Shortpacking

A toy is said to be shortpacked when it is shipped in lower numbers than the rest of its release wave. Typically, this term is used for toys which ship at one per carton, although there are many lines like Alternators where most if not all of the toys ship at one per carton due to the assortment containing only four toys and retailers demand a variety of toys in those assortments, thus the four toys at one per case.

Generally, shortpacking is most notably a problem when an item first hits. Continued shipments and later assortments are often intended to make up the demand.

A toy that is shortpacked may be harder to find than other toys from the same assortment, since there are fewer of it produced. This rarity may make it attractive to scalpers, although if this happens during a period of heavy distribution, like a movie launch, few will notice any one character being shortpacked. Case in point, the initial shipments of Dark of the Moon Deluxe MechTech Figures Wave 1 had 3 Bumblebees, while having 1 each of the remaining 5 figures. Not all shortpacked figures are hard-to-find, particularly internationally-- outside the US, particularly in the UK and Europe, reports frequently indicate that those figures seem to be selling more poorly due to kids preferring other, more popular characters which sell better in those markets.

Sometimes, toys which are shortpacked in one wave are released in greater numbers in a later wave. Other times, a wave may ship with an alternate version of that same wave at the same time, creating assortments which are intended to compliment one-another by having a particular character at 2 in one version of the case while he's 1 per case in the other. The revision case switches this number, which theoretically (and frequently actually does) result in the ratio of product meeting the market's needs. (Sometimes, it doesn't quite work out, and as always availability may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood due to the local shoppers' needs.)

While inspiring similar feelings for many fans, shortpacking should not be confused with chase figures which are often exclusively at collectors and generally are intentionally much rarer. (A shortpacked toy may be 2 per case, while a chase figure may appear as seldom as 1 per every 2 cases.) Chase figures as collectibles do not generally exist in the Transformers line-- to date Hasbro has not mass-produced variants or collector-specific products in Transformers specifically designed with creating additional collector value, although this has been seen in other lines like Galoob's UltraForce, Mattel's take on Toy Story 2, Hot Wheels, and a few lower-run variants in Hasbro's own G.I. Joe and Marvel Universe assortments.

Examples

• Generation 1 Skids shipped one figure per every two cases.
• Robots in Disguise Side Burn and Prowl each got 3 figures per case, but X-Brawn had only two.
• Universe Acid Storm shipped 1 per case of 8 in Wave 2, while the other new toy in the assortment, Galvatron, was shipped 2 per. In the Wave 3 case assortment, this dynamic was reversed.
• DOTM Human Alliance Skids was shipped 1 per case of 4 in Wave 1, with Bumblebee filling out the remaining 3 figures. At the very same time, however, a case shipped with 2 of each of the 2 characters.