The Energon Pub

I was at Target this afternoon, and went to check the TF aisle, and THEY HAD EVERYTHING! all the voyagers (except for optimus) and Leader-sized optimus, the FABs, robot heroes, cyber-stompin whatever...... EVERYTHING put out.

however, as i was examining the real gear (had my hands on powerup and speed dial) when one of the clerks enters the aisle with a basket.... and I guess someone told him that they're not supposed to be out yet: he goes berserk, starts loading ALL the toys into the basket, EVERYTHING on the shelf. i panicked and ran, still holding powerup and speed dial, thinking he'd try to grab them from me. anyway, i made it to the front, they rang up, and they're on my desk now. i went back to finish my shopping, and decided to make a quick check on the aisle... the entire aisle was stripped bare of transformers at all. he even took the protoforms!

Lucky for you. Good catch.

Buddy of mine works at Kay Bee and he told me his boss said to take the protoforms down because they're not out until Saturday! When he pointed out that they've been out for weeks he was told "no they haven't, they where put out by accident last night." Then Target and Walmart had all of their protoforms pulled off the shelves so the same thing must happened there, too. What the Hell is going on here? Are these managers losing it or are new threats coming out of Hasbro for breaking street date?

Yeah I ran into something like that at a Target today. Although I managed to make out with the only Leader Prime, Voyagers Ratchet and Blackout they had as well as two of the Plushformers before they did anything. Day before I checked a Supertarget and Walmart and scored pretty much all the deluxes aside from Barricade and that mini Prime.

I got a bunch of movie figures yesterday at my local Target and had no problems with them at the register like some people have reported, but they had a real small selection and most of the peg space was still empty. So I don't know what to make of all this, like if they're out but not officially out or if stock people are being given the run around on what to stock or what. This whole deal is bizarre. As ironic as this may sound on a Transformers forum devoted to toys, I can't believe that there's such a big deal being made over the release of these figures.

I thought it was a case of the protoforms being okay to sell (as they've been out for a while) and then the rest, the real bread and butter of the line, is to be witheld until June 2nd? Why would they take the protoforms away?

I guess they would get rid of the protoforms for not selling too well. I like them both, but they are basically just unrecognizable lumps, and in all reality should probably not have been the figures selected as preview toys. I can't imagine that they would entice kids or new fans to seriously consider buying into the Transformers universe. I think it was a marketing ploy just for us as existing fans and collectors, to draw us in further.
Anyway, I think they should ditch to protos in favor of actual movie figures. Really, if you haven't gotten your protoforms by now you're either not interested in them or don't like them, so move 'em out and make way for better figures.

zodconvoy wrote:Buddy of mine works at Kay Bee and he told me his boss said to take the protoforms down because they're not out until Saturday! When he pointed out that they've been out for weeks he was told "no they haven't, they where put out by accident last night." Then Target and Walmart had all of their protoforms pulled off the shelves so the same thing must happened there, too. What the Hell is going on here? Are these managers losing it or are new threats coming out of Hasbro for breaking street date?

The manager was probably just stupid and couldn't tell the difference between the preview figures and the regular release ones.

I just got Proto OP and Scream, my wife picked them up at Target. She said they were by themselves in and empty aisle.