After reading some people's comments on bare pegs at various stores, it got me wondering further about where everyone is having the best luck this year. From the online reports, it looks like Target is most often ahead of the game in Star Wars collecting this year...and many Wal-Marts are behind, or empty. Although I do think I've managed to find quite a few of my figures at Wal-Mart (I've only found the first three waves, no sign of Coruscant yet), I think I must have just been fortunate enough to stop in at the right times...because they have had bare pegs (or overtaken pegs) the rest of the year. Looking back on what I've bought this year, I think this is how its broken down:
Carkoon Wave - Found at Wal-Mart
Hoth Wave - Wal-Mart (AT-AT Driver, Snowtrooper, Derlin, Veers) Target (R2-D2, Vader)
Geonosis Wave - Target (Poggle, Sun Fac), Wal-Mart (2 Clones, Scorch)
It kind of surprises me that overall I've found more at WM so far, because the pegs are literally empty every other time I've stopped there. In fact, our closest WM now doesn't even have pegs for basic figures, instead filling those pegs with the smaller (regular) Transformers. Plenty of SW Transformers, Unleashed BPs, and Force Battlers on the pegs though. Our WM also doesn't carry Galactic Heroes so far. In fact, they don't seem to be too crazy about action figures in general so far this year, as the ML pegs have been mostly bare (aside from a couple Black Panthers), they don't carry JLU or DC Superheroes thus far, no sign of Fantastic Four Classics or the X-Men lines, and a smaller action figure section overall. Of the lines that actually have figures on the pegs at WM now, I think its something like this:
Power Rangers (large section)
TMNT (large section)
Transformers
GI Joe - Sigma Six
"The Batman" Animated Line
Superman Returns (just arrived this week)
Marvel Legends Showdown
Marvel Legends (very few figures right now)
Spider-Man Classics
Fantastic Four Movie
Overall, I enjoy shopping at Target much more. Its actually one of the wife and I's favorite stores, to just shop for a variety of things. Plus, we never seem to leave angry or frustrated just from the "shopping experience" like we do at WM. Although they don't have the size/inventory of WM, our Target does carry a variety of action figure lines - more so than WM actually - and seem to be better at stocking, at least so far this year. I'd probably skip WM altogether if I could, but it is quite a bit closer to us and easier to stop in at and check things out. Our closest Target is further away, so its often picked over by the time I can get there. One I've forgotten to mention is TRU, which hasn't really been too bad I guess. They don't usually have a whole lot of Star Wars basic figures, but have had more than WM overall (they stick around longer at least). They sometimes have some of the "other" lines stuff first (Titanium Ultra, Titanium figures) - even though I'm not necessarily interested in those things. Also, they are the only place in town that carries the Fan4 Classics and X-Men lines from the Marvel side of things. They also have a healthy stock of the DC stuff most of the time. Anyways - back on the TSC subject, what stores have been the best to you this year? Where do you prefer to shop?