THREAD CONTAINS SPOILERS!! (Did I really need to add this??)
I walked into a Walmart with my son and the Wii Giants Starter Pack and XB360 portal owners pack were on the shelf! I bought the Wii starter pack with GITD Cynder. I am posting this via cell so I will post complete harrowing checkout story and pix when we get home.
Sorry guys for the long wait. I had an obligation that I had to fulfill today and I was out and about right before it when we came across this Starter Pack.
First off to answer some of your questions/thoughts. I live in AZ. As far as GITD Cynder being pre-order only, I am not sure since she is inside the Wii starter packs that were on the shelf (one of which I bought). As for the product not being able to be "rung up" before 10/21/2012, you are 100% correct my friends. Here is my harrowing checkout tale:
We saw the three Wii Giants Starter Packs on the shelf, grabbed one (I have ZERO interest in scalping) and talked a bit about what was the best course of action to take. We decided that taking it to the electronice checkout was out of the question (this Walmart has a very open electronics dept and you can walk out of it with electronics without a problem) because we felt that the electronics drones would take it away from us. We proceeded to self checkout and the machine told us "Restricted Product - put aside and continue your checkout" when we scanned the game. I motioned for the self checkout drone and he tried to scan it and override the self checkout machine with no luck. He took us to his master register and attempted to scan it there and it said "Not eligible for sale" and "Restricted Product" and various other messages of the same nature (essentially telling him DO NOT SELL THIS PRODUCT!) so he went and conferred with another employee for a minute (a floor manager I think) and then came back and (without scanning it again) just entered a product into the register, typed "Skylanders" and the price of $74.96. I gladly paid for it and I asked him if he had deactivated the security RFID and he said that he would just 'wave us through' if the alarms went off. They did not and it was really hard for my son and I not to RUN out of that Walmart!
Now on to pictures. First, here is a pic of the Xbox 360 Portal Owners Pack that was also on the shelf:
Here is a picture of the Wii Giants Starter Pack that we purchased (with GITD Cynder):
..and finally here is a picture of the unboxed Wii Giants Starter Pack (with GITD Cynder). Note the new Wii portal with a cable this time!
Again, I apologize for the long wait for the pix. Now - on to playing the game!!!
-VM
For anyone in AZ, I got this at the "Norterra" Walmart #5190... Enjoy!