Author Topic: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive  (Read 110104 times)

Offline JesseVader08

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #285 on: June 30, 2005, 10:08 PM »
Yeah, I'd be surprised if we start seeing them anytime soon.

Offline DoctorPadawan

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #286 on: July 10, 2005, 11:41 PM »
I was shocked when I walked into one of my local Wal-Marts on Thursday and saw that their perpetual endcap of Early Birds had disappeared.  I knew full well that they couldn't have sold, as I had just run one under a scanner two days prior, hoping to get one of those cool clearance prices of 5 bucks, to no avail; still 29.97.  I thought that maybe they were doing the rumored "move" by sending them to stores that didn't get them for the launch, but at least I didn't have to look at them anymore. 

So, I went to another local WM and saw a woman with huge boxes filled with Early Bird kits.  I asked her if they were getting rid of them, and she said, and I quote:

"We're sending them back to the toy company because we only ended up selling about a tenth of what we got."

So yes, this WM, which also had the perpetual endcap of about 40 EB sets, was sending its exclusive BACK TO HASBRO if this woman was to be believed.  I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I thought of how everybody but WM and Hasbro seemed to realize that this was the dumbest idea for an exclusive ever, and now it bombed in a huge way:

Target gets not one, but two exclusive action figures that cause a huge stir and sell completely through their run almost immediately.

Toys R Us gets an exclusive figure that, while not as rare, still sells out very quickly.  Even their repainted Anakin ship is out of stock at most stores these days (or so I'm told).

K-Mart (K-MART FOR THE LOVE OF GOD) gets an exclusive that is more or less a reissued series of niche toys and THOSE sell out at nearly every K-Mart I've been in.

Wal-Mart ends up having to send its exclusive back to Hasbro and/or clearance them out for 1/6th of original price because nobody wanted it.  ;D

As funny as this is to me, it was preventable.  The sad thing is that this could cause some major problems if WM uses the lack of EB sales as a bargaining chip with Hasbro for the future of the SW line in a WM aisle.

Offline Nathan

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #287 on: July 10, 2005, 11:58 PM »
What was the K-Mart exclusive again? *scratches head*

You sure you aren't thinking of the Kohl's bonus figure vehicles?
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Offline Avenging Knight

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #288 on: July 11, 2005, 01:59 AM »
What was the K-Mart exclusive again? *scratches head*
I think the K-mart and KB Toys exclusives were the same........Higher prices than everybody else.  :D

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #289 on: July 11, 2005, 03:05 AM »
I wonder if that's what happened at our Walmarts out here. I didn't hear of anyone scoring good deals on sets, but the EB kits evaporated overnight. Maybe they were sent back. Serves Hasbro right.

What was the K-Mart exclusive again? *scratches head*

You sure you aren't thinking of the Kohl's bonus figure vehicles?

Nah, he's talking about the Palm Talkers, remember? Those were a little lame, though, too. I mean, they don't ship the Yoda one in the US, and when a rare chance for the line to come back, even briefly, they screw it up and don't ship him. WTF?

Offline Brian

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #290 on: July 11, 2005, 09:30 AM »
I was wondering if this happened at our Wal-Mart as well.  I think there are still a handful of them in the "bonus" aisle (or 1/2 aisle now) of Star Wars stuff, but when they still had spillover into the "seasonal" area, there had to be literally 50 of these things.  They then moved them to the front of the store when the movie was released, and then they disappeared.  I highly, highly doubt they sold (or if any of them sold at all), so I'm thinking the majority of them got sent back.  Seeing how Wal-Mart seems to have a lot of the retail pull with Hasbro (and everyone else), I hope this doesn't hurt the future of Star Wars at retail.  They could, as mentioned above, use it as an excuse to under-order (or not order) the basic figures in the future....or only give SW a tiny section of the aisle.  But, I do think we all saw this coming.  Selling a plastic box with a piece of cardboard in it to anyone but collectors (and sometimes not even then) isn't going to happen.  I bet most casual buyers looked at this and thought "what the?"

Offline Darth Broem

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #291 on: July 11, 2005, 10:20 AM »
Back home in Illinois I seem to remember them selling ok.  Sure they had some leftover but not an entire endcap.  Unless they moved them to somewhere in the store I could not find them?  I have not been to that many Wal-Marts here in the Phoenix area.  However, I have been to at least 4 of them and don't recall seeing a single one?  Maybe they were deeply clearenced? 

The problem was nobody really knew what they were getting and it was $30.  A bit to pricey.  I still like it for what it is a throwback to the 77 or 78 EB vintage era. 

To be honest WM should have gotten some sort of ROTS exclusive to sell.  Afterall that was the movie coming out at the time.  It does seem like it was all thrown together at the last instant.

Offline Nathan

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #292 on: July 11, 2005, 02:16 PM »
I wonder if that's what happened at our Walmarts out here. I didn't hear of anyone scoring good deals on sets, but the EB kits evaporated overnight. Maybe they were sent back. Serves Hasbro right.

I heard of a Wal-Mart in MN where all the EBs mysterious disappeared--presumably sent back to the mysterious netherworld from whence they came. ::)

Quote
What w1as the K-Mart exclusive again? *scratches head*

You sure you aren't thinking of the Kohl's bonus figure vehicles?

Nah, he's talking about the Palm Talkers, remember? Those were a little lame, though, too. I mean, they don't ship the Yoda one in the US, and when a rare chance for the line to come back, even briefly, they screw it up and don't ship him. WTF?

Oh, I see. I never paid attention to those.
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Offline evenflow

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #293 on: August 1, 2005, 02:57 PM »
Looks like we may be getting these soon  ;D

Early Bird figures on ebay
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Offline Brian

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #294 on: August 1, 2005, 03:03 PM »
Thanks for the link, glad to see these are starting to pop up.  I guess this answers the whole "how will these be shipping" question, looks like a tray comparable to the vintage days.
« Last Edit: August 1, 2005, 03:04 PM by mosnab »

Offline Jeff

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #295 on: August 1, 2005, 03:03 PM »
Hmmm...




Looks like they are trying to mimic the original EB tray/package.  Definately not carded though!

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« Last Edit: August 1, 2005, 03:04 PM by Jeff »
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Offline DSJ™

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #296 on: August 1, 2005, 03:12 PM »
Thanks for the link, glad to see these are starting to pop up.  I guess this answers the whole "how will these be shipping" question, looks like a tray comparable to the vintage days.

Yepper, just like the old days complete with foot pegs.  8)

Mail-away Offers: Early Bird Package

Offline JedioftheNorth

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #297 on: August 1, 2005, 03:52 PM »
So is the outer box gonna have some sort of design on them like the new Saga line(silver/black).

Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #298 on: August 1, 2005, 08:16 PM »
Who knows.  Possible though since these figures are definitely a modern version of the original EB set.

Should be pretty cool....can't wait for mine to show up.
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Offline Ben

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Re: Wal-Mart "Early Bird" Exclusive
« Reply #299 on: August 2, 2005, 12:47 AM »
****! I have so got to send that envelope out.
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