Small Scale Military Headquarters

I'm a 32x (or smaller) guy; but when I saw the XD18 Avengers marked down to $15 at a San Diego Wally, I had to nab a few (still more left). They rang up at $49, but since they were all ticketed $15, the manager sold them at the lower price (I think he was happy to get rid of them). Go get 'em guys!
--Mike, gitoys

ok, now I am getting really depressed about my local WMs! Still at $49, and probably not likely to go lower...

Now that's a great deal!

Incredible deal but i'd be more excited to hear they all sold out at full price. Deep discounts imply weak sales which implies future products may suffer as a result.

Never even saw Avengers at a Wal Mart in my town - save for at a small retailer - and now they are going for $15 in some places. Amazing! Still, if my town ever did get Avengers, they'd probably sit around for quite a while. Shame to see such a great plane getting discounted to extreme lows.

Poor strategy (an Atlantic paint scheme for the first issue? Huh?) + Poor distribution (not even a whiff of one in the Southeast) = Poor Sales. The math isn't complicated.

I have to disagree with Corpbob. I believe in saving better schemes for later - there will always be demand for 1st schemes. Also, this bird made it cross country and even to the tri-state area (XD wasteland) pretty damn quick so distribution was not that bad. What clearly did happen was that the first shipment sold like hotcakes (to us) and the re-order was way too big considering the diehards were already spoken for. I wouldn't worry too much about the clearance as an indication of success - this is a huge box that the managers would love to get off the floor. After all, how many 190s did we ever see clearanced and we all know how that bird did...

I'm not seeing Avengers at all in my AO! As for the Atlantic paint scheme... I think its great. I live on an Island in the atlantic which during WWII had German U boats sinking ships faster then they could be made.
I would have thought 21st would do a Pasific paint scheme first. But what the hell there here (well in country) just not in my part of it.

Went back to where I picked up my Avenger half off - all the others are still there at $49.00

If the Me109s and FW 190's are still sitting at $39.99 i dont think we will see them move.

Now I will say the first wave of Avengers (4 of them) arrived before thanksgiving and were gone in about a week. I was holding one and thinking i should take it to layaway - never did.
The collectors in the area got them fast - which is why WM reordered the next wave of 20 i guess -

digger wrote:I have to disagree with Corpbob. I believe in saving better schemes for later - there will always be demand for 1st schemes. Also, this bird made it cross country and even to the tri-state area (XD wasteland) pretty damn quick so distribution was not that bad. What clearly did happen was that the first shipment sold like hotcakes (to us) and the re-order was way too big considering the diehards were already spoken for. I wouldn't worry too much about the clearance as an indication of success - this is a huge box that the managers would love to get off the floor. After all, how many 190s did we ever see clearanced and we all know how that bird did...

You know, Digger, you made a point about way too big of a reorder--kind of makes you wonder what may have been put on hold for the production run... Same with the new halftracks and such.

I really hope that Walmart doesn't take this is a sign that a big bird is a bad idea, or that the $70 price point won't work. Based on how quickly the first round sold out in most every area I know of, I would take that as a sign that demand is there--but just because they sell 8 or 10 in 2-3 weeks doesn't mean they should immediately reorder 20 or more! If you consider what a consistent distribution of 10 per store and a reorder of let's say 6 per store means in overall quantities--that's still a lot of birds! It's that ongoing WM problem, and not just with XD: oversaturation in some areas, and absolute drought in others.

WOW!!!! $15!!!!! At those prices, the stock should move out pretty fast.

I haven't bought a WWII item since the very first series...but at $15 I'd have to make an exception.

-However, none of the Wally's in my AO have gotten any Avengers, MiG's, F-86's, Mustangs, Pioneerwagens, US halftracks, the other German halftrack, and only one store got the Luftwaffe F-104. I once saw the two humvees, dodge truck and SEAL jeep. Figure appearances are spotty at best. And I have at least 12 Wal-Marts that I can search between the far west side of Cleveland down to Youngstown. THAT is a waste-land my friends.

I can fully understand why Bad Cat got so pissed off.

All those excess Avengers selling now for steep discounts. Those are the same Avengers that could have been sold by BCA for regular price.

Wal-Mart hogs all the inventory and then does not evenly distribute it. At least at BCA they ship just about anywhere.

What would it take to get Wal-Mart to sell XD online? And would you buy XD online from them?

Wal-Mart is definately a love/hate relationship for me.

John,
Do you remember when BCA got the Smoke II 104s before anyone else? And do you remember how after they were done selling the $60 pre-orders it was not long before they were "clearanced" to $35? I don't remember anyone crying for Military Toy Shop, SmallJoes, Aviatornut, ToyFed, and others...
Let's keep all this in perspective...

WOW $15. !!

Nice pics, Aviatornut! Good looking Bunkerhill custom.

Dang, that BH Avenger looks cool I wonder how the 21c version - or the Bush Avenger - will compare... Hopefully Avengers in a Pacific scheme will be plentiful when they first show. I really like my "Atlantic" Avenger, but one of those big planes in blue & white looks great!

I have to agree with the comments about poor distribution being a major issue. Of the 12 or so stores that I get around to within a few hours drive of here, only 1 of them got any Avengers, and that store sold a few at full price and now has the balance of 10 or 12 on clearance. I guarantee that if WM had distrbuted them so that each store had received just a couple, then all of them would have sold pronto at full price.

Hi,
$15 for a 1:18 Avenger is an amazing price, well below the manufacturer's wholesale price. If I had a Walmart in my neck of the woods, I'd buy them all and put them in storage. Once the market runs dry, you can then resell 'em for full price.

At this time of the year, Walmart is probably just looking at how much space they take up vis a vis other items that would sell better after the holiday season. Of course, the manufacturer cant be too happy about how low they're being sold off for, considering all the time, effort and energy that went into producing them and getting them to market in time for the holidays...

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

GIToys, which WM did you find them for $15. I live in the Temecula area of the Inland Empire. No Avengers anywhere in this area. Be worth a drive down ot SD to pick one up.

Hi...this was the Poway Walmart...of course, the Avengers went really fast once marked down. I nabbed a bunch of $5 XD18 vehicles and the Pak40. Everytime I think I'm done with XD, clearences bring me back!
--Mike, gitoys