Its only some walmarts. My local store ditched cyberverse, but others didnt. It's based on sales and store size it seems. fwiw, Cyberverse is god awful, as are the BB toys for the most part. Walmart might just be seeing Studio Series and Siege might be the only stuff worth selling at all stores.

 

If that's the case, why are they only carrying deluxes?

 

deluxes of what? Cyberverse? That I do not know. Which isnt a bad thing. Local stores all carry Studio Series deluxes, some carry voyagers, and Siege deluxes, voyagers, leaders, micromasters, etc. at all locations. Hasbro knows what Walmart carries. If they had an issue with it, theyd say something. They dont care.

 

My local Walmarts just put a big ol Marvel section with the new reset. Ebbs and flows, upcoming summer media is going to help drive shelfspace. Still a fair amount of TFs at the two Walmarts in my town after the reset. Funny, one is registering 4 Starscreams on hand (but hasn't had any stocked in a while), and just shows 6 Primes (but only has 4 in stock), so I am wondering if a collector has stashed a few around waiting for clearances. I think the other one hasn't put out the case of Optimi, but may have found someone's minibot stash cause there was a full set pegged when I was there tonight (grabbed Tailgate and BB to replace the ones I gave to my nephews).

 

As I said, my Wal-mart now only has spaces for Generations and SS deluxes. They've axed every other size class, period. Which means most of the toys releasing this year are not going to see any physical distribution in my town.'

This has been a gradual process, by the way. Last year they went from carrying all POTP size classes at the beginning of the line, to just Deluxes and Legends by the time the Holiday season arrived. And now they've axed the legends too. And they've never carried ANY Studio Series toys other than deluxes.

 

It must be regional, as the Walmarts near me are putting out Siege Voyagers and Leaders, while their planning docs include space for SS Voyagers and Leaders.

 

WM toy aisles are based on a store by store basis. It's all about volume of sales, foot traffic, and other logistics. Overall though, what your personal store looks like does not give a full picture of where the brand is headed.

 

That's true. The Walmart near me eliminated their entire Hasbro stock entirely. No way is that happening en mass!

 

My main local Walmarts are all post apocalyptic wastelands when it comes to toys. At least Transformers.

 

Smaller, more rural Walmarts have been known for dropping their selections entirely until the next (or the one after THAT) reset.

We have to remember the following:

Girls outnumber boys, which is why their part of the department is much larger than the boys.
Some areas are more into trucks and cars and more of a rural state of mind. Tractors and whatnot.
Transformers isn't the "GOTTA HAVE IT!" juggernaut it once was. 1984 and 2007 have come and gone.

It's not just a Walmart issue, Target has been known to shrink their TF section in certain stores, KMart doesn't even register because they're always overstocked due to their horrendous pricing which is known for their downfall and not everyone has a Krogers or Meijer or Fry's Electronics.

Amazon, Target, and Walmart are now the big three and everything is catering to their whim and they enforce it and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Blame trends and numbers rather than the retailer. I'll be honest, as much as I love Transformers, if I was a store, I wouldn't stock them. There's so much overstock and waste that it just doesn't seem worth it to even carry them. It doesn't help that Hasbro milks a mold until you hear the pegs and shelves whine as they collapse. For example POTP Cindersaur. No one asked for that figure, no one. Do people own it and enjoy it? I'm sure, but it's a pegwarmer and filling up clearance aisles as we speak. I've been to at least two Walmarts that have a clearance aisle bogged down with that stupid purple and yellowish green monstrosity. Now, imagine how many Leaders, Voyagers, and Deluxes do the same thing at $20.00, $30.00, and $50.00.

Someone's eating that cost and it's not the customer. I'm not trying to outright defend Walmart, but I'm also not going to give Hasbro a free pass, either. Look at G1 and see how many times they didn't repaint or remold a mold and try and sell it over and over again. They didn't get the memo here. And we suffer because of it.

 

This is what I miss about TRU, regardless of everyone's complaints. No matter where I lived TRU always had the biggest TF section out of all the stores. Walmart was always a wasteland for transformers. They get the occasional 1 peg full of new figures and then it's months before you see anything new again.

 

I wish more fans put responsibility on Hasbro.

I went on vacation to Wisconsin Dells a year or two ago, and I saw a Hasbro rep (a woman with a Hasbro logo placed neatly on her shirt, as you see in most work uniforms). She was inside a Walmart, inspecting the TF shelves with a clipboard. What was she doing? Did she report numbers to Hasbro corporate? What does Hasbro do with these numbers? Why don't they make more effort to refresh shelves or sell product? Who knows.  

Your complaints about Cindersaur inspire me to build an exclusive display of her!   I love the mold, so I love the re-color. If anything, Hasbro should have done a bunch of colors - build a combat team of raptors!   Also, since girls are buying more toys... don't you think it's a misstep? Shouldn't Hasbro have re-designed the packaging and put the toy in the girl aisle? They do this with pre-school toys constantly: the blue-colored toy is in boy aisle; exact same toy (in pink) is in girl aisle.

TRU was notorious for holding stock, though. You could travel back in time with TRU. Remember that toy from 5-10 years ago? STILL THERE. At TRU.  

Maybe your local one was better than the ones I've seen.   The problem is with Hasbro.

 

Well mine hit the lowest I've seen around here. I was surprised to find a correct facing Hot Rod. First time I've ever seen one.

 

After my fourth visit to another Walmart which stated they had G1 Optimus reissue in stock, but didn’t actually have him, I finally caved and bought him off eBay. Doesn’t help that there are no Walmarts in the 5 boroughs of NYC or Westchester County. Here is the view from the last Walmart:

 

Are you seriously telling us you resorted to eBay pricing for an already overpriced reissue that doesn't deserve the $50.00 price tag?

I guess those of us who complained were wrong. There ARE people willing to spend stupid amounts of money on stupid items.

You only have yourself to blame for the prices on these reissues skyrocketing. It also spills over into other lines like Siege and Studio Series. Thanks for that. Thank you so friggin' much. -_-

 

Wow, that’s an incredibly rude response. I actually paid less on eBay than Walmart cost. Try not to make assumptions. Also, the 2018 reissues are definitely not “skyrocketing” in price on eBay. My point was that it’s unfortunate Walmart makes it so difficult to buy them in the first hand market.

 

Just picked up Sinnertwin and Blot at a Walmart for $4.50 each on clearance. Shame they didn’t have any of the others!

 

        
Time to move out of Russia

 

Scored a Blot for $4.50 also. Great deals to be had.