rdrunr89 wrote:I'm shocked that TJMaxx and Marshalls sells toys let alone Transformers. I stopped at a Marshalls today and saw Tomy Takara stuff (non-TF). I guess I have to hit more of them.
@Metrosuplex - I'm in IL too. West Burbs. I'll let you know if I find anything and where if you are up this way. I hit the Marshalls in Woodridge today but struck out.
I hit a bunch of Marshalls/TJ's in North Suburbs and nothing. I say it's not worth our time right now, as CO and CA get things EONS before us. I'm surprised even OH has gotten them. How does the Chicagoland area get the shaft, when we're one of the largest urban centers in the country????
burningpage wrote:Also in Colorado, Westminister, Tj Maxx had two Starscreams and one Arcee.
I love that store. They had some great stock. Just too bad I'm not up there any more!
rdrunr89 wrote:I was at a Toys R Us in IL yesterday and saw a the Generations (Japan) version of Cliffjumper and Swerve.
Hate to be so anal about this, but I think those are CHINESE versions. Big difference. When you say "Japan", I naturally think of Hasbro's Japanese counterpart, TakaraTomy. So if these were "Japanese", they wouldn't fly the Hasbro banner.
rdrunr89 wrote:Man there are a lot of abbreviations in there. Reminds me of "Good Morning Vietnam" - "If the VP is such a VIP, shouldn't we keep the PC on the QT because if it leaks to the VC he could end up MIA and then we'd all be put on KP"
That sounds brilliant. We need one for this site.
GuyIncognito wrote:Regarding where TJMaxx gets their Transformers: there have many cases in recent years of late waves of figures showing up at TJMaxx and Marshall's without ever having been released at "normal" retail. Clearly this was not leftover stock the other stores couldn't sell; these were figures that were ONLY showing up at the discount stores.
Or, maybe retailers like Target bought too much inventory, and never bothered shipping that inventory from its central warehouse to other stores, as the stores had trouble selling earlier waves. I see it like that, but who knows?
So if a Wal-mart bought 1000 Wave 3 figures, why bother shipping them out if the Wave 1-2 aren't selling? Maybe they send them straight to a discounter, and let them take care of the moving costs.
amtm wrote:But I'd bet that even with toys it's a mix--some direct from Hasbro, some from other stores. In the past couple of weeks I've been seeing TF Prime and DOTM Deluxes show up in spades at Five Below--considering how long it's been since DOTM, I'd suspect some of that is from retailers (especially Toys R Us, which always orders too much of everything fans never wanted), not Hasbro, but there's no way to tell for sure on any specific item.
There's ONE way to really tell where it came from: "Exclusive to Toys R Us!" stickers. Point of interest: I've seen those in TJ/Marshalls. Not specifically on TF products (I forget which action figures), but it stands to reason that a certain amount of inventory is therefore from TRU.
amtm wrote:Oh yeah--here's another fun fact. In my research on TJX--from some articles or something I read a while back--I found that they even have stuff (usually lower-grade versions of brand names) made specifically for them by manufacturers. So even the idea that all they do is buy overstock and whatnot is false. They have a clever marketing scheme, but you really gotta pay attention--labels there always claim you're saving money (just like at any department store) but often they're based on MSRP, not actual retail prices you'll find at other stores. So I've seen stuff selling just as high as or higher than at a regular store.
I do get the feeling some of the TF toys at those places are lower quality, too! I bought a legion Wheeljack from a 5Below, and the legs just pop off - very cheap feeling compared to other legions I've bought elsewhere. So I'm always wondering, and staring at the paint jobs. I'm pretty sure the discounters get the sloppy copies, as the paint jobs seem slightly inferior to regular releases.