166 replies to this topic

[Tortle]

They probably don't sell any more because they like to focus on the negatives and not the positives, so Bandai is sitting on boxes upon boxes of these things having a little pitty party. Meanwhile, I see more and more Power Rangers merch piling up over the millions of undeserved pegs. Sorry... they don't sell a LICK over here!

Power Ranger toys sell extremely well. It's consistently at the top of the "Most Popular Toys" list (I believe I saw it in Toy Fair, but I could be wrong). So, of course, retailers buy a big ol' buttload of Power Rangers and devote massive amounts of shelf space to them. They appear to "sit on the shelves", but they're not. Kids scarf them up, and the retailers replenish the stock quickly.

At first, it seems like Ultimate Muscle sold pretty well. But keep in mind that retailers ordered the line in very limited quantities. Sure, many of the stores eventually sold out, but it definitely took a while. I've heard people say that UM "flew off the shelves after a few months", but think about that statement: it took the retailers that long to sell only a case or so of UM toys. And many retailers still have them!

Truthfully, I think the line has been cancelled. I hope I'm wrong because I love the figures. But regardless of what we, the collecting minority, want, the retailers know exactly what they're doing: they're making money by selling toys that move off the shelves. That may or may not include UM... I guess we'll find out eventually...

-Nathan

[Rokk]

I agree with Nathan about Power Rangers. They sell like hotcakes in my area. No doubt it is one of the best selling toylines. I'll admit, the new 2 foot tall "Shogun Warrior" type figures are very temtpting.

Anyway, I would be quite upset if the Ultimate Muscle toyline has been cancelled. I think it is more of a case that Bandai has botched handling this entire toyline from the start. I don't think they expected the Ultimate Muscle anime to be a hit show on the Fox Box. Creating a second season of Ultimate Muscle for America is actually rather impressive. I think that it is possible that Bandai is going to hold back some of the release dates to match up to the season premiere of the 2nd season of Ultimate Muscle. Of course, I could be wrong.

[Drtooth]

I agree with Nathan about Power Rangers. They sell like hotcakes in my area. No doubt it is one of the best selling toylines. I'll admit, the new 2 foot tall "Shogun Warrior" type figures are very temtpting.

Anyway, I would be quite upset if the Ultimate Muscle toyline has been cancelled. I think it is more of a case that Bandai has botched handling this entire toyline from the start. I don't think they expected the Ultimate Muscle anime to be a hit show on the Fox Box. Creating a second season of Ultimate Muscle for America is actually rather impressive. I think that it is possible that Bandai is going to hold back some of the release dates to match up to the season premiere of the 2nd season of Ultimate Muscle. Of course, I could be wrong.

Around here, they just don't sell. Seriously. They have huge bits of dust. KB Toys are STILL trying to get rid of toys from the last 2 Power Ranger revamps. Friggin' booger eatin' kids.

So the retailers and Bandai had no expectations with this line, ordered small quantities, hid them in the back of the store, and wonder why they didn't sell. And cancelling orders after the first wave is pretty much the DUMBESt rashest decision ANYONE can make. Bandai will wind up losing more money by tossing 5-12 while some of us will NEVER friggin get them! I want everyone to write strongly worded E-mails to Bandai at least serlliung them on their site! I want these damn things and I'm probably not the only one! The only ones who buy Powert Rangers are 5 year olds (they shouldn't watch anyway! It's TVY7!!) and we all know the stranglehold bratty kids have on the collectibles market.

Take TRU! They had made the rash decision to cancell the Muppet line after series 2, because of overstock of Kermits and Piggys, especially since they were greedy enough to want their own exclusive (exclusives are either ultrarare, or ultracommon, common in this case). So, the first series sold slow. Series 2, delayed like crazy, sold like hot cakes, with basically a Fozzie Here, a Crazy Harry there (I went MAD trying to find Floyd!!!). Do you know what they did? Shoved them at the back of the store on smaller peg bars, upstaged by Kiddy driven toys.

Are all toy executives inheritants of their father? I hate them SOOOOOOOO f***king much!!!


Bandai is pricing themselves out of the business, and they are having a little "Cry in the corner over merchandise they COULD sell" party! They had one little friggin commercial! That doesn't mean S**t!!!! They need to get the public interrested, not just air an add like twice and hope people buy it!


The irony here is, if I never liked the show, they'd have series 21-24 right now!!!!!

[Tortle]

Creating a second season of Ultimate Muscle for America is actually rather impressive. I think that it is possible that Bandai is going to hold back some of the release dates to match up to the season premiere of the 2nd season of Ultimate Muscle.

That's true. Although if they were waiting for the second season, I'm not sure why the figures would be based on the first season. Or why the figures were already released in some areas 5 months ago. But I'm hoping you're right!

And cancelling orders after the first wave is pretty much the DUMBESt rashest decision ANYONE can make.

If they don't sell, what do you expect the retailers to do? It's not like they were hidden, tucked away in some corner... they were out in the action figure aisle just as conspiciously as every other toy. I know it's frustrating to see garbage like Beyblades sell while cool lines like UM go down the tubes, but what can you do...

Bandai will wind up losing more money by tossing 5-12 while some of us will NEVER friggin get them!

Sometimes when manufacturers produce a crapload of a toy line that retailers don't buy, they sell the excess product to wholesalers. So, if Bandai has a large amount of stock for 5-12, they may sell it off to a store like Toy Liquidators or Big Lots. We may still see them yet!

-Nathan

[Sniper33]

Truthfully, I think the line has been cancelled. I hope I'm wrong because I love the figures. But regardless of what we, the collecting minority, want, the retailers know exactly what they're doing: they're making money by selling toys that move off the shelves. That may or may not include UM... I guess we'll find out eventually...

-Nathan

Hope that your wrong, cause we still need to get series 9-12, the ring, the second series of 6" figures/CCG, the poster, and the 40 pack. So if they did cancel the line, then we will never see all of that wonderful stuff. Not that its killing me though, cause lots of money goes into McFarlen and MotU toys.

[max powerz]

I know when I was in florida when they first came out, they were flying off the sheves and they replenished the stock every other day. I litterally saw new figures on the pegs EVERY OTHER DAY. They were selling REALLY well. Also when I was back home and they finally made it to toys r us, they had a huge section to them and it was completely cleared within a month and a half. They had alot of toys to expect to get out there, and I couldnt find ONE Jeager then compared to when the line first came out and it was the most common.... Stupid me and I am Still searching, :sigh:. Why did it end up that the ones that were easier to get in the begining are harder to get now....

[GermanNinja131]

Its been awhile since UM has been seen down here. Every store except TRU does not carry any UM toys, not even the card packs. The one walmart down here had 5-8 awhile ago, but they were gone like the first day, and then walmart said they didnt even know what UM was. My friend that works there says that the toy orders are done by a pc, so we checked the lists on it, no UM at all.

We have 2 targets down here and they never had the toys. TRU has them, but its tons of the first series. Some collectors went nuts and trashed alot of the old UM stuff in hopes of TRU dumping the old to get the new(i laughed when i saw the mess, but it isnt funny.) The stuff that servived is on clearance, but thats all.

I read here that somebody got a fig at a comic book store, i never thought of looking at the only comic store anywhere near me. Ill have to go and check it out.

[Ashuraman]

"Hope that your wrong, cause we still need to get series 9-12, the ring, the second series of 6" figures/CCG, the poster, and the 40 pack. So if they did cancel the line, then we will never see all of that wonderful stuff. Not that its killing me though, cause lots of money goes into McFarlen and MotU toys."

Atleast you have 5-8.

... and the way the MotU figures were released have to be the biggest joke I've ever seen. I love them, but my KBToys, in La Vale, MD, still has Jungle He-Man, He-Man (Silver and Gold) and Tri-klop's. I asked the lady if they were going to put out any new figures and she said, "No," with a smile on her face as if to say, "get the f*ck out out of here, you must be joking."

Walmart has an endcap of Samurai He-Man, Skeletor and ManAtArms, like 40 of each.

Mattell was stupid and according to what I've read they have no intentions on fixing this, they said, "He-Man should be able to be found, everyone should have a he-man and we're going to make him 60% of all cases, if a change need to take place, then we'll change it." We'll I'll say a change need to take place, I got lucky and found/bought Man E Faces and saw the 2 he-man's in that set, but I haven't even seen the others in that set.

The He-Man to everyone else ratio is rediculous. Add to that, Skeletor is like 20%, that means 4 other characters make up the other 20% themselves. If you have 6 people in a case, have he-man be 2 of those 6, not 4 of the 6.

Also, I have to no interest in the Muppets, but I'll just say I haven't seen any of them in my area at all, not one set.

TMNT is all over the place.

I like wrestling and in my area, I haven't seen any of them either. I had to go out of town just so I could get Steiner, Rico, and Rey Misterio.

The state of toys is just really sad.

Edited by Ashuraman, 27 August 2003 - 10:34 PM.

[max powerz]

If toys at bust has a open pack with a SILVER kevin mask, lemme know how much it is, I really need it. Thanks.

[Knuxman]

I agree w/ veers, if they did it with MUSCLE in the 80's it should be 100 times easier in this day and age, they are just being lazy and stupid, my TRU has all the 1-4's there, but i bought it all out a couple months ago, and they still didnt re-order, the manager said to me "if a line sells out, we order more, or the newer [ones] for our locale" but ive seen hide nor hair of 5-8, and more ccg's. So i contact bandai, the guy on the phone gave me the same run-around, so i call later (in hopes of a non-pinheaded answer) and someone actually gave me the answer that, "We dont know how they are distributed, after they get shipped, we have no control. I hope that helped" i then ask if they had any store specific contacts, they say i need to call the TRU and call the regional manager(again) and this time he said "They stopped shipping to your location, because we didnt see much profit from the line in your area." though i had bought over $50 in UM stuff, and i know 6 others that did the same, he sai that.

Service with a lazy moron.

[Knuxman]

sorry, got a little carried away. Im just angy at the fact they dont even take customer service seriously.
btw, DON'T call me a kid.

Edited by Knuxman, 28 August 2003 - 10:15 AM.

[Tortle]

...I called Bandai and they assured me that the line was alive, and there was no current plans (that the person I spoke with was aware of) to cancel the toys.

It's good to be wrong in this case... although I'll believe it when I see the new figs or hear of other people getting them. It's been 8 months since I got the last series, and that's an awfully long time in-between waves.

And I don't think that the Bandai person was "lazy or stupid". She answered Veers quite directly: she told him that the line isn't cancelled, and that the stores have the figures. Is there anything else she could have told him? Emotions must be running high because of the UM drought!

-Nathan

Edited by Tortle, 28 August 2003 - 10:57 AM.

[Knuxman]

ok, guys, i was halfway kidding with that last comment, but i didnt say so, sry, but i am a little frustrated with the utter shortage in my STATE.

[Mystery Mask]

I understand how Bandai would be stupid and evil enough to cancel the line, but the products already exist, they've already paid for them whu not sell them!

[Drtooth]

And I don't think that the Bandai person was "lazy or stupid". She answered Veers quite directly: she told him that the line isn't cancelled, and that the stores have the figures. Is there anything else she could have told him? Emotions must be running high because of the UM drought!

Keep in mind, serivce reps always try to put a spin on things. The line may not be cancelled, but it may be hard to find.

Take the Bandai The Tick line. The Comic books in my area ordered thousands of them, since it was New England Comics, the local chain that published the comic back in the 80's. The first line sold okay, but there were short packs and rarities which evebn when they came out went for a lot of money. Man Eating Cow and Die Fledermaus, though released, were imposoosible to find because of Idiotic parental groups, and copywrite issues respecively. The Dinosuar Neal was short packed, for reasons unexplained. The second line BEARLY made it to toy stores, and Mucus clone Tick, Thrakkerzogg, American Maid, Crusading Chamelion, and Bus Sign flinging Tick were only available at the comic stores for expensive amounts of money (20-30 per fig).

Hell... they made an Evolution line (which was a low rated, forgettable cartoon based on a bomb movie... apparently DIC animation and Dreamworks didn't wait to see if the movie was successful) which was available in stores, but never sold because... well... that show was one of the reasons that Fox Kid's folded...need I say more.

The UM Game is almost impossible to find dispite the fact that it made it on to the Demo disk. Licenced from media video games are NEVER on demo disks. Plus, every store sells them, but with the exception of the Simpsons games, they never sell... I can think of at least 5 games I find in clearance bins, one I actually wanted if I had GBA...