Into The Breach Once More On The Subject Of Walmart Exclusives

The latest round of Walmart exclusive Vintage Collection figures have been delivered, and the shape in which they have arrived has been nothing short of comical in some cases. I spent an obscene amount of money spamming my orders in hopes of acquiring a mint carded set of the Tartakovsky microseries figures. Despite this Rockefellerian outlay of funds, I find myself still hoping to acquire a better carded sample of the Battle Droid and ARC Trooper Captain (i.e. "not" Fordo). I, as much as anyone, have a right to complain about Walmart's troglodytic treatment of our precious cardboard and plastic bubbles, yet I say, “nay” to those who are calling for an end to Walmart exclusives. I thumb my nose and offer a hearty raspberry to them. I celebrate the fact that Walmart's deep pockets are funding additional product in the Vintage Collection. Their exclusives are great for the hobby and I only hope that they grow in the future. In this article, I hope to dismantle the prevalent arguments within the community, and show that there is only one true solution. Let's pick apart the most common missives:


Hasbro isn't "giving" anything to anyone. Walmart is buying a massive amount of these exclusives, which ensures their production. If you are against Hasbro selling more Vintage Collection, you are an enemy of the line and I hope you die of a miserable insect-borne illness. We should cheer every time that a deep-pocketed retailer says that they want to buy MORE Vintage Collection.

I seriously don't understand how the concept of "if these weren't exclusives, they wouldn't exist" is so hard for some collectors to wrap their minds around. I'm hoping maybe an analogy will break through for some of you holdouts.

Let's say you are an online retailer of the Vintage Collection. Hasbro solicits orders for the latest cases assortment. Based on your recent sales data, you are comfortable committing to 50 cases before you know what the actual sales will be. That is your risk tolerance. That's main line. Now let's say that a customer of yours, who has unimpeachable credit, says that they are going to order an additional 20 cases this time. There is NO risk to you increasing your order because this customer is virtually guaranteeing the purchase. That's exclusive. If your customer wasn't guaranteeing the purchase of those 20 cases, they wouldn't exist in your inventory. If Walmart wasn't guaranteeing the purchase of Hasbro’s exclusives, the items simply wouldn't exist.



This is as ridiculous as saying that McDonald's should have waiters. Being careful with packaging is as outside of Walmart's business model as providing good customer service is to your local cable company. I'm not saying it's right, but getting upset about it borders on "old man yelling at a cloud" territory. If you want a doctoral dissertation on the subject, please read Mr. Nomadscout's article HERE. In short, retailers don't care about the box. They care about the product in the box.

Let me be blunt. If you collect packaging over the product, you are flat out insane. I don't say this judgmentally because I am one of the biggest carded collectors around. I'm just self-aware. I buy figures by the case. But it's not up to the rest of the world to accommodate my insanity. It's up to me to shoehorn my insanity into an otherwise sane world. In other words, the burden of collecting mint packaging is on me.



As our joint exercise with our good friends from the Star Wars The Vintage Collection Facebook group has demonstrated, roughly half of the Vintage Collection collectors don't give a mother-loving flip about the packaging. They view the packaging as nothing more than a protective conveyance of the figure itself. Those collectors are probably better balanced than we carded collectors, but they are also soulless. I will take my tinge of psychopathy if with it comes a smidgeon of soul. Nevertheless, it would be morally wrong for me to suggest that the other half of the Vintage Collection collecting community should have to pay more to support my carded collecting mania.



From the perspective of this observer, none of the above solutions are even remotely viable. Walmart exclusives should continue, and they are a good thing. We should celebrate that fact that their disproportionally deep pockets can fund more product per year. We shouldn't expect Walmart to be any more careful shipping carded action figures than they are shipping Wrangler jeans (which are indecipherable, from their position). We shouldn't expect loose collectors to fund the obsessive demands of carded collectors.

NONE of this is to suggest that something can't be done in recognition of the fact that for a wide swath of collectors, the packaging is the product. This is why Bantha Skull will keep pushing for what we feel is the only viable solution. Hasbro should provide one of the following two options. One, after big box brick and mortar has had their run with their exclusives, those figures should be offered to Fan Channel. Please note, in no way would this guarantee an additional production run. Fan Channel might not be interested in buying additional Microseries Barriss Offee figures, as an example. The second option is for Hasbro to hold back a percentage of the initial production run to be made available on Hasbro Pulse (also after the brick and mortar run). All we carded collectors need is a back up option to the brutal shipping practices of these big box retailers.

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