Ohio Transformers Sightings

Discussion in 'Transformers Sightings' started by cryotek, Jan 3, 2003.

  1. atomD21

    atomD21 Not made of sterner stuff...

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    Xenia Walmart has two Kingdom Magnuses, two SS 72 Starscreams, and one Huffer.
     
  2. cryotek

    cryotek Criminal Overlord

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    I was there Monday. I'm surprised that those are still there.
     
  3. atomD21

    atomD21 Not made of sterner stuff...

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    I was pretty surprised to see them myself.
     
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  4. DrTraveler

    DrTraveler Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack

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    I'd recommend joining the Northeast Ohio Collector's group on Facebook and putting your request there, as you'll hit a wider fandom. I will say that group is no more helpful than this one for hunting down things as it's likely been infiltrated by scalpers as well.

    I personally am resolved to the idea I will never see the Netflix Soundwave here in NEO. The only time I've seen the voyagers here on the West side of Cleveland was when I found a headless Netflix Optimus. Turns out his head was rolling around in the box and could be easily reattached, but the area is so rife with scalpers and resellers that the less than perfect nature of Optimus scared them off.

    Sorry to say you've joined the pain many of us here in NEO face collecting Transformers.
     
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  5. Pencilerobo

    Pencilerobo Well-Known Member

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    Not a Facebook user.

    Does Hasbro bother to communicate with the community at all? When Hasbro Pulse when from three items I didn't want on their store front, to updating the inventory with everything several days later, and selling out in under 30 minutes while I wasn't looking. . . That wound me up a bit.

    Why not operate like Limited Run Games pre-orders to aggregate a total number of units from sales to meet demand; then close the pre-order window and ship product? I tried playing ball with the retailers on that end and had pre-orders cancelled by Target and Walmart.

    Things do look pretty grim, but I'm foolishly optimistic. If things don't pan out, hopefully they see the demand for the character and re-release down the road. Nothing against Laserbeak or the robot cat (feel old being unable to recall the name); but a re-issue with Rumble and Frenzy would be nice.
     
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  6. fschuler

    fschuler Post Count Inflated With Hot Air TFW2005 Supporter

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    Welcome to figure collecting in the 2020’s...haha. And, more importantly, welcome to TFW! It’s been a quagmire for years now and has only gotten worse. Scalping is out of control, distribution blows/retailers don’t bother to keep shelves stocked, etc., and Hasbro *acts* generally oblivious to all of it. Maybe there is only so much they can do to fix things, though. Their manufacturing capacity has its limits, they have limited to no control over how things are distributed once the product is transferred from their hands to the retailers’ hands and they have agreements with a lot of these retailers that tie their hands as to what and when they are allowed to release themselves. Retail currently has them by the balls, largely. I would love to see everything move to a “made to order” preorder format, but when you’re talking about regular retail products, it isn’t going to happen any time soon...on a large scale, anyway. Big retailers want that stuff on their shelves to drive traffic to their stores...and that traffic won’t materialize, or would be greatly decreased, if we could all just preorder everything we want and stay at home. On the bright side, many things do get rereleased down the road in one way or another, so don’t give in yet. It’s been a shitshow. Try collecting NECA TMNT or Macross sometime...the Hasbro woes are minor by comparison.
     
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  7. Silver7

    Silver7 Well-Known Member

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    Target North Olmsted has Kingdom deluxe Huffer, Arcee, Ractonite, and Air Razor for you NEO guys on the hunt for those. They also have 2 Primals and a Cyclonus
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2021
  8. avenged9

    avenged9 DecepticonAvenger

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    The Walmart on Georgesville Rd and 270 has 4 of the 10inch Optimus Pops as of 2pm.
     
  9. Pencilerobo

    Pencilerobo Well-Known Member

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    On sighting topic, does the community utilize a communal hashtag on social media for more immediate sighting postings?

    This could be a quicker way to disseminate info on the go utilizing Ohio's five major regions, e.g. TFW2005NEO, TFW2005CO, TFW2005NWO, TFW2005SWO, TFW2005SEO. Use hashtag, post photo of inventory and store. Apologies, my account it to new to utilize proper pound symbol usage, or link to a site referring to the five regions.

    Just a thought to facilitate more nimble/agile posting, and it can all later be aggregated in the thread itself when we get home and share photos.
     
  10. kuhlio

    kuhlio Well-Known Member

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    I feel like Hasbro is trying to address the issues- They have given a second option for store exclusives through pulse. Also if you look at the Pulse website the have been adding production runs- Look at the Pit of Judgment- It initially sold out quick and they it was relisted with later and later shipdates. The same thing happened with the Arc- original purchases have a ship date of like September/October- current preorders are for December. Another example is the re-issues of CW Devastator, Omega Supreme, and Scorponok. All 3 of them were gaining value on the secondary market and they saw this and added new production runs.
    Hasbro is trying the help the market, but I do agree that stores are becoming harder and harder to find things. I am tired of always being greeted by empty shelves- so I have not become a "preorder racer"
     
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  11. Gligamesh51

    Gligamesh51 @ThatGuyNeedaHam

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    Last night Colerain Target had a full set of Kingdom Wave 2 deluxes, 2 of each! No Joes, nothing else of note.
     
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  12. Mordhelm

    Mordhelm Well-Known Member

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    To be honest the problem is not really hasbro's but the retailers themselves.

    The collector sites are an exception (in terms of distro, but you pay a premium to purchase from those sites).

    Hasbro sells to Walmart (for example) as a whole, not individual stores. And they buy a LOT of stock of figures.

    Hasbro is trying to combat some of the FOMO by making store exclusives also available on pulse (holding back 5% stock for Pulse) at a later date.

    It seems a lot of the problem could be fixed very simply by these large retailers. The Preorder system is flat out broken at the big stores (including amazon to some extent).

    When I preordered sky lynx from Walmart, it took a couple weeks after he was "in stock" on the site before I got mine. Straight up, pre orders should be allocated FIRST. That is the point of preordering. You are guaranteeing both getting the product and getting it "first" (at least before other online orders, if not store allocations).

    However, it is quite obvious that is not what happens. Which means there is a lot broken with the internal inventory allocation systems and how they use them.

    Hasbro could further mitigate the issue by allowed a small amount of exclusives to online boutique shops, but I bet they are already pushing it with their contracts to allow pulse to get some of them.

    This is all not to say Hasbro does not have culpability, just that the big boxes do whatever they want and it does not benefit collectors.
     
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  13. DrTraveler

    DrTraveler Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack

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    Yeah, I think there's a very big logistical issue happening with the big box stores. Inventory control should be catching these empty pegs and shelves. In retail, every space in the store is a potential source of money, and space sitting there empty is lost money. When I go to smaller stores, I almost never see an empty space on the shelf. At the very least they're shifting things around even if they are out of stock. Yet Target and Walmart routinely have pegs and pegs and shelves and shelves that are empty. That's a problem.

    I agree the preorder system is broken. It's too easy to flood with bots, and it's too likely that the store won't be able to make good on it. I've given up trying to get in on preorders at this point. Honestly I'm pretty close to done collecting. I'm looking around and realizing I really don't need many more figures, and the level of effort, time, and money I'm spending on the chase isn't really worth it.
     
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  14. TFXProtector

    TFXProtector TFW2005 Supporter

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    That's not a terrible idea, actually. That said, those of us who live near Youngstown have to compete with other collectors, small local stores (some good, some not), and scalpers out the wazoo. We've made a small chat group via PM when we find things so no one gets ahead of us. They'd see our posts, here, and wipe everything out before we even had a chance to find anything. Publicly posting is sometimes a detriment, depending on where you live in Ohio. I'll start #TFW2005NEO, right here.

    They're trying to, now, but they weren't for the longest time. While the retailer is responsible for what happens in their stores, it is up to Hasbro to get that stuff to the stores so they can sell it. I can't tell you how many times (pre-pandemic) I'd go into a Target or Walmart and walk away empty-handed. It was even worse during TRU's final years. Hasbro's case assortment choices led to a lot of overstocks and stuff not selling because there was simply a ridiculous magnitude of stuff people had already a million times before. Only fairly recently have they begun allowing places to order solid cases of an item, rather than assortments, but you have to have a direct account with them to get that perk. If you don't, if you're a smaller store, you're stuck with assortments. =\ (Sometimes, comic shops can get solids.)

    Yes and no. Hasbro's just as much to blame as the retailer, in this day and age.

    Hasbro is on social media, they do have people reading our posts and seeing what's been said/going on. There's no way they're missing the fact that Amazon is having issues fulfilling the Ironhide/Prowl, Ratchet/Paradron Medic, and Conehead sets. People have been incredibly vocal on all outlets (IG, FB, here, etc) and made it abundantly clear that the items are wanted and no one can get 'em. Some of that is on Amazon for not ordering enough during the pre-order period, but it's still ultimately up to Hasbro to meet that demand and actually ship the items to Amazon to sell to the customers. Target's own customer service even admitted our pre-orders mean nothing and that basically, if they don't get enough stock to cover the stores (their first consideration) they won't cover pre-orders, but they'll try if possible. Which indicates a Hasbro issue, to some degree.

    That said, I'm in full agreement that the retailers don't know their @$$es from a hole in the ground and it's amazing to me that they're still functioning at this point. The level of ineptitude is astounding.
    Even before the pandemic, they couldn't find their way to the backrooms to unload trucks even with a GPS.

    Inventory control is catching the empty pegs and shelves, but the problem is the workers. I have a family member who works for Walmart, and a friend who spoke to a Hasbro rep inside Walmart (as well as the department team lead/manager), and here's the basic gist...

    About 50% of the time (and I'm speaking only for Walmart, on this one) they aren't getting the stuff from Hasbro (and other manufacturers). The other 50% of the time, they have or are, getting the stuff but there's no one there to work it/stock it. So, it's definitely on the shoulders of both to deal with/fix this problem. The Hasbro rep told my friend "I don't know what's going on. We did ship them the stuff, it's supposed to be out here and it's in none of the stores I've been to. I don't know where it is." The department lead/manager told my friend "I was on vacation, I just got back. While I was gone, no one worked the pallets so I have to all by myself, now." and my family member confirmed this is happening at his store, too. Walmart and Target both have job openings, no one wants to work. No one.

    There was an article mentioned, in another thread, in which a secret shopper type of guy went to Walmart stores for the article he was writing and he saw some stores had nothing, while others had stuff but no one working the pallets. The one store he mentioned had boxes and pallets that had been sitting in the Action Alley for days and days and people just walking by them, doing nothing, and that's why the stuff wasn't on the shelf at that specific store.

    Throw on Hasbro's hand in these matters and the situation becomes what we're seeing now.

    I'm assuming Target is much the same way as Walmart but kind of worse because a lot of Targets will artificially block sales of these products (register lock "street dates") and the staff absolutely refuses (or their bosses won't allow them) to go and get them for you even though it's their job to do so. It's their job to take YOUR money to pay THEIR checks.

    I knew the staff could hate us sometimes, I knew it, but up until the pandemic... I've never actually seen stores actively not want my money. They'll have the stuff (I'll get it confirmed) but they won't sell it to me because no one's stocking it and no one will go in the back and fetch it. They outright refuse and walk away. That's insane to me.
     
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  15. happy

    happy Taxation is Theft.

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    I don't remember it ever being anywhere close to this bad when Toys R Us was around, but maybe it was just my part of the world. Until last year I never had any trouble finding any of the figures from any toy line.
     
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  16. Pencilerobo

    Pencilerobo Well-Known Member

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    Sadly it's been this way for a while.

    Remember the 2000's era Masters of the Universe reboot? If I'm not mistaken a big component of that endeavor dying is because the toy line was another Mattel botch. Unless you only ever wanted to purchase He-Man and Skeletor figures, any non He-Man and Skeletor figure would vanish from the shelves. Toys R Us would have an entire island wall set up with naught but He-Man and Skeletor figures. I gave up on ever finding a Mer-man from the line at retail, and years later a friend was kind enough to pick one up for me.

    I understand from the business point of view, needing to have the titular heroes and villains present in a line; but the production and distribution should be carefully considered. Short packing figures is kind of stupid when we're considering these are decades old franchises with multiple generations of fans now.

    Mattel then went on to screw the pooch with the awesome, but frustrating to find, DC Universe Classic line of figures. Screwy distribution, peg warmers, retailer exclusive lines. . . I wasted so much time hunting most of the ones I wanted down.

    At least I got most of them, unlike the Crait Luke Skywalker figure. Star Wars toys are simply cursed at this point. No new inventory exists are retail in my region of cleveland, unless you want endless Jyn Erso, Snoke, or other years old peg warmers that keep getting returned to retailers that use generic SKUs for sales.

    It would be nice if these retailers did what Camelot Music would do when it cleared out music and punched a hole through the case / UPC. Yes, it was annoying if you wanted a mint item; but if you're looking for a bargain - there it was, and it was forever marked as an NOP item Camelot no longer carried.

    Scalpers and scumbags swapping out figures and returning them, or removing BAF parts and returning the figure, have decimated this hobby; and I'm simply and old fart who hasn't grown up. Imagine being a parent trying to find a cool toy for their hopeful child?

    Then again, I don't really know if children these days bother with the physical consumerism my generation was indoctrinated into; instead dumping their money into digital trinkets which take up no space, but cost similar amounts of money. :confused: 
     
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  17. kuhlio

    kuhlio Well-Known Member

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    If I remember correctly Mattel knew that there was an abundance of Heman and Skeletor in the wild so much so that that when they did the Moss Man Promotion it was a ploy to try and clear the shelves of the excess- You needed to send in proof or purchase when there wasn't anything else left on the shelves to buy! Please tell me if I am incorrect- do not want to spread misinformation!
     
  18. Mordhelm

    Mordhelm Well-Known Member

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    But therein lies the problem. What CAN Hasbro do in the situations of the big stores (Walmart, Target, Amazon, among others)? I don't think Target was given a maximum allotment of figures. What makes the most sense is that they math'd wrong when figuring the numbers they need for preorders AND stores. And it's even harder with scalpers buying up a lot of stock of figures.

    Absolutely, if the store says I need 1000 cases of X, and Hasbro only delivers 900, that's a Hasbro issue. However, it doesn't really seem to be the case when outlet markets like Ross, TJ Maxx, and others are getting the figures from Walmart/Target/TRU (Rip)/etc warehouses/distro centers months later at discount.

    Hasbro can still do a lot to fix their side of the distribution problems, but I don't expect them to stop offering exclusives to these stores, as I am sure their is quite a big financial incentive in it for Hasbro to do those. Although, I would be totally ok if they stopped giving damn Walgreens a sought after exclusive, those hunts are the worst.

    For the Amazon exclusives, do we know that Hasbro actually underdelivered, because it's really on Amazon to say how much product they need.

    That all said, I think we agree more than you realize. I 100% blame Hasbro if they are not completely fulfilling orders to the chains for that problem. But I blame the retailers for poor brick & mortar practices and for poor planning/ordering.

    So to play devil's advocate a bit more here, if a significant portion of the blame lies on the retailer and not Hasbro, what do you think Hasbro can do to fix that? Holding your buyers (retailers) accountable to act in good faith toward the consumer is all but impossible, because tracking the metrics would be a pain, and it's very easy to lose business with a "penalty system" in place. I think Hasbro did listen, and is trying out the "Retailer Exclusives" section on Pulse for this express purpose, but I am guessing the contracts for some of the figures supersede that and disallow them from selling additional stock on Pulse.

    Now as far as the brick and mortar experience, that's even trickier to solve. There is no reason that Walmart and Target should have empty shelves for months. They get trucks daily. That is 100% on the manager in charge of inventory. I know the aisles are patrolled by employees too, so either they aren't asked to check inventories, or they aren't doing that part of the job. If the store does order more and it just doesn't come for weeks on end, that's the distribution warehouse fault. And if they flat out don't have enough to allocate to the stores, that was bad ordering.

    If major hang-ups are happening that the retailer, there is going to be little Hasbro can do (or would be willing to risk doing) to rectify it. Maybe the simplest solution is the offer all exclusives as "co-exclusive" with one of the boutiques. EE, A3U, BBTS, and others would not mind joining in and getting those exclusives, I am sure.
     
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  19. Slingshot

    Slingshot Back In the Game

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    If you guys think Transformers has had it rough, try GI Joe Classified. Target Exclusives that were stocked on the Pulse website this afternoon sold out in five minutes.
     
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  20. Sileny Jizda

    Sileny Jizda Kilted Krome

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    I noticed Target in Ontario last weekend had a limit of 1 same action figure for their location. I'm not sure if it is company wide but if not it would explain at least one location actually trying to do something.
     
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