Ah, you have to go to Target weekly, and at least three different ones to have a fair shot at what Target's getting on average. Just how it goes. If you do that now, you may score a SS72 Starscream, Hot Rod, etc.

Speaking of Hot Rod, I thought I saw him and Jazz at FP, but unsure if they have them now.

 

got all the Studio Series 86 guys, I’m all caught up thanks to preorders. i have yet to see one in a store.

 

Bad luck, to be sure. I think I got my Hot Rod in a Target two months before the preorders shipped. Same for Jazz, Scourge, Kup, Blurr, Grimlock. Street date, shmeet date, to Target.

 

Got my Hot Rod and Scourge same day they released , and Jazz in January.

Post your most recent TF purchase....

Proof, lol

 

Yeah. Long before online orders were fulfilled. Target gets away with it every time.

 

From my own anecdotal experience, I'd say the only modern releases I'd consider to be 'Shelfwarmers' are the Siege Battlemasters and possibly Micromasters too. The simple reason seems to be that they weren't priced according with what most people considered to be 'good value' for the product. Locally, they were ~AUD$12 and AUD$20 respectively and I believe elsewhere many people balked at their local prices.

For the record, I love Micros and Targetmasters, but even I found the prices a tough pill to swallow. A look around and there is still plenty of stock about where I live. Fortunately, as a nice surprise, Kmarts here have recently restocked wave 1 Battlemasters, clearing at half the initial price. I'm fine paying ~$6 for them, as that was close to the price of Legions only a few years ago. The Earthrise equivalents were hard to find at retail here. Many places seemingly just didn't order any. That together with unconfirmed reports that the classes were abandoned for Kingdom due to retail pressure, leads me to believe they under-performed overall.

 

SS Arcee/Chromia/Elita-1: in scale but laughably overpriced for what are three figures, each smaller than a Core Class

SS Crowbar: poor articulation compared to some of the other Studio Series figures, not to mention a retool of TLK Berserker which also peg warmed like crazy

SS Megatron (2007): Character fatigue. Fourth Megatron to come out in the SS line in such short succession

SS Scavenger: too weird looking for most people to pick up for anything other than being necessary for Devastator’s combined mode.

SS Mixmaster: see above, also a generic looking Decepticon, nothing memorable about the design other than it’s capable of combining

Earthrise Ironworks and Airwave: unfamiliar characters compatible with the poorly-selling (and frankly overpriced) Micromasters

Siege Chromia: striking similarities to the POTP Moonracer mold from the prior year without the combining ability and (seemingly) more frail design due to abundance of thin and clear plastic

 

Nothing is failing or shelfwarming around here. You have some slow movers but that's about it.

If you're using ROSS, TJ Maxx or Ollies as a measuring stick, know that's rarely a "shelf warming" thing and more of a distribution issue for retailers, especially regarding later waves when they struggle to get Earthrise to their empty shelves before Hasbro is already shipping wave one Kingdom for distribution right behind it.

One of the best things Hasbro could do for distribution is stop re-sub-branding every year. This causes retailers to dump product out of their warehouses in favor of resetting with the newer product. Just make Generations "Generations" for awhile and let the product breathe a little.

 

Locally the Elita 1 from the second Netflix wave has taken a while to move but eventually they do. Went to Walmart this morning and all of the Netflix figures are gone.

 

i don’t mind the wait to be honest. I get it when I get it.

 

ER Arcee: Literally isn't a Transformer.

over half the car mode comes off and is used as a "sled" the transformation is a joke. Her two repaints don't do anything to improve the mold at all, Elita-1 being the worst shelfwarmer of last year (multiple local walmarts had 10+ of her at points) the only reason Arcee isn't hogging pegs with her sister is because ER wave 2 had a non-existent release, even then I still find her as the only one from wave 2 Kingdom that nobody wanted.

 

But in all seriousness, I think Shelfwarmer is loosing its meaning like how ‘partsformer’ did.

 

Transquito is the ultimate shelfwarmer. BM Rattrap was a big one too. This is coming from someone who was working in KB Toys when they were in business and both of those sat on overheads for literal years. Transquito get's a raw deal because the toy is actually fun and pretty awesome. Rattrap.. Rattrap was an odd duck.

 

They were flimsy and prone to fall apart with a few notable exceptions.

 

In what world did you shop in that those two shelfwarmed?

Mid west those two sold real well.

Earthrise STARSCREAM? That's a shelfwarmed because everyone already got siege Starscream and thus were burned out. Or Grapple because he had an uninteresting alt mode.

 

This pic I took way back in 2019 can explain what shelfwarmed in my country and why:

• Leaders - Simply put they were too damn expensive. Here everything costs as much one size class above it over America. So for example, Deluxes cost Voyager prices, Voyagers cost Leader prices, while Leaders cost Commander prices. Imagine how expensive Commanders are here.
• Chromia, Ironhide, Prowl, Hound - With Chromia and Prowl, I personally think those two look like trash. Objectively speaking, probably price too.
• Bonecrusher - Price and being too niche, only appearing for less than 2 minutes. I found some of him early this year shelfwarming for 2 years by now. But really, he seems to sell quite well - he just doesn't sell as well as SS-32.
• Siege Voyagers - Ditto, price. Also, I think people saw Earthrise coming and waited for them instead.

Almost all my country's shelfwarming comes because of price. Retail here sets their prices too damn high. Online, prices better reflect American prices. Sure, they're still marked up but by much less than retailers.

 

All Earthrise leaders: Siege Shockwave. That’s it.

 

Im still finding SS jetfires and ss dotm megs, but the boxes are fresh

 

Seems like beating a dead horse now, but given that even store staff bemoan still having them, X-Spanse seems to fit the bill. I never liked it from the get-go, and it seems I was in the majority.

 

Grapple... because we need more grapple in media. He doesn’t get the spotlight he deserves