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ToysRUs Minimates -what happens now?


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I have been to a bunch of TRU's recently and all I have been finding are the Gwen/Conners ASM pack, Wolverine/Reaper pack and some Walking Dead...........absolutely nothing else of interest.

No Tomb Raider, No wave 18........it's rather depressing in this area.

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Every time I call to see if my store has them I get told they don't and that they've been discontinued because they are on clearance. Trying to track these down and locate them has been a big pain.

I've gotten that same response. My worst experience was the customer service rep who told me that the SKU number was wrong.

Me: (Give her a SKU number.)

Her: That's not right.

Me: ? (pause) this is the SKU number. Do you want me to read it again?

Her: Our numbers are only six numbers long.

Me: Um, are you sure? Can you ask someone else?

Her: I know my store. Are you online?

Me: ? What?

Her: One moment...

Me: (on hold for five minutes) Eventually I hang up.

Yeah, that's not her fault. It's the website's. Although, she might familiarize herself with our company better. What the website calls "R Web Number" is what we actually use as a SKU at the store level. The website's "sku" is absolutely useless at a store level.

As for the time on hold? The stores get busy and our primary responsibility is to the customer in front of us. Not to say we shouldn't or won't help over the phone, just that it's our last priority. If you're going to call for assistance, expect a wait and be patient. That being said,some of us are far more helpful than others. Familiarize yourself with your store's sstaff and know who to ask for to get the best return on your time =)

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Sorry if this has been answered already, but has any of my fellow Canadians spotted massive price drops? I haven't been to a TRU in a while and i'm not sure if it's worth the trek; Thanks!

I stopped by a couple last week and they hardly had any mates, but I don't think the few they did have were on sale. I saw some Wave 16 marked down a little just before Christmas, but not a major price drop like in the States.

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As a store employee, can you tell me what it means for my chances of finding these in store when the guy I spoke with today said they were discontinued and that they wouldn't receive any new shipments? Since my store hasn't even received 18 yet, will they never? Thanks.

There are a number of factors I'm unaware of that could come into play. Here's the basic breakdown:

Discontinued or "x" status means Toys R Us, as a company, is no longer ordering the item. But that doesn't mean they're not going to sell it any more. They're still going to sell through remaining stock. If your store's DC (distribution center) has zero inventory, then things get considerably more bleak, as it means there's no stock just waiting to ship out. BUT... you could ask an employee to check other stores in the district. If someone is sitting on them, you may be able to do a phone order while at your store. This involves them calling the other store, that store taking your info over the phone, and the product being shipped straight to you no charge. This only works for small items, since the company won't often eat the shipping cost on - say - a Power Wheel. Stores are hesitant to offer this solution as it takes time and not every store will agree to it; I may have no problem calling another store for a phone order, but they may decline to do it. It DOES have to be done in store so your info can be verified by an employee in person. Even if you can't manage a phone order, there's still the chance that another store or even another DC is clogged up with merch that will eventually be redistributed to stores where the product never showed or performed well.

TL;DR? You're not in a great position, but all hope is NOT yet lost.

There's still another, less likely possibility. If someone on a corporate level realizes the specifics of the situation, series 18 COULD be relisted in the stores' computers with a unique SKU and reordered as such. Least likely sitch? Sure. But not entirely impossible.

On the "phone order" note - I'm hesitant to buy items for others as my store manager is her sensitive to her employees potentially scalping, but if any of you are at a TRU with no wave 18, ask them if they can check store 8902. Last I knew we had some, and we're usually happy to do phone orders.

Forgive me if it's irritating you (all) by the way I'm pasting in stuff from other threads but I'm of the opinion that much of this stuff is salient & needs to be in one place .

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I found so little in Memphis, Turtle, I stopped driving over there. Whether it's competing collector's or just never getting stuff, it's not worth the drive. I'll just stick to online, trades and the kindness of others.

I've read this type of post more & more over the years (& not just Memphis) .........people just get fed up spending time & gas in futile attempts to give TRU their hard-earned dollars,who can blame them ? So when the 'mates eventually arrive weeks/months later no f*cker is there to buy them because they've been bought online ....IF they ever hit TRU.com .

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I've gotten a little tired of "The chase" as it were. If I happen by a TRU. I will stop and look around, but I no longer go on the elaborate road trips to see what's out there. In fact, everything usually shows up at the store in my backyard eventually - I have never really benefitted from preempting the shipments here by driving 35 miles. I've recently realized that it's much the same with TRU.com. I've just learned to be patient and save the gas

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So I noticed this morning tru.com now has Thundercats Ho, Invincible and Walking Dead Prison Outbreak 4-packs in stock on their site, all at 19.99. Just thought those were odd additions.

Edited by MrClean
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I found so little in Memphis, Turtle, I stopped driving over there. Whether it's competing collector's or just never getting stuff, it's not worth the drive. I'll just stick to online, trades and the kindness of others.

I've read this type of post more & more over the years (& not just Memphis) .........people just get fed up spending time & gas in futile attempts to give TRU their hard-earned dollars,who can blame them ? So when the 'mates eventually arrive weeks/months later no f*cker is there to buy them because they've been bought online ....IF they ever hit TRU.com .

I got tired of the hour drive to waste fuel. If it were a store in the same city as me, that'd be different.

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What is especially frustrating is when there are two waves out (tomb raider & marvel 18), your local store doesn't have either and the second closest store can't tell you over the phone if they carry it or not then one day you make an excuse to be in that area and go and they don't have either. So you drive home with nothing. There were times recently where I had things to buy but then got frustrated and didn't buy anything.

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For the first time in a long time I made it to Toys R Us last night. They had a Cap/Falcon 2-pack, which I wanted, and a bunch of older figures that weren't marked down very much, including the Universal Monsters wave with the Hunchback, which surprised me. So, I was going to get the one pack for Falcon. As usual, they were understaffed. One line was open, I was several people back, and the person in front was taking about 15 minutes to check out for some reason, as usual, and the guy behind her had about 15 items. So, I tossed the pack to the side and left, as happens about half the time I got to TRU.

This is part of the reason I never go to that idiotic store. Waiting in line another 15-20 minutes isn't worth the $3-4 I would have saved.

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Found wave 18 and tomb raider in panama city. All the marvel ones are there except ultron ones and the tomb raider exclusives are gone. Wave 18 was 3.98 and tomb raider was full price. Hopefully I'm wrong but I think after next wave marvel Minimates are done at TRU.

Don't worry, you could not possibly be more wrong.

Optimism is once more in my heart .thumbsup.gif

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Thanks for the news, Zach - that's terrific! Can't wait to hear more details on what's coming..

The TRU sale did end up to be a good thing - finally found a full set of wave 16 (only had wolvie/reaper) and bought a duplicate robot hulk. Usually I don't do that but it's such a great figure that can be displayed two different ways. Never found wave 18 yet though, have looked many, many times in a few different TRU's. Oh well will just have to keep looking!

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  • 2 weeks later...

As of last week, my local TRU only had a few Wolverine movie mates left as well as about ten Kingpin/Daredevil sets and about thirty SFxT sets.

There are no Star Trek, no Walking Dead and no Halo mates. They still have some Marvel Wave 17 mates and they do have Wave 18 mates at the $3.98 price point. And for Tomb Raider all they have left is Lara/Scavenger Scout at full price.

I did make it to the next closest TRU on Sunday and all they had was a few Tomb Raider sets, none of the exclusives, and they had a few of Marvel Wave 18 but that was it. They had nothing else in the way of minimates at that TRU.

I am not sure if it is worth going to my local TRU tomorrow or not. I have all the Wave 18 Marvel mates I want. I am not sure what I would get if I went but I am also not sure what is due out anytime soon.

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Local TRU in Chula Vista/National City are completely barren after the clearance sale.

I see a few Tom Raider sets sitting, Maybe a Cap/Falcon, 3-4 Walking Dead (black guy with the orange prison outfit), and a few Star Trek Khan sets. Tons of Street Fighter Vs Tekken. Pretty much stuff that's been on the shelf for a while.

I hope we see some new stuff trickle put because, man...this sucks.

Edited by cidman911
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Looks like we finally got our answer today in the GotG thread. Zach confirmed the ASM2 wave will have one exlusive packed at 3 per case (5/4/3 packout), then states GotG will also have one exclusive as well with 2 carryovers. So, looks like one exclusive per wave but a higher packout. Maybe it might have a bit to do with not getting movie reference art in time, so we'll see if the trend continues for comic waves. It stings a bit to lose a set per wave, but its better than losing them altogether. At least the exclusive should be easier to find.

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I'm not too thrilled about losing a pack, but I DO like the apparent trend lately of TRU carrying over a troop builder. (Black Ninja, Hydra, GotG & ASM2 ...)

While I don't mind it that much I would of course always like to have all-new mates each wave if possible. I can always buy multiple army builders from comic shops. If there has to be an overlap though obviously I'd prefer an army builder or a mate with multiple looks, a direction they've been heading for awhile. Hopefully the short-packed won't be too hard to find.
As a side note, I don't miss the doom and gloom from earlier in the thread.. at all. Hopefully minimates continue at TRU for years to come.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I posed the question at the end of January can anybody tell me what's happening ?



Nothing in the New Hartford NY or Clay NY TRU's. Weird because a month ago there was an entire case of wave 13 brand new, tons of wave 16, tons of Walking Dead, tons of Tekken x Street Fighter, some Wave 17. Now there's nothing. I'm 90% sure that they didn't sell those. Star Trek Minimates have their own pegs, but all of the other Minimates are stored separate from everything else. There's like 2 Wolverine/Reaper, a couple Hawkeye/Widow, a Taskmaster, and a couple Street Fighters left. I'm worried that my TRU won't be getting Minimates anymore. This sucks.

EDIT: And it would be nice if somebody somewhere knew something. Nobody knows if these will be on the website, nobody knows if these are discontinued at certain stores, nobody knows anything. It's really annoying, I want to give TRU my money for these and I can't.

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