A little late now, but I wonder if, when you go to a store and you see a particular item you want is there, place an order for one of that size-class for pickup at that store... and when you go in later to pick up your order/toy, if it isn't the one you were wanting, see if you can swap it over with the one you did want, while you are there (if it is still on the toy shelf of course).
I'm sure that if you are picking up your pre-paid order from the customer service desk, they do the refunds and exchanges there as well. Even if an exchange these days has to go through the process of doing a refund and you have to repurchase the similar item... tell them that if they let you do a straight swap without any "paperwork", it would save them having to go through the process of doing a refund and putting the toy back into the toy section. (because if you don't get the toy you wanted, getting a refund should leave you how you started, before placing the order)
(I bought some packs of the TCG, for pickup at the nearest store that apparently has stock, according to the product page... but I haven't seen any in that store for some time, so if they were all stolen, it will be interesting to see if they tell me that the order had to be cancelled, or if they ship in stock from another store.)
