Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Multiplex
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
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Fleen
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Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
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That’s some chin on you in panel 1, Ethan… =o
And am I alone in thinking Ethan has to go to the bathroom in panel 3?
I think that he’s decided that, instead of spending the money to BUY all of the toys in the hopes that they’ll get new ones, he will PEE on all of them, thereby forcing the store to restock.
No wonder Leslie looks so indifferent…
why would that force them to restock?
… Because the merchandise has pee all over it? Would you buy merchandise that had been peed on?
Michelle, that’s a dangerous question to ask in this group.
Would we buy toys with pee on them… NO.
Would the store keep the toys on the shelves with pee on them… YES.
I feel like this discussion should have a “disgusting bachelor frog” gravatar
I would replace half of them, so that most people would less likely notice they’ve been peed on, or can get one that hasn’t. Any more and it’s too much of a waste.
Don’t look so sad Leslie, watching eathan is a treat all on its own.
Man I’m not hardcore enough to make that sort of math o.o
I’m ure this has been covered elsewhere in the SP tomes, but Ethan is a toy collector who works in a toy store…why must he look elsewhere for fulfillment? Besides exclusives, of course…
Huh, definitely makes sense putting it that way.
Because stores don’t have equal stock of toys. If one store doesn’t have what you’re looking for, maybe the 5th one you visit that night will. (don’t try to make sense of it)
Ultra Car keeps hawking them out of the back room, maybe?
(In that case, it just punts the question off to “Why doesn’t he buy them from Ultra Car?”)
was’t there a strip where he was going to do that but refused to pay UC’s high prices?
You’ll miss tons of stuff if you try waiting for *everything* to come to the store you work at.
When I worked at Toys”R”Us, my first stop after my shift was Walmart. Sometimes I’d hit Target on my lunchbreak.
You go where the toys are, you don’t wait for them to come to you! Especially if you work at TRU, where toys can take quite a while to come to you.
I left TRU about a year ago and the speed they got the new toys seemed to have improved. Most of the time, New stuff was there when advertised. Most people did not see that however as the professional collector crowd would be waiting at the door on truck days and snap them up within five minutes of opening.
THE THRIIIIIILLLLL OF DA HUUNNNNNTTTTT!
Such a sad state of affairs. It truly breaks my heart that the joyous experience of getting toys has become such a chore.
As any hunter will tell you, it’s not the kill you love, it’s the thrill of the chase.
Hell with that. I’m in it for the venison.
Maybe you’re in it to hunt cows. Me, I just want my goddamn burger.
AAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH Skullgrins. I’m so tired of seeing them. I eventually did cave on getting a Kup online though, movie nostalgia *_*… I ended up paying 22 bucks for one off amazon with shipping included.
Still waiting to see a Scourge in a store though. I didn’t like him that much.
Sigh. I have no illusions I’ll ever see a Scourge in the wild. I’m in Canada; we get stuff late as hell and in small numbers anyway. Add to that the fact that a whole lot of people are gonna want a half dozen Scourges.
Le sigh.
I totally know what you mean.
Which is why I’ve been preordering all the Generations toys from stores in the US.
After all, let’s face it – we’re never gonna get Warpath. This is why my daily toy hunt is typically “check BBTS in the morning for new preorders”.
I know. The worst way we get screwed is towards the end of a line like this. Canada gets everything late except huge things that have a specific release date (ie. Transformers movie toys just before the movie). If it’s not on the shelves before that day it hits a wall and never comes out.
Well maybe the worst way we get screwed is when some toys cost 150% to 200% of the US price even though our dollar hasn’t been that bad in decades. And right now it’s better than the American dollar. Seriously TRU? Leader Class Optimus was $79.99 here and $39.99 in the States?
I live within sight distance from a Toys R Us now… so much win. But I still only have ONE Walmart within a 10 min driving distance. All the others are 20 mins away and my Walmart hates action figures :/
Maybe they think G.I. Joe is unionized.
I could probably order my comics from home and end up saving on the bus and train ticket it’d cost to get me to the stores I go to, but I just prefer the outing, plus it’d probably end up being about the same.
I feel you, Ethan. Fucking BART fares.
But guys, aren’t we forgetting about the social experience of leaving the house? Isn’t that more important than money?
is that the stoneridge mall in pleasanton?
Nope.
For me, it’s not just the dollars spent. It’s the time. If I knew the toy I was looking for was waiting for me at the end of the trip, I could view it as a fun outing, worthwhile in itself. But I learned long ago that the average success ratio was too low for me to feel like I wasn’t wasting my time. Which can be sometimes be worse than – or at least equal to – wasting money.
Every time I go into town, I’ve been checking the local Wal-Mart for the Green Lantern 3-pack (Ch’p, Despotellis, Dex-Tarr). MAYBE IF I BUY EVERYTHING, THEY WILL RESTOCK.
This strip title is probably not a play on words, but it damn sure is epic.
I managed to somehow get the last Kup and Scourge at an out of town Toys r Us had. Haven’t seen Perceptor or Lugnut, though. Might have to buy online. DX
Not only do Ethan and Leslie have identical hairstyles and noses, but now they’re even starting to dress alike.
Maybe it’s part of a prank to screw with Robin’s head. She can’t have either of them, and now they are turning into the same person.
Surely between e-Bay and Amazon.com one never has to leave the house to look for toys.
This is going to make me sound like a young whippersnapper (no, I will not get off your lawn), but I’ve always gotten MORE satisfaction from shopping online.
It’s probably because I grew up out in the sticks, where the nearest city with actual toy stores was over an hour away (and the local Walmart sucked), so when I wanted a particular toy/comic the internet was my only hope.
Helps that I’m into vintage stuff, which toy stores never have anyway. I DO like checking garage sales, though. It’s amazing how many of the indigenous hicks in my hometown have stacks of old timey comics and toys and have no idea that collectors even exist.
Once had a woman actually say “I can’t believe you’d pay $20 for these issues of Supergirl. There’s only ten of them, and they’re old and yellow, and the cover price says 15 cents”. Had to stifle an evil laugh.
Damn good toy collecting comic. Bravo! I have also thought that irrational cusp of financial sanity that just said: Why isn’t IT here? Should I just buy all of these Skullgrins? Leading to the Falsely romantic of the notion that if you clear a store out of all their Transformers in a single trip. Every single one. You are doing a service to support the brand.
That’s The Sound of Hasbro Beating you Down. I shudder to think of what would happen to the balance if we go down that path.
You Americans and your $8 shipping.
Shipping up here is frackin’ $40 the moment it crosses a border. You damn well better believe I only buy from brick’n'mortar stores.
That’s because you’re shipping UPS/FedEx. Those bastards and their “brokerage” fees…. Aargh…
Have the item shipped via the US post office. It’ll cost a reasonable amount and not get hit with additional brokerage/HST/GST/GimmeYourMoney fees.
If someone won’t ship USPS we just won’t deal with them because as you say, it ain’t worth it. But if you ship USPS ground, you’re only looking at a couple of bucks more than for in-the-States shipping.
Just watch out for those global flat-rate boxes. They will rape you in the ass.
Going to the store, in retrospect really isn’t that bad as trying to fight a site called Mattycollector where everything is kept in short supply and they always pull stock to keep items “hot” and moving. Now they overcharge shipping for Media Mail to take even longer than UPS if don’t subscribe to the blind $500+ annual subscription.
Then there’s the bad QC affecting something like 40% of the DCUC and He-Man figures and the future price hikes. They still can’t fix this stuff for QC after 3 years and the engineering team lead by Bill Benecke is clueless when it comes to even matching the shoulders to the right sides of a figure. The Kool-Aid drinkers who are fans of the Four Horsemen really are blind.
I feel your pain Ethan.
Dammit Target, it’s been a month and you haven’t gotten new toys–except outdoor toys.
But the toys I want were suppose to be released in April. How long must I wait. ;_;
David, I think you should also take the online store’s mark-up into account.
I don’t think two bucks really tips the balance any. Maybe if you got charged two bucks every time you went out to check your mailbox.
Not all online stores are equal, and it does depend on what you’re looking for. Sure, one can get RTS Windcharger online, but for about $40. Even one of the friendlier online stores, TFSource.com, was selling RTS Windcharger for $18.95.
Good point. Perceptor is like…20+ on Amazon. And Big Bad Toy Store still has it listed as “Preorder”…
Perceptor is listed as “preorder” because BBTS already sold out of all of theirs and have to order more. I got my Perceptor from them for $13.99. That’s just one dollar above retail.
Ohhh…ok. That makes sense. I might have to buy one from them if they don’t appear in stores soon… Thanks for the info
please, no more ideas that i can find the Alternators/BionalTech line.
i just dont have the heart to see them available without being able to enjoy them.
That last line is pretty hard to read on my monitor, but totally worth the effort. It makes the whole strip worthwhile all on its own.
There are no such things as monthly bus/tram passes in the USA, hhmm? My company actually pays for mine and I never had any troubles visiting toy stores. It only takes time, not money.