What toy line do you have trouble finding in stores?

[Super_Megatron]

Is there a toy line that always has only 3 or 4 figures left in the toy isle? Or something that doesn't get stocked at your local stores?

[CTO15]

does all of them work? lol

But really, any 6" figures that are not related to a movie has had a hard time making it to retail, MLs and DCUC come into mind.

Except lately, TRU has made me happy by bringing in DCUC, but by overstocking on the 2-packs and wave 6-7, I dunno if future waves will make here.

With MLs, there have been short periods where the 2-packs were coming in, but in the mean time the Nemesis Wave, Ares Wave, and Rulk Wave were released in the US. Granted those waves were store exclusives, but the Ares and Nemesis wave were Walmart exclusives that could have made it here.

I think that is one of the main concerns for me when collecting a toyline, when a store has an exclusive for a certain wave.

When wave 5 for DCUC was a walmart wave, I had no chance of seeing those boys at retail, but luckily a friend helped me out by picking up a set for me. However, with wave 10 coming up (another walmart exclusive) I hope I have the same luck

[pud333]

Originally Posted by CTO15

does all of them work? lol

I second that!

Seriously, I just find that TRU tends to overstock on certain waves of figures (eg: Star Wars, Joes, MU, DCIH, etc) and so there are just a bunch of the same figures sitting on the pegs. The TRU where I live has basically had the same assortment of MU and SW figures since, like, forever. This makes me worried that TRU reps may see these figures as not selling as well, so we end up missing on certain waves. (eg: I know we missed a couple 25th Ann. Joe waves.)

As for trying other stores, like Walmart or Zellers, I find they're too out of the way so when I do eventually get to one, they have nothing on the shelves. It seems lately Walmart and Zellers are the only places getting in new waves (Walmart tends to get all the new waves of MU, etc first) but I can never find any by the time I get to one. This is why I rely so heavily on online stores.

Though the recent price increases to MU through online stores has got me in a bad mood. Offering a toy for sale at a markup is one thing, but charging something like $14.99 USD for an MU figure is just taking advantage of those that depend on online retailers, IMO. As a result of this, I have resorted to depending on US residents from other toy boards to get me what I need, or a few specific Ebay sellers because their prices are always decent.

Personally, I am getting to the point where the quality just doesn't seem to justify the costs, and as much as I love collecting, I will be paring down what I buy, and most likely selling some of my current collection. I guess the excitement is sort of wearing off for me now that figures are harder to find and the prices are going up.

[SPLIT LIP]

Transformers
DC Direct
LEGO
DCUC
Any Mattel products
Star Wars
Halo figures

I can go on.

[MeisterJ4zz]

NECA Street Fighter IV - TRU in Canada had wave 1 but what happened to wave 2?

[jacobot]

You'd think "Canada's Greatest Toy Store" could keep all toy lines fully stocked... Instead I'm running around to Discount Department Stores looking for the odd fresh case of Hasbro, Mattel and McFarlane Figures

[Super_Megatron]

There is no way anyone is not seeing Transformers and Star Wars in stores. there are huge sections dedicated to these toy lines. You may not see the toy you are looking for right away but the presence is there.

[pud333]

Originally Posted by Super_Megatron

There is no way anyone is not seeing Transformers and Star Wars in stores. there are huge sections dedicated to these toy lines. You may not see the toy you are looking for right away but the presence is there.

You're right. I guess the complaint was more to do with overabundance of stock drowning out potential new stock from coming in (Which is not exactly what the question was asking about, haha). Anyway, yeah, SW and TFs are all over the place.

The harder ones for sure are DCIH for me. Sure, nothing new has been released for a while for DCIH, but it was never easy to find to begin with. The only place I saw them before were at my LCS. Didn't hit TRU till months and months later where they peg warmed for a while until being hard to find again. The latter might be more due to poor sales perhaps?

[jacobot]

District-9 figs... Just kidding

[Robimus]

Originally Posted by Super_Megatron

There is no way anyone is not seeing Transformers and Star Wars in stores. there are huge sections dedicated to these toy lines. You may not see the toy you are looking for right away but the presence is there.

Star Wars presence is incomplete this year, as it was a few years back. Look at Clone Wars; we never got the assortments announced and then got one big assortment which was still missing like half the figures that should have been released.

Will we eventually see these? I dunno and from history I know that we used to not get them all, not even close. I think we might be back to that senario now.

So are Star Wars figures on toy shelves? Sure they are, only in an incomplete fashion which is really annoying for collectors.