53 replies to this topic

[sallah]

...on toysrus.com when the Romulan arrives? I ordered 2 Kangs way early on just to have my order canceled. With the army builder nature of the Romulan, I have a feeling we'll see a repeat of the same problem with him. In fact, I just called to update my credit card on my order, and the lady said "you don't want to do that- better to wait and have us contact you. If you do it now, you'll lose your spot on the list, and it appears the figure is already on back order status in our system". Which is kinda crappy since it's still up for order...

I dread the Romulan hunt...

Sallah

[ryanlb]

Maybe I'll get lucky and win the Romulan giveaway contest, too.

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

Am I worried? No. It's pretty much a certainty in my mind that we're going to go through it all again. Don't forget, Kang himself is the second coming of this problem. Screaming Kirk beat him to it. I pretty much just assume that any TRU exclusive is going to be like this.... to the point that I didn't even bother ordering the Romulan on TRU's website. I'm just going to wait til they come out on ebay.

I made the mistake of waiting until "the prices come down" on screaming Kirk... thinking that the initial wave of auctions was just an inflated rip off. Now, I still don't have him, AND when he does show up, he goes for upwards of $60. I'm not paying that much for any figure, so it looks like I'm out of luck with him. With Kang, I drove all over the place, wasting all kindsa time in a futile effort to find him, and finally had to pony up the $40 on ebay for one anyway. This time, I'll wait til Romo's on ebay, pay my $30 or $40 and be done with it.

... perhaps I'm a bit too negative, no?

[sallah]

Am I worried? No. It's pretty much a certainty in my mind that we're going to go through it all again. Don't forget, Kang himself is the second coming of this problem. Screaming Kirk beat him to it. I pretty much just assume that any TRU exclusive is going to be like this.... to the point that I didn't even bother ordering the Romulan on TRU's website. I'm just going to wait til they come out on ebay.

I made the mistake of waiting until "the prices come down" on screaming Kirk... thinking that the initial wave of auctions was just an inflated rip off. Now, I still don't have him, AND when he does show up, he goes for upwards of $60. I'm not paying that much for any figure, so it looks like I'm out of luck with him. With Kang, I drove all over the place, wasting all kindsa time in a futile effort to find him, and finally had to pony up the $40 on ebay for one anyway. This time, I'll wait til Romo's on ebay, pay my $30 or $40 and be done with it.

... perhaps I'm a bit too negative, no?

Not to stray too far off topic, but I may have an extra screaming head floating around somewhere form where I used the body for a custom. If I do, do you want it to throw on a standard regula 1 Kirk body? I know it's not quite the same thing... but pm me if you do and I'll look for it.

Sallah

[Artistix]

... perhaps I'm a bit too negative, no?

You're being realistic.

Luckily a kind Playtrekker picked up an extra Kang for me. Hopefully I will be as lucky with the Romulan.

I highly doubt I'll ever bother with Screaming Kirk.

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

DST has found a system that works for them , making one super cool variant figure that everyone wants because of the cool factor , and they short pack it , thus causing the demand to go up , so they sell everyone of the shortpacked figures , and maybe a few of the rereleases along the way . I think as long as DST is making Trek figures and selling them at TRU we'll see this happen as often as each new wave hits the shelves .

[Prometheus]

I hate to even say this..... but the way things are going with Playmates and DST we may not get ANY figures...They are both putting everything on hold or cancelling it outright.

[Sybeck1]

Who knows. I just hate to see Febraury's Toyfair. After 90% of this year's Trek being cancelled or put on hold, they might not even show up.

[bgiles73]

I'm starting to wonder if maybe these two companies have been swapping notes on how to cancel everything and loose fan-base support. Makes you wonder about the plans that have been discussed.

DSTChuck: I was unaware Playmates had pulled the plug on any of their figures so no it does not have any impact on the plans we

[reverie]

I certainly hope DST ups the Romulan order! I'm still hunting for a Kang to keep in-package. It's silly that they make Toys waves out of all remakes, and one new figure, and then the one new figure is the short pack and we're left staring at the re-dos for months on end!

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

I think DST gets unfairly slammed a bit in all of this... they're only the manufacturer, and given that TRU is the 800lb. gorilla in the toy world, I'm sure they have the clout to negotiate whatever deal they want with DST. Diamond will happily produce as many, or as few, and pack the cases in ratios, the customer will want as long as it will make them money. TRU is at least an equal partner in this (from the fan's perspective) mess. They both have found a formula that works for them, and they are not likely to move from the model until it stops working.

Financially, it's probably about as good as can be for both parties. For no retooling costs, they get to double dip on most of these figures, and the one figure that they don't make as much money on is the one that's short-packed. That fact, and TRU probably negotiating a lower price per case, is why the figures are selling for $14 instead of the $16 that the latter TNG figures were retailing for.

Meanwhile, for TRU, they're likely seeing the waves move faster because of us rabid collectors going into the stores hunting down the exclusive, which is great for them. I was in my local TRU about a week ago, and all that was left of wave 3 was a single Mirror Spock, while his buddies the TRU exclusive TMP 2-pack, Amok Time 2-pack, multiple dress Kirks, Spocks, McCoys, etc... were still warming the pegs.

[BadBunnyMike]

Well the only thing with them changing the pack ratios, is that they did that with wave 2. There were more Dress Kirks than McCoys, and now he is warming the pags. I think they went back the the first packing ratio with this wave so that Kang wouldn't be the new "Dress Kirk"

On the other hand, Kang is a "NEW" figure and Dress Kirk was a re-release. it would have made more sense to release more of him this time around instead of short packing him.

SIDE NOTE
I still dont have the Re-release of McCoy single carded....does someone have an extra?

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

^^ When I was a TRU a couple weeks back and I picked up my PM phaser , I looked through the pegs for Kang and there was nothing but Kirk and Spock variations , no McCoys or Kangs to be had in a about 12 fully stocked pegs .

[gkap]

12 pegs! My TRU only has three.

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

The TRU near me is an older stand-alone that has been there for as long as I can remember and it is huge inside . The DST figures on the single cards are on two two rows at about eye-level . each holding about 4 or 5 . There is a top row that holds the 2 packs . Then on the shelve below the Tricorders and Phaser communicator 2 packs . Along with the hotwheels ships (they only had 2 there on the day in question , both of them being the Reliant.) Then they have the pegs full of Star Trek 2009 figures, accessories , with the bridge , transporter, and USS Enterprise toys on the shelf below.

[Gothneo]

SIDE NOTE
I still dont have the Re-release of McCoy single carded....does someone have an extra?

I actually do have one I picked up back when they came out... I was going to use it for something, but I've forgotten what that was, so if you want it for C+S your welcome to it BadBunnyMike. PM me if your interested... I think cost (incl the tax) was $15.11

On topic... Yeah I did the same thing Sallah... and got the same results! I really feel bad for people that have no TRU near them. Exclusives to a store are always a pain, and if you don't have a store near you, you'll have to hope that a kind person will hook you up.

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

Well Mike, I went back to my local TRU today and they didn't have the single carded McCoy ...

For figures, they had:

2 single carded Spocks
3 single carded Dress Kirk
2 singe carded Mirror Kirk
2 single carded Mirror Spock
1 amok time 2 pack (damaged box)
1 TRU exclusive TMP 2 pack (damaged box)

(no Kangs, either...)

[sallah]

Welll...here we go again! Just got this in my e-mail:

Thank you for shopping at Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com.

We have received your order # . However, there has been an unexpected delay in the shipment of the following item(s):

Item: 5905843
Description: Exclusive Star Trek Series 4 Action Figure - Romulan
Quantity: 3 @ $13.99
Shipped Method: Standard Shipping


Please note: Your item(s) will be shipped once it becomes available. You will receive a shipping confirmation email with updated tracking information once your item(s) has shipped.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Thank you again for shopping at Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com.

Sincerely,

The Guest Service Team
Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com

Thats just great. why even bother taking preorders you aren't going to fulfill? I see that both he and Scotty are now out of stock on the site too. Wonder if this means they will ship soon? Guess I'm stuck haunting stores AGAIN.

I hate Toys R Us.

Sallah

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

Well, on the bright side, the order hasn't been cancelled yet.... but I wouldn't be too hopeful. Good luck, Sallah. Hope you get it...

[Gothneo]

I got the same notice too. Surprisingly I had another item that received this treatment and they did eventually ship it, but in this case I would like to believe that the backorder is just due to a delay on DSTs manufacturing part.