Talk:Megatron (Movie)/toys

2010-12-06T07:36:44Z

4.254.80.136: /* No mention of Stealth Force Megatron? */ new section

== Gathering At Nemesis ==

I happened upon that one at TRU a few days ago. Is it just me or is the Megatron in there just a straight re-release of the Premium Megatron from the first film? --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 01:05, 8 October 2009 (EDT)
:I believe Premium Megatron had a more detailed paint job. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 02:41, 8 October 2009 (EDT)

== No mention of Stealth Force Megatron? ==

Here I was hoping to find a picture of the Stealth Force Megatron and make a crack in the caption of "This innocuous looking Cybertronian tank is revealed to be a ''Tank With Guns''." OK, lame joke, but I'm not the one who named the line "Stealth Force" and then included a Cybertronian vehicle. Sheesh!

Talk:Shelfwarmer

2010-12-06T07:03:31Z

4.254.80.136: /* The Retail Cross Reference Conundrum */ new section

Real Gears move O.K. in my neck of the woods.

Signal flare and Offshoot however, despite their awesomeness, lasted for years.[[User:Chiasaur11|Chiasaur11]] 03:30, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

:Yeah, I'm not sure the entire Real Gear line could be lumped in as "pegwarmers". I know there's some give and take depending on where you're located, but it's not like there's pegs and pegs of these things just sittin' around for months on end... -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 03:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
::...well, there are everyplace I've looked since July. I guess it is a regional difference, but if so it's a very stark and extreme one.--[[User:Thylacine 2000|Thylacine 2000]] 13:18, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
::I'd say Signal Flare and Offshoot should replace the Real Gears. The Real Gears are moving well, I haven't seen Meantime and the gorilla game controller since I picked up my own. Signal Flare and Offshoot were hanging around well into 2006. --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 04:11, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah the way things went over the summer, I don't think one can objectively call ''any'' of the movie toyline "shelfwarmers" in the truest sense. At least in the case of the actual transforming toys rather than all the tie-in merchandise, nearly every store has had trouble keeping them on the shelves.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]] 04:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Power-Up is the only RGR who I'd say would qualify as a shelfwarmer. Everyone eles moved and moved well... and I've hit a LOT of stores in a fair few states since the movei-line launch. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 13:26, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Swindle and Bonecrusher in Germany. Seriously. I know I might sound like a broken record, but these fuckers are STILL warming the pegs in half a dozen stores I visited over the past few weeks, and that's more than three months after the two of them first came out. One TRU store even still has TWO ENTIRE SHELVES full of them.--[[User:Nevermore|Nevermore]] 19:57, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Supreme Cheetor and Alternators Swindle should be added to this page, I think. Also, I don't know if it was only my area that was like this, but the stores in my area were LOADED with Drill Bit and Manterror for years, even after Beast Machines was on the shelves and even after Transquito and BW Scavenger finally vanished. Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart (ESPECIALLY K-Mart), even the GROCERY STORES had these guys flooding the shelves for years. They made it hard to get early Beast Machines toys until the stores finally decided to take them off the shelves. [[User:Fiction Alchemist|C.V. Reynolds]] 11:15, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

:Oh, excuse me. I should tried to make my comment actually make some... sense. Yes, Drill Bit and Manterror were on the shelves all through the remainder of Beast Wars, but they didn't cause as much trouble as I made out. Some of the stores were giving more space to Transformers at the time, after all. It did briefly seem like Drill Bit and Manterror were disappearing at one point, but they returned in full before Beast Machines. I believe that the stores may have wanted to take one more try to clear their inventory of an ending line, and put out their remaining shelfwarmers in hopes they might actually sell. Much like in the case of the Fuzors, clearance failed to work for these guys as well. Still don't know if any other places were flooded with Drill Bit or Manterror, though. [[User:71.243.235.10|71.243.235.10]] 11:32, 26 December 2007 (UTC) It logged me out while I was typing my message for some reason, so I'm re-signing. Sorry about that. [[User:Fiction Alchemist|C.V. Reynolds]] 11:33, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

As a random aside, and possibly an isolated case, but I remember as late as... I dunno, but the first waves of Toy Biz Marvel Heroes were out, there were still reasonable piles of Insecticons at some toy stores in the Atlanta area. (Specifically, at a Lionel Toy World near my childhood home - I found them while looking for the first Toy-Biz Daredevil, shoulda bought 'em). [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 02:45, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

This might be pointless to ask, but can we get some verification on the shelfwarmer/pegwarmer status of some of these toys, especially Transformers Movie Stockade? I can verify as a personal eyewitness that Movie version Payload is a pegwarmer (my local Wal-Mart store has about two or three pegs filled with nothing but Payload). However, I've only seen Stockade from time to time, so he seems to be quite popular in my area. - [[User:Zadok Rox|Zadok Rox]] 02:31, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

== Current (April 2009) shelfwarmers... ==

The TRU exclusive Mudflap should probably be mentioned, a shelfwarming redeco of a shelfwarmer. Whose bright idea was this?
Also, is it just my area that seems to have unlimited numbers of original deco Animated Lugnuts? [[User:Khajidha|Khajidha]] 21:35, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

It's July and ROTF is out (obviously). Try buying a Voyager Movie 2 anything that isn't fucking Demolishor. I checked pretty much every toyshop worth looking at in London, and only once managed to find Starscream (or indeed anything that wasn't Demolishor).

That's London as in the largest city in the UK. Yeah. {{unsigned|81.154.60.137|16:24, 15 July 2009}}
:Demolishor certainly seems to be around in greater numbers than most other Voyagers here in San Antonio, but I still see a fair number of Starscreams and Stratospheres, a few Megatrons, and sometimes some Optimus Primes. The Fallen and Mixmaster have also shown up, but haven't been refreshed on the shelves as often, at least at the Wal-Marts and Targets to which I've had time to go.
:The point is, while Demolishor may indeed turn out to be shelfwarmer, your local Voyager availability status alone isn't enough to judge. Your situation is regrettable, but not necessarily representative of the situation anywhere beyond London, or at least whatever falls within your definition of "toyshop[s] worth looking at in London".
:Oh—and please don't forget to sign your talk page posts. Click the signature button (second from the right) above the edit window, or type four tildes (<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>).--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 18:19, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

=== as for August 2009... ===

While the fifth wave of Animated STILL haven't reached Poland, there's LOTS AND PLENTY of Jazzes, Oil-Slicks (seriously, who would want this guy...?), Snarls (same here - but Swoops have vanished!) and Soundwaves lying around. Damn, they even started to cut these Deluxes' prices by half in some markets. ...but try buying first wave's Prowl for example. I went on a ''damn shopping crusade'' and in the end I settled for an online shop. And international shopping's is ''really'' expensive. At last I found my Prowl in an obscure toy shop, totally by chance, by the way. I bet it was the last copy around. ''And we're talking 'bout the capital here.'' Ah, the bitter joy of being TF fan while living on the Outer Rim of the galaxy.
-- [[User:Silver|Silvery]] 06:28, 29 August 2009 (EDT)

=== As of March 2010 ===
Big Bad Toy Store claims to be sold out of Battle Unicorns. I just looked. (Darn darn darn darn darn. I want that toy. I smell [[Scalping|scalpers]]). [[User:ZeldaTheSwordsman|ZeldaTheSwordsman]] 23:09, 15 March 2010 (EDT)

== Japanese movie toys ==

Am i the only one who noticed that they are publishing Japanese movie toys in retail now? I noticed it in Belgium, but i have no idea if the rest of Europe/America has the same trend. If so, could this be considered to be such shelfwarmers that they try to get rid of the Japanese toys in time for the ROTF toy line?(not that i'm complaining...clear windows '76 Bumblebee? battle damage Arcee? count me in!)--[[User:Sunjumper|Sunjumper]] 15:23, 25 April 2009 (EDT)

==Titanium Galvatron==
The major shelfwarmer ever? Titanium Galvatron, he has been laying around in my city for years, and only one store got rid of him, by selling himm at $2. In other stores (just one because the other having him closed and thay had like 10 of him) there are about 6 or 7 and there's so little chance of him selling out (has been there for 3 years), that I call the place Galvatron lair, and to make matters worse, they STILL have the T.E.C.H. line.[[User:ACIDSTORM92|ACIDSTORM92]] 20:16, 30 December 2009 (EST)
:Both Titanium Galvatron and the T.E.C.H line are still there, I guess that sets a new record.-[[User:ACIDSTORM92|ACIDSTORM92]] 03:38, 6 July 2010 (EDT)

== Mudflap ==

In Northern VA, Mudflap, along with the "Tuner" variant are major shelfwarmers. Is this true in any other places?--[[User:MistaTee|MistaTee]] 15:49, 27 May 2010 (EDT)

He does shelfwarm quite well in France - in my sector, anyway (along with Chromia, Skids and Wheelie...) --[[User:HunterCham|HunterCham]] 16:04, 27 May 2010 (EDT)
: All over the place here. Some stores, he's at least 90% of the peg contents. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 16:14, 27 May 2010 (EDT)
::Around here (NC foothills) both twins, in all size classes, are major shelfwarmers. When will movie makers learn that trying to force a "kid appeal" character never works? --[[User:Khajidha|Khajidha]] 11:45, 6 July 2010 (EDT)
:::He's all over the place here, too. TRU is sold out of all their new stock except for a few HFTD Legends and one PCC, but Tuner Mudflap still dominates. Here's a thread on seibertron.com about it: http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/tuner-mudflap-killed-wal-mart-s-transformer-section-p1101154.php--[[User:Kookaburra|Kookaburra]] 16:04, 21 July 2010 (EDT)
::::I haven't seen him. But then again, I live in Belgium and the local store is full of ROTF Demolishors anyway. --[[User:-Blackout-|-Blackout-]] 16:18, 21 July 2010 (EDT)
:::::You know what, Hasbro should never use the name Mudflap again, is cursed. I went to many stores in Texas, Alabama and Florida and every store had Mudflaps and Tuner Mudflaps, in some cases it was the entire Deluxe pricepoint.[[User:ACIDSTORM92|ACIDSTORM92]] 02:00, 29 July 2010 (EDT)
::::::It's not so much the name that's cursed, as much as it's Hasbro releasing what amounts to practically the same toy twice, within a very short timespan. I know they're going for "recognizability" here but ''GEEZ''. --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 02:05, 29 July 2010 (EDT)
:::::::Plus, it's a crappy toy. It makes the previous [[Mudflap (Cybertron)|Mudflap]] toy look great by comparison. --[[User:Khajidha|Khajidha]] 08:16, 29 July 2010 (EDT)
:I wouldn't say "crappy", but Hasbro could of done better. Btw, one of my local Walmart stores in the northern part of South Carolina had plenty of Tuner Mudflaps. Meanwhile, the one closest to me has Sideways and Dead End clogging up the pegs (maybe they should trade some?). - [[User:Zadok Rox|Zadok Rox]] 09:29, 29 July 2010 (EDT)

== Verbosing/De-verbosing ==

Hey, Loki? My cleanup actually made the page shorter (''not'' more verbose), and cut out a lot of redundant adjectives. I also shortened or split a bunch of run-on sentences. And, some of the original text simply makes no sense, like "As the fandom became more aware of the concept of shelfwarmers and as Hasbro changed its strategies in selling toys to retailers, documenting what is and isn't a shelfwarmer became more and more acute." How can ''documenting'' be made more "acute"? So, instead of a wholesale revert, could you tell me which specific bits of my edit you had problems with? 'Cause I still think the last part of this page needs serious cleanup. Thanks! [[User:JW|JW]] 15:10, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
:Looking at a lot of overuse of contractions, quotation marks, and useless parentheses makes it look much less formal like a 14-year-old wrote it. Besides, filesize is not inversely proportionate to the amount of useful information contained within the article; sure you could make it shorter ''and'' cut out verboseness, but it is possible to have more uneeded words with a shorter page by cutting out useful information in favor of the text in question. Special symbols like quotation marks and parentheses should be used sparingly, opt to learn how to use semicolons effectively and how to word sentences to stress certain words or phrases without quotation marks. As for "How can documenting be made more "acute"?", acute means sharp and so can mean clear like a clear command or sentence, resulting in the sentence meaning "Documenting can be made clearer by presenting more accurate information" without so many words by using the word "acute". Also, don't fuss about your edit being reverted. In this case, I reverted it so while you are making a better cleanup the rest of us don't have to read your not up to par changes in the meantime. Although there are [[User:Detour|some]] [[User:Eire|people]] who are very fussy about ''their pages'' being edited in a way they don't necessarily like, I don't revert edits for reasons like that. --[[User:LokitheGrammarNazi|LokitheGrammarNazi]] 15:29, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
::Loki, I'm the author or co-author of a dozen or so books (available through Amazon; tell your friends!), so I do know my way around grammar. And I'm not making a fuss, I'm beginning a discussion. Third, while "acute" does indeed mean "sharp", "severe", "penetrating", "brief", or "sensitive", it does not mean "clear" or "easy" in normal usage. If you can point to an example elsewhere where it's used that way, I'd be enlightened.
::Regardless, thank you for your reply. If I feel a need to edit this page again, I'll start with a strict trim for length, so we can take things one step at a time. [[User:JW|JW]] 15:44, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
:::If I should cite where acute can mean clear, then you should cite what books you authored because all I have to go on about your knowledge of grammar is that you play with legos, not that making lego creations at your high caliber is a bad thing but it does make me think that grammar is the least of your worries. At least you can spell the word "grammar" as I see not a whole lot of people can around here. Immediately demanding as to why I edited your edits a minute after I made them does seem like you were making a fuss over it, but at least I am not the type to start a mediocre playground argument. Hell, writing an argument that is boiled down to "I did this wonderful thing that automatically makes me smart" sounds like you made it up just to try to impress me, however shamelessly and soullessly advertizing it in the same sentence also makes me give you the benefit of the doubt. But do not worry, another user has already put your edit back on top, not that I agree with his edits either. I am not re-reverting that edit because I do not want to look like those who just revert every single revertation without a written reason like [[User:Khajidha|that person]] to any of the moderators. --[[User:LokitheGrammarNazi|LokitheGrammarNazi]] 16:00, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
::::I reverted it because JW had clarified several sentences and reduced the verbosity of the paragraph. Also, I question the validity of the grammatical opinions of a person who uses verbose as a verb (I'm giving JW the benefit of the doubt that his section header is simply playing off of your usage). Not to mention that there is no such word as "revertation", it's reversion. --[[User:Khajidha|Khajidha]] 16:08, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
:::::Playing? Moi? Thanks for the positive vote, Khajidha. I was worried I'd lost my touch. [[User:JW|JW]] 16:27, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
::::::[[Furmanism|Just what are you playing at]], JW? Sorry, had to do it :) --[[User:MistaTee|MistaTee]] 16:43, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
:::::::Hey, my Furmanism days are ''over, '''fin-''''' uh, completed. Um. [[User:JW|JW]] 16:46, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
::::::I did change a few things that I felt were still unclear or clunky. I also removed pipes from links that didn't need them ([[retool]]s instead of [[Retool|retools]]).--[[User:Khajidha|Khajidha]] 16:45, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
::::''then you should cite what books you authored''
::::The first link on my user page is to a bibliography. My real name is also there, and can be used to search on Amazon. Loki, may I ask a personal question? Your writing is very precise and usually correct, but kinda stilted. Is English not your first langauge? For example, "Hell, writing an argument that is boiled down to..." is arguably okay, but would much more often be written as, "Hell, writing an argument that boils down to..." or even, "Hell, you wrote an argument that boils down to..." Further, you used "advertizing", which is a very rare spelling of the word, and you didn't capitalize "Lego". So, I ask, because you intend to be this Wiki's "Grammar Nazi", and I'm curious about your bona fides. Please let me know if I offend.
::::(Also, dude, this is a website about robot toys. Getting condescending because I also "play with legos" {sic} is ''inane.'') [[User:JW|JW]] 16:23, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
:::::It's best not to take someone's user name too seriously. I personally couldn't think of anything better as my real name isn't too good and flashy of a screen name. Sure, I may have made a few mistakes here and there but everyone does. English most definitely is my first language, but I have read many a book by some authors who don't have a very good grasp on it plus a few southern local trends do play a subtle part in my method of speech. Usually I do not police my writing on the internet with as much scrutiny as demonstrated in places like in my personal writing or even writing for an academic assignment where editing myself up to par with my own standards requires contant editing in bursts, as you can probably see in my user contributions. Sometimes my train of thought exceeds the speed that I can type at and some words get lost in the [[void]] and don't get typed down and so look horrible. Besides, most of the edits that live up to my screen name are for punctuation like too many commas or misuse of colons and semicolons, though I do rarely alter the structure of a sentence so it sounds ''right'', whatever that may mean to any one person. Overall, you seem more like the kind of person I could get along with... grammatically, of course. --[[User:LokitheGrammarNazi|LokitheGrammarNazi]] 17:15, 27 September 2010 (EDT)
::::::Lord knows I can be obsessive about commas, too. [[User:JW|JW]] 18:52, 27 September 2010 (EDT)

== Animated shelfwarmers ==

[[Snarl (Animated)|Snarl]] and [[Oil Slick (Animated)|Oil Slick]], anyone? All of the Toys R Us locations I've been to recently (in Canada and the USA) are packed with these guys. While Walmart and Target have gotten rid of Animated products to make room for 2010 and Generations, Toys R Us has the new lines while leaving Snarl and Oil Slick to lie around. Plus, someone above me mentioned them. There were also 11 (I counted) Atomic Lugnuts, but I don't think he's shelfwarming nearly as bad as the other two. Do they deserve a mention in the article? --[[User:NCZ|NCZ]] 15:36, 13 October 2010 (EDT)
:Around here Snarl is clogging shelves but Oil Slick sells about as well as any other animated figure. The squadrons of Lugnuts (both decos) eventually disappeared after several months. Animated Ratchet is possibly the biggest shelfwarmer at my local TRU. Arcee, Rodimus, even Ironhide disappear instantly, this guy stays and stays. --[[User:Khajidha|Khajidha]] 17:04, 13 October 2010 (EDT)
::At my TRU it's the same, with a lone Electrostatic Soundwave as the only non-Cybertronian Ratchet hold out.--[[User:Kookaburra|Kookaburra]] 21:16, 14 October 2010 (EDT)
:::Animated is pretty much all sold out where I am. Even the single, solitary Lugnut that had been hanging around for months is gone. --[[User:-Blackout-|-Blackout-]] 02:12, 15 October 2010 (EDT)

== The Retail Cross Reference Conundrum ==

Something I'm not immediately seeing described in brief Google searches or here in this wiki is what I've taken to calling the "Cross Reference Conundrum" and that's when retail cross references (the store's computer system treating different toys of the same class and price as if they were the same item for stocking purposes) forces the unpopular toys to stick around taking up space and filling the store's count and end up blocking the popular ones from either shipping or, in the case of less-than-mindful employees, being stocked despite boxes sitting in the backroom. I work at a retail store that sells Transformers and since a single space can be dedicated to a great many toys from the same size class/price point, the store's quota is filled because it has all it "needs", even if the majority (or heck, even every last one) is some lousy repaint nobody wants to buy. Sure enough, when the space finally does sell down at whatever pathetic pace and the popular ones are restocked, they sell out in no time. I've seen some popular Voyager Class toys sell in mere hours after they were stocked into space previously occupied by other Voyagers that took a few weeks to sell. I swear, the existence of cross references and its unintended survival-of-the-least-popular side effect likely reduces some sales to a fraction of what they would be, and I'm amazed retailers and toy manufacturers like Hasbro tolerate this. (Or am I mistaken and do sales, whether fast or slow always somehow equalize in the end?)

Anyone else note this phenomenon in the world of transformers, or even toys in general? I'm not certain what search terms would bring up discussions about it, but I've even had employees at other, unrelated stores tell me "If we get it, it will appear here, but until these sell down we won't be receiving anymore." or words to that effect. Any on-line references could justify a mention in this article, but without such refs, I'd just be ranting with such an inclusion.

Thanks,

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Talk:Megatron (Movie)/toys

Talk:Shelfwarmer