Hello, readers! We have a challenge for you today.
You know how the final wave of figures in any given series never seems to show up at retail? They're solicited and you wait for them to come out, checking the shelves every time you do a toy run, but they don't come and they don't come and they don't come, and then whatever the replacement toyline is hits shelves and you just have to give up? It happens a lot with Hasbro products: think about how the last Reveal the Shield Transformers never seemed to make it to stores, but all of a sudden Dark of the Moon toys were all over the place.
It happens because stores don't want to order more "old" product (ie, a pre-existing SKU [the codes by which stores track their inventory]) when a new product is on the way. As collectors, we see each wave of toys as a separate entity: Series 1 has figures ABCD, Series 2 has figures EFGH, etc; but to your local retailer, those figures all fall under the SKU of 1234. They don't want to order figures IJKL when they know that the company is ending SKU 1234 and starting SKU 5678 in its place. They'd rather have figures ZYXW from 5678, because it's "newer."
This becomes particularly frustrating when there are figures in those final waves you're really been looking forward to. You might see the figures at online retailers, or through the company's own site (or heck, even at discount closeout shops, like Ross or TJ Maxx), but you won't see them in real stores. If they were ordered at all, it was in very low numbers. These figures thus tend to develop a real mystique about them, and the prices for what few samples are available skyrocket, and remain high even as time passes.
Anyway, you're familiar with the phenomenon. You've probably been bitten by it before. But what we want from you today is your help in finding a new, better way of describing it. We can't very well put all that text in a review every time we want to talk about it, can we? So get creative. Come up with something short and pithy. How about "The Series of Shame," maybe? I don't know, come up with something better. Share your ideas in the comments. Whichever term is best, we'll add it to our Toy Glossary and start using it in reviews. So get posting!
It's not a wave, it's a series:
A toyline is designed in series.
Each series ships in waves.
line > series > wave
If you're asking for people's help, you could at least get the terminology right...
http://www.mattycollector.com/store/matty/en_US/DisplaySubCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.12524500
So could the company that makes them, then. Mattel wants to label them waves in an official capacity, then right or wrong, waves are what they are...
Mattel can call 'em whatever they want, it doesn't make Mattel not wrong. They could put up a listing for "DCU Classics Glerpl 12 boxed set," and that glerpl would still actually be a series. In a line. Which may ship with more than one wave...
Complain, complain, complain. You could at least suggest a name while you're splitting hairs.
The Phantom Wave.
The Ted McGinley Wave
Ted McGinley? The generically handsome tv guy?
Whenever he shows up in sitcom it usually means cancellation is right around the corner.
I always called them the Last Gasp Wave. The final reflexive attempt to breathe before death. Morbid, but apt.
The Cursed Wave
The Cosmos Wave
The Wave That Never Was
The Wave of Legends
The "Everywhere Else" Exclusive Wave
The Warehouse Wave
The "Hey there's a new movie so eff you guys" Wave
The "Retail Reset" Wave
I second "Cosmos Wave"!
I'm reluctant to name it after a specific character - what happens later when Hasbro releases Cosmos in a wave that's plentiful, or even pegwarms?
Jefferson Darcy! His wife's name is Marcy Darcy!
Ghost Wave, I'd say.
Wave of (wallet) Mutilation?
The wave that doesn't exist.
Curse of the Movie masters wave (the final waves of TDK and GL both struggled/are struggling to get out)
The ugly red headed step child wave
Lame duck wave
Bruised apple wave (still totally edible, but no one takes it because of a little bruise)
Skid mark wave
The chuppacabra wave
Yadda yadda yadda wave
Crisis of infinite resets wave
The Scalper's Wave
The Omega Wave --- The last of a series; the final development
The Trough Wave - a trough is a hollow between two crests or considered a low leverl of economic activity. A region around the minimum on a curve of variation of a quantity. A point of low achievement or satisfaction.
The Missing Wave.
That way when you do find those figures, you can say "I found the Missing Wave!"
Phantom Wave
Creeping Wave
The Wave that Should Not Be
Disposable Waves
Waveister of Sorrow
The Frayed Ends of Waveity
The UnforWaven
The Wave that Failed
Wave Nothing
The UnforWaven II
Wv. Anger
The Wave that Never Comes
The InvisiWave - A toy-line or series where the figures barely hit retail. Just because we don't see them, doesn't mean they do not exist.
Example:
"I never did happen to find Fantastic Four Classics Series 2 before Hasbro took over the Marvel toy liscense from Toy Biz; I've never seen a Dragon Man in person. It was quite an InvisiWave, to borrow the Invisible Woman's codename."
The Annihilation Wave.