Looking at the line now I'm not sure how much of a success it is. It sold well at the beginning but by July 1st it seems to be stagnant as far as sales go. WM had a huge cube put out about half way into June and the figures that sold the best were from the KotCS wave including the Russian Soldier and Cemetery Warrior. Now they're both hanging around.
Target only ever had the first wave of Deluxe and sold through them. A little over a week ago they finally stocked the second wave with the German Motorcycle, Horse and playsets. They sold, surprisingly, since they've been sitting at WM for weeks now not moving.
Both stores have sold the Trucks and Jungle Cutters well but now the JC is sitting at WM. Neither Target or WM has restocked the 4WD Car since the release.
The 12" moved surprisingly well and didn't seem to be ordered heavily, a good thing, and now the Indy figures are scarce but Mutt and the German Soldier are around. Maybe a swordsman but he sold well also. Role play whip, I still see kids with that once in a while.
I'm afraid it'll be a while till TLC hits here and I'm worried about TOD making at all due to the backlog of figures. Especially now that Cornell and IC are out, the buying market for items like these has all but dried up. Won't be back till the end of August and by then the SW stuff will be popping again so who knows how that will cut into the Indy market.
I also think the first two waves were shipped too heavily and now 3 and 4 will suffer. There was too much of a break between them and TLC and the buzz wore off. I do believe we'll see a bump for the DVD release, especially if it's closer to Christmas.
The price change is a real pisser! My Target was $7.49 for the launch and then, about mid June, dropped down to $6 something. That was for a couple of weeks, and they saw some sales, but then they bumped the price to $7.99 last week. Now, consumers aren't all stupid. People are going to realize that that the same stock that's been on the shelves since May has dropped and now increased to above the release price. This isn't milk or gas, they aren't a commodity...people know it didn't cost Target $7.99 a pop to put them on the shelf.
My WM did the same thing with the 2005 exclusive line of 3" Titaniums. They were, what, $4.88? Then they bumped the price on what was in stock to $5.88 and then again to $5.99. It's now 3 years later and they STILL have 2005 stock on the pegs, with red clearance tags market, get this, $5.99! My WM store has stocked new Titanium vehicles TWO TIMES in three years. End cap of repaints earlier this year and the UGH Republic Gunship wave in 2006. I don't believe they sold a single new Titanium in 2007.
Anyway, my big hopes for this line were doused about 2 weeks ago when I hadn't noticed anything missing from the pegs locally, the TLC wave started to hit in other parts of the country and, although the film is still in the top 10, the buzz has died off and I'm not seeing kids looking at the toys anymore.
Unfortunately, I'm not expecting to get much further than the TOD wave unless something drastically changes with the DVD release. Christmas this year might be about it. Especially with the price hike. If there's another wave far enough along in production we might get it but I wouldn't be surprised to find them in Big Lots or Tuesday Morning.
E..