Wal-Mart House of Horror

[zeedox]

The pegs! Empty pegs! But at least it says Mego!

Days Later...

Display! Reset? OK...

Days Later...

Display! Still Empty Pegs!?? Horror Assortment?

Halloween Close?

Two Days Before Halloween...

E....MPTY PEGS???

The Staff is oblivious.

Hammer could make a great Horror of Corporate Sales and Media Dungeons.

Isn't there a better way?

[palitoy]

It's not insulin, give it time. The reset should be rolling out first week of November.

[darkmonkeygod]

The Staff is oblivious.

I certainly understand your frustration at not finding what you're after, but I've been to, I dunno, 15 different stores and multiple times to a couple of those and found the staff totally friendly and open to assisting me in each, each time. If you seek out someone with a scanner - not every staff member has one - they can scan the code on the hang tag and it should give an EXPECTED in store date, along with quantity. On that quantity note, none of the stores I sampled were slated to get more that four from each assortment, and most were getting two. That means the cases are broken at the warehouse, the pieces packed into totes, and trucked to individual stores. You'll have to do the math, but if their cases are sixes, that really puts a spin on the odds of what you're after turning up quickly. In my case, no Creature yet, but I'll be checking again tomorrow.

Isn't there a better way?

Yep. Order from Frank Wojo or another hobby seller. As long as there's nothing impeding the shipments (please note the global pandemic and that Europe is stepping up their quarantining today as the States are reporting all-time record high infection rates), mail order is the best bet and just might end up being cheaper if Wally World doesn't add these to their website as individual items (rather than assortments).

[Earth 2 Chris]

^What darkmonkeygod said. There are fairly close Walmarts that are going to carry Megos, but none within a half-an-hour or so. And besides, it's much easier to just order form people like Frank or other online retailers. The shipping isn't going to cost you much or any more than the gas driving around hunting. I know that has its charms, but in a pandemic...no thanks, for me.

Chris

[Krypt0nite]

I just saw Chucky, Hannibal, and Stan Lee in the Walmart in Hoover, AL. They all look fantastic, especially Chucky. They didn't have Saru or Creature which are the only ones I'm looking for at the moment, but these are getting out there.

[Collector Canine]

The only figures the Walmart near me has had for the past two months are a whole two cases worth of Legolas and Aragorn that have shelf-warmed horribly.

[monitor_ep]

I know I could order the newer Megos but I am trying to support my local Wal-Mart when they stock them. It is only 15 minutes away & I have calling Walmart to extend there stores to include mine. So I need to buy as much as I can there first and then use the Amazon button on the side here to finish my collection.

[Collector Canine]

I know I could order the newer Megos but I am trying to support my local Wal-Mart when they stock them. It is only 15 minutes away & I have calling Walmart to extend there stores to include mine. So I need to buy as much as I can there first and then use the Amazon button on the side here to finish my collection.

Wal-Mart is a massive multi-national corporation. They don't really need support. Enough people give them their money every day to allow them to keep trucking along just fine.

[PNGwynne]

Wal-Mart is a massive multi-national corporation. They don't really need support. Enough people give them their money every day to allow them to keep trucking along just fine.

That's not what he means.

[zeedox]

Went back again, still empty pegs

I hope it's interesting enough to see when I can add to this point and say yes, they had a Saru, a Creature, really any Mego. I am visiting our closest Walmart but would be happy to travel to any in the area. Why be on a list, have pegs for something, and then have them empty. I did see the NECA Back to the Future stuff today, but i couldn't close the deal for 31.00 for a Marty really. Has NECA gone up? I mean the empty Mego aisle says 14.92 or something for them.

Someone said something that Walmart is so big to not care. I have noticed my toy collecting trends seems to be a bit of a things to come, and society has reached the closing of Toys R Us after the Kaybees etc have already closed. As a Mego collector I am most concerned I might miss Superman and Batman, which if you think about it we should have had when the 18" line showed up aside from the legalize attached. I haven't heard anyone mention how Classic TV toys and Mego can both be making DC now.

Anyhow I can say as Mego folks we have grown older and maybe its time to relax and just get the things when they are available, if they are available.

[CrimsonGhost]

I haven't heard anyone mention how Classic TV toys and Mego can both be making DC now.

It’s actually been explained numerous times. FTC has a specialty market license, Mego has a mass market license.

[Wee67]

Sears/Kiddie City/Toys R Us/Macy's/Zayre/EJ Korvette/Child's World/Two Guys/Eaton's/Gimbels/Woolworth/Alexander's/McCrory's/Topps/ Marshall Fields/Filene's/Caldor/Wanamaker's is a massive multi-national corporation. They don't really need support. Enough people give them their money every day to allow them to keep trucking along just fine.

[Mikey]

"Wal-Mart House of Horror" he say's ?

Last night at 8-ish-pm went in for an emergency bottle of ointment ...

Think you can just walk in and walk out without any BS ? -- you should live so long

[MRP]

Sears/Kiddie City/Toys R Us/Macy's/Zayre/EJ Korvette/Child's World/Two Guys/Eaton's/Gimbels/Woolworth/Alexander's/McCrory's/Topps/ Marshall Fields/Filene's/Caldor/Wanamaker's is a massive multi-national corporation. They don't really need support. Enough people give them their money every day to allow them to keep trucking along just fine.

True. But small manufacturers like Mego need the support of these retailers to get enough orders to make economy of scale in production work for them and keep capital flowing into their smaller businesses. Notice all the things previewed at Toy Fair that haven't made it to market-those likely weren't picked up by major retailers so there were not enough initial orders for them to go into actual production. Major retailers don't need "support" but if the lines they order don't sell well enough in store, they will not place future orders with those manufacturers like Mego, which places obstacles for production of future waves. It's easy for us collectors to buy from private sellers who buy form the one wholeseller who services them, but if major retailers don't buy in, is their enough capital flowing to keep producing future waves. A lot of people noted how this wave was bigger than previous waves-it's easier to make a larger wave when orders form a major retailer are behind it providing the capital resources to afford a larger line. The lines when there was no major retailers (other then small chains like ThinkGeek) were smaller for a reason.

Small retailers dealing directly to customers is fine, but it is not a growth industry. It doesn't create new customers because there is no possibility of discovery. It's the problem the direct market of comics has had for decades and why sales have shrunk dramatically over the years and are at a crisis point now. Mego's future growth requires finding more customers, not just selling to existing customers. The mass market is the key to that. Yes, it's hard for people to discover Mego when Walmart (and Meijers) are slow to stock or restock the figures. How much harder would it be if they weren't carrying them at all?

My dollars to Meijer and Walmart for Megos is not to support them, it's to support them carrying those lines and supporting the manufacturers of those lines. I'd like to see Waves 10, 11, 12, etc. and the likelihood of those waves happening is greater when major retailers are providing the capital resources for those waves through preorders to Mego.

-M

[Confessional]

Small retailers dealing directly to customers is fine, but it is not a growth industry. It doesn't create new customers because there is no possibility of discovery. It's the problem the direct market of comics has had for decades and why sales have shrunk dramatically over the years and are at a crisis point now. Mego's future growth requires finding more customers, not just selling to existing customers. The mass market is the key to that. Yes, it's hard for people to discover Mego when Walmart (and Meijers) are slow to stock or restock the figures. How much harder would it be if they weren't carrying them at all?
-M

I get the point you're making about large box distribution, but I think you're overlooking that small retailers do have many effective ways to acquire customers. Discovery is courted and promoted through electronic media of every kind, event appearances big and small, and even through brick and mortar. Consider the multitude of toy and collectibles retailers with primary online presence, and their growth over the past 15 years. In terms of toys, this seems to have very much bucked the trend that comics have experienced.