here)

Ok. I still think the statement about toys not being purchased mainly for kids is dead wrong (we know it's wrong since collectors older than 10 only make up 30% of the TF sales). How many fans here bought Cyberverse Ultimate Bumbkebee? That toy was sold out rather quickly. And the transforners TLK toy to sell out quickest was the first Premier Bumblebee, a toy almost all fans ignored.
I could go on with Cyberverse Ultimate Optomus or even any warrior Optimus toy, or the Cyberverse Deluxe Bumblebee and Optimus.
Or even Siege Optimus. Optimus and Megatron had equal split in cases, and yet Megatron was all we'd see on shelves in the Holliday season. If collectors bought one of each, than that means the mountain of Optimus toys had to be bought by parents. And what about Rescue Bots, another line that only alters to kids that's been selling well enough to now be the longest running show based toyline in TF history? Lots of product being sold there. Unless you dont count them since they aren't action figures and not sold in that same shelf.

Also, I agree that scalping is a problem. Any youtuber saying otherwise probably has a scalping side hustle.

I'll throw in a couple thoughts.

Kids (and parents) are still buying action figures. They just aren't buying them in the same quantities as when we were younger because there are quite a few more options now for their attention that didn't really exist years ago.

I also do think Covid-19 is somewhat a reason for the distribution change we are seeing now, but more indirectly than directly. What I mean is Covid-19 changed the priorities of stores like Walmart and Target. Toys and the toy section simply aren't high on their list of things to manage and maintain. This actually makes a bit of sense as the entire toy section of either store probably accounts for less than 10% of their total sales, likly less than 5%. Groceries, cleaning supplies, heck even clothing are likely higher priorities.

We've even seen this in store staffing levels. All the sores near me have extra people at the entrances still. Those employees had to come from somewhere, and many of them come from the floor. My Target always had a roaming person covering toys and sporting goods before Covid-19, they haven't had one since. Now they have staff that try to quickly stock 2-3 shelves in the toy section before they move onto somewhere else or go back up front when the lines get long.

I think the other thing we might be seeing is that the retailers appear to have finally stopped ridiculously over ordering wave 1. In that case, the lack of consistent stock in stores might actually be a good thing. Or at least a better thing than seeing only wave 1 from January through June.

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:What I'm not understanding is your frustration with the Buzzworthly Bee line in the first place, unless it really is just with your local stores stocking habits.

That's exactly it. Target stocks a lot of Buzzworthy, and seemingly Don't stock Kingdom, or to a much lesser degree for unknown reasons. If Kingdom is selling out so much that when Target gets a case or 2 of a specific assortment, and it is gone in a very short period of time, one would think you would want to restock that item as soon as possible, not let the shelves sit empty for several days/weeks. But that's just me.

I don't see this often, but I do see this occasionally. But it is almost always a bunch of the Core-class Bumblebee with Spike. So many of the Core-class. And while I see plenty of SS86 in the SS area, the Core-class Bee does take a lot of the Kingdom space.

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:What I'm not understanding is your frustration with the Buzzworthly Bee line in the first place, unless it really is just with your local stores stocking habits.

That's exactly it. Target stocks a lot of Buzzworthy, and seemingly Don't stock Kingdom, or to a much lesser degree for unknown reasons. If Kingdom is selling out so much that when Target gets a case or 2 of a specific assortment, and it is gone in a very short period of time, one would think you would want to restock that item as soon as possible, not let the shelves sit empty for several days/weeks. But that's just me.

I get that, but I don't think Target is just sitting on a bunch of Kingdom or regular SS stuff and saying, lets wait until the Buzzworthy stuff moves. If they aren't getting enough from Hasbro, then that would be a completely separate thing and not really have anything to do with the Buzzworthy Bee line.

And really, seeing the same thing at Walmart really tends to say supply from Hasbro is lacking overall, and not as a result of the Buzzworthy Bee line existing.

I see a fair amount of Cyberverse and Bee figures as well. The Kingdom and Generations figures I'd want are rare and if they do come in, are gone by noon it seems. So it's truly the early bird who gets the worm around here these days. With S&H being more expensive than ever, and the stores not getting supply, it's a good time to reflect on what we currently have

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Are you sure you aren't just seeing a combination Buzzworthy Bee and Cyberverse Bumblebee adventure stuff?

Pretty sure, but if you say Buzzworthy is moving well, I'll take your word for it. I really want to take a drive one Saturday and just hit all 10 Targets in my area, and take photos to show you all, but the time, and fuel I dont think would be worth it. Honestly, since I have zero interest in Cyberverse, I can only report that I'm happy to see it's almost finally gone. Those toys I KNOW sit around for ever. I know that the Buzzworthy line is made up of several different toys from different lines. I don't think it has any Generations (I could be wrong though). I do see the SS repacks, those do seem to sell ok, but I still consider those SS, just with different packaging. Other than Buzzworthy SS, I honestly have no idea where all the toys in the label come from. I just know I can go to any of 10 stores in my area, see plenty of it, and only a *few* Core & Deluxe Kingdom at some stores (some stores have none), or regular SS. And NO Kingdom Voyagers or Leaders at all. The pandemic is obviously not the issue here, since Target can stock Transformers toys, it's just a huge imbalance on what they order.

Your about to get A WHOLE BUNCH more Cyberverse on your shelves in the fall going into the holliday season. It's coming back in a big way.

And I'm glad. My kids like Cyberverse, especially the one steps. Their favourite lines are Cyberverse and G1 bevause they have easy transformations made for little kids.

And yes, pictures from the targets in your area would be ideal because it is very hard to discern what you are saying from your rambling since you lump in stuff with other lines but not with certain toys, ect. Hard to make heads or tails from it all and it just sounds like an old man yelling at a cloud.

I wonder if target and walmart are having shelf presence issues because initial stock allotments are eaten up by the preorder options they offer. I highly doubt either of them care enough to bother ordering additional stock in the face of increased preorder demand. Given that adult collectors are more likely to use preorders than someone getting whatever's available for a kid's present, it would explain the disproportionate effect on collector friendly lines compared to the 'kiddie' ones.

alekese wrote:I wonder if target and walmart are having shelf presence issues because initial stock allotments are eaten up by the preorder options they offer. I highly doubt either of them care enough to bother ordering additional stock in the face of increased preorder demand. Given that adult collectors are more likely to use preorders than someone getting whatever's available for a kid's present, it would explain the disproportionate effect on collector friendly lines compared to the 'kiddie' ones.

I was actually wondering this myself, and if similarly, this is sort of the pendulum swinging the other way. Instead of massively over ordering wave 1 and to a lesser extent wave 2, they went minimalist and didn't adjust for their pre-orders in hopes on not getting stuck with late waves never making it to the shelves because waves 1/2 are still clogging the shelves.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

alekese wrote:I wonder if target and walmart are having shelf presence issues because initial stock allotments are eaten up by the preorder options they offer. I highly doubt either of them care enough to bother ordering additional stock in the face of increased preorder demand. Given that adult collectors are more likely to use preorders than someone getting whatever's available for a kid's present, it would explain the disproportionate effect on collector friendly lines compared to the 'kiddie' ones.

I was actually wondering this myself, and if similarly, this is sort of the pendulum swinging the other way. Instead of massively over ordering wave 1 and to a lesser extent wave 2, they went minimalist and didn't adjust for their pre-orders in hopes on not getting stuck with late waves never making it to the shelves because waves 1/2 are still clogging the shelves.

There's another element no one has mentioned (as far as I know). None of these retailer exclusives are limited. Meaning that they were produced with the same global audience in mind. The only difference is that the exclusives all end up at one retailer. So while the entire US portion of the stock for wave 1 and 2 of kingdome have to be split between Walmart, Target, Amazon and the dozens of smaller and online retailers, the entire US portion of the stock for the Netflix toys and G1 reissues end up at Walmart while all the Buzzworthy stuff ends up at Target. So what you are seeing when you go to these stores is the stock which could be destined for everyone all pooled in one place. So it's perfectly logical if you end up seeing more retailer exclusives than non exclusives at your local retailer.

william-james88 wrote:There's another element no one has mentioned (as far as I know). None of these retailer exclusives are limited. Meaning that they were produced with the same global audience in mind. The only difference is that the exclusives all end up at one retailer. So while the entire US portion of the stock for wave 1 and 2 of kingdome have to be split between Walmart, Target, Amazon and the dozens of smaller and online retailers, the entire US portion of the stock for the Netflix toys and G1 reissues end up at Walmart while all the Buzzworthy stuff ends up at Target.

My counter to this would be... then... apparently the original Series reissues and the TR Headmasters in retro packaging must be produced in much smaller quantities than a standard retail release, because these don't really exist in my area. True there are no Encore releases currently (I saw Blaster a couple of times, but it disappeared quickly). As for the Headmasters in retro packaging... I've quite literally never seen more than one on a shelf at any given time. a couple months ago I saw a single Chromedome at one store. Last saturday I saw a single Hardhead. Now I'm not actively trying to get these, but if I were I'd be extremely frustrated, probably would have just ordered them online. Even though I've seen a pretty even flow of Netflix S3 Deluxes, they don't stick around long, they sell very quickly.

So either Walmart is really bad at stocking/ordering their exclusives, as opposed Target. Or Hasbro is really bad about shipping to Walmart their exclusives, as opposed to Target...

and even then, Target Generations ER exclusives such as the Villains 2 pack, Thrust and Runabout were extremely hard to get. If these were supposedly all "concentrated" at just one retailer, they should be easy to get right?

I think it is really quite simple.

Walmart and Target are at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to stocking their exclusives, but are both in the same boat waiting for product when it comes to the regular lines. Walmart can't be bothered to actually put their exclusives on the shelves in any organized manner at all. Target on the other hand appears to want to put their exclusives out as quickly as possible leading to some stores getting a ridiculous amount and putting them all out at once while other stores got the bare minimum. Both appear to be putting out their regular releases as soon as they come in.

I think trying to make sense of in store distribution is really just an exercise in frustration because even if you can come up with a decent overall rule of thumb, you will always have some regional variation that may not fit.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:There's another element no one has mentioned (as far as I know). None of these retailer exclusives are limited. Meaning that they were produced with the same global audience in mind. The only difference is that the exclusives all end up at one retailer. So while the entire US portion of the stock for wave 1 and 2 of kingdome have to be split between Walmart, Target, Amazon and the dozens of smaller and online retailers, the entire US portion of the stock for the Netflix toys and G1 reissues end up at Walmart while all the Buzzworthy stuff ends up at Target.

My counter to this would be... then... apparently the original Series reissues and the TR Headmasters in retro packaging must be produced in much smaller quantities than a standard retail release, because these don't really exist in my area. True there are no Encore releases currently (I saw Blaster a couple of times, but it disappeared quickly). As for the Headmasters in retro packaging... I've quite literally never seen more than one on a shelf at any given time. a couple months ago I saw a single Chromedome at one store. Last saturday I saw a single Hardhead. Now I'm not actively trying to get these, but if I were I'd be extremely frustrated, probably would have just ordered them online. Even though I've seen a pretty even flow of Netflix S3 Deluxes, they don't stick around long, they sell very quickly.

So either Walmart is really bad at stocking/ordering their exclusives, as opposed Target. Or Hasbro is really bad about shipping to Walmart their exclusives, as opposed to Target...

and even then, Target Generations ER exclusives such as the Villains 2 pack, Thrust and Runabout were extremely hard to get. If these were supposedly all "concentrated" at just one retailer, they should be easy to get right?

Weren't the villain two packs more readily found than the non exclusive earthrise Quintesson figure? How many times did you see that figure at retail in comparison?
And yes, it could be that Hasbro made more Buzzwirthy toys than G1 reissues when assessing possible demand. Then again most G1 reissues got to clearance stage in various US locations so that tells me demand was met in those areas, which confirms a regional variable as opposed to an at large problem.