Small Scale Military Headquarters

I don't know if its my location here in the Midwest, but Ive lost faith in TRU and Walmart is'nt far behind. The TRU here are combined w/ the KidsRus and a little of BabysRus. Thats at every store here in the St.Louis area. Well it totally scaled the to toy selection. 21st was gone about 1.5 years ago. the only thing the had left was the City Fountain and Bulldog tank. Then BBI moved in, had all the helo and vehicles, Cool there is still hope! Well about the past year the BBIs have been slowly faded away. There are 2 TRU about 15min from where I live, I go to both of them about 5wks ago and between the 2 stores I buy the LAST "Little Bird". I asked a Ass. Mang. if they were going to be getting more BBI or 21st in and he said they don't plan on carrying them anymore

Now WM is weird. I was a a Super WM yesterday and all they had was the Tiger & M113. The 2 other WM closer to my house carry whatever they feel like. Before Christmas they had enough 1:18 to start a new war;spitfires,shermans,P-47BT, Tigers,M113 & FW-190. They even had the 1:6 RC Staurt. I go back 3days after the holidays and 95% of the stuff is gone I lucky bought the p-47BT. Again I asked about all the 1:18 and the answer was they stock it for the Holidays then they go on sale for a week later, then they get rid of them. Where the hell do they GO???? And way is it Motorworks and WM????

I wish that TRU and WM could be more STABLE w/ their products
Is it like this w/ you guys or what? At least there is BadCat

Thanks for letting me rant, this has annoyed be for a while and now I can tell people who understand

well i hear ya bro!
i was just thinking the same thing..sort of yesterday. i have several stores "near me" and i spent half the day hunting. granted all i was looking for was the clearance LAV's for $9 but i also wanted to see if wally had some clearance stuff too. last week i got lucky...but not on 1:18 stuff...found some LOTR stuff on sale. but my problem is more with wally...i would much rather go to one section (the GI Joe/BBI and what used to be 21st C) rather than walk around endless eilses at wally world "hoping" to see anything...some stores i have found just stock planes. while other stores stock a ton of stuff from 1:18 and 1:32 stuff to 6 RC stewarts, Kubs and WB (1:6)! i just don't like inconsistency and add to that wading thru dozens of other shoppers just to be dissapointed...yet again. the only saving grace is the "ignorance" of the store worker who marks a M113 at $6....well at least it looks like a mistake to me...i may be the ignorant one.

and funny thing is that i think this was sort a topic a few months ago on GPs board - people being dissapointed with TRU/wally. well i personally wish walmart never got the 21st/motorworks account and TRU had the nuts to stay with the lines...but alas not so. i mean even if you are lucky to find stuff at wally world..like i did yesterday..all the boxes had major crush damage...at least the ones on floor level. and they were still $40-$30.
yep i too in the past year have gotten most of my stuff from BadCat and it has been great.
it's because of them we have been able to buy some of the best 1:18 products with speed.

well that is not all i have to say about that...but i'll stop..

oh by the way..one of the reasons i hold TRU kinda high on my list is cuz one of their employees helped put out my engine fire when it when ablaze!!!..but that is another story

well here's looking forward to a better year...it started off pretty dang well. let's hope we don't have a 21st/BBI sandwich year.

TRU and WM have been the bane of the XD collecting world from day 1. If you go back 4 years, we were all bitching about availability of the Kepford Corsair at TRU with many desperate postings. When WM started stocking XD with the limited edition Korea Corsair, a lot of people were screaming why they only selected certain stores. The shock arrivial of the razerback P-47s right before Christmas got everybody up in a stir as distribution was rearing it's ugly head.

One of the main blockers to us getting XD in our stores are the managers. When first stocked, XD was a one-time shot per store. If the manager didn't want them, he/she had the ability to block future shipments. This really pissed me off. So, the stores that didn't block XD shipments got 2x or 3x the stock that they expected, thus mass markdowns to clear the excess load.

Hopefully, with the dedicated shelf space now coming into effect, we might see an improvement in the distribution of XD. With only a dedicated space for 4 planes, how this actually works out, I don't know.

You will have to accept the ups and downs of our hobby and balance whether you are willing to wait, or buy from an on-line source. Many ofus have been through this thing for the last 4+ years now. Gotta take the lumps you know...........

-Ski

The bad part is, back around 1998-99 I was roaming through TRU and saw they had a blue nose P-51 and Me109 hanging from the ceiling. I go down the aisle, and stacked floor to ceiling down the whole aisle was 21st 1:18. All the buildings, tanks , jeeps, kubelwagens, and planes, from WWII to modern. I stared in amazement and thought, cool I need to start buying these. Well about a year later I finally bought the Stuka, but it was to late the writing was on the wall. TRU combined w/ KRU and the stock slowing started to disappear. Lucky, my wife knew I liked the XD and went to all the TRU and got the US & german Halftrack, Tiger, green P-38 and the British Corsair for my Christmas gifts. After that they were gone. Lucky they re-released in different paint schemes years later, so I finally got the sherman, panther, jeep,and different airplanes I missed the first time around. Jeez.... I finally found the grey Kubelwagen on ebay and paid $35 for it I missed it before and was'nt going to let it happen again. I know they might release it again, but I did'nt want to take a chance. I learned my lesson that I waited to long to buy saying "Oh I'll get that later" when there was'nt a LATER. I see a new arrival at WM or TRU, I buy it, cause you never know it might not be there tomorrow.


Do you think 21st and BBI really knew "older" boys would be buying these things. Everytime I look at my collection, I can't imagine a 8-12year old playing with these. Just the size of the planes seems like it would be hard for little hands to hold.

I don't want to think about it, but I don't know what I going to collect if they ever stop w/ the 1:18 military
I guess I will have to buy the different paint schemes ones off of Ebay

Distribution at WM is slowly improving. I remember the P-47 Razorback and AH-1W fiasco (I don't think I have ever seen the Cobra at Wal Mart in the Fresno area). However, I have been able to find just about every subsequent release, save for the P-47bubbletops and some of the new fw-190 schemes. I really can't complain about the WM distribution, or the wait to get something there (like the 109G) as the Hobbytown USA store in Fresno carries most XD products, and has a good selection of about 2-4 of each repaint and type of plane avaliable to the small retailers, as well as the armor. I can usually fall back on them, as I did with the P-47 and the AH-1W.

I to live in the St Louis area and I gave up going to WM & TRU 2 or 3 times a week looking. I now pay a few more dollars and buy what I want on line. Probably in the long run with sales tax, gas and time spent it is probably as cheap going the online route.

I suspect that the online retailers will be getting the bulk of the business in the next couple of years because they consistently get the products and can get them to you in a timely fashion. I have realized that time is valuable and I don't have as much of it as I used to with work and family obligations. It was diificult at first to pay a little more for things online but after years of searching for items in this area I was spending too much time and getting very few rewards so I started ordering from online sources like Badcat and a few others, even Ebay and have enjoyed it and am pleased with what I get most of the time. It is still great to walk into a store and find the item you have been looking for and I like to actually see something before I buy it, however I am slowly giving way to buying online more and more.
Todd

I also was getting frustrated at the countless visits to TRU and WM only to find nothing was there, but for some reason, I still try to hunt items down at a local store before purchasing on-line, however, I must admit that as the newer products come out I find myself ordering them on-line now rather than waiting for them to hit the retail shelves.

I agree with the poster above regarding online retailers, they're essentially a steady hand in unsure times...HOWEVER, I still enjoy "hunting" for the items at stores weekend after weekend, and getting frustrated just makes it that much sweeter when you happen across new items, or clearanced items on the shelves. I must say, that the hobby must be growing, because I typically take notes as to what store has what and how many pieces, and I've been noticing more and more stock being sold this year than previous years. It's a good sign in that more people are getting exposed to the hobby, but it's bad for me as its harder to find the pieces..lol damned if you do, damned if you don't!!!

I agree with WGP.. I Love the trill of the hunt... And that occasion when I catch something on Clearance or discounted.. Walmart has had some good stuff lately, but the local TRUs haven't had Crap..

I also like the hunt, since I am already out looking for Star Wars, McFarlane, and anything else that strikes my fancy. Also, I love the thrill of scoring something on clearance and being able to actually see what I am buying. Sorry, but BadCat is my last resorts since it irks me to pay $15 more than it costs me in stores, even if it means the Walmart hell.

That said, its the lack of XD and BBi that even shows up that worries me. Before, I could generally find most of what was released. Now, it is getting few and far between. And the less that shows up, the less on clearance.

Damn, I wish Target would start getting BBi and XD.

I typically love the hunt of items. Makes it a bit fun, although hurts the gas tank of your car. I love walking into a TRU not knowing what I may find. Star Wars, Military, etc. I've had many times where I've walked into a K-Mart, Target, Walmart, TRU expecting to find nothing... and finding more than I thought they could have at once. I remember one time when I walked into a K-Mart that usually carried no Star Wars Figures I was SHOCKED to see that they had the entire green card line of the Power of the Force (1997 I believe). All the rares, everyone. They had just stocked the shelves. Naturally, I bought every one I could and just about completed the entire green card series.

I've reached the point in my life that I have enough other things to do, that I really can't spend a lot of time on "the hunt", especially for just one thing. There is a TRU close to my house that I hit once a month or so (or when I hear something new is out), but beyond that, my "hunting" is done online.

Of course, the horrid traffic I have to deal with (Washington DC) has something to do with that too.

That's not to say that, for example, if I have to go out to my corporate offices, I won't stop by the strip mall that has a Target, a Wal-Mart AND a TRU, all within walking distance of one another, but that only happens about once a month, and again, I'm not out there for the "hunt", I'm out there for something else and can hit three stores in about 30 minutes.

Do I miss the "hunt"? Sure, sometimes. But, most of the time I'm happier to order something and know that it's on it's way.