The Energon Pub

FINALLY my Wal-Mart is inundated with Netflix. There's at least 4 of every figure! Of course I grabbed a Bee. Its nice to finally have a decent-sized G1-accurate non-MP Bee.And he's so adorable!

SGMLordMirage wrote:Combining new and old! Dug out my Autobot base from way back in the day and added NF Autobots to it. Obviously, some of them should be facing to the front but for capturing all them, I turned a couple fo them around.

Is that the STARS base?

I believe that is in fact the The Transformers: Activity Center by Warren.

william-james88 wrote:No official announcement needed. This figure is available through fan channels while the previous spoiler pack was not, that's all there is to it.

No, that's not all there is to it, which is why I asked. TF-fan kev provided a much more thorough answer that addressed my points of confusion.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:I'm not sure if anything was stated officially, but just comparing how the wave 1 and wave 2 leader spoiler pack have gone, it is pretty clear something changed for them.

For Wave 1, Walmart was the only option and they realized immediately they can't organize their toy aisles to fit something large like the spoiler packs and many stores sent them right to clearance. They did not become available from anywhere else till long after Walmart screwed up their distribution internally.

For wave 2, Walmart is not carrying them in stores, online only (confirmed by some Walmart employees on this site). Pulse and a few other retailers had access early enough to give pre-orders. That right there should tell you something is different for how they distributed wave 2 without needing any kind of official statement.

Thank you, that's what I was getting at. Since the first leader didn't interest me much I wasn't following closely to see if it showed up online or anything. I did remember it being put on clearance pretty fast (by reports at least, never saw that myself), which they likely wouldn't do if they planned to stock the second assortment, but I wasn't sure if the outlets carrying Nemesis had also carried Magnus or not.

So speaking of Walmart weirdness, I do think my Bee pre-order is lost in their system under the delayed status. I found him in stores on Sunday and immediately cancelled my pre-order, but it is still in the process of cancelling. Anything else I've ordered from them was easy to cancel immediately. I'm not really worried as if they do ship him out, I'll just return him in store.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:So speaking of Walmart weirdness, I do think my Bee pre-order is lost in their system under the delayed status. I found him in stores on Sunday and immediately cancelled my pre-order, but it is still in the process of cancelling. Anything else I've ordered from them was easy to cancel immediately. I'm not really worried as if they do ship him out, I'll just return him in store.

My Bee was the same, I canceled him over a week ago after finding him in-store and I just received cancelation confirmation this morning.

I managed to get Netflix Bumblebee for an OK price (by my standards anyway) on Ebay, so I'm happy that I'm finally going to have one. Its release keeps getting delayed on the Smyths Toys website, but I reckoned because it's a highly sought after exclusive I'll likely struggle to get one at actual retail, so I bit the bullet and managed to get one for an acceptable amount of money.

I know a lot of people say Prime sells but is Netflix Prime one of them? I went looking for Soundwave and hit three Walmarts, two had practically nothing while one had a bunch of Netflix deluxes and three Netflix Primes, along with two Hotlinks. So at least three shipping cartons were opened and the Soundwaves sold but not the Primes, right? The cartons are one of each? Almost willing to buy him on eBay as the markup is probably about what I've spent on gas already

aronjlove wrote:I know a lot of people say Prime sells but is Netflix Prime one of them? I went looking for Soundwave and hit three Walmarts, two had practically nothing while one had a bunch of Netflix deluxes and three Netflix Primes, along with two Hotlinks. So at least three shipping cartons were opened and the Soundwaves sold but not the Primes, right? The cartons are one of each? Almost willing to buy him on eBay as the markup is probably about what I've spent on gas already

Both Voyagers from wave 1 shelfwarmed a bit because Megatron was that toys 3rd release, and while Hotlink was *new* it was an obscure character and 8th use of that mold.

Soundwave on the other hand will be extremely popular and will no doubt sell out quickly. Prime on the other hand, while popular is still basically the same as the ER/ Kingdom toy, and will no doubt shelfwarm as well. I only wanted the BM from the Prime set, so thankfully I was obliged by a good friend so I didnt have to shell out $40 for another Prime since I am satisfied with the ER version.

I was able to get an online order placed by signing up for online alerts. The first alert came in less than 10 minutes but by the time I got to checkout he was out of stock. I signed back up for alerts and again in less than 10 minutes, I received another email. This time, since he was already in my cart, I went straight to checkout and completed the order. The shipment should arrive the Monday after Christmas. Here is the link for anyone else interested.

aronjlove wrote:I know a lot of people say Prime sells but is Netflix Prime one of them? I went looking for Soundwave and hit three Walmarts, two had practically nothing while one had a bunch of Netflix deluxes and three Netflix Primes, along with two Hotlinks. So at least three shipping cartons were opened and the Soundwaves sold but not the Primes, right? The cartons are one of each? Almost willing to buy him on eBay as the markup is probably about what I've spent on gas already

Prime will sell eventually. Parents will buy him. Soundwave though has heavy demand from collectors and scalpers due to this being an exclusive release of the first voyager tape recorder Soundwave we have ever gotten. So it's really apples and oranges here.

william-james88 wrote:

aronjlove wrote:I know a lot of people say Prime sells but is Netflix Prime one of them? I went looking for Soundwave and hit three Walmarts, two had practically nothing while one had a bunch of Netflix deluxes and three Netflix Primes, along with two Hotlinks. So at least three shipping cartons were opened and the Soundwaves sold but not the Primes, right? The cartons are one of each? Almost willing to buy him on eBay as the markup is probably about what I've spent on gas already

Prime will sell eventually. Parents will buy him. Soundwave though has heavy demand from collectors and scalpers due to this being an exclusive release of the first voyager tape recorder Soundwave we have ever gotten. So it's really apples and oranges here.

Yeah, I'm just kinda salty I keep finding Primes which means I'm missing the Soundwave. Because of course, I imagine the last Soundwave sold moments before I arrived lol thankfully I got my online order in. Now to see if it actually is fulfilled.

aronjlove wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

aronjlove wrote:I know a lot of people say Prime sells but is Netflix Prime one of them? I went looking for Soundwave and hit three Walmarts, two had practically nothing while one had a bunch of Netflix deluxes and three Netflix Primes, along with two Hotlinks. So at least three shipping cartons were opened and the Soundwaves sold but not the Primes, right? The cartons are one of each? Almost willing to buy him on eBay as the markup is probably about what I've spent on gas already

Prime will sell eventually. Parents will buy him. Soundwave though has heavy demand from collectors and scalpers due to this being an exclusive release of the first voyager tape recorder Soundwave we have ever gotten. So it's really apples and oranges here.

Yeah, I'm just kinda salty I keep finding Primes which means I'm missing the Soundwave. Because of course, I imagine the last Soundwave sold moments before I arrived lol thankfully I got my online order in. Now to see if it actually is fulfilled.

I get it. I have been looking for the Netflix deluxe toys for weeks and today I find one lonely wheeljack, which means I missed all the rest. Aaaargh!

william-james88 wrote:I get it. I have been looking for the Netflix deluxe toys for weeks and today I find one lonely wheeljack, which means I missed all the rest. Aaaargh!

That was me for a solid 2 weeks until I finally lucked out.

Yeah last time I was in Walmart they had 2 Wheeljacks and 2 Impactors...
So hopefully I'll find Bee soon.

It's odd but since I purchased Elita-1 about 2 weeks ago when I saw all the deluxes, I haven't been in a Walmart or Target. I'm trying to wait until after the shopping season madness. I will regrettably probably have to grocery shop sometime this week, but I'll try to go to a regular grocery store, or do grocery pick-up and avoid Walmart if I can at all costs. I assume the deluxes I saw have long since sold, not sure if they have been replaced. Haven't ventured out to see if any voyagers showed up. I assume they did, but cant confirm.

I suppose that my great luck at finding the entire second wave of Netflix Deluxes several weeks ago is now offset by being unable to find Netflix Soundwave at ANY Walmart in the Twin Cities area. At best, I find a few remaining Optimus Primes, but no Soundwaves at all.

Why does Hasbro put up with Walmart anyway? They're a terrible retail vender. They apparently don't know how to order time-sensitive product correctly, always over-ordering Wave 1 of anything and then sitting on unsold overstock for months, skipping later waves entirely or getting only a few shipments of them out at the end of the year. Or they leave the shelves bare for months (note, this is not just a COVID-19 shipping delay issue, but a pattern for Walmart that has been observed for over a decade). Now many Walmart stores won't even stock all of the size classes for some Transformers lines. Studio Series Leaders? Generations Micromasters and Battle Masters? Forget it! The last straw for me was finding out that not one, but SEVERAL Walmarts in the area can't even keep track of their inventory. Yes, I know that sometimes their software doesn't "update" right away when a product is sold, but how do you explain NEGATIVE stock numbers!? Yes, that happened more than once while employees scanned the shelf tag for me. Once, the stock number changed from 6 to -9 within the space of 15 minutes, or about the length of time a nice employee was willing to check the stock room for me. Even he was floored when it happened. He had to manually correct the stock after that. Walmart doesn't care about customer service, training employees, compensating them fairly, or having sufficient quality product on their shelves. Stop giving them exclusives, Hasbro, PLEASE!

I totaly get it. As far as I am aware, WM stopped selling the smaller price point TF's (Battle Masters etc...) a while ago, not sure as to why. I had the same issue with leaders for the longest time, until about a year ago, now there are 2 stores in my area that are literally overrun with SS Leaders, and the rest have none. I've recently heard from someone (any walmart employees please correct me if I am mistaken) that if there are multiple stores in any given area, that only certain ones will get certain product, and the rest are left to flounder a bit. I believe I knw the store in my area that usually gets more variety than the others, but still it's never a 100% guaranty.

And yes I know this is not just a COVID thing. I made videos of 20 different stores in my area in August of 2018 (before getting shut down on Youtube for unknown reasons), showing the lack of product in most of these stores. Pretty much HALF of ER was exclusive to one retailer or another. WM also has exclusivity on Netflix, and RED. Not sure why, not sure how to make them change their minds.

o.supreme wrote:I've recently heard from someone (any walmart employees please correct me if I am mistaken) that if there are multiple stores in any given area, that only certain ones will get certain product, and the rest are left to flounder a bit.

I can believe this. There are three Walmarts that I can hit in a circular trip from where I live and one of those is well stocked while the other two are sorta left to flounder. And it isn't a size thing, as the better stocked Walmart seems to be a smaller store than the other two.

Agreed, while the walmart I find the most things at does scale bigger than most, there are two Gigantic Walmarts at opposite ends of the county, and I find very little if ever when visiting those. My smaller closest walmart seems to be pretty consistent about getting things *eventually*, it just takes way longer than most other stores in the area.

What is crazy is that it isn't even consistent in the same stores near me. One store used to be my "gold mine" where I always found the latest waves within the same week they were first spotted in the US (think TR/PotP timeframe). That same store a year later literally had empty shelves for the entire "boys" section of the toy aisles and all the stuff for those aisles piled randomly in shopping carts shoved around the bike display. For 8 months!!!!

I gots lucky with my closest Wal-mart few days ago. They had the whole 2nd wave of Netflix. All I wanted was Elita and Bee, but I got an Optimus, switched out the chest with my ER Prime, then sold it. Keeping the Netflix Prime with the ER Prime chest/front of the truck piece. Originally I only saw Elita on the pegs, then looked up top shelf and there was one Bee, so I took it. So, I love this Bee, now I have my perfect Optimus and Elita is not half bad. She is much better than the PotP one that I skipped. Now I wait for a Goldbug repaint or a new Goldbug head for Bee. There was also a few Soundwaves, but I have Soundblaster and he is my canon one. Good luck everyone.

Got a question about these Netflix toys. So of course Elita 1 and Bumblebee are the ones to get since they are new characters we didn't get in the mainline. But the rest are redecos of toys that I still see in stores. And yet they are selling out. It might take a week to sell off all the Wheeljacks but it's still just 1 week. So my question is, what's with this appetite for these repaints?

william-james88 wrote:Got a question about these Netflix toys. So of course Elita 1 and Bumblebee are the ones to get since they are new characters we didn't get in the mainline. But the rest are redecos of toys that I still see in stores. And yet they are selling out. It might take a week to sell off all the Wheeljacks but it's still just 1 week. So my question is, what's with this appetite for these repaints?

Helps that Red Alert and Impactor haven't been in stores for a year so anyone getting (back) into Transformers with the Netflix show would have had to go to the aftermarket to get them. Wheeljack? Don't know, haven't actually seen any of these sell out yet so I don't know what kind of interest there is in him over the ones that just went on clearance at Walmart.

Emerje

william-james88 wrote:Got a question about these Netflix toys. So of course Elita 1 and Bumblebee are the ones to get since they are new characters we didn't get in the mainline. But the rest are redecos of toys that I still see in stores. And yet they are selling out. It might take a week to sell off all the Wheeljacks but it's still just 1 week. So my question is, what's with this appetite for these repaints?

Excellent question. For me personally, if I had all the mainline ones I would not get any of the redecos. But someone may be a hardcore fans of a particular character.

When I finally went to a Walmart today to go shopping, they must have got more Netflix deluxes in, but they were all gone except 4 Wheeljacks.

I only got Megatron from the first wave because of the BMs, but I did not have that Megatron previously, and have been told by many it is the best looking despite being the 4th use. I also got Chromia for my daughter only because we completely passed on the regular Siege version.(The completion of Orthia also lessened the sting of Chromia not being a Combiner limb). Redecos are like second chances, but you can tell by the ones that Shelfwarm ( Hound and now Wheeljack) that a second run was probably not necessary.