Walmart.ca Transformers Sightings and discussion

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by The Nemesis

Toy Traders is kind of fun to poke around in (though a little claustrophobic) but my main problem is that they are clearly taking advantage of the distribution issues to stick it to customers.


It was fine with them costing more when it was pretty consistent because of course as a smaller retailer they're going to have trouble competing on the margins that major chain retailers do on a consistent basis. But we went from them charging like a 15-20% premium that was relatively consistent across all similar items to charging like 30-40% depending on the demand level of the item. The fact that Wildrider at Toy Traders was $50 compared to his wavemate Tarantulas being $45 is the slap in the face because the only reason Wildrider is more expensive is very likely because it's the one thing everyone wants that nobody can find. It's essentially a very soft form of price gouging and its sketchy and exploitative as hell.



That said, thanks for the heads up ssjgoku. I might just bite the bullet and order one from Amazon as a backup/extra copy that I can sell to someone if they need it.

I'd like to know why tt charges more than MSRP. A3u, toy snowman, most of the other smaller shops charge MSRP or maybe a buck or two more. So why is tarantulas 35.99/36.99 there but45 at tt? It's silly.

[wesperino]

Originally Posted by MapleMegatron

Thanks for the link. I signed up for the in stock alert.



It's getting pretty darn ridiculous. With preorders, we are guaranteeing them a sale and yet they still would rather stay inefficient.

In the end, I think Hasbro's technique to issue the combiner components in different waves, unlike what they did with Combiner Wars, was a mistake. The relationship between hasbro and retailers for ordering s simply not mature enough to attempt stuff like this at a micro level. One party just won't put as much effort into making sure everything is stocked. In one or two waves, you can manage, but spread within 4 waves you're just asking for trouble.

Then again, that Earthrise Megatron/Quintesson wave never materialized in decent quantities in Canada, so it could go either way.



That sucks. My dead End is not cancelled yet but I think its just because it was in the same order as scraphook. They will wait till scraphook gets released and either ship me dead end if they have it by then or just cancel him.

By the way, TRU, Amazon and Walmart may still get these in stores eventually, as would winners or other toy liquidators. Those toys were clearly produced, so they will end up somewhere. Remember when Walmart got a whole batch of Siege for Black Friday for the following year? Just sucks that they couldn't be on shelves as scheduled

Mine was in the same order as needlenose.

[Patate]

Anyone looking for Clampdown?

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/transfo.../6000204787741

[TZX123]

My local walmart continues to be a wasteland for transformers.



Are they trying to force people to buy online?

Or are they abandoning the TF toyline for good?

[The Nemesis]

Originally Posted by TZX123

My local walmart continues to be a wasteland for transformers.



Are they trying to force people to buy online?

Or are they abandoning the TF toyline for good?

Their online stock has been garbage too.



I don't think they're abandoning TFs. My local store had a healthy stock of brand new Earthspark before Christmas. I think they're just not terribly observant/concerned with what they have beyond just "they have Transformers". They don't see the difference between the stuff we're waiting for that hasn't appeared on shelves and that we really want to buy and the scads of Night Prowlers, Skids, Overrides, and Sweeps that have been sitting on shelves since the middle of last year that nobody has touched since like August. And when sales drop off they probably don't think "people don't want to buy the old stuff, we have to get some newer product." they likely just see it and go "I guess nobody wants Transformers right now."


Maybe the surge of earthspark sales pushes things, but it's also just as likely that it ends up in the same place Cyberverse did over the last couple of years, moving a bunch and then stagnating while the CHUG lines sort of limp along with strong wave 1 debuts and then gradually diminishing returns since.


There may also just be general supply issues that are more Hasbro's fault too because TRU, Gamestop, and Amazon have also had severely unreliable stock levels over the last year or two. It started with Earthrise and then Kingdom was worse and Legacy has been the worst yet. Maybe some of that is Covid related, but I doubt all of it is.

[The Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Patate

Anyone looking for Clampdown?

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/transfo.../6000204787741

Amazing that they managed to find more Clampdowns to sell but mysteriously not Cosmos.


or RiD Scourge.

[Iron Moose]

Originally Posted by The Nemesis

Amazing that they managed to find more Clampdowns to sell but mysteriously not Cosmos.


or RiD Scourge.

not particularly surprising - it's well-established that they get solid cases.

[Patate]

Originally Posted by The Nemesis

Amazing that they managed to find more Clampdowns to sell but mysteriously not Cosmos.


or RiD Scourge.

I just saw Road Rocket listed again this morning.
So maybe they got more Velocitron cases, mixed or solid.

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/transfo.../6000204789644

Talking about stuff not showing up, was Velocitron Hot Rod ever available? Or is it like a wave 2 Velocitron thing?

[SleeplessKnight]

Originally Posted by RNSrobot

They are different than a3u. A3u prices on new product are MSRP.

Toy traders has been not just marking toys up behind that, but at *different markups.* They recently had one of the legacy stunticons priced$5 higher than his wavemates. He wasn't more expensive to acquire. He came in the same box. That's a lousy business practice and I won't support it. On top of generally lacking in customer service. Please don't make excuses for their bad choices.

It's a super fun store for kids to go to, but as far as being collector friendly or helpful...

Supply v Demand ^

Welcome to capitalism.

Imagine a world where Hasbro is nationalized and we all have to stand in line to collect our government issued transformer toys and the people at the end of the line get nothing as they run out.

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by SleeplessKnight

Supply v Demand ^

Welcome to capitalism.

Imagine a world where Hasbro is nationalized and we all have to stand in line to collect our government issued transformer toys and the people at the end of the line get nothing as they run out.

Again tho, the majority of the other small retailers are charging MSRP not jacking prices up just because they feel like it. Weird flex with the "nationalized" fantasy.

Tho considering how bad distro is, if you're not awake and refreshing when certain preorders go up you miss out every time now