Marvel Wave 18 - North East Status Updates

[pappymojo]

I'm sick of seeing the Marvel Wave 18 thread getting bumped, hoping that someone in this part of the country has found these at a Toy R Us only to be disappointed. So hopefully this thread sees some action when the dam gets lifted.

[bigvis497]

still nothing in New York. I'm to the point where I'm just buying clearance stuff for the stands.

[Roccothegreat]

There is nothing in staten island New York nor the 5 toys r us's in New Jersey!

[DarthBurkie]

The Harrisburg PA store had these twice. I cleaned out the first set and the Hydra Goons from the reshelve. I haven't seen another restock. My brother keeps his eyes out for me in Scranton, but he hasn't seen them. But he doesn't hit up TRUs as often as I try to.

[pappymojo]

For anyone in MA and NH Newbury Comics is 25% off everything this weekend including sale items. They wont have Wave 18 but you may find some cheap minimates.

Edited April 5, 2014 by pappymojo

[Ronan The Accuser]

Still no sightings in Western PA for Wave 18 or Tomb Raider. I checked the two local stores and then branched out a bit to three city stores and found nothing. I hit these stores on their truck days too.

[DarthBurkie]

Harrisburg had their Tomb Raiders in with the Legos for some reason, not with the rest of the mates.

[Ronan The Accuser]

Another week, no product in Western PA. No wave 18 or Tomb Raider. Checked the Lego section in every store I was at, no dice there either.

[Ronan The Accuser]

Still nothing in Western Pa. Absolutely no minimates left in my local store, gotta admit I'm getting a bit tired of even looking.

TRU wave 18 never arrived, Tomb Raider never arrived and Walking Dead wave 5 received one case with no restock.

I'd love to hear how/why TRU has skipped much of the Northeast and will this area even receive newer Marvel mates anymore? No use in looking if they're never going to arrive.

[MisterPL]

I've pretty much given up as well. I've avoided posting here unless I managed to find even the remnants of one of those waves but nothing.

I hope TRU is trying something different soon. Still don't understand why some stores are eligible for series like Battle Beasts while others aren't. Seems like exclusives should be available at all stores to draw traffic.

[bigvis497]

Checked two stores today in CNY and still nothing. Can we get an official word on this?

[youbastards]

Take the item number to the customer service counter, and have them check for inventory at both the distribution center that supports your store and inventory for the online store. If the quantity is zero, you can stop looking for them locally.

Make sure they just don't look on TRU.com though, it has to be the internal store inventory system. They can also look and see if there are any stores in the area with inventory of the item number.

[pappymojo]

I sent the following inquiry to Toys R Us through their online Contact Us page:

I have a question about a toy line, specifically Marvel Minimates. I understand that Wave 18 of this toyline which includes figures based on the Captain America comic book characters including additional figures for Hydra agents, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier (all characters that are featured prominently in the Captain America movie) started appearing in stores in January 2014 but never appeared in stores in the North East of America (New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, etc.). Furthermore I understand that the figures are listed under a matching SKU from the previous wave. Despite the duplicate SKU number the figures have been sold in other states such as Texas, California, etc. Additionally, these figures never appeared online.

No employees at the various stores I have visited seem to understand what the issue is. With the Captain America movie currently performing so well in theaters, it is surprising that these figures should be so hard to in the specific North East area of the country.

Please investigate as I am very interested in purchasing these products. Thank you.

[pappymojo]

The rather predictable reply.

We apologize for the difficulties you have encountered in attempting to
locate Marvel Minimates with Captain America and the cast from Winter
Soldier in your local Toys “R” Us store. We regret to inform you that
this item is currently out of stock and may no longer be available for
purchase. Unfortunately, we are unsure if or when this item might be
available in the future.

Again, we regret any inconvenience you may have experienced in this regard.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to email us and we will be happy to assist you.

[bigvis497]

What a colossal fuck up. No excuse.

[Zak Katz]

Why can't TRU order more to fill numbers?

[MisterMiracle]

I finally bit the bullet and bought some off of eBay the other day. I'm a little bummed that nobody on here could help me out with Marvel 18 or Walking Dead 5. I helped out numerous people with both Walking Dead and Marvel in the past. I was hoping I had some karma coming around my way. I guess not.

[bigvis497]

I found a decent deal on eBay and bought the exclusives I needed. Somebody here helped me with Thor/Absorbing Man but everybody wants at least 10-20 of the army builder sets, them being exclusives doesn't help.

[pappymojo]

After another round of emails, I got the following reply:

Thank you for contacting RUS.com regarding the regional-stock issue we
are having with the new Marvel Minimates Wave. We appreciate your
insight on the situation and will be transferring your case to a party
that has greater authority and knowledge on these issues. In the
mean-time, I would recommend calling the stores that you believe have
the items - sometimes stores can ship from store to store The SKUs you
provided could not be found on the website. These are the products we
found when searching "winter soldier"

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=23873836&cp=&parentPage=search

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=34162106&cp=&parentPage=search

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=34162116&cp=&parentPage=search

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=33862396&cp=&parentPage=search

I
apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, Andrew. Since your case
has been forwarded, you should be hearing from us within 3-5 business
days

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel
free to contact us at either of the numbers listed below or just email
us and we will be happy to assist you.

I bought the ones I wanted online but would be happy if they finally showed up in my area (along with the Tomb Raider 'mates).

[bigvis497]

Thanks for doing this pappymojo! I do have some suggestions:

I would not mention anything about these characters being connected to the Winter Soldier movie. This product is not part of the movie merchandising and the people you are emailing are probably not familiar with the characters and it will only confuse them. Sending you links to other Winter Soldier merchandise does not surprise me, the first thing they are "programmed" to do is refer you to a web search. Try to avoid sounding like a fan/collector, I would only give concrete data like the line name, series number and SKU which I beleive you did. I wouldn't mention anything about the Cap movie, you don't want to give any info on top of what is absolutely necessary, be brief and to the point. These guys receive tons of emails regarding all sorts of products and you want to take into consideration you have a very brief window to get their attention.

Please take this as merely constructive criticism, I actually do this kind of work for a living so I know exactly what these types are going to be looking for. Good luck!

[McDurg]

Anyone in Maryland have any luck? I stopped by two TRU and found an Annihilus set, and a whole lot of stragglers from wave 16 and Iron Man 3. Something tells me eBay may be my only hope for a few Ultron drones and an Absorbing Man set.

[Glantern]

I found them at the TRU in Columbia, MD. But that was about a month ago, and it was only one of each.

[Ronan The Accuser]

Another two weeks, same results in Western PA, no wave 18 and no Tomb Raider. Le sigh.

YB, thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it out next week, my final week of searching. Do we have an item number on this wave? I went searching through the main thread and couldn't find one. I did find sku's for all four packs but I don't know if that'll work... weren't these sku's tied into a previous wave? Also, back on pg 13 of the main wave 18 thread someone (maybe Lobsterman?) mentioned trying the item number and they were told it was discontinued? toy hunting shouldn't be this hard, lol.

Pappy, nice try with the e-mail, love to see them at least acknowledge that there was/is a sizable distribution error.

I'm going to fire up the paypal machine with funds... anyone stuck with Cap/Falcon and Thor/Creel packs clogging your local pegs at blowout prices, I'd be interested in a couple packs. Also interested in Hydra/Soldier, Wolv/Ultron and Tomb Raider exclusives if anyone is bogged down with those too.

[MisterPL]

Still no sign of the previous assortments (Series 18, Tomb Raider) but Amazing Spider-Man 2 showed up at TRU today. I was hoping TWD 5 would appear as well but nothing. At least there's a peg for it so that's gotta be a good thing, right?

[Ronan The Accuser]

That sounds like a very good thing! No ASM2 yet in my neck of the woods but your sighting has me excited that minimates could be returning to North East TRU's! You're towards the middle of the state aren't you?