Where do the old toys go when they sit too long on the shelves?

I was wondering about this because some figures are always left on the pegs and every store seems to keep an abundance of them. Take a toy like the TF Prime Bumble Bee. No matter what store I go to they always seem to have six or seven Bumble Bees on the shelf at any given time. I imagine some go to discount places but what happens to the old stock when they know that noone s buying that figure any more? Do they take the figure and re-paint/re-color them. I can't imagine they just trash them.

I wonder that myself. When a discount store says, "We dont want it", what then? Dose it get packed up an sent to a warehouse to sit for a few decades, or does it get recycled? Probly a little of both. Gotta wonder just how recyclable is the plastic TF's are made of? Pins, screws and spring are easy to reuse. But can the plastic melt down back into little pellets?

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Nobody is paying to keep peg warmers in a warehouse, they either close them out and discount them until they go, or a chain might gather then up from all of their stores then sell them to a second tier discount chain link Big Lots.

It's all about finding the right price point.

The only exception I can think of is the Mattel warehouse in Nevada that has been in receivership due to an illegitimate bankruptcy filing, the case has been going on since the early 80's, due to the passing of the primary litigant and multiple claims within the family which have taken years to clear channels. Basically any toy they had from 78' to 81' is gathering dust in bulk (they were Mattel's distributor for a hardware store chain) pending the final Federal appeal on this case due this fall.

Supersentai Wrote:
>
> The only exception I can think of is the Mattel
> warehouse in Nevada that has been in receivership
> due to an illegitimate bankruptcy filing, the case
> has been going on since the early 80's

Whoa, weird! Legal time capsule! Anywhere we can read more about this case?

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

I think the last article came out in the April 1st edition of Lanstrom's Legal Efficates from the 16th circuit, Appeals and Recissions summary index.

I know Target gives stuff that survives clearance to Goodwill.

I always wondered where the old power rangers toys went. They never seemed to get clearanced but would generally disappear before the next line came out.

They send all of those down to the Caribbean Islands, along with all the t-shirts printed up for the team that lost the Super Bowl but stills says they're the "champs".

I figure they repackage them and repaint them then put them as a bonus double pack. I figure the Target exclusive Ultra Magnus/ Skywarp were originally just Prime and Starscreem and see how well that turned out sell wise. Same for the Target Exclusive Bruticus.

Marvin Lee Wrote:
>
> I figure they repackage them and repaint them then
> put them as a bonus double pack.

Wait, you think they take unsold Transformers and actually completely repaint them into new color schemes? I can't think of a single Transformer that was entirely painted. The majority of parts on every Transformer are molded in color.

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

Yeah, there would be some safety concerns about painting over paint with more paint. Kids can only eat SO much paint don't-cha know?

fujishig Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know Target gives stuff that survives clearance
> to Goodwill.
>
> I always wondered where the old power rangers toys
> went. They never seemed to get clearanced but
> would generally disappear before the next line
> came out.

Sometimes overstock just gets dumped overseas. I remember a few years back we got a whole lot of US-carded MSiA figures at bargain bin prices, and a few years before that we had US Exosquad Robotech figures for 1 Euro a piece in the bargain bin of some shops.

When I worked retail years ago, the stuff that warmed the pegs long enough was just marked down and down and down until it sold....

Another tactic that a large well know toy store used was the Black Friday super sale. They would have a couple of choice items on the floor to get eveyone in and then unload the stuff that had been sitting around since the spring.

When we were younger, a store's (take your pick - department/clothing, toy, mom and pop, pharmacy chain) clearance aisle/bins full of golden finds, even years after a toyline went out anywhere between the 80's and early 90's has transformed into the discount retailers of today (TJ Maxx/Marshalls/Ross etc.). That or it remains as leftover fodder during big sales/black friday as others have said above.

Stuff we found was insane, from the obscure to rare stuff. Now though, it also depends on pricing model of the store - example being Toys R'Us will hold stuff for years and pretty much never clearance it or put it on sale until it's so far off that the toy is irrelevant (unless the sale is campaigned by the manufacturer) whereas KB used to blow stuff out constantly.

I do distinctly remember some New England vacation towns that had misfit name toy stores or lesser KBs and they had New Old Stock decent 80's toys for years until old warehouses and suppliers finally closed and they went on the "normal" distributor list for more current toys.

Lastly, I actually remember buying a lot of Tri- and multi-lingual toys from American toy lines in the states, that were basically poor performers from overseas and/or excess that got sent back here!

It usually does just get clearanced out as fast as possible, but toys/toylines do disappear and you know they made tons. Power Rangers are a good example and a perfect example for a more recent toy is the Ultra Magnus/Skywarp 2-pack, our Targets had PALLETS of them putting out 3-5 endcaps full at a time. I know they all have not made it to ebay or into collections yet, so where are they?

- Mike


Deep in the Hasbro Jungle