darkSpyro

Walmart and Skylanders relationship has been downright baffling. Late last year, there were rumors that Walmart was discontinuing their Skylanders selection, and plenty of people chimed into that thread to mention their Walmart's Skylander section was seriously lacking. And after searching for that thread, I discovered there was a tiny thread earlier this year about Walmart taking Skylanders and selling them as preowned, and I stumbled across their page online with tons and tons of figures from all 4 games. Just the other day, I discovered Walmart had a ridiculous Skylanders Visa Card available for sale too.



So...what the heck is going on? Are stores not stocking because they're not getting anything in? Too lazy to update their sections? Most all Walmarts I've been in have a selection of older Giants/Swap Force Figures, enough Water Traps to drown a kid, and a few Lob-Stars or Head Rush. If there's anyone out there who works at Walmart, can you shed some light on the behind the scenes stuff? Because frankly its baffling at how Trap Team and the stock is being handled by arguably the biggest retailer in the United States.

I can say, that Mastercard has nothing to do with Walmart and is just one of the various pre-paid card designs MasterCard offers. Seen Skylanders-branded cards at a few places now.

It is my gut feeling that, with this last round of TTL figures, Walmart bet big on Disney Infinity 2.0, lost their focus on Skylanders, and got bit in the backside by a lack of consumer interest in Infinity. But that's just my gut feeling from what I've seen in stores. I have some other opinions and thoughts, but I don't much think I am at privilege to say them. Let's just say, there's a reason GameStop has done better with Skylanders in the last yearish than ever and Walmart has done worse in the last yearish than ever.

well first off i dont like going into walmarts. and 2nd the 2 i have been in, one of them had literally nothing and the other had some stuff but not much.

We had several people chime in to agree that the northeast US (NY, NJ, CT, PA, MD, RI) stores have been downright pitiful in ordering stock and maintaining organized displays. I haven't seen any of the later waves in Walmart NJ stores when I've cared to stop by Skylanders sections. I believe the newest items I've seen going back to December have been Love Potion Pop Fizz and ONE dark element pack. I see plenty of the same Swap Force triple and adventure packs collecting dust and scattered water traps...absolutely nothing of interest. And one of my local central NJ stores is one that's completely eliminated it's Skylanders section.

7 words... making room for Disney Infinity Star Wars

It's going to not only kill Skylanders and Lego, it's going to bury them and not mark their graves.

I was against going with Infinity cuz of the lack of cross-over play between adventures, but...

I like the idea that the Star Wars Infinity universe is made up of the Stsr Wars toys and disabling an Imperial AT-AT by removing its batteries sounds too freaking fun to pass up and reminds me of when I was a kid in the 70's. Battles stopped when batteries went dead and didn't start again till they were replaced.

One of the Wal-marts near where I live doesn't even have a Skylanders section. I spent several minutes just searching around, amazed that such a popular franchise could be completely ignored like that. I eventually managed to find a couple Swap Force starter packs over on the clearance shelf for 20 bucks but that was literally it.


The other Wal-mart in the area isn't much better. Lots of Head Rushes, a Lob-star or two, lots of Zoo Lou, some traps, and some old Swap Force stock. It's largely lying around in a poorly organized mess and some of the boxes are all beaten up and torn open, too. I'm not sure if it's because of crappy storage and handling or if it's because they were purchased by kids and returned that way. Maybe a mix of both? Either way it looks terrible.


Wal-mart just doesn't dig Skylanders, apparently.

All my Walmart has is Yawn traps.

All the stores I have been to in NH has pitiful amounts of Skylanders. A lot of overpriced starter kits.
Their Spyro's adventure and Giants are 60$ on Clarence while swap force is 24.
Makes no scene

NONE of any of the stores in my area have even restocked since the final three Trap Masters came out. My TRU did of course receive Gnarly, Fling Kong, and Flip Wreck, Gamestop received them and King Cobra, but my Walmarts and Targets quit (my Target literally only has Head Rush).

Quote: SkylanderGoo

All my Walmart has is Yawn traps.

Not Yawn Traps.

My Walmart is pretty well stocked. Theres still a couple High Fives/Bat Spins chilling. But then the Walmart in the next town/state over has literally nothing. This can be said for both the Gamestops near them. My local Gamestop is pretty well stocked, while the one in the next town doesn't have much. Maybe there just aren't many Skylanders collectors in my small town.

NY wise targets have headrush, water traps and rarely a nitro head rush and lobstar. Tru has all the latest but only water traps. Walmart has nothing or random stuff like their buddy packs.

Now atm im away in Michigan. 2 Targets here are same as NY, 2 Tru had none of the last wave really and walmarts had the same as NY, thou i did find a walmart with some dark editions leftover and the latest wave of singles and trap masters from the end of trap team. Meijers has random stuff and swap force.

Went to local walmart down here and it's empty, like they don't even care. Infinity is shrinking as well. I should go back and see if they're preparing for this years toys to life war coming soon.

Quote: INTIMIDAT3R

7 words... making room for Disney Infinity Star Wars

It's going to not only kill Skylanders and Lego, it's going to bury them and not mark their graves.

I was against going with Infinity cuz of the lack of cross-over play between adventures, but...

I like the idea that the Star Wars Infinity universe is made up of the Stsr Wars toys and disabling an Imperial AT-AT by removing its batteries sounds too freaking fun to pass up and reminds me of when I was a kid in the 70's. Battles stopped when batteries went dead and didn't start again till they were replaced.

I have no idea why you keep wanting to push Infinity Star Wars. It's going to be just as lame as the others. And it has nothing to do with it. Walmart hasn't had a decent amount of Skylanders since Christmas (or the port strike)...way before anyone knew about Disney Infinity Star Wars. I really believe that the port strike ruined everything. Ever since then, hardly any of the big box department stores have gotten in Skylanders. I'm not sure why. I don't know if they just got off of ordering them, since there were delays, or if their inventory got backlogged and they just never got to the stores. Wave 3 was almost non-existent. It was assumed they were just stuck on a boat somewhere, but what happened after? Best Buy got some in, but no one else. I really wouldn't doubt that they are still stuck somewhere in distribution, either at the stores' warehouses or somewhere in the distribution line before. Because their inventory probably lists Skylanders as either in inventory (if they're stuck at their warehouses) or on order (if they're stuck elsewhere). So they haven't ordered any more.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of Trap Team stuff (especially wave 3) suddenly pop up in a liquidation/overstock store (i.e. Big Lots, TJ Maxx, etc.). I remember when I was collecting Star Wars, and the episode 1 stuff just didn't move that well. Much of the last wave(s) of figures actually started to be worth something because they weren't hitting stores, and just sitting in a warehouse somewhere. They eventually got dumped into KB Toys really cheap.

It's strange, though, that TRU doesn't work the same way. Remember all those SSA shipments they were getting in a couple of Christmases ago? Everyone thought they were still able to order them, but the ship dates on the cases were from 2012. I believe they keep better inventory of newer vs. older shipments, so if they have older shipments stuck in a warehouse, they still push newer shipments through. I wouldn't be surprised to see wave 3 Trap Team stuff suddenly hit their stores, too, although I think they actually got theirs in stores.

^ I used to be a big Star Wars fan, but it's been "what have you delivered lately?" and all I can think of is the awful prequels. Star Wars "may" sell well, but the franchise has had a sordid outcome in the games market. I'm not convinced.

Back on topic: Wal Mart has no allegiance to any particular brand...they are "Wal Mart". Bow before the mighty WalMart...give them your product for next to nothing and they "might" consider you on their shelves. This is their pompous attitude and frankly I bet Activision has stopped playing ball with them.

I happened to be in a smaller town near ours (about 20-30 mins. away) and stopped at their Walmart. At first, their Skylanders section seemed to be the same as all the rest. The interesting thing, at first glance, was that they had several printouts of the layout they're supposed to have for Skylanders. They were dated June 2015. If Walmart was getting out of Skylanders, I wondered why they would even bother with sending out a layout for how they're supposed to be displayed. It just looked odd, though, because they had quite a bit of space set aside for what little they had. But then I actually looked at what they did have and was totally surprised. Instead of the usual Lob Stars and Head Rushes, I found a few Wallops, Ka-Booms, Blasterminds, Tuff Lucks and even a Shortcut. It looked like they had gotten in some wave 3 stuff, with a leftover Shortcut from their wave 5 shipment. Then a greater surprise was sitting on the bottom shelf, as they had a few Trap Team dark editions. I haven't seen those since before Christmas. All this goes with my theory that Walmart isn't out of the Skylanders business, but their inventory is stuck somewhere.

I was at Walmart today and all I found was one Jawbreaker and one Knight Mare.

I don't really care, as most of my skylander spending this summer has been used at EB Games. But still, Walmart is a cheezy store. I'm at least happy with my $5 12-pack of Mountain Dew Voltage I got today.

Quote: obidawsn

I found a few Wallops, Ka-Booms, Blasterminds, Tuff Lucks and even a Shortcut.

One of mine last night had that selection too. I was a bit surprised to see something a bit different from last week. They still have 9 Jolly Bumble Blast and 10 Jade Fire Kraken which has been out for a few weeks now. I heard once from a Walmart employee that they have a gaming vendor which puts out the video game stuff for them, sort of like how a vendor comes in and puts out bread or magazines. So I guess it's up to the vendor to decide what gets put out there? Makes sense as both stores are so randomly stocked for on video games in general.

I remember a long time ago they randomly stopped stocking Power Rangers toys for a good few months. Then they randomly returned. Walmart just sucks like that.