BradMan

Up in Michigan visiting family... after striking out 3 times the last Walgreens I hit finally delivered! No sign of Dani Moonstar but I finally snagged Emma Frost after missing it on the website.

Not a new figure... but I was super excited to pick up an Epic Heroes Doctor Doom today for $15 through Facebook Marketplace. I’ll still get the new one coming out in the next year, but I like this one as a “classic” version to go along with the more “classic” FF.

No actual figure goodness, but I did see the plan-o-gram for a Marvel endcap at Walgreens. There is a peg designated for Dani Moonstar and a peg for Emma Frost... hopefully I can find them soon.

I picked up the Cowboy Logan figure at Game Stop in Southern Indiana (Kentuckiana). I had a $10 coupon that I got from Think Geek with the explanation that Think Geek’s own reward points were going away and they were now redeemable as Game Stop rewards. I’ve had everything pre-ordered from other online retailers this summer, so I haven’t been out hunting for stuff other than Walmart exclusives. But, the coupon was expiring tomorrow so I figured I’d go see if there was anything worthwhile. The Marvel Legends figures were all $22.99, so I ended up with it for $12.99. That’s cheaper than the $19.99 I would have paid through Hasbro Pulse, so all in all it worked out.

Hulk sold out as I was checking out... worthless.

I got my Collector and Grandmaster but lost the Hulk in the time it took me to checkout.

I ponied up and got the Hasbro Pulse Premium membership... and yesterday Hasbro sent out an e-mail that the SDCC Marvel Legends figures were going to be available starting at 12:00 noon on August 29. Have other exclusives already gone live for Hasbro Pulse? Were they on time? I don't want to plan for an F5 party at 12:00 and then find out they actually went live at 10:00 AM or something...

I found the full case of Uncanny X-Men Retro at Meijer in Jeffersonville, IN (Kentuckiana - just across the river from Louisville, KY). I already have the whole set so I left them for someone else. That makes a sighting at both of the Meijers in my area in the last week... so if you have a Meijer and haven't checked it might be worth a trip!

I think it would be great to get Shaman on a single card and then an online 3-pack for Northstar, Aurora, and Puck. Even if Puck was a repack of the BAF with a new head that would be better than trying to get the BAF now.

I got both 80th Iron Man and Thor from Amazon delivered on Thursday. I pre-ordered them on July 29.

I ended up at two Meijer stores in Southern Indiana (Kentuckiana - right across the river from Louisville, KY). The Meijer in New Albany had just put out a full case of Retro X-Men (all 6) and a full case of X-Force. The other Meijer in Jeffersonville had nothing newer than Endgame Wave 1.

My pre-order of 80th Iron Man and Thor shipped from Amazon today.

I was just at one of the Targets in my area... Clarksville, Indiana (Kentuckiana). They had no 80th singles or sets, but they had put out about 10 of the Spider-Man and MJ two-packs from "Homecoming". So, if you haven't seen them yet they appear to be restocking.

Ok... story time. This is is the utterly ridiculous, unbelievably frustrating, but overall happy ending true story of what it took to get my 80th Anniversary Captain America. So I’ve been watching on Brickseek and the Walmart website for any movement of Cap to “in stock” and available for ship or in store pickup status. On Tuesday I see that my closest Walmart is listing the figure as “in stock” and available for in store purchase with 5 quantity in stock. I rush to Walmart on my way home from work and arrive to the same worthless toy aisle full of Wasps, Gwenpools, and Captain Marvels. I see a few remnants of the Caliban wave that weren’t there the last time I was in, so it’s clear that they do, in fact, stock new figures at some point. I see stock carts and boxes in other departments around toys and find an employee. I ask him if he can help me find an item that their website says is in stock in the store, and when I tell him that there are none in the toy aisle he says it must be in the clearance aisle. I tell him that it’s a brand new product and there’s no way it’s on clearance, so he pulls out his iPhone/scanner combo and looks up the item with the UPC I provide. He he tells me that it’s in the stock room but not on the floor, so that’s why the system shows it in stock. This employee works in lawn and garden and is the only one there for his department, so he can’t go back and check. I tell him I understand, and he says that the toy department is coming in from midnight to 7 AM to do a reset of the department for Christmas. Wednesday morning I get up and move through my morning routine so that I’m ready to leave the house at 7:00 AM with enough time to hit Walmart and then go to work. I get to Walmart at 7:20 and the toy aisle is the same worthless stock. Disappointed but not surprised, I go to work. Around 11:00 I take advantage of a need to run out for an errand to pick up something for one of my employees, and head back to Walmart. The toy aisle hasn’t changed, but I see an employee with a stock cart and some toys a few aisles over. I explain things to him, and he agrees to go check the stock room. The employee comes back a few minutes later and tells me that the toy shipment is between a whole bunch of pallets that are still shrink wrapped and double stacked and that there’s no way for him to find it. I work in a warehouse, so I know what new product pallets are like when they come off the truck. I thank him for checking, and resolve myself to trying to acquire the figure through 3rd party means. I haven’t seen a Walmart exclusive Marvel Legend in the store since Falcon and Winter Soldier from “Civil War”. I have no faith in my local store to ever have the figure available, so when another board member puts it out there that his area has extra Caps I sent a message that I was interested. Messages back and forth during the day result in no extra Caps for me (Thanks again for trying!). So, I resign myself to a long hunt ahead of me. I keep checking the Walmart website and it still shows 5 in stock which means that it hasn’t hit the floor to be consumed by scalpers. This evening I’m at home with my son just checking things on my iPad while he watches a movie on Netflix. I refresh the Walmart page, and the in stock quantity has changed to 4. My wife is away until tomorrow morning on a staff retreat. I have a two year old who I can smell needs a diaper change contently watching a movie on Netflix. I need a plan. I open the Netflix app and look for the “Next Avengers” animated movie that my son is watching. It’s available to download and watch offline. I start downloading the movie and getting my shoes and keys together. Once it’s downloaded I queue it up to where he’s at on the TV and make the switch to hand him the iPad. i let him keep watching the movie on the iPad as I change his diaper and I tell him that it’s time to go on an adventure with daddy. I refresh the Walmart page on my phone and the in stock quantity has dropped to 2. I get my son strapped in to his car seat and give him the iPad and I race to Walmart. I get stuck at a red light and refresh the page on my phone again. 1 left in stock. I make it Walmart, transfer my son and the iPad to a cart, and power walk inside. I bob and weave around the people of Walmart and make it to the toy aisle. Four trips to the same Walmart in as many days, and I finally have it. Hasbro, if you’re reading... please stop giving exclusives to Walmart. Collectors will buy your product without the need to create artificial scarcity. I know you’re not trying to make these figures so difficult to acquire, but Walmart doesn’t understand distribution. They have a store in every town in America but don’t know how to turn this physical network in to a virtual one. Amazon, Entertainment Earth, Big Bad Toy Store, Game Stop, Target, Best Buy, and many others sell plenty of Marvel Legends that can support exclusives. I wish this were the end... but we all know there will be another Walmart exclusive 6 months from now.

Not to be a nay-sayer or invite any doom and gloom, but Marvel Legends did crash and burn at the end of the ToyBiz run. Impossible to find variants, store exclusive waves, rising costs, and other frustrations plagued the last releases. I never really got in to the ToyBiz Marvel Legends, and was drawn in to the 3 3/4" Marvel Universe line. I started picking up the MCU Legends figures in 6" scale in parallel to the 3 3/4" releases, and then started really picking up whole waves when the line re-branded as Marvel Legends Infinite with the King Thor / Odin wave. Since the "current" line has been running I think that Hasbro is achieving a close to perfect balance of collector quality and kid-accessible (not kid-friendly since that leads to the pandering of spring-fired missiles and all that nonsense) appeal. With the exception of Walmart exclusives (I know they're part of the strategy to get more figures to market, but there's a reason Walmart will never beat Amazon in the distribution game) the retailer incentives add further depth to the line beyond the waves that big boxes stock. As long as Hasbro doesn't backslide the way they have with the 5 POA Star Wars figures, kill the line the way they did with G.I. Joe, or reach ToyBiz's levels of impossible to find figures then they are doing everything right as far as I can see. Funko POPs are the only other thing on the market right now that I think has a comparable level of interest from both collectors and kids. I'm just guessing on that, really, since I don't understand them or their appeal really. But, from what I see at various comic shops, other kitschy retailers, and big box stores there seems to be a huge following for them.