So, this has actually been trending the past couple years (mostly in collector stuff like the reissues and Masters of the Universe), but this year is the first I’ve seen the phenomenon so widespread At physical retail. It’s amusing because it flies in the face of what we’ve been told (including from Hasbro) for over 30 years in terms of how retail WANTS the action figure department to work.
I need to send this question to Adam16bit (aka, Adam Pawlus from 16bit.com/Galactichunter) to get his retailer perspective, but here’s my take on it:
The broader action figure market has shifted to the point that the actual “kids toys” are starting to trend back to a paradigm of the 80s (a few figures available for a year or more with occasional refreshing). Adult Collector/Fans are becoming a much Bigger factor in action figure sales than they’ve ever been (I’ve seen some reports pegging ”us” as pushing 30+% of action figure sales). Because kids don’t buy as much or as many as they used to, I feel Walmart is trying to do some inventory control to manage margins. Instead of getting an assortment of Prime Changers (where one unpopular character could “kill” the line at a store due to inventory backlog), Walmart is basically just stocking what it feels will be the better sellers.
At my store (which doesn’t carry the “full spread”, mind you), most of the mid-tier and upper tier Transformers items are per character (Earthspark BB and Megs, Battlers Sentinel and BB, PC Prime, BB and Quintesson, A-Level Prime and BB). The only things NOT stocked per character are Legacy Deluxe and Voyager, Studio Series Deluxe and Voyager (aside from the aforementioned A-Level figures), Earthspark Tacticons and One Steps, TFOne 1 steps.
If you looked at Marvel and Star Wars, Walmart is basically doing something similar: Epic Hero figures are being stocked per figure (leading to some stores unlikely to GET some because Walmart isn’t stocking the figure. However, Walmart is stocking the Armor Darth Maul and BoKatan/Gideon story pack as their own items, which means all the wave 2 characters are still represented at this store), as are premium figures like Paz Visuala and A-Level items like MCU Iron Man, MCU Spider-Man, Black Mando, and Black Vader. But the standard collector stuff?
Marvel Legends, STar Wars Black, and Star Wars Vintage are all assorted. And all are also targeted to collectors, rather than kids.
There’s good and bad with how this trend may go: retail stores having more control could lead to better sales, leading to more support overall in this segment (up until this fall, my local Walmart’s action figure section was only half an aisle for the past decade. This year, they doubled it). But it also gives a LOT of control to retail toy buyers in determining what the make up of these lines end up being.
Correct. Studio Series Bumblebee, however many may be there, won’t prevent the store from refreshing the Studio Series Deluxe assortment.
Unless you have piles of Airrazor and Wheeljack, then you got to just deal. Interestingly, in the little holiday section my store is putting together in the toy section, they have TWO SHELVES with tags for Studio Series 86 Bumblebee. We’ll see how that turns out.
From leaked listings, the current A-Level offerings SHOULD be available into next spring/summer. The next pair are an unknown Optimus Prime (DEV?) and TFOne Bumblebee, probably hit next summer.
Of course, this has the amusing effect of people on the internet claiming that “nothing (ie, all them kids toys) is selling” because “there’s just full pegs of the same thing”. Even though, that’s the POINT, now. And FWIW, I stopped by my local Walmart middle of last week and saw a bout a case worth of both A-level figures. This morning? All gone, so maybe there is some merit to all this
