Hi, I started a tumblr of Bumblebee shelf warming in stores.
If more people submit photos of Bumblebee spamming shelf-space (store and location info included) and someone showed it to hasbro during a convention or something, that be grand.

Bumblee is a shelf warmer

If you wish to make a submission provide a photo, where it was taken and your name if you wish to be credited.

 

As awesome as that is, for every unsold BB I bet there's like 3 or 4 sold ones.

 

People always make that assumption, But I have a very good feeling that, that "Hunch" Is bull.

 

Well Bumblebee eventually leaves shelves, but the speed is extremely slow. Cliffjumper semi warms with him too.

 

You know, Hasbro aren't in still in business through sheer luck. Perhaps it is the fault of the retailers for buying so many BBs?

 

I was at a Walmart where the stuff on pegs meant that Bee was selling as he was not warming on pegs more than what is being packed in a case. That was only last weekend.

Today at Target was literally choking on Bee.

Different store, different clientele, different results.

 

Off-topic, but I really wish that my Target had the blue design instead of just leaving it metal.
Back on-topic, it's amazing to see that the pegs are only Bumblebee, without anything else, not even a Cliffjumper sight.

 

Do you think Dan Gilvezan knows about Movie-verse and TF Prime Bumblebee often being shelfwarmers? If he does, I wonder what he thinks...

 

It may vary depending on location, where I live Bumblebee is also occupying walmart shelves in large numbers as well. I haven't checked recently though.

 

Do the stores determine case assortments or does Hasbro?

 

98% sure that it's Hasbro. After all, every store is getting the same stuff.

 

If it was, bumblebee wouldn't be saturating every case.

He's selling more than he's shelfwarming, which is why he's in every case.

 

Basically, after the Bumblebee shortage from the 07 movie, Hasbro vowed to release more bee to please everyone, but they stuffed bee down our throats so much it's starting to just on shelves longer.

 

IIRC, someone's sig picture on these boards is perfect for this thread. You know who you are.

 

100% Hasbro.

 

And he's heavy packed the same reason Anakin, ObiWan, Darth Vader, Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Iron Man and Lion-o are:
They are the "big names" in their brand and by heavy packing, it ensures that parents/kids can easily purchase those figures whenever they feel like (instead of hitting the stores at the exact moment a case comes in).

The "Bumblebee issue" only becomes a REAL issue when he starts cutting off product replenishment (which Arctic Destro did for GI JOe in 2010), which I have yet to see evidence of (that evidence being able to find wave 2 within days of the initial sighting)

 

You should have "Flight of the Bumblebee" playing on loop in the backround of the site!  

 

That's what I thought. So there's no way it's the store's fault for ordering too many Bumblebees, it's all Hasbro's big idea.

 

My local Tesco clearanced it's Deluxes out and they all sold except the various yellow DOTM Bees ; They just sat there and now they have put them up to full price again the clowns.

I think they are C**kblocking them from getting any Prime Deluxe toys in - silly Bumblebee overpacking.

If they do this again for the 4th Movie toyline there's going to be some real nerd rage from some me thinks.

That quite funny as Id love an Arctic Destro... what was he the Gi Joe version of Tuner Skids (in America).

Another problem is sometimes something is rare in some markets and others get loaded to death with them.

Like Australia got a shack load of ROTF Longhaul and Alternator Hound. where as The UK got neither.

Hasbro America overloaded the US with Tuner Skids and the UK didn't even get him at all.. I had to import mine to complete the pairing with HFTD Skids.

Some things they just seemed to have made to few of like Human Alliance Mudflap and Barricade as well as not releasing them in all markets.

--------

Bumblebee is nearly as much of a liability as Councillor Troi was to the Playmates Star Trek toyline.

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't just make 1 type of Bee and over pack it they make several across multiple toylines and then overpack the lot of them.

I bet i'm not the only one oft greeted by Nitro Bumblebee, DOTM Bumblebee & Prime RID Bumblebee or indeed the exclusive Bees all sitting like a bunch of yellow ducks in a row.

It's a shame really as DOTM bee isn't a bad toy it's just another bee though on the back of to many bees (From ROTF through Most Wanted and HFTD and into DOTM) which then lead into Prime Wave 1 & 2 which is also another 'to many bees' zone.

And I've said it before but that Weaponizer Bumblebee makes me almost Angry... if they'd done a Voyager Bee with Minifigure or made Prime Human Alliance I'd be fine with that - but wasting a "Leader" slot on Bumblebee 2 years in a row just makes me Angry as they will sit there for months and only clear at Xmas or in the January sales purely on the character brand awareness.

It's just that any time Bee is placed in a more expensive product line Like Weaponizers of Leaders he seems to stop that line dead and so is therefore stopping us from getting things that otherwise might have had a chance to be made like a DOTM Leader Optimus or even a Leader Shockwave or DOTM Megatron let alone a Prime Weaponizer Megatron toy.

I guess it's to late to get "TO MANY BEES" printed on a T-shirt for Botcon attendees.

 

While it's up to Hasbro to set the case assortments, it wouldn't be farfetched to assume that retailer input influences some of the decisions.

The whole Bumblebee flood started with RotF, after all (but even then, the effect was less pronounced except for the Human Alliance assortments, because the character was still at the height of popularity), probably in response to the character's "rare" status for TF2007. We didn't have this problem in the intervening year with Animated, where, AFAIK, Bumblebee was packed in even numbers with everybody else.

DotM probably saw the demand for the character drop off more than was anticipated, given the heavy demand in the previous years, but he still sells steadily. Just not fast enough to keep up with the overstock, in some cases (again, a regional thing).