100 replies to this topic

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Well, that's the thing. The first lady that came to help me was the second ladies boss I'm sure, as I've had her help me with a similar issue at the same store. The first woman was the one who tried acting like she knew what she was doing, but didn't, and really shrugged off my Intelligent suggestion. At least the second woman was semi-Intelligent, and looked at the rung up price on the screen, and immediately got it! Oh! That makes sense, I'll just ring up the first pack again! Next time I know what to do if I have this problem. I'll ring it up myself, and try to fix it before any deadites show up to drag Shizznit out. Heck, I'll even walk to the back get a different figure from the same series, ring him up, bag the one that was screwed up, and leave the other on the counter! Big Woop!

I will be making it a point to do price checks before I check out from now on, so I can prepare for this nonsense.

Right now I'm trying to figure out, what item the $12.97 peg was for. The 2 packs $12.88 pegs were above it, and I was wondering what the deal with the other peg was......Checking.......checking........File located.

Apparently the $12.97 peg was for the Clone Wars two packs. Why would a trooper 2 pack be higher than a unique comic pack anyway? I can see the easy mixup, as they didn't have any Clone packs on that peg, but accidentally placed the comic packs there...Bright people around here. Let's put the comic packs on two different price pegs. That makes perfect sense.

[dankingery]

i still say a drop kick to the throat would have done her some good.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

i still say a drop kick to the throat would have done her some good.

I have a good mind to start carrying a fully loaded NERF gun with me from now on. With the round vintage projectiles... You know, the ones that weren't so soft back in the day. Just whip it out and blast them in the face when they do something stupid.

Me: "It was $12.88 if that helps."

Cashier: "I still have to check it."

Me: "....fwish..fwish...fwish..."

Cashier: " Is that a Nerf Gu..(PFOOMP PFOOMP PFOOMP!!!!) AAAAHHH!!!!"

[dankingery]

it's funny you mentioned nerf gun. i've been overly tempted to buy that big nerf gatling gun. toys r us has it on sale right now and it comes with extra ammo. very tempting. but then i think, just how much can i shoot my wife with it before she takes an axe to it...or me.

[mrjayberry]

URS, thats some bad luck. I had a similar experience the other day at the Wal mart while buying a Cyclops. Luckily I was with my friend and we were in two separate lines so she realized we were racing and didn't want to lose. She gave it to me for eight bucks to avoid the lost. Boo Yah!

I always avoid the older checkers at Wal Mart, no matter how tempting the line is.

[Nyarlathotep]

Great score Dan!

URS, I feel your pain. I went to my local Whale-mart recently to get some washable markers and crayons for my kids, as there was a sale for them. I preface this that washable is a primary criteria here. Well, of course they didn't ring up on sale, so the register-lady tells me that sale is for the non-washable kind because the picture is of that kind. Well, I reply the actual text states washable, which seemed a lot more concrete than a small picture. "Well we usually go by the pictures." Well, the supervisor was summoned, and she also couldn't cope with not relying on the picture only. Thus the manager was eventually called, rinse repeat again. If the CEO happened to be in the store I probably would have talked to him as well. Then she left for a while and came back with the news that it was a printing error and the correction was posted on a board 500 yards from the entrance. End result, no crayons or markers, and less 20 minutes of my life. To her credit, the original cashier was very nice and apologetic, which was more than can be said for the other two.

Edited by Nyarlathotep, 21 November 2009 - 07:11 PM.

[Nyarlathotep]

Sorry for the double post, my browser hiccuped or something and I don't know how to delete it.

Edited by Nyarlathotep, 21 November 2009 - 07:12 PM.

[BaltanII]

I love it when we all get together and share these stories. You definitely outdid yourself this time, Dan. But no details on the hot register zombie? Shame on you!

Mine is not nearly as action-packed and interesting, but there are still its small share of frustration and surprise!

So I decide that I'm going to reward myself after a blah work week with a trip to Wal-Mart. There's a number of kewl things that are out right now that I haven't been able to hunt down. Number one on the list? Power Rangers! Bandai America is devoting their 2010 line to the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and I want a damn Megazord! Hell, the four-inch figures would be cool too. Then there's the DC Universe Wave 10, which has must-buy characters like the Joker and Man-Bat and is exclusive to Wal-Mart, Transformers Masterpiece Skywarp (also WM-exclusive), more TF exclusives, and maybe a regular Joe or TF or two.

I get it, get trapped behind a herd of waddling regulars at the entrance, finally escape the migration, and make for the coveted toy aisles. This takes a while, because the store was recently "remodeled", which consists of rearranging the store and making the aisles much wider. To accommodate the herd size, you see. And merchandise is lost from sections in the process.

Case in point! This Wal-Mart, as I mentioned before, has ditched 90% of all of its superhero toys. Doesn't matter if it's DC or Marvel, Universe or Legends, it's not there? What's the remaining stuff? The damn last wave of Spider-Man. Three damn scuba Spideys, five with sticky webs, and one of the loser Tarantula. With exploding crate! Yeah, good luck with that. I don't know why I even bothered.

After that waste of time, I took a look at the shrunken Power Rangers selection. Nothing special. One of the rare chase figures from an older series was there, but it was of a character I care nothing about, not the Titanium Ranger I would have rather found. Nothing else was new or even that cool, so easy pass.

I spent a good amount of time looking at the movie Joes. I haven't bought a Joe in a very, very long time. You could say it was my college phase, trying out the 25th line when that was new. They were impressive but really couldn't hold my attention. But these days, I have more compatible figures, so I gave them another shot. Yeah, same thing, nothing demanded that I buy it. The Elite Viper came very, very close though, and it was rolled back to $5.

Zero for three, I finally scoured the Transformers for new hotness. At first, didn't look like that would happen, but then I noticed some stuff like the variant Breakaway and a lot of Jolts... and behind a bunch of Mudflaps, paydirt! I'd finally found the Ice Cream Twins! At $10, I knew I couldn't pass them up. I was even lucky enough to find three of them, so I got to compare which one I liked best. Not looking to tempt fate, I picked up some foodstuffs and headed for the registers.

With a tiny line, a cute associate at the register, and adjacent access to the card games section, the under 10 items lane was the obvious choice. This store didn't have self-checkout anyway (it's one of the oldest WMs in Maryland, thus tiny and behind the times). And what do I happen to find there, staring at me in the most elaborate and attention-grabbing packaging possible? The Slivers fan's holy grail. Eff me. It was more expensive than all the other food and toys combined, but you don't ignore shiny Slivers! Right next to Skids and Mudflap it went. Hasbro was getting rich off me today.

One brief card swipe later, and I was walking out of there, actually smiling at the exit's greeter and going on my merry way, even popping out the cell phone, when suddenly I was hearing someone call "Sir! Sir!" No alarm went off, so I figured it wasn't about me, until I then heard, "Sir! On the cellphone!" shizznit. Curious and almost fearful (this was a decrepit WM employee, after all), it turns out that my coveted Slivers deck had been left behind! I made a note to myself to be wary of bag carousels in the future, embarassingly took the bag from the young lady who'd rang me up and noticed my oversight, and went on my merry way.

[dankingery]

your sprawl-mart seems to have adopted the same marketing strategy that the ones out here have. get rid of all the cool toys that sell like mad, aka anything with marvel on it that isn't spider-man riding a motorcycle. glad you had an enjoyable trip nonetheless.

[BaltanII]

I don't know how much money the MU figures were actually making them, as this WM put the usual suspects on clearance the last time I saw them. But no Gigantic Battles either? I have more difficulty imagining those not selling. Probably space issues.

I do know that Infinite Heroes were actually doing okay, and new ones were coming out at regular intervals, which is just shocking. DC Universe, on the other hand, was stinking up the place with the common Wave 7/8 refresher case everyone has been getting.

The real issue here is that there is no way that Spider-Man of all things should have been the only line still on the shelves.

Edited by Boaconda, 22 November 2009 - 12:10 PM.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

I don't know how much money the MU figures were actually making them, as this WM put the usual suspects on clearance the last time I saw them. But no Gigantic Battles either? I have more difficulty imagining those not selling. Probably space issues.

You know it's funny you bring up the space thing and Gigantic Battlers. One of the wal-marts I stopped by last week didn't have the Giants out, but the week before they had a whole slue of them on the shelf. When I went there this time they were no where to be seen and large dollies were in their place. So I don't know what happened. Do you guys think maybe the Giant Battlers are a flop? Unless on some miracle chance the wal-mart sold them. The other wal-marts that had them appear to have not moved any of them off the shelves since I bought mine.

[Scumdogg]

Damn you guys are making me miss my toy hunting days.

I still keep checking out the toy aisles every time i go to a store, but rarely with the intent or urge to buy anymore. Which works out, being broke and all. Although my brother has been pretty awesome about floating me the occasional loan for a toy, which recently got me that MU Vision figure (good thing too, all that store has left now is crap-face Wolverine). And today i got the DCUC Green Arrow figure! I did recently sell almost my entire DCUC collection, but i kept the Batman-related stuff and then like half a dozen of the Justice League heavy-hitters. Green Arrow is probably my second favorite DC hero after Batman, and i had waited too long for his DCUC appearance to just pass on the figure now, broke or not.

I really want to open him up tonight but he'll probably go on the small pile of things i've gotten since moving back up here (it all fits into a standard plastic grocery bag!), to be opened up once i've managed to move back out and actually have a place to display them.

Oh and in another interesting bit of toy news...a good friend of mine is cleaning out his dad's old house right now and i've been pitching in to help. Last time we were there we found a couple things from my friend's high school toy collection, one of which was the 90's ToyBiz Onslaught figure! One of my favorite figures from the 90's line, and one i've been trying to find complete for quite some time now. This one is carded and in good shape and everything and he ended up just giving it to me before i went home that day. Pretty awesome! I'm glad i have not parted with my 90's Marvel stuff yet, and this find pretty much solidifies keeping them. At least until MU catches up with all the obscure characters.

Edited by Scumdogg, 22 November 2009 - 02:12 PM.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Stopped by Wal-mart last night, and found the new Power Rangers Boaconda was talking about. I wanted them so bad, but passed. Then I ended up catching a ride with my bro tonight, and stopped back in.... Looked intently at them and decided I couldn't leave without them this time. Started picking them out, was gonna snag a megazord as well, but 5 ways through picking the best Rangers noticed one was missing. Blast! I knew I should have grabbed him yesterday, but nooo. The only Red Ranger was gone. So I decided to put em all back. I don't want to buy 4 of the 5 rangers. I got to get all 5 or none at once. But the Dino Zord is pretty cool, he looked fully articulated for once. Just found out that there is a Wal-Mart exclusive 5 pack with 4 of the rangers and Zed too. So I'm kinda glad I didn't buy them. Cause I'm gonna want a Zed, and don't want to end up buying multiples of the same figures. Unless Zed will come single packed. Bandai could have saved a little scratch on these figs if they didn't have those stupid eagle accessories with every ranger.

Boa, do you know how far Bandai is planning to go with this line? I'm again hesitant on buying into it, as I remembered how awesome the White Ranger was, and would be sorely disappointed to not get one in this scale. And I'm very hopeful for a Dragon Zord. I never could really afford Ranger toys back in the day, I recall getting a couple monsters once, and they were awesomely fun. Wouldn't it be great if Bandai did a whole series of the best monsters from the show?

[BaltanII]

Having a bunch of monster figures would be awesome, but Bandai's track record on that sort of thing says it's not happening.

The Wal-Mart five-pack contains figures that are completely different, and in terms of articulation far inferior, from the single-packed versions. Zedd's not too impressive, and his staff is pathetic. One of the interesting selling points is that the set has a version of Billy's staff that can separate into two pieces like the show, and the single version can't.

I still haven't seen them yet, but when I do, I'll be guaranteed to pick up at least the Green Ranger and any Putty that I can find. Probably everything...

Wouldn't worry too much about the Red Ranger, as he's heavily packed in case assortments, but you have plenty of time to pick up all five at once if that's what you want to do.

We don't know too much about Bandai's future plans. Other than the Lord Zedd in the five-pack, no existing toy covers anything past the first season. The remastered MMPR series hasn't even aired yet as these toys are months early, so it's hard to say. We're all but guaranteed a Dragonzord though. Bandai's hindsight comes in very handy here, because they've wisely pimped out the Green Ranger merchandise in this line. No word on Titanus though.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Yeah, I scrounged up some better pics of the 5 pack and was sorely disappointed. I'm also uncertain as to the actual degree of articulation on the Dinozord as well. The sculpting on the leg parts could have been playing tricks on me.

Sadly your right. Bandai is awesome in that they are always willing to give something a try over in the states, but they fall majorly short of doing much more than a few waves of something, even if it sells well. And even then tend to trash some prototypes before they hit production. Bandai would be smart if they pimped out some great new assortments of the classic MMPRs. As there is surprisingly still a HUGE fan-base for the merchandise and show. A main reason I didn't care much for the original Ranger toys was that the scale and body proportions were always off on the rangers themselves. And the zords were way too expensive and big. I had a neighbor kid who was younger than me at the time who's mom spoiled his arse. He had all the zords and everything. Really at $25 bucks for a Dinozord that actually breaks down appropriately is pretty awesome. So I've got to at least get that and the 5 classic rangers. I'll snag green in hopes of a Dragonzord next year. And Goldar, while fighting the temptation at army building puddies. $5.86 at Wal-Mart each by the way. Very affordable for Bandai stuff. I'd even buy a giant Goldar if they make one. And there are so many monsters and villains from the first few seasons that I'd die to have fully articulated in this scale.

Just a few examples of some series Bandai didn't come through all the way on.

Final wave of DragonBall Z Ultimate Collection figures - They scratched Omega Shenron, SS4 Vegeta, and SS4 Gogeta! What!!! The two SS4 saiyans would have been big sellers. So we got stuck with Buu and SS3 Goku only. Great figure series by the way.

Digimon Datasquad - They didn't release (as far as I'm aware) 1 or 2 other mini figure sets. Particularly the one featuring the Turtle Digimon Kamemon.

Grr... You make me so upset sometimes Bandai of America! :shakes fist:

[dankingery]

blast it all. i fully expected to see more figures today when i stopped by target. but instead of new goodness i was swamped with the exact same figures i left on the pegs the last time i was there. so, either they restocked and already sold the new stuph, or they've yet to even touch the aisle. interestingly enough though, they were completely sold out of secret wars. kind of surprising since they had a ton the last time i was there, wave 1 included.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Well, I wasn't even toy hunting this weekend really, but somehow ended up buying about $80 bucks of useless crap in the last 3 days.

First I went to Wal-mart Thursday. Just to see if I could talk myself into buying that Dino MegaZord.... I was close, but looked up and saw something I had been wanting for a while. A Leader Class Transformers Animated Ultra Magnus on sale for $20 bucks. BLAST!!! I talked myself into getting him instead. Figured I'd swing by after pay day and snag a Zord, and you can't beat $20 quid for a figure who is usually $35 and up.
Also ended up with 3 of the latest wave of Rise of Cobra figs for $5 bucks a pop. Got a Desert Viper, Jungle assault Ripcord, and an Arctic Threat StormShadow. All of which are very fun figures in my opinion.
Then decided to swing by the next closest wal-mart with a simple excuse of Looking for some Soap the other Wal-fart didn't have, but of course I somehow ended up with an 8 bar pack of soap accompanied by some riff raff who needed a ride home. Namely the new IG-88 Concept Art figure with BAD (Build-A-Droid) piece for $6 bucks, which is awesomely sick by the way, and a City Strike SnakeEyes for $5! Who of course is one of the best SnakeEyes figures ever! I also found a large and freshly stocked assortment of the 2010 MMPR figs, sadly they were not price marked here, and a quick price check revealed the wicked truth... they had not yet been entered in the system. After my last check out fiasco, I was not about go through that again. I will be patient and strike when the opportune moment arises.

So after a day or so of snorting my Cocaine laced Action Figure acquisitions, I decided to make a trip to Lowes to examine some materials for making a Light Box to further increase the photo quality for my new toys I planned on taking pictures of. Found some C-PVC pipe to use, then found a cheaper alternative...make the crap at home from scratch, and ended up putting the pipe back.... Sadly I did not determine the true nature of my trip till it was too late. Yes a part of my brain that I often forget is there had already made devious plans to use this trip as an excuse to shuffle on over to the adjacent Wal-Smart store to do some cleverly disguised toy shopping.
After quaintly maneuvering around the home decor section for a good 20 minutes, I waited till the right time to pounce on the unsuspecting toy aisle with feline like ferocity! The hunt was a success, as I killed many, and after letting the blood of my victims to the tiled like floors surrounding me, it was all but childs play to carry my prey to the checkout counter, so the cashier could of course check out my stuff.
Among the dead were 5 more Star Wars BAD figures from the same wave, at the same price. Namely an Ewok 2 pack (Sweet!), a Boba Fett, R2-D2, Utai, and Commander Cody. The last victim was a City Strike Duke.

Opened and ravaged, my new play things decorate the innards that is my room. The cancer that was growing in my wallet was adequately trimmed away for the time being to sate my need for the fleshy plastic bits I craved.

So all in all a couple fun little detours, that allowed me to snag some great action figures. Truthfully alot of the figs I bought are greatly underrated. OH! And Boa, I don't know if you know this, or are interested, but there is going to be a MMPR 2010 2nd case assortment that allegedly will have a Red Zeo Ranger short packed in 1 to a case. That sounds promising to the future plans of Bandai. Sadly the only info I could scrounge up about future waves, is that there will be repacks of the first wave rangers with silver pieces that build a robot animal or something. However these could be a different group of rangers, but I have a feeling they will be the same.

[mrjayberry]

Hit five separate walmarts last night because I got bored at 4 in the morning. A great MU haul came out of it, although I could have skipped the first three.
Found Secret Wars Ironman/Spider-woman, Secret Wars Magneto/Black Spider-Man, Jean Grey, and Guardian. Also picked up a five dollar G.I. Joe Night Adder because I like puppies.

Just need Secret Wars Hulk/Cyclops, Namor, and Warpath to be pretty much caught up.

I will say one of the stops I made that didn't yield any booty did have the worst batch of single carded figures I've seen in a long time. Including a Punisher with about 25% of the skull on his chest rubbed off. So thumbs down to QA on that one.

[BaltanII]

OH! And Boa, I don't know if you know this, or are interested, but there is going to be a MMPR 2010 2nd case assortment that allegedly will have a Red Zeo Ranger short packed in 1 to a case. That sounds promising to the future plans of Bandai. Sadly the only info I could scrounge up about future waves, is that there will be repacks of the first wave rangers with silver pieces that build a robot animal or something. However these could be a different group of rangers, but I have a feeling they will be the same.

It still baffles me that you can keep running into the Dino Megazord in person and not pick it up. Well, except this time, because passing it up in favor of Animated Magnus is the superior choice.

Yeah, I already know about the later MMPR waves. What's very, very nice is that the Zeo Red Ranger chase figure is supposed to be in the 5" scale, to match the Super Legends figures that were released last year (Green Ranger, Lord Zedd, White Ranger, Zeo Gold Ranger) and this year (Titanium, Samurai, Super Samurai).

The rangers you saw that come out with silver "animals" are simply repaints. The figures are presumably identical, and the gold Dino Flyer made-up accessories that come with them now will be redone in silver instead.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

OH! And Boa, I don't know if you know this, or are interested, but there is going to be a MMPR 2010 2nd case assortment that allegedly will have a Red Zeo Ranger short packed in 1 to a case. That sounds promising to the future plans of Bandai. Sadly the only info I could scrounge up about future waves, is that there will be repacks of the first wave rangers with silver pieces that build a robot animal or something. However these could be a different group of rangers, but I have a feeling they will be the same.

It still baffles me that you can keep running into the Dino Megazord in person and not pick it up. Well, except this time, because passing it up in favor of Animated Magnus is the superior choice.

Yeah, I already know about the later MMPR waves. What's very, very nice is that the Zeo Red Ranger chase figure is supposed to be in the 5" scale, to match the Super Legends figures that were released last year (Green Ranger, Lord Zedd, White Ranger, Zeo Gold Ranger) and this year (Titanium, Samurai, Super Samurai).

The rangers you saw that come out with silver "animals" are simply repaints. The figures are presumably identical, and the gold Dino Flyer made-up accessories that come with them now will be redone in silver instead.

Yeah I know, I can't seem to figure how I can keep passing him up either! But my store has like 4 or 5 of them still, and he is hidden in the clearance/overflow toy aisle, so I keep figuring I'll snag it later. Though after checking a Youtube comparison review I've been tempted just to buy an original. The old one just seems superior in so many ways. But the obvious price point, and possibly more durable plastic is a main attraction point for the Dino Zord. And besides, Ultra Magnus is just awesome. I rarely ever buy Transformers, but he was a must have for the price.




Repaints are what I figured about the Next wave figures, but I didn't actually see any photos. Do you know where I can see them? Will they be metallic or something? In honor of the first movie figs from back in the day? Cause that would be pretty nifty. And I'm a little sad about the Red Zeo Ranger. I prefer the 3 3/4 scale.

[BaltanII]

Hey, I agree with you, as I used to have Magnus. He's a kickass figure, and for $20 a worthwhile purchase for sure. But the Megazord looks like a close second pick.

I did hit Walmart again this afternoon, in hopes of finally finding the big guy, but no. My store already cleared out its Animated toys when they shrank the toy section, so no Animated Leaders on sale for me either. What they did finally bring back was Marvel Universe! And a weird assortment at that too. It included a couple X-Force Wolverines and four Rulks, but some of the shelfwarmers like Black Spidey, and even an Electro and I think a Silver Centurion, but I didn't look at him closely. Nothing else of note or different, although all the cool Wave 2 or whatever GI Joe Vipers were gone, leaving only the common Neo-Viper. Did see Arctic Storm Shadow anyway. No MMPR obviously, otherwise I'd be bragging about it.

I've seen no images of the future MMPR waves. It would be news if photos were around, especially of Zeo Red. All I know are that the crappy Dino Flyers are in silver instead of gold, nothing beyond that. Might be a "collectible first wave!" gimmick or something, while also an easy way to refresh cases with otherwise identical figures.

[Universal Ruler Supreme]

Well Here are the MMPR assortments according to Entertainment Earth. They tend to me 99% accurate. And your right, they show the Red Zeo to be 5" inches. Wonder why they would pack a different scale figure in a smaller scale assortment case. I guess it's easier than convincing the stores to pick up cases of 1 figure.

MMPR Wave 1 assortment

MMPR Wave 1 Revision 1

MMPR Wave 1 Revision 2

MMPR Wave 2

There have been so many attractive figures out recently, it's been hard to pick which ones to buy. And Wal-Marts Holiday prices are just addictive.

[Nyarlathotep]

I've never paid much attention to MMPR, but this thread piqued my interest in this Dino Megazord. I must say it looks really neat. I've always liked combiners. I've done some cursory looking around was wondering if the new versions of the Megazord, Dragonzord and Titanius still combine into Ultrazord like the originals. Pardon if this is a dumb question, I'm largely ignorant in matters of MMPR

[dankingery]

in what was intended to be a christmas shopping spree for others, soon turned into a recon mission in the smelly depths of a sprawl-mart. it wasn't a long mission because i soon discovered that this sprawl-mart was intent on selling me zero toys. still nothing marvel other than biker spideys. the only new thing i saw there were bakugan and avatar toys. needless to say, i wasn't heart broken that i'm not buying for myself for a couple of months.

also notable, the register zombie must share dna with beaky buzzard from looney toons. seriously, how does sprawl-mart find these people? its almost like they go out of their way to hire the strangest specimens they can find.

[mrjayberry]

I think its less about who they hire and more about who they can get to stay on for an extended period of time.
I worked for Wal-Mart, it lasted about three months before I'd had enough.