darkSpyro

Is it over? With it being so long since anything has been released in the states I almost forgot it still existed. WTH are they waiting for? This is getting pretty ridiculous.

The plan is to bleed it in to the summer...

We are still waiting on

S2 Drobot
LC Chill
LC Hex
LC Pop Fizz

Scarlet Ninjini
Polar Whirlwind


Most of those figures above have been spotted in the EU and PAL regions. This is the issue that is caused by releasing 90% of the figures in a few months time. They are doing the same thing as last year and the same thing that dinoah said bleeding it until Summer. They will let Infinity have the spotlight for a few weeks then Swap Force will hit and we will start the wave all over again/

I was starting to think the pacing of character releases would have beaten the release of characters from the first game, but sadly, it has now taken longer than the first game to get all characters from this game.

It's getting rather silly. We in the US still haven't gotten LC Pop and Chill, and we still need to get LC Hex and S2 Drobot after that.

When was Whammy released in the states last year? I thought it was not until June or July. I could be incorrect however.

This is conjecture, but I believe it's very possible that, behind closed doors, Activision is taking heat from major retailers for the reasons I highlighted in another thread here recently.
If I was a retailer, I would be mega-pissed about how Activision selected the characters that were shipped in "wave 3" and "wave 4". Skylanders is a huge draw for customers to visit retailers, but they want items primarily that will sell, not items that will collect dust on the shelves. Too much Flashwing, too much Swarm, too much Cynder, too much Whirlwind, too much Stump Smash, too much Lightcore Drobot, too much Lightcore Eruptor, and too much Shroomboom.
I'm sure retailers want to start shelving Lightcore Hex, Lightcore Chill, Lightcore Pop Fizz, Series 2 Drobot (and the other recently-released but still hard-to-find ones like Series 2 Spyro and Ninjini) ... but I almost guarantee they don't want to be forced into ordering more Flashwings, Swarms, and Lightcore Drobots just to get ONE or two previously unreleased characters.

Hate on this hypothesis all you want; I bet I'm right.

Honestly, the figures are still moving, even the "shelf warmers" (albeit at a much slower pace). I notice stock for Giants rotating fairly frequently at local stores. I doubt the retailers are unhappy, honestly. They still have dedicated areas (and for a seven month old game, that is significant). As much as it displeases us that we have been waiting seven or eight weeks since the last new figure release in the US, they are obviously following some sort of plan. Maybe they felt that four reposes/lightcore reposes wouldn't set the world on fire and wanted to build up some demand. Those figures by themselves aren't all that interest, it is the wait that keeps us interested. For all the fits and claims of them "never coming out here" all of us collectors will run out and buy them whenever they do release.

Again, this is a seven month old game and we are still talking about it and checking stores regularly. Had they rushed it all onto the shelves we would be done and the game forgotten until Swap Force. Activision's interests lie in keeping the game hot and subject of conversation for the year it takes to get the next one out, not in making sure a collector fills up all the empty slots on their wall with figures that have the right shape peg hole. Sometimes that gets forgotten.

Quote: defpally

Honestly, the figures are still moving, even the "shelf warmers" (albeit at a much slower pace). I notice stock for Giants rotating fairly frequently at local stores. I doubt the retailers are unhappy, honestly. They still have dedicated areas (and for a seven month old game, that is significant). As much as it displeases us that we have been waiting seven or eight weeks since the last new figure release in the US, they are obviously following some sort of plan. Maybe they felt that four reposes/lightcore reposes wouldn't set the world on fire and wanted to build up some demand. Those figures by themselves aren't all that interest, it is the wait that keeps us interested. For all the fits and claims of them "never coming out here" all of us collectors will run out and buy them whenever they do release.

Again, this is a seven month old game and we are still talking about it and checking stores regularly. Had they rushed it all onto the shelves we would be done and the game forgotten until Swap Force. Activision's interests lie in keeping the game hot and subject of conversation for the year it takes to get the next one out, not in making sure a collector fills up all the empty slots on their wall with figures that have the right shape peg hole. Sometimes that gets forgotten.

I agree with defpally on this one.

Even if they mixed more than one and did a 6 of one and 6 of another character in a box, you run into a few problems. Space for retailers to keep backstock. You will still have figures being "shelf warmers" just a less amount of different characters on the shelf.

Even Flashwing in my area is selling. The only figure NOT selling is Cynder.

Quote: Matteomax

Even Flashwing in my area is selling. The only figure NOT selling is Cynder.

I don't see any figures really just sitting in my area other than Cynder. Even lightcores have been moving faster lately.

The area here has several that are not really selling as quickly as they could. Cynder isn't, regular whirlwind, stump smash, eruptor and flashwing to a lesser extent as those are the frequented ones in boxes here so they're sitting on the shelf more.

The retailers out here have since last week finally got in the single pack of shroomboom which I would think makes him the final of wave 4. I also noticed today and on friday that the regular bouncer has started showing up in boxes again of distribution. Saw 1 at target and walmart.

What I have found for the waves and which retailer has gotten them on average better than most is actually Target. Especially with more sales to move figures and the exclusives they did get that are non legendary, they have done rather well with their stock on most fronts.

Store's performance list so far:
1. Target
2. Walmart/TRU
3. Gamestop <== Wednesdays seem to be their stock date every week for skylanders but only 1 or 2 new sought after will be delivered at a time.
4. Kmart/Best Buy <== They get some stock but their replenishment level is maybe once or twice a week at best and their websites are bare bones on skylander listings.

For the US releases since wave 3, TRU has had some skylanders prior to the other retailers. That would include Ninjini and LC Shroomboom and their legendaries.

What I found interesting that aside from this, the triple packs that have been eruptor/SE/terrafin and LR/PB/DS have seemingly come out later at TRU compared to Target, Walmart and Gamestop (in that order of release). They list the two triple packs on TRU as new, while the other three retailers have had them since the beginning of april. TRU started having them about a week or two ago, still behind the others.

Based on that information alone, I would speculate for now that EU is getting closer to finish theirs due to in part of not worrying on too many exclusives for the regions. It might be why the italian release of polar is NOT exclusive to that amazon, but they will have her in on friday the 26th and both LC Pop Fizz and Chill on the 30th.

Wham Shell was released a few weeks in june last year after the triple pack that included camo and warnado as well as the adventure pack release of dragon's peak.

It's safe to assume that this year that might be their goal. I also thought that the single pack of jet-vac was supposed to be in wave 5 too according to some info from awhile back?

Taking what we know though that we'll probably see LC Hex and Pop Fizz show up soon. Most likely TRU may make an announcement on the 3 LCs within the next two weeks which gives them time in the first week of may before the brief but waited timing of Scarlet mid month as to keep some hype and atleast two weeks of hunting for her. (The variants I have seen by all the retailers do one initial stock for that release day and get one extra one in the week after.) Then S2 Drobot by the end of the month of may, start of June with polar to keep every on their toes to hunt.

I saw the triple pack of eruptor/SE/Terrafin at Gamestop around the time Ninjini came out. In my area they seem to do the best at getting the new figures right away.

Quote: Bazinga

I saw the triple pack of eruptor/SE/Terrafin at Gamestop around the time Ninjini came out. In my area they seem to do the best at getting the new figures right away.

I know there's going to be some discrepancies from which areas of the US gets what. Usually the west coast will get things in before the east for example. It depends what major retailers you have, but I would imagine this time that maybe Target and Gamestop are the only two on top of it. There might be more walmarts, but even as far as wave 1 they seem to just drop the most figures but at intervals after those two do. The websites are good a indicator on which ones are actually trying for this game.

Yeah. My selections around my area in the midwest are not the best. It is more of a I have to get the figures on launch day or I will wait a month or two before I can track them down due to work and just flat out not getting any new figures. The figures we get in my area move the stores just don't order enough to keep the shelves stocked.

Quote: tigerdr

Wham Shell was released a few weeks in june last year after the triple pack that included camo and warnado as well as the adventure pack release of dragon's peak.

Wham Shell was released in mid April, Gamestop and Wal Mart got them first, although you could pre-order him on Amazon a couple weeks before that, but they didn't ship until well after Gamestop got him. Camo and Warnado singles hit early April, first at Walmart, then popped up at Gamestop a couple days later. The triple pack with Camo/Warnado/Ignitor hit late April, at Best Buy first.

Wham Shell hit Australia the same time we got Warnado/Camo, then the inverse a few weeks later.

Dragon's Peak hit TRU on 3/25/2012 and was street dated for that, because those that showed up for Lightning Rod and Zook on 3/22/2012 saw it but the register wouldn't let us buy it. After a 30 day exclusive window it started showing up elsewhere at the end of April.

Quote: defpally

Quote: tigerdr

Wham Shell was released a few weeks in june last year after the triple pack that included camo and warnado as well as the adventure pack release of dragon's peak.

Wham Shell was released in mid April, Gamestop and Wal Mart got them first, although you could pre-order him on Amazon a couple weeks before that, but they didn't ship until well after Gamestop got him. Camo and Warnado singles hit early April, first at Walmart, then popped up at Gamestop a couple days later. The triple pack with Camo/Warnado/Ignitor hit late April, at Best Buy first.

Wham Shell hit Australia the same time we got Warnado/Camo, then the inverse a few weeks later.

Dragon's Peak hit TRU on 3/25/2012 and was street dated for that, because those that showed up for Lightning Rod and Zook on 3/22/2012 saw it but the register wouldn't let us buy it. After a 30 day exclusive window it started showing up elsewhere at the end of April.

That's a lot more accurate. I guess I'm a little fuzzy there on remembering I'd have to look at my old receipts from gamestop but I do recall that 30 day wait after TRU. I guess that whole heat thing last year it felt more like june back then. It's funny how that whole thing you mentioned was already a year ago.

I remember the first Wham-Shell that sold on eBay; $300...

Quote: Bazinga

We are still waiting on

S2 Drobot
LC Chill
LC Hex
LC Pop Fizz

Scarlet Ninjini
Polar Whirlwind


Most of those figures above have been spotted in the EU and PAL regions. This is the issue that is caused by releasing 90% of the figures in a few months time. They are doing the same thing as last year and the same thing that dinoah said bleeding it until Summer. They will let Infinity have the spotlight for a few weeks then Swap Force will hit and we will start the wave all over again/

This makes the total item count 131 in game if you include both S1 and S2; would've been 132 if they had a separate slot for Glitter Sonic and GITD Sonic.

Quote: BahamutBreaker

This is conjecture, but I believe it's very possible that, behind closed doors, Activision is taking heat from major retailers for the reasons I highlighted in another thread here recently.
If I was a retailer, I would be mega-pissed about how Activision selected the characters that were shipped in "wave 3" and "wave 4". Skylanders is a huge draw for customers to visit retailers, but they want items primarily that will sell, not items that will collect dust on the shelves. Too much Flashwing, too much Swarm, too much Cynder, too much Whirlwind, too much Stump Smash, too much Lightcore Drobot, too much Lightcore Eruptor, and too much Shroomboom.
I'm sure retailers want to start shelving Lightcore Hex, Lightcore Chill, Lightcore Pop Fizz, Series 2 Drobot (and the other recently-released but still hard-to-find ones like Series 2 Spyro and Ninjini) ... but I almost guarantee they don't want to be forced into ordering more Flashwings, Swarms, and Lightcore Drobots just to get ONE or two previously unreleased characters.

Hate on this hypothesis all you want; I bet I'm right.

You mean like this?



and yes everyone of them is flashwing that has it in front, there a row of cynder too!

Quote: GameMaster78

I was starting to think the pacing of character releases would have beaten the release of characters from the first game, but sadly, it has now taken longer than the first game to get all characters from this game.

It's getting rather silly. We in the US still haven't gotten LC Pop and Chill, and we still need to get LC Hex and S2 Drobot after that.

And for us silly collectors who want the correct size peg hole---Scarlet and Polar.

I wish any place around here had that many characters out at once. I stopped by a local Wal-Mart today in another town and all they had was GITD Sonic Booms and one Molten Hot dog. That was it. Nothing else.

Quote: Bazinga

I wish any place around here had that many characters out at once. I stopped by a local Wal-Mart today in another town and all they had was GITD Sonic Booms and one Molten Hot dog. That was it. Nothing else.

I haven't seen either of those since just after xmas here. The red drill guy from ssawas the only ssa i ever saw minus the games at walmart and he was around on clearance for $5 like 10 of them.

I think they're dropping the ball now when it comes to Skylander releases. When they chose what characters would be in each wave, they shouldn't have made LC Drobot, Prism Break, and Eruptor in every wave of Lightcores.

My shelves here are full of Lightcore Jet-Vac, Shroomboom, Eruptor, Drobot, and Prism Break. FULL! With no one buying them, how can my local stores order more and get to wave 4?

I think there should have only been 3 waves of Lightcore, because they're obviously not the sellers TFB/Activision thought they would be.

I just don't see, outside of a HTA at TRU, how my city is going to get wave 4 and 5 stuff, when the shelves are filled with massive amounts of Thumpbacks, Crushers, Eye Brawls, LC Jet-Vac, LC Shroomboom, LC Eruptor, LC Drobot, LC Prism Break, S2 Cynder, and S2 Stump Smash. I mean filled to the brim. I should have taken pics of one of my local Walmarts today. Simply too many of the same figure now. It's really getting silly, in a pathetic sort of way.

^ Ya its like that around here too. One target by me is all crushers, like I mean 30 of them. Its only giants they have out minus 1-3 hotheads and 1-3 thumps. I still think lightcores and regulars shouldnt exist it should be one or the other. Not everyone is going buy the same guy twice, let alone if they have him already from SSA. I hope Activision learns this. Next round make 6-8 lightcores that are not going to be regular guys. Honestly not many ppl will buy both let alone thir kids. My kid has lightcores of eruptor,prism, and drobot. He has regular shroomboom, he only got lightcore shroom boom cause i had an expiring bestbuy rewards coupon thingy and i got him LC Shroom for like 5.99 for easter. Otherwise why would i spend the money on the same toy again, when swap force is coming and maybe disney's thingy (i wont knock it till i try it).

LC chill was/is available at TRU online? Do you mean LLC?
Thanks
Shelly

Quote: GameMaster78

I think they're dropping the ball now when it comes to Skylander releases. When they chose what characters would be in each wave, they shouldn't have made LC Drobot, Prism Break, and Eruptor in every wave of Lightcores.

My shelves here are full of Lightcore Jet-Vac, Shroomboom, Eruptor, Drobot, and Prism Break. FULL! With no one buying them, how can my local stores order more and get to wave 4?

I think there should have only been 3 waves of Lightcore, because they're obviously not the sellers TFB/Activision thought they would be.

I just don't see, outside of a HTA at TRU, how my city is going to get wave 4 and 5 stuff, when the shelves are filled with massive amounts of Thumpbacks, Crushers, Eye Brawls, LC Jet-Vac, LC Shroomboom, LC Eruptor, LC Drobot, LC Prism Break, S2 Cynder, and S2 Stump Smash. I mean filled to the brim. I should have taken pics of one of my local Walmarts today. Simply too many of the same figure now. It's really getting silly, in a pathetic sort of way.

see, we need to do something about it! my idea is, buy up all these overstocks, and do something with them!

It's getting cruddy out there because the Giants franchise IS winding down...expect SSA type availability real soon now. It would be nice if they could just wrap the darn thing up already---but apparently their shipping policies dictate the bloat in the stores have to be sold first. I'll just check eBay as it's not even worth coming on here and complaining about it.

Quote: SlayerX11

Quote: BahamutBreaker

This is conjecture, but I believe it's very possible that, behind closed doors, Activision is taking heat from major retailers for the reasons I highlighted in another thread here recently.
If I was a retailer, I would be mega-pissed about how Activision selected the characters that were shipped in "wave 3" and "wave 4". Skylanders is a huge draw for customers to visit retailers, but they want items primarily that will sell, not items that will collect dust on the shelves. Too much Flashwing, too much Swarm, too much Cynder, too much Whirlwind, too much Stump Smash, too much Lightcore Drobot, too much Lightcore Eruptor, and too much Shroomboom.
I'm sure retailers want to start shelving Lightcore Hex, Lightcore Chill, Lightcore Pop Fizz, Series 2 Drobot (and the other recently-released but still hard-to-find ones like Series 2 Spyro and Ninjini) ... but I almost guarantee they don't want to be forced into ordering more Flashwings, Swarms, and Lightcore Drobots just to get ONE or two previously unreleased characters.

Hate on this hypothesis all you want; I bet I'm right.

You mean like this?



and yes everyone of them is flashwing that has it in front, there a row of cynder too!

That picture makes me homesick. You guys may complain, but I still have yet to get almost any of these "shelf-warmers." Be glad the even sell skylanders there.
Anyway, at least that means if possible I can get the "shelf-warmers" on clearance (15$ isn't bad for Dragonfire cannon pack).

The picture right above this post... THAT IS RIDONKULOUS!!

Quote: SlayerX11

Quote: BahamutBreaker

This is conjecture, but I believe it's very possible that, behind closed doors, Activision is taking heat from major retailers for the reasons I highlighted in another thread here recently.
If I was a retailer, I would be mega-pissed about how Activision selected the characters that were shipped in "wave 3" and "wave 4". Skylanders is a huge draw for customers to visit retailers, but they want items primarily that will sell, not items that will collect dust on the shelves. Too much Flashwing, too much Swarm, too much Cynder, too much Whirlwind, too much Stump Smash, too much Lightcore Drobot, too much Lightcore Eruptor, and too much Shroomboom.
I'm sure retailers want to start shelving Lightcore Hex, Lightcore Chill, Lightcore Pop Fizz, Series 2 Drobot (and the other recently-released but still hard-to-find ones like Series 2 Spyro and Ninjini) ... but I almost guarantee they don't want to be forced into ordering more Flashwings, Swarms, and Lightcore Drobots just to get ONE or two previously unreleased characters.

Hate on this hypothesis all you want; I bet I'm right.

You mean like this?

YES!!!
That is EXACTLY what I have been talking about. Over the past month, almost every visit I pay to a retailer for Skylanders ... it has been FLASHWING AND SWARM CITY (Targets), SHROOMBOOM and STUMP SMASH CITY (Best Buys), FLASHWING and WHIRLWIND CITY (Wal-Marts), and LIGHTCORE DROBOT AND CRUSHER CITY (GameStops).

A bunch of people on these forums have been disregarding what I've been saying ("you're exaggerating", "it's not that bad", blah, blah, blah). Thank you for showing everyone that I'm NOT spouting hyperbole, SlayerX!

I have never seen that many Flashwing. The max I've seen at any store was like 7. I'm suddenly very grateful for the diversity my stores seem to be able to keep, even if I'm not interested in any of it.

Quote: Seiki

I have never seen that many Flashwing. The max I've seen at any store was like 7. I'm suddenly very grateful for the diversity my stores seem to be able to keep, even if I'm not interested in any of it.

I was just talking about this in another thread here recently. If I wanted to right now, I could easily round up 100 Flashwings in less than an hour by visiting a few local retailers.
I'm so sick of seeing Flashwings on the shelf that I've seriously considered taking them all off the shelves and "relocating" them within the store, to some obscure aisle and shelf, where they'll go unnoticed for a while.

I'm just too honest enough to do that, but I get closer to acting with each and every visit to a store that results in mostly Flashwings staring at me on the shelves/pegs.

Quote: BahamutBreaker

Quote: Seiki

I have never seen that many Flashwing. The max I've seen at any store was like 7. I'm suddenly very grateful for the diversity my stores seem to be able to keep, even if I'm not interested in any of it.

I was just talking about this in another thread here recently. If I wanted to right now, I could easily round up 100 Flashwings in less than an hour by visiting a few local retailers.
I'm so sick of seeing Flashwings on the shelf that I've seriously considered taking them all off the shelves and "relocating" them within the store, to some obscure aisle and shelf, where they'll go unnoticed for a while.

I'm just too honest enough to do that, but I get closer to acting with each and every visit to a store that results in mostly Flashwings staring at me on the shelves/pegs.

I actually was thinking about doing that but I didn't want some worker following me around cause i had all those lol.

Swarm use to be all I saw of Giants, lately swarm been replaced by Crusher

The only Giant I always saw gathering dust was Bouncer (Bouncers everyone, especially bins full of L-Bouncer), so don't be throwing shade on Swarm. *files nails*

Every time I go to a store, they have all the Giants( except for Ninjini) and a mix of wave 1 and 2 with Molten Hot Dog or Jade Flashwing. Toys R Us either sells characters from Giants or Spyro's Adventure.

Quote: BahamutBreaker

Quote: Seiki

I have never seen that many Flashwing. The max I've seen at any store was like 7. I'm suddenly very grateful for the diversity my stores seem to be able to keep, even if I'm not interested in any of it.

I was just talking about this in another thread here recently. If I wanted to right now, I could easily round up 100 Flashwings in less than an hour by visiting a few local retailers.
I'm so sick of seeing Flashwings on the shelf that I've seriously considered taking them all off the shelves and "relocating" them within the store, to some obscure aisle and shelf, where they'll go unnoticed for a while.

I'm just too honest enough to do that, but I get closer to acting with each and every visit to a store that results in mostly Flashwings staring at me on the shelves/pegs.

good idea!

I found all the giants at my local Super Grocery Store.

Aus is still waiting for Ninjini

tbh haven't touched scarlet since I opened her, selling my Giants, all that crud. I think that even the Americans can agree that Giants' releases sucked

^ Kinda. It was slightly better than last year, though.

I have Scarlet Ninjini, Polar Whirlwind, LC Chill and LC Pop Fizz and I'm in The U.S. ie Detroit, Michigan.. Hell, I'm waiting on LC Hex and S2 Drobot ! Where are they?

AMAZON.DE is a "GREAT" place to purchase those.. !

Quote: GamingMaster_76

Aus is still waiting for Ninjini

tbh haven't touched scarlet since I opened her, selling my Giants, all that crud. I think that even the Americans can agree that Giants' releases sucked

Please clarify that statement a bit.