I know some of this information is scattered around in various posts but I thought it might be interesting to sort of take the pulse and see what's available in the different areas and how our beloved Joes are doing at retail stores. So please feel free post what you're finding out there in your neck of the woods.
A couple of questions I have:
1) When will we see wave 8 2008 on store shelves? Hasbro Canada has them in their warehouse, but to my knowledge they still have not hit retail.
2) Just how many of those darn wave 1 vehicles are left out there. Just when a store finally sells through their stock, they come back with even more of the same. Will we ever see newer waves in Canada?
Wal~Mart
It seems that most Wal~Marts are re-doing their toy aisle right now. In this area it looks like G.I. Joe is finally getting a little respect. The "plano-gram" has them positioned right beside the Transformers (rather than hidden away in the flex space as they had been until now). There are two pegs allotted for singles, two for combat heroes as well as a shelf space for Vehicles.
Cambridge
Singles: There are still 8 singles left over from the Christmas stock. Mostly Flint in Cobra disguise and Bazooka Troopers.
Combat Heroes: A couple of pegs worth. At least two of each of the 3 wave one sets.
Vehicles: Just started carrying the vehicles assortment at Christmas. They put out one HISS tank and one Air Chariot Vs Armadillo several weeks ago.....the Air Chariot Vs Armadillo is still there. Surprise, surprise.
Kitchener (Fairview Mall)
Singles: Nothing. This store has never been very good at stocking singles and I rarely find anything there.
Combat Heroes: They brought in a case or two around Christmas and still have a few left over.
Vehicles: Re-stocked with 2 cases (Canadian) of wave 1 vehicles. This store has actually sold through quite a few vehicles but they just keep restocking with more of the same. It may be a long time
Kitchener (Sunrise Center)
Singles: A whole bunch of left overs (I'd guess 15 to 20) from wave 7 08. Mostly Pilot Scarlett, Flint and Bazooka Troopers.
Combat Heroes: Two pegs full of them. Probably 2 or 3 of each set.
Vehicles: They brought in a ton of wave 1 vehicles when they were first released in the 2-pack case assortment and they've yet to sell through them. There's 4-5 of each set still on the shelf.
Toys-R-Us
Kitchener
What was once a pretty decent Joe section has now been dismantled. What ever singles are left have been thrown into a bin with some Ben-10 or some such thing, and the remaining vehicles (a half dozen or so) have been buried in the middle of the military aisle along with a single DVD pack and 3 or 4 command 3 packs.
They haven't seen a restock in a long long time and oddly enough it seems they never made it past the Wave 4 2008 Revision 2 case. I've never seen a single figure there from waves 6 and 7.
