just checked out 4 different stores that all carry figures,not 1 of 4 had anything that has not been out for the last 4 months,I kinda knew that was going to happen so I think im tapped out,I may check out the walmart and target that are really close by but no more going out of my way,thanks hasbro/retail,way to lose money.

Well its been a week or so since I started the thread and still no stores are stocking,something must be up,its never been this dry for this long.

I agree. 8 Meijers, 2 Wal-Marts, & 2 TRU and TRU are the only ones who have even a half ass selection. Joe Renegades, Scarlet only at most places, MU is a few scattered series 3, Star Wars is nothing but Troopers. Wal-Marts here have ZERO Marvel figures aside from the wack ass Avengers figures. No MU, no ML. Even K-Mart was bone dry. This is well over a a month of bare shelves.

yet there are people who will say nothings up lol.

word. all i collected were MU and joes...since there aint shit to be found on the pegs i got into toybiz legends a month ago...and for $5/$10 each i've gathered all my mutants in two weeks. the only figure a payed a liittle more was series 6 deadpool.

I've read a few post that are sayin the distribution problems are because of the hard times which is bull crap the avengers movie made a billion dollars in 19 days if hasbro put these figures out Im sure we will be out there hunting but nothin is coming out that is the problem how can hasbro make revenue if they are not putting nothin out... A real signs of the times if you go to the store n the shelves are full Lmao

As far as I know, Happy Meal toys weren't even released. That is really strange.

Gas is actually going up where I am.

I have mentioned in other posts that we are stocking on some ol' and recent MU waves figures at random, just these past few days we've restocked XForce pack, FF pack and Guardians of the Galaxy packs. Then the YJ 6" see the shelves again but this time they are on clearance. And just these past two days I see DC wave 20 on the shelves.....?!? But nothing new unless it's for the Avengers, TF, SW, and even BeyBlade......(WTF?!?!)
I'm guessing it [new items] will hit us by complete surprise........though I doubt it.

Like many of ya, I've seen bare shelves on my end as well. Seems no one is really restocking anything at all...well besides TRU from what I've seen. Otherwise all the other stores just have pegs full of nothing.

Maybe hasbro just has to much stock n they just refuse to ship new figures out

well for most of the nation its gone down.

As I understand it, Walmart is gearing up for another aisle reset sometime this month to accommodate new additions to the action figure aisle (one of which being ASM). It's similar to what happened with Target in February.

Remember, Hasbro wants you to buy their stuff as much as you want to buy their stuff. But if the retailers won't sell Hasbro's stuff to you, there's not much Hasbro can do about it.

It doesn't matter what Hasbro puts in that case if Walmart won't put it on the shelf. They could do an entire revision case full of just TFP Soundwave and it wouldn't do a damn bit of good for any of us while it sits in the back room at Walmart collecting dust.

Or worse yet, it sits in Hasbro's warehouse because Walmart's POS system refuses to order more until your favorite store gets down to 5 TFP toys left (but there are 10 now and they're all Bumblebee).

Just because a movie is successful, does not mean that the corresponding toy line will also be successful. While it certainly does help, the toy line will eventually have to stand on its own at some point.

Tron: Legacy made $400 million worldwide but failed in the toy aisle. Avengers might do the same (although I have seen posts indicating that sales have picked up since the US premiere).

As far as I know, Marvel never had a licensing deal for Happy Meal toys, so it's not a big surprise that none were released. I am kind of surprised that there hasn't been some kind of fast food tie-in involving toys, though.

I think Avengers is both a sign of the problem and going forward will make it worse.
I walk into the big names here, including walmart, and they are sold through the majority of the avengers toys.
That being said has anyone seen them restock the figures? When the Cap and thor movies hit theaters and then dvd I knew to look as thats when they would be restocked.
Not a single store restocked for the movie or since around here. (here being from south of boston to portland me)
My prediction is as they stores now seek stock from hasbro, it takes three weeks to get to shelves by which time interest has dropped leading to peg warming and further delays for the next mu wave.
Of course I thought the avengers line would fail so what do I know.

It's the POS system of major retailers, especially the "holy three". Case in point, when we restocked on the GoG, Xforce, & FF packs I quickly got both XF and FF and not even three two days pass when I again see FF & XF restocked along with more GoG packs. the same thing with Avengers and even some of the MU figures.
Just as Trebleshot the toy lines for movies stand alone once they hit the shelves.
I guess that the next time there is a Q&A with HASBRO on this site we ALL ask the same question as to "WTF is up with new shit hitting the isles!?"

well then its the POS system the retailers use,whatever,either way its pushing alot of collectors away from retail so someone better fix it or retail will loose out and online ordering and the LCS(aka scalp shops)will be rollin in dough.

They did back in the 90s, i remember the toys used to promote Spiderman

I was only referring to a deal regarding the Avengers movie, not all Marvel properties. ;)

This is the reason for the gas increase on the West coast...
West Coast spike in gas prices tied to refineries | Fox News
Yup I'm feeling it too!

Trebelshot was dead on with using BumbleBee as an example lol. 1st 4 pics are from Target, the rest are Wal-Mart...

The reason "hard times" are a legit excuse is simple: People haven't been buying as much "traditional toys" outside of the holiday season these past two or three years.

What we're seeing now is the aftereffect of that: Retailers not giving a shit about their toy sections UNTIL the Holiday season. Even in "good years" January-March was usually a dead zone unless you happened to catch the tail end of "holiday releases" and find some new stuff. This year was a slight exception as we got the "Star Wars Episode I 3D" launch in January, but we all saw how badly that flopped.

Spring-Summer brings the flood of "movie toys" but as we see with Avengers: The movie toys have failed so badly the last few years that Avengers was underproduced and underordered, and now we're rapidly headed towards a shortage (particularly of the Hulk figure), because it looks like the movie's popularity has indeed given it traction with the kids. However, while Summer brings on the movie toys, with Hasbro in particular it tends to remain a "dead zone" for any ongoing lines that don't have movie tie ins (Marvel Universe, Star Wars: Clone Wars, etc...). Basically: Their production and shipping channels are focused on the movie toys at the expense of their other stuff.

And then of course, the fall comes and the stores start ramping up for the Holidays, bringing us 3-4 or even 5 waves of figures for "older" lines hitting in a 3 or 4 month span as the floodgates open and retailers aggressively order product again (Star Wars at Wal-Mart is notorious for this...I've seen 3 waves hit Wal-Mart in the same week, usually in an "aisle cube", and then sell out (of anything that isn't a repack/repaint) inside a day).

So basically, all that MU and Star Wars stuff you're not finding now? It'll all show up in the fall, but in the holiday feeding frenzy if you aren't quick or persistent you still won't find it.

Of course, Persistence is another problem. One "hunt" a week after work in the afternoons (or God forbid on the weekends) is not going to be very productive. Unfortunately for many of us that's the only time we really CAN hunt.

^ This man knows what he's talking about. Everything in this post is 100% correct.

Oh ya if you go to the TFW side, someone's actually collecting pics of BB's. Also stopped by Walmart, they had the Psylocke wave with Gambit/Thanos 2 pack there. Amazed.

Great,might as well spread your wisdom to every other toy forum being you 2 are the only ones on the whole internet that have it figured out,im not buying it,this might have worked in years past but not now,you could have started the post with "this is my opinion" but to out right think you KNOW the answer and everybody else is just some clueless toy collector is an unintended insult (IMO).

I agree that POS systems are a part of the problem, but only part. Here are my thoughts.
1.The lack of new product is affecting not only the big three. The web based specialty retailers are getting product. But not much. Its still not meeting demand.
2. The big retailers have the same revision waves stocked at the same time. This means they're getting stock just not the stock we want to see.
3. Nobody has Avengers wave three yet. The fastest movie to a billion and they're still holding back figures? I understand it would take time to produce, ship and distribute them but why are they not anywhere. No Philippine first sightings, no loose production line figures on ebay?

The problem goes deeper than POS, though I think some of it is manipulation by hasbro.

A problem I see with the Hard times bit is Warmart. The same figure at TRU at 11.49 is still 6.49 at the WM . The 20.99 comic pack at target is 14.96 at walmart. Are times less hard at WM?