darkSpyro

Long day, Himey? LOL! I see you're up to your usual tricks. *rolls eyes*

In anycase, two down, one to go. The last crystal I need, is the easiest to get, so no rush. So, look forward to pics sooner, rather than later.

Just watch, they're going to make variants of every single Skylanders and sell them only on Gamestop online with a bunch of singles no one wants for $500. Meanwhile, I still can't find Wham Shell. Best of luck in completing all the variants, your collection's a lot of fun to look at.

Thanks, Juledos. If I run across any Whams, I will let you know. That's if you want me to keep an eye out.

By the way, a friend at Best Buy let me have this. It's not a display, but it's still cool to have.



If you can't see it in the pic, it's the promo box that the Volcanic Vaults came in, when Best Buy did their recent promotion. Again, nothing huge. But, it is still neat to have.

As such, I am updating a pic in my first post. I hope those who enjoy looking at my collection, enjoy this latest pic, despite it being a small addition.

Go to Gamestop and pick up the flyer for the trading in your skylanders advertisement. It's sitting on their counter. I mean...if you're collecting everything skylanders. And a lot of people reporting their Flocked Stump Smashes came today. So check your mail all!

I saw that box at Best Buy as well when I got my Volcanic Vault. Once all the Skylanders hype dies down, you should try to get one of those huge cardboard shelves for Skylanders they have ar TRU! And I would appreciate it if you could help me find a Wham Shell.

That's not a bad idea, Xero. Thanks for the advice.

And yes, Juledos, I already asked my local TRU.

Haha. That wouldn't be a bad way to display your Skylanders if you got one of those... and also, I sent you a PM regarding Wham Shell.

Teehee. One thing you're missing (unless I missed it?) And sort of going off xero's idea is to get those little mini posters that each store has or had rather.

During the drought, I asked nicely at Target, Walmart and TRU and they all gave me those inserts on their display. They're really nice to have.

Indeed, Spyro.

I have asked for a great many things Skylanders related. Just gotta wait and see if they get a hold of me.

Well, I am officially the owner of all variants.

I should have Cynder sometime next week. Wham Shell should be here tomorrow or Friday. Stealth Elf, which I've had for a few days, is here -



This also should give you guys an idea of how my variants are now setup. What you will see, when I next update (which won't be until my Cynder arrives next week), is all of the clears in their spots. Blue Bash is currently below Stealth Elf, but that will change.

Then, once my flocked Stump comes in, things will be altered a bit. However, you can get the gist of things, via the above pic. When flocked Stump arrives, Toy Fair Cynder and Hex will go where store exclusive Whirlwind and Drill Sergeant are currently at. Blue Bash and flocked Stump will go where the Toy Fair Skylanders are currently at.

Now, looking at this pic here -



The slap-bracelet, 3 stylus', and preorder card from Toys R Us, will be moved above the Volcanic Vault promo box and to the side of the Tower Case. Store exclusive Whirlwind and Drill Sergeant will go in the former spots of the stylus' and slap-bracelet.

As I am typing this, I also had an idea. When I do my final update (after getting flocked Stump), I am going to move the Volcanic Vault that's hanging on my wall, next to the Skylanders display shelf I made.

What am I going to do with it? I am just going to move it, and I am going to hang all of my sealed Volcanic Vaults next to it.

So, there you go. That's just an update of what those who like looking at my collection, have to look forward to. I hope everyone enjoys it.

ah, but the variants do look much better when they aren't boxed. BOOM! PHOTO BOMBED













oops, nearly forgot my articulated variants

Cool pics, Tig. Digging those customs you bought off that one dude on Ebay.

GM, you have an immense collection. If I could make one suggestion it would be to get some of the articulated figs, like t7gga has. If you put them on your desk, I think that it would look amazing, but it's your money. Also, I agree that the single packs should be in order. Once again, a great collection.

GM, I hate to say it but T7gga is likely to complete the variant race before you. All he seems to need is a Flock Smash and I believe he will have the first complete variable collection I have ever seen.

The custom figures are amazing. From a collector perspective they deffinately add to the collection. However, from a completist perspective they really mean nothing.

GM and T7gga, I enjoy seeing your collections side by side because their is so much variance in scope, scale and intent. I don't think there is any arguement in saying these appear to be the two greatest collections that have been documented on this board. I like T7gga's more because their is a purity to the collection and the love for the figures is almost tangible. GM's collection likely has a larger resell value but T7gga's is cooler.

^ ...

Thanks, Cheese. I may try for some, someday. They do look neat.

EDIT: Itsjustme, it was never a race. I know of someone that has had all variants before she and I have. It doesn't bug me, because it wasn't ever about who gets them first.

I have them all. That's all that matters.

GM have you recived flocked stumpy already, im dieing to see a picture of him! I never seen a picture of flocked stumpy

Not yet, Failin. Hoping it arrives soon. clear Wham will come next, followed by clear Cynder. At least, I assume that's how the timeline will go.

I still have this feeling they're going to **** over many of the people who called in to win flocked Stump.

Quote: GameMaster78

Not yet, Failin. Hoping it arrives soon. clear Wham will come next, followed by clear Cynder. At least, I assume that's how the timeline will go.

I still have this feeling they're going to **** over many of the people who called in to win flocked Stump.

Possibly, although lots of the people who called in received their's yesterday.

Considering that we have already seen some variants for sell from Gamestop, how soon do we think it is before all the variants become more widely available. Just going by their assumed business model, it seems to me that the bridge between Skylanders and the sequel Giants, may just be bridged by the release of the Gold, Silver, and Glow in the dark variants. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Pearl Hex and Metallic Cynder as well.

If that's the case have you entertained any thoughts at all at packaging up the entire collection and selling it off? Just curious, because if their is going to be a more widely available release of variants, the time to sell would be now before it becomes known that such a plan exists.

Domer

I thought about that. However, we know flocked Stump is limited to 7,334. However, even with that, the problem lies in the fact that these could lose value if it loses popularity (the game).

If the game remains popular, not only will the variants keep value, but the original Skylanders could go up in value, seeing as the original molds are being "retired."

Quote: domer

Considering that we have already seen some variants for sell from Gamestop, how soon do we think it is before all the variants become more widely available. Just going by their assumed business model, it seems to me that the bridge between Skylanders and the sequel Giants, may just be bridged by the release of the Gold, Silver, and Glow in the dark variants. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Pearl Hex and Metallic Cynder as well.

If that's the case have you entertained any thoughts at all at packaging up the entire collection and selling it off? Just curious, because if their is going to be a more widely available release of variants, the time to sell would be now before it becomes known that such a plan exists.

Domer

GameStop is rummaging through boxes to find variants. I would presume that they are also using trade ins for the golds and silvers.

They are not getting special variant stock in, per se.

What Chaos said is correct, to a point.

Gamestop.com probably told their DC, "hey, find variants and pull them aside. We are going to sell those in special bundles."

Where Chaos is wrong, is about Gamestop getting trade in golds and silvers to give to others. I saw somewhere, that someone bought a silver. It was sealed. It's not too hard to see how that could be the case, because Boomer, Dino Rang, and Eruptor are all in circulation at the moment. Anytime they are in circulation, I think there is a chance to find them.

Quote: GameMaster78

What Chaos said is correct, to a point.

Gamestop.com probably told their DC, "hey, find variants and pull them aside. We are going to sell those in special bundles."

Where Chaos is wrong, is about Gamestop getting trade in golds and silvers to give to others. I saw somewhere, that someone bought a silver. It was sealed. It's not too hard to see how that could be the case, because Boomer, Dino Rang, and Eruptor are all in circulation at the moment. Anytime they are in circulation, I think there is a chance to find them.

Right.... for now. The question is, does Activision at some point between now and the release of Giants decide they would like to profit on the popularity of the variants and start releasing them in massive quantities. It wouldn't surprise me if the release of Blue Bash on a more massive scale wasn't at least in part a market test to see how variants might sell if released.

Domer

Quote: domer

Quote: GameMaster78

What Chaos said is correct, to a point.

Gamestop.com probably told their DC, "hey, find variants and pull them aside. We are going to sell those in special bundles."

Where Chaos is wrong, is about Gamestop getting trade in golds and silvers to give to others. I saw somewhere, that someone bought a silver. It was sealed. It's not too hard to see how that could be the case, because Boomer, Dino Rang, and Eruptor are all in circulation at the moment. Anytime they are in circulation, I think there is a chance to find them.

Right.... for now. The question is, does Activision at some point between now and the release of Giants decide they would like to profit on the popularity of the variants and start releasing them in massive quantities. It wouldn't surprise me if the release of Blue Bash on a more massive scale wasn't at least in part a market test to see how variants might sell if released.

Domer

They shouldn't do them like they did blue Bash, which came in its own assortment of 6.

HOWEVER, Had Activision and Toys for Bob been smart, they would have treated the variants like Hasbro does with Marvel Universe toys.

Their variants are obscure and hard to get. However, at the same time, they weren't as hard to find, as Skylander variants. I've seen a fair share of Cable with baby Hope and Upside down Spider-Man's while make the rounds. Those are variants. I didn't see them at every store, but in looking at multiple stores, maybe 1-2 stores had variants.

Activision/Toys for Bob could have made a fortune, by making their variants easier to get, for true collectors. What they ended up doing, though, was almost kill any interest I had in trying to find variants. I almost threw in the towel, because if these things are like 1 in every 20 boxes, who's to say my city/state would get any of the 20th box?

Had I been working there, this is what I would have done.

Wave 2 -

every 10th box would have a silver Boomer, Eruptor, and Dino Rang

Wave 3 -

every 10th box would have a gold Chop Chop, Flameslinger, and Drill Sergeant

Wave 5a -

every 10th box would have a glow Warnado, Wrecking Ball, and Zap

Wave 5b -

every 10th box would have a clear Stealth Elf, Cynder, and Wham Shell

This helps things a little, but still would be somewhat of a pain. They really need to do some research on how Hasbro handles their distribution of variants.

I imagine Hasbro is happy with the collectors who not only buy MU toys that aren't variants, but how much they make off of the same person for buying a second version of the same toy, just because it's a variant.

That would have made them more readily available. But if they choose to do so, they could begin producing the variants on a mass scale. I don't know if they will, but they very well could decide to do that.

It would be in their best interest however, to ramp up production on the Giants figures leading up to the release, and making the figures readily available from day one. But this comes with some risk. They could end up producing a lot of figures and find out that the expected sales, never materializes. IMO, this is the reason they have handled the release of the first Skylanders the way they have. They are hedging their bets by choosing to under produce rather than take the risk of over producing. And in this economy, that probably was a smart move for them as much as it really stinks for us.

Domer

I like your idea of altering distribution to make variables more viable for coectors to pursue. I know people that have opened up over a hundred boxes and never seen a variant.

I like the distribution plan of seeding one variant in about one out of every ten regular figures. It would make variants still desirable to collect but not make them so desirable for scalpers to hoard. I would change your distribution by case figures though. I would make it so one out of every ten of each variant optional fiigure is variant. Not as you suggested one out of every ten cases is a varaint case edition. Your scenario still plays to hoarding for resale as when someone hits payday they hit payday in quantities of three. By figuring variant distribution by individual figure a consumer would have three one in ten chances of receiving a variable every time a box was opened. Variants would become much more common but would be more fun to collect because they were obtainable and still require some effort to track down.

Distribution selection has been a sore subject with skylanders in general it does not seem that TFB and activision have made good assortment distribution selections and these choices have led to mass consumer frustration in general. I am sure we will distribution in giants similar to 5 reposes and 1 new skylander in each case. This is going to cause the new figures to be very rare and the reposes to sit on store counters keeping stores from reordering making later waves impossible to find.

I saw somewhere, that someone bought a silver. It was sealed.

Okay, I stand corrected (well, that's actually a blatant lie as I am in reality sitting down). I was not aware of any cases where the silvers/golds were found on shelf in the recent past.

I almost threw in the towel, because if these things are like 1 in every 20 boxes, who's to say my city/state would get any of the 20th box?

To make things worse, this number is a pure statistical average. There have been many documented instances of 2 golds in the same box, 3 glows in the same box, etc. Imagine how that skews the odds of finding one.

Exactly. It's why they aren't handling the variants very well.

Itsjustme stated above, that some have gone through 100 boxes, and they didn't run across a single variant. So, certain markets that sell through them faster, may see them, while other markets may see none.

That's poor handling of the variants.

If Toys for Bob keeps making variants, they're gonna ruin the fun of variants. First off, there are waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many variants now. They really need to chill instead of overkill. And, if they are going to keep the variants going into Giants (they should allow the fans a break), then they need to make them obscure, but findable for those who really look.

I personally think that as there are no more waves for this game, there will not be any more variants (bar some other toy fair kind of thing).

Okay, I will disclaimer that, not another run of 3 chars of the same variant style (pink/translucent/sparkly glitter/whatever). There may well be another comp style variant, a la Flocky.

Man, that would be good news, if there were no more waves. However, something tells me there will be at least 2 more waves. What would these waves consist of?

One wave could feature the single pack Dark Spyro and 5 of the more popular and harder to find single packs. Another wave could feature 6 harder to find single packs. Maybe something like this -

Wave 6 -

Dark Spyro
Zook
Lightning Rod
Camo
Warnado
Wham Shell

Wave 7 -

Cynder
Ignitor
Prism Break
Voodood
Double Trouble
Dino Rang

However, I am hoping your theory is right, Chaos. I would love for this to be over until Giants releases. They need to really focus on making figures for that game.

a way of saying this..... PURE EPIC AWESOMENESS!!!

Apart from the potential to release D/Spyro as a single, are these really waves? I define them as when new figs are released - you may have more experience in this field and a more valid baseline, though...

So maybe it is one new "wave" where D/Spyro single is released. Then again the now historic German document did not reference that (but also did not ref D/Spyro single release, in fairness).

Yeah. I don't know how Australia handles distribution of toys, or companies that distribute toys to your country. However, in the US, most toys come in waves. Each box has 6 figures in it.

I was creating the next two waves. Those waves are in no way official, and I hope they aren't, because that means no more variants. However, something tells me they will still put together a couple more waves, which could lead to new variants.

I do think there will be more convention exclusives.

conventions? I hope there's one near i live. :3

So do I - an Aussie variant could be opal coloured.

I would expect at least one more wave of singles. When activision updated the case assortment list for single figures they added in Dark Spyro's UPC into the system although it was labeled something vague like future character the UPC can be found somewhere in GM's NA Whammy hunt thread. Since they have already added the UPC to assortment cross references I would expect a Dark Spyro single release in the next month or so. I would also expect a rerelease of Voodood also as the company has had him be absent from single release since I believe wave 1.5.

Chaos: The concept of waves are used to track distribution patterns. A toyline normally has a specific number of figures in production at any point in time. Skylander singles have always been sent out in boxes of six other than the initial release with cases of twelve. The figures currently in production make up waves. When the company switches characters in production they alter the distribution cases being sent out. Normally a company like TFB/Activision will have at least one or two new characters in production it would not make sense for a new wave to just contain rereleases. However I do not think it is insane to consider a wave 6 focusing on a dark spyro release to be unlikely. I would be surprised by a wave 7.

Because activision does not send cases directly to market and instead sends them to retail distribution centers it can take time for them to hit the market it is not uncommon for assortments a wave behind to reach shelves as new freight. For example I would consider any figure from wave 4 or 5 to be in current distribution.

In addition the maker of the toys does not nesecariy refer to their distribution patterns in waves. (Some do, some refer to them as by the individual case numbers). The concept of waves is more of a fan construct. As such another distribution adjustment to current single shipping habits bvy activision could be as readily accepted as wave 5c or 5d as it could be wave 6. Time frame between distribution shifts and what catches in on in the fan communities is pretty much the main determinant on what determines a wave.

I hope this helps more than confuses.

Well, I got my crystal Wham Shell today. That just leaves the crystal Cynder, which is enroute and should arrive sometime before or by the end of next week.

No need to udpate pics, because my wall looks unorganized in my eyes. I will update my variant pic once my Cynder arrives.

Nice job! And I don't think there will be any more 'waves', just Activision shipping figures to stores as they see fit.

Thanks. I could see that being the case. However, that could still mean more variants.

Sigh... I still haven't found any variants, but all they really do is ensure that I check the Skylanders section every time I go to a store even though I already have them all except Wham. It's a pretty good sales technique.

It is. However, I think they should have only done 1 variant per wave, instead of 3. 3 per wave is overkill. Not every toyline has 3 variants per wave.

I think 3 per wave is fine, but the availability is what's the problem. Has anyone even seen crystal Cynder and Wham Shell outside of Gamestop's website?

box ripped open and enjoying his new home ...

omg you are crazy i wish a picture off hole your collection mean

Hmmm...So that's flocked Stumpy. I wouldn't get him. That stuff would just irritate my fingers everytime I touched him.

I don't understand why you'd have the store exclusives over the E3 Spyro, Trigger Happy and Gill Grunt singles, or a Dark Spyro single.

Can't exactly say that having a store's logo on the top of the box is very exciting. And yeah, the Drill Sergeant is ever so slightly different, but I've seen more variation in two Stealth Elfs released together, and the Whirlwind is identical to the mass released version... Seems like just a waste of wall space to me.
Ever plan on getting the aforementioned figs, just to have, y'know, the REAL complete collector's set?

Quote: Nroc-Nuika

I don't understand why you'd have the store exclusives over the E3 Spyro, Trigger Happy and Gill Grunt singles, or a Dark Spyro single.

Can't exactly say that having a store's logo on the top of the box is very exciting. And yeah, the Drill Sergeant is ever so slightly different, but I've seen more variation in two Stealth Elfs released together, and the Whirlwind is identical to the mass released version... Seems like just a waste of wall space to me.
Ever plan on getting the aforementioned figs, just to have, y'know, the REAL complete collector's set?

Wrong the target Whirlwind has an more of an airbrush paint and a unpainted base.

As I have stated before, the Target exclusive in other countries did not really vary from the non-exclusive one. It was really a batch difference rather than a variant, per se.