Note that other bit - “across shipping routes”. You’re right that lots of products are fully produced, packed, and ready to be sold, including products for the 2022 range; trouble is, the pandemic has made it harder than ever for goods to travel cross-continental. There’s only so much space in a shipping container, and only so much room on a cargo ship. Hasbro’s also not the only toymaker out there, and there’s multiple online and brick-and-mortar outlets who needed their orders filled a long time ago.

What I’m telling you is, there’s a lot of factors that we all rarely think about when it comes to how we get our toys. Continue to have patience, don’t fold your arms and pout and hatch a conspiracy theory.

 

Its not a conspiracy theory that Fangry is all over middle America. Just read the sighting boards. Im not saying there arent other factors. But everywhere but Florida ?

 

Believe me I know that. Just so tired of middle America getting all the good s**t. Theres no shortage of Bumblebee crap here. So its not that we dont get stuff. Its that we dont get the good stuff. Who packs these damn trucks at the regional distribution centers ? Who decides which products fresh off the shipping containers go to which regions ? You would think they are using lotto balls to decide which states get the pallets of Fangrys, Studio Series, etc.

 

I think you all have good points. It is both understandable that the global pandemic is causing distribution chaos and very odd that Florida specifically has not received any Worlds Collide packs as far as we know. I took a glance at the Alabama and Georgia threads and both had sightings between 1 and 2 weeks ago. It would make sense to me that we are in the same distribution sphere of at least one of those states, so why are we left out? Back to school? Backed up warehouse? Mercury in retrograde? Who knows.

Also, c'mon a fare bit of whining is fine. If we can't complain to our fellow manic collectors who can we??  

 

I think that the pandemic is used as an excuse for every single problem going on. Sometimes it's true, most of the time, probably not. I mean, we are seeing the brand new figures in Mexico and New Zealand, but not here? Come on. And look at their shelves vs ours. It's like they are a Toys R Us from the 1980s (God I wish I could go back in time).

 

Totally agree with you. The pandemic seems like the go to excuse for everything. Theres enough vaccinated people and recovered people with natural antibodies everywhere in this country to keep society afloat. And while every day someone is catching covid and calling out sick, somebody else is returning to work that needs to make money to feed their family. I dont think theres a shortage of truck drivers either. Those guys work alone, covid doesnt really affect their line of work. Loaders ? Thats another story. But people talk about covid like theres no coming back. Thats just not the case. When you got all these smaller countries stockpiled with more transformers than an 80s TRU, it really makes you wonder who is dropping the ball in Hasbro's home country ? Is it Hasbro themselves ? Is it Target and Walmart ? Whats going on ? And whats up with Pulse and Buzzworthy Bumblebee ? Pulse promised to get a small amount of every exclusive. They have kept their word with Amazon exclusives (Sideswipe and Mirage) as well as this years Walgreens exclusive (Red Alert) Why is Target getting special treatment ? Why isnt a small amount of Fangry sets and Saucer Bees made available through Pulse for the collectors who have the Pulse membership ?

 

Take this with a grain of salt, but Ive read that there is a worker shortage due to the lucrative unemployment being offered. Some truckers are saying they are being turned away due to a full store back room or storage facility simply because what staff some stores do have can’t get through the back log fast enough. Like they can’t make a dent in it before another truck shows up.

 

<rant> There is no "lucrative unemployment being offered". If workers are better covering their expenses and bills from unemployment -- which they pay into out of every paycheck and they don't get if they quit -- then they were underpaid for their labor. Breaking down stock/working retail is low pay work, not low effort work or low skill work. If employers aren't paying a basic living wage, overworked current employees and prospective new hires dealing with ill-behaved customers & unthankful employers in the middle of a pandemic aren't the blame. </rant>

(Not intended as a derail. Feel free to flag and PM me if you must. Apologies for the thread disruption.)

 

I feel like this happened a few years ago -- a prolonged drought of new toys and then BOOM, everything hit at once. Obviously COVID has exacerbated all of the other typical issues that result in us Floridians getting our stock later than most of the rest of the country. Regardless of whatever your political leanings might be (some of which are being revealed by your responses), there are certainly worker shortages throughout service industries, not to mention throughout the general workforce. I know it's been an outright bitch to fill positions in my office and we offer great pay, great benefits, and lots of flexibility. The people just aren't applying and there are a myriad of reasons. It's a bad faith argument on both sides to ignore what the others are saying. Certainly the added stressors of COVID-world make these typically "low level" jobs even less attractive but work is work! Then again, I am an old man ...

ANYWAY, I got a bum Galvatron from Amazon and have given up on ever finding another in the wild, let alone with the corrected shoulders. I decided to give it a go, buy the prying parts from Amazon, and now I have a beautifully assembled Galvatron, with no plastic stress! It took me about 15 minutes in total, the worst part being putting the arms back on the figure. Use a hair dryer for a little extra give and you should be good to go.

 

You're right. There are many, many reasons why things have spiraled out of control. The logistics of international distribution rely on so many different industries. My girlfriend's Mom works in a distribution warehouse for Staples and they do have trouble keeping on staff because other jobs have competitive wages now, the hours don't seem worth it to a lot of people in a pandemic, etc etc. On the flip side I work for a local college and we have a ton of positions that got instantly filled for this upcoming semester. This is all too complex an issue to blame a single factor when we're talking about an entire country.

Also, the Galvatron arm fix was only really scary when popping it back on but that plastic is FLEXIBLE when it wants to be. Figure is wonderful once he's fixed.

 

Nothing new at Daytona Target unless you're into other things like NECA TMNT, of which there is both of the new figures out. Also, TCG vendor showed up about 30 minutes ago and stocked everything from Digimon (hard to find I hear) to Pokemon...which should all be gone by end of day since people are rabid for this stuff. I recently got back into MTG thanks to the D&D crossover, so if you are interested in any of that like the Gift Boxes, the draft boxes or the collector packs, please price match to Amazon, they're much cheaper.

 

Y'all find any ss jolts

 

I still haven't found a Galvatron but thanks to Pulse I don't have to worry while scouring Walgreens.

 

Nice, I wasn't lucky enough to get him on pulse before he sold out, but I've had pretty good luck with Walgreens. There's still Earthrise Bluestreaks on the shelf and 3 stores to check in N. DeLand alone.

 

Yeah, I'm not too worried about Red Alert. I pass 6 or 7 Walgreens on my work commute (depending on which route I take), so when he eventually shows up, they'll all get him in at the same time. (I didn't have any problems finding Siege Ratchet or Earthrise Bluestreak when they were out.)

 

I found 1 Ratchet and never saw him again. I don't wanna take chances like that again lol.

I hope Hasbro puts Nova and Quasar up on Pulse too. Seems like the original shipments never made it to the US.

 

I never seen ratchet or bluestreak in stores

 

I have seen all the Walgreens CHUG exclusives so far since 2016 (TR Brainstorm),the clone 2 pack (2017), and ER Bluestreak (2020).
Siege Ratchet was the only one I never saw.

Even then, Id rather have Walgreens have exclusives more than Amazon.

 

I mean, after the 2020 exclusives debacle, I think "Fuck Amazon" could easily take the top spot in any poll for any transformers forum motto