No Home For The Vintage Collection In The Walmart Collector Display

I thought we'd give you a brief reprieve from the LAAT/i Gunship campaign today as it's likely to be the focus here tomorrow through the campaign's end on Monday, but if you'd like to back it, CLICK HERE. Instead, we'll talk about something that isn't really "new", but it's still worth discussing. A week or so ago, many Walmart stores started featuring a massive collector focused display. Fifty percent of it is dedicated to Hasbro product, and every Hasbro adult collector brand is represented...except for the Vintage Collection.

Now, you might be expecting this to be a rant. I've ranted on the subject in the past. Whenever I see TVC get shutout of these in-store events, I typically turn into an angry Pierce Hawthorne:


But that is not the intent of this article (even though collecting tantrums tend go gather some traction). The intent is to be positive for how to move forward. First let's set the scene:



As you can see, Marvel Legends, G.I. Joe Classified, Transformers Studio Series, and Star Wars Black Series are all represented. There is nothing for the Vintage Collection. But at least that can be found in the regular home, right? In theory, but not in practice:


There seems to be genuine interest on the part of Hasbro to grow the Vintage Collection. It makes sense. The Vintage Collection moves the big ticket items in ways that seem to be a struggle for the Black Series. This year, the Land Speeder ($60), the Bantha ($70), and Darth Vader's TIE Fighter ($140) all seem to have been successful products. These are high margin items because the cost of the tooling doesn't not scale with the increased MSRP. The MSRP of Vader's TIE is over eight times that of a standard figure, but the tooling costs are probably only twice as much.

I'm a firm believe that brick and mortar still plays a big role if we hope to grow TVC. That's why I was so adamant about getting Episode IV Luke into the line as I'm confident that figure would create some new TVC fans if they saw it in stores. Sadly that wave seemed to all but miss brick and mortar. I saw one case at Target and zero at Walmart. Fan evangelism can only do so much to grow a brand, and it often feels like preaching to the converted. Brick and mortar has the power to bring the uninitiated into the cathedral, especially in TVC's key demo.

Another of my mantras has long been, "blame Walmart for what's in Walmart stores". Walmart is probably rightfully leery of of TVC. Their website is still sitting on some of their last exclusives from three years ago. So I'm not blaming Hasbro for this, but if they truly want to grow the Vintage Collection, their sales force might need to get a little pushy to ensure that it doesn't get shut out of Walmart's next collector display. Furthermore, it should be something that only TVC can do. If there is to be a creature or small vehicle as part of next year's Battle of Geonosis theme, it would be the perfect item, along with basic figures, to really make some new TVC customers.

I hope you enjoyed your HasLab break, but also, you should:

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