The toy section at the Walmart that's basically next door to me has been overhauled, and it's not good.

NO space allocated to DCUC WHATSOEVER!

Additionally, dang little space for G.I. Joe.

Only lines that I pay attention to that had a reasonable amount of space were Transformers, Star Wars, Iron Man, and Tron -- and nothing new in any of them.

Meanwhile, over a third of an aisle dedicated to those blasted Kung Zhu hamsters, and the rest of that aisle was given over to Toy Story and something called Generator Rex.

I get the impression my toy hunting just got a lot harder, because it's sure not going to be right next door.

This is a show on Cartoon Network on Friday nights. Seems to be aimed at the Ben 10 crowd.

Yeah, there seems to be a massive shift of product. Not sure what is going to end up being included or excluded at this point, but the area was definitely in flux the other day when I was there.

DCUC has been on clearance for a few weeks now, 11.00 each. Mostly wave 13 and some Booster Golds which have been there forever.

I wouldn't read too much into that. My TRU the other day had no DCUC on the shelf either. The associate I talked to said it was just temporary as they re-organize the store in the wake of Christmas.

Agree with you about those stupid hamsters, though. They've invaded the action figure aisle to two of my Walmarts as well.

I noticed this at the local Wal-Mart today. All of the DCUC have been placed in the clearance aisle, mostly Booster Gold and Blue Beetles, but there were three sets of Wave 14, minus Alan Scott and 6 Green Lantern packs.

One Walmart in my area had placed their DCUC on their clearance area sometime last year after wave 10, when they had cleared the figures, they did not re-stock anymore. If this will be the trend for those DCUCs placed on clearance, that may be a bad sign for DCUCs at Walmarts. Hopefully not.

Guess what has invaded the action figure aisle of my closest Walmart? Barbies. Yes, I was shocked too. They're redoing their aisles and the Pink stuff somehow germinated into my action figures from two aisles away. It looked really weird. I've Never seen that before. Barbies and pink stuff next to Star Wars.

All my Walmarts pretty much have no DCUC at the moment, and I'm talking 5 or so stores and it's been that way for a while. There's one store that has not had a SINGLE DC MATTEL TOY since before Christmas 2009. No DCUC , No DCIH, no Action League, not even a Batman Brave and The Bold. One of my stores has "GL Figure Asst" listed for the reset but I don't have much hope that they'll get anything.

I think this may be the new normal for toys now. Walmart specifically has been very, very cautious on stocking too many toys over the last 18 months or so.

With Walmart giving groceries and pharmacy a larger share of the store aisles, and toys not being a very profitable product overall, it not too surprising to see the toy presence diminishing. It seems we're heading into a primarily movie-based toy foundation for store buying preferences... even more than previously.

Smaller non-movie toy lines, or toy lines without a big marketing push may not make it into Walmart anymore. Boys toys is one aisle, girls toys is one aisle, toddlers have an aisle and there's sort of a catch-all aisle for non category stuff. That's it for the Walmarts in my area.

When xmas comes around we'll see the green aisle bins with seasonal toys for sure, but that will probably be it for any real toy presence at Walmart (and possibly Target) through the year, and moving forward. Walmart has made an obvious effort to reduce their overall toy inventory. The times they be a changing (even more).

Regards,

Geoff

Yes, toys at Wal-Mart have been reduced significantly in the last year and a half, and seems to be going that way further. This is grim news for the Wal-Mart exclusive wave for 2011 (wave 19?) and I hope it isn't a wave 5 situation all over again. Time will tell I guess. I am still looking for a Gold figure myself, and going on a run Tuesday so I am hoping to find him tomorrow.

my nearest wal mart has all their dcuc in clearence for $7
bunch of eclipsos

i fear the future of the line at this store....already deosnt carry brave bold either

The toy reduction is a major reason for a lot of this. Space will be given to those properties that sell very well or have a media tie-in. Personally, Kung Zhu has more of my interest than GI JOE. A terrible movie and lackluster toyline has essentially killed it for me in the same way that Michael Bay ruined Transformers. I would not be shocked if DCUC shows up again more places along with the GL movie items in March. BatB is something of a line on life support, so I would not be shocked if many WM's do not have any.

At one local Walmart, about half of their supply of Wave 14 were marked down to $11, too. (Not sure why it was only half, though--the rest were $14.97).

I have two Walmarts near me. Last year, one got in a giant load of wave 10 around Christmas and just before a remodel that turned the normal Walmart into a Super. There was such an over saturation of 10 that they finally marked them down to $2 to move them. When the remodel was complete, we too had the shrunken toy section- and no DCUC.

This year, what does the other Super Walmart do? Same massive over-order of 14. I fear that this means the end of DCUC in my area Walmarts, cus these puppies aren't moving, and if they shrink the toy section at this Walmart as well, then DCUC will be one of the first to go.

Some of my Walmarts have dropped toy space. A couple fairly significantly. Others haven't changed anything as far as I can tell.

I haven't noticed a significant change at Target, either.

Might be time to join several of you in the "buy it online" club. There's something in my DNA that makes me loath paying for shipping, but if the space for my lines doesn't even exist in the store . . . what else am I supposed to do?

My store's reset has moved the DCUCs around the corner to the next aisle with 3 pegs for DCUC and 2 shelf slots below it for GLCs (with Brave and the Bold to the left and Action League to the right), so Walmart hasn't given up on DCUC but it seems that they might be adjusting the stores that do get them.

Probably going back to the way it was 18 months ago.
No sense in carrying them if they all hang on the shelf. I'm hoping a reduction in price with new product is the happy answer.

Go back to 11-12 bucks a pop and carry less, then load more and be stuck with captain cold for 16 bucks