{"id":3642,"date":"2010-02-01T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T06:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3642"},"modified":"2010-02-01T00:16:29","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T06:16:29","slug":"itsalltrue-net-toy-run-2-clearance-toys-are-our-undoing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3642","title":{"rendered":"ItsAllTrue.Net Toy Run #2: Clearance Toys Are Our Undoing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You know the drill. You get up and you think you could get lucky today. You get ready and put on some nice clothes so you can at least feel presentable if you happen to get checked out. You hop in the car and travel to whichever place you’ve deemed best to satisfy your desires. You arrive with giddy anticipation. It’s now or never, you tell yourself as you round that last corner. What awaits? Will it be great joy or intense dissatisfaction?<\/p>\n

Anything can happen on a Toy Run… <\/p>\n

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Traditionally, January is not a great month for a toy run. A lot of stores are working on inventory or getting rid of the previous year’s stock and most toy companies don’t ship new product as a result. But this year, we have Mattel dropping DCUC12, Public Enemies Wave 2, and their new Wrestling product on stores. And while we’ve been keeping an eye out for most of that stuff (and the TRU exclusive Animated Arcee), this toy run isn’t about that. It’s about that stuff from last year. The kryptonite to our toy budgets. Clearance.<\/p>\n

I think most toy collectors know it well. We can resolve to buy on a budget. We can agree with our spouses that we only collect this or that toy line. We can work up the willpower to pass up a cool toy when it is full price. But there is something about clearance. Is it that we’re getting a deal? Is that we finally see the lower price point as fair? I don’t know. But I do know this – I used to be a sucker for a good sale. I’ve gotten better as the years have gone on, but there’s still a certain thrill to a clearance toy run. Maybe you’ll find something you wanted, but cheaper. Maybe you’ll find something you didn’t know you wanted, but at a price too good to pass up. Maybe it’s just fun to hunt when you’re not hunting for something specific. I don’t know.<\/p>\n

The last week of January is one of the best times to hit up the local Wal-Marts for clearance. That’s when they start making deeper cuts on most of their markdowns. If something you weren’t sure about buying is still there, you might return to find yourself all the more tempted by the lower price of round two. For most of our stores, we saw that happen on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. This time, we didn’t hit up Wal-Mart #1 (the craptastic one) that we covered in our first toy run aritcle<\/a>, but here’s what we found at our other stores…<\/p>\n

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Wal-Mart #2 – The Reliable One<\/h1>\n

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As we said before, clearance product can be killer on the toy budget. If you passed on it once, you don’t need it, right? That’s sound advice, of course, but sometimes it’s hard to follow.<\/p>\n

In particular, I’ve had a difficult time swearing off Animated Transformers. It’s not something I wanted to start, but I was unable to resist a few times and picked up a couple. I grabbed Blurr and Grimlock when they were released and while I liked them both, I didn’t think I needed to get deeper into the line. Then, they showed Rodimus Minor (Hot Rod!) and Arcee at SDCC. That was a blow to my resolve – I have to have those two. Then, I started finding some TFAs on clearance the last few weeks and spent some money. So far, I’ve found Ultra Magnus for $20 and Shockwave & Sentinel Prime for $7. On this particular toy run, I ran across a $9 Skywarp. Now, I’ve made the decision to try and stick with just the movie transformers (Wreck-Gar, Arcee, and Rodimus) going forward, but Skywarp was a good price. I decided to leave it behind. There are a few Voyager class figures I might want that weren’t “movie” ones, but Skywarp isn’t one of them.<\/p>\n

It’s not just Animated Transformers that I find intriguing either. There’s been some movie and universe product that I’ve wanted to buy too, but Transformers toydom is just too immense for me. I don’t know where to jump in some times and I applaud anyone that can keep up with it. Despite my trying to stay away, there always seems to be a tempting Transformer when I go to the store. One toy that both Vault and I kinda want is Fearswoop from the ROTF line. I know it’s just a tiger-striped jet that that turns into a cyclops with skimpy legs, but there is something we both like about him. He looks fun and sometimes it’s nice to pick up a ‘toy’ now and again in the age of ‘adult collectibles’. Still, we passed on him at $24, and again at $12. Now, he’s at $6 and the temptation might be at its peak.* I think I’m going to make it without picking up this guy, but I’m curious to see what happens to poor Vault the next time he hits up this particular Wal-Mart. <\/p>\n

* – Especially when he comes packaged with two stupid mini-transformers. Are there kids who like to get big packs of multi-scale stuff? When I was a kid, I hated that Tracks and Tailgate weren’t in-scale as cars. Did anyone not mind that? Do kids today not mind that?<\/em><\/p>\n

Another fun thing we found on our latest visit to old reliable, the Gotham City 5pk! Not one Wal-Mart for at least 75 miles carried this thing last year, but now we have it local (and full price) just a few months too late! We found it in the clearance aisle on our initial run, but since then it’s migrated to a regular spot in the aisle just under a mountain of Power Girl figures. We’re counting the days until all six of these make it out the door at the full $55.<\/p>\n

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Wal-Mart #3 – The Old, Weird One<\/h1>\n

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This Wal-Mart isn’t particularly noteworthy at first glance. Its layout is fairly normal and it’s toy section usually isn’t much to write home about. But this Wal-Mart gets in strange things some times. Last year, none of our local Wal-Mart made space for DC Classics. But this store got in one case of wave 6 early on, sold through, and then didn’t receive another case until the fall reset. Earlier this year, they put out a case of Sentinel series Marvel Legends. Let me say that again, Sentinel series. That’s the kind of Wal-Mart it is. <\/p>\n

Now, we don’t get surprises every time we go, but this time we ran across some weird stuff. I don’t remember ever seeing this Prince Caspian castle there before I found it in the clearance section, but it’s pretty cool (at least on the outside of the box). I was tempted to grab it at $20 for use with Indiana Jones, Hellboy, or Cobra figures. I even felt bad passing on it, as I probably won’t have a second chance. It would have been great for some photo-shoots, but it would have surely been in storage more than it was ever in use.<\/p>\n

Then, there was the little gems below. I didn’t even know about these. Granted, I don’t keep up on the latest Marvel Universe news, but I didn’t know anything about Wal-Mart exclusive Wolverine: Origins figures until I saw these. And look! They have removable jackets! Amazing. I don’t know where these came from, but they were the only two, leaving me to wonder if they possibly arrived to the store via return. I happily left these bad boys, and their jackets, at the store. <\/p>\n

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Wal-Mart #4 – The Next Closest One<\/h1>\n

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To be honest, the next closest Wal-Mart is kinda of a misnomer. But “The Next Closest Wal-Mart that doesn’t suck” is too long a title. The nearest one after the three “local” ones has a toy section about six aisles total with only about 16-20ft of it going to action figure product. They don’t carry any comic-based action figures whatsoever and hardly ever have anything to clearance. Simply put, we don’t really go there. If we absolutely had to, it’d be “Wal-Mart #10 – The One You Hit When You’re Desperate & Don’t Want to Travel to Wal-Mart’s #11-20.” Guess the first name wasn’t too long after all… Anyway, we did find Buzz Off and Man-E-Faces at that Wal-Mart back in 2003 and that was the last thing we found there. Ever. <\/p>\n

Wal-Mart #4 is about fifteen-twenty minutes from the house by highway. It doesn’t pay off as often as old reliable, or do anything strange like the weird one, but it’s been better to us than most. They usually house their clearance out-of-the-way in the garden section, so we headed for that entrance*.<\/p>\n

* – Do you ever feel like the people at the Garden entrance are more skeptical of your intentions? Particularly when you walk out with nothing? Or is that just me? I\u2019m not paranoid. No, really…<\/em><\/p>\n

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The first thing I found sitting out in the freezing cold were some funny Brave & the Bold figures. This is the first DC toy line in a long time that I don’t even have one of. I’ve felt the temptation now and again, particularly on some of the Plastic Man variants, but I’ve been a good boy. Here, for $4 a piece we found some Brave & the Bold Batmen that were new to me: Crusher Cuff, Blade Whip, and my favorite, Bataraxe Batman. I did some research online and these might have come in the assortment with Gold. If that’s the case, we all got lucky – a $4 Gold with “Super Attack Starro”? I’d have bought it and then be complaining to you about how I shouldn’t have right now.<\/p>\n

Since I have my aforementioned TFA weakness, my last Wal-Mart of the day had to tempt me. They had the Leader Class Bulkhead w\/ the Headmaster, the Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, and Shadow Blade Megatron. Luckily, this Wal-Mart hadn’t gone through a round two of clearance yet and these were all still $20. On a normal day, I might have caved for the 50% off, but I hold out hope they’ll be reduced. There was plenty of each except for Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, but I don’t really need him anyway. Even though Bulkhead wasn’t in the Transformers Movie, I am partial to him and can see grabbing him if his price drops. Sadly, they didn’t have any Voyager class on sale after I found that initial Skywarp. I would’ve liked to have found a Blitzwing or a Wreck-Gar, but it wasn’t to be that day. This Wal-Mart did have some excellent sales on Lego sets, but I stayed strong and resisted those too.*<\/p>\n

* – I’m still kicking myself over the Lego City Garage (#7642). It was $50 off!! Last year, I walked on another $100 set and still regret it. I just don’t want to spend that much on Lego’s right now, but damn! Stupid Wal-Mart.<\/em><\/p>\n

All in all, I survived a clearance toy run without having to open my wallet.* On the one hand, I’m excited that I didn’t pick up a bunch of junk I didn’t need. I didn’t end up with a whole collection of Animated Transformers, a cool playset that I don’t have room for, or figures with removable jackets. I didn’t find anything all that amazing either, so maybe I got off easy. I could go either way on that. Maybe I’ve been good enough in limiting my interests this year and buying less while sticking to lines like DCUC that aren’t likely candidates to end up the clearance section. I don’t know, but clearance toys didn’t win today. We did! And we had a good time on our road to victory too. Heck, that last Wal-Mart even coughed up a case of wave eleven for us. Now, everyone at IAT was already hooked up via BBTS or Matty, so we left them there for the next collector \/ kid \/ grandparent. You have to spread the toy run success around after all\u2026 <\/p>\n

* – I did find some Throwback Mountain Dew and Heritage Dr. Pepper, but that hardly counts!<\/em><\/p>\n

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You know the drill. You get up and you think you could get lucky today. You get ready and put on some nice clothes so you can at least feel presentable if you happen to get checked out. You hop in the car and travel to whichever place you’ve deemed best to satisfy your desires. 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