Tail-ender
A tail-ender is a toy that is released near the end of a toy line, shortly before a new line is starting (oftentimes even after a new line has already started). It can be the last new figure (or part of the last wave of new figures) of its assortment; it may even be the last figure branded as part of that particular line in general. Typically, the term only refers to figures released as general retail assortments; store exclusives are usually exempt. Exceptions are when it's an ongoing store exclusive sub-line or assortment.
Very often, tail-enders are the victim of poor distribution, end up being very hard to find and catching exorbitant prices on the aftermarket even when they're (at least in theory) still supposed to be distributed, thanks to scalpers. In some instances, leftover stock of the figure(s) in question eventually ends up being made available through other venues, often via closeout stores such as TJ Maxx, Ross or Marshalls, resulting in a situation where you can either find these figure(s) for low prices or have to pay through the nose on eBay. In some very rare cases, tail-enders end up never seeing an official release at all, usually when the figures haven't entered mass production yet by the time word has gotten out that the assortment is being discontinued.
In some very rare cases, figures that are tail-enders in the United States end up being widely available at retail in Europe, making up for all the times when European retailers never stocked anything beyond the first or second wave of a line.
Toys
Hasbro
- The final wave of the Mini-Con Class assortment, pairing members of the Deep Space Mini-Con Team against the Street Action Mini-Con Team (Scrap Iron vs. Grindor, Blastcharge vs. High Wire and Backblast vs. Sureshock), was very hard to find.
- The final wave of the Real Gear Robots, consisting of Farsight T-20, Midnighter XR-4 and Twitcher F451 was '#extremely hard to find.
- The final wave of the Target exclusive Scout Class assortment, consisting of Backtrack, Decepticon Reverb and Gunbarrel, was presumably never released at all, although unconfirmed sources (which are directly refuted by other sources) claimed that these figures were released in Mexico. Either way, all three figures were later available in the aftermarket in large quantities unusual for "unreleased" toys, and all of them included additional instruction sheets in Spanish.
- Unusually, the last-but-second wave of Voyager Class figures, containing Inferno and Vector Prime. Inferno shipped again in the subsequent (final) wave, whereas Vector Prime only showed up in somewhat larger quantities many, many months after his initial retail sighting.
- The final wave of Robot Heroes two-packs, consisting of Robots in Disguise Super Optimus Prime & Megatron, Generation 1 Prowl & Laserbeak, Beast Machines Optimus Primal & Jetstorm and Victory Victory Saber & Dessaras, remains officially unreleased.
