What is the deal with the scarcity of rebels action figures

I've noticed the same thing where I live, and it's not just the Rebels figures. You cannot find any real variety of 6" Black Series figures either. TRU, Walmart, and Target are all full of empty pegs. I want to get the Rebels version of the TIE Fighter and AT-ST as well, but there's none to be found. Don't know why.

 

It's empty everywhere.My wife had to order some of mine online.I guess that's ok.Saves me money for new figures from the movies!!!

 

I'd love to hear an official explanation.
I can speculate plenty, I am a product designer and I'm familiar with the various types of challenges that come with manufacturing things overseas. But this has been for months now, going back before the holiday season even. I finally caved and bought Chopper on Amazon and I paid 3 times retail to get him. I've seen the pegs at the local Walmarts and Targets empty for months now. The only figures I've seen in store, since before Christmas are some of the 6" Black series and recently the Digital collection.
Just after Christmas I decided that I'm done wasting my time hunting for the opportunity to give Hasbro my money and I'm sticking to Star Wars Lego sets.

 

Aw man that sucks. Hate to rub salt in your wounds but I bought Chopper today for $4AUD from Target here in Australia.

I've actually still seen quite a bit of Rebels stock in other retailers over here so maybe we haven't had the sell through that you guys have.

 

You know, I've frequented the three major chain stores here on a regular basis since the first wave of 6" Black Series figures was first released, and never once have I seen a Stormtrooper, Artoo, or the Speeder Bike W/Scout. There are stacks of Greedo, Young Obi-Wan, and Han Solo.

The only 6" figures I've actually purchased in a store are the Pilot Luke, Bespin Luke, and Han. All my other figures had to be purchased online. And there's no Rebels figures or ships anywhere. Not a one.

 

I might shed some light on the situation, based on similar experiences with die cast cars sold in places like Target and Walmart.

My brother, in the same boat as me, clued me into something: Early birds. He used to work at a Walmart stocking the toys, and said that he'd have this pair of guys who would show up as soon as the store opened (or as soon as they knew the shelves were being stocked, can't remember if this was a 24-hour store or not). Anyways, they would offer to open the boxes and put them on the pegs for my brother, which they did neatly and honestly. The reason they did that was that they got first grabs to anything they wanted in the box, and would put the stuff they didn't want on the pegs for everyone else. My brother had less work to do, Walmart had some quick easy sales, and the guys got what they wanted (presumably for resale online at a marked-up price, which Walmart can't do). It was win for everyone except us, of course.

Not saying it's that, but often if you look you'll notice tons of pegs or shelf space made available for a certain product which never seems to be in stock, or full of the stuff no one wants/already has.

 

Was just at a Target in my area looking for 6 inch Black Series figures. Not much at all... They did have a Princess Leia in the slave girl outfit and another one I can't remember. They did actually have the scout trooper with speeder bike, really contemplated that one but didn't buy it.

 

Ooh, gonna check that out, thanks!

 

They're like everywhere down here in South Africa. Last weekend the 2 packs went on sale.