[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarquinius

I know this is a bit of a tangent here and getting too far from the point of this thread. But I agree that we need to support this line and trust that with the methodical choices we will get everyhing we want.

My only concern is is that the new wave of these toys are NO WHERE. At the end of HAMMER wave 1 they offered a re-release of some older SHIELD figures in assortment packs which a lot of stores bought. Now a lot of stores have an over abundance of SHIELD series and the HAMMER stuff is in the back or hasnn't been ordered.

Hasbro took down the majority of the SHIELD figures off HTS.com for this reason I'm sure, so that stores can't innudate the market with old product. But....I just really hope that in the summer new figures will emerge. I guess I'm just nervous that.........only when new product is available can we support the MU line and...without new product available, there is no support

Distribution is indeed a problem, but that goes to how each store handles it too.

We have several issues here.

On the store end, we've got issues like the warehouse amount, shelf space, moving merchandise for new products, and inventory.

Warehouse amount, how many cases of each wave, and whether some stores keep getting sent older cases that didn't move yet. Bottom of the pile syndrome, when you stack new boxes on top of old, when the new run out for other stores, those stores keep getting shipments of the earliest wave that everyone has long since bought.

Shelf Space, if it has a high volume of shelf space, how often do you reorder cases from the inventory to add to it, bare shelves vs how many are sold. People hiding figures, theft, and so on end up throwing the inventory off till someone notices to fix it so the orders become wonky. High shelf space if they keep it full though can be beneficial to getting new figures out faster.

Moving merchandise, the more they sell the more they order to stock the faster the waves come.

And inventory, as stated before, if the inventory gets off compared to the appearance, all sorts of mis-haps can happen with ordering too little to too much of older cases, or even newer that became older, but it's still a dangerous scenario as it hiccups the later releases. Finding an even flow of figures to keep up with demand for all the various ones, and whether or not the store recognizes the market or not.

Hasbro's tried to remedy some of this with the case variants throwing in some popular olders to keep new buyers happy, and keep figures making sense together. Like the warpath wave had X-force wolverine in it too albeit in old packaging. The do this with wave choices too for new figures, like bucky and classic cap, or ironman and black widow. GBP's looked to be a test market at first with store exclusives (sort of like a low run, but at walmart so not so low and just about everywhere), and if it proved fruitful will go bigger, so hopefully galactus will prove profitable to show we'll buy marvel figures of various scales to fit our needs. They also do this trend of making complimentary characters in the pack, while still covering a larger variety. (Past and present in the same first wave).

*Edit*

Rethinking this, I'm starting to wonder if this may be the secret to the galactus sub line. Whatever his line is, could be character centric to anysize, one wave at a time. But maybe only high profile ones could do this at a 1 per case assortment. Must have syndrome more or less by general audiences, and fans. Galactus fits this. But who else can on that scale?
Smaller at least, at a lower price it's more reasonable. Like the gi joe alpha and bravo packs. I wonder if they might be prepping for that eventually with the release of the upcoming ghostrider. Ultimo could maybe do the same as Galactus, especially if he's featured in IM3.