A Curious Allocation Post Reset

My Toys R Us completed their reset of the boys action aisles.  This involved completely moving the Star Wars section back one aisle.  In other words this wasn’t a simple reshuffling of the pegs.  All the items were removed from the old aisle and restocked in the new aisle. I find it curious that the Vintage Collection still has dedicated pegs after the reset.

I spoke with someone who has some retail experience and he said that with the resets, Toys R Us can keep discretionary peg space allocated for left over items.  If this was a simple case of “floating” pegs for a few Vintage Collection stragglers, why are their two pegs allocated for three figures when one would have been more than enough?

It sure seems like the Vintage Collection is being kept on life support for some reason.  Toys R Us still has dedicated and distinct peg space.  Target did not retire the Vintage Collection 1351 DPCI and is using it for the Black Series.  And this recent report form Jedi Temple Archives shows that K-Mart views the Vintage Collection and the Black Series as one in the same.

This begs the question, where is all that back stock of Vintage Collection cases that we’ve heard was sitting in Hasbro’s warehouse?  Everyone predicted that it would start showing up at discount retailers, but aside from the occasional Five Below (or similar) report, there has been nary a sighting.  If the production levels of the Black Series are as low as Hasbro has indicated, could this be a way to satisfy the holiday demand for product?  Could that famed back stock make one more appearance this Christmas?  Or is this an indication of something bigger?  Or perhaps it’s just a case of stores refusing to place yet another Hasbro offering on clearance?

Whatever the case, it feels like this is a situation worth monitoring.