It seems like every time a new batch of toys is announced, they go up for pre-order at most of the established online retailers at pretty much the same time. The major players here, as far as I'm concerned, are Hasbro Pulse, Target, Big Bad Toy Store, and Amazon. Entertainment Earth I will deal with if I have to (they charge too much for shipping) and occasionally I will deign to deal with the online portals for Walmart and Target.

You'd think that once the toys are released, they would be distributed to all the various online shops at close to the same time, and then everybody would start shipping out more or less simultaneously. Obviously there are mitigating factors—a company like Walmart with a very large infrastructure might actually take longer to distribute freight to all its many distribution centers, but I would think it would be on the order of days, not many weeks or months.

At this point, though, I have absolutely no way of knowing who the best online retailer is to order from. It's a total crap shoot. Sometimes Hasbro Pulse ships first, sometimes it's BBTS, sometimes it's Amazon. Hell, sometimes I find stuff at brick-and-mortar Walmart stores first. It's completely unpredictable.

To put this in perspective: A lot of people are getting their hands on Legacy Motormaster now, if Twitter is any indication. I know he was available in Australia first, but now he's hit the USA in some capacity. People are seeing him in Target stores and some of the online pre-orders are being fulfilled. But, it seems like I must have ordered from the wrong place.

Big Bad Toy Store has shipped a number of Motormaster orders, and he was in stock as recently as yesterday, but now I guess they're waiting for another batch of product, because they current list him as a pre-order again for December 2022. Target is sold out, but they claim he's going to be ready to ship in a few days on July 31st, 2022. Amazon's ship date is July 30th.

Guess who I went with? Yeah, I had ordered Motormaster from Hasbro Pulse like a dumbass, and they say he's not shipping until November 2022. Ugh. Remind me why I pay fifty bucks a year for a premium subscription when I usually end up cancelling over half my pre-orders with them?

Amazon's being a little bit deceptive, since they list him for pre-order with a release date of July 30, 2022 (tomorrow), but when I place an order, they say he won't ship until December 5th. That's ridiculous.

And the thing of it is, you can't even go off the projected shipping dates any longer. They're a soft guide, at best. Online retailers tend to very frequently go, "Oh, just kidding, this item is being pushed back for six months" and they also go "hey, guess what, we're ready to ship four months earlier than we thought" almost as often. Obviously, getting a toy sooner is much more fun than getting it later (though it does play havoc with my monthly budget since I cannot predict any longer what month, or even sometimes what YEAR, purchases are going to come out of my bank account).

Basically, this me me whining that other people are getting toys before I am. Yes, I realize it's completely childish.

I mean, I've got Studio Series Sludge on the way. He's in transit as we speak. I saw that other people were getting Studio Series Arcee already, so I placed an Amazon order a few days ago and she's already on the way, too. So, sometimes the system works. But, it's frustrating when the goal posts keep getting moved, and it's equally frustrating when one online shop ends up being many months behind another, and there's no way to tell which one it's going to be with any given release.

It's sort of like how any time you get into a line at the grocery store, it always ends up being the longest damn line in history, simply by merit of the fact that you're standing in it now. Which is the main reason why I use self-checkouts whenever possible, because people are terrified of the damn things so there's basically never a wait.

Zob (is patient about most things, except the things I'm impatient about)

On Friday, July 29, 2022 at 6:18:15 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> It seems like every time a new batch of toys is announced, they go up for pre-order at most of the established online retailers at pretty much the same time. The major players here, as far as I'm concerned, are Hasbro Pulse, Target, Big Bad Toy Store, and Amazon. Entertainment Earth I will deal with if I have to (they charge too much for shipping) and occasionally I will deign to deal with the online portals for Walmart and Target.
>
> You'd think that once the toys are released, they would be distributed to all the various online shops at close to the same time, and then everybody would start shipping out more or less simultaneously. Obviously there are mitigating factors—a company like Walmart with a very large infrastructure might actually take longer to distribute freight to all its many distribution centers, but I would think it would be on the order of days, not many weeks or months.
>
> At this point, though, I have absolutely no way of knowing who the best online retailer is to order from. It's a total crap shoot. Sometimes Hasbro Pulse ships first, sometimes it's BBTS, sometimes it's Amazon. Hell, sometimes I find stuff at brick-and-mortar Walmart stores first. It's completely unpredictable.
>
> To put this in perspective: A lot of people are getting their hands on Legacy Motormaster now, if Twitter is any indication. I know he was available in Australia first, but now he's hit the USA in some capacity. People are seeing him in Target stores and some of the online pre-orders are being fulfilled. But, it seems like I must have ordered from the wrong place.
>
> Big Bad Toy Store has shipped a number of Motormaster orders, and he was in stock as recently as yesterday, but now I guess they're waiting for another batch of product, because they current list him as a pre-order again for December 2022. Target is sold out, but they claim he's going to be ready to ship in a few days on July 31st, 2022. Amazon's ship date is July 30th.
>
> Guess who I went with? Yeah, I had ordered Motormaster from Hasbro Pulse like a dumbass, and they say he's not shipping until November 2022. Ugh. Remind me why I pay fifty bucks a year for a premium subscription when I usually end up cancelling over half my pre-orders with them?
>
> Amazon's being a little bit deceptive, since they list him for pre-order with a release date of July 30, 2022 (tomorrow), but when I place an order, they say he won't ship until December 5th. That's ridiculous.
>
> And the thing of it is, you can't even go off the projected shipping dates any longer. They're a soft guide, at best. Online retailers tend to very frequently go, "Oh, just kidding, this item is being pushed back for six months" and they also go "hey, guess what, we're ready to ship four months earlier than we thought" almost as often. Obviously, getting a toy sooner is much more fun than getting it later (though it does play havoc with my monthly budget since I cannot predict any longer what month, or even sometimes what YEAR, purchases are going to come out of my bank account).
>
> Basically, this me me whining that other people are getting toys before I am. Yes, I realize it's completely childish.
>
> I mean, I've got Studio Series Sludge on the way. He's in transit as we speak. I saw that other people were getting Studio Series Arcee already, so I placed an Amazon order a few days ago and she's already on the way, too. So, sometimes the system works. But, it's frustrating when the goal posts keep getting moved, and it's equally frustrating when one online shop ends up being many months behind another, and there's no way to tell which one it's going to be with any given release.
>
> It's sort of like how any time you get into a line at the grocery store, it always ends up being the longest damn line in history, simply by merit of the fact that you're standing in it now. Which is the main reason why I use self-checkouts whenever possible, because people are terrified of the damn things so there's basically never a wait.
>
>
> Zob (is patient about most things, except the things I'm impatient about)

It seems like Walmart and Target don't fulfill preorders until after they supply the stores. The Target near here has Motormaster in stock on the floor, but many people in the area who preordered from Target have no update on their order.

We got Titan Legacy Metroplex and the other 8 cases of Obi-Wan Black Series today (to the best of my knowledge, it was on the Thursday shipment list and once it's on that list it's rare that we get allocated the next day.)

On Friday, July 29, 2022 at 7:18:15 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> It seems like every time a new batch of toys is announced, they go up for pre-order at most of the established online retailers at pretty much the same time. The major players here, as far as I'm concerned, are Hasbro Pulse, Target, Big Bad Toy Store, and Amazon. Entertainment Earth I will deal with if I have to (they charge too much for shipping) and occasionally I will deign to deal with the online portals for Walmart and Target.
>
> You'd think that once the toys are released, they would be distributed to all the various online shops at close to the same time, and then everybody would start shipping out more or less simultaneously. Obviously there are mitigating factors—a company like Walmart with a very large infrastructure might actually take longer to distribute freight to all its many distribution centers, but I would think it would be on the order of days, not many weeks or months.
>
> At this point, though, I have absolutely no way of knowing who the best online retailer is to order from. It's a total crap shoot. Sometimes Hasbro Pulse ships first, sometimes it's BBTS, sometimes it's Amazon. Hell, sometimes I find stuff at brick-and-mortar Walmart stores first. It's completely unpredictable.
>
> To put this in perspective: A lot of people are getting their hands on Legacy Motormaster now, if Twitter is any indication. I know he was available in Australia first, but now he's hit the USA in some capacity. People are seeing him in Target stores and some of the online pre-orders are being fulfilled. But, it seems like I must have ordered from the wrong place.
>
> Big Bad Toy Store has shipped a number of Motormaster orders, and he was in stock as recently as yesterday, but now I guess they're waiting for another batch of product, because they current list him as a pre-order again for December 2022. Target is sold out, but they claim he's going to be ready to ship in a few days on July 31st, 2022. Amazon's ship date is July 30th.
>
> Guess who I went with? Yeah, I had ordered Motormaster from Hasbro Pulse like a dumbass, and they say he's not shipping until November 2022. Ugh. Remind me why I pay fifty bucks a year for a premium subscription when I usually end up cancelling over half my pre-orders with them?
>
> Amazon's being a little bit deceptive, since they list him for pre-order with a release date of July 30, 2022 (tomorrow), but when I place an order, they say he won't ship until December 5th. That's ridiculous.
>
> And the thing of it is, you can't even go off the projected shipping dates any longer. They're a soft guide, at best. Online retailers tend to very frequently go, "Oh, just kidding, this item is being pushed back for six months" and they also go "hey, guess what, we're ready to ship four months earlier than we thought" almost as often. Obviously, getting a toy sooner is much more fun than getting it later (though it does play havoc with my monthly budget since I cannot predict any longer what month, or even sometimes what YEAR, purchases are going to come out of my bank account).
>
> Basically, this me me whining that other people are getting toys before I am. Yes, I realize it's completely childish.
>
> I mean, I've got Studio Series Sludge on the way. He's in transit as we speak. I saw that other people were getting Studio Series Arcee already, so I placed an Amazon order a few days ago and she's already on the way, too. So, sometimes the system works. But, it's frustrating when the goal posts keep getting moved, and it's equally frustrating when one online shop ends up being many months behind another, and there's no way to tell which one it's going to be with any given release.
>
> It's sort of like how any time you get into a line at the grocery store, it always ends up being the longest damn line in history, simply by merit of the fact that you're standing in it now. Which is the main reason why I use self-checkouts whenever possible, because people are terrified of the damn things so there's basically never a wait.
>
>
> Zob (is patient about most things, except the things I'm impatient about)

I blame the pandemic continuing to exacerbate supply chain issues.

On Saturday, July 30, 2022 at 6:38:08 AM UTC-6, William A. Rendfeld wrote:

> I blame the pandemic continuing to exacerbate supply chain issues.

It's infuriating that our supply chain infrastructure was so fragile that all it took to disrupt it was having a few factories shut down for a few months in 2020, and here we are, two years later, still trying to recover from that. It's preposterous.

Container ships are still bottlenecked at delivery ports, or are stuck on the water somewhere, or have just up and disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle. (Those big 53-foot containers used to cost $2000 to use but now they're closer to $20,000, and you still have to send it back to Asia when you're done.) Companies like Amazon have given up on container ships entirely and are looking into air freight so they can bypass the ports entirely, or building their own containers and chartering their own private ships so they can choose where to dock, and they get to keep the containers afterwards.

Some companies (like automotive manufacturers) are stockpiling and hoarding key components just in case there's another shortage, which is putting even more strain on an already broken supply chain. Retail stores are deliberately over-ordering "safety stock" to ensure they have something on the shelf to sell to customers. It's an overrreaction, after the fact.

Zob (still waiting for IKEA to get those Detolf shelves back in stock, too)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, July 30, 2022 at 6:38:08 AM UTC-6, William A. Rendfeld wrote:
>
>> I blame the pandemic continuing to exacerbate supply chain issues.
>
> It's infuriating that our supply chain infrastructure was so fragile that
> all it took to disrupt it was having a few factories shut down for a few
> months in 2020, and here we are, two years later, still trying to recover
> from that. It's preposterous.

There are chunks of China shut down now, if I’m not mistaken, as China is
continuing the Zero Covid policy. (Very recently, at least)

And trucking has been screwed up for a while by increasingly exploitive
“independent contractor” arrangements. We currently have a shortage of
truckers who are willing to work for the wages offered, with so many of the
costs and risks put on them.

Slack and redundancies in the system costs money, and no one has any
incentive for that. Welcome to Late Stage Capitalism as the young ‘uns say
(they are very optimistic)

On Friday, July 29, 2022 at 5:18:15 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> Guess who I went with? Yeah, I had ordered Motormaster from Hasbro Pulse like a dumbass, and they say he's not shipping until November 2022. Amazon's being a little bit deceptive, since they list him for pre-order with a release date of July 30, 2022 (tomorrow), but when I place an order, they say he won't ship until December 5th. That's ridiculous.

As a follow-up to this, the people who were told by Amazon to expect Motormaster on December 5th are apparently receiving their Motormaster toys. Hasbro Pulse is also shipping. Beginning of August is basically November, right?

All I want is to be able to budget for this stuff. My wife asks me what this charge was for $96.50 was, and I can't think of anything that's coming out this month, so I have no idea. Here's me, thinking Motormaster isn't coming out for three more months.

There used to be something called "just in time" replenishment. It was retail science, and it allowed stores to predict, often to the day and sometimes even to the hour, when they were going to sell out of something. As an oversimplified model, let's say a store sells, on average, one bottle of shampoo a day. They can only place orders once every two weeks, though. So, obviously it makes sense to place an order that will allow them to have 14 bottles, enough to last for those two weeks. Sure, there are always other factors (a person might randomly decide to stock up and buy all 14 bottles on the shelf in one day) but it makes far more sense to have 14 in stock than only one, or many dozens.

My point is that you used to be able to do things like that. Now it seems like the current retail sales model is, "Well, let's just order 300 of them now, just in case it takes months until we can reorder again" and then stores get stuck with hundreds of extras that they are neither selling, nor have the room to store.

Hasbro's inability to predict the production schedule or shipping schedule of their own toys is just a small symptom of a much larger problem.

Zob (armchair market analyst-at-large)

On Thursday, August 4, 2022 at 6:34:16 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Friday, July 29, 2022 at 5:18:15 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
>
> > Guess who I went with? Yeah, I had ordered Motormaster from Hasbro Pulse like a dumbass, and they say he's not shipping until November 2022. Amazon's being a little bit deceptive, since they list him for pre-order with a release date of July 30, 2022 (tomorrow), but when I place an order, they say he won't ship until December 5th. That's ridiculous.
>
> As a follow-up to this, the people who were told by Amazon to expect Motormaster on December 5th are apparently receiving their Motormaster toys. Hasbro Pulse is also shipping. Beginning of August is basically November, right?

I got my Motormaster. His feet amuse me -- he has a tiny fake cab tucked away inside him that he swivels out to be toes! I assume that this is what "really" goes on inside the robot now.

I have felt no urge to connect up the frame of Menasaur without three of the limb fillers though.

> All I want is to be able to budget for this stuff. My wife asks me what this charge was for $96.50 was, and I can't think of anything that's coming out this month, so I have no idea. Here's me, thinking Motormaster isn't coming out for three more months.

Did they trick you?

> Hasbro's inability to predict the production schedule or shipping schedule of their own toys is just a small symptom of a much larger problem.

There's another possibility -- they would simply rather not be bothered. That type of planning costs money, and why not just not bother and make it someone else's problem and someone else's money? You have credit cards...

I have four out of five of the Wreckers, long before they were supposed to ship. I expect Leadfoot and Masterdominus will arrive in November. (Bulkhead comes with a small hammer he can wield, in addition to his part of the cardboard hammer that just goes in the recycling... Bulkhead also looks great, I just wish his windows were solid black plastic rather than really dark translucent gray)

> Zob (armchair market analyst-at-large)