The Energon Pub

So with the rollback happening in Walmart, I was curious to see if it had affected things here in Australia- so I checked Target's website.

Seems that they're mostly carrying DOTM stuff. Of course this isn't surprising when they're charging $28 for DOTM Deluxes.

Methinks someone needs to tell them what a clearance sale is...

Meh, I don't buy retail much these days. Cheaper to import tfs most of the time. The only exception for me in the last few years was the Generations Combaticons, they worked out the same or (with boxing day sales) cheaper than import prices + shipping.

Might end up buying BH Smokescreen at retail, but that is just because BBTS decided to rip off their customers

TBH I don't see the point of this thread. Any Australian collector who is part of a forum community like this should have found better options than retail by now and should be leaving those to mom and dad customers.

Is this just you pointing out the difference between U.S. and Aust prices again?

Nope- it's a straight up case of me mocking Target Australia. I mean we're talking about a line that's over a year old- largely flopped, and they're still trying to charge the extreme end of Australian retail pricing for them?

I'm honestly not sure what whoever does the pricing is smoking, but it must be some really high grade stuff.

Store: Zellers
Location: Canada, province of Quebec.
Time: When the ONLY wave of TF Prime deluxes came out over here (Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Soundwave, and Wheeljack).
Price: While every stores ever sold the new deluxes between 15 and 17$ plus taxes, Zellers sold them at 25$ plus taxes for some random reason.

---

A few months pass and some get sold for some inexplicable reasons.

---

Store: Zellers
Location: Canada, province of Quebec.
Time: From some weeks ago up to March 30th.
Price: Zellers have been sold to Target and is closing every single stores. The first few weeks of the closing sales had "sales" like 20-30% off on toys. With Zellers usual inflated price, even "on sale" it's still more expensive than anywhere else. 4 weeks ago, toys were at 40% off. Now, the Prime deluxes are finally at the normal price. Last week, it was at 60% off. No Prime deluxes remain. Only Kreos now. At 30$ + taxes, That big Optimus Prime was at a price that was reasonable enough. So I bought it.

---
I just wanted to share.

Methinks we need a thread rename to "Just what is that store smoking"

Canadian prices have always made me wonder what people calling the shots are smoking over there. I mean you have less freight to Canada than you do to Alaska and you guys still pay close to what we pay here.

As for that example, I love the poetic timing- they try what i imagine is their usual scalping approach and they themselves wind up being another chain's bargain . We've got stores like that here too in the form of Myers and David Jones which are "high end" but seem to think that they can inflate prices of products you can get at "low end" dept stores for much less. Small surprise that as recently as a few months ago I even saw them carrying Animated Voyagers still for $50 .

Bowspearer wrote:I even saw them carrying Animated Voyagers still for $50 .

If you are NOT from the USA or Canada, it's somewhat understandable.
If not, mother of god...

The only time I saw some Animated voyagers ever in store was the "dollar"/odities store called Magiprix. Only Atomic Lugnut and wreck-Gar. Each at 23$ + taxes. I bought Myself a Lugnut and a Wreck-Gar, of course.
A whole year later, the only Animated Voyager remaining, a Wreck-Gar, still shelfwarm.

Double post

TRU on our side of they pond have just put out a load of DOTM stuff at full price, where they find his stuff is beyond me.....

Pretender Skywarp wrote:TRU on our side of they pond have just put out a load of DOTM stuff at full price, where they find his stuff is beyond me.....

Same here in Norwich: they removed all the leftover DotM stock because it wasn't selling in December (even after a reduced price sale). Now they've brought it back, full price, and guess what?

It isn't selling.

My local Target stores have been doing some pretty dumb things too, lately:

Still selling DOTM Deluxes that nobody wants.
Practically no new toys, ever.
Kre-O line has disappeared completely.
At one point a year or so ago, they had a ton of old Voyagers that had been on the shelves for months and no one was buying. So what did they do? Raised the price to $30.

The biggest "what the hell is that store smoking" experience for me was when there was nothing but PRiD Bumblebee and 1 Cliffjumper (that was gone within a week) for two months. And they didn't even need to restock. It was literally the same set of Bumblebees on the shelf for two months (I could tell because one box had a dent in it, one somebody sprayed with silly string in the back, etc). The prices kept rising, too. $12, $14, $18.

Nowadays, during Beast Hunters, my Targets and Wal-Marts thankfully restock with new product regularly. They sometimes knock the prices down to $7 (which is when I took advantage of Airachnid. Go take a cold shower). It's a shame I never got to see Dreadwing, Skyquake, Rumble, Kup, or Shadow Strike Bumblebee (surprisingly) at retail, though.

My local TRU still has like 4 cases of DOTM deluxe figs still sitting on top of the shelves, collecting dust. As far as Target, their Prime deluxes are about 3 bucks more than the ones at Walmart.....

I think it's clear that Target doesn't care much about toy sales. It just doesn't seem important to them. They sell clothing, groceries, electronics, housewares, and a million other things, and their toys probably represent like 1% of their business.

Walmart is slightly better with toys, probably because they cater more to a family market and they're all about discounts and low prices.

As much as we complain about TRU, they're more likely to have what I'm looking for, and paying a couple extra dollars is no big deal if the only alternative is ordering online.

TRU is usually my first choice when I'm looking for something.I'm looking for. I just like visiting a store dedicated to toys......

Blurrz wrote:Canadian prices are actually rather moderate and fair, Kanrabat just happens to live in 'that' province

Yeah, the province where "le fait français" matter so much, it keep me away from my toys...

Blurrz wrote:The fact that they need bilingual packaging on your exclusives for them to be @ TRU is just sad

The worst thing is it's not because there a lack of space on the packagings. It's like they do it on purpose or something.

Just for fun, check out the corpyrights and date on the
packagings on ANY Hasbro products, and see that Hasbro Canada IS BASED IN QUÉBEC.

I KNOW EACH TIMES I TOLD PEOPLE TO LOOK NEVER CARED NOR RESPONDED, SO HAVE SOME PICTURES GODDAMIT:

See it for the Canadian version of the Ultimate Battle OP VS MEGS:




The all-American Animated Oilslick:



And one of the goddamn TrU exclusive, MP Rodimus:



There, Hasbro is a Québécois! (kinda)
Sigh...
But I bet it's not really Hasbro's fault and it's TrU who just want to be a dick.

Sorry to sound so angry, but as a Québécois, it feel like if TrU is spitting in my face. Me and all my people.

In regards to Norwich has anyone been to the Toys & Gamez store yet? I went last year and it was a bit dead looked to me I was the only one in there.

You must remember stores have to make a profit on there items at least one person will buy them. However online retailers can afford to have cheaper prices (lower overheads/0 workers).

So how come on many of EBay stores are selling DOTM/ROTF figures at the price in the shops? I don't understand that.