Another Vintage Collection Target Nightmare For Yours Truly

Target is in the midst of their slow rollout of a trio of exclusive repaints of the VC186 - Boba Fett figure. The first was the Kenner colors VC275 - Boba Fett. That was followed by a pair of comic inspired releases. The are the Vintage Comic Art and the Comic Art versions, which represent Fett from the original Marvel era and the Dark Horse era respectively. Of the three, the Vintage Comic Art version was the one to which I was most looking forward. Naturally, it's the one Target is making impossible for me to acquire.

The first problem is that while my brick and mortar stores all appeared to receive a case of them, the UPC was not in the system. Depending on a combination of the competency of the Target cashier and the morals of customer, the figures may or may not have been rung up under the correct DPCI. If they were not, it breaks the inventory system. This seems to be the much more prevalent case. All of my stores show inventory on Pop Findr, but none of them actually have the product. When asking an associate, the answer is always the same. Their PDA's show none in the back, but several on the floor. In reality, however, the designated pegs are empty (as is every other possible home). My best hunch tells me that customers scanned a regular Vintage Collection figure at the self check out as a substitute for the Fett that failed to scan, or the cashier rang the item up as "general merchandise". In either case, the inventory does not decrement.

Stores have no actually inventory, but the inventory systems shows plenty on hand. This means there is zero chance that items will be replenished. Worse for us, it's going to look like the figures are selling poorly to Target analysts. It could negatively impact Target's Vintage Collection purchasing in the future. My chances of finding the Vintage Comic Art Boba Fett at my local brick and mortar stores is effectively zero, but I can fall back on my online preorder, right? NOPE! You see, over the course of the nine year preorder window, my Target Red Card expired. I received a new one. Shortly thereafter I got an email saying I needed to update my payment method for the Fett, which I immediately did. Then I got a second email once again urging me to update my payment method. I tried to update a second time, but the information was already up to date from my previous attempt.

When I got the third email, I began to feel like the guy in Robocop when the ED-209 told him to put down his weapon. I was screaming at my computer like the kids in Super Troopers:


Then this past Saturday, I got the email that my items have been canceled, and I channeled Chief Inspector Dreyfus:


Once again, this issue is never going to be solved at the big box retailer level. Hasbro, please make Target and Walmart exclusives consistently available to Fan Channel after big box's exclusivity window.

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