Author Topic: RotS Product Leaks: Already?  (Read 30633 times)

Offline Jeff

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #45 on: February 11, 2005, 10:20 AM »
I see that now RS is reporting that someone found some some lightsabers CLEARLY marked "ON SHELF NO EARLIER THAN April 2, 2005" at Wal-Mart. 

Guess that's ANOTHER sign that the April 2nd stuff IS in fact already shipping to stores, and may well be in the back room of your local Wal-Mart or Target, silently taunting you.   :P

And yes, these are just isolated incidents for now, but I won't be surprised if they become more and more common as some of the stores "accidentally" leak product to beat each other to the punch.

Why wait for April 2nd and the level playing field if you can leak the stuff early and beat your competitors to the punch and sell it before them?   :-\

Jeff
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Offline Mikey D

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #46 on: February 11, 2005, 10:32 AM »
I see that now RS is reporting that someone found some some lightsabers CLEARLY marked "ON SHELF NO EARLIER THAN April 2, 2005" at Wal-Mart. 

Guess that's ANOTHER sign that the April 2nd stuff IS in fact already shipping to stores, and may well be in the back room of your local Wal-Mart or Target, silently taunting you.   :P

And yes, these are just isolated incidents for now, but I won't be surprised if they become more and more common as some of the stores "accidentally" leak product to beat each other to the punch.

Why wait for April 2nd and the level playing field if you can leak the stuff early and beat your competitors to the punch and sell it before them?   :-\

Jeff

I saw those lightsabers yesterday on the shelf at a Target and thought nothing of them, Jeff.   Lightsabers aren't something I collect, but the DVD piqued my interest.  Didn't buy one though. 
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Offline Morgbug

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #47 on: February 11, 2005, 12:06 PM »
Why wait for April 2nd and the level playing field if you can leak the stuff early and beat your competitors to the punch and sell it before them?   :-\

Jeff

We've already seen it up here (and down there, obviously) with the preview figures.  Manitoba may have been the only province to not put them out well in advance, though some actually apparently leaked and were put back in storage.  I never saw them though until the proper day of release. 

As mentioned previously, TRU leaked the Ep II stuff by at least a couple of days, if not a week.  They knew darn well they'd lose sales and since they tend to charge more, I think they made a conscious decision to break the rules to get at those that cannot wait (guilty, as charged - at least for Ep II).  Canada may be a little different, there is much less effort by Hasbro, LucasArts etc. to police stuff up here. 
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #48 on: February 11, 2005, 12:14 PM »
there is much less effort by Hasbro, LucasArts etc. to police stuff up here.

That's the key isn't it.  I don't understand WHY Wal-Mart or Target doesn't just put them out when they get them, after all what is LFL going to do?

I can't see LFL telling the #1 retailer of Toys they can't sell their products?  That's like a death sentence for the line in general (outside of collectors who would just move to Target or TRU).  Especially if Wal-Mart decided to take it out on Hasbro and not sell any of their products at all, a move like that could cripple Hasbro.

LFL can't really do anything.  There is no "next movie" to threaten them with (like there was for Ep1 or Ep2) and they all know it.  Unless there was some kind of specific agreement signed, I have to imagine that leaks will get more and more frequent as we approach April...

Jeff
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #49 on: February 11, 2005, 01:09 PM »
I for one hope the leaks spill over into my local Walmart.  Hell, set the whole damn aisle now.

 :P

Offline Morgbug

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #50 on: February 11, 2005, 01:31 PM »
I for one hope the leaks spill over into my local Walmart.  Hell, set the whole damn aisle now.

 :P

And if they're going to screw up, put out the second wave of stuff first.  Save the basic figures for April 2nd, just let me pick through the May/June boxes ;)
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #51 on: February 11, 2005, 01:42 PM »
I agree with Jeff - I fail to see what Target, WalMart or TRU's motivations would be for NOT putting the stuff out as early as they get it in.

This is why, if Hasbro wants a street date, they need to try and time the shipping of the merchandise as best they can.

If I was Target and I knew I was charging more than say WalMart for these figures, I would distribute them to my stores as soon as my distribution hubs received them AND tell the stores to stock the empty Star Wars pegs ASAP.

I think more than anything else: the LACK of SW product on the shelves; how fast the Sneak Preview wave is selling (at least around here); and cases that will just scream "put me out on the shelves" -- stores will take the stance -- "f-this, I'm filling my pegs with stock I have on hand NOW!" Of course that will be on a case-by-case basis, up to each individual manager. I'm sure where some of you work, there are always those one or two employees who act first knowing they'll get their hands slapped after-the-fact. Sure the manager might take a ding, but his/her store will also be the store NOT sitting on a glut of these figures come June 2005.

Now - going back to the subject of where the product is right now...

I had a nice chat with my friend who is one of the local Hasbro reps. He swore to me that NONE of the EPIII stuff has hit the distribution hubs for any of the retailers at least locally here in NJ. His guess re: the story that started this thread is that a lone case was shipped from Hasbro by mistake with the rest of the Sneak Preview figures, not that Hasbro has already sent Target their C1 and C2 EP3 figures yet. His guess is that Target/WalMart/TRU wouldn't see these in their distribution warehouses until the middle of next month.

I made him swear he was telling me the truth and not the corporate line, so I have to believe him.
Peter

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Offline Morgbug

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #52 on: February 11, 2005, 05:16 PM »
That's a logical thing to happen and it pretty much coincides with what infinitifett said in the Minnesota thread (I think he works at a Target).  He couldn't find them listed with the DCPI trick.  So an isolated box goes out, the rest remains at a central warehouse until March and will probably get put out as soon as it shows up. 

I do have a question regarding the timing though.  Is mid-March soon enough to distribute throughout the country for the massive April 2 release?  I'd think that individual retailers distribution hubs would need two weeks themselves to get the product out to their stores allowing for time to haul the material off the truck and get it into the storeroom.  I imagine the time to get it from the truck to the floor is minimal, one or two days at most, so it could easily arrive end of March.  But if I were Kmart with only a moderately efficient distribution system compared to Walmart and I got my stuff out mid April instead, I'd be mightily ticked.  Now I'll grant that's K-mart's (or whomever) issue, but I would think there would be allowances for that happening.  Is that reasonable? 
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #53 on: February 11, 2005, 09:16 PM »
The way it was described to me was that the regional distribution hubs should have the stuff by the middle of March and then a week before April 2nd (last week of March) the stuff will be distributed to the stores individually.

Apparently right before AOTC, while leaks was a problem, so was employees at local stores riffling through the stuff in the stock rooms simply because the boxes where there.

I guess he was trying to imply that the distribution hubs would have the stuff by say March 14th and the stuff would be sent the end of the week of the 21st. That's plenty of time (I would think) for the distribution hubs and stores to have their acts in gear.
Peter

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Offline Jeff

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #54 on: February 12, 2005, 06:19 PM »
The way it was described to me was that the regional distribution hubs should have the stuff by the middle of March and then a week before April 2nd (last week of March) the stuff will be distributed to the stores individually.

Guess they must not have meant the Sabers, because they seem to be leaking out all over the place... 'scum is reporting ANOTHER early leak:

http://www.rebelscum.com/toys2005/lightsaber1.jpg

This time it is the RotS packaging sabers that were found, not just the OTC version w/DVD.   :o  Found at a K-Mart, $21.99 each.

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Offline Darth Broem

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #55 on: February 14, 2005, 12:49 PM »
Well I do not know what I am talking about.  However, what's the point if they sell it after April 2 or now?  It's not like they are waiting for people to see the movie first and then distribute the merchandise. 

Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #56 on: February 14, 2005, 03:34 PM »
Guess they must not have meant the Sabers, because they seem to be leaking out all over the place... 'scum is reporting ANOTHER early leak:

http://www.rebelscum.com/toys2005/lightsaber1.jpg

This time it is the RotS packaging sabers that were found, not just the OTC version w/DVD.   :o  Found at a K-Mart, $21.99 each.

Jeff

Yeah - I don't know - I'm going to have to ask him about the sabers. While I personally haven't heard from my collector friends about these hitting locally, when I see my friend who is the Hasbro rep this week at TRU, I'm going to ask him what the deal is.

My guess however, is that the SKUs on the lightsaber assortment is the same for EPIII as it is for POTC as it was for OTC so leaks like that entirely possible.

It's entirely possible that my friend could be speaking purely from his point of view which is being able to look at what is in the distribution warehouses LOCALLY combined with what his boss is telling him on when to expect to see the product and when to start looking out for mistaken shelf placement before the April 2nd date.

He did tell me one other thing and this primarily relates to the 2nd itself - he was told that it is mandatory that he works Friday, Saturday and Sunday that weekend. He did not know his store assignments yet though.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2005, 03:35 PM by Pete_Fett »
Peter

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Offline darkksith

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #57 on: February 16, 2005, 03:45 PM »
someone just posted finding a case of coll. 1 wave 1 ROTS figs at a tennessee toys r us over at the actionfiguretimes.com area reports forum. he said he could only afford to pick up 6 of them but he was able to buy them. almost makes me want to start looking here and there but i think i'll wait . here is the link.

http://www.aftimes.com/bbs2/
« Last Edit: February 16, 2005, 03:56 PM by darkksith »

Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #58 on: February 16, 2005, 05:35 PM »
If I ran into that stuff, you better believe I would have gotten more than 6 figures.  That's what credit cards are for!!!

 :P

Offline JediMAC

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Re: Basic Figure Leak: Already?
« Reply #59 on: February 16, 2005, 06:40 PM »
someone just posted finding a case of coll. 1 wave 1 ROTS figs at a tennessee toys r us over at the actionfiguretimes.com area reports forum...

http://www.aftimes.com/bbs2/

Well, at least that fella's got a semblance of a picture this time, barely.

As for the sabers, I came across them at my local WM on Saturday too.  We're talking about the ones with the bonus DVDs included, right?  The packaging wasn't in the ROTS style though (just the regular OTC design), so perhaps that's why these seem to be slipping out a little moreso than the rest of the April 2nd stuff...
« Last Edit: February 16, 2005, 06:41 PM by JediMAC »