Indiana Just Found

[autumnsdescent]

I had a nightmare last night. I was standing in this really long line at 8AM at the Toys R Us in Castelton on Saturday May 1st. The doors finally open at 10AM and a couple hundred of us collectors rush in to hit that SW end cap with the EU wave and TFU battle packs. Then reality hits: The Indianapolis TRU stores got 2 cases of each - that is, two of each figure and only two battle backs. Store manager says that's all the store is allotted for that product as well. Talk about a massive supply and demand fail.

I have visited the TRU's at Castleton and East Washington almost daily since the reports started coming in a couple weeks ago that the EU wave is hitting shelves. I have used my iPhone with the original post from Yakface.com up to show one clueless apathetic store employee after another what I'm looking for. I am so tempted to just pay the 12 bucks/figure and order a case from EU to make sure I get this wave. There's fun in the hunt sometimes, but not when the supply/demand ratio is expected to be this bad.

[autumnsdescent]

Just hit the Castleton, East Washington, & Greenwood TRU's today. Nothing.

[autumnsdescent]

My Force Unleashed sets arrived in the mail today. It was a very fast turn around time - just about 3 days.

We have 3 local TRU stores in the greater Indianapolis area. Since this thread started, I have been paying visits to at least one store per day to check in.

There was evidence that the EU wave has been put out at the East Washington Street store (found the Obi Wan that everyone is talking about with the new droid head and the pictures of the EU wave figs on the back of the card) this past Tuesday.

With iPhone handy, I've approached store managers and asked about the wave, showing pictures from Yakface.com and providing SKU / Barcode numbers. Each store seems to be completely clueless (no surprise there). I had one store mention that they would be getting a shipment on Wednesday night (last night) and that they put the stock out overnight and I should check back on Thursday morning. So I did. This morning at 9:50, I rolled into the parking lot and found 15 cars also waiting. Apparently we're all chomping at the bit for this wave. 10AM the doors opened and all us collectors rushed to the SW aisle to find.... nothing. No EU wave. Nadda.

Okay, they *did* have 5 or 6 of the Force Unleashed sets (the ones that arrived by mail later in the day for me). But no EU wave.

It looks like there will be several of us collectors lined up at the store this Saturday morning (May 1st) to see if we can get our hands on these figs. I have a bad feeling about this... Something tells me each store only gets one or two cases of this wave on the 1st. I really hope I'm wrong.

[Mvader91]

Know the regoinal Director for TRU Indiana Kentucky. He stated that all his stores will have the end caps set up on Saturday morning before open. FYI

[OC47150]

I read/heard that this wave isn't shipping in full cases, only half.

I'll be there tomorrow morning.

[Mvader91]

Autumndescent and fellow collectors! Castleton TRU has FU sets ,but only remnanats of eu wave. The store director said more will be out tomorrow. Hurry In!!

[autumnsdescent]

I've got two or three friends who are collecting buddies who do not scalp. They'll pick up extra figs but then sell them to us other collectors for what they paid for them.

One such friend has been aggressively going after this EU wave in Indianapolis and has managed to get his hands on about 3 cases worth of it. I bought one case from him outside the East Washington TRU this morning for what he paid for it ($32 with the sale prices)! So I'm now set for this wave.

I did go ahead and talk to store managers at Castleton and East Washington TRUs today though. I have the SKU number for the EU wave and I had them plug it into their computers to determine how many cases they have on hand.

It really freaked out the TRU Castleton manager that I had a better idea of what he had in his store than he did. Turns out that Castleton TRU has 7 Legacy cases in the back room for putting on the endcap display for May 1. Only 2 of those 7 cases are the EU wave though.

East Washington Street shows ZERO of the EU cases. They received ONE and only ONE case of it earlier this week and it was put out on Tuesday. It was sold out an hour later.

TRU East Washington Street has plenty of the Force Unleashed packs in stock at this time (about 4 of each set).

I do know that TRU in Greenwood put out 6 cases of the EU wave yesterday morning (Thursday), and they were gone within 10 minutes of the store opening. I do not know what Greeenwood store has on hand for May 1.

I do not plan on participating in the May 1 bumrush of the stores since I have a set of these figs for myself now. Best of luck to those going out there. Remember the TRU stores open at 9AM on Saturdays. Please post how your hunting goes!

[OC47150]

I anxiously stood in the rain this morning outside the Clarksville TRU with hopes of finding the EU wave. What did I get: the dark trooper. Two other collectors were there with me; one got Shaak Ti and another got the space trooper.

The store only received one case. One case!

One of my buddies had better luck at one of the Louisville stores. A clerk let them go through a couple of cases.

[darth maul rat]

As the great philosopher Jerry Reed once noted, he who expecteth nothing ain't gonna be deceived.

I got in late Friday and as such did not read the lowdown of the Indianapolis situation as detailed by Autumn until around 1 in the morning. I had already made plans for Saturday that would put me in Greenwood. So I went ahead and went there dispite my misgivings.

I got there around 8:55, and there were a few people there ahead of me. One was an older man who was obviously there for Matchboxes. The woman next to me was there for a Barbie for her daughter, and then there was the family in between us. A mom, a dad and a son, somewhere around 13 years old. They opened the doors and the trio headed for the action figure aisle, with me in tow.

When we got there, it was obvious that the EU figures were not there. The dad and the son were looking at the TFU packs, and I was poking through the pegs making sure there were no stragglers. The Mom, however, was livid. "Where is the endcap they were supposed to have?" Where are the new figures? Where is the stock person?'' Finally she found a kid working there and he shrugged his shoulders and said that he had put them out Thursday, and that he had not been informed of the endcap until that morning.

The mom was getting madder by the second. "I called here Friday afternoon and talked to the manager on duty, and she assured me that the figures would be on the pegs this morning. Where is the manager?" They tried to figure out who she had talked to and finally she stormed off with the TRU people, the rest of her family following close behind.

Meanwhile, I checked out the TFU packs and decided to grab them. I got to the front of the store, and the mom was still there. A manager came up to her with a piece of paper in hand, and informed her that according to it, all the cases they had were on the floor. She then apologized for the inconvenience, and the mom stormed out.

Me, I had kind of made my peace with this whole thing around Wednesday. I had started to realize that the chanced of getting these, given that from all the reports we were hearing about there seemingly being no true street date on these, were slim, to say the least. But it does seem to show that once again, Hasbro really has no idea how the market for their products works.

It's like that line from Jaws, if I may paraphrase: "You say barracuda, people say "Huh". You say Exclusive Star Wars figure, and you have a riot at your local Toys R Us."

So, barring any more rendering of the main line as an exclusive, I guess I am done until August or whenever the next Vintage line comes out.

-dmr

[OC47150]

I didn't find the EU wave at TRU, but some of the CW wave finally showed up. I picked up Snowbi-Wan, snow Rex and Commander Stone.

Since the $4.99 sale is going on through July, I'll be visiting TRU more frequently.