Your TRU must be on a different planogram or something because I've never seen all that stuff together. Usually spread out on end caps and random aisles. They also don't group the old or clearance stuff (when something actually goes on clearance) in any noticeable way.

Yeah, I don't know if anyone's been to the TRU collector's aisle in a while, but mine still has the same stuff stocked 2+ years ago. The same is true of every big box store and major retailer in my area. They all still carry some Samurai and 2010 MMPR because it just isn't selling. Power Rangers has a deeply devoted fandom (myself included) but it's a very small fandom compared to the toy lines you see covering half of your local toy aisles. Saban and Bandai are pulling out all the stops to put Power Rangers back on the map this year with the anniversary and it seems to be going very well, but it's not the unstoppable merchandising force it was back in 93.

I for one am grabbing one for myself even if it means scalpers prices. As far as everyone expecting $500, unless this thing gets a toned down wide release, you're looking at the next 14k Gold Galaxy Megazord. While Galaxy may be incredibly limited, what is essentially a 20-year-overdue BoA official Dragon Buckler has infinitely more demand. Even if it does get a wide release, it will never be as hot as a 24k gold plated one, just saying...

Who cares how many Toys R Us stores you have in your state? My original point was that the gold legacy morpher was not planned for Toys R Us and rejected by them per Kickback's postulation. Rather, it would not surprise me if Toys R Us would have jumped at the opportunity to have such a coveted item as an exclusive - as it did for the regular legacy morpher - because it would sell well to collectors - just like the regular version they are already carrying - and which keeps going out of stock.

But, you know? You guys are right!

Toys R Us doesn't acknowledge the fan or collector demographic. Neither does any other retailer for that matter. That's why even mainstream toy lines carried by retailers like Target, Walmart, etc. often contain chase figures. You know, for the kids. Stores don't care about creating more foot traffic by acknowledging that collectors will come to their store more often if they can't find what they're looking for the first time. For the same reason, retailers hate collector-oriented lines like Marvel Legends, DC Universe, Star Wars 6" Black Series, etc. and never have exclusive waves or figures, because collectors just don't care about those. Only kids do. You know, with all the money kids make from their lucrative careers as kids.

And, of course, the Legacy Morpher is aimed primarily at kids, as well. Toys R Us is only selling it because they think this $60 item from a 20-year-old show will appeal mostly to kids and moms. They didn't give fans or collectors a second thought when they decided to carry it, because there's clearly no valuable market in an existing fan base, they wouldn't sell, and Toys R Us wouldn't make any money. And because the legacy morpher is currently shelf warming and not selling out online either, there's no way Toys R Us would be interested in selling the same, unsuccessful item in gold - not when the silver version has been doing so poorly.

And there's no way Bandai could convince Toys R Us to sell a gold version of such a wildly unsuccessful item that Toys R Us is losing so much money on - not even in a smaller quantity! So, it's perfectly reasonable that Bandai's only other option was to release just 1,000 for SDCC. They had no other choice!

Yup. Toys R Us doesn't care about collectors or selling to them or anything - neither does any other store for that matter. All exclusives and higher end items are meant primarily for kids and moms to tirelessly hunt down in all their free time and spend premium prices on with their endless budgets. The vast majority of retailers would prefer not to make any more money from collectors than they already get from regular, kid-oriented items. That's why Mattel doesn't make 6"-scale figures with more detail and articulation in addition to 4"-scale figures with virtually no articulation. That's why Hasbro hasn't bothered to follow suit with its own 6" Star Wars figures. That's also why no retailer carries these 6" figures, because no one - no one at all - acknowledges fans or collectors enough to want to get their money from them.

We're just a forgotten bunch that no one cares about or appreciates. :cry

They wouldn't care if there wasn't some sort of "dust collector bonus."

TRU would only jump on that "opportunity" if there was something that made it worthwhile to them in the end.

It's not like TRU or any retailer for that matter is interested in pandering to the small, niche market of the adult neckbeard collector.

Again, your examples are hit and miss. Most "exclusive" or "collector" items shelf-warm. It is quite possible to have that diamond in the rough (Power Morpher for example) but most of it collects dust.

True, and would a profit not be worthwhile to them? Do you really think, after the sales performance of the legacy morpher, that TRU wouldn't think they would profit from selling a gold legacy morpher? Afterall, TRU fell for Mattel's MOTUC-DCU 2-packs.

Of course. That's why retailers avoid exclusive figures or waves in collector lines. They hate pandering. That's especially why there are so few Star Wars exclusives. After all, there are no Star Wars collectors to make money from.

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove, but each and every one of my examples hit precisely to counter the absurd assertion that I was originally refuting, which is that retailers don't "acknowledge" fans or collectors. Clearly, by their conduct, demonstrated by my examples, they do. Just because collector stuff might shelf-warm sometimes, doesn't mean that retailers don't keep trying to capture that lightning in a bottle and profit by selling to collectors what collectors want.

http://media.heavy.com/media/2013/05/damn.jpg

The amount of arguing in this post.

They only "care" about the collectors if there is money behind it.

And those Batman figures you're talking about? Shelf warming at my local Walmart. Star Wars figures? Shelf warming.

You know how I know all this? I work at Walmart. In Toys.

Retailers don't go out of their way to recognize what is "collectable" or otherwise. They get told that by toy manufacturers. There's no research to be done, because retailers are just told what will be profitable for them based on the manufacturer's research.

It'd hardly call it arguing. But hey, thanks for contributing to the discussion with a flame-baiting meme.

Definitely wasn't my intention to annoy anyone. Was just trying to lighten the mood. It seems that people were getting a bit heated over something so simple.

I'm being sincere when I say that I appreciated your efforts.

Anyway, I would find it incredibly ironic if Jason David Frank somehow manages to miss out on this thing. In the meantime, I need to find myself a regular Legacy Power Morpher. I'll be fudged if I don't sock a mugger in the face with that thing while yelling, "Triceratops!"

I was hoping that with the release of this the price of the regular one would go down but they are still like fifty quid on Amazon and that is the US one so I'd have to pour money on top for shipping and customs and I'm just not hardcore enough a collector to pay near a hundred pound for a piece of plastic and a few coins, which is all it really is at the end of the day.