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Post by The Madness on May 3, 2018 9:59:02 GMT -5
Inspired by a different thread, I just started wondering if distribution issues made certain figures easier or tougher to find in different regions.
The ultimate shelfwarmers here were the Rockers. The Bushwhackers and Demolition had pretty good distribution, but nowhere near the Rockers, who hung around in stores almost to the launch of the Jakks BCA line. A close second would probably be the Royal Rumble ring minifigure packs. I recall noticing in price guides at the time that Koko B. Ware went for an exorbitant amount, but I never had any trouble finding Koko.
As far as figures that were considered common that I never saw, Rick Rude might as well have been unreleased. I looked everywhere for it, and finally ended up finding him on vacation at a Woolworth's in North Carolina. Similarly, I never saw the Nasty Boys in stores once. I got them for Christmas one year, and later found out that my parents had contacted Hasbro and ordered a set directly. The green cards never showed up near me in West Virginia, to my knowledge, but I found them all on a trip to Richmond, VA, where they had multiples of each, but no 123 Kid. This was at a Hill's store.
I can't say much for LJNs, as I didn't start collecting until series 1 of the Hasbro line, but I recall picking up Mean Gene, Freddie Blassie, and Adrian Adonis after seeing them still in stores, so if there were shelfwarmers in that line, I'm willing to bet they were on the list.
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Post by hbkjason on May 3, 2018 11:22:28 GMT -5
I grew up in Scotland and I had no trouble finding any figures all the way up to the dark blue series the black HBK and purple Razor Ramon were the only figures I never saw in stores. In the early days, Woolworths was where I would get all my figures, but as the series moved towards its end, Toymaster was the best place for me to get my figures.
As far as common figures go, the ones that I really remember sticking around for a long time were the tag team packs of the Legion Of Doom and the Nasty Boys. there was this department store in a town called Glenrothes and I kid you not, but they had three bins full of mainly Nasty Boys, but some LOD too.
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ozz
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Post by ozz on May 3, 2018 12:42:18 GMT -5
I remember different things each time I think back, but here's a list of what I saw in my area of New England. Different stores seemed to stock different assortments, like grocery and dept. stores having earlier series and never getting the newer ones for instance. The big toy stores were the ones that got the larger, newer stock as time went on.
LJN
Most everyone aside from the tag singles packs from the first 4 series was a peg warmer at one time or another, it seemed. Bruno, Vince, various managers, refs, various jobber=/low card figures. And I never myself saw ANY tag wrestler, boxed or single, though I did have friends who had some. I also found some at local garage sales during the LJN/Hasbro days, so I know they had to have been around somewhere.
Never saw: Tag packs or tag singles, Race, Koko, Hacksaw, Ax, Hulk white/red, all the new 89s
Very hard to find, but I did get 'em: Bam Bam, Honky, DiBiase, OMG (found all as the LJN inventory was lessening at TRU)
LJNs I probably never saw or rarely saw, because they were some of the few I didn't have:
Andre long/short hair, Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Haynes, Patera, Kamala, Outback, Martel/white Tito, Adonis, and there must be a few more but I can't think. I had a few tough to find ones so to me, they were always assumed as commons.
Hasbro
Firstly, I had the entire series 1 and series 2. Again, to me they were always common because they were right there for me to buy. I know Andre, Akeem , Dusty, Demolition, and LOD were tough for most, but on the initial release I was seeing them pretty often. I think LOD lasted a while longer on the shelves here but Demolition did disappear quickly.
Series 3: had them all without much hunting aside from Koko and Warrior 3 (never saw), Mr. P and Tornado (doubt I ever saw them), and Bossman 2/purple Macho Man (pass).
Series 4: never saw Bret/Taker, passed on Steamboat, finally found Bulldog when the yellow cards were out
Series 5: had a few here. Skipped Hulk, Macho, Anvil, Martel; unsure if I ever saw Skinner, Mountie, Warlord (would have wanted Mountie though)
Series 6: only had/wanted Shango and Tatanka. Not sure how often I saw the others, but I really didn't care about them.
Series 7: I think Shawn was the only one I found before the KB Toys 3/$10 blowout came around. Then I got Kamala, Razor, and Owen. Or perhaps it was Bulldog and not Razor, and I got Razor w/Shawn earlier. Either way, that's close. They were all available.
Series 8: only had Bam Bam and Luger. Never saw anyone else except MAYBE Mr. Perfect, but I'm inclined to doubt that since I would have wanted him badly.
Series 9: passed on everyone except Doink, and maybe this is where I got Tatanka instead of the earlier series. I think that's accurate, actually. I did see everyone else routinely.
Series 10: Never saw the repaint Shawn and Razor, not even sure I ever saw the repackaged Shawn and Razor, but the rest were around a lot and seemed to go nowhere for a while.
Series 11: flat out never saw any of them anywhere
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marklud
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Post by marklud on May 3, 2018 17:29:33 GMT -5
Couple random memories from my Hasbro days (located in Buffalo):
LOD and the Rockers were on my local pegs at Hills FOREVER. Discounted, clearance, etc., etc. Never found Demolition anywhere and they were one of my favorites so had to order them via a mail order toy store.
I've shared my green card story on here a couple of times so I won't get into that again (success after getting an employee to bring a case out of the back), but really the only ones I truly had a hard time finding were the Red Card series. They flew off the shelves and were super hard to find.
The 3/$10 KB days were the best. I probably got like 35 figures over the years from those deals/when the surplus stocks came in.
I also really remember the Dark Blue Card series staying on Hills pegs for a really, really long time. Gonzalez, Headshrinkers, etc., super easy to find. Even the Razor/Shawn repaints weren't hard cause they were repaints.
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Post by MKSavage on May 3, 2018 19:22:17 GMT -5
I never saw any of series 7 and series 11 in stores, had to order all on ebay. Never saw series 8 Taker and Yokozuna, the other 4 I found easily. Series three was unique, some I saw plenty of (Hogan, Sarge, Macho, Natural Disasters, Bossman), others I never saw (Koko B. Ware, Nasty Boys, LOD), some I found just once or twice (Brutus, Warrior, Texas, Perfect, Hammer). Series 1, 2, SummerSlams, 4, 5, 6, and 9, I never had a problem finding any of these in stores. Series 10 I only remember seeing the bushwhackers. But then again, I was a kid and didn't get to the stores as much as I do now.
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drnickriviera995
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Post by drnickriviera995 on May 4, 2018 0:37:30 GMT -5
Hasbro around Allentown/Whitehall PA area.
Series 1-only really ever remember seeing Jake, Brutus and Rude, tons of each at TRU. The rest I got all as gifts, I remember it took my family longest to find me Andre.
Sereis 2-only ones I had trouble finding were Macho King and Snuka which I found once on the same glorious trip that I got Demolition. The others seemed abundant around here even Dusty. HTM came a bit later after the others, found him at Kmart and they had nothing but a peg full of him.
Tag Teams, Rockers and Bushwackers abundant everywhere. Only found Demolition and LOD once, saw Nastys once (kiddie city) but didn't have cash to get them, bought them a couple years later from figures inc.
Now, we did have a bunch of certain guys from S1 and S2 that hung around a long time, mainly remember Bossman, Jake, Brutus, Piper, and Duggan. I think those are all guys that were repacked into subsequent waves.
Series 3-found once at Kaybee once -Slaughter, Koko and Warrior. Got Koko and Sgt. later on as gifts that someone found for me. Got Warrior later in year with Series 4 shipments. Other than that one day at Kaybee, never saw S3 again.
Series 4-seemed abundant including Bossman.
Series 5 and 6 were abundant at least at release, didn't have trouble finding them.
Never saw yellow cards in store, got HBK and Razor on the blue cards, bought the other 4 from figures inc.
Red cards were really HTF, saw Luger, Bam Bam and Perfect once at Laneco. And then got Bret, Taker and Yoko as gifts for Easter that year.
Purple Cards and Dark Blue Cards were abundant (especially Scott Stiener) besides Razor and Shawn but I was lucky to catch the original versions that I never found on yellow card and then shortly later the repaints. Purple and Blue cards were pretty much at Kaybee and department stores like Clover. Don't think TRU got them, last ones I saw at TRU was Series 6.
Never saw green cards or knew they existed until I saw them for sale from figures inc, and I bought a set in 96' or so to finish my collection.
I never knew of the yellow ring either until I saw it advertised on the back of the green cards.
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larryarms82
Mid-Carder
Getting too old for this ish
Joined on: Jun 19, 2017 19:04:01 GMT -5
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Post by larryarms82 on May 4, 2018 15:23:13 GMT -5
I shared this Hasbro story before, but I'll do it again for this thread - I grew up in Northern NJ (lots and lots of toy stores to choose from), but finding Hasbros became a bit tricky towards 92 and onwards:
My local stores in NY/NJ got Series 3 and 4 in SUPER late into 1992. Shelves were always stocked full of S1 and 2 and the first tag team wave for a long time to the point where my KB Toys had them in large bins at 3/$10 to get them out of the stores. I never saw LOD or Nasties because of it. I remember finding series 4 BEFORE 3 (sometime in the fall) and then series 3 was available in full force at my TRU's around Christmas time, right as Series 5 was appearing (I got Anvil, Warlord, Mountie and Virgil for Christmas that year and had no idea they even existed yet). Past that, it always seemed my area would get the newest series on the shelves months after their releases came. For example, I didn't get my hands on the yellow or red card stuff until mid-1994, and then the purple cards much later into that year, light blue sometime into 1995. Never saw the green cards in a store, anywhere at any time.
The 1994 blue card Shawn and Razor repaints were incredibly easy to find up until about 1996 or 97 when Jakks figures started showing up in my stores. A local drug store I lived around the corner from had Michaels and Razor rereleases well into 1999-2000 (but 10 bucks each which is why I'm sure no one ever bought them).
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ozz
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Joined on: Aug 1, 2011 16:37:04 GMT -5
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Post by ozz on May 4, 2018 16:56:57 GMT -5
The 1994 blue card Shawn and Razor repaints were incredibly easy to find up until about 1996 or 97 when Jakks figures started showing up in my stores. A local drug store I lived around the corner from had Michaels and Razor rereleases well into 1999-2000 (but 10 bucks each which is why I'm sure no one ever bought them). Jeez, up in MA once Jakks came out I don't think I ever saw a single Hasbro in any store. |
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