Midnight Madness: Another testament to shoddy Hasbro distribution

[Mandalorian Candidat]

We've all discussed ad nauseum the wacky distribution system that exists for Star Wars figures, but I just have to delve into this subject again.

I have never seen such a disparate system of distribution for any other line of figures. You may accept or even expect that different parts of the country will have different ratios of figures, but within the same area? I went to a WM in Utah to get all my stuff and they had extremely limited amounts of Dookus, Yodas, Ani Hangars, Taun We, Royal Guards, Zams, Luminaras, and CTs. They didn't even have any TIE/Bs (the toy mgr. said they have yet to receive a shipment). At another store, just down the freeway, about 5-10 miles away, they had unlimited CTs, Yodas, Ani Hangars, and Zams. I was told that Dookus and other HTF figures were plentiful, along with a lot of TIE/Bs and snowspeeders. However, they were pretty lacking with C2 figures like boba and tusken-lady

Yet another WM, about 5-10 miles in the opposite direction had the same type of selection.

The TRU in my county had tons of background figures (which may be explained by their warehouse getting a shipment early before the change over) that literally covers one whole wall of the store as well as filling 6 shopping carts and another smaller display. However, they had very few Dexters, geonosians, only 7 CTs and 2 Zams (the manager said he counted them himself and put them aside as he opened up the cases), and had zero cases with Dooku and the C2 with the Royal Guard, Taun We, and Luminara which they also didn't have.

I'm not going to even discuss Target, which only had about 14 different figures.

Now, after reading many posts about what people found and what their stores didn't carry, I can't help but to be utterly flabbergasted at the goofy way these things were released. Maybe the blame lies in the last minute try to include more figures like Dooku with the first waves.

Even more baffling are the huge amounts of C1W1 figures. Yes they are the main characters, and yes more likely than not those ones will be the most sought after by the non-collecting crowd like little kids, but the extent of their distribution is ridiculous. At MM the toy manager opened the same case over and over even after everyone there got what they wanted from that wave and the pegs were saturated with them. This huge amount will not sell, period. Everyone who wants them has them, unless they are waiting for clearance prices.

The result: everyone without a Dooku or other limited figure will be stuck w/o for quite a while because the pegs are full of other stuff. I'm not planning on getting anything at my TRU, because the employees were talking about having 8 pallets of cases containing the boba/tusken wave and another several with C1W1. Hasbro said they scaled back their production, but I don't see it. That coupled with this odd distribution is just blowing my mind.

I know that WM has carried all the figures, but what about TRU or even Target? Anyone seen the HTF ones there at all?

If you want to blow off steam, be my guest. I feel a little better all ready.

[Evan Nash]

It's lack of knowledge from the store employees that's the problem. They don't have all these "release date rules", and threats of being fined for other figures. They are too worried and scared that they take no chances.

I can deal without having Yoda and Hanger Anakin, but at LEAST give me a damn Dooku...

Oi.

[Taichi]

We'll get Dooku if we're patient enough.....

he's the main bad guy this go around (Argue all you want, Jango's a chump).......

It'll be JUST Like Maul......cases of nothing BUT Dooku.....watch and see......

[JetsAndHeels]

2 Things:
1-Jango is not a chump.
2-The TRU in my area had about 5 Dookus and Hanger Anakins.
But I had already gotten all these Monday night/Tues AM, so I left them for someone else who hadnt found them yet.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

Originally posted by Taichi
We'll get Dooku if we're patient enough.....


...and hang out at the stores when they finally open up a new case. I don't expect to see anything new for a while unless retailers start removing the large amount of pegwarmers and ship them back to Hasbro.

[stevenmh]

Same here. Left MM at WM still needing 10 figures. Not that they sold out, they just didn't have them. Was at TRU when they opened the next morning, and was appalled. I only picked up another 3 figures. I'm glad TRU didn't have MM in my area...it looks like instead of leaving WITHOUT 10 figures I would have left WITH 10 figures. They didn't have any CLONES at all....for a movie entitled "Attack of the CLONES."

After that I visited KB, Target, and K-Mart, and between them I found all the rest except Dooku. Each store seemed to be missing a wave or two. K-Mart was the only store I visited that had any Anakin HD and Yoda.

It seems to me that Hasbro's distribution is what's making this a scalper's market. I would never have thought I would need to visit 5 stores, all within 10 minutes of each other, to find all of the assortments. The whole reason I went to MM was to get everything in one shot.

[CooLJoE]

I think they did it on purpose. Makes them seem more like collectors items when you can't find them except in scarce numbers across the state.

Too bad the internet has become so large and places like this messageboard have become home to many collectors who help each other out in getting a specific figure they may need. This thwarts all the ebay crap going on (except for luminara, taun we, and royal gaurd whom I have never seen or heard of being seen here in Michigan-Detroit area).

So if you want a figure not available to you, check with others. Trade nicely and stop Hasbro's evil plan (and the ebay scalper's evil plot) to make it seem like super rare figures.

I for one just want luminara, taun we, royal guard, and dooku. I've heard of HD Ani and Yoda being around here in MI, just they are 1 in 5 stores or something like that. The 4 I mentioned are no shows period (cept for a single sighting of dooku).

[Forhekset]

I hit 3 other stores last night (Super Target, Target, and Super Wal-Mart) after my initial run to TRU yesterday afternoon. Only found about 6 figures that I didn't see at TRU (and only 4 were worth buying - R2, Dexter, Kit Fisto, and Saesee Tin). Still no Zam, Dooku, Clonetrooper, HD Anakin, Yoda, Royal Guard, etc. Is this just accidental "crappy distribution", bad luck on my part, or do they do this on purpose to make figures seem rare? If it is accidental, why does it always happen to the COOLEST figures? Or is it a psychological thing, and the rare ones just seem cooler since they're harder to find?

[pthfnder89]

I think it also has to do with the whole Collection1/ Collection 2 thing. When the stores are told that Coolection 2 is geared towards collectors, they just aren't buying them in the same quantity as Collection 1 with the main characters, which is targeted at kids.

Also I think it's just an initial ordering problem; no one really knew how popular or unpopular the new line was going to be compared to Ep1. The stores didn't want to overorder, but they didn't want to under-order either. So they just kind of guessed...

BTW the distribution of figures and cases is completely up to the stores not Hasbro (unless there is some sort of shortage in production) The stores tell Hasbro what they want to order; unfortunately the stores just have no idea how to order them correctly :(:( It's REALLY bugging me because I'm desperately seeking an HD Anakin and NONE of the stores around me have even recieved those cases.

[Wonderboy]

UGH

It was the same crap here in the Los Angeles area...I showed up at my local Toys R Us to stand in line for MM at 10:30 am...thinking this way, I can do this once, and get one of each fig. Boy was I shocked when I finally got in there, and they didnt even have half the figures that I needed. It's not that people got them before me, it's just that they were'nt there at all!

That night I went to 3 different Toys R Us within 10 - 15 miles of each other. And EACH store had a totally different selection. And the stores that had the rarer figs (Guards, Zam, etc.) only had like 2 of each. And NONE of the stores had any Yoda, Anakin HD, or Dooku, and the only store I saw any guards, zams or Taun Wes at was the first Toys R Us I went too (and they only had 2 or 4 of each), after that, those figs were MIA. And Clone Troopers were almost non-existant as well.

The next morning I went to about 15 different stores throughout the day, driving up to almost 50 miles away...and still found NO Dookus, Yodas, or Anakin HD. It's almost like those figs don't exist here on the West Coast.

I lucked out though...I was able to find everything else except those 3 figures...and I lot of people I know found almost nothing but the 15 or so common figs. I'm sure, at some point they will turn up. But my worry is, like you guy's said...with so much of the Wave 1 stuff on the pegs, it will be quit some time before they order or put any new figs. I spoke to a manager at the Burbank Toys R Us, and he said that they were'nt planning on putting anything out for at least a couple of weeks...so that sucks. And all this talk of scaling back production on the figs etc. makes no guarantees that any of the htf figs will ever be readily available. So many stores got burned with the Phantom Menace stuff, they are all learey of doing the same with the Clones toys. All in all this was the most rediculous and unprepared launch for these toys that I have ever seen. Very, very disheartening.

Hasbro is almost forcing those of us who are hyper-focused on finding all the figs to use ebay and comic shops etc. to get the figures we need...and that's just not right. But who has the time to hit 15 stores a day just hoping that one of them will pay off...and yeah, sometimes the hunt of it all is the fun part, but it's just not realistic when you are working 60+ hour weeks! That is what most of us went to MM...so we could be done. But we aren't...and now we are bitter.
I'll end this like I started it...
UGH



:frus:

[Mandalorian Candidat]

Originally posted by pthfnder89
I think it also has to do with the whole Collection1/ Collection 2 thing. When the stores are told that Coolection 2 is geared towards collectors, they just aren't buying them in the same quantity as Collection 1 with the main characters, which is targeted at kids.


If that's the case, then it's pure idiocy on the part of the store buyers. When do you ever see kids looking at the SW figures? Never! It's the collectors that buy all the stuff so if they are gearing one portion of the figures solely towards us, they better make more cause a trillion tube-top Padmes will never sell.

[Casual George]

I have been to my local WM, TRU and K-Mart and all still have plenty of figures, except for Dooku. I do hope these things start to move a little more after the movie is released other wise we will have the Boshek wave situation all over again. I guess I'll be back to ordering stuff on-line instead of waiting on Wal-Mart to get a non-existent shipment in stock.

[JediTricks]

It's insanity, the distribution here has been way over the top. I've heard there may be 24 different assortment cases all shipping at once. Obviously that's tons of overlapping. It seems like Hasbro simply did a different case lineup for every new figure, 27 figures, 24 cases, it's insane!