Around the Toy Aisle: Holiday Edition

1-1-2010

With Christmas a week ago and stores holding year end sales all this week, there has been a lot of shopping for last minute gifts and deals.  What's been around the toys aisles for the last week, or not?  Here's what I've seen for the Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Avatar and Lego lines.

I'll start with some Christmas Eve shopping where I stopped in two Target stores, a Walmart and Toys-R-Us, all of which were in the Binghamton/Vestal, NY area with the first Target being Ithaca.

Christmas Eve

Target, Ithaca

This was the first store where I spotted any clearance items.  The Titanium line was marked down 30% as was the exclusive Rancor and the MARBS line.  They had stocked some of the ANH line, for only the second time, as well as more ROTJ wave figures and Saga Legends.  The other Star Wars exclusives were in stock including the TIE Fighter, X-Wing, Geonosis Arena and Clone Wars Battle Packs.  Basic Clone Wars pegs were full of figures and there was a handful of the regular Battle Packs, Starfighters and role play items.  The Turbo Tanks sold out as did the large vehicle line which includes the ARC-170 and Clone Wars Y-Wing.

G.I. Joe also was seeing clearance prices, at least on the Target exclusive Battle Pack with Snake Eyes, Duke and the Vipers.  Spotted the 12" Destro and Heavy Duty for the first time locally, all still marked down to $9.99.  The PIT has sold slowly, not as well as the Turbo Tank, but Target has moved some pieces.  The Raven also seemed to be moving well for the holiday season and the $5.99 price on basic figures left the local store mostly with the women; Helix, Scarlett and Cover Girl, but they also had plenty of Cobra army builders and some Heavy Duty figures.  Surprisingly, the RHINO exclusive has not sold well and the exclusive Deluxe line, figure/vehicle sets, haven't sold well even with the new SNAKE Armor and Storm Shadow on bike being out.

The Avatar line has been out since late October but Target never stocked more than one case of the 8" figures until a few weeks ago.  Now that the film is in theaters, and burning up the box office, I expected to see more toys for the holidays but were disappointed locally.  Target finally added the AMP Suit and Grinder along with a case of the smaller beasts; Thanator, Banshee and Direhorse, none of which really moved for Christmas.

Lego is the one toy that does really well every year in Ithaca.  Target was decimated; all lines, all sets, all but gone.  There were a few Duplo stragglers left as well as a watch or two, but if you wanted anything from the Star Wars, Bionicle, City or Space lines you were out of luck.  Even the slow Star Wars seller, the Separatist Shuttle, sold out.

Toys-R-Us, Binghamton

Except for a brief stop at TRU after the Thanksgiving holiday, this was the first time we'd been back to this store since October and it didn't look like things had improved much.

There were several Saga Legends figures but no Legacy Collection and very little, if any, Clone Wars.  They had the ARC-170 and their exclusive TIE Interceptor on the shelf along with a couple of the exclusive Starfighter/figure sets.  Both McQuarrie multi-packs were on the shelf but set 1 was limited.  Titanium is fading fast at retail and TRU was no exception, they had some newish ships such as the Clone Wars Y-Wing and Pod Racers, but that was it.  They did have the Geonosis Assault Battle Pack in stock along with several Galactic Heroes sets but the pickings were sparse.

The G.I. Joe pickings were slim as well.  Both Bench Press and Snow Serpent exclusives were on the pegs with a few other Rise of Cobra releases.  The PIT and Raven were on the shelf, but except for some non-3.75" figures and older 25th releases, didn't pay much attention.

Avatar was the main reason for stopping at TRU, they had a 20% off sale the week leading up to Christmas.  After picking out a Scorpion Gunship and Jake Sully in his avatar body, it left another gunship, Direhorse and Thanator on the shelf along with 4" versions of the Na'vi.  Trudy, the gunship pilot, and Sean Fike were the lone humans along with both Jake Sully avatar versions (clothes and native), Eytukan, Spellman's avatar and Tsu'tey.  TRU also had the Jake Sully avatar preview release, but for $15 it wasn't worth it for just some extra i-Tags.

In the US, Toys-R-Us is the spot for early Lego releases, having the following year's first releases by Christmas.  This year TRU had the new Battle Packs, Rebel Troopers and Snowtrooper, along with the Freeco Speeder and Droid Tri-Fighter.  They may have had the others and sold out, though.  Unlike Target, TRU wasn't cleaned out of Lego sets, but there was a good dent.

Target, Vestal

While picking up the Avatar gunship and Sully at TRU was a good deal, the best score was at Target where I found the new Titanium Republic Gunship and a re-pack of the Magnaguard Starfighter, both on clearance.  None of the other newer ships were in stock, however.  There were plenty of Saga Legends and Clone Wars figures but I didn't spot any Legacy Collection on the pegs.  There were six packs of the new Luke & Deena comic 2-packs along with Wedge Antilles & Borssk Feyla but even the Marvel packs had sold through.  This store also yielded my first look at the Gelagub Battle Pack.  Vestal's store also had the Rancor and MARBS marked down 30%.  I didn't spot any X-Wings but they did have exclusive TIE Fighters, CW Battle Packs and Geonosis 2-packs.  The Turbo Tank was also in stock along with both the basic Clone Trooper and Captain Rex role play helmets.  The other role play items, lightsabers and rifles, were in stock alongside the Starfighter vehicles.

No exclusive RHINO vehicles in stock for the G.I. Joe line, but the Snake/Duke/Viper packs were marked down.  The Vestal store had more basic figures in stock than Ithaca, but they were marked down to $5.99 as well.  PIT and Raven were on the shelf as were the Ice Dagger and Apache and the Deluxe exclusives. 

The Vestal Target had a better stock on Avatar items, including the Grinder, AMP Suit and  Direhorse along with basic figures.  Both Jake Sully avatar versions were on the pegs with Neytiri, Eytukan and Colonel Quaritch.  A small stock of the 8" figures were also in the store.

Lego was again decimated.  They did have a handful of sets including the Separatist Shuttle and V-19 and some sets from other lines.

Walmart, Vestal

When it comes to Star Wars, this store is a mess.  They had hundreds of Saga Legends figures on one side of a 4-way aisle display, on an end cap and in the regular aisle.  While there were a few dozen Clone Wars figures, I only spotted what appeared to be one lone Plo Koon from the Legacy Collection.  The end cap also had a few each of the exclusive Dewback, Gelagrub and Rishi Moon Outpost Attack Battle Packs and the Turbo Tank.  The Commando sets were sold out, but there were several of each pilot Evolutions packs on the shelf.  There were at least nine Leia & Xizor comic packs on the pegs but no other comic sets.  The Clone Wars Deluxe line of figures and vehicles was well stocked, including the Freeco Speeder and Dooku with his speeder bike along with older waves.  Transformers were stocked but I didn't pay attention to the individual pieces.  There were some newer Titanium ships on the pegs including Mace Windu's Jedi Starfighter with hyperdrive ring, but nothing I was looking for.

Much of the G.I Joe merchandise seems to have moved from this store.  I didn't spot any of the exclusive 2-packs but the single figures were well represented, including the latest wave of figures which included the new Baroness, Doctor and City Strike Snake Eyes, even though Snake didn't seem to be on the pegs.  The figures were stocked both in the main aisle and on one side of a 4-way aisle display.  There were plenty of the Apache and Ice Dagger sets but beyond that I didn't pay a lot of notice.

Walmart had the best selection of Avatar merchandise yet, including all of the beasts (Direhorse, Thanator, Banshee and Leonopteryx) along with the Gunship, AMP Suit and Grinder.  With the possible exception of Trudy, Walmart had all of the basic 4" figures.  The Avatar figures were also stocked both in the main action figure aisle and on one side of a 4-way aisle display.

New Lego also made an appearance at this store, I spotted the 2010 Battle Packs and the Droid Tri-Fighter.  Most of the 2009 sets, across all lines, seemed to be in stock at this store.  Not sure what it is about Target that entices people to buy Lego, but that store always seems to clear faster than either TRU or Walmart.

Let the sales begin

Let's face it, sometimes the after Christmas shopping is where it's at, what with all the sales and restocking that stores do, looking to put some final profits on the books for the year.  On the way home from a long weekend of dinners and gift giving, I stopped off at all the same stores to see what was left, and for the most part, things hadn't changed drastically from Christmas Eve.

Several stores had found new stock to put out, including:

Toys-R-Us had sold out of set 1 of the McQuarrie multi-packs but not the second.  They also had found a bunch of Starfighter vehicles and Galactic Heroes Battle Packs over the weekend.  More G.I. Joe figures were on the shelf, mostly from the wave with Helix and the Pit Commando.  All of the 2010 Lego sets that had been in stock on the previous Thursday were sold out.

The Vestal Target found some Return of the Jedi figures but besides some Lego V-19 Fighters and a lone exclusive Lego Republic Fighter Tank, there wasn't a lot new.  It was interesting to see that the G.I. Joe figures hadn't moved much for the holiday.

At Walmart I spotted the Turbo Tank marked down to $49.99 which seems to be a national sale, not regional.  Also, look for the AT-ST, Evolution packs and Octuptarra Droids to be marked half off.  Oddly enough, the store had also found what appeared to be several dozen Transformers figures, and had filled in peg space with them.  Walmart had also sold out of the Lego 2010 Battle Packs.

Target Ithaca, which had been slowly selling Clone Wars figures, must have had a run on Thursday or over the weekend because they were quite cleared out, as were the Saga Legends.  Unfortunately, the Christmas rush did nothing to clear the 2008 Wave 4 Revision 2 Legacy Collection figures which we've received five cases of since October.  Yes, that's the case with Stass Allie, Bail & Breha Organa and the Sandstorm Han Solo figures.  The G.I Joe figures also moved well over the weekend, as did a few of the vehicles.

On the way home I added the Ithaca Walmart to my stop and found at least two cases of the ROTJ figures in stock along with a lone Dewback which I'm not sure where it came from.  They also had two Avatar Scorpion Gunships on the shelf where they had no Avatar product before I left town on Thursday.  Nearly all of the basic G.I. Joe figures were gone from the pegs and, at $5 a pop, I didn't expect less.

I actually spent the most money at several Hallmark stores on the Sunday after Christmas.  I picked up the Han Solo and Landspeeder ornaments for half off.

The New Year

Before the stores closed for the final time in 2009, I stopped at the local Walmart and Target stores for one final look.  While Walmart is still mostly a wreck from the holiday and sales shopping, Target actually stocked new product in the form of the "Blockbuster Value!" packs which are two figures stuck together with a header card and sold for the price of one basic figure.

Target had at least 18 2-packs including figures from the ROTJ and ANH lines, including the re-pack figures like Jango and Anakin.  Target also had packs like that of Transformers and Saga Legends.  Not a bad deal if you can find them.  The clearance stickers also found their way to the remote controlled Republic Gunship and Jedi Starfighter flying ships and, at 30% (for now) off, they're a cracking deal.

With one final wave of Legacy Collection due this Spring, we're looking at a potential drought of action figures and, possibly, other Star Wars toys as we head into 2010.  With the sales out there now, it's a good time to stock up so get out, enjoy the sales and have a Happy New Year from all of us here at Imperial Holocron!