Transformers showing up at Ross stores nationwide, even Cosmos

[Irrellius Spamticon]

So people have been reporting large amounts of 2021 and 2022 Transformers showing up at Ross Dress for Less

So I went to 3 stores today

I found:
Studio 86 Sweeps for $15

Velocitron
Shadowstrip $8
Crasher $8
Leader Scourge $16.99
Hauler

Walmart exclusive Legacy buzzsaw and nightprowler

Buzzworthy Kup
Buzzworthy Cliffjumper

Other sightings people are reporting
Legacy Motormaster
Velocitron Cosmos
SG Flamewar
Buzzworthy Red cog
Buzzworthy Origins Jazz
Buzzworthy B127

Unconfirmed sighting of Cybertron Metroplex

If it's anything like previous times, they get the figures all dumped there and promptly snapped up by collectors over 2-4 weeks and then they'll be back to their Dollar Tree toy selection.

[Zobovor]

On Friday, October 6, 2023 at 7:45:10 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:

> So people have been reporting large amounts of 2021 and 2022 Transformers showing up at Ross Dress for Less

People are describing Ross as an overstock store, and I wonder if that's only a small piece of the puzzle. Stores will also send them irregular stock (like clothing where the sleeves are a bit too long or the buttons weren't sew on quite right) or product where the package is slightly shopworn (it's too damaged to be presentable, but not so damaged that the product is unsalvageable).

The Velocitron line sold poorly, and Walmart stores in America don't have proper department managers to take care of freight. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Walmart overestimated how many cases of Velocitron Deluxes they would be able to sell, placed the order with Hasbro, and then couldn't get the toys into the stores due to the ongoing shipping and distrubition issues that have plagued retail for the last few years. Then when it got to the end of the season and Walmart put the Velocitron toys on clearance, they still had a bunch of them sitting in their warehouse, but they didn't want to keep flooding the stores with deleted merchandise, so they sold it at a loss and shunted it to Ross instead.

I don't think Cosmos is going to show up in huge quantities. If they're getting the toys from Walmart, which I assume is the case, he's still going to be only one per shipping case. If each Ross store is only getting, say, two or three cases' worth of Deluxes, that's only two or three Cosmos toys per store.

But, Hasbro did say that they were planning to put Cosmos back into production and sell him to consumers again at some point. I'm surprised they didn't work him into the Toxitron collection, but maybe it's best that they didn't, because they need to sell him in his original G1 colors again and not some crazy G2-inspired color scheme. I feel like the Toxitron collection is selling even more poorly than Velocitron did. At least Velocitron had some cool toys you could cherry-pick, and leave the ugly Blurr toys on the pegs. Toxitron is populated pretty much entirely by weird color schemes or unknown characters. I won't be surprised to see those guys at Ross some day as well!


Zob (seriously, though, good luck to all the Cosmos hunters)

[Travoltron]

I checked my local Ross and found no Velocitron toys at all. I only
found that reissue Optimus Primal, finally at a reasonable price. They
had one or two of those Transformers toddler toys that I don't keep up
with, and that was it.

I've never had any Transformers luck at Ross or Big Lots. It must be a
regional thing. There was one time I got some reissue G1 Rodimus Primes
at a place called Tuesday Morning. Never had luck like that again.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 10:38:01 AM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:

> I've never had any Transformers luck at Ross or Big Lots. It must be a
> regional thing.

It may just come down to which retailers end up with large amounts of overstock and where the most cost-effective place is that they can ship it. I'm sure their distribution center will want to deliver it to the closest outlet they can. It's bad enough that they're losing money on it—they don't want to go broke getting rid of it. At that point, it would be cheaper to just destroy it, like Funko did with all those Funko Pops a while back.

Well, I went to the Ross locations in Riverdale, UT and Ogden, UT today. The Riverdale store had lots of Velocitron RiD Scourges (like seven or eight) for $16.99, a bunch of the Walmart Legacy beasts (Buzzsaw and Nightprowler), one Legacy Knockout, and no shortage of Kupworthy Kup. All the Deluxe-class toys were $7.99, but I did find a Legacy Skids for $3.99, who went home with me. At that price they were practically giving the toy away. They also had a handful of Star Wars Black Series figures for $4.99 (Leia as Boushh, Grand Moff Tarkin and Dr. Ball) but I didn't need any of them.

The Ogden location had almost nothing. One lonely Kup and one single, solitary Walmart beast Sandstorm. They had the MOTU Origins Stridor horse/vehicle for $4.99, though, so I got a couple of those, because one can never have too many robot horses.

My wife and daughter are planning to go to Layton today, and I asked if she would swing by the Ross location out there and report back if she finds anything good. I'll update if they spot anything worth mentioning.


Zob (has way too many extra MOTU Origins vehicles at this point)

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 3:27:47 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> My wife and daughter are planning to go to Layton today, and I asked if she would swing by the Ross location out there and report back if she finds anything good. I'll update if they spot anything worth mentioning.

More RiD Scourge, another Skids, more MOTU Stridors. Nothing special.


Zob

[Swivelbot]

Those are rarer figures where I live, shame there aren't Ross stores in Canada.

it's a discount store, so I would assume that Walmart or whoever else got late shipments or had stuff in storage but didn't want them for some reason(especially Walmart who dropped Velocitron really quickly) so they just sent em' off to discount chains as like, a tax wite-off or something.

Swivelbot (who desperately wishes for less exclusives in US-only stores)

[Evil King Macrocranios]

On Friday, October 6, 2023 at 6:45:10 PM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:

> If it's anything like previous times, they get the figures all dumped there and promptly snapped up by collectors over 2-4 weeks and then they'll be back to their Dollar Tree toy selection.

Well this weekend I hit a couple Rosses and even though its almost a month later I still saw Velocitron Shadowstrip, Scourge, Road Haulers, Legacy Skullgrins, lots of those Wal-Mart beast deluxes, and I saw one customer in the checkout line buy three retro Headmasters and a DK Guard. I also saw lots of Power Rangers and Duke & the Crimson Twins from the six inch GI Joe line. Either stuff is taking its time trickling up through here in western Washington or Ross has a whole bunch of Hasbro in their warehouses. People are reporting multiple restocks with different toys every week.

Still haven't seen a Motormaster, though.