Vintage Collection Gets Shutout Of Another Retail Event

I did not intend to write this article today, and I hope you realize the lead-in was a little jokey (I'm increasingly having to point out these things). Of course I don't really feel bad about myself for what I'm about to describe. It merely elicited a mild eye roll, and nasal exhale. Truth be told, I actually almost never feel bad about myself, but I should. I'm fat, balding, and prematurely gray. I'm probably going to become an issue at Hooters after 9PM:


We are currently in the midst of a spring "winter" storm that's supposed to last into Friday (I'm probably without power as you're reading this). That meant that yesterday I couldn't fight my chimp-brain instinct, and I headed to Walmart for eggs and bacon ahead of the precipitation. Like all of you, every trip to Walmart starts in the toy section. I've been hoping for a surprise straggler case of the Hera wave, but alas nothing has shipped since the ancient Fennec Shand wave showed up just after the holidays. As I was heading to the food section, I spotted the back of a Star Wars shipper, and quickened my pace a little. Here is what I saw:




As you can see, pretty much all of Hasbro's current Star Wars product is represented except for The Vintage Collection (and Retro). I know a lot of the TBS product is old, but they had the Mines of Mandalore Mandalorian which I think is new. As for the rest of the mix, I can't explain it, but that's not the point of this article, which is that nothing reminds you that you are the red headed stepchild of the product line than getting shutout of brick and mortar events like these. I was instantly reminded of the Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary shippers. Than one truly stung. In this case, it's more of an annoyance, but it is like a party where all your friends are invited, and you're not. I feel a little bit like Pierce Hawthorne when the study group didn't invite him to the Dungeons and Dragons game for Fat Neil:


I seems like the Mandalorian wave could have easily been bumped up a little for this shipper. Or if the dated TBS product indicates this was an old shipper that was lost in the back, it could have included the Hera wave. The important point is that it has no allocation for TVC. It's at this point, that I need to remind you that Hasbro doesn't decide what product goes inside Walmart stores. Walmart does. I had a feeling that Walmart's constant fumbling of their TVC exclusives were going to blow back onto the product line itself. In other words, whoever analyzed the poor in-store sales of those exclusives wouldn't account for the fact that they never made into the stores despite having an exclusive window on the hottest single Vintage Collection figure to date (VC231). This may mean those fears were founded.

Update: The TVC Stormtrooper was the single best selling figure yesterday on our Entertainment Earth affiliate account.

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