Sorry if this is posted somewhere already but I got this e-mail today from BBTS regarding wave 8:

Hi - Hasbro has just informed us that they are not going to be filling the rest of our order, or remaining orders for any other stores on the wave 8 assortment you have preordered with us. We received only about 40% of our total order on this wave - so they filled well below the normal rate on this item. We do have an alternative for you however. They have confirmed the quantity of Wave 8 - Revision 1 that we will be receiving, and we will receive enough of those to fill all of the regular Wave 8 preorders.

We will be switching your Wave 8 set of 8 preorder to a Wave 8 - Revision 1 preorder at the same $49.99 price. The contents of this case differ slightly. The only change is that you will not receive Major Bludd, and you will receive a 2nd Night Force Cobra Officer instead. Here is an exact list of what is included in the case we are switching your preorder to:

1x Cobra Viper
1x Flint Tiger Force
1x Snake Eyes v7 Parka
1x Roadblock v2 City Assault
1x Cobra Commander w/ Stripe and Cannister
2x Cobra Officer Night Force
1x Baroness V1

If you would like to cancel your preorder - please login and update your quantity now to 'zero' for the assortment. Sorry for the problem on this wave, Hasbro has been very tight with allocation of the GI Joe figures.

Thanks
Joel
www.bigbadtoystore.com

First of all, I don't remember a Night Force Cobra Officer. Where is this coming from? It kind of irks me since I still want Bludd. Secondly, why is Hasbro being so tight with the allocation of figures. At first it seemed there were issues with brick and mortar store which I admittedly had no issues with until recently. Now it's going to be harder to get what you want through the internet as well? This is starting to blow.

Tell me about it. My other faithful online retailer isn't getting inventory from Hasbro - I dont know wtf is going on with their Sales/Distribution departments. The brand is in demand, the movie is a scant year away, and they are sitting on their lauriels with product.

Obviously BBTS meant to type Python Patrol and not Night Force, which means the person composing their communications isn't too hard-up on G.I. Joe to tell the difference. But that's small fries.

The few times wave 9 has shown up here in Canada has proven to me that I'm not part of a few toy collectors here - I've been to about 6 different brick & mortars in the last week only to find a single stupid repacked Wild Bill. So it's survival of the fittest at the brick & mortars - I was hoping that it would be a lot smoother online. I'd pay the extra price for the convenience but hell now they're not even getting their orders filled.

_________________

Well this is pretty much what a lot of us have been saying. Although wave 8 finally had a brief, but decent stock around my area, it still never had enough of a stock that I could have just walked in at any time to get it. I still had to be there at the right time.

It sounds like for the most part they're wanting to end the production on Major Bludd. He wasn't well liked by many, so I guess they figure to end it before they got stuck with some. Another example of potential lost sales versus being stuck with too much product.

_________________

Unfortunately, I don't think Hasbro can be blamed. What I believe happens is simply this -- the toy companies are going to give first priorities to their largest buyers. And almost invariably, that's going to be Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us, and Target. And if those stores RE-order, or if there's a set production limit, or some such, then the smaller online retailers like BBTS are going to take it in the shorts. I've seen it happen before, and not specifically on Hasbro products.

I know someone who does business with Hasbro and he too is getting shorted on orders all the time. I know everyone says don't blame Hasbro, blame the retailers for not ordering enough. But seriously, we are 9 waves into this series and the figures are still not on the pegs in any decent quantity. The specialty places like BBTS can't get what they ordered. Where else could the blame be? Hasbro just isn't making enough, period.

_________________