Toys to Retirement Weekly Wrap-Up #29
Hello friends,
Happy May! Hope everyone had a splendid April. We are almost at the halfway point of 2025, and it has been nothing short of eventful. As I’ve mentioned over the last few weeks, this is the time of year where I slow down and take a breather. My focus right now is organizing and cleaning, making sure I’m prepped with space for a few months down the line when it’s summer clearance season.
It feels like we’re in a bit of limbo right now with tariffs and Walmart CPC requests, not really sure where things are heading over the next few months, so I’m really focusing on working less until the dust settles. That’s the beauty of buy and hold, you don’t really need to go out and hunt if you already have a nice stash of things rising in value tucked away.
Toys That Sucked… Until They Didn’t
I pushed out a fun article this week, a look back at some SKUs from the last few years that hit a wall of sorts, and then quickly jumped up in price. People always love when I do articles with specific SKUs, and this one is no different, so you can check it out here:
LEGO Star Wars Day
You have a few more days to nab this nifty Star Wars GWP at a $160 threshold. Unfortunately, the deals and sales aren’t really that great and it’s way too early to justify paying retail for main line Star Wars sets. If you’re going to partake, make sure you stick to the exclusives. I think two orders was enough for me, and I’m not even that excited about it.
Pokemon Restocks Galore!
As promised by the Pokemon Company, they are pushing their card printers to the maximum these last couple of months. Items that were previously practically impossible to grab without a bot are remaining in stock for several minutes to hours. Queue systems are being implemented on sites like Walmart, and even Pokemon vending machines have been having consistent restocks.
This era of cards will be the most printed in history, but the demand is also reaching record highs.
While grabbing these highly printed sets now is exciting, I’m more excited for the hype to die down and continue grabbing the ‘less popular’ sets over the next few years before the next bull run.
Jurassic World: Rebirth Big Bad Officially Revealed?
Distortus Rex. While it remains to be seen if this will be the official dino following in the footsteps of the Indominux Rex, Indoraptor, and Giganotosaurus, one thing is for certain — this guy stands out. While more akin to a Godzilla nemesis, he has kind of grown on me. Technically, it makes sense. Jurassic Park is all mutants and you have to imagine some of them were a disaster.
Ultimately, I think designs like this are great for merch sales. Kids will love it, they don’t really care if it’s not a real dinosaur. If they deliver on a solid movie and make this mutant menacing, then I expect this toy to do incredible long term.
Mattel historically is very capable of over-producing movie toys though, so don’t go crazy pre-ordering this or anything. I won’t be grabbing this until much later in the future, hopefully below wholesale costs.
With that being said, we are in uncharted territory with tariffs, and maybe production will be lower than normal?
Not sure, but I’m not interested in gambling this year.
Stitch Merch Sales Increasing…
As we enter into May, one of the most anticipated releases of the year is set to drop in a few weeks - the live action Lilo and Stitch!
I’m personally already seeing an uptick in Stitch merch sales, and quickly looking at Amazon’s catalog I am seeing the data reflect that. Several SKUs that historically would sell 1,000+ times a month now show 2,000+. Several that historically show 50+ now show 100+ or 200+.
It’s interesting to see these numbers evolve with movie releases, and I expect these numbers to keep climbing (along with their prices).
Hope you stocked up!
Potential Hottest Toy of the Summer?
Or an over-produced toy that will end up at Ollie’s once the Chicken Jockey trend ends?
Either way, if it piques your interest, it’s up for pre-order at Target:
https://www.target.com/p/minecraft-woodland-mansion-throwdown-toy-action-figure-multipack-inspired-by-the-movie/-/A-93146560
Wrapping it up there folks, have a lovely weekend!
Amazons new capacity limits are going to hurt q4 toy sales unless they reverse course. How are you handling them besides pivoting to Walmart?