[TimothyR]

when i went out on friday night.. the toys r us i passed on my way to walmart was absolutely packed.. it looked like black friday. however, a couple miles up the road, at walmart, other than me there were two other people waiting for them to take down the ropes and open the aisle. the two people were older guys, and neither of them were interested in the black series figures. one guy grabbed a couple of the 5POA figures and the other guy grabbed one of the lego troop transports, and that was it. i had the entire section to myself.

they had about 4 or 5 cases of 6" black figures. so, i grabbed kylo ren and two troopers.. had i known how under supplied all of the stores were, i would've only picked up one trooper and got the other once the market was a bit more saturated.

anyways.. i've read that stores were undersupplied on purpose in order to create more of a frenzy.. the more popular something is, and the less there is of it, the more attention it's going to get. so, it makes a bit of sense.

you have people go to a store for the grand opening, a lot of them wanting the black figures. those are VERY undersupplied, so, not wanting to leave empty handed, they're hoping people impulse buy some of the other stuff. they know that those people who're going in to get the black figures, but didn't get them, are still going to find a way to get them.

so, it's a win win, those people will eventually buy the black figures that they want, but hasbro has made a couple more sales thanks to impulse purchases.

just a theory.

on the other hand.. some movie lines, especially the first waves of those lines have been WAY overproduced in the past. which in turn leads to a log jam and doesn't allow new product to be stocked.

and lets face it.. in recent years hasbro hasn't been able to produce a good movie line to save it's life. i mean, the age of extinction line was atrocious, the iron man 3 line was a joke, the avengers 2 line is just as annoying as the iron man 3 line, then you've got the ant-man line with ONE figure that actually appeared in the movie, same goes with the amazing spider-man 2 line.

so.. a good case could be made for hasbro just not knowing what they're doing and seriously don't understand their market.