Author Topic: Star Trek  (Read 93813 times)

Offline Paul

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #300 on: October 5, 2009, 10:53 PM »
ok then I didn't miss it...

Sadly with the ST line, the "Bridge" is pretty much the focus of many of the episodes (not so much the movie).. so that Bridge Playset should be the ultimate accessory.

I would have been sucked into this line more if the figures were worth done better.  If the "Galaxy" line has better asthetics, then I might pop back in. 

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #301 on: October 5, 2009, 11:46 PM »
I don't think they're bad, honestly.  If it weren't for SW, I probably would've dug customizing some "red shirts" and nobodies from these.  They're not horrible sculpts as some people feel they are...  Kirk is bad.  I'll say that.

The rest are all very nice likenesses and Pike's a little youthful looking but not horrid.  I'd say he's got a bad paintjob more than a bad sculpt.

The line's not bad.  And that Transporter is everything SW fans wish they'd get, as playsets go.  It's nice.
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #302 on: October 7, 2009, 01:28 AM »
I'm sticking with the, "I bet you don't know what sold and what was replenishment" stock theory on this... 

I'm sticking with "Half an inch of dust on the top of the plastic bubbles means they're not selling."   ;)

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #303 on: October 7, 2009, 02:43 AM »
I guess PA stores must all clean and restock at night while stores in other states mysteriously don't clean anything, and nothing's ever disturbed by kids throughout the day, and nothing is reset/restocked at night by an employee so a "half inch of dust" can settle on it.

Even K-Mart here isn't like that...  The only time I've actually seen dust settling on action figures was Kay-Bee back in the day because nobody went there and shopped it seemed, and I see it at Toy Shows from figures sitting in some dusty room of a scalper being sold now for a fraction of what he originally paid.

Seriously though, even K-Mart's stock doesn't have "dust" on it.  Seems to me all toys get rifled through so much throughout the day, dust doesn't settle on them here even if they're not selling.  Different worlds I guess.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #304 on: October 7, 2009, 04:23 AM »
Oh I picked up a lone Cadet McCoy tonight too, at a Target that was down to an array of Kirk's and Sulu's.  McCoy is the best IMO for fodder because his console and chair are "stand alone" ones that don't connect to others, and he has the little datapad and medical capsule accessory.

Everyone else comes with less pretty much, so I was down for another McCoy...  he's got a neat headsculpt too that's good for fodder I think. 
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #305 on: October 7, 2009, 12:15 PM »
Maybe I should take some pics... seriously Jesse, I'm not trying to be disagreeable, but if this stuff was that popular it would not be on clearance at Target, would not have a seemingly endless Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale at TRU, and Wal-Mart would not have reduced the price to $4.97 months ago (which they did go back to full price on, I'm guessing in anticipation of Wave 2).

The Target stores never seemed to get a bulk of this product in, for the most part they did seem to move decent enough there, but not the point to where you would see the pegs bare at any point or even low on stock.  With the clearance, it's been the same exact figures dangling there for a while now.

In regards to Wal-Mart, the stores around these parts put all of these on endcaps - not on pegs, but just standing freely on shelves.  I've even done a few counts from time to time and the number there is always the same, or down 1-2 figures once in a while.  There is dust on these figures, even fingerprints that have been there for a while now.  And this isn't one store, it's several super centers.

TRU is probably the worst situation around these parts - the Star Trek section is rather large, but it honestly looks as though not a single figure has moved in weeks, if not months.  The section looks as though it's frozen in time.  The dust is present on these figures as well.  And not just one store, three different stores.

As for the idea that stock is being rotated, I'd agree somewhat if I had seen even a single case of figures on a pallet at a Wal-Mart or a Target employee with some figures on a cart restocking... it simply has not happened.  I go on as many toy runs as probably anyone on the boards, and I never see evidence of restocking this line.  I pay close attention to all 3-3/4" scale figures, and believe me when I say I have not seen this with the Star Trek line.  Even Indy was restocked at a better rate than this. 

Now, I do like this line and would have really liked for it to have been more popular.  I think the main problem was the lack of there being a second wave into the mix before now - that wave has a lot more variety and is quite a bit more interesting.  The playsets are pretty nifty as well... I'm not even a Star Trek fan, but I can appreciate collector focused toys when I see them, which is why I've bought some of these.  And gotta love the pack-ins as well, chairs and computer consoles are a dream come true.  Most of what I've bought is for custom fodder, and that's what I'm looking forward to with Wave 2.

Offline Nicklab

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #306 on: October 7, 2009, 01:35 PM »
The situation at TRU is pretty sad.  I think they need to steal some executives from Target, frankly.  They need to get more aggressive about their inventory management and clearance the pegwarmers and shelfwarmers in a more timely fashion.  That Star Trek stuff is going to be lingering in TRU stores for at least another year.
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Offline efranks

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Offline iFett

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #308 on: October 7, 2009, 04:02 PM »
Been almost three years since they hired that guy?  Haven't noticed any changes other than the store closures.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #309 on: October 7, 2009, 05:14 PM »
Like I said, it's different worlds I guess...  Around me, Target put things out early and had EVERYTHING except some ship everyone wanted (I didn't buy the scaled ships).  Target stores went through stock on a fairly steady rotation up to and through the movie's release.  Then it leveled off at some point late Summer, things stagnated and sat (but nothing's ever collecting dust at Target).

Wal-Mart put their things out late, and if anywhere collected dust it would be WM because they came late to the game after Target had already put things out, put them on sale a couple times with the movie's release and popularity, and such.  The WM game plan was ****.  They also did NOT put out playsets at all at WM till just recently when they put prices up on the figures and the movie got a 2nd release at IMAX threaters.  Then all of a sudden space on the plan-o-gram was there for playsets too, which surprised me as the figures at WM didn't APPEAR to be selling to me, but again it's not like dust settles on them here either so I really don't know what's selling.  WM did mark them down to $4.97 a piece here, never lower, but when they were $5 the most popular figures sold out.  It was a sea of yellow shirts (Kirk, Pike, Sulu) and Nero and Old Spock.  Scotty, McCoy, young Spock, and Uhura were all even gone at Wal-Mart at this point...  Chekov's figure could be found though still for some reason.

Toys R Us I don't go to often.  Once a month at best since they're not close to me in any direction.  I was at one Sunday though looking for the Interceptor and checked their ST stock.  They had a section dedicated to ST that was about 50% the size of the Star Wars section, same aisle, and same side.  It shared space with Terminator crap.  They had their BoGo sale posted yet, and so I rifled through.  TRU here is similar to how WM was when they put figures down to $4.97.  They had a LOT of figures, but it was a sea of yellow shirts, Nero's, and Old Spocks, with a smattering of Chekov, and a few McCoy's as well.  None of the other figures.  Playsets were there, full price.

At the Target stores I visited yesterday while I was out, one store had put out a fresh case of ST figures so I grabbed a Spock and McCoy, and got a third Uhura for customizing.  The only other figures they had were Sulu's from past cases.  The other Target had only Sulu's and one Kirk.  Both had playsets on clearance, which were the same price they've been since put on clearance.

At WM stores, some had barely any or no ST product because they didn't put out much, and the third one had the huge mass of Yellow shirts, playsets, and all the other stuff.  So one had very little, and never had much to begin with, one has sold through a lot of stuff, but are backlogged with all the guys in Yellow which is the "norm" around me locally as near as I can tell, and one never got any ST figures in as far as I'm aware.

Like I said, some of the stuff I see, I'm sure has been around for some months now, mostly at Wal-Mart since they seemed to do the worst, but that's as bad as it has been around here.  Considering the space most WM's had for ST stuff here locally, they sold through a lot here I'd wager, and were even behind on putting it out in time for the film's release.  They were well behind Target and TRU both.

And not a speck of dust anywhere.  I honestly would be complaining if I went into a store and stuff was covered in dust like that.  I don't want my kids rifling through dirt and things, so I think I'd bring that up to the management next time I was in.  WM stores are to be cleaned nightly by the department people stocking the shelves and the janitorial staff over night.  I've never seen Target ever look dirty and I assume their policies are similar or more strict since they try to be more "upscale" by comparison.  TRU I have no clue what their policies are but they've always seemed clean enough to me.

That's just my experiences though locally...  But they jive with Playmates taking the 3.75" line, expanding it to the original TV show, expanding the movie line with another wave, expanding vehicles and things, bringing out a 3.75" beast line to accompany the figures...  I think despite what people think they see, and regardless of dust, that Playmates are holding sales info that says 100% contrary and the line sold well enough.

Now...  Like I said, if retail doesn't allot space to Star Trek, despite them carrying the line forward, I think then that Playmates over-estimated something.  That said though, clearance means NOTHING really.  How often have SW figures been clearanced?  30AC stuff got clearanced here locally and a bunch just got dumped at TJ-Maxx stores, but 30AC was one of the better years for the line according to Hasbro at the time.

The BoGo at TRU has cleared out most of the better figures locally it seems, so that's not been a bad deal, plus I know TRU's sales rules pretty well thanks to a friend, and they're still profiting on the line with the BoGo sale...  It's not clearance by any stretch (they were profiting with the SW sale last week as well).  I think the proof is in the pudding here though, as far as what Playmates says about sales.  If they have a presence in the toy aisle for the next waves and the expansion into the TV series, I'd say they did well enough nationally to warrant that then regardless of what anyone says they see.  That's just how I see it anyway.
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #310 on: October 8, 2009, 03:39 AM »
Just for the heck of it, I hit two Targets on the way home tonight.  I kid you not, the Trek figures had dust on them at both stores.  The 6" figures had more dust, but the 3-3/4 ones did too.  And I'm not making this up.  At one store they had 7 figures there (3 of which were Sulu) in the 3-3/4 scale.  Each figure had a similar amount of dust on top of the bubbles as one other item I noticed, Star Wars Xizor/Leia Comic Packs.  The other store had only 4 figures (one on each peg), Nero was one of the figures, I believe they also had a Pike and two Sulus. 

If memory serves me right, Walmart was the first place in my area that had these out, in some sort of black shipping displays.  I remember buying several of them that night, and then going back a few days later and there being 4 empty slots on the shippers, which was the same number of figures I bought... I was really surprised actually to have gone back and there still be so much left.  I thought these would be flying off the shelves... and also, Walmart has been great about being the first place to find new toys in my area in 2009 outside of GI JOE stuff.  They were a couple weeks behind Target and TRU.

Anyways, I do hope the second wave hits soon and isn't hard to find.  I think it's a better wave than the first assortment.  Looks like if any of the retailers in these parts have room for them, it's Target.  I'll be interested to see if they have these worked into the new reset that I think is due for their toy aisle next week.





^ Cool stuff there for certain... and I haven't even seen the movie yet.  Looking forward to it though.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #311 on: October 8, 2009, 04:07 PM »
Been almost three years since they hired that guy?  Haven't noticed any changes other than the store closures.

Well, I for one have noticed a significant reduction in Rasslin' figures at the Tonka TRU, so I say GOD BLESS YOU and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!  I may even find something worth buying there again someday.
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Offline JACKOFTRADZE

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #312 on: October 8, 2009, 05:45 PM »
That Star Trek stuff is going to be lingering in TRU stores for at least another year.

As another member wrote a phrase that so eloquently equated a similar situation in another peg warming topic long ago I think his logic really applies here: These will be like Robocop figures at Kay-Bee, forever collecting dust in a bin in the back of the store for years to come.

I cannot remember who but if you read this please know that I want to credit you. I bet you can still find a Robocop figure in a corner crevice of a store were a KB once stood.
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Offline efranks

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #313 on: October 8, 2009, 06:03 PM »
Been almost three years since they hired that guy?  Haven't noticed any changes other than the store closures.

Well, I for one have noticed a significant reduction in Rasslin' figures at the Tonka TRU, so I say GOD BLESS YOU and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!  I may even find something worth buying there again someday.

That's probably because they're not making them anymore?  I think the WWE is hooking up with Mattel starting in 2010...last I heard anyway.  They have not been on the best of terms with Jakks Pacific for a while now plus I think THQ still has a lawsuit against Jakks over some type of contract renwal.  I don't know, it's a mess.

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Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: Star Trek
« Reply #314 on: October 10, 2009, 10:02 AM »
I read a blurb that said that the 3 3/4" format is to continue and expand into the classic characters. If that's the case, I'll probably pick some up.
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