Breaking Down What Went Wrong With Yesterday’s Walmart Pre-Order

As you may have gleaned from the articles by both Mr. Nomadscout and myself, we tend to get a little irritated when collectors become entitled. In general, the only right we have is to decide whether or not to spend our money with Hasbro. That's it. We don't get to demand how they run their business. They don't owe us anything. Having said that, what transpired yesterday morning when the Walmart exclusive "Clone Wars 2D Micro-Series" TVC figures were supposed to go up for sale was simply not acceptable. It is not unreasonable for fans to expect the e-commerce portal of one of the world's largest companies to function better than some Eastern bloc government's ox registration website. Obviously, no sane person would blame Hasbro for yesterday's issues, but they may be able to help improve the process going forward.

Before moving on we have to restate our position on Walmart exclusives - and retailer exclusives in general.

In absolutely no way are we calling for an end to any retailer exclusives. They are critical in supporting more annual product. If retailer exclusives went away, that product goes away. They don't get released in main line instead. The choice isn't between a Walmart ARC Trooper and a main line ARC Trooper. It's between a Walmart ARC Trooper and no ARC Trooper. If retailer exclusives went away, it would be disastrous for The Vintage Collection.

What we need to do is to keep providing constructive and reasonably actionable feedback to keep improving this process.

Additionally, we have to mention that the second pre-order window later in the afternoon helped sooth a lot, if not all, of the angst that was felt after the first allotment sold out before many fans could even find the product on Walmart's website. Kudos to all involved for the quick resolution of the major issue, but it was still unnecessarily stressful for fans. Hobbies are supposed to be fun. Yesterday was not fun at all.

So let's get back to what went wrong yesterday on Walmart-dot-com. Fortunately, it can be grouped into three buckets, two of which should have actionable resolutions by Hasbro, even though this particular case is not their sin.


This was one of the most bizarre reveals in recent memory. A seemingly random article showed up on the Official Site with little fanfare. Absolutely nowhere in that article does it explicitly say that the six newly revealed figures were going up for pre-sale yesterday. This is what it says:

Look for these figures to arrive spring 2022 exclusively at Walmart, and get a sneak peek at the Vintage Collection additions below! (Plus, remember to check out Walmart Collector Con on Thursday, July 22, for even more Star Wars reveals.)

Some collectors assumed this meant that the revealed figures would be up for presale at the launch of the Collector Con portal. Others read that to mean that the six TVC figures would be available later, and something else would be revealed on Thursday. I can personally attest that the meaning of that phrase was being debated all day on Wednesday. It was woefully ambiguous phrasing, but clear communication was necessary.


Hasbro, please get the specifics in the hands of fan sites in advance. We did not get official communication on these items until nearly two hours after the Collector Con site launched. This was after the initial pre-sale sold through. Furthermore, nowhere in that official "one-sheet" does it mention when the figures were going up for pre-order, just that it would be on Walmart's website.

Please give fans clear notification of the time of pre-order events in advance.


Each of the six Vintage Collection figures went live in succession. The ARC Trooper Commander was the only figure available when the Collector Con website went live. Every few minutes or so another figure went live one at a time until the process concluded with Barriss Offee approximately forty minutes later. This meant fans who only wanted a modest amount of each figure could not take advantage of the free shipping. They placed the ARC Trooper Commander in their cart waiting for other figures to become available to reach the free shipping threshold. To their horror, the figures were selling out before that happened.

This also ties into the issues of poor communication. Because there was no official announcement anywhere that stated all six figures were going up for pre-sale yesterday, some fans initially speculated that only the ARC Trooper Commander was being made available on day one. The whole process was massively confusing.

Lastly, not a lot people have a flexible enough schedule to spend forty minutes placing orders.


Hasbro, we know you can't control this directly, but please ask your retail partners to ensure that all the product launches together.


This is the big one, and the one that is absolutely unforgivable on Walmart's part. This is Online Sales 101. The Collector Con page did not list the products when they first went live. They did not show up on Walmart's Star Wars page. They were not appearing in the search results. Some people, via some sort of black magic, were able to get access to the product links before they appeared on the Collector Con page. Both the ARC Trooper (Blue) and Aayla Secura initially sold out before appearing on the Collector Con page. If it weren't for some kind folks messaging me those direct product links, I would not have been able to pre-order them during the first window. My stomach sank because I knew a great many of my fellow collectors were not so lucky. I wouldn't wish that disappointment on anyone.

WHAT IS THE [EXPLETIVE] POINT OF THE "EVENT PORTAL" IF IT DOES NOT AGGREGATE THE PRODUCTS THAT ARE PART OF THE EVENT?!?

You had one job, Walmart.


That one is pretty self explanatory. If we had access to those links we could have had a timed post with direct links to the product for our readers to greatly eliminate much of the stress. This mitigates all of the issues with the retailer's event portal, product aggregation, and search indexing.

Hasbro, if anything, please, please, please make this one happen for next time.

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