The day before Halloween it was reported that there were some bundle packs solicited to Walmart retail, with names like TRA GEN STUDIO SERIES DLX TF6 BUNDLE 1 but no real indication of just what they were, except that they were retailing for $24.97.

Well, it's recently come to light that they are in fact 2-packs of earlier Legacy or Studio Series toys being sold together for the price of a single Deluxe, which is honestly a killer deal. I don't think we've gotten true BOGO packs since the Cybertron toy line.

Anyway, these are almost certainly intended for the upcoming Thanksgiving sale (Walmart is having two events this year Event 1 is 11/8 (online) and 1/10 (in-store), while Event 2 is 11/22 (online) and then actual 11/24 (in-store, the actual Black Friday). The breakdown is as follows:

Legacy Tarantulas/Legacy Elita One
Legacy Wildrider/ Legacy Knockout
Studio Series Perceptor (G1)/Studio Series Wheeljack (Bumblebee movie)
Legacy Skullgrin/Legacy Dead End
Legacy Pointblank/Legacy Crankcase
Legacy Skids/Legacy Drag Strip
Legacy Arcee (TF:Prime)/Legacy Kickback
Studio Series Sideways (RotF)/Studio Series Arcee (G1)
Studio Series Arcee (Bumblebee movie)/Studio Series Ironhide (Bee movie)
Studio Series Bumblebee (RotF)/Studio Series Jolt (RotF)
Studio Series Jazz (G1)/Studio Series Gnaw
Studio Series Ratchet (Bumblebee movie)/Studio Series Brawn (Bee movie)

My initial thoughts are that Hasbro overproduced these toys and couldn't get them into retail channels in a timely manner, so they offered them to Walmart buyers as a Thanksgiving exclusive rather than just shunting more toys off to Ross. But, I could be way off the mark. Other characters who languished as pegwarmers are conspicuously absent—no Studio Series Kup/Blurr, for example.

Zob (my daughter helped me decorate for Christmas yesterday, which means it took about three hours longer than usual to do)

On Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 10:14:57 AM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> The day before Halloween it was reported that there were some bundle packs solicited to Walmart retail, with names like TRA GEN STUDIO SERIES DLX TF6 BUNDLE 1 but no real indication of just what they were, except that they were retailing for $24.97.
>
> Well, it's recently come to light that they are in fact 2-packs of earlier Legacy or Studio Series toys being sold together for the price of a single Deluxe, which is honestly a killer deal. I don't think we've gotten true BOGO packs since the Cybertron toy line.
>
> Anyway, these are almost certainly intended for the upcoming Thanksgiving sale (Walmart is having two events this year Event 1 is 11/8 (online) and 1/10 (in-store), while Event 2 is 11/22 (online) and then actual 11/24 (in-store, the actual Black Friday). The breakdown is as follows:
>
> Legacy Tarantulas/Legacy Elita One
> Legacy Wildrider/ Legacy Knockout
> Studio Series Perceptor (G1)/Studio Series Wheeljack (Bumblebee movie)
> Legacy Skullgrin/Legacy Dead End
> Legacy Pointblank/Legacy Crankcase
> Legacy Skids/Legacy Drag Strip
> Legacy Arcee (TF:Prime)/Legacy Kickback
> Studio Series Sideways (RotF)/Studio Series Arcee (G1)
> Studio Series Arcee (Bumblebee movie)/Studio Series Ironhide (Bee movie)
> Studio Series Bumblebee (RotF)/Studio Series Jolt (RotF)
> Studio Series Jazz (G1)/Studio Series Gnaw
> Studio Series Ratchet (Bumblebee movie)/Studio Series Brawn (Bee movie)
>
> My initial thoughts are that Hasbro overproduced these toys and couldn't get them into retail channels in a timely manner, so they offered them to Walmart buyers as a Thanksgiving exclusive rather than just shunting more toys off to Ross. But, I could be way off the mark. Other characters who languished as pegwarmers are conspicuously absent—no Studio Series Kup/Blurr, for example.
>
>
> Zob (my daughter helped me decorate for Christmas yesterday, which means it took about three hours longer than usual to do)

A bunch of these showed up online already on Walmart's website and some sold out pretty fast.
The only set I don't already have any of would be the Wildrider Knockout set, but I'm not needing them even though I never say Wildrider in store.

On Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 5:55:48 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:

> A bunch of these showed up online already on Walmart's website and some sold out pretty fast.

My thinking is that people found the online listings, but they had not yet gone live. Walmart always shows things as "out of stock" when they're brand new, when perhaps a more accurate term would be something like "not actually in stock yet." But, it's possible I'm completely off the mark.

If they had paired these differently (like, say, Legacy Kickback with Studio Series Gnaw) I might be inclined to get some extra armybuilders. But, I have no need for a bunch of extra Jazzes or a bunch of extra Arcee motorcycles.

This is, of course, the downside of being a dilligent collector. I already have all the toys I need, so a killer deal like this doesn't benefit me at all. (But, meanwhile, there are people posting to Reddit who are super bummed out that they can't find any good toys at Ross. Like, one guy last night sounded like he had his heart set on finding the Ark, and I just kind of wonder why he didn't just get it when it was released two years ago. So, I guess there's a yin for every yang.)

Zob (and a deep for every wang)

On Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 10:36:18 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 5:55:48 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:
>
> > A bunch of these showed up online already on Walmart's website and some sold out pretty fast.
> My thinking is that people found the online listings, but they had not yet gone live. Walmart always shows things as "out of stock" when they're brand new, when perhaps a more accurate term would be something like "not actually in stock yet." But, it's possible I'm completely off the mark.
>
> If they had paired these differently (like, say, Legacy Kickback with Studio Series Gnaw) I might be inclined to get some extra armybuilders. But, I have no need for a bunch of extra Jazzes or a bunch of extra Arcee motorcycles.
>
> This is, of course, the downside of being a dilligent collector. I already have all the toys I need, so a killer deal like this doesn't benefit me at all. (But, meanwhile, there are people posting to Reddit who are super bummed out that they can't find any good toys at Ross. Like, one guy last night sounded like he had his heart set on finding the Ark, and I just kind of wonder why he didn't just get it when it was released two years ago. So, I guess there's a yin for every yang.)
>
>
> Zob (and a deep for every wang)

Some were in stock. A lot of major companies started Black Friday deals last week, so I'm really not sure.

On Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 9:14:57 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> Well, it's recently come to light that they are in fact 2-packs of earlier Legacy or Studio Series toys being sold together for the price of a single Deluxe, which is honestly a killer deal.

Update! Yesterday I was doing the Walmart post-Halloween conversion and switching the seasonal section up front to a Christmas toy aisle, and the new planogram included shelf tags for the bundle packs. This means they could theoretically be stocked immediately, and are not being saved for Black Friday as everyone was supposing. My store is scheduled to receive them on 11/12 or 11/13, so I imagine other locations will have similar ETA's.

More news as it develops. Watch this space for details. Batteries not included, but I believe in me!

Zob (a day without scrap metal is like a breakfast without sunshine)