[flaccideagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceman

And as I said before the population of the US is much more spread out with many more retail locations that are spread out to supply with toys than Japan does (proportionally to population). Distribution would likely be a lost easier if you took the population of the US and pushed them to one half of the country. I have no solution to the distribution issues and clearly it isn't easy for the pros or else we wouldn't get annoyed by it.

It's clear also that Hasbro is working on the distribution issue- there's only so much you can do. Since there's pegs that are full, but just not what you want, stores don't order newer waves. If stores don't order them, then Hasbro can't make money. If Hasbro doesn't make money, on something that is already expensive to make and has a small profit margin, then why do it?

Personally I think a lot of people take advantage of store policies and return the "peg warmers" to retail, exchanging them for the "hot" "rare" or "valuable" figures, and this is a much bigger issue that people realize. Some people I used to see on this very site were brazenly open about doing it. I see patterns in some of the flea market stalls in my area too- on Friday, TRU has all new figures on the shelves, and the stall has tons of older figures; by Sunday, TRU has all these older waves of figures, and the stall has all these new figures... hmm. I found a MU variant at retail last year, bent the card corner so maybe a child could get it. Nope, somebody had it on eBay the next week has it up for $50. People buying things just to re-sell them is a big part of the problem.

As for Gashapon and "capsule" toys- these are often not just sold in vending machines, there's sold at 7-11s and at corner stores, in boxes, and many sell for US$5-10 per blind box. The popularity of the "blind box" style of selling the toys has clearly influenced other toymakers in the US and elsewhere to follow suit. The other things US toymakers both indie and multinational have picked up- controlled inventory, using controversy as publicity, normal cheap toys marketed as high end luxury/fashion items, and various other dubious methods to push their wares- that's another issue.