darkSpyro

My apologies in advance if this topic is repeated elsewhere.

I just wanted to share my thoughts on the launch of Swap Force and my own experiences as I traveled to and from trying to get all of Wave 1. My first stop was TRU, where I have to admit I was surprised to see a line of about 30 people already formed. I'm in North Georgia, and last year when Skylanders Giants launched, there didn't seem to be much hype. This time around, the crowd seemed prepared, excited and knowledgeable. I kept hearing "variants", "wave 1" and other common DS terms being thrown around. More so, I was impressed with the organization that the TRU employees had. The line moved freely, everyone calmly gathered their characters and the checkout was smooth. I only went for Legendary figures, but I have to say my time in and out wasn't more than 10 minutes.

Since I got lucky at TRU, I figured I'd move onto Walmart, where the staff seemed to be scrambling. They didn't have any of the figures out. In fact, all of the Swap Force related items were still on a few pallets. I asked about Enchanted Hoot Loop and was candidly told that they really didn't know what was in the boxes, so if I wanted to look through I could go ahead. Fortunately, I was able to snag a couple for my boys.

Overall, this wasn't such a bad experience. How did your hunting tonight / today go?

We had about 20-25 people for our TRU launch. Some warnings:

• The 20% coupon did not come off of the Game. At first I thought it was because it picked the cheaper of the items, but a gentleman behind me had the problem and all he was there for was for his starter pack. I did eventually get my 20% off of the Starter along with my $10, but I waited 15 minutes for them to get it done.
  
• There was supposed to be Activision hired hands to help this TRU set everything up but they didn't show up. They are obviously behind on getting everything setup. They had enough stock to literally last 30 seconds on the shelf; the rest of the time everyone was digging through Wave 1 boxes. It was utter chaos. No one was hoarding... a lot of people were there for a few particulars. I think only one other person other than me was picking up "one of everything".
  
• There appeared to be not enough stock; from what this site TRU said they literally put out everything they had...so I'm guessing folks are going to be disappointed in trying to find Smoulderdash in particular.
  
• I ordered Enchanted via Wal Mart.com so I'm not going to bother looking there.
  

My TRU had everything stock right at the front of the store. Walmart still had everything in boxes behind the counter, but since I was the only one there, the woman behind the counter found everything I needed without much delay.

It's 12:30 and I'm in line to buy Roller Brawl and LC Star Strike. Our TRU did not get Legendaries and says it will be Wednesday before they get them :-\
Next we are going by Walmart.
There was a decent line when we got here and employees scrambling to stock the shelves. I wish I had just slept until Target in the morning since we preordered the Dark Edition.


Waiting outside looking in


"Factory error" j/k

I think you've just inadvertently discovered one of the mass printing errors. Look at mine and look at yours again. I just realized mine had the same "error".

I'm blaming it on 1am, but I don't see the printing error :-(
Just left Walmart with Enchanted Hoot Loop. There was just one poor little lady working as several of us that had just left TRU swarmed electronics, but really we were just relieved to find Enchanted Hoot Loop after the Legendary disappointment.

Quote: sklndrmommy

I'm blaming it on 1am, but I don't see the printing error :-(
Just left Walmart with Enchanted Hoot Loop. There was just one poor little lady working as several of us that had just left TRU swarmed electronics, but really we were just relieved to find Enchanted Hoot Loop after the Legendary disappointment.

The catch phrase is the same.

Is the error the catch phrase? What is hoot loop suppose to say? Can't read French.

Was there with GhostRoaster. They had most things out, except only one box of Lightcores. They had a bunch of unpacked boxes, so I scanned them and opened one that indicated a Lightcore selection. Me, Ghost and a couple others cleaned out that box and then everyone else was on the hunt. They probably didn't have to finish unpacking the boxes, we all helped them ...

They were a bit unprepared, I guess since they only had a couple hours, but the guys were really nice and didn't mind us rummaging for missing stuff. There were a great deal more people than last year, I guess midnight versus crack of dawn really helped. They probably run out of a few things, but still had plenty of Legendaries.

First Walmart was a bust for Enchanted, poor stock girl and guy spent a long time but couldn't find them. Second one already had a bunch on the pegs (but oddly no other Swappers). Paint on every single one (the magic base) was a bit iffy, but the figures themselves looked great. Not sure if this will be a common problem, reminded me of Jade Flashwing painting.

Lots of people buying them up though, the game is a hit.

Quote: cbunny84

Is the error the catch phrase? What is hoot loop suppose to say? Can't read French.

Hoot Loop is supposed to be "Let's Ruffle Some Feathers".

Odd...my EHL box says "Let's Ruffle Some Feathers!"

Was kinda restless, so I went over to the Toys R Us in Deptford, NJ for something to do. They had a ton of everything that was set to be in Wave 1. One huge section up front and one in the usual place near the games. They were still putting them out when I left. Was really surprised to see so much (wasn't into the game when the last two came out). Really an A+ store.

As far as who was there... There was only one other customer there when I was checking out. I saw another leaving as I was pulling in. I assume there wasn't much action, given how full the pegs/shelves were and how casual the staff was.

Went to Walmart, as well. There were only a handful on the pegs (Swappers only). They lady working the counter was managing the boxes, and I asked her about Enchanted Hoot Loop. After some searching, she found them. They were in their own box marked by their name. Not sure how many were there. One box, at least. Only one other customer there, by the way.

Just waiting for Target and GameStop to open so I can finish off my list.

Here's my haul so far, along with a bunch of clothing.



EDIT: Went to GameStop and Target earlier and finished off what I wanted. There was some confusion at GS, mainly when it came down to the LC Hex. I swear, the uppers never tell the stores what's going on. Quite typical with GS, I find. Target was fine. Everything was out and they had plenty of the double-packs.

My TRU was very well stocked. We showed up at about 11 PM. to a line of maybe 15 ppl. I'd say in the end, there were prob. 40+ ppl there. They had plenty of everything, I had no problems stacking my 20% off and $10 off coupons for my 3DS starter pack.

Plus, since they were under the impression they were supposed to have the special Gill Grunt figure to actually hand out tonight, they were giving out free Light Cores of your choice. I was close to the end of the line but when I got to the counter, he said about not having the special figure. I was like 'I'm only expecting LC hex'. Then I explained that it was never said that they would be handing out GG tonight but we'd be getting the coupons in Jan. They'd heard nothing of it. So that was how they were satisfying the pissed off ppl ahead of me in line.

So, I got my LC Hex, a free LC Legendary Grim Creeper and LC Smolder Dash in place of the 'missing' GG. Since my boyfriend and I each used a different rewards card, we split it into 2 over $100 orders and will be getting 2 of the special GGs.

That makes a total of 5 free figures. I'm ok with my night.

Plus, we went to Walmart after and picked EHL right off the shelf. And when I got home, I checked Target.com and was able to order my Nitro Magna Charge, saving myself an extra trip in the morning.

All in all we're pretty satisfied with our finds.

Did TRU. Got 2 Legendaries, LC Smolderdash and LC Star Strike.

Went to Walmart, they didn't know much, guy actually said "I play Adult games, not this kid stuff" while surrounded by a bunch of adults. So, no luck on Enchanted at all.

Target in the morning. Dark Edition at Gamestop afterwards.

It's 5 am here, I woke up strangely with no reason at 4am....

There's no midnight launch in Quebec, and none of my stores open earlier. I still have 5 hours to kill before my hunt starts, but it's awesome to see yours!

Quote: Reimu

It's 5 am here, I woke up strangely with no reason at 4am....

There's no midnight launch in Quebec, and none of my stores open earlier. I still have 5 hours to kill before my hunt starts, but it's awesome to see yours!

Me too except I did a happy dance

So What is the deal with the Special Edition Gill Grunt?? I have heard it mentioned a couple times in various threads but I'm not exactly what the deal is with it. Would be great for some clarity from someone that knows. Thanks!

And since I'm typing I'm in Michigan. TRU Had about 20-30 people there...plenty of everything everywhere..I was quite impressed by the amount of stock. Lightcore Smolderdash seems to be the figure that was the scarcest. I only saw like 3 total. Including the one I bought. Walmart was chaos and had 0 enchanted hoot loops. The Wal Mart in my city about 15 away from the TRU had 9 total on the pegs. I didn't see any of their exclusive 3 packs last night or this morning. Overall much more organized and employees seemed to know a bit more about what was going on this time around. TRU Seemed to be the only store with a surplus of stock. The others just looked like they received a normal shipment. Targets only had 3 of each nitro magna charge pack BUT you could buy Lightcore Hex seperatly and the manager claimed that was their exclusive allowance. So if youre not planning on getting Swap Force and Sticking with Giants for a while you still have the ability to get a lightcore Hex for 10.99 if you use a frito lay coupon for 1.00 off.

Quote: Zer0

The catch phrase is the same.

Wow! I didn't even see that, I was just focused on the character. How funny. We ended up buying EHL and his saying is normal.

Posting again in this thread lawl.

I decided to only grab these guys since they're special figures even though I'm not getting the game right now.
Target I got to a bit after 8 am, and every single person I saw walking up to the front or out of the store had Skylanders stuff. They had a pretty huge selection; stuff on the actual aisle Skylanders shares with Infinity and on the end cap right on front of both it, and the Wii U end cap. They only had about 6 of the Nitro Packs, I went with Free Ranger because I think the blue contrasts nicely with the orange/yellow of Magna.

Over at Walmart, it seemed like they were just putting stuff out..or more stuff since I think this one near me is a 24 hour one. They had only 3 Enchanted Hoot Loops left; one was being held by a guy and his wife trying to find things for his son, one to the little kid who was in front of me, and the last one to me. I'm pretty sure I had a bit of luck there as I wasn't going to get up until 9 today....should have checked store opening times yesterday.

TRU I'd imagine near me was probably packed, but they'll probably have plenty of stuff in stock. I'm taking this game nice and slow, especially because I have Pokemon Y to satisfy me until I actually pick up Swap Force.

Toys'R'Us had their stuff together. Everything at a giant display at the front of the store. The legendaries were still in the box which they brought out to hand out to those interested. Got my BOGO 40% without any hassle, my free fig and LightCore Hex and my Frito Lay coupon. Everything was pretty smooth. Off topic they were less prepared for the crystal Infinity figures, my store didn't have the Mr. Incredible but the power discs were handed out as well.

Target was good to go as well, tons of the Nitro 2 packs. Kind of a rip off, wish they had 2 exclusives instead of the same guy with 2 different packs ins. Could have made things more efficient.

WalMart was....well WalMart. Had to go to 3 before I found one that had a box of Enchanted Hoot Loops accessible. And even then none of them had anything on display except for the cardboard headers. It's disgraceful the way they handle things like this. The only good thing to come out of going to 3 WalMarts was that I finally found the Fright Rider Frito Lay bags.

-Grishnaar

edit: actually my bags aren't Fright Riders. They're Swap Force bags with new coupons for the starter pack and a $5 WalMart gift card after buying the starter pack. What a let down. F*%& WalMart.

Everything went pretty smooth. We hit ToysRus first at 8:00 AM, then Wal-Mart. Had to explain what we were looking for to a girl that was stocking the shelves at Wal MArt because we didn't see EHL. She said she had a couple more boxes left, then while she was going back to get them I called my other Wal Mart and they said "no sorry we only have the regular one". Our stock girl came out and I noticed she had a name tag that said "vendor" on it, but it looked like a wal mart employee shirt. Then she opened a fresh case of EHL and we got ours. I told her the Wal Mart in Palm Coast said they didn't have any, and she said "Oh, the Palm Coast Wal Mart?.....that's because they are idiots up there and they can never stock anything Skylanders related properly, I'm actually going up there next." we then went to Target, and finally Gamestop with perfect timing for the door to open. Thanks to Shelly I kept pushing the manager there to check her Email and call other stores, and then finally as she looked at her computer, "Oh there it is! They snuck it in on us, I guess you can use the $10 off coupon for the Dark Starter Pack" She couldn't get the code to work for the coupon, but gave the ten bucks off with an override because of the Email. Overall success, gonna be a great birthday for the boy!

Were people Able to use the 20% off coupon on the starter pack....with the 10 off frito coupon?

Yes the catch phrase is wrong on the printing of the Hoot Loop box, but is right on the Enchanted Hoot Loop box. There all like that....someone is getting in trouble...lol
Suprised the graphics editor didn't notice the mistake before ALL of them where printed....oops!

Quote: Grishnaar

edit: actually my bags aren't Fright Riders. They're Swap Force bags with new coupons for the starter pack and a $5 WalMart gift card after buying the starter pack. What a let down. F*%& WalMart.

My Walmart had both the regular Swap Force chip bags that Grishnaar mentioned and the new promotion for GITD Rattle Shake:




Not sure these supposed to be out yet though. This contest doesn't begin until 11/3 and there are snowflakes on the package.

Originally we were going to do a 12 a.m. run to walmart for enchanted hoot loop, very glad we didnt we wasted enough time with walmart today. Got up at 5 a.m. instead.

Walmart: Hit three of them, all of them same story as others, no stock out, most of the employees clueless, or one even saying they didnt send him any characters.

ToysRus: Hands down was the best store for the day, lots of stock, no limit on sales, the only store with sales going on. The 20% coupon didnt work but i had doubts about it from the beggining. You usually cant combine any sale with a BOGO. They tried all different kinds of ways of ringinig it up but it was a no go. The employees did allow us to do multiple ring outs. Main thing i was dissapointed in was the special Gill grunt. Best part of the day was coming home to realize one of the Fiery forge packs i bought has a factory error of Bumble Blasts arm being completely missing.

Target: Not bad i guess i would make them number two on the list. They had decent stock, but the only reason i went in was for the Exclusive.

Back to walmart: 4th walmart, finally found one stocked, all it had was two enchanted hoot loops, i got them. Went to a 5th walmart which was in the first early morning run. It is next to gamestop, so while i was waiting for gamestop to open i checked this walmart again. Still not stocked and this was after 10 a.m.

Gamestop: I would put them right above walmart. Mainly due to the fact that this was the third time i was coming in to pick up my strategy guide i preordered. They kept changing the date on when it would be released. I was also shocked that they ran out of Wii U starter dark editions so fast. They had excess xbox and playstation. But like i told them, those are old systems compared to Wii U, so why would you have the least amount of stock for the newest system?

Hm, the artwork is the Quickdraw Rattle Shake Artwork.

What state please for the Rattle Shake Frito Lays?

My gosh...another bag to hunt for!

The bag actually says "exclusive through 12/31" so it should be released somewhere else in the US next year.

Yeah...ohh...wow ....another bag to hunt for..*shahes head*....(grumbles)...lol

Interesting.. This means that the Pumpkin Fright Rider COULD be different in-game!

The difference is, that no alt deco of Fright Rider has been found so far in the game data and that he is exclusive to Frito Lay (and therefor the US). Quickshot Rattle Shake is only a time exclusive.

Quote: Varianator

What state please for the Rattle Shake Frito Lays?

Found in Western New York

Quote: myskylanders

The bag actually says "exclusive through 12/31" so it should be released somewhere else in the US next year.

Bag says contest runs from 11/3/13 thru 12/31/13.

Went to four different stores today.

First was Toys R Us. This one didn't do the midnight launch and opened up at 8 a.m. instead. I suppose most people around here didn't know that, so there were just about 5 of us outside the store minutes before it opened. They pretty much had everything in Wave 1, but surprisingly had no Legendaries at all. One of the employees there said they never got them in.

Next up was the Target nearby. They had a good amount of the exclusive double packs, so I grabbed one Nitro Magna Charge/Rattle Shake pack, and headed over to the nearby Walmart. Now this was interesting because no one there knew anything about Skylanders and that the new game launched today. Since they weren't really going to help much, we headed to another Walmart nearby that had an employee just start putting out Enchanted Hoot Loop.

After that was another Toys R Us, and they also had everything from Wave 1, and plenty of the two launch day Legendaries. And then finally, the last stop at the day was at GameStop for the Wii U Dark Edition.

Overall, I picked up the 3DS Starter Pack, Fiery Forge, Tower of Time, all 5 LightCores, the 2 Legendaries, Nitro Double Pack, Enchanted Hoot Loop, and the Wii U Dark Edition Starter.

Quote: stoat2337

Quote: Varianator

What state please for the Rattle Shake Frito Lays?

Found in Western New York

Quote: myskylanders

The bag actually says "exclusive through 12/31" so it should be released somewhere else in the US next year.

Bag says contest runs from 11/3/13 thru 12/31/13.

I was refering to the front and the fact that it says the figure is exclusive through 12/31. This is important because it means that it is only time exclusive.

Oh, gotcha. Well, now we know the length of the contest too!

So does this mean that after 12/31 it will be available at retailers without having to go through frit-lay?

I was very disappointed I had issues in a lot of the stores I went to today, including the debacle at Walmart.

Quote: Dsi568

So does this mean that after 12/31 it will be available at retailers without having to go through frit-lay?

Not necessarily at every retailer but it means that there are other ways to get him after the Frito Lay promotion expires. Could be another promotion or a store exclusive or else.

Quote: icecube7731

I was very disappointed I had issues in a lot of the stores I went to today, including the debacle at Walmart.

I have low expectations of both Target and Wal Mart. I lumbered in late at Target today because my son had to have some swap guys to play with (minus the game) and I grabbed the LAST Nitro pack. I was shocked any were left. There was plenty of other Wave 1 guys.

Quote: stoat2337

Quote: Grishnaar

edit: actually my bags aren't Fright Riders. They're Swap Force bags with new coupons for the starter pack and a $5 WalMart gift card after buying the starter pack. What a let down. F*%& WalMart.

My Walmart had both the regular Swap Force chip bags that Grishnaar mentioned and the new promotion for GITD Rattle Shake:




Not sure these supposed to be out yet though. This contest doesn't begin until 11/3 and there are snowflakes on the package.

Is there a mail in address for free entry?

Quote: myskylanders

The difference is, that no alt deco of Fright Rider has been found so far in the game data and that he is exclusive to Frito Lay (and therefor the US). Quickshot Rattle Shake is only a time exclusive.

And wasn't announced in the guide. I consider it similar to PEB until otherwise proven wrong.

My experience...

First went to Target around 8:30 this morning. They had quite abit out, and only one register open for checkout. Both Nitro packs were available in decent quantities and I quickly granned the Free Ranger one. Didn't want to miss another Target exclusive due to how little stock they get of them. Only ones there were me and a dad and his kid who were picking up most of the stuff. The store had just about one of everything.


After that went to GameStop getting there a couple minutes before 9am and waited until they opened at 9. It was just me and two 2 workers in the whole store. They had their Skylander section filled with Swap Force from floor to ceiling, though I didn't really check it over much as I'm pacing myself in buying figures. Went up to the counter and got the Dark Starter (Wii) and Pokemon X I pre-ordered. I had 2 coupons, $10 from Frito-Lay & a $10 GS coupon from Power-Up points. The guy used both of Dark Starter, so I got it for $80! Though he mentioned how I'd already put enough money towards it and Pokemon that I'd still have like $10 credit so I grabbed a Roller Brawl and paid the couple of dollars left to get it all.

Quote: mordelack

Is there a mail in address for free entry?

I would assume there will be once the site is open. That was where I found the mail-in address for Fright Rider.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: myskylanders

The difference is, that no alt deco of Fright Rider has been found so far in the game data and that he is exclusive to Frito Lay (and therefor the US). Quickshot Rattle Shake is only a time exclusive.

And wasn't announced in the guide. I consider it similar to PEB until otherwise proven wrong.

In another topic a guy said something about looking through the files of an ISO of Swap Force and found a file about an alt deco Rattle Shake, which later that day was revealed to be Quickdraw. The game has a file regarding an in-game palette swap for Rattle Shake.

Quote: Seiki

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: myskylanders

The difference is, that no alt deco of Fright Rider has been found so far in the game data and that he is exclusive to Frito Lay (and therefor the US). Quickshot Rattle Shake is only a time exclusive.

And wasn't announced in the guide. I consider it similar to PEB until otherwise proven wrong.

In another topic a guy said something about looking through the files of an ISO of Swap Force and found a file about an alt deco Rattle Shake, which later that day was revealed to be Quickdraw. The game has a file regarding an in-game palette swap for Rattle Shake.

I was talking about Frito Lay Fright Rider. I'm good with Quickdraw.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Seiki

Quote: GhostRoaster

And wasn't announced in the guide. I consider it similar to PEB until otherwise proven wrong.

In another topic a guy said something about looking through the files of an ISO of Swap Force and found a file about an alt deco Rattle Shake, which later that day was revealed to be Quickdraw. The game has a file regarding an in-game palette swap for Rattle Shake.

I was talking about Frito Lay Fright Rider. I'm good with Quickdraw.

Oh well, sorry about that then.