Are Transformers toy numbers in stores this Christmas bad everywhere?

[griffin]

After a few months of unreliable restocking at stores like BigW and Target (and to a lesser extent, Kmart and ToysRUs), I was surprise to see today that my nearby Kmart and ToysRUs had been stripped of Transformers toys in just a week since I was last there... but other toylines were not as bare (maybe they were being restocked faster to keep up with demand).

So how have your local stores been this Christmas, or since the mid-year toy sales? Any stores near you showing empty pegs or shelves like the ones below?
(post up photos if you've been seeing empty or shrinking Transformers sections, during this time that should be capitalising on Christmas shopping)

This was ToysRUs Garden City... I've never seen it like this before, with almost nothing left.


Kmart Garden City... with half the pegs empty, and all the shelves below it filled with Dragon toys, but the Transformers shelf-tags are still left there for whenever they get a restock.


This was Kmart on November 26th, with pegs full to capacity and two shelves with Transformers...


In the last month though, Kmart have been so starved of supply, that they are putting up shelf tags to say that they aren't discontinued, but they can't get any more stock (which would be from the supplier, Hasbro).


Even Myer was looking emptier than usual (they are usually very slow to move stock), as most of the space was empty when I got there, but I moved some toys around so that the photo shows what was in stock.


Meanwhile, Target and BigW are like Kmart, in that they are struggling to get new stock, so their Transformers section keeps shrinking with every visit.
This is the time of year that more of your (toy) product needs to be in stores, not a reduction or completely bare pegs and shelves.
This is Target today with their entire Transformers Range for Christmas.


And this was BigW a few weeks ago, with their entire range, with 3/4 being Hero Mashers.

[BruiseLee]

Yes those pics are a familiar and sad sight with the stores I frequent. I find that the TRUs are the ones with empty pegs/shelves but this is probably because they still have the same allotted space for TFs. They have increased their "premium" TF stock though and most of this range are bought with tickets so there aren't any MP or Platinum edition stuff there which makes the shelves look even more sparse.

With Myer, aside from the cbd store their TF selection is dwindling and poorly laid out. The city store though is mostly packed with YOTG and Platinum stuff.

My local Targets, Kmarts and Big W have a severe lack of stock since the mid year sales. The TF Mashers are probably the items in the most abundance next to RID stuff. The TF areas also keep shrinking in these stores with some Big Ws and Kmarts barely having enough stock to even fill a handful of pegs/shelves.

[dsphatlite]

Two words... Star Wars!!!

Hasbro needs to offload as much Star Wars toys as possible while the movie hype train is in overdrive. Retailers want to make as much money off you as well and easy way is to join the hype train and flog you all Star Wars toys.

The stores are bare over here as well in the west. Big W only has two lines of TFs. Target I only saw two pegs worth, KMart had from memory just the Combiner War Legends and the Ultra Prime limbs. Toys R Us has a bigger line but mostly old stock from AoE with a smattering of CW stock. This was at North of River stores though. I know Cannington Toys R Us has better stock than the Morley, Innaloo and Joondalup stores.

[i_amtrunks]

Just as bare in Western Sydney too.

I know hasbro have had a tough time moving distribution ex entries and at even the best of times they make terrible decisions regarding stock but perhaps this is also a sign that retailers don't trust them after all the nonsense with the wave 1 movie toys Hasbro pushed onto them?

Star Wars may be the money maker see holidays,it not every kid/ person is into Star Wars. Why have such diversification if there is nothing to buy?

For a company that is meant to be about profit they sure do seem to like not making money. No toys on shelves = no purchases.

[Handsprime]

I was at Erina the other day and this is my experience:

Big W: Well pretty much in the past few years most Big W's have been a pretty sad place to buy Transformers, and this was no exception with there barely being anything intresting. Just a few Mini-cons, a RID one step changer and a deluxe Arcee BH toy.
Kmart: When I went here I was confused as to why I couldn't find the Transformers! Thats when I learnt there barely were any at all!
Reject shop: Now we're talking. Although it only had the FAB toys, there were more there than Kmart and Big W combined. Sure the range was limited, but there was stock.
Didn't check Myer or Target so can't comment on that.
Toys R Us: This has been the only place I've been to in the past few years to not disapoint me in Transformer range, although the problem of cause is the prices, but thats for another thread. The Toys R Us at Erina had a few Transformers, notably some masterpieces, some CW deluxes and a few Voyagers. The stock wasn't huge, but it was more than the every other store.



Since I need to do some more christmas shopping today I'm gonna check out some other stores.

[Paulbot]

Those pics look like all the stores I've been to lately. Small sections in Kmart (mostly 1 step changers), minuscule sections at Big W (like a few racks), bare shelf space at TRU. Only shops I've seen well stocked have been Reject Shops with heaps of the fast action toys and big Constructobot Grimlocks.

[LordCyrusOmega]

The state of the Illawarra has been awful this year, more so then other years. I was really excited for the Combiner Wars series. We got hit with wave 1 then nothing. Some store got a dabbling of wave 3 then after months of nothing we received wave 4. RiD has been nothing special. The only thing of note is how awesome the selection of masterpiece and other platinum sets have been at toys r us Shellharbour but they seem to me to be over priced.
I used to report sightings often but here just hasn't seem to be a point lately.

[UltraMarginal]

In most places I would have to say yes.

Big W Top Ryde, Macquarie and Chullora all have very little stock. some legends, some rid warriors and a couple larger rid simple toys. I think Macquarie has some one step changers.

Target Macquarie has had very little stock for several months now. several racks of masks, some rid one step changers, rid minicons, minicon deployers and some Combiner wars deployers.

Myer Macquarie has some year of the goat stuff, they had maybe a case or two of later wave combiner wars deluxes.

Top ryde toymate have a large range of movie stuff, combiner wars, rid and even some later wave prime deluxes. they also have some kre-o combiners, small kits and larger kits. and constructbots. The more recent stuff is not cheap but the older stuff is mostly at good clearance prices.

TRU bankstown has a pretty large section, pretty much an entire shoulder height side of an isle. as others have mentioned though, most of it is on the high side of the RRP or just way over priced (exclusives)

[Zommael]

It's pretty much the same in Rocky. Big W has I think two pegs of TFs, K-Mart has a very bare section with a few RID Warriors and CW Deluxes, Target looks a bit better but is mostly old stock (Rocky Target is always well-presented compared to the other stores, so this might go into it too).

I don't even bother checking out Toyworld any more as it's always disappointing.

[CBratron]

Even Myer was looking emptier than usual (they are usually very slow to move stock), as most of the space was empty when I got there, but I moved some toys around so that the photo shows what was in stock.

It's been looking like that everywhere all year.