Yeah so the stores that I frequent, that actually have animated in stock, have shelves stuffed full of Ratchets and Black Arachnias. Anybody else seeing a pattern of what figures are gonna sit on the shelves?

EDIT: AAARGH...Just realized I hit the wrong tab and put this in the wrong spot. Sorry folks. HOpefully someone will see my silly mistake, take pitty on me and fix it

Man... I wish I could find some BA and Ratchet love.. I haven't seen them turn up yet..

I hate you...

Voyager Bulkhead seems to shelfwarming everywhere I go

the only ones from waves 1&2 that ARENT shelfwarmers around me are grimlock and vgr Optimus. of course the down side is we haven't had a single jazz or soundwave and no Universe either.

I agree, BA ,Ratchet, and voyager Bulkhead seem to be the shelfwarmers here. That and the 2-pack. At my Wal-mart, they only have wave 1 and the two from wave 2. Blegh.

they seem to dissapear as soon as thier found here but I did notice BB's were the ones going last

Bumblebee is starting to be like Concept Camaro Bumblebee all over again... (hard to find) Ratchet, Blackarachnia, and Bulkhead are keeping shelves nice and toasty the last time I checked my local Walmart.

Those 2 are everywhere. I spy the 2 pack, Lockdown as close seconds. Rarely see any Bumblebee or Grimlock figures.

That's curious about Lockdown, as when I bought him back in May, he was the only Lockdown figure there. But when I last checked, he seems to have been restocked aplenty. Prowl is another figure who's likely to be hard to find.

I can see why Ratchet is a shelf warmer. I mean, look at his character in the show. Its a ripoff of Kup from G1 and he's fricken grotesque in the face. Its like, hey Ratchet, what are you doing with an unshaven, warty, blue human mouth? I bet if he had lungs, his breath would smell like alcohol and ass. What kid would think he's a cool, "gotta have" TF other than an obessed fan or collector? Thumbs way down on Ratchet in the show, which directly translates to being a shelf warmer in the toy line.

Voyager Bulkhead, Deluxe Ratchet and Blackarachnia on Jakarta's toy stores.

Let's see....

Wal-mart (the ones that even have any Animated, anyway)
Deluxes: Ratchet, Blackarachnia
Voyagers: Megatron, Bulkhead

Target
Deluxes: Lockdown, Prime, Prowl
Voyagers: Bulkhead, Megatron

TRU
ALL WAVE ONE DELUXES AND VOYAGERS

But you know what is really heating up the pegs and shelves EVERYWHERE?

MOVIE CRAP

When I went to TRU today, about 2/3 of the aisle was set with Transformers. About half of that was set up with Movie crap, interspersed with some Universe and the Activators in there (why the Activators weren't with the little bit of Animated is beyond me). That last bit was Animated. Warming the shelves were mostly Bulkheads and Megatrons, the two packs. There was a decent variety of deluxes, so nothing really warming there.

At Wal-Mart, three Ratchets and nothing else except Movie crap.

Target: Two-packs, Megatron, Starscream, Deep Space were all warming an end cap. The actual aisle had more Movie crap.



Enough with the Movie crap. Either put it on clearance or toss it in a dumpster or something (or better yet, hold onto it for next year when we'll be seeing TF2 toys, unless the packaging changes). Another option is to sell it to stores that sell items like this at a lower price cause they're no longer in high demand. Just get rid of it. People are now moving onto either Animated or Universe, or both. Movie is over and done with. Get it out of my sight. It's been over a year now with the stuff. Even I'm slightly sick of the look of them. An animated series is a fresh touch. Let's hope that the movie sequel toys will not have the same shelf warming issue and less unecessary molds and repaints (though I know that's not likely to happen).

BTW, just out of curiosity, one of you many people here must know, cause I sure don't. What do stores do with excess stock of items that no one's buying, not even on clearance? Do they just at some point cut their losses with the product somehow?

The Target here is starting to clearance the movie line. Voyagers, and Real Gear. I'm not 100% on the excess stock, but I think they'll either sell it back to Hasbro, or sell it to a close-out shop(like Dollar General, Big Lots, etc.)

As for Animated, the only shelf warmers I've seen here is mostly BA and Ratchet, as well. Though, Cybertron Prime, Lockdown and one other figure(can't recall who, though.) seem to be warming up the Target shelf, since that's all they have out on the peg(yes, peg. Target only has one peg set aside for Animated. The rest is Movie, and the Animated Voyagers are on an endcap.)...and they've been there for the last two weeks I've stopped in on my hunts.

depends on the store. Frasers Cycles still has shelf-warming Armada stock (overpriced). :/
Supreme Cheetor shelf-warmed for years. Ditto Animorphs, Hasbro's G1 reissues and Alternators (although TRU eventually cleared off their G1 reissues and Alternators with massive clearance sales - like nearly 50% off). Depends on how desperate the store is to move their dead stock.

I saw one TRU selling 1994 Robocop toys for like 12 years.

yeah, BA and ratchet seem to be warming shelves more then most, along with voyager bulkhead and megatron. i think there are so many BA's and ratchets because they were the only wave 2 deluxes so they came more to a case. all the wave ones were less abundant from the beginning.

i havent seen any wave 3's, nor have i seen voyager optimus.

my target also has just one peg for animated deluxes.

Why is Black Arachnia shelf warming? I don't get that myself, shes an awesome figure IMO... Or is that just me?

ditto where I live on the BA and ratchets

Beast mods in non Beast lines tend to lag in sales behind the vehicle-based characters.

Then explain Classics Mirage.

Keep in mind that this isn't "Toy Season" so in theory Everything should be shelfwarming.
I also think that Hasbro and retailers are trying to flood the market a little to correct for last year's movie figures. (The fact that we already have 3+ waves released supports this)

I also get the impression that BA and Ratchet come together in a case. Because I have seen tons of newly stocked shelves with just them and nothing else. These shelves don't look like:
"OMG everything sold EXCEPT for these figs!!!"

They really do look like - they were freshly stocked... but the cases only had two figures in it.

I am kind of amused and annoyed at the prevailing sense of DOOM and GLOOM that the fandom has.
Its like folks are just waiting, hoping, for the line to fail...

Its only been on the street for 3 weeks. Technically NOTHING is shelf warming at this point.

Weird, I have not seen a single one. No one here wants the 2-pack, Voyager Megatron, Prime, Lugnut and even Starscream is sitting for a day or two. I am seeing DLX Prime, BA and BB piling up. Everything else is flying off the shelves.




A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N

Yeah, toys have an expected "shelf life" of 1 year for carded figures, about 1.5-2 for boxed figures. After that period then you can start considering them to be real shelf-warmers. This isn't included re-stocks.

Locally, Black Aracnia, BulkHead And Starscream, they are there, dozens of them lined up not moving just sitting there

Unless your name is Grimlock. At one point, he even sold out on BBTS. I also think its a little to early to say that any Animated product is shelf warming. Case in point; Voyager Bulkhead. He was the last wave 1 figure I bought. TRU have 10 of them out when they first put them out. A week later there were two, and someone hid them behind the Prime and Megs two packs! Grimlock's going wicked fast. If you see him, get him, if you wait til the next day to get him, he'll be gone. I had to search all over Atlanta to get one. BumbleBee goes fast to, but it seems that Hasbro is shipping him in larger supply in order to try and avoid what happened with the movie BB. If you can't find Animated BB, I'm sure if you wait a week, and go back to the same store, he'll be back.

The line is a terrible shelfwarmer where I live. K-Mart doesn't carry them, Wal-Mart can't move 'em.

Blackarachnia and Ratchet are definite shelfwarmers. (which is a shame. BA is the best beast mold ever made. Ratchet is not only a terrific figure but very underrated.)

Lockdown and Prowl seem to be the only figures that move. Even then, they still sit on the pegs for the better part of a week before being sold.

Starscream, Megatron and Bulkhead (Voyager) fare better, but even they have a difficult time moving.

All in all, the line just isn't moving worth a crap and it worries me. I want it to be a smash hit success so it goes on and on, but who knows at this point...

...this line just came out! Give it a year!

Seriously

Not only that, all the toys for the rest of the year (sort of) came out all at once. There has been no real staggered distribution of these things.

The last three Wal-Marts I have been to have had NO Animated figures. I wish I could find one of these mythical Voyager Prime shelfwarmers I hear so much about.

Come to North Alabama, lols

been seeing Lockdown and Prowls alot... as well as Voyager Megatron, Starscream, and Bulkhead.

i agree hes EVERYWHERE!!

In Alabama I see lots of movie crap, but I didn't see any voyager figs. I did see slag, jazz, and soundwave
(Got sw)had to go to Ga to get my screamer, when I get home, guess what? He was missing a hand!
So now I have to ship him and my BA back to hasbro (She lost one of her black fangs) I'll be shipping those out Saturday... we shall see... oh yes we shall see.

For the past couple of weeks it WAS Black Arachnia and Ratchet, around here. I went back to get an extra Ratchet today (to bash into Soviet Ratchet), but they were sold out! (They did have Universe in stock, though...)



Vodka.

~Matt Booker

BulkHead, and I can see why.

Truthfuly, I don't know it's cause of stock build up or what, but the Animated areas are all full near me.

AEC and the Movie figures didn't sit like this after the initial release, but again, it could be that with the delayed release, there's just more to go around.

But still, BulkHead is a definite warmer.

Nothing but movie stuff. One NWOP and 3 Incinerators. Not even clearenced yet.

This is getting discouraging.

voyager bulkhead, megatron, and blackarachnia (and of course the 2-pack)

Bulkhead as a shelfwarmer surprises me. He's a great looking mold and his only major flaw (his size) is impossible to gauge from the box.

most of the time they are either sent back to hasbro or taken in the back and destroyed. more often than not it's destroyed at the store.

as for shelf warming, lol, around here (huntington area) the line might as well be called shelfwarmers animated. wal-mart and tru seem to be unable to move a bit of them and yes, that includes grimlock and lugnut (i think.... the big cargo jet right?). oh, and movie shot... i'm blaming that on not being able to find a goddamned universe toy yet >:(

Currently, the only things I've seen that have turned up in my local Target (and I haven't been driving cross country due to oil and lack of time/energy) if we get any deluxes, they're usually 2 Cybertron Mode Primes, 2 Lockdowns and a chance that Bumblebee or Prowl will show up.. Fortunitly I was able to pick up all three of these guys.. (... and I work at this particular target so I see them all the time)

On the Voyager end of things, I've only seen Bulkhead once.. which is surprising going by all the reports of him sitting around unloved. As I recalled, we only got one.. We have TONS of Cybertron mode Megatrons and Starscreams up the ass though.. and that silly 2 pack. I haven't seen Grimlock yet.. and Lugnut first appeared yesterday.

We still got a crap load of movie stuff.. mostly those target exclusive basics and a few real gears.. oh and those legends of cybertron minicon wannabes. Nothing too impressive. Salvage and Stockade where there.. I think that was like the only dlxs we had.. probably won't be too much longer till they're headed to the clearance endcap I'd wager.. we still have not got Universe in yet... - not that I'll be buying into that.. animated is pwning me big time, I really have no interest in them.

My local walmart has Ratchets out the wazoo

Grimlock ships in even numbers with Lugnut, so every Lugnut seen is a Grimlock missed (and the latter is easily the hardest to find Voyager figure to date).

Around here, I'd say Lugnut is the most common Voyager shelfwarmer, followed by Cybertron Megs and Starscream.

The deluxes seem to move pretty well at WalMart and Target, the one or two pegs that get filled quickly empty (although, Blackarachnia and Lockdown are probably the slowest sellers). TRU maintains pretty good stock of deluxes, so all are usually readily available there, with the exception of the Wave 3 guys (I'd say that Bumblebee looks to be selling the best of TRUs Wave 1/2 deluxes, as he's always present in the lowest numbers).

who does Voyager Prime ship with then? Just curious

Case assortments supposedly released to date:

Wave 1*: 2x Bulkhead, 1x Starscream, 1x Cybertron Megatron
Wave 1 rev 1: 1x Bulkhead, 2x Starscream, 1x Cybertron Megatron
Wave 2: 1x Optimus Prime, 1x Bulkhead, 1x Starscream, 1x Cybertron Megatron
Wave 2 rev 1*: 2x Optimus Prime, 1x Starscream, 1x Cybertron Megatron
Wave 3*: 2x Grimlock, 2x Lugnut

* = ones I can confirm shipped using the described assortment

Passing on Voyager Prime, the one I have enroute from HTS is gonna be stored and most likely resold.

I'm not realy happy with the look of the figure, and both deluxes are good enough for me. They are pretty fun and the transformation has a nice War Within kinda feel.

I'll be using them for smaller counter parts for Cybertron(GF) Prime, Armada had one, Energon had one, and I always felt bad that the best Prime from AEC only got a reissue.

With all that in mind, I can't see needing a larger version of Animated Prime.

Voyager Prime is one of the sweeter Animated figures. In fact, if I could only keep one, it would most likely be him (or maybe Starscream).

Can't stand StarScream, between the poor QC, the lack of balance and that stupid friggin face ontop of slupped shoulders, I hate him.

What? I have starscream standing on one leg while shooting megs in the back. no balance issue here.

Animated Starscream is perfect. PERFECT! Is he SHOWE AKURATE? No.

Does he be PERFECT?

YES, I SAY!