darkSpyro

Is it me, but now that it's after Christmas, it seems that neither Toys R Us or Best Buy don't want to keep the product on the shelf. I literally drove to both places the last week and there was NOT ONE character in their supply. They still had the display space (wasted), but nothing was there except for the starter pack.

Having aquired all characters to date except Wave 3, I'm questioning Activision's distribution strategy. It's waaayyy too difficult to find these things...not sure if that was the plan, but that's what I'm seeing. Most gamers aren't going to wait a year after getting the starter pack to get their favorite character...what are they thinking?

Does either store have a timeframe of space commitment? The lack of characters is a double edged sword---is it REALLY popular, or is it out the door? How have the sales been? Their marketing guy needs to get shot.

Opinions or even better facts welcome.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Is it me, but now that it's after Christmas, it seems that either Toys R Us and Best Buy don't want to keep the product on the shelf. I literally drove to both places the last week and there was NOT ONE character in their supply. They still had the display space (wasted), but nothing was there except for the starter pack.

Having aquired all characters to date except Wave 3, I'm questioning Activision's distribution strategy. It's waaayyy too difficult to find these things...not sure if that was the plan, but that's what I'm seeing. Most gamers aren't going to wait a year after getting the starter pack to get their favorite character...what are they thinking?

^ this. Your right. I'm not going to wait another 2-4 months to get my favorite character(Warnado). And they are very hard to find.

In my area it seems that way.
And there is a major truck route running through here and no deliveries.

Yet, all over the rest of the state folks have been getting the goods.
Very strange.

-M

Maybe it's where you live???
My Toys r Us and best Buy keep stocking the shelves but they do not last long!
Wal-mart tho....they have disappeared for awhile now!

Live in Northern Ontario Canada.

This is so true. I had to call over 10 places today, and only one had the 3 pack with Whirlwind, and it was the last one.

Quote: JAP28

Maybe it's where you live???

I don't live in the boon docks. I live in a major city in the south east United States. Maybe the managers of these stores are incompetent.

Speaking of which, product scarcity is REALLY in terms of auction prices. Double Trouble and Cynder were selling for over $70 on eBay last I looked.

Logically, if the space is empty then it is still reserved to SL figs.

It is not in the company's financial best interest to have wasted space so if they did not intend to fill it they would reclaim it for something else cool (like Lego).

Quote: chaosworrier

Logically, if the space is empty then it is still reserved to SL figs.

It is not in the company's financial best interest to have wasted space so if they did not intend to fill it they would reclaim it for something else cool (like Lego).

Agreed. Maybe I just went to the stores at a "bad" time, because I don't know their shipping schedules and I didn't ask. But it was VERY strange to go into two places and not find ONE character in such a large space. In looking at the other thread it appears Target or Gamestop is my best shot for wave 3 characters.

Will relay my search tomorrow. Wish me luck!

We know Activision vastly underestimated demand. But it's not as if ramping up production is something that can happen overnight. In the toy industry it seems like EVERYTHING takes months to accomplish. When I see that each Gamestop is currently receiving just one piddly little case of six figures, I have to think that's the best Activision can do right now.

They are selling like crazy. Every store in this area (suburban Philadelphia) is sold out constantly and even when I see that one store has received a shipment (like my Target got two cases of Wave 1s this weekend) they are all gone the next time I visit. There's no notion of "pegwarming" toys in this line; even though Boomer is always the last to sell, he still sells!

It would not surprise me AT ALL if Activision made the decision to have current Skylanders be incompatible with any sequels. I'm sure they would love for you to have to buy "updated" versions of Spyro and Cynder over and over again every couple of years.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Agreed. Maybe I just went to the stores at a "bad" time, because I don't know their shipping schedules and I didn't ask. But it was VERY strange to go into two places and not find ONE character in such a large space. In looking at the other thread it appears Target or Gamestop is my best shot for wave 3 characters.

I drive about 1000 miles a week up as part of my job and stop a stores all day for rest breaks. So far my best luck has been Target by far. You have to get there early though, or its not worth going unless you are looking for "older" characters. Gamestop is good if you hit it at the right time but they get very few characters in per shipment. Walmart has been an almost complete waste of time so far. Toys R Us is more consistent in quantity but the pricing is too high and the stocking time too random. So for me its Target in the early morning, Gamestop at midday (they seem to use UPS), and Toys R Us on my way home. Good Hunting!

Man, I guess you missed the Toys R Us, buy one get one during Black Friday weekend...I stocked up big time then! Buying wave three and some additional wave 1s for my collection.

Quote: forcesofwill

It would not surprise me AT ALL if Activision made the decision to have current Skylanders be incompatible with any sequels. I'm sure they would love for you to have to buy "updated" versions of Spyro and Cynder over and over again every couple of years.

I am optimistic enough to expect that they would know they would have a mutiny on their hands if they did. Parents woul boycott any future purchases if the investment they made for their kids was to come to nought.

After all, you can use prior Guitar/DJ Hero equipment in later versions.

Quote: chaosworrier

Quote: forcesofwill

It would not surprise me AT ALL if Activision made the decision to have current Skylanders be incompatible with any sequels. I'm sure they would love for you to have to buy "updated" versions of Spyro and Cynder over and over again every couple of years.

I am optimistic enough to expect that they would know they would have a mutiny on their hands if they did. Parents woul boycott any future purchases if the investment they made for their kids was to come to nought.

After all, you can use prior Guitar/DJ Hero equipment in later versions.

That's a worthy enough discussion there...are they planning a sequel? It would be awesome if you could use all of the current characters, with new capabilities in the new adventure that you can use all of your current stats into the new game.

Knowing their intention here would definitely bring some folks into the fold imo.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Man, I guess you missed the Toys R Us, buy one get one during Black Friday weekend...I stocked up big time then! Buying wave three and some additional wave 1s for my collection.

That's actually when I bought my Daughter's starter kit and most of her characters she got for Christmas. They started that sale the monday before black friday at the same prices so I went in early. If I'd known how much she and I would like it I would have stockpiled a full set ahead of time to dole out over time. Since Christmas I've scored two singles for $15 there, and an adventure pack for $15. I just don't like paying over retail and they irritate me, so does Best Buy but that's a different story.

Quote: GhostRoaster

That's a worthy enough discussion there...are they planning a sequel? It would be awesome if you could use all of the current characters, with new capabilities in the new adventure that you can use all of your current stats into the new game.

Knowing their intention here would definitely bring some folks into the fold imo.

Even if they haven't greenlit a sequel already, I can't imagine they'll wait much longer. The prospect of being able to milk a franchise that doesn't require them to pay licensing fees should be very attractive to Activision indeed.

But you have to wonder how Activision can approach a sequel. Would they still package a Portal and some starter figures with each game, or would they move on to selling Portals and all figures separately? Would they innovate at all, or basically just reuse their assets like they do with Marvel games? Would they keep releasing the toys from the first game alongside any new ones? Would they misjudge demand again and over/underproduce? So much about this is unprecedented.

A fair amount is unprecedented but a fair amount is actually within their comfort zone, given their Guitar/DJ Hero franchises.

I foresee versions of the conjectured sequel game with and without portals.

I think that, in all honesty, it's a marketing strategy for Activision. Think about it: You can't find a single Skylander anywhere, so you wait and call store after store and drive everywhere. Then you hear a shipment comes in and bam! You're right there to buy the figure.

I think that by making it seem like Skylanders are hard to get, Activision can guarantee that whatever figures they produce will sell.

Quote: Madel

I think that by making it seem like Skylanders are hard to get, Activision can guarantee that whatever figures they produce will sell.

They aren't making it seem like they are hard to get, they ARE hard to get.

Quote: Grenadyr

Quote: GhostRoaster

Agreed. Maybe I just went to the stores at a "bad" time, because I don't know their shipping schedules and I didn't ask. But it was VERY strange to go into two places and not find ONE character in such a large space. In looking at the other thread it appears Target or Gamestop is my best shot for wave 3 characters.

I drive about 1000 miles a week up as part of my job and stop a stores all day for rest breaks. So far my best luck has been Target by far. You have to get there early though, or its not worth going unless you are looking for "older" characters. Gamestop is good if you hit it at the right time but they get very few characters in per shipment. Walmart has been an almost complete waste of time so far. Toys R Us is more consistent in quantity but the pricing is too high and the stocking time too random. So for me its Target in the early morning, Gamestop at midday (they seem to use UPS), and Toys R Us on my way home. Good Hunting!

I agree WalMart has been a complete waste of time for me, too. Since Christmas a few have received the EoI and some of the older Skylanders, but nothing new. The weird thing is they have tons of starter kits on their shelves, but it's like no one is buying them, like everyone who wants this game already has it...? And, at one of my WalMarts, they had even taken down all the pegs they had hung triple packs and single packs on and had all kinds of other stuff stocked in there with the starter kits. That can't be a good sign can it?! Target has been a bit of a dry bone here for me, too. Although a few EoI have come through on the shelves at a couple of them, that's it. I really thought they would get wave 3 Skylanders and have them out today. I am regretting now not going to more GameStops on Wednesday, because I did need a Whirlwind for my daughter (have one for the boys)....just figured I would get a three pack w/ WW from Target by now. oops.

I still have yet to see an EoI on the shelf.

Me either notta one in all of canada.

I just registered to tell you guys that I just listened to Giantbomb's latest video game podcast (this weeks) and they spoke to the game's developer. The reason for the scarcity is because they stopped producing some of them are not going to make them anymore. Also, they had no confirmation but believed that a Skylanders 2 will be out sometime this year.

Thirdly, apparently they've Activision has registered a bunch of domains related to the game (probably future waves)
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/...opping-up/3931/